Wednesday, October 20, 2004

It is a long time I haven't posted anything. Do not feel a strong urge for luazy writing anymore. Recently, I spend a lot of my free time either photographing with my FujiFilm Finepix S5000 digital camera or editing those photos on my computer. Today, I started an experimental photoblog: visualme.blogspot.com. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully better than this blog.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

GMAIL is the new path!

Paul Cesan

Hey, I've got a student in the DSP class (for which I am a TA) whose name is Paul Cesan. Isn't that cool?

Friday, May 14, 2004

the meaning of life

One of the most enriching lives is one spent by a person trying constantly to create and evolve his/her God.

That can be restated another way too: To me, the only concieveable purpose of life is an endless effort to cast a meaning on it.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

My father has no daughters. Only three sons. A house with no girls and three boys is usually like a barrak. Little, very little emotion. And if there is any smal sentiment, of course, it is towards mom.
I, being the eldest son, never learned to emotionally communicate with baba.
I never did and I still don't know how.
Not that I don't want to. I am 31, and I undestand a father may look at his childrens as the fruit of his life. I undesrtand, even if he cannot say it, that he needs me to communicate with him.
I saw it, the night that I got married - almost a year ago. I saw his face. He looked totally different. Happy in a totally new way.
I left shortly after mariage. Maryam who had established a very nice relationship with her in laws also left shortly afterwards to join me. Baba likes Maryam very much. Everytime I call to talk to them I read it in his voice how desperate he is to talk to his daughter in law. But we are away. And we will be for a long time. The political problems between the US and Iran does not allow us to visit home easily. or for them to visit us. My last year trip to Iran was a big risk of not being able to get back and thus losing the chance of finishing school. Baba is approaching 70. I need to be with him for a while. To let him enjoy the fruits of his life. We need to be together with our parents before ... Damn it is too hard to write. Makes me feel empty. I am going to post this without proof reading.
I tried to meet one of my deamons.

Monday, May 10, 2004

There are men too gentle to live among wolves

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Thanks to my new friend Naser G. for introducing me to James Kavanaugh and this beautiful piece of poetry.


There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who prey upon them with IBM eyes
And sell their hearts and guts for martinis at noon.
There are men too gentle for a savage world
Who dream instead of snow and children and Halloween
And wonder if the leaves will change their color soon.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who anoint them for burial with greedy claws
And murder them for a merchant's profit and gain.
There are men too gentle for a corporate world
Who dream instead of candied apples and ferris wheels
And pause to hear the distant whistle of a train.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who devour them with eager appetite and search
For other men to prey upon and suck their childhood dry.
There are men too gentle for an accountant's world
Who dream instead of Easter eggs and fragrant grass
And search for beauty in the mystery of the sky.

There are men too gentle to live among wolves
Who toss them like a lost and wounded dove.
Such gentle men are lonely in a merchant's world,
Unless they have a gentle one to love.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

It sounds so natural to me that a prowar blogger like Jef Jarvis is almost entirely silent about the Iraqi torture scandal. I wonder what does people like him say in private about those photos. Probabely: 'Damn the SOB photographer. '

If there is anybody who thinks photography is not really what I am made for please let me know right here in the comment section. I won't be offended.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Monday, April 12, 2004

I Ignored the Warnings Too
All this fuss over bush administration having ignored the 9-11 warnings reminds me that he was not the only one. I ignored the warnings too!
3 days before 9-11 I got a broadcasted email from a friend who regularly forwarded jokes or funny images to her list of friends. This time the email included a few images of planes crashed into buildings or crowds. Big and small planes crashed in laughable ways. Some of them gave me smile. Other than that it didn't make much sense. Luckily I forgot to delete that email the same night and waited until 1 day before 9-11 to delete it. So the night after 9-11 when I suddenly remembered the strange email. I could still recycle it from my trashcan. I opened the email and saw something shocking that had gone totally unnoticed the first time:
The subject of the email with all the crashed airplane photos was: 'EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED'.

