Yahya Sulaiman
7th July 2011, 03:39
Well, folks, it’s been quite an interesting seven or eight years here! For the most part, anyway; not so interesting lately, which is one of the reasons I’m leaving, and you know that I am hardly the first to do so. My contact info is at the very bottom of this post—speaking of which, I ask that the mods do NOT delete my account, given that it’s possible I’ll have to come back and add to or change said info at some point, though one way or another this will still be at least for all intents and purposes my last post ever at this board. I’ve already given it five thousand posts: I think you could hardly ask for more.
It used to be this place was a practically almost constant stream of new opportunities for dawah; now it’s just a run down, dying place where people bicker endlessly with immature atheists and with deceptive Christian apologists and with each other non-stop. In other words, it’s become too much like the average Islamic message board.
Enough griping, you all know my reasons already anyway. Let’s go out with a bang! So without further ado, here are Yahya Sulaiman’s self-selected greatest hits and misses!
First, I don’t know if this really is part of the list or not but I figure you guys would want to see the beginning of it all (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?4664-This-is-your-chance-to-convert-me). Well, the broad strokes of the beginning, anyway. A lot of my re-reversion is happening offscreen there, in other threads here, in threads at other boards, on various pro-and-anti-Islamic websites and, of course, in my own mind and soul. Anyway...
Now, as I am known as the movie man here, let’s start with my movie-related material. Of all the reviews I have written here, I think my very finest to date is probably this review (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7751-Terimantor-Salvation&highlight=) of “Terimantor: Salvation”. Wait a minute, “Terimantor”?! What the—did I actually spell it that way?! C’est la vie. And the review I am least proud of is definitely my review for”Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8514-Yahya-s-review-thread&p=133987#post133987). My...positive...review?? Well, we all make mistakes.
Another one would be the original thread for my first review for the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7467-Review-of-quot-The-Day-the-Earth-Stood-Still-quot-(2008)), in which I really went overboard due to being called a bad writer for the first time in my entire life. I should have let the mere knowledge of the fact of it being the very first time anyone had done that soothe me, but I didn’t. I just blew my cork. If you still find it odd, try to picture being told by everyone all your life that you’re the best painter they know—not one exception to the rule—and then suddenly being told by someone who just glanced at a single painting of yours that you need to have some remedial art classes. How much better would you have behaved than I did? Well, probably a little.
I don’t know how many of you remember my article “’Groundhog Day’ and Religion” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8474-quot-Groundhog-Day-quot-and-religion&highlight=). I’m still proud of it, and also of my lists of the worst scenes from great films (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?9595-Top-11-really-bad-scenes-from-really-good-films) and the best scenes from bad films (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10280-Top-8-really-good-scenes-from-really-bad-films). One list I wish like crazy I hadn’t written was my rushed, trite, ignorant list of my top ten reasons not to see “Transformers 2” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7922-Transformers-2/page2). Although my opinion of the film itself has not changed one bit.
And by the by, I may be eventually continuing my ”Fun with Filmic Fallacies” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10288-Fun-with-Filmic-Fallacies-(newly-updated-and-introduced)) series at LordKat’s site.
But of course it’s not all been about movies. This board is about religion, and we’ve had quite a discussion or two on that! Now haven’t we? For instance, there was this (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8265-Oral-Sex-in-the-Old-Days) classic thread on oral sex in ancient times. What I said wasn’t really all that notable one way or another: the truth is I just had to post this link because I can still hardly believe we actually had that conversation!
I don’t know how many people bothered to watch these gorgeous videos of the beauty of God’s creation set to Yusuf Islam songs (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7184-God-s-creation-s-beauty-with-Yusuf-Islam-s-music&highlight=) when I posted them, but well, here’s another chance! I’m still glad I started that, even if nobody paid any attention to it.
Glancing over this old article addressed to Christians (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?5062-My-turn-to-be-a-missionary) I find that I think I could, with some very massive revisions, construct a useful pamphlet out of what I wrote there. And as for my review and critique of “Mere Christianity” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8216-Critique-of-quot-Mere-Christianity-quot-PLUS-an-announcement), I wish it were still possible to get it up on my now utterly inaccessible site. No bother. You know I have other things cookin’; for instance, to fix my problems with that dawah book of mine that's spent the last year or two festering int he lowest pits of development hell I’ve simply taken to more or less starting over. I’ve already just begun.
