Chilly

9 Ilm 163 B.E. - October 24, 2006

It’s a little chilly in Las Vegas today. It rained a bit this morning and now the air is dam and chilly. Of course, this being fall the weather is nice, not the triple digits that occur in summer here. I haven’t turned the heat on yet, I turn the cold air off in September. I suppose eventually I’m going to have to turn the heat on, but right now it doesn’t get too cold, just a little chilly and a sweater and some socks take care of that.

I didn’t hear much of the weather this morning, I think that a chance of rain was predicted, but the weather person was having some trouble with the weather computer at the station I watch. The computer was freezing up on him.

I got up at 4:00 a.m. this morning and it wasn’t chilly then. When I said my morning prayers, it was nice. So nice that I considered going on the patio after the sun came up. It rained after sunrise and got chilly so I stayed in the house. I hope it doesn’t rain around noon. I feed the cats on the enclosed patio, because they seem to like it there. If it rains, I have to feed them in the house and for the rest of the day they act up. I know the do that because they aren’t fed on the patio. When they eat outside, they don’t act up the way they do when they eat in the house.

It must be a little chillier than I thought because none of the cats are up yet. Lion or Troubles usually pester me when I’m working at the computer, they’re still asleep. They will make up for it later so I guess I better get as much done as possible before one of them starts. I can’t pet the cat and type at the some time.

Back

7 Ilm 163 B.E. - October 22, 2006

I’m back again, this time my absences wasn’t that long. The reason is valid, I got a bit behind on my homework and had to complete and post a discussion board subject. Then I had to respond to some of the other students’ post. This week I have both an individual and discussion board project due by next Saturday. Later I’m going to do some research on both the project, but I’m planning on posting the discussion board by Wednesday, at the latest.

Before I start writing on either of the project, I am going to out line them. This is something new for me. My normal way of doing a paper is to find the research and read it then writes the paper. However, I’m in a rut and need to approach my work in a different manner.

I am a bit worried about the grade I got on both papers that were due last week, but I always worry about the grade no matter how good a job I believe I did not it. I think I’m a worrier, which is unnecessary.

I don’t need to worry. Baha’u’llah has reveal a number of wonderful prayers to place things in God’s hands. All I have to do is go to my prayer book and find a prayer. I haven’t decided which one of the prayers revealed by Baha’u’llah for Tests and Difficulties is my favorite. In fact, I haven’t decided which one of the prayers revealed by Baha’u’llah is my favorite. Maybe I should put my prayer book on my reading list.

I started a reading list. Right now, its only got three items on it, but that’s only because I haven’t decided on order of the other books I want to read. Well I’d better go now, I’ve still got the research for my class to do. The first thing I’m going to research is a definition for asynchronous and synchronous. I need to include those definitions in each paper. The great thing about online classes is the research and the writing of the papers. The papers have to be in APA format.

Absent

5 Ilm 163 B.E. - October 20, 2006

I’ve been absent from this blog for a while. It isn’t that I didn’t have anything to write about. It isn’t that nothing is happening in my life. There are lost of things happening. I went to the Feast of Ilm on Sunday evening. On the way I smelled something getting hot in the car, but I check the heat gage on the car and it looked normal. Anyway to make a long story short I’m taking the car in Monday to have some work done on it.

As I said, I’ve been absent from this blog a while. I’ve been absent since 16 October. For me that is a while, especially considering the things going on in my life since then. Tuesday we walked to the bank and then went to the grocery story. The reason for that had to do with the car. I thought the car needed transmission fluid and I didn’t have any in the garage or anywhere else. So I went to get transmission fluid and something to eat.

OK, never mind that I have no concept of how to add transmission fluid to the car. I finally figured out how to check the fluid and found out where to add it if it need, but it didn’t need transmission fluid. There is something else wrong. My logic was absent on the transmission fluid idea. I got the transmission fluid, then I read the auto manual to see how to check and add the fluid. Then I realized that there are two different types of transmission fluid. Fortunately the type of fluid I bought, was equivalent to the type my car calls for, so I lucked out there. Actually, I doubt that luck had anything to do with that. Baha’u’llah was taking care of me.

I have learned one or two thing when it comes to cars. First, look at the manual when I need to check a fluid I’ve never dealt with before. Second, when in doubt take the car to a mechanic. So Monday, October 23, I’m taking it to a mechanic and having the seal on the engine taken care of. Seems the problem is an oil leak, which I knew about, but didn’t realize it was as bad a what it is.

