Kindness

How do you describe someone who never bothers you or never make you angry? This is how Jasmine did it: "She is so kind, I never say Hey to her, not even H!"

Parents

It seems that parents have always been more restricted, less fortunate and poorer!
I have a deal with Jasmine. For reading each book ( now only chapter books) or doing something remarkably nice, she gets a star in a special notebook. I write down the name of the book or the action that has caused this star to go in there. I've even bought sticky colorful stars, just to make this procedure more interesting. At first, I bought her a present after each 5 star. Then to help her gather money for buying her piano, I gave her 15$. During the summer or holidays, the prize of reading books is doubled and you can imagine that I've been paying a lot of these 15-dollars lately. That's OK, but today I got upset when I heard her saying:" I want to buy something" and when I asked her what she had no answer, she just wanted to spend some money.

Luckily, she asked me what was it I wanted to buy in my childhood. The first thing that came to my mind was a microscope. For about three years, when I was in secondary school, I wanted to have a microscope, one that I could afford. I went to buy one after I had collected some money( mostly pocket-money and the money I could gather during Iranian new year's presents) . I had something around 1000 Tomans ( Now equal to around 1.5$) . Just imagine my face when I realized the cheapest one was around 6000 Tomans! It would take me years to collect this money, besides prices go up in Iran because of inflation. So I painfully realized that I simply cann't afford one. A few months later, my mom ( peace be upen her) solved the problem and bought me little one from a friend.

I told this history to depict the difference between generations. I'm sure my mom and dad did their best, well at least according to their level of knowledge and foreseeing. They also told of stories about their childhood which of course was much worse than ours. Things like asking money to buy bus tickets to go to school from an older brother and being accused of asking for inheritance money, or walking more than 10 kilometers to go to school. When hearing these and the like, we were of course too grateful for what we had.

So buying a little microscope was perhaps too fancy for my parents. One generation after, here I am telling the story of buying a microscope to my little daughter. I have told my wife that when our kids grow up, they'll definitely tell to their kids similiar stories. I mean no matter how wise you are, or how you try for your kids' flourishing, "You could have done better" in their idea when they are old enough to criticize you.

AFC Football

So, here goes Saudi Arabia with two defeats and one equal. They came last in their group. UAE too, went home. In Iran's group, Oman gave the Iranian team a very hard time. The Persians got their equalizer only at 93rd minute. Now everything in this group is finalized in the last match.

A few years ago, Iran was in the same group as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The fate of the winner team was in the last match, that was held in Bahrain between Bahrain and Iran. If Iran could manage to get just one point, it would go up from this group. If not, Saudi Arabia would go. Iran lost, and the TV showed Bahrain team members carrying Saudi's flag.

To me, it was really bothering. After all, Bahrain was an Iranian state that was just given the independence around 40 years ago. Now they had won a match, allright but waving Saudi's flag and wearing it was a little too much.

At the time, we were living  in Dubai and next day I asked a colleague who is an Egyption about it. He told me that Arabs have a proverb: I against my brother, I & my brother against enemy. So, naturally, they had won the match for their brothers.

Football again, this time: Asia

Talking about it, betting on results, sitting in a crowd of friends and family, shouting for the victory, worrying about the lose ..... These are some of the things I miss at such occasion as AFC football tournament. Football ( soccer) is very important for Iranians. Perhaps the best and happiest day for people that I remember was the day Iran won Australia in 1998 and went for world cup. People were dancing, laughing happily, waving to each other, giving flowers and cookies. It's unforgettable.

However I'm happy Arab teams aren't getting good results, specially Saudi Arabia. In the past few years they have given some hard times to Iranian team and now they're loosing to newcomers like Torkamanistan.

 

There was something about these clouds, like they had been painted. Photo by Jasmine. 

Reflection of sun on clouds 

Here are the answers

Why the English ride on the left? Why do people say toasts on important occasions? Why do we say good-bye?
 
Find all the answers in a book called Now you know, the book of answers. This is one of the best books I've ever read. It's not a big book and is fairly simple-written.
 
One of the answers from the book: Why do we say 'so long'? answer : British soldiers who went to Arabic countries heard local people saying 'salaam'. Trying to immitate them, they changed it to 'so long' and now it's been used by all.
 

JCP and Spilberg

Today I finally took the JCP ( Java Certified Progremmer )exam and passed. It's a sad thing that some of us with years of experience have to prove ourselves in the form of such exams and certifications.
 
Then late at night, I went to cinema with my brother-in-law to watch I,Robot. I checked the time and theater from toronto.com. However, when we arrived, I realized that they're not showing that movie at all! Instead we watched The Termial . Very funny, touching and a little romantic. Spilburg has done it again.

Look who is talking!

"You can do it in a jippy"
"Jiffy, dad"
 
About four years ago, I was teaching her to say water, when she is thirsty; food, when she is hungry and WC, if she need to go to the washroom in school. We had gone to Dubai about a month ago and Both of us were working.
 
Now she is correcting us, for the words we have heard from herself. It's interesting, very interesting.

Reminder

Today, Jasmine reminded me why we moved to Canada. She has been writing short stories and today's story was about a God that wasn't smart! Such a story can definitely send the writer to jail in some narrow-minded countries, maybe even worse!

Kids again

Sometimes I feel kids are much more intelligent that they show. Like they know that something is wrong, so when doing the wrong look at you with naughty eyes. Perhaps they test you. Slowly they take the pencil towards the mouth, and quickly bring it down when they realize you are watching.