It's the birthday of British physicist Stephen Hawking, born in Oxford, England (1942), who pursues what physicists call a Grand Unified Theory, or a "Theory of Everything." As Hawking puts it, "My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe." His most important work in physics has explored the nature of "singularities," anomalies in the space-time continuum commonly known as "black holes." In 1988 he published A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes, a book that brought his work to a general audience. In the mid-1960s, Hawking was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, and given three months to live.

When asked about living with the disease many years later, he told an interviewer that he was "happier now" than before he became ill. "Before, I was very bored with life. I drank a fair bit, I guess; I didn't do any work... When one's expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything that one does have."

My New Year's resolution is to write more. I did some revisions to a short story during the holidays.

Douglas Coupland said, "Adventure without risk is Disneyland." He also said, "You wait for fate to bring about the changes in life which you should be bringing about yourself."

Here's proof that dangerous and stupid fanatics aren't confined to one religion:


"Gays Responsible For Tsunami Muslim Cleric Charges "by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: January 5, 2005 11:02 am ET

(Riyadh) A leading Muslim cleric says that the tsunamis which devastated South Asia and killed more than 150-thousand people were Allah's punishment for allowing gays into the affected countries.
"These great tragedies and collective punishments that are wiping out villages, towns, cities and even entire countries, are Allah's punishments of the people of these countries, even if they are Muslims," Sheik Fawzan Al-Fawzan told Saudi television in an interview translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"We know that at these resorts, which unfortunately exist in Islamic and other countries in South Asia, and especially at Christmas, fornication and sexual perversion of all kinds are rampant," the Institute, which monitors television news in the region, quoted Al-Fawzan as saying.
"The fact that it happened at this particular time is a sign from Allah. It happened at Christmas, when fornicators and corrupt people from all over the world come to commit fornication and sexual perversion. That's when this tragedy took place, striking them all and destroyed everything. It turned the land into wasteland, where only the cries of the ravens are heard. I say this is a great sign and punishment on which Muslims should reflect.

"All that's left for us to do is to ask for forgiveness. We must atone for our sins, and for the acts of the stupid people among us and improve our condition. We must fight fornication, homosexuality, usury, fight the corruption on the face of the earth, and the disregard of the lives of protected people."

Al-Fawzan is a member of the Senior Council of Clerics, Saudi Arabia's highest religious body. He is also a professor at the Al-Imam University. His religious books are used to teach 5 million Saudi students, both within the country and abroad, including the United States.
It is not the first time that gays have been blamed for a devastating event. Immediately following 9-11 fundamentalist Christian minister Jerry Falwell blamed gays and pro choice advocates for the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Speaking on the 700 Club religious program Falwell said, "The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen'."

©365Gay.com 2005

I donated some money online to the Red Cross to help with relief after the recent natural disaster in South and Southeast Asia. If you can afford to donate something to an agency that can help, please do so. Thanks.

By the way, over the years I've been to most of the countries that were affected by the disaster.

J.D. Salinger once said, "I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy."

Happy New Year! David and I drove to North Dakota on Dec. 26 to visit friends in Minot and Bismarck. We planned to return on the 30th, but hearing about a blizzard in southern Saskatchewan convinced us to stay for an extra day. We got home at about 6:15 p.m. on Dec. 31, got to a potluck meal with friends at about 7:45 p.m. and then a New Year's Eve party at a bar/club with these friends at about 10:30 p.m. We left the party a little after 1:00 a.m. On January 1, we were out of Saskatoon by 11:00 a.m. to go to my family's New Year's Day gathering on a farm (where my sister Louise and her husband Larry live) near Raymore. As soon as we got back into S'toon at about 8:30 p.m. , we went to see our friend Judy (and our favourite dog, Henry). It's been a busy holiday!

Here's some Buddhist wisdom for the new year:

"If you’d mold yourself the way you teach others, then, well-trained , go ahead & tame--for, as they say, what’s hard to tame is you yourself."

-Dhammapada, 9
translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu