PaulPrins.net

Pretty ridiculous story of an insanely brave man, Mosab Hassan Yousef. For those of you who don’t know, leaving the Islamic tradition in strict practicing societies brings the penalty of death (often literally) and at a minimum you will likely never know your family again.

Yousef, 30, said he realized the true nature of Hamas and radical Islam during a stint in an Israeli prison. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and converted to Christianity.

“Islam is not the word of God,” said Yousef. “If you want to be offended it’s your problem. But you know something? Go study. Think for a second that I might be right. So wake up, look at your path, see where you’re going. Are you really going to heaven with 72 virgins after you kill yourself and kill another 20 people?”

FoxNews.com Article

I can’t even imagine going from recruiting and radicalizing youths as Yousef did, to renouncing your past, being disowned by your family, and needing to claim political asylum in a foreign country.

If you’re interested in getting some basic foundation in Islam, or hearing more of his story, there is a great interview I found over at sethskim.com from August 2008 (which is a news interview transcript).

Yousef will be a part of a televised special Tonight at 10pm EST on Fox News called “Escape from Hamas.” It will be re-aired several times I’m sure, check listings for details.

The above video has to be some of the sickest violin playing I’ve ever heard. Over the past few weeks I’ve been meaning to pick up my violin again and would love to be able to rock it like Paul Dateh does here. Mixing my passion for the violin with my love of hip hop. So awesome. He has a bunch more at his website, pauldateh.com, his myspace,  and his youtube channel.

Check it out, or at least listen to part of the mix above. Got some Gnarls Barkley in there near the end.

I came across this short list that promotes sleeping in. Love it, and I love sleeping in. To bad courses start up Monday and I’ll again be sitting in those hard wood chairs at 8am. Enjoy the list from wired.

1. You may need more sleep than you think.
   Research by Henry Ford Hospital Sleep Disorders Center found that people who slept eight hours and then claimed they were “well rested” actually performed better and were more alert if they slept another two hours. That figures. Until the invention of the light bulb (damn you, Edison!), the average person slumbered 10 hours a night.
2. Night owls are more creative.
   Artists, writers, and coders typically fire on all cylinders by crashing near dawn and awakening at the crack of noon. In one study, “evening people” almost universally slam-dunked a standardized creativity test. Their early-bird brethren struggled for passing scores.
3. Rising early is stressful.
   The stress hormone cortisol peaks in your blood around 7 am. So if you get up then, you may experience tension. Grab some extra Zs! You’ll wake up feeling less like Bert, more like Ernie.

MSNBC also posted an article sometime ago listing 10 strategies for better sleep, I’m interested in trying a few of them as well.

I hope this list ends up being comprehensive but I’m really just looking at my book shelf and trying to remember what I read, if for work or pleasure. Of this list I know there are some books i read in full for different courses in the past year that aren’t here because they were from a library somewhere.  So as best as i could and in no particular order, aside from how they sit on my bookshelves, here it is! Read the rest of this entry »

A year has come and gone. Of my years of late this one has been rather uneventful. Aside from started up Nineteen05 back in January and starting Seminary in the spring we have just been chugging along. No major trips (only a handful of weddings), and nothing overly dramatic took place.

Don’t believe that I am in anyway complaining about the nature of this past year, it was just a change from the constant movement and happenings of the years leading up to 2008.

• 2007: Got married and graduated in 2007
• 2006: I got engaged, visited Spain, visited Florence, and returned from France
• 2005: I raised support, moved to France, and got to visit Rome
• 2004: I held by last ski event and then resigned from the ski industry
• 2003: I graduated from high school and started my time at UW - Stout
• 2002: I understood that I was loved by God and became a Christian

I’m still working my butt off on nineteen05 to get it to that perfect place I want it to be at but it is takes a while to create anything worth creating (or at least I tell myself that). This upcoming year will hopefully have a bit more excitement to it, we know that we’ll be out in Seattle for a time for my brothers wedding! That and my wife wants to learn how to ski better, and has even alluded that she might want to learn some freestyle stuff from me.

While it was a more subdued year, it was a great year. Here is to you my few loyal blog followers and my seventh year of blogging.

Last Friday we went out to the Holidazzel Parade and it was really cold, well into the negative digits and on our walk back to the North Loop we past this garage that was full. Thought it was a nice image and captures the attitude that us Minnesotans take during the winter. No frigid weather will keep us from heading out and having a good time.

I mentioned a quote from a book by Henri Nouwen in November (here) and since finishing that book have really connected and identified with Nouwen as an author and a man of God. In much the same way as I have connected with Andrew Murray (19th Century author) who I have read a number of his books.

A few weeks ago a friend gave me another book by Nouwen (’The Wounded Healer”) which I finally have had some time to read through parts of and am really enjoying it again. ‘The Wounded Healer’ was written in 1972 and during the middle section of the book discusses the current youth (of over 35 years ago) and the leaders that will be needed to reach them for God.

In describing the youth he raised three points: Read the rest of this entry »