But some of my stuff here I’m proud of just because I chipped in and encouraged a couple of others to do the same: my thread on The West Memphis Three (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7944-The-quot-West-Memphis-Three-quot-modern-day-Salem-witch-trials&highlight=) is one shining example. Come on, even now we need still more people for this most excellent cause!
And of course there is another cause you know I’ve written on here (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10188-Newly-annotated-version-of-my-Browne-review&p=151759&highlight=#post151759) and here (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10375-Professor-Marvel-as-Textbook-Example-of-Psychic-Fraud). Y’all go ahead and show those to people if the necessity to do so should arise with any of you.
Now if only more people had listened when I told them the truth about the one and only thing (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3469-Why-do-people-believe-statistics) everyone always insists never lies even though the very fact, existence, and use of the thing are all themselves lies...It would have been too optimistic to hope for, I admit it, and perhaps the article should have been longer and explained more anyway.
I’ve some funny **** here over the years, I think we agree. But what was the best and what was the worst? Well, I’m not too proud of my highly derivative and now pitifully dated Presidential “Good Idea, Bad Idea” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3442-It-s-time-for-a-presidential-quot-Good-Idea-Bad-Idea-quot&highlight=), but I think I was at least passably witty when teaching you all the world’s longest words (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3282-The-world-s-longest-words&highlight=). Personally I’ve always like my "Famous People and the Famous Murderers They Look Like" (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3348-Famous-people-and-the-famous-murderers-they-look-like&highlight=) series, but do be warned you have to pop it up as a document. I’m a real technological oaf, it’s the best I can do. (Hmmm, you know, now that I get another look, I guess Ted Bundy really looked a lot more like Rob Lowe than Bill Pullman.)
One oldie that keeps getting resurrected and appreciated here is my article about the time I didn’t have any idea I was being abducted by aliens (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3200-What-do-you-know!-I-was-abducted-by-aliens-and-didn-t-notice). However, I never got any replies for my commentary series for the boxes to Atari 2600 games (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10531-Commentary-on-classic-video-game-cover-art&p=156134&highlight=#post156134), much of which I thought was quite funny. You might want to give it another look. Seems no one noticed it the first time.
Oh Wiki answers and Charles Manson (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10332-The-age-old-question-finally-answered&p=153538&highlight=#post153538), will you ever cease to entertain us??
My Carribbean Blog (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10619-Caribbean-blog) and my original “Hawaii Blog” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8743-HAWAII-BLOG-The-4-000th-Post-Project&). I like ’em both.
But what of the debates? All those endless, endless debates! Remember mirrage? Remember when I took her to school on the Argument from Natural Law? Well, it’s right here (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?5467-Designer-of-the-Universe). On the other hand there was that one time I got utterly pwned (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?4826-The-letter-of-James-as-evidence-for-Islam) when I somehow got it in my head that there was only one biblical passage saying that we must submit ourselves to God. Didn’t do very well in that thread on the whole, I think, though I was only skimming this time through.
Then of course there was the time I easily proved that it's not as hard as it looks to make a fool out of Stephen Hawking (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10122-In-response-to-Hawking-s-new-stated-position-on-God&p=151603&highlight=#post151603) and his ilk.
And then of course we had The Ice Cream Debates. A series of arguments so weird, so unpleasant, and yet so utterly, fall-down hilarious, that I am just as proud as I am ashamed we even had them at all. We shall count these as both "huge hits" and "huge misses" for most all of us involved, I think.
Ice Cream and Paranoid Schizophrenia, Part 1 (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10357-Pakistan-president-urged-not-to-pardon-Christian-woman&)
Ice Cream and Paranoid Schizophrenia, finale (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10371-Hapless-Jackels&)
My favorite part is maybe when he actually writes out the redneck mispronunciation “jee-had”.
Well, folks, that’s about it for me, so with one final http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8u7px_GzWQ]Bison ( [url) Clip[/url] (or two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0&playnext=1&list=PL9597876E8DF8EBA1)), I’m outta here. Ron, I’ve already made sure we have each other’s e-mail addresses but in case anything goes wrong with that, or someone else here at the board wants to keep on talking to me now that I’ve left:
* I’m still at ***.
* I’m still at *** as ***, although I may not be on there as often now as I used to be. Who knows?
