noor

Tagged!

2007-07-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

A lot's been happening lately and I've been watching TV all day, so I didn't see that I was tagged by AtheismSucks-sucks until today.

We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
Don't forget to leave them each a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Here are my eight random facts:

1. I'm obsessed - I mean obsessed - with Style Network.

2. I'm somewhat stuck between anarcho-capitalism and agorism.

3. As much as I hate public schooling, I'm kind of looking forward to my last year of indoctrination cells starting in a month, though I probably will skip classes.

4. My favorite color is turquoise blue with fuschia in second. Silver is great too, though it's not exactly a color.

5. I can't sit down and read a book without getting distracted before I finish the first paragraph.

6. I've always been a bit obsessed with time travel.

7. I can't stand sign language, though it's likely a result of four years of special schooling for hearing-impaired/deaf kids in South India, where sign language was totally banned.

8. I have psoriatric arthritis in both hands, so half the time they're huge and swollen and then they shrink leaving the skin wrinkled up.

Whew. I don't know many people who have blogs, so I'm not passing this on.

Blogging syndromes, Objectivism.

2007-06-24T19:22:00.001-07:00

I keep seeing these issues come up while surfing through blogs. The overwhelming majority of bloggers tend to open a new blog, post a first post, in 1-2 days there's another post, and then no more new posts for weeks. I'm pretty much a victim of this, and it's like: when you post one post, you immediately feel inspired to post another one, and then you get on with general life and stop posting. It's rather interesting how many blogs I've come across that have this.

And I've read the first few pages of The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand. I already know the basics of Objectivism, but I felt like reading about it in more exacting detail. While I agree with the individualism that Objectivist philosophy promotes, I do not consider myself an Objectivist, mainly because of its hostility towards anarchy. But I'm going to have to finish the entire book before I can actually make a good judgment of Objectivism.

These last few days.

2007-06-22T12:45:00.000-07:00

So I'm not doing much. I'm playing Runescape, hanging out at the forums that I frequent, browsing through Myspace profiles, watching movies, reading some of my favorite FanFiction stories and going on long rides outside. It's fun, but it seems to make the time fly by way too fast. I mean, it's almost a month since school got out. And I've almost never bothered to touch any of the books that I borrowed. The only time I'm in a reading mood is when I get to bed at around 3 or 4 AM, and even then I don't feel like reading much. Even though I've come to dislike my old childrens' mystery books, I tried reading one Boxcar Children book and surprisingly I didn't find it that much of a bad experience. I guess I've just outgrown these books for the most part.

I'm also starting to see the free market principles in Runescape. While they do have a general store with fixed prices, most of the items acquired are from a trade with another player. When trading, you can immediately see the advantages of a free market. It has this trade window where you and the other character offer goods that you'd like to trade, and if you're both happy with it, you click on Accept. If either one of the characters is not happy, he/she'll click on Decline and go off to find someone else who's willing to make them a better deal.

The other day I was bored while watching Style Network from the black leather recliner, and I started to get out some of my markers and paper and started sketching rather mindlessly, the scene from a certain point on a road that I often go on my Razor scooter. It's kind of fascinating how my thing for art has diminished almost completely these last six months. I'm almost certainly sure this has had something to do with my de-conversion to anarchism, since I started to become far more rational in my methods of thinking. My left half of the brain is definitely the stronger one now, and my right side (artistic side) has had less and less of an influence. I've also noticed a slight change in my style - while it still retains the love for bright yet cooling colors, I'm starting to really love silver - kinda high-tech and all. Oh well, I'm continuing with my art classes this year. I'll be in my fourth year of 3D art and the curriculum says that there will be graphic designing. That part should be no problem for me, since I sometimes like messing around in PhotoFiltre. It rocks.

So I went to the public library.

2007-06-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

So I went to the public library this evening, and I got a pile of books to read these few days. I'm generally not very fond of reading, but this summer I have plenty of time, and I'm still trying to figure out Airport Tycoon 2, since my old Roller Coaster Tycoon Gold Edition isn't compatible with Windows XP.

Anyway, here are the books that I borrowed:

How the Markets Really Work, by Joel Kurtzman
The Virtue of Selfishness, by Ayn Rand
Master Math: Calculus, by Debra Ann Ross
Congress and Law-Making: Researching the Legislative Process, by Robert Goehlert
Interior Designing for All Five Senses, by Catherine Bailly Dunne
Cosmos, by Carl Sagan

I tried to get one book for each interest of mine (which span virtually all fields). Lately I have been more into politics, economics and philosophy and my love for the sciences and arts has somewhat gone down. I'm having even an harder time deciding if I should major in astronomy/astrophysics, but I guess that's probably the one interest that has stayed with me for all my life.

My junior year.

2007-06-01T19:36:00.000-07:00

Yep. I'm done with my junior year of high school, which means that I have one more year of school left. My sophomore year was a very hard time for me, what with losing my dog, taking a very tough history class (which was a huge mistake), and coming out as an atheist. This year went a lot better, especially the second semester. Also, this last academic year was the time of my deconversion from apathetic statism to rabid anarchism. That deconversion was a lot easier for me, since I'd gone through a hard time with my atheism. But anyway, last semester, I'd taken a rather tough advanced programming class, and that was when I realized that computer programming was not for me. I decided to drop it for the second semester, and replaced it with a journalism class. That class went a lot better, and I got to write a few political editorials also, with which I had a good time writing.

Next year I'm taking a lot of advanced placement classes. I'm sometimes slightly worried about that, since both advanced classes I took earlier didn't go too well. And I will have a senior project to complete, too. I don't have much of an idea of what to do for that, as of now. But on the other hand, I'm taking advanced classes in areas of my interests, so it may be easier.

Anyway, my junior year has flown by faster than I could imagine. For the most part, my grades have remained the same, mostly As and a B or two. I don't have much of an idea of what contributed to this year finishing so fast. And I'm sure this summer will fly by as fast, and before I know it I'll be back in the classroom.

First post.

2007-06-01T18:36:00.000-07:00

I'm Noor. What's this blog for? I guess this will be a more general blog to blog about anything that strikes me. I'll likely be blogging about my religious and political views also, which can be described with the words: atheist, free-market anarchist, and individualist. (I had two other blogs, one for atheism and one for anarchy, but I had very few posts and I'm removing the blogs. I never liked them anyway.)

I guess more about me will be revealed in my posts. I can't say that I like introductions too much.

Oh, and expect the templates and color schemes to change often.