I don’t like religion.  It wigs me out.  Specifically, organized religion.  Even more specifically, conversion religions.  (Is that a thing?  It’s a thing in my head- you know, the religions and religious sects that say ONLY OUR WAY IS GOOD and DO IT OUR WAY OR GO TO HELL FOREEEEVVVVEEERR and chase you around airports/your front door/the quad telling you how much you suck unless you’re JUST LIKE MEEEE.  Those guys.)  For the most part, I mean Christianity and Islam, with the occasional Judaism thrown in for flavor.  (We can also talk atheism, but it’s much harder to quote since they don’t have a Good Book.  I mean, there is The Good Book, but it is boring and not actually the basis for a religion.)

These religions wig me out.  The stuff I see and read tells me that Christians think that their way is the only way and no one else’s way is good and they will fuckin’ cut you if you do things they don’t like.

The stuff I see and read tells me that Muslims also think that their way is the only way and no one else’s way is good and they will fuckin’ cut you if you do things they don’t like.

It also makes me nervous that neither one says I, as a lady, have any rights just do me.  Nor do my gay friends.  Or my trans* friends.

BUT

Here’s the thing.

It’s important to remember- and this is something I struggle with- for every hypocritical, evil, moralistic, murdery, bad guy religious person there are at least three people who share that religion who do good things.  Or even average things.  Most people just want to be left alone to live their lives.  The thing is, crazies shout the loudest and therefore get the most attention. People who hate make better headlines that people who love.

That’s why the lady who said the stupid thing in North Carolina is in trouble.  Because Christianity does not define itself by the Crusades.  Or the Spanish Inquisition.  Or the Salem Witch Trials.  Or the myriad of people shooting Muslims, attacking temples, killing doctors to this day who say they’re doing it in the name of Christianity.  Nor does Islam define itself by 9-11, suicide bombers, and female oppression.  Just like Christianity it’s a living, evolving institution and people are pushing very hard to make it a good one.

Somewhere along the lines we lost track of that.

So while it’s disheartening every time a religious extremist kills someone (or passes an evil law), it’s important to look for the helpers.

And I may never be comfortable with religion.  And you, Ms. North Carolina lady, may never be comfortable with Islam.  That’s fine.  But much like spiders, going out of your way to squash them is every bit as evil as you think they are.  Let the spiders be and they’ll let you be.  It’s fine to gather them up into a cup and carry them outside, but don’t flush them!  See where I’m going with this metaphor?

*Disclaimer:  Not all of the examples I used in the links are perfect examples.  You may yell at me, the research was indeed very shoddy.

One was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I read the blurb and I wanted to get started on it immediately. But I already have a long list of books at home that need to be read. So I made a mental note about this book.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7e/Gone_Girl_%28Flynn_novel%29.jpg

Then I came across ‘The Tiger, The Elephant and The Cellphone’. While the name itself was different enough to catch my attention, I got further excited when I read that it was authored by Shashi Tharoor. I admire his writing style and that is why, even though this books wasn’t fiction, I wanted to purchase it. It looked like a bunch of essays about India, something that I can read on those boring afternoons when I want to read well written passages.

Source: Google Images

The other book that caught my attention was ‘Of Mothers And Others: Stories, Essays, Poems’. Three things about this book that got me attracted to it. One, is the word ‘Poems’, which is obvious since I love to read and write poetry. Two, is the word ‘Mother’. My current preference in books and movies is women-oriented, independent women themes. So anything women related I am willing to read. Three, was the fact that this book has a foreword written by Shabana Azmi, an actress whom I love.

Source: Google Images

So I made a list in my phone, with these three books and sent myself an e-mail so that I can look it up later some time when I want to purchase new books. This was yesterday. Today, I came across this superb article: Childless, naturally
which coincidentally turns out to be one among the many essays in ‘Of Mothers And Others: Stories, Essays, Poems‘. Now I know for sure that this book must be bought and read at the earliest.

Do read the essay. It is about a woman’s decision to be single and ‘child-free’ by choice. In this society it is considered to be a socially responsibility to marry and procreate, whether you want to or not. If you have graduated then obviously the nest step is to marry. And if you are married then you must have kids. That is the unwritten rule that we must follow in order to avoid stares, innumerable questions, unwarranted advise and extreme pressure from parents and family and some times even friends to ‘settle down’.

I came across this lovely thought on twitter recently and I immediately wrote it down. ‘It is weird they call marriage as settling down. When in fact, there is nothing that is more unsettling.’ And that is so true. So many changes, new responsibilities, new people and you are expected to deal with everything with a smile.

Anyway, I digress. Do read the lovely essay and the book too. The essay is excellent food for thought.

Also, I may have an exciting project to share with you guys in the next few weeks!

I hope you’re all having splendid weekends.

And by the way, how about those rabid bears?

Source: http://www.ferrabyling.com/wp-content/gallery/gallery/flp20071014-065944-these-empty-streets.jpg

I walk the lonely street, an errand to run. A short walk to the grocer’s, but so many moments and pictures waiting to be taken.

So many sounds that I want to capture: the conversation between a boy and his grandma, barks and yelps, loud TV shows, the breeze, leaves on the street, a distant vehicle, my sandals, coins in my pocket and a bird.

I want to stop, wait and listen to more. I want to stop and capture something from that walk. A photo maybe. But what would a photo tell you apart from the emptiness of the street. How would you know about all the sounds that are not a part of the picture?

That is why I write. To paint a picture with words.

The web UI: there are things I love and things I don’t. But the pros outweigh the cons by a HUGE margin.

The mobile UI: is really simple and sweet and so much better than Reader.