* Although I still occasionally use the e-mail address *** (which is now run through mail.com), I am also now ***
* I am still on ****
* And I am still at ***, as “***”.
So for my last words I shall quote that great philosopher of men, Professor Henry Walton Jones, Jr., and leave you with this timeless nugget:
“I like Ike.”
It used to be this place was a practically almost constant stream of new opportunities for dawah; now it’s just a run down, dying place where people bicker endlessly with immature atheists and with deceptive Christian apologists and with each other non-stop. In other words, it’s become too much like the average Islamic message board.
Enough griping, you all know my reasons already anyway. Let’s go out with a bang! So without further ado, here are Yahya Sulaiman’s self-selected greatest hits and misses!
First, I don’t know if this really is part of the list or not but I figure you guys would want to see the beginning of it all (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?4664-This-is-your-chance-to-convert-me). Well, the broad strokes of the beginning, anyway. A lot of my re-reversion is happening offscreen there, in other threads here, in threads at other boards, on various pro-and-anti-Islamic websites and, of course, in my own mind and soul. Anyway...
Now, as I am known as the movie man here, let’s start with my movie-related material. Of all the reviews I have written here, I think my very finest to date is probably this review (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7751-Terimantor-Salvation&highlight=) of “Terimantor: Salvation”. Wait a minute, “Terimantor”?! What the—did I actually spell it that way?! C’est la vie. And the review I am least proud of is definitely my review for”Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8514-Yahya-s-review-thread&p=133987#post133987). My...positive...review?? Well, we all make mistakes.
Another one would be the original thread for my first review for the remake of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7467-Review-of-quot-The-Day-the-Earth-Stood-Still-quot-(2008)), in which I really went overboard due to being called a bad writer for the first time in my entire life. I should have let the mere knowledge of the fact of it being the very first time anyone had done that soothe me, but I didn’t. I just blew my cork. If you still find it odd, try to picture being told by everyone all your life that you’re the best painter they know—not one exception to the rule—and then suddenly being told by someone who just glanced at a single painting of yours that you need to have some remedial art classes. How much better would you have behaved than I did? Well, probably a little.
I don’t know how many of you remember my article “’Groundhog Day’ and Religion” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8474-quot-Groundhog-Day-quot-and-religion&highlight=). I’m still proud of it, and also of my lists of the worst scenes from great films (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?9595-Top-11-really-bad-scenes-from-really-good-films) and the best scenes from bad films (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10280-Top-8-really-good-scenes-from-really-bad-films). One list I wish like crazy I hadn’t written was my rushed, trite, ignorant list of my top ten reasons not to see “Transformers 2” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7922-Transformers-2/page2). Although my opinion of the film itself has not changed one bit.
And by the by, I may be eventually continuing my ”Fun with Filmic Fallacies” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10288-Fun-with-Filmic-Fallacies-(newly-updated-and-introduced)) series at LordKat’s site.
But of course it’s not all been about movies. This board is about religion, and we’ve had quite a discussion or two on that! Now haven’t we? For instance, there was this (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8265-Oral-Sex-in-the-Old-Days) classic thread on oral sex in ancient times. What I said wasn’t really all that notable one way or another: the truth is I just had to post this link because I can still hardly believe we actually had that conversation!
I don’t know how many people bothered to watch these gorgeous videos of the beauty of God’s creation set to Yusuf Islam songs (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7184-God-s-creation-s-beauty-with-Yusuf-Islam-s-music&highlight=) when I posted them, but well, here’s another chance! I’m still glad I started that, even if nobody paid any attention to it.
Glancing over this old article addressed to Christians (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?5062-My-turn-to-be-a-missionary) I find that I think I could, with some very massive revisions, construct a useful pamphlet out of what I wrote there. And as for my review and critique of “Mere Christianity” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8216-Critique-of-quot-Mere-Christianity-quot-PLUS-an-announcement), I wish it were still possible to get it up on my now utterly inaccessible site. No bother. You know I have other things cookin’; for instance, to fix my problems with that dawah book of mine that's spent the last year or two festering int he lowest pits of development hell I’ve simply taken to more or less starting over. I’ve already just begun.
But some of my stuff here I’m proud of just because I chipped in and encouraged a couple of others to do the same: my thread on The West Memphis Three (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?7944-The-quot-West-Memphis-Three-quot-modern-day-Salem-witch-trials&highlight=) is one shining example. Come on, even now we need still more people for this most excellent cause!
