A Wise Answer

The other day at dinner table, Jasmine mentioned that her friend's family celebrate Ramadan. I told her that we somehow do the same. She said :"So this means you're a Moslem?" I said "Yes , and this means you are too!" She said :" Really?" I said :"Yes , what did you think you were then?" She answered " I thought I was just a kid!!"

I told her then that she has the opportunity to study this matter during upcoming years and decide for her own. She liked the idea.

Wrinkles of water / Mel Lastman Sq. / Toronto

Home-made Sushi :-) 

Wish.

Love & Hate

I cannot make up my mind about Microsoft. I hate it. And yet, I must love it.

My current project is upgrading part of a system which is done in Visual Studio V6.0. The upgrade procedure leaves tons of chores to be done and yet, many of the components aren't upgraded at all. Some of the components' upgrade is done so poorly, I have to change them completely. I finally have decided to redo everything from scratch.

Why don't I switch to something else like Java? Because my people in the company who support the product only work with Microsoft products. There is a move toward Java, but it's not happening as fast. So practically, I'm stuck with Microsoft.

Is he truthful?

They are people, And they are living with us!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away... No, they are so close and it wasn't a long time ago. Actually, They have been around for not more than a century, but now they live with us, they are everywhere. Don't look now, but there are under the desk for sure. Some of them maybe staring at you right now... They are among us...

This is not about aliens or ghosts. The people I'm talking about are wires. Wires and whatever they are connected to. They are usually very loyal, cheap labour and modest. They do job and don't complain. You can bury them under the carpet, wardrobes and beds, but there they are doing their chores and .... Living! Yes, I think they have a life too. And I am going to show you that they in fact are social as us, share the same problems as us and look forward to life's ups and downs as us.

I am not a good illustrator though. So you should start your imagination engine too. To help you feel what I mean, let's just say that a cables are men and wall sockets are women. I guess that was already clear for obvious reasons.

I'll try to post an illustration every day or so.

The Cutest thing

One of the cutest thing I've ever seen is a sweet lovely cute chubby 1-year old girl, keeping her tears before reaching to her mom, just quickly enough before bursting into tears. I am too emotional myself, so let's tell the reason too: she bumped her head into the door while trying to close it.

The Incredibles was incredible!

I saw The Incredibles with Jasmine tonight. It was lovely: Jasmine kept on laughing loud and I enjoyed both the film and her joy. Also the baby in the film was like Rose: sweat and smooth, until made angry which in that case is a goblet of fire.

I also should remember one thing: Never ever check movie times from Toronto.com. According to the website, the movie started at 7:30. We reached there at 7:20 and went directly to the automatic ticket booth. Guess what, the movie had started at 7:10! However,thanks to the commercials they show at the beginning of the movies, we didn't miss anything.

Pingo

I love Pingo! It's that plastic penguin cartoon show with strange way of talking. Rose has been watching some TV shows lately, but last night for the first time, she was so fascinated by Pingo that she kept on laughing loud and continuously.

Theo Van Gogh

I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. So I watched it here. Honestly, it was a childish challenge for nothing. It's so shallow, the film is. Now, I don't want to sound like I admire the guy who killed the man, not at all. I detest violence in any shape. We have a saying in Persian: The answer to fool is silence. Now as the consequence of what happened, everybody's gonna watch the movie and well not every soul is knowledgeable as should and so the effect of this which should have been nothing, is already magnified by thousands.

I don't talk about the film or the maker any more. It's just an "I did it 'cause I could" job. But why do people with opposing ideas don't fight back in the same way? Why don't they bid the challenger to a TV show? People come from different backgrounds and have a diverse set of beliefs. There won't be a single-let's-all-accept-this-solution but at least they'll know where everybody stands with no sarcasm or clash.

Have you?

1- Have you recently been talking on the phone while washing your hands and at the end of the conversation turned off the water? Well I have.

2- Have you recently taken your kid to school and just in front of the school , worried about whether you're wearing shoes? Yeah, I have.

3- Have you recently ( to be honest just tonight ) had this proud and brave idea of not eating dinner to help the diet, just to realize that you've already had it when you were out? Not surprisingly, I have.

