Stealth Disney

Wish upon a star
Believe in will
The realm of the king of fantasy
The master of the tale-like lore
The way to kingdom I adore
Where the warrior's heart is pure
Where the stories will come true

I've had Nightwish's album Wishmaster on repeat at work for the last two days. Fantasmic really makes me want to play Kingdom Hearts II again, every damn time.

I will be getting my hands on Final Mix + at some point. I don't care if the text is in Japanese... :)

Politics and religion

imperial_artist linked to an essay on Foreign Affairs earlier today called Stumbling into War, and I read that and another article called Bridges, Bombs or Bluster? on the same site this morning.

The third article I've been reading, Al Qaeda Strikes Back, is giving me the same uncomfortable feelings that a lot of recent journalism which mentions Islam does.

My best friend at school was - and presumably still is - Muslim.

If you mention Islam to me, I think of a girl who went to mosque every Friday, who had friends and a youth group there, who knew guys at mosque who she liked, whose parents were religious leaders, who's currently studying to be a doctor and has a steady boyfriend and so on. I also think about what we learned about it at school, about times for prayer, about the Hajj (a pilgrimage to Mecca), and things like that.

I don't know what my point is, other than to say that like pretty much any other religion, Islam is not inherently scary. People who are Muslims are people.

I think I may be being patronising here. But I just wanted to convey my frustration when the words "Islamist" and "jihadist" and other phrases that try to lump all the followers of a wide-spread religion are used.

EDIT: Tony Blair says it better than I could:

This is ultimately a battle about modernity. Some of it can be conducted and won only within Islam itself. But let us remember that extremism is not the true voice of Islam. Millions of Muslims the world over want what all people want: to be free and for others to be free. They regard tolerance as a virtue and respect for the faith of others as a part of their own faith.

Damn right. Thank you.

RARGH

We have an EGM tonight. Our president asked me to print out the Constitution (which we're going to amend) and the suggested rewrites of two skill trees (which we're planning to rework over the summer).

JANET was down between 11 and 2, and chose 5:30 as the best time to have Cambridge-Chelmsford fall over again, leaving me with

1. no way to get to the TT website or wiki to access the pages I want to print;
2. no way to let people know on IRC;
3. no way to let people know by email, because Hermes is presumably inside the CUDN.

As kingofwrong said, bollocks to "degrading gracefully".

In case people in the CUDN can see my LJ, I have printed out the AGM minutes and will bring them along; I'll try to get the constitution and the Wilderness and Subterfuge pages done at home, but may not manage it in time.

If anyone else who can see the pages can print them, please do - 3 to 6 copies of each of Constitution, new Wilderness suggestions and new Subterfuge suggestions is what we need.

rjw76, very sorry about this - looks like JANET picked the wrong day to give up working. :(

EDITED, LATER: Crisis averted (though JANET still being silly), things printed, EGM held, takeaway eaten afterwards.

I'm writing up the AGM minutes and will send them to Rosie and Michael when I can.