Fish-EYE

2002-08-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

CNN and its war against terrorism?

This is probably the 4th consecutive day thay I open the cnn.com first page and all I see is the Al-Qaeda's training for killing, biological weapons, simple explosives, etc. I am seriously considering not ever reading CNN anymore. Why? Obviously this is a very strong propaganda for the forthcoming attack on Iraq. Even if it was not explicitly announced that Al-Qaeda's mass destruction weapons are coming from the so called "axis of evil", it would definitely be a deduction that would be made in the public's subconscious.

Now who thinks that usage of chemical weapons is that bad? After all, Iraq has already tested it quite so many times against Iranian troops during the war and at least once against its own Kurd citizens at the same time. 5000 civilian casuality is not that much if it happens in a distant Kurdish town called Halabche in Iraq, it's just the whole population of the area, what's the big deal?? It's even less interesting to know that Donald Rumsfeld was in Iraq "re-establishing?" political ties between Iraq and US around the same time that UN inspectors reported the usage of nerve gas against Iranian troops by Iraq. Hard to beleive that the first purchase that Saddam made after "re-establishment" was helicpoters that were allegedly used in the chemical attack on Halabche. Only part of the deal was first opposed by Senate, but carried out anyway.

Wanna read more boring stuff about weapons and wars? Take a look at this article.

2002-08-17T14:48:00.000-07:00

Evil Plan (tm)!

Your objective is simple: Destroy the Earth.

Your motive is a little bit more complex: Sadistic pleasure

Stage One
To begin your plan, you must first traumatize a superman. This will cause the world to sense a grave disturbance in the force, paralyzed by your arrival. Who is this unholy menace? Where did he come from? And why does he look so good as an elemental?

Stage Two
Next, you must disintegrate the Internet. This will all be done from a floating fortress, a mysterious place of unrivaled dark glory. Upon seeing this, the world will weep uncontrollably, as countless hordes of winged monkeys hasten to do your every bidding.

Stage Three
Finally, you must unleash your unholy weapon, bringing about an end to sanity. Your name shall become synonymous with slaughter, and no man will ever again dare interrupt your sentences. Everyone will bow before your overwhelming will, and the world will have no choice but to worship the ground you walk on.

Check out for yourself!

Oh yeah, thanks to this bitch for directing me to the focus of my true calling (and this sentence).

2002-08-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

An Englishman might describe the game of cricket in this manner:

"You have two sides; one out in the field and one in. Each man that's in the side that's in goes out and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out. When they are all out the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When both sides have been in and out including the not outs, that's the end of the game!"

Found on an old tea towel in St. Albans, England, 1983.

2002-08-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

MAS has a passionate (angry?) post on the subject of affordable housing. I am just renting a room right now, and the vision of becoming a home owner is way far. But take a look at the page 8 of this article (PDF format, you may find the HTML format using google to search for "system dynamic housing"). I just quote two very small parts:

"Urban Dynamics argued that low-cost housing was a double-edged sword for making urban conditions worse."

"My point was "too much" housing meant that there was too much for the economy of the area to support."

The founder adn pioneer of System Dynamics is Jay W. Forrester.

OK, suburban housing, whatever.

2002-08-13T16:36:00.000-07:00

What the hell is going on in space?
When Denis Tito paid 20 million bucks for a trip up there, I thought, it's his own earned or stolen damn money. Now the 'NChimp (or 'NStink as Emin3m calles them) whoever is planning for it. But this time, he is not paying for it. A TV producer is looking for sponsors to pay for him. and they want to make a 6 episode program out of it, with a 2 hour special of launching and Lance in space (sounds like Lloyd in Space, doesn't it?) and a concert after his sorrowful coming back to the planet. And the crooks have already started the propaganda for it by not paying the Russians. They have already at least 4 sponsors providing them with between 5 to 15 millions and they are not giving the Russians share yet, just so that find a spot on stupid CNN.

2002-08-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

One of my friends is going home and I'm stuck here. :(
OK, I'm not stuck, but I don't wanna risk getting out because if I can't come back in, I will have lost more than 3 better years of my life for nothing. Seriously, what would you have done if you were in my shoes? Thanks God, I visited home last summer, otherwise I would have killed myself by now. Anyways, these days I am a little bit less busy so I have enough time to grieve and listen to Dave Matthews Band.

2002-08-12T16:37:00.000-07:00

Haddock has quoted someone in his (persian) weblog:

"The guy I thought was nice, but too boring (when I was younger) is the guy I'd kill to have today. He's loyal, he's sweet, he's a wonderful father/husband, has a beautiful home, his own business. I craved excitement when I was younger, but now I am older, wiser (??) and more settled, and what was boring to me then is perfect for me now.