4- Have you recently woken up early morning, happily told yourself that this is going to be a long successful busy day, then realized that it's half past ten already? Yes again, I have.

5- Have you recently started a sentence with a lot of enthusiasm and suddenly realized cannot find any suitable end for your sentence? Embarrassingly I have.

6- Have you thought of mentioning your recent embarrassing moments in your weblog and counted up to ten different ones but cannot remember some of them? Isn't the answer obvious?

She is walking out there.

When you don't expect to see something and suddenly bump into it, you're startled and somehow frightened.
In Toronto, I have seen many old Chinese who don't seem like it, but they are about 80 -90 years old. By the look, many of them seem to be much younger. However some are really really old with deep wrinkles and bent back. We sometimes say they are at least a 1000 years old!
This one is one of those. Apparently she is staying with a neighbor's of ours. She is too old to walk outside so she does that in the corridors. Successfully she has been able to frighten me at least three times. Imagine coming out of the elevator in a rush and just bump into someone like her, with eyes' magnified a hundred times behind her glasses. It's like one of those scenes in Hitchcock 'sfilms where most of the horror comes from a simple normal figure with a horrible music on it. Or you feel Yoga from Star Wars is standing there and says " Maybe the force be with you".

Charity

Have you tried to help charity organizations? Well if you haven't, don't even try it! Help in an anonymous way, leave no address.

I donated for the MS society a year ago. Since then, I keep on receiving letters and requests from other organizations asking for donation. On its own, it's a beautiful thing to do. But when you receive so many letters, nearly on a daily basis, it gets annoying. I'd really be more than happy to help, but cannot afford. So, take my advice and if you help, do it in secret.

Arafat Died, this time: really!

Arafat became one of the world's most familiar faces after addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York in 1974, when he entered the chamber wearing a holster and carrying a sprig. "Today I have come bearing an olive branch and a freedom fighter's gun," he said. "Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand."

Meeting an old friend

Today, after about 2.5 years, we met our friend, who has just landed in Canada from UAE ( Sharja). For those who don't know the geography of the UAE's cities, Sharja is only about 5 kilometers away from Dubai. So when living in Dubai, we met our friend and his wife a lot, specially during the holly Ramadhan which is well-celebrated over there and Sharja has taken a lead in the ceremonies. The cities practically don't sleep during the month.

We first met this friend of ours back in the university where we were all studying computer engineering. After graduation we didn't have much news about him but when moving to Dubai, we were told that he is married and lives in Sharja.

Now, I was students' deputy for a long term and knew everybody and everybody knew me. I was even a recognized person in other groups. However during the course of years, I've earned some weight and lost a little ( just a little ) of the hair.

One day, while walking in City Centre ( Dubai's most popular shopping mall ) I bumped into this old friend. He too had changed a lot, more or less in the same way as me! Joyfully, I went to him and shouted " Hey man , how are you? Long time no see...."

One simple sentence: He didn't recognize me! He stood there, awkwardly trying to remember, however unsuccessful; he didn't know who I was. Well, he remembered all right, but the delay cost him a lot: Now every mutual friend knows about this and today again, we laughed at it and refreshed our nice memories.

They have a two year old boy now. The interesting thing is that the boy only speaks Armenian, his mom and dad's ethnic language! No Farsi, No English , Just Armenian! From one point of view, this is good and even admirable: Otherwise he probably wouldn't learn this language but how about socializing with other kids? Learning at school? Communicating with teachers? I know that he'll learn English quickly. But until then, he'll only be able to talk to his mom and dad and probably a few Armenians live here.

There should be a balance.

Rozaneh

There are quite a few weekly and monthly Persian magazines published here in Toronto. Rozaneh is probably the youngest , but definitely the most elegant. The young people who have started this magazine are right on track. High quality pictures, ads and a wave of style and fashion makes it different. However, there are a few things that would help to improve:

1- It's necessary that an editor reviews the context before print. In some places, two sentences are mixed without proper junction or a verb is missed.

2- The magazine is full of pictures. Some are self-explanatory but some, like the article about Spain, need introduction. The pictures are nice, but without a label, they don't tell much.

