Did you ever think that maybe you were selling your self short?

At your job I mean?

I've got a lot in the way of skills, talents and knowledge. Not saying that I have any clue as to what to do with it though. But still, I think what I know and what I can do is worth more than what I am currently getting paid. Sometimes I think I'd be better off being in business for myself rather than working for someone else.

Maybe it's because my night is off to a stressful start. Maybe it seems that every night I feel that my sanity is being gnawed away. Maybe it's because my chances of advancement or even getting a raise seem to be slim to never. Even if I were to leave where I am and work at another hotel, if I'm still an auditor, the pay is going to be the same if I'm lucky. Maybe I'm growing tired of what I'm doing and want to try something different. Maybe I just feel I could be doing something more. Or better. More rewarding in some way or another?

Honestly I'm not even sure what I'd do. I had this goal of being a teacher. I still do. I love teaching. I'm pretty good at it too. Teaching in a public school requires me to meet their requirements. I don't meet those requirements so the best I can get from the public schools is substitute teaching. I could look in to private schools, but most the ones I know of are attached to a church. Being an atheist, I'm not going to get a job at any of those. I guess there's private tutoring, I considered that once before, but it's not quite what I'm looking for.

At the least, right now anyway, I need something that pays better so I can put myself through college. But the same question still remains, what do I do? I mean if I were to start up a business for myself? Even if it were something on the side? I just keep thinking there's something more I can be doing, even with my spare time. At the least just to have a bit extra to make life easier to live. And pay for that degree that I want to finish.

I'm sure there's something I can do. If anyone that knows me well enough has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I guess I'm just stressed out and rambling at this point. Been dealing with a lot of stupid and annoying people. I hate my job more than usual at the moment and this has been running through my mind.

I guess I just need to take some serious self-reflection time and seriously consider things.

A few muslims are terrorists, so let's burn a Quran!

Let's not.

Before I get started on what I know is going to be a long rant, take a look at these links-

http://www.theologyonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68592

http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Burn-A-Koran-Day/134718123226530?v=wall

Yeah, I know the first one is a forum post that links to the second, but there are quite a few people there that are all for this. If I were not currently banned from that forum, I'd post a link to this if not just post the whole thing there. If anyone would like to do that on my behalf, I'd be pretty cool with it. I'd like to get some comments from those that support burning the Quran or any other book. You know, have like a discussion?

I'm very against this. I know not all Muslims are terrorists. The people behind what happened on 9/11/2001 were, but they only represent a relative few that are extremist fanatics. Nearly all Muslims I have encountered are pretty nice. Aside from that I am against book burnings in general. Nearly all books serve either a purpose of education or entertainment. I think it's completely asinine to to burn a book because you don't like it or don't agree with it. Burning a religious text carries a bit of added weight as that text hols a pretty special meaning to those who are members of the religion that is attached to that text. Burning a holy text is purely an act of hate and ignorance.

From the Facebook link -

On September 11th, 2010, from 6pm - 9pm, we will burn the Koran on the property of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, FL in remembrance of the fallen victims of 9/11 and to stand against the evil of Islam. Islam is of the devil!

Did I read that right? In remembrance? That alone is something I've got a pretty big issue with. There's a lot better things one can do in remembrance of those that died that day than commit a blatant act of hate. It's total disrespect! Why not have a big group prayer for those that died, their families they left behind and the soldiers still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan? I don't believe in praying as I am an atheist, but I do understand that most people that belong to one religion or another do. That's at least respectful. Or how about some big charity fund raiser for the families of the victims? Or send care packages to the soldiers? Or just do something positive and respectful?

But there's other problems I have. As I said, not all Muslims are terrorists. Islam is the second largest religion and accounts for 23% of the worlds population, about 1.57 billion people. At least that's what Wikipedia tells me. It's only a relative few, pretty much their equivalent to militant fundamentalist Christians, that do commit terrorist acts. It seems rather asinine to burn Qurans over a few when many of them are not bad people at all. It would be like burning KJV's because the members of Westboro Baptist Church are total fucking douchebags. In other words, committing a hateful act toward a large group is just ridiculous when only a few are the problem.