I wanted a party animal when I was young, now I want a stable, mature individual."

2002-08-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

The Goddez has given a thumb up to my blog. Or at least that's how I read it. Thanks!

2002-08-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

Back again
I am updating this after sometime. Well sleeping only 3-4 hours a night and working your butt off the rest of the day isn't that much compatible with maintaining a journal (and enjoying it). Anyways, it's over as my advisor just called from D.C. expressing his and everybody else's consent with the whole group work. Now I can take a breath before heading to the next task. As a matter of fact this next one is not that bad, but still...

2002-08-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

Sweet
I've been scouting the Geisel library to check out the second season of the Sopranos, but as soon as it was returned someone else beated me and I was just pissed off. Today, I checked it online and much to my surprise it was available. I thought I can check it out later today, but then remembered that it must still be wanted by lots of people. So I just walked there and took it. When I was getting out of the FVL room, a guy passed by me but turned back a few steps further and said:"Isn't it a coincidence! I was just going to check those out. Is that the second season?"

2002-07-31T15:22:00.000-07:00

This entry is for the supremebitch. Since you don't publicize an email address and yet backtrack any link to your page, I thought maybe I can use my Englis weblog to translate that fat entry. By the way, I have the potential for a considerable amount of facial hair, how in the hell did you guess that I am a chick. Moreover the language on that page is Farsi (Persian) not Arabic. Anyways, I praised your fine art of bitching and invited the people to take a look at it. Anything else?? O', and I found your page via Goddezbidches.

