"why you have to learn English"

The other day, I received an email with this picture attached quoting "why you have to learn English."
"Cause you don't walk into a mosque with such a T-shirt."
When I was a teenager in Iran about two decades ago, we were banned to wear clothes with signs or slogans. It seems to me now that the leaders knew we were too illiterate to know what we had put on.
The same thing is happening now but in an opposite manner not for signs or slogans but for color.

Every Beauty we loose

we are so damned busy doing every day life activities that we loose every big or little beauties around us.
See the Article "Pearls Before Breakfast" in Washingtonpost.com.

For you, a thousand times over

“There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife’s right to a husband, rob his children of a father.When you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

The Kite Runner is a book interpreted into movie. I saw the movie recently and may read the book later. Homayoun Ershadi was my only reason to see the film. He played Baba in the movie. The context of the film was so fine that I forget the Ershadi's acting and devoted my attention to a very good film and story.

The above quotation is from Baba told his son a philosophy in a very simple way. A very minimalistic sentence from a man in a very complicated country.

The title of the post is a phrase from two characters of the movie. they tell this in joy and ran out of the story.

Practise mobile manners

We've all seen - and, worse, heard - the people who offend against this.

Probably most of us have been guilty of it ourselves - although maybe not to the extent shown here.

But the etiquette of using a mobile is pretty simple, really - just think of it as the opposite of great sex.

Keep it quiet.

And keep it short.

A quote of Albert Einstein

“If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies... It would be a sad situation if the wrapper were better than the meat wrapped inside it.”

Ignore,Laugh, Fight & Win

Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi
Painting by Vikas Kamat. Acrylic on canvas, 2003

First they ignore you.

Then they laugh at you.

Then they fight you.

Then you win.

--Mahatma Gandhi

I first heard this quot from Bob Geldof yesterday when he was commenting on G8 summit.
there is a strange relation between what Gandhi said and what I released in my life. I mean which ever aspects of my life, education, work and social-political. I clearly remember the way my teacher in university treated me in his class. I notice these phases in my current job and I feel bad about this words regarding to my country.
Any way if anybody reads this post I would appreciate his comment on the quot and the relation to our life in My Country Iran.

Reli-Fi

"The Fountain" is directed by Darren Aronofsky. The movie released in 2006.It is his next movie after "Requiem for a Dream".
I can't say I like this movie. I may rate it 2 or 3 from 5. If I want to compare it with his previous work, I have to say I am disappointed. I expect a very better film.
The movie starts by mixing three different characters from different eras. At the end of movie, you can understand these characters belong to past, present and future. The base character is a man (the same man in tree eras) and the main stream is love. The man from the past loves a woman who is hard to achieve. The man from the present loves a woman who is achieved but there is a fear to loose. The man from the future loves a woman who is wishfully going to achieve if the mission accomplished successfully. At the end there is another mixing of the characters that let the viewer choose the ending.
Any way, when I look the movie up in IMDB, I noticed it is also categorized as science fiction. In Sci-Fi you are looking for a base resumption which the whole story is happening around it. I can't find such resumption but I find that the resumption is philosophical or mostly religious. The resumption is metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. This is the main idea of religions or ideologies like Buddhists, Yoga and Eckankar. You can find a single soul in those three men of times and is somehow depicted in the last scenes. So I may categorize this file as Reli-Fi(religious fiction) more than Sci-Fi.

Respect

I also attended "the dark side of the moon" tour by Roger Waters in Dubai. I was like most the Iranian attendants looking forward to hearing a word about Iranians from Roger. Instead we hear some good phrases about Arabs before "Leaving Beirut".

The day before I was listening to "Me or him" from "Radio K.A.O.S." and I noticed at the end of track a sentence in the back ground. The man says: "Do you really think Iranian terrorist would have taken Americans hostage if Ronald Reagan was president?"

I know lots of foreigners and home citizens. I respect them for their role in human society. It is thoroughly a personal and individual respect and I hope there is such respect mutually. But from a nation point of view I saw no signs of respect between the two countries.

Any way I have no clue if Roger calls America home or not.

I wish you ...

Wishing health, luck and fortune is an old tradition, especially in New Year's Day in any country. It is interesting that most people making the wish simultaneously with another physical action, here are some examples:

In Brazil, if they are in a beach city, after midnight, people go to the beach, jump seven waves and throw flowers in the sea while making a wish.

In Korea, on New Year's Day a lot of people go to the sea to watch the sunrise. The beaches of eastern Korea are filled with crowds of people. On seeing the sunrise, people make their new wishes.

In Mexico, many people usually gather with their relatives and friends to celebrate the New Year. Some have some special customs. For example, they turn on the TV and wait to see or hear the bell ringing twelve times. Each time the bell rings, they eat one grape and make a wish.

In Venezuela, Some people write wishes in a letter, and then they burn it to make sure that nobody can read what they wrote.

In Iran, on Nature Day(سيزده بدر, the 13th of Farvardin when families go to nature) people knit grass after making a wish.

Anyway when I want to make a wish I suddenly recall "Three wishes" from Waters. In his song you can see how simple and unreachable the wishes are.

Reached back for the bottle
And rubbed against the lamp
Genie came out smiling
Like some Eastern tramp
He said hey boy what's happening
What