Resolutions 2010

Its odd that the new year period for both Islamic and Gregorian calendars have overlapped, but that is no barrier for setting resolutions for the next year. Given that the first few days of the Islamic new year are conducive to reflection as we commemorate the eternal sacrifice of Imam Husayn (A), there might actually be more meaning in what I put down.

I'm setting very few goals this year, but the short number is offset by the magnitude of each. I think I should set one major goal for each area of my life, maybe two, three at the most.

Here goes....

Physical/ Health.

I'm not in the best of health. There was a time last year when, in implementation of a new dietary plan, I lost more than two stones (12 kg/ 28lb), whilst eating my fill. This I did simply by replacing all the junk in my diet with stuff that was positively beneficial for me. This I lost whilst still not exercising. Since then, I have slipped, but that I have done it before means I know I can do it again, and I intend to. Not just that, but implement a regular exercise regimen, and maybe incorporate the study of a martial art as well. The last I am not sure I will keep...I will see how it goes, but the other two I definitely want to.

Mental/ Intellectual

Take a look at the Fantastic Super Awesome Reading List. It is my aim to read every book on that list, and then some. In addition to which, at this time of writing, I have 75 books (yes, I counted) in my house, most of which I have not read, so I aim to finish them off as well, and either give them away, or sell them, or keep the best. I think a target of 25-40 books a year (1 book for every 10 days to 2 weeks) should be ok, in addition to covering a substantial amount of the poetry.

Creative output.

Here the goal is simple...create what comes, whether it be art or poetry photography or prose, or musings or oddments. Just keep the writing going, and develop.

Lifestyle

I wrote on minimalism some time ago, but am yet to implement any but the most token of actions in this respect. I guess that now might as well be as good a time as any to try and implement them. I want to have only what I need, and to do so requires a different frame of mind than the one I have now.

Islamic/ Spiritual.

The most important one, and here I have to be careful in what I write, for I know I'm capable of big words and few actions, though it should always be the other way around. The general goal here is to develop, and my specific goal is to catch up on missed prayers and fasts. This is my primary goal, for I feel the overdue compulsory acts hinder my doing supererogatory ones, as I always end up feeling that I should be doing the former. I also intend to implement one supererogatory act into my daily routine, and do it everyday without fail. I'm not particularly sure what that will be, but will have decided by the time the 40 day challenge starts, which I intend to use as the period to lock the said habit into place.

So there we have it, 8 goals, spread across 5 areas of life. I expect it to be tough, but I am ready. Bring on the new year.

...

They were late,
but dark is the heart of the host.
And not from
his eyes, will tears flow the most
But though late,
He is glad that the tears flow
maybe in
time, they will not be so slow
[the tale of] sacrifice
awakens other than flesh and bone
proving that
his heart, at least, is not yet stone
now to hope
and pray that he sets things aright
and undo
all wrong before the soul takes flight

The 40 Day Challenge Revisited...

For those who have not read them previously, I direct readers to the original challenge, and to the post-mortem. It is hard to believe that a year has gone since, and harder still to believe that I will close out this year in spiritual loss, rather than in gain, though the year opened most promisingly.

Still, the time comes again, and the holy month of Muharram has begun again, and just like the holy month of Ramadhan brings with it the hope of spiritual renewal and rejuvenation, as contemplation of the grand sacrifice of Imam Husayn (as) guides us to what is important in our lives on a countless number of levels. The Imams (as) have said that their graves are in the hearts of the believers, and maybe I can set myself properly upon that path, or lay the foundations for doing so. I keep imagining visions of the grand numbers of grand acts that I intend doing, but I'm not sure this is the right way. If I can just grow enough to be sincere, and purge myself of bad habits, I will be content.

I know I failed last time, and will probably fail again this time as well, but as before, so again: I believe that my growth lies in attempting this to the best of my ability - even in failure there will be something to be grateful for. I quote the defining tradition again:

Whoever dedicates himself to God for forty days, will find springs of wisdom sprout out of his heart and flow on his tongue
- Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
For any who attempt the same at the same time I do, or any time in their lives, I wish them well.

The Fantastic Super Awesome Reading List

I asked a few people that I respect to give me a reading list that broadens one. This is the result (which I was told is not comprehensive), which I have tried to group in some semblance of order. I had ordered it differently, but I think it will be better this way. Gone is the complicated colour scheme, and the way I sort them is changed as well. Series are highlighted, with only the first two listed. Enjoy, and I'm always looking for new stuff to read, so if you don't see your fave, recommend it. There was poetry and religious books as well, but I think they both need to be distinct from this main list, so I'll either find some way to incorporate these, or give them their own lists.

v1.0 - 17/12/09
v2.0 - 24/09/10

The Top Faves:

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Chaos by James Gleick
Affluenza by Oliver James
Gladstone by Roy Jenkins
1984 by George Orwell
The Blank Slate by Stephen Pinker
Notes to Myself by Hugh Prather
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Snowball by Alice Schroeder
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


The Best of the Rest:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
(+3 more)
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
For One More Day by Mitch Albom
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Stonefather by Orson Scott Card
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
Grass for His Pillow by Lian Hearn
(+3 more)
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Hatchet by Gary Poulsen
The Colour of Magic, by Terry Pratchett
The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett
(+36(!!) more)
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Nation, by Terry Pratchett
Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone by JK Rowling
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
(+5 more)
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Walking by Henry David Thoreau
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon


To Read:

Clash of Fundamentalisms by Tariq Ali
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
The Inferno by Dante Alighieri
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Metaphysics by Aristotle
Physics by Aristotle
Politics by Aristotle
Rhetoric by Aristotle
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Class Warfare by Noam Chomsky
Deterring Democracy by Noam Chomsky
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky
Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky
Necessary Illusions by Noam Chomsky
World Orders Old and New by Noam Chomsky
The Fateful Triangle by Noam Chomsky
The Responsibility of Intellectuals by Noam Chomsky
Existentialism for Beginners by Richard Cogswell
Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Gaza: The Crossroads of History by Richard Doughty
Politics and Justice by Frederick Douglas
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan by Jason Elliot
Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
To Have or to Be? by Erich Fromm
The Luxe by Anna Godbersen
A Little History of the World by Gombrich
Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
The Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin
Tess of the D'urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley
Elements of the Philosophy of Right by Hegel
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Heaven's Net is Wide by Lian Hearn
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Sword of Darkness by Kinley Macgregor
The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
I3tirafat al 3oshaq by Mustafa Mahmood
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Relin
A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul
The Allegory of the Cave by Plato
The Republic by Plato
Educating Rita by Willy Russell
Mayada by Jean Sasson
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
The Poet of Baghdad by Jo Tatchell
Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau
Herald of Freedom by Henry David Thoreau
Life Without Principle by Henry David Thoreau
Night and Moonlight by Henry David Thoreau
The Battle of the Ants by Henry David Thoreau
Why I Went To The Woods by Henry David Thoreau
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressell
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn

Dragon Ball GT

aaaand done! At 64 episodes, this definitely is the shortest of the series, and worth a watch. Developed without the original creator, these are technically non-canonical, though the creator has indicated satisfaction with the way the series turns out. And so the story of Goku finishes - just the movies to watch, though that can wait for a couple of months anyway. Watching this has been pure pleasure. The whole series has also sparked some thoughts on what it means to be a hero - expect a post on this sometime soon.

Dragon Ball

So I watched the prequel series (153 episodes) after watching Dragon Ball Z. Was worth every minute. Funnier too. Totally recommended. I enjoyed this series more, if that is possible, than the other, because I feel it captured more life than the other, and reflected it better. And as I wrote about in the other post, this is even more than the other, about friendship, struggle, and victory, and a testament to the creator's imagination. Next up is Dragon Ball GT (64 Episodes), and the movies.

DarkSabre

For my fellow Star Wars fans:

***************

Fear leads to anger
Anger leads to hate
Hate leads to suffering
And you'll fall to the dark side.
That's the long way.
The short way is when
you're seduced by power
and want it for your self.
There are always only two Sith;
one to embody power,
and one to crave it.
You'd think I fell the short way
craving power
But I was more complex
and took the long route instead
because then I'm the fallen hero
with an epic backstory
who could have been great
whose fear came from
loving someone too much
and fearing their loss
and allowing that to be my weakness.
Ironic that a good trait
leads me astray.
It's done now.
I'm not sorry.
I serve darkness.
I serve myself.
And...it feels good.
So be careful
and stay out of my way
lest you face the red sword
that glows
A picture of it
and that of my mask
the final image
your brain ever sees.

**********************

With equal amounts of gratitude and apology to George Lucas.

[Fiction] A Letter

March 25,

The Middle of Nowhere.

Greetings, my dearest.

I hope this letter reaches you in the best of health - I will worry incessantly if not. I received your letter of the 20th yesterday morning, and it has taken me till now to be able to draft a fitting reply. I will have you know that I laughed, cringed, frowned and smiled at the appropriate places in your letter. Reading it felt like listening to you, it had all your expressions and turns of phrase, and if you had somehow been magically transported here and read it aloud, I would be hard pressed to tell the difference, such is the presence you leave behind in your letters. I was glad to be able to lose myself in the minutiae of your daily life, and felt a warm glow after reading it, as I do with all your letters. I do wonder how you manage to put up with my handwriting though.

I have a story to tell you...something quite interesting happened to me yesterday. I got propositioned, by three different women. In all cases, I smiled gently and pointed to the ring on my left hand, and sort of hinted at the fact that they might have had a chance were I not attached. The truth is that they never would, but I had to let them down gently. Though I am sure they have already seen my wedding band, I point it out to them, just in case, and in order to allow them to save face, for which I am sure they are grateful. One of them hinted that the presence of a wedding ring was not excuse enough, and I had to gently yet not without force make the point that I was unavailable. Poor girl must have been really desperate. My colleagues are both envious that I get such attention, and credulous that I turn such down. Brutes. I hope they don't get married until they grow up.

The end of this dreary project cannot come soon enough; I cannot see it lasting more than 10 days, after which, I'm all yours. I want to make up for being away for so long...I think I'll take you on a trip when I come back - anywhere, your choice. You have from now to decide where we will go - choose wisely! I don't think I need to work for a while after this one, so time is no object. Also, something has been occupying my thoughts recently. I wish to talk to you about this, but I think it is too important for a letter, so I will discuss this when we meet face to face.

This letter, or at most, the next one, should be the last you get before I am able to come home. Till then, I remain...

Yours.