2002-07-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

I have been giving relationships an unfair amount of my time and consideration lately. The number of the occasions is already out of counting and except for a few of them, the rest couldn't have bothered me much if it wasn't for the very frequency of their recent occurrences.
Chronologically it started with a late nigh(very late night) chat with my friends. We started talking about the growth in the number and decline of the age of young girls that accept to have sex in Iran (in return or hope for anything). The two main reasons we could think of were the poverty and the lack of appropriate education. Personally, I think that poverty is the key and education doesn't necessarily help for a solution. A friend of mine had this idea of letting and encouraging teenagers and young adults to choose a partner (in sex for older ages and other respects for all ages). In his reasoning, this will eliminate the sexual frustration dure to the very high and increasing age for marriage and backed with previous education can also deal with the problem of underage and uncontrolled sex. Interestingly enough (he wasn't a religious person and didn't care for this), although it can lead to a free love movement in a fully liberal society (as it already has), it can be executed in a society with only Islamic standards and won't blow out. There is a unique (up to my knowledge) concept in this religion called temporary marriage which is basically temporary faithful partnership with no official and/or future strings attached. The reason it is not happening in Islamic countries is contrary to the first impression more important and powerful than the governments. Look at Turkey. People still kill other men just for walking with their single sisters, and yet it has even a more secular government than the US. The secret lies in the pre-Islamic or super-Islamic standards and the social rejection against sex before or outside of the concept of maintaining a family, although its religious frame has existed for 14 centuries.
The concept of temporary marriage is usually discussed parallel with male polygamy, because officially most of the times they happen together. I can't defend the concept of or expose the (supposedly existent based on the Islamic studies) wisdom behind the male polygamy here. However temporary marriage alone is what's happening or at least advertised to be happenning as a good way of life here. It is almost the same except for a shade of religion added at the very first levels of mental and physical intimacy and some constraints for the women (only one partner at a time in contrast ot the men (similar to the permanent marriage) and they have to wait for a certain period of time after ending a relationship before possibly moving to another intimate one). These details are for non-musilm readers to be in the same league when reading this. In reality this whole process has been used as a cover for prostitution in the most religious cities in the country for a long time. There are women in these cities who live on this profession. Needless to say they can't live respecting the abstinence period I mentioned above, however this obvious fact that can be deducted from common sense is none of concern of men, in their interpretation of Islam. The other thing that made me think about this issue was reading a piece of news that there are plans to make this odd kind of prostitution official and nationwide, to deal with the frustration in young men that are not able to marry and poor women who'll eventually do this for a living.
This struck me as two implementations of one concept. One towards chain corporate brothels with the obvious negligence of a requirement put there probably just to exclude the reincarnation of the oldest profession. And the other a religiously correct and probably healthy way for the society to live a supposedly modern way of sexual life (not that I am sure about either of these scenarios). The superstandards seem to move us way back in the history to the very first human beings instead of ahead, even if it is against the very own rules of Islam.
Speaking of superstandards, another storty that made me think was a very rare occasion that happened to me today: talking with a married friend on the phone. Her wife, who is also a very good friend of mine and we all went to the same college (and also all the other people involved in this story) asked my about two old friends who were college sweethearts and are now in the same graduate school in the other end of the world together. In an email the girl had written to her that they're having fun. She had asked naturally (and it is natural in western standards) in reply whether they live together and if yes, whether they are married. The girl, probably offended, has not answered her email yet. She is not that religious as far as I know, but the shadow of the superstandards have been probably too heavy for her to even expect such a question. Note the order of the words which is natural here but the reverse would be possibly more appealing to her.
The other starting points for my daydreams have come from the movies and the TV. Now when I first watched a couple of dramas on the TV, I decided not to do it again, because it would have given me the wrong impression about what is going on in this society. The very broad appeal (ER) or very narrow (Y Tu Mama...) are almost alike. My further real life experience proved this to be true. I feel there is not much difference in the reality content of the soap operas and primetime dramas, they just happen to have different target audiance. I must confess that I still watch stupid comedy sitcoms, since I hope there won't be any chance of mistaking them with the real life.
However there exist some exceptions within very narrow respective contexts. One that I noted is the difference with which Marlon Brando and Al Pacino handle their own double interrelated families. A very old-fashioned Sicilian father manages to grow from zero, keeping a close knit family with iron fist and uncomparable care for individual memebers. And a modern and supposedly born and raised to be an example for Americal lifestyle happens to be extremely more violent towards both his families, and breaking the blood family into pieces, killing his own brother and brother-in-law and banishing his beloved American wife. It is very thought provoking when his mother resists to accpet the idea of his losing his family as a possiblity, even if it is for his being "strong". How do you compare Vito and Michael Corleone's families and how do you choose family values within what is introduced and shown in the whole perspective? Which one do you prefer to have and which one do you think is possible?
Another experience that I had was during watching "Sex and the City" (season 3, episodes 7-10). I believe this is not exactly the best description of the reality either. But it made me think about the word "love" and how it carries a meaning in this and any other 21st century society. I can't get the emotional side effects of speaking this word. Moreover I can't see any external differences accompanying the speaking of it. I mean saying it is all external and so should have an external effect (change in the lifestyle?). However it seems to me that there are so much emotional and intenal effects attached to it and there is not much to see in the same level for words and deeds. I have my own attachments and definition for the word which happens to be very meaningful in the first person speaker and so there aren't that much difference between believing it yourself and saying it. And by the way think about the following phrases and relate them to your exquisite definition: making love, love handles, lover boy, and the title for the new hit single from Eve and Alicia Keys: Gangsta' Love.
However, and here comes the oddest part, I am so much touched by the first 2 episodes of the Three Colors trilogy by Kieslowski: Blue and White, which mainly talk about dealing with love (what I saw in them). I don't claim fully understanding them and if you haven't watched them yet, I strongly suggest you do. They are so extreme but feel to me so reasonable that I am literally stuck in a paradox about my beliefs.
Just for the record, I haven't watched the third parts of either of the two trilogies I mentioned. I hope so much that they both live to my expectations form the first 2 episodes, at least cinematically. I hate getting disappointed and frustrated at this phase.

Damn, what's with all the long faces?
You're looking for love in all the wrong places.
Let's hit the club and girls take their shirts off,
If not for me for the raspberry Smirnoff...

Oops! Inappropriate conclusion ;)

2002-07-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

The following text is my translation of a young weblogger's post about the funeral of the remains of the corpses of some of the soldires who were killed (martyred is the word used among us) during the Iran-Iraq war 1980-1988. This happens every now and then when the governments of the two countries exchange what they have found left from them in the combat fields. The writer is in her mid twenties and has a lot of readers within the Farsi speaking webloggers. http://khorshidkhanoom.blogspot.com