And of course there is another cause you know I’ve written on here (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10188-Newly-annotated-version-of-my-Browne-review&p=151759&highlight=#post151759) and here (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10375-Professor-Marvel-as-Textbook-Example-of-Psychic-Fraud). Y’all go ahead and show those to people if the necessity to do so should arise with any of you.
Now if only more people had listened when I told them the truth about the one and only thing (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3469-Why-do-people-believe-statistics) everyone always insists never lies even though the very fact, existence, and use of the thing are all themselves lies...It would have been too optimistic to hope for, I admit it, and perhaps the article should have been longer and explained more anyway.
I’ve some funny **** here over the years, I think we agree. But what was the best and what was the worst? Well, I’m not too proud of my highly derivative and now pitifully dated Presidential “Good Idea, Bad Idea” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3442-It-s-time-for-a-presidential-quot-Good-Idea-Bad-Idea-quot&highlight=), but I think I was at least passably witty when teaching you all the world’s longest words (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3282-The-world-s-longest-words&highlight=). Personally I’ve always like my "Famous People and the Famous Murderers They Look Like" (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3348-Famous-people-and-the-famous-murderers-they-look-like&highlight=) series, but do be warned you have to pop it up as a document. I’m a real technological oaf, it’s the best I can do. (Hmmm, you know, now that I get another look, I guess Ted Bundy really looked a lot more like Rob Lowe than Bill Pullman.)
One oldie that keeps getting resurrected and appreciated here is my article about the time I didn’t have any idea I was being abducted by aliens (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?3200-What-do-you-know!-I-was-abducted-by-aliens-and-didn-t-notice). However, I never got any replies for my commentary series for the boxes to Atari 2600 games (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10531-Commentary-on-classic-video-game-cover-art&p=156134&highlight=#post156134), much of which I thought was quite funny. You might want to give it another look. Seems no one noticed it the first time.
Oh Wiki answers and Charles Manson (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10332-The-age-old-question-finally-answered&p=153538&highlight=#post153538), will you ever cease to entertain us??
My Carribbean Blog (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10619-Caribbean-blog) and my original “Hawaii Blog” (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?8743-HAWAII-BLOG-The-4-000th-Post-Project&). I like ’em both.
But what of the debates? All those endless, endless debates! Remember mirrage? Remember when I took her to school on the Argument from Natural Law? Well, it’s right here (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?5467-Designer-of-the-Universe). On the other hand there was that one time I got utterly pwned (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?4826-The-letter-of-James-as-evidence-for-Islam) when I somehow got it in my head that there was only one biblical passage saying that we must submit ourselves to God. Didn’t do very well in that thread on the whole, I think, though I was only skimming this time through.
Then of course there was the time I easily proved that it's not as hard as it looks to make a fool out of Stephen Hawking (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10122-In-response-to-Hawking-s-new-stated-position-on-God&p=151603&highlight=#post151603) and his ilk.
And then of course we had The Ice Cream Debates. A series of arguments so weird, so unpleasant, and yet so utterly, fall-down hilarious, that I am just as proud as I am ashamed we even had them at all. We shall count these as both "huge hits" and "huge misses" for most all of us involved, I think.
Ice Cream and Paranoid Schizophrenia, Part 1 (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10357-Pakistan-president-urged-not-to-pardon-Christian-woman&)
Ice Cream and Paranoid Schizophrenia, finale (http://forums.understanding-islam.com/showthread.php?10371-Hapless-Jackels&)
My favorite part is maybe when he actually writes out the redneck mispronunciation “jee-had”.
Well, folks, that’s about it for me, so with one final http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8u7px_GzWQ]Bison ( [url) Clip[/url] (or two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0&playnext=1&list=PL9597876E8DF8EBA1)), I’m outta here. Ron, I’ve already made sure we have each other’s e-mail addresses but in case anything goes wrong with that, or someone else here at the board wants to keep on talking to me now that I’ve left:
* I’m still at ***.
* I’m still at *** as ***, although I may not be on there as often now as I used to be. Who knows?
* Although I still occasionally use the e-mail address *** (which is now run through mail.com), I am also now ***
* I am still on ****
* And I am still at ***, as “***”.
So for my last words I shall quote that great philosopher of men, Professor Henry Walton Jones, Jr., and leave you with this timeless nugget:
“I like Ike.”