And about burning the Quran. It's a religious text. Just a book to anyone else, but to a Muslim it's pretty special. Burning it is only going to make the terrorist fanatics fell justified in their actions and at least annoy the rest. Not to mention make those doing the burning and anyone even remotely associated look bad. Great move there folks, you are doing America a real solid. If any reading this is planning on participating in burning Qurans, before you do, think about how you would feel if it was your holy text that someone was burning.

Another thought on this, where are they going to get the Qurans from? If they are going to acquire them legitimately, well that's a lot of sales of Qurans. The people publishing them and the bookstores I'm sure will appreciate your money. Heck it may even look like a lot of people just converted to Islam. And if they are acquired not so legitimately? Well isn't there something in the Bible that says "Thou shalt not steal"? Hmmm Exodus 20:15, Matthew 19:18, Romans 13:9. And it's usually in the front of the Bible with the rest of the 10 Commandments. So if you are not purchasing your Quran before you burn it and you believe what the Bible says, you are going to Hell. Why not give that money to a charity? You know, do something positive with it? A Quran costs between $8 and $40. You could feed or clothe some people with that. Heck if a large enough group gave that each, they could probly put a child of one of the victims through college, if not a few. Just another thought.

Another thing to those that are planning on burning a Quran. Have you read it? If you are going to buy it, you might as well read it before tossing it in to the fire. If anything so you really know what you are burning and why you are burning it. You might learn something. I suggest you not burn it. Read it and keep it as a reference. It may come in handy in a theological debate with a Muslim. It's why I keep a Bible handy as well as having BibleGateway.com bookmarked. This quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War comes to mind.

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.

Not that I consider Muslims or Christians to be enemies of mine, but I do get into debates with them, mostly the latter. Getting back to the point, burning any text without reading and understanding it is just ignorant.

In closing and to sum it up, anyone that is participating in a Quran burning is only exposing their hate, ignorance, disrespect and just being a total douchebag. I feel like for the most part I'm preaching to the choir here, but if I change someone's mind or cause them to think, well them my time wasn't completely wasted. At least I got it off my chest.

So my birthday...

...was just another day

For the most part.

Good day though. very light night at work. A local restaurant did bring the staff a considerable amount of food. I ate more than I should have throughout the night. More to work off after the holidays are over, but I'm not complaining. It was quite the relaxing night and I don't get many of those.

Some of the good people at TheologyOnline wished me a happy birthday, that was cool.

My mother bought me something, I don't know what yet. Haven't had a chance to find out.

I'm thinking back over the last year, it wasn't the best -

• An argument with my father resulted in me moving out of my parents' house again before I was ready. I wanted to finish out my degree.
• I moved twice and that about killed my finances for a while. The last move was into the ghetto.
• There's several more people that I used to call my friends that I will never speak to again. Many of them I doubt were friends to begin with. Acquaintances at best.
• I missed out on DragonCon.
• I missed out on a Crüxshadows concert.
• I didn't do any performing.
• I bought another car, only to have it breakdown on me.
• I couldn't get financed for the car I really wanted.

But on the good side of things -

• I lost a little more weight.
• I have my own place and it's all mine.
• I think I may have grown up a little.
• I'm in great health.
• I have a girlfriend that loves me and has stayed with me through all the bad stuff. She's been so loving and supportive too.
• Through hard work I got my finances back in order.
• I've made some new friends. At least one of which was very unlikely.

So I'm not totally bitter. I'm trying not to be bitter at all. I have some plans and goals before the next birthday -

• Go back to college.
• Get my girlfriend moved in.
• Lose more weight, I'd like to drop about 60 lbs.
• Get a better job.
• Move out of the ghetto.
• Fix the Escort and either sell it or start driving it.
• Get some work done on the Beetle.
• Spend more time practicing on my violin.
• Work more with music. I'd love to record something. Or at least perform an original work.
• Try to more closely follow Stoicism.

Looks like a lot, let's see what happens in the next year.