3- It would be better if more information was provided on some pages as there are parts of the page that are left empty. For example, in National Geographic magazine, they have one page articles usually about a picture, an event or a flashback. They provide enough information about the subject on that page by itself.

Picture albums

How long is long enough before going back to old albums and review the pictures? I thought 10 years but tonight while trying to find a mutual friend, I noticed maybe 3 years is enough.

Bigger Canada!

There are some joke emails including some maps going on the Internet after Bush's re-election. These indicate that as all the 'blue' states - the ones Kerry won - are all connected together and to Canada, They'd better join canada. Here is a part of one:

What Blue-Staters get:1- Canadian citizenship: And we don't even have to move. 2- "O, Canada": A national anthem that's much easier to sing than "The StarSpangled Banner."3- Free flu shots. (Not to mention free health care.)

That's strange!

Today, I heard something on TV which is quite strange. The lawyer, who did our condo closure, has dissapeared! It started from when a lady got a letter from an insurance company she thought she had an insurance with , indicating that the money for the insurance hasn't been paid. Well she had paid the lawyer a year ago. When she called the law firm, she didn't get any proper answer so she informed the media. When the TV investigator visited the firm, they noticed that the place was abandoned! They showed inside the firm which was quite familiar for me. There were papers everywhere. They even had left some certifications. They tracked the lawyer just to find that he had left the new office a few days ago! The Upper Canada Law Agency too, announced that the lawyer's permit has been suspended following a number of complains and that's all they knew. That's strange!

George Bush ( of W type! )

I don't mind if a lot of people don't like him. Personally I don't think he's the smartest guy, but he won the election fair and square. All I hope is that the world goes toward more peace, even though it means to use rough language or even some muscles. However, I must emphesize that I don't like wars, in fact I hate them. I've seen the fear, the demolition and the terrible loses it brings. The wheels of force and wisdom should work together, until the time comes that wisdom takes over completely.

There are a lot of things that has to be done before there can be any progress. One is the Veto right in the UN , for example. How can there be a move to peace when some countries can deny a consensus for their own benefits? That's so silly!

Memory

I have come to this conclusion that if you enjoy learning something, the chances of forgetting them become really low. About 13 years ago, as a sophomore, I took a statistics course. I liked it very much and the professor, Mr. Mehran ( God bless him wherever he is ) was so joyful in teaching. I got a very good mark at the end and I've been able to handle issues related to statistics at work very well.

However, last night as a part of Risk Management course I'm taking in Ryerson university, I came across the subject again and interestingly, as the teacher was walking the class through the subject, I noticed that I remember every detail. I even helped some of the classmates at break time to realize the meaning of some statistics concepts. An advice: try to enjoy the material you've got to learn.

Last night was also interesting 'cause the teacher brought back the results of midterm exam and I got the top mark. Cool!

Arafat

What is wrong with people around Arafat? Eighter he is dead or not! I was watching George W. Bush's first press conference and a reporter informed him that Arafat has died which he responded " God bless his soul". However at the same time , the CNN info bar at the bottom of screen showed this message:"French hospital denies Arafat is dead"... Cann't a man simply die these days?

Arafat... I don't like him because he used Iranians to get the fonds he needed. I like him because when needed, he put his people first and turned back to everybody who still believed in blind war. I admire him for the long term he served his people.

After a long time

When you don't write for sometimes, you think you have a lot of things to say. There is a feeling of missing, missing the moments of the life that could be talked about and saved into scripts for others.

When we were having our second child, in the surgury room, I asked for two wishes, my biggest ones : My wife and and the child that was being born. God caused both of my wishes come through in a few minutes. By writing this, I want to reach to two points. First, There are turning points in life that you don't know what's going to happen afterwards but still , you have to pass these points and see for your own what the future is brewing for you. Like death, which is only tangible for the dead and yet, this is the beauty of life. Second, I find it amusing how confronting with difficult situations works. Sometimes our fears cause to postpone , escape and even hiding from an objective. In that way, we probably make the problem bigger. Only with confrontation, we can get results and change the course of happenings towards the positivities. Confront with your fears, whatever they are.