Trying to trace back the sequence of senders of that email, I reached an Arabic name. My friend had received it from another Iranian who had received it from an Arab guy who had originally received the email as part of an al Arabs email list. She found it funny and forwarded it to her friends, as she did with all other emails that she found funny.

The next day I reported this on FBI website but never got any response back other than one from their auto-response software.

The photos were stored on my PC for a while until it crashed and I had to completely format the hard disk.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

B as in Birth
I was born in the 12th day of the first month of the year, on the Iranian calendar. That is the 12th day of the spring and one to the last day of the Noruz celebrations in Iran. On the western calendar and according to the American traditions, however, it only one day before the April Fool's Day. I just missed it, didn't I? Tomorrow I will be 31. In a blink of eyes I will be 51. That is if I'm meant to live that long. And at the next attempted blink my eyes shall stay closed, never to be opened again.

Time hurries on,
and the leaves that are green,
turn to brown,
and they wither with the wind,
and they crumble in your hand.

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Iranian Parlimentary Elections
Even though the fifty something percent of people who voted on Friday were much less than Islamic republic ideally hoped for, it was more than what the oposition needed to call it a total boycut of the election by the Iranian people.
I said it a short time ago in a comment that I left on eyeranian.net: My people still deserve nothing more than the Mullah's that rule them. This was Khamenei's election. He called for people to participate. And despite all the shameful restrictions imposed by his appointed fellows, so many people answered that call and participated.
It scares me to realize that even in Tehran about 30% said yes to Khamenei.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Earthquake, political crisis, plain crash, corruption, misery, terrorism, train explosion, tear, rage, pian, the homeless, the jobless, the voiceless, the graveless...

Dear Iran, this is what the world has to read about you day after day. My poor Iran.

Condolences

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Copyright violation
The text book for a course that I have taken this semester costs $135. I paid about $8 to copy it (2c a page) and $8 to bind the copy. And I am not feeling guilty. The price was really unfair.

How will I feel if some day I am the author of a text book (fat chance!) and students copy it rather than buing it?

Thursday, January 29, 2004

Adius BBC
I liked you, BBC. But looks like you are not going to be the same anymore. Therefore, it might be the right time to say Adius.
By the way, before we depart just tell me: if Blair didn't lie and Bush, Powel and others didn't li, then who did? Huh?

Monday, January 05, 2004

The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the fourth Islamic republic in the world and the third in the region is being created, with the assistance of USA. Isn't that something? History is full of ironies.

Friday, January 02, 2004

Bush's New Year Eve Surprize for Tehran
When asked if temporary easing of sanctions meant thawing relations with Iran today, president Bush answered no. Then he continued by listing the requirements that Tehran should fulfill before any improvement in relations could take place. None of the requirements were surprising or new: listening to Iranians who strive for freedom, turning in the arrested Alqaeda and stopping the nuclear weapons program. What was surprising though, was the absence of an old claim, i.e. sponsoring terrorism by giving aid to Lebanon’s' Hezbollah and Palestine’s Islamic Jihad and Hamas! Did he simply forget it or was it planned?

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Happy New Year Everybody
I was much happier when I said Merry Christmas a few days ago. Between then and now the terrible earthquake happened that saddened everyone. Heck, what can we do about it? A big fat nothing. So, lets just wish a peaceful 2004 for us and everybody else on the face of the planet.

My 2004 wishes are for my wife Maryam to resume her education that she interrupted in Iran to join me, for myself to publish 3 or 4 journal and conference papers, for Iran to produce a couple of good pieces of news whatever they can be, and for America not to re-elect Bush.

Speaking of Maryam's education, did you know that the Homeland security act prohibits F2 visa holders from taking college courses for credit? So, it is not only people with pocket almanacs who threaten the security of this country, even legal aliens on F2 visas who decide to start college can also be a danger to America's safety. It is a very delicate job, discovering all the threats to national security. Isn't it?

All the best wishes for a joyful prosperous 2004 for everyone.

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