diary notes #1
july 30th
I just came from school. I'd woken up at my usual time today, so I felt satisfied with my body's internal clock. I had actually woken up a bit earlier, about nineteen minutes early, but I slept again quickly after that. There I was in the middle of a dream about some rude house servant we used to have; I don't remember anything about the dream anymore, since it was so long ago (like a few hours I assume), and we humans usually don't remember our dreams.
I'm quite sure my new blogging is quite different from other personal blogs. Theirs are like notebooks or binders full of personal anecdotes with fancy illustrations and colorful schemes. Mine is like a beat-down journal now. It changed quite a lot. It's always changing, if I think of it. First, I simply wanted a small comfy website where I could write about my beliefs and whatever self-help crap I had. Then I moved to making it quite philosophical in tone, then dashed it with a personal flare. A unique writing style then came from a writer who carries an Oxford's Pocket Dictionary whenever he goes out in mind to write, because he can't spell words for his life.
Now, it's some form of a journal. I was thinking of making the title the date range of my entries, but I went against that. It'd look really freakin boring. And I'm not changing my bear theme! It's fine with me, and I'm too lazy. Ugh.
Ten minutes a day making one entry is something I look forward to doing everyday. It builds a ritual and that's what matters.
july 31st
My God. One of my closest friends had said religion cannot exist with philosophy. Although disgusted by his comment, I decided to respect his opinion and perspective. I poked him a bit and there with questions to get his full opinion of the issue at hand. It was true. He was a conservative Muslim and believed religion (i.e, Islam here) cannot exist with philosophy; I didn't ruin his day then by saying there really is something called 'Islamic Philosophy'.
I asked him whether he thought I, someone a bit religious but not really so, was evil. He said I was 'neither good nor evil; in the middle.'. I guessed he saw my evil side as not being religious enough. I disagree. My evil comes from my human side, and my good comes from my human side. Like every other normal human, I am a living contradiction.
Unlike my conservative religious friend, I think of religion as something else than a bunch of rules one has to follow and never question. I believe that, in a religion, one must just believe in the basic summing statement of their religion and question the rest of their faith. God gave us a brain to think with. Therefore, we should think about out religion. That's just my take.
For Islamic Philosophy, as long as one does not question its basic summing statement (i.e, the shahada for this one), one can have fun with the philosophy as much as one would one want. I've been meaning to read the holy books of the other religious faiths, but I keep forgetting to do it. I have to remind myself soon. It's interesting to see other people's opinions on the same things.
august 1st
I've recently started reading Plato's works. It's a modern English translation, of course; I can't read Greek. It's called 'World Classics Library: Plato', and has a nice book cover―it's a rich blue sphere-ish shape on a desert-yellow background. I only picked this translation because I liked the cover, okay. Honestly, everyone knows they should judge a book by its cover.
Speaking of books, I'd binge-read Uprooted by Naomi Novik a few days ago. I wasn't happy with myself ruining the novel experience like that, but the plot was too fast-paced. It was like a ride. I couldn't stop myself. This is why I prefer slower books like the former since I read them slowly. I have still never heard of anyone who has binge-read Plato. Yeah, I haven't crossed that nerdy level.
I like to have my novels to be like slow-food or whatever that means. Just enjoying the meal slowly, and taking breaks, and letting the words spread over many days. Because at the end of the day, if I binge-read, my eyes hurt like hell, I usually have a head-ache and I always feel so damn tired. Reading is a meditation for me. It's shouldn't be so thrilling and draining.