So yay! Google reader dying is not bad news after all.

Bruised teen-agers: likeable. Women who seem a little like men, or like they can hang with men: likeable. Post-menopausal women, old enough to be sexually non-threatening: likeable.

What we all hate is usually what we lack ourselves. Anne Hathaway is all that most of us aren’t/can’t be. Pretty, cheerful and still very much the little girl that we all wanna be.

Read the complete article here. It is well written and true. If you like Anne Hathaway or if you like writing/reading do read. I am sure you won’t be disappointed.

Thanks to Tumblr, I’ve discovered a few new comic people whom I adore.  They’re by-and-large new, mostly starting out, but I am fairly confident that they, too, shall become successful comickers (that’s the word, right?)

1. Sarah See Andersen:  She is- I gather- an art student who also doodles extremely relatable comics once a week about life.  Tumblr has helped spread her work, and I have to say, they have excellent taste.  Check out the one from a few weeks ago about how awful it is to have to get up in the morning.

2. Amber of Amburgered:  This brilliant artist has created Sheldon, the tiny dinosaur who thinks he is a turtle.  If you love cute things (if you say you don’t you’re lying) you’ll adore him.  I’m waiting for a Sheldon plushie and/or book to come out, because I need this little guy in my home.

3.  Pusheen:  I think Pusheen is more established than the other two (she’s got a shop and a fancy website and whatnot) but she’s new to me, and that’s the important thing.  Pusheen is a fat kitty who does fat kitty things, like make messes, ride ponies, and order pizza.

Unfortunately, these aren’t daily updaters (probably because they have lives and are productive) but they’re beyond delightful.   So check them out, and encourage them to produce more!  Because I’m running out of distractions.

The main character of my novel "Skinbane" - Roxie

I write and I draw what I’ve written. What I’m going to be featuring is a 100,000 word novel called Skinbane.

For the past year, I have been trying to publish it. Ninety or so rejections later, I’ve decided to try a new tactic at promoting my ideas. I’m going to show excerpts from my manuscript, along with illustrations of my own design. I may also include illustrations from other self-published books, along with blogging about news in the publishing industry, art, comic books, and other geekery.

Like this kind of geekery

I do not own Gunduck by the way. I found it scouring the internet. So stick around, I’ll be uploading pictures not only here but at my deviantart as well – http://zerosoul.deviantart.com

Stay tuned!

First thing’s first. Choosing a camera is difficult. There are so many options – zoom, speed, LCD size, megapixels, viewfinder, video capability, video type, sound playback…the list goes on. This is not a post to narrow all of that down for you. This is a post to show you how to use the internet to aid you in selecting the camera that’s right for you.

1. What do you want in a camera?

If you want some information on all the options available to you and help in determining how important they are to you, I would highly suggest CNET’s Digital Camera Buying Guide. Chock full of information, they break down all the options and link the general camera features to the type of user, making it fairly easy for you to decide just what group you fall into. They also have a Digital SLR camera buying guide for the more advanced camera users.

2. Which cameras have the features you’re looking for?

Once you decide the kind of user you are and the features you want, the next thing is to find all the cameras that meet that criteria. Once again CNET has this covered. Their digital camera finder makes it easy by allowing you to select the most basic options while their digital camera review section allows you to narrow down the options by feature, brand or camera type.

3. Camera comparisons

When you have finally narrowed it down to a couple of choices, the next thing to do is to compare your options. Quite a few sites have this feature with some being better than others. Snapsort.com keeps it really simple by giving a feature by feature comparison while sites like Imaging Resource have image by image comparisons on the same or similar test subjects.

4. In depth Reviews

These basically give a review of the camera’s overall performance, feel and features. Sites like digitalcameraHQ, Camera Labs and Imaging Resource do an awesome job.

5. User reviews

To me this is one of the most important parts of choosing a camera and can pretty much be a deal breaker. If the choice comes down to two cameras and one has a ton of bad reviews, which will you feel most comfortable buying? TestFreaks.com pretty much aggregates reviews from all over the internet, they even categorizes them into “expert” and “user” reviews. Amazon and Youtube are also pretty good places to find some user reviews, even though I’m pretty sure TestFreaks has them included in their listings.

6. Pictures

Finally, after all of the research above, maybe you want to see actual pictures not just test images but real everyday photos from real users. Flickr and Picasa are good sources for this. Flickr has a camera finder feature while Picasa’s search function using allows you to just type in the name of the camera and voila all the camera images at your fingertips.

~~~~~

Most of the websites mentioned above, have the same or similar features. Some with better options and more details but a wealth of information nonetheless. I pretty much used them all in my camera selection process. The verdict is still out however, as I have yet to even turn on my camera. In my next post I’ll let you know my top 3 and which one I selected.

The edited version

The long version

Clayton McDonald | Highlife | Nov. 5, 2008 from Atascadero Bible Church on Vimeo.

They’re all pretty much saying the same thing and yet, you get something different from each one of em.

Yes I watched all of them. I kinda think you should too.

Now even though I’m not the most consistent blogger and I don’t participate and/or contribute much to any online community, this song made feel so good about the sense of community and positive energy online, that I had to, as a member of the online community… share the internet love.

Enjoy

Song: All my internet friends

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able, as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand, with the setting sun,
And hate myself for the things I’ve done.
I don’t want to keep on the closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself, as I come and go,
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of a girl* I really am;
I don’t want to dress up myself in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and wealth
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know
That I’m bluster and bluff and empty show.
I can never hide myself from me;
I see what others may never see;
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself, and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and guilt free.

Source unknown