I am going to attempt not to be absent from this blog in the near future. This is the first entry in the alphabetical theme I’m working on right now. I haven’t decided what the title of the other entries will be, but I am looking forward to see what pops up. Other than the car, everything in my life is … well let’s just call it interesting, intriguing and humorous. Well maybe humorous isn’t the right word, but neither is stressful. Occurrences appear to be half way between the two. Oh well, at least my sense of humor isn’t absent.

A New Theme

1 Ilm 163 B.E. - October 16, 2006

I’m going to start a new theme for the next twenty-six entries. These are going to be alphabetical entries. It’s something I’m doing with my writing.com blog. Each entry is one word and they are in alphabetical order. It should be interesting to see what subject I came up with in this experiment. The idea isn’t my own, but was tried in another blog on writing.com. I’ve come up with some creative entries in the Snowflake Chronicles up to now, so I though I’d try it on this blog.

The Reason for each item in my Spiritual Toolkit

15 Mashiyyat 163 B.E. - October 11, 2006

Yesterday I listed the nine items in my spiritual toolkit. Today I am adding a blank journal and several ink pens to the kit. Eventually the pens will have two or three different colors of ink, but now I have only one color of ink.

Spiritual Toolkit

A string of 95 prayer beads
Baha’I Prayer Book
The Katib-i-Aqdas
The Katib-i-Iqan
Gems of Divine Mystery
The Summons of the Lord of Host
The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys
The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah
The Tabernacle of Unity
Blank journal with colored ink pens

Blank Journal

There is a reason for each item in this toolkit. Everyone making up a spiritual toolkit must choose his or her own tools. The one thing that should be common to all spiritual toolkits is a blank journal with colored ink pens; this is so that a person can write any thoughts down after saying prayers or reading from the scripture or whatever book chosen for the toolkit. When choosing a journal pick one that makes you feel comfortable writing in; it doesn’t matter if the journal has line or not as long as it makes you happy. Then choose one color of ink to date the pages with and use the other colors to make and title your entries.

Prayer Beads

My prayer beads are green.
Ninety-five clear green glass beads on a double string.
To count when I chant God’s Most Great Name.

Poem

Intoned in morning’s silence,
God’s name on His lover’s lips.

Baha’I Prayer Book

This prayer book contains a collection of prayers written by The Bab, Baha’u’llah, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Among these prayers are The Remover of Difficulties (The Bab), the Fire Tablet (Baha’u’llah), and The Teaching Prayer for the Western States (‘Abdu’l-Baha).

The Katib-i-Aqdas

The laws and ordinances revealed by Baha’u’llah.

The Katib-i-Iqan

This contains Baha’u’llah’s explanation of the symbols from the holy books of past revelations.

Gems of Divine Mystery

In this Baha’u’llah writes a reply to a seeker, which concerns the revelation of The Bab.

The Summons of the Lord of Host

This book contains the authorized translations of several of Baha’u’llah’s major tablets, including the Surih of the Temple.

The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys

This contains translations of two mystical writings The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys.

The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah

Baha’u’llah revealed the Hidden Words in both Arabic and Persian, this book contains the authorized translation of each.

The Tabernacle of Unity

This book contains the authorized translations of several tablets revealed Baha’is from Zoroastrian heritage.

Those are the only things I have put in my spiritual toolkit right now. I may add some more books to it later, but not until I have read each of these books, written poems on their themes and applied the concepts to my life. I am including a picture of my prayer beads in this entry. In addition, in the next few weeks I’ll makes some poetic entries using the themes in the books.

Spiritual Toolkit

14 Mashiyyat 163 B.E. - October 9 - 10, 2006

I’ve been thinking about toolkits this evening. What brought toolkits to mind was a discussion about Bloom’s Taxonomy in my chat for EDU636 Instructional Technology. My next assignment is to write objectives for to go along with a Lectora assignment. In order to write the objectives, I have to use specific verbs based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. The instructor suggested one of the things necessary in a toolkit for use in instructional technology was a list of the verbs. So I googled the verbs for the assignment and then I realized that we have toolkits for lots of things in our lives. Therefore, I have decided to start a list of items in my Spiritual Toolkit.

