Life, Love, and Everything In Between

wow, that was a long break

i took a wee bit of a summer break, getting school and such together. I've been busy with work and life in general. Stampede was fun, but not overly exciting. I don't know what to write about right now. Im really happy with where i am with my life, im not getting ahead of myself.
Im sitting in a coffee shop right now, but not starbucks, listening to easy listening covers of well known songs. Im just taking a day to relax, my shift started at 5:30 this morning, so that meant being up at 4:45 am, so im a bit tired.
I've been reading lots lately, im trying to get my mind into that state of focus, where i can sit, read, and actually retain what i read. So i've been going through a couple books that i've had for a while but haven't got around to reading and or finishing. The first one is Fear And Trembling. I've had the book for a while and its an EXTREMELY tough read because the authour writes at such a high level. I did finish it today though, very very great book, here is what i will take away from it:

Nowadays when children go on vacation and are left to play all day and they finish their games by noon, where as in generations before they may have played all day, does this make the children any more advanced than the children of previous generations? does it make them any more intellegent? On the contray actually, phsychologists would probably say that the children are more up tight, less relaxed, something along that line.
-this is my analogy for the world as it moves away from 'religion'

Kierkegaard said that having faith is the ultimate achievment that a human being can attain, higher than kindness, love, or wealth. Faith is the ultimate because it requires that you live in the independant, and not the universal. Sometimes you may feel, and may actually be, alone. This is why faith is the ultimate achievment.

The other book im reading is called The Siege of Mecca. It is about the siege put under the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. It is one of the most significant pieces of history in Islams history, and in the modern world. Remember it? No? Im not surprised, see, the exact same day that this happened, was the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Now, if you are an American News company which would you choose to cover? A bunch of Muslims killing Muslims (to OVER generalize the situation) or Muslims killing Americans? seems like a very simple choice to me. Unfortunatly this siege (in which tens of thousands where held hostage) is one of the sole reasons for the birth of Al Queda. See, not only is someone who is not a Muslim not allowed in Mecca (this is because it was the Prophet Muhammads commad) but they are ESPECIALLY not allowed in the Grand Mosque, and such an act would be unforgivable. The Saudi Government had no idea how to handle this hostage crisis (the gunman were military trained and well hidden), so they called in the United States to help, this is because Carter owed them a favor for increasing oil production (which in turn boosted his popularity). Now the US military walks into Mecca and into the Grand Mosque, and holds a battle in the Mosque. This caused MAJOR problems. We are still seeing effects from this today. Its obviously way more complex than my gross over-generlization, but you get the picture.

School starts on September 15. I WILL blog before then, i promise :)
Peace,
Don

posted by That Canadian Guy @ 4:54 p.m.