I’m reading The End of Faith by Sam Harris. A good friend suggested the book. Harris’ arguments are very compelling.

Any person who lies awake at night worrying about the private pleasures of other consenting adults has more than just too much time on his hands; he has some unjustifiable beliefs about the nature of right and wrong.

I think I may need to place greater emphasis on this quote, it illustrates one my biggest problems with society.

I’ve added a new section to my site - or, rather, I’ve re-introduced an old section in a new light. Check out Virgohippy’s Photography section and you’ll see all my photography prints organized in a manner fitting the nature of visual art.

This section may soon be expunged of all of my photography and become strictly a journal, except when I make a long written entry attached to a photo. By doing this I can add my photographs to my site easier and you can more easily explore all my pieces.

The photos in the new photography section are organized in two ways: from the initial load on the front page, they’re all connected in order by date through the arrows which appear as you hover over an image. There’s an archives section which will display all the images as click-able smaller versions. Within this archives section I’ve added “tags” - word/phrase based groupings - such as black-and-white and color. Tags can be clicked to view images which fit only within that word/phrase based group. Here are a few favorites of mine, both new and old, now featured in the art photography section:

You can also leave comments on a photo as well. Right now, the page is designed to hide the comments panel unless you click on the tiny “Details” link just below a full size image; when clicked, the panel expands below the image. Within that panel is my image title and a brief description and a space where you can leave comments.

A German’s point of view on IslamA man whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism.”Very few people were true Nazis “he said,” but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.”We are told again and again by “experts” and “talking heads” that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace.

Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.

It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honour kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the “peaceful majority”, the “silent majority”, is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China’s huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were “peace loving”?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don’t speak up , because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.

As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world wide, read this - think about it - and send it on.

My grandmother sent this to me in an email. I imagine it’s been spread around pretty good already, and surely creative license was used to make the argument seem more compelling - the whole “German friend” story-time appeal is unnecessary - but the argument is worth attention. Reminds me of a book I’m borrowing from a friend.

I like to make pretty girls give me funny faces.

I feel more manly when I snatch such a sour-puss.

I think weird Guy asked me about this image. He has special access to other images.

He asked whether I preferred “the water dribbly one” over Skylight Abstract.

First off, I’m not even sure this is the right one, but rather then ask him, I’ll just share my thoughts on this image. It is the first that came to my mind; this is my journal, right?

Of the two, I think the composition of Skylight Abstract is stronger. However, I don’t care. Personal feelings dictate that abstract purity is a fallacy. To emote is far more human.

Black shrouds deep blue. Tiny lights in white, red and green vibrate; an intensity barely shy of pain in my eyes. Vague round shapes form in bright shadows. A parade of sprites in a crying night. Refractions dance in fresh rain drops.

Change. Power. Awe.

What is not to love?

The other? I dunno.

You?

Here’s a colorful abstraction. The subjects are natural (sun) light and ambient artificial light. The colors are from three surfaces, each with two characters: reflective, translucent, and textured.

Dear Mr. Trying to be Friendly,

I’m so glad you’re sorry. I’m sorry too. Maybe if I had said things in a more pleasant way I would have convinced you just how important it was to me that you help me to help you.

I’m really trying to help you be a nicer person, and sometimes it’s hard for me, but look at you; you’re already so much more friendly then you used to be.

You’re really learning what it means to be friendly. I’m confident you can someday become as friendly as I want. I’m willing to be more patient with you as you struggle to figure out what it means to be more friendly because I know you can.

Think positive and you will become more friendly. Thinking positive is how everyone thinks friendly.

Well, not that everyone has to think positive. Everyone has the freedom to think however they want, but no one will ever be successful in life unless they’re friendly.

Sincerely,

~ Mr. Friendly

Dear Mr. Friendly

You are a kind and generous person. You are so considerate of other peoples’ feelings that you don’t even need to attempt to empathize with anyone, you know what everyone wants and needs without even thinking! You’re a natural at knowing how to make other people happy.

You’re a giver too. You’re always giving people your warmth and general positive attitude. It’s impressive how hard you try to make other people feel happy by sharing your own happiness. And you’re modest too, you know that some people are beyond your help - you recognize that you are human and you do have limits to your capabilities.

In fact, you are so consistently friendly there can never by any reason why anyone would ever be upset with you. It’s never your fault when other people are angry. Anyone who expresses even the mildest frustration in your direction is simply not as emotionally evolved and healthy as you. They haven’t learned how to shield other people from their own bad attitudes when they’re upset over something completely unrelated to anything you might do.

You are a gift to other peoples’ well-being, never a strain. Never mind any accidental actions, you make people feel like you’re such a friendly person when you make your demands of them.

I’m sorry, demands was the wrong word; my mistake. I should have said frequent requests for favors which often need to be performed as quickly as possible else the direst of circumstances will result. You would never ask a favor unless you had absolutely no alternative, I know.

I did not mean to insult you. I have great respect for you because I’ve learned so much from you. You’ve taught me the importance of being friendly. And though I’m not nearly as friendly as you, I’m still far more friendly then I would have been without your guidance. I’ve also learned that if you didn’t mean to do something then it would be friendly for me to apologize to you if I become so emotional that I was unable to empathize with your intentions.

Maybe I shouldn’t say I’m sorry I insulted you. I wouldn’t want you to feel like you should apologize to me for being angry at me, if I did insult you, because I didn’t mean to insult you. Would it be more friendly for me to apologize to you even though I didn’t mean to insult you, or to remind you to apologize to me if I did insult you? Forgive me, I’m not as emotionally evolved as you, these things are so complex for me, I don’t know how you managed to get so far.

Let me try it this way: I didn’t mean to be the least bit annoyed when I tried so very hard to sacrifice my personal privacy and space because you needed me to do a favor for you. I would say I’m sorry for being emotionally inferior to you, but I didn’t mean to force my anger on you when you generously gave me an opportunity to do a favor for you as soon as I was finished eating dinner, so long as it was within the hour, at my convenience of course.

I did mean to communicate clearly to you that that particular time was not a good one for me, but I didn’t mean to expose you to my bad attitude when I finally understood just how important this favor was to you. I certainly wasn’t trying to be selfish by prioritizing my own time over yours.

I suppose I have more to learn. Maybe I need to practice being more friendly, just like you.

Warmest Regards,

~Not as Friendly a Guy as You

“If people think you’re weird it just proves how much more interesting you are than them.”

~Some Weird Guy

Here’s a non-spoiler quote about passion from the movie Adaptation well after about half-way in:

“There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go… the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size.”

I imagine the quote is probably lifted from the original book, The Orchid Thief, but I’m too lazy to verify that much. If you need to know, find out for yourself and let me know.

For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, it’s brilliant because it identifies itself so transparently. Remember that much when you watch it and you’ll find it brilliant too, I’m sure. This is not an assumption, it is a command. Trust me.

For those of you who have seen the movie, and understood it, you might find it funny that I paused the flick, copied the above quote, then wrote in my journal for about thirty minutes about both my own struggles to find passion and my general lack of focus when I do have it. After that, every turning point in the plot put me into hysterics.