Forlorn.of.thee (fa'lo:n ŭv thē), p, my only strength and stay,forlorn of thee, whither shall I betake me, where subsist?
Paradise Lost by John Milton
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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My Castle Fantasy...

I've finally found the perfect spot to build my dream home. It's in Cambewarra, away from the hustle and bustle of Sydney. It's 40 acres, 10 cleared, nestled below a rainforest pocket on the Browns Mountain, private, overlooking a panorama of the distant Shoalhaven coast. Asking $395,000. And the house, it's got to be a Queenslander. Love the design, verandah all round...
Give me a home among the gumtrees With lots of plum trees A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo A clothesline out the back Verandah out the front And an old rocking chair ...
John Williamson - Home among the Gum Trees

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai

Kanagawa oki nami-ura by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)

I'm a bit of a SF/ Fantasy bluff, and many years ago I read "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai". Bit misleading, the novel's not by Hokusai (that's the title) but is a short Science Fiction novel by Roger Zelazny. It won the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

What really grabbed me were the woodblock prints by Hokusai. They were gorgeous. The story followed a widow's travels around Japan. For e-book owners you can download* a EPUB version here (right click and save as).

*Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Jesus, food for thought...


Was reading Lilly's blog on faith, something twigged. On the face of it, can Christians really have more in common with Muslims than with the Jews?

Yet as Christians, we align ourselves with the Jewish faith. Browsing Wikipedia, managed to glean the following.

Christianity is a religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Christian derives from the Greek word Christ, a translation of the Hebrew term Messiah. Meaning CHRISTians believe in JC, pretty obvious this.

Wiki goes on to say almost all Christian groups regard Jesus as the Messiah who suffered death by crucifixion and rose bodily from the dead and will come again to judge the living and the dead. So far so good.

But Wiki explains that in Islam, Jesus is considered to be a Messenger of God and the Messiah who was sent to guide the Children of Israel with the Gospel. According to the Qur'an, Jesus was born to Mary and was given the ability to perform miracles. However, Islam rejects assertions that Jesus was crucified by the Romans, instead claiming that he had been raised alive up to heaven. Islamic traditions say that he will return to earth near the day of judgement to restore justice and defeat the Antichrist and the enemies of Islam. Hmmm...

But Judaism holds that Jesus is not the Messiah, arguing that he had not fulfilled the Messianic prophecies in the Tanakh nor embodied the personal qualifications of the Messiah. According to Jewish tradition, there were no more prophets after Malachi, who lived about 420 BC.

Huh?? Well, Christians, what's with all the discrimination and Islam-phobia?