From the scripts of this hectic city

Time: Today, high noon. Location: From the Vali'-e-asr crossroads to the Azadi square.
I am sitting in a cab. The city in not normal. Some have worn black and are standing here and there.Free beverage booths are at every intersection. A lot of men have a black scarf around their necks. Officers from the air force, army, navy, rovolutionary guards and the police are all over the city. There are police cars and motorcycles too. Maybe an old woman is crying in a corner. The traffic jam is horrible.
Some huge unclad trailers are decorated and a military music band is playing cymbal marches in them. People are spreaded all over the Azadi Ave. Colored and black banners are hung at some intersections. Some have brought worn rugs and are sitting on the ground. A young woman followed by two kids is crying and walking with the crowd. A group of people are shouting slogans. Our car is cruising very slowly. Near Ostad-Mo'in[Ave.], we see them.They are so many and all wrapped in Iran's flag.Their names are stuck on the trailers. People are carrying some of their photos. An old man with a stick gets into our cab. He says they have found 7 still alive under ground! He says it's a mircale! Someone is lamenting:"O! My flower..." through the loudspeakers.My face has gotten so hot. The girl sitting next to me is sobbing. Women and men who are following the coffins are crying too. Someone says it's a carnival, they are trying to distract people [from more important issues]. When they brought back the corpse of Siavouche's uncle, the only things left were a skull, two bones and a plaque. Afshin Nazem's corpse is not even back yet. What is left from these?

2002-07-22T11:21:00.000-07:00

Decalogue
I haven't seen the Decalogue yet, but I am seriously planning on that. Actually I have seen an expanded version of one of the episodes:"A short film about killing", and although the setting of Warsaw and the whole theme was very disturbing, I couldn't be more delighted with such a fine piece of art. Interestingly enough, the series has been produced for Poland TV, probably under very strict censorship laws. But I haven't read anything but astonishment from American reviewers. So sad that similar thing can hardly happen here. I would have given a very slight chance that HBO would have ventured to produce it (only ten episodes based on the ten commandments) and do not even think about the wealthy networks. Just look at what happened to David Lynch and Mulholland Dr. in ABC. Consider taking footage and ideas for a TV series (say at least 13 different episodes) and after some extra work, give out a masterpiece that was easily nominated for the Oscar and in my opinion must have rightfully won the trophy for Lynch. I know it is not that hard to turn a series to a movie but I guess it is almost impossible to do it in such a mastery that the viewers, already lost in the mysterious settings, just follow every lead of the director and resonate with every beat he plays. However the defenders of the cheap TV (of cousrse the cost is not meant here) just kicked the pilot out. It is really hard to watch any more than 5 min segment of the much praised drama series broadcast every week on different networks and not feel really annoyed by the extreme and unrealistic processes they use, supposedly in a very real life story.
Note: It felt quite good watching the Sopranos on DVD. I may be fooling myself, and I am not sure how it would feel if I was going to watch one episode at a time every week. So I won't make any statements regarding the beloved HBO.

2002-07-20T12:29:00.000-07:00

Sooo pissed off
Consider your saturday morning screwed by an insurance agent, how pissed off will you be? I recently had a car accident and after a huge amount of phone calls and messages, the respectable agent of the respectable insurance company has decided to come over to my place to take some pictures. He could not come to my office because he probably could not find his way on campus. So we said saturday morning at my house. After 2 hours, I finally called his office, not expecting to be answered very calmly that he would have called before he came. Yeah, but that does not mean that if you decided not to come, just forget about it and let me stick around in my house, not being able to do anything, even check my email so that I wouldn't miss his call. I could not even watch my new music DVD, In the Flesh (fantastic by the way!) since I hate to ruin the music by turning down the volume and afraid not to hear his knock on the damn door. I am sooooo pissed off!

2002-07-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

OK, here comes my first post on this page that I created to write English. I do have another older welbog in which I write in Farsi (Persian is the word some people prefer) at http://alirezava.blogspot.com which looks gibberish without language support on your browser, but you still may find out my daily dose of pessmism taken from a Murphy's Law calender.
The above mentioned weblog was actually started in English, mainly because I can type English much faster than Farsi and also since I was too lazy at the moment to set up my comuter so that I can use other languages support. But after some time I realized that I am probably writing to myself and a couple of very close friends. I was listed on an Iranian webloggers list, but obviously people who checked that list prefered to read in their mother tongue. So I switched to Farsi.
But yesterday I ended my day in a local webloggers gathering (actually I finished my day with the last episode of the first season of The Sopranos, but that's a different story) with Joan, Mike, Lura, Michael and Lisa (not a weblogger). A description of the meeting written by Joan can be found here. (Probably more of a description of the people than the meeting, but then again, the first one is all about the people) I relaized that there are interesting people outside of my tiny fishbowl. People that have firm viewpoints about a lot of things that I don't really feel would need me to think about. Things that when you look at them from another person's eye, suddenly look deeper than what you thought. On the other hand, things that seemed obviously clear to me like a high contrast photo of the Eiffel tower in broad daylight could intellectually excite others.They approached it like a very fuzzy subject matter. So here I introduce my Fish-EYE view of the world to those who are interested.
I don't have a commenting system yet, but feel free to drop me an email and I will probably reflect it right here.