Nine Things in My Spiritual Toolkit

A string of 95 prayer beads
Baha’I Prayer Book
The Katib-i-Aqdas
The Katib-i-Iqan
Gems of Divine Mystery
The Summons of the Lord of Host
The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys
The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah
The Tabernacle of Unity

I Dream of Blogging

9 Mashiyyat 163 B.E. - October 5, 2006

I dreamed of blogging last night, of typing words into a blog entry. I dreamed of writing about my day, of writing about my favorite scripture verses. In my dream, I composed poetry, essays, and stories.

I dreaded of blogging last night. The entry began to the word to or today. I wrote about my experience yesterday. Yesterday I went to a seminar at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. One of the speakers was the Duchess of York. I wrote about the experience in my dream. I wrote about walking through the Desert Passage to find the conference room to attend the seminar.

I dreamed of blogging last night. I typed the entry into a blank document. I wrote about how it feels to write. Writing changes my mood from dark to light. In the dream, I wrote a free-write. Free writing is sitting down at a computer or picking up a pen and paper journal and writing. You write without thinking what you are going to write. You write what ever comes to mind. If you are stuck, you repeat the last sentence. If you are stuck, you repeat the last sentence. Then you continue on writing, writing, and writing for either a timed or an untimed period. You just sit and write until you have written your subject out or covered every subject you want to write about or time runs out. I dreamed of blogging last night.

I am Tired of Junk e-mail

7 Mashiyyat 163 B.E. – October 3, 2006

I am tired of junk mail. I am tired of going to my accounts and finding phishing expeditions from people I don’t know, people I’ve never communicated with and who’s messages I delete immediately. I am tired of my e-mail boxes containing so much trash that it’s difficult to complete the business of checking my messages. If it weren’t so much trouble, I’d just cancel every account and start over again, but that wouldn’t help and it wouldn’t stop the junk e-mail. Besides, I don’t intend to let rude and inconsiderate people dictate the way I handle my life or business.

That said I’m going to have to take a day just to go through my boxes and clean them out. Because despite there are important e-mails in there that I must read. If the junk e-mail were really something that would bring in money, I don’t think I’d mind so much or maybe I would. It could be that the only thing I want to do is rant this morning.

The e-mails that irritate me the most are the one’s from across the world, that take God’s or one of His prophets names in vain. Here I’m taking about the e-mails that say its writer is suffering with some deadly and incurable, then ask to transfer a large sum of money to a bank account in America. These e-mails usually begin with “In …. Name” or something to that effect, they are offensive.

In fact, many junk e-mails are offensive. Most junk e-mails are offensive. I know that some of the business e-mails aren’t meant to be offensive, but they are. The intention of e-mails dated Mon Jan 18, 2038, is to keep the message at the top of the queue and get attention. These messages I deleted immediately, most of the time anyway. Sometimes I do check the messages, but not because I’m considering doing business with the person or the company. I check the message because I’m having a massive “writers’ block attack” and I’m desperate for inspiration. Today I deleted all of them without checking the message inside.

Finally Using the Technology

5 Mashiyyat 163 B.E. – October 1, 2006

I am finally getting into the technology of instructional design. The class I started today is EDU636 Instructional Technology, the software used is Lectora, and the book is Teachers Discovering Computers Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom by Gary B. Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman, Glenda A. Gunter, and Randolph E. Gunter. I started the research for the fist Discussion Board Assignment and the first Individual Project. I am so excited. At last using the technology for designing course work, I am salivating. My stomach is in knots.

Both assignments are due on October 7, but I want to have the discussion board completed and posted before that date. For this assignment, I have to write brief descriptions of four instructional authoring systems. Fining the product descriptions isn’t hard, the problem is deciding which four to use. I am waxing poetic about technology, now that that sounds like a good title for a poem. Perhaps Technological Musing might be better.

Since I haven’t posted to this blog since September 27, I should say what else is going on in my life. Let’s see what wisdom have I discovered since my last post. Well, I found out the car won’t run without gas, in fact it won’t even start without gas. Fortunately, I had enough gas to get me into my own driveway and the car into the garage. Now why I put the car in my garage knowing it didn’t have a lot of fuel in the tank I don’t know. I mean if somebody had tried to steal it, they wouldn’t have gotten it out of the driveway.

OK, so maybe I should pay a tiny bit closer attention to the little red idiot light. However, now I know what the light means. The light means that there is one gallon or less of gas in the tank and I need to stop at the next gas station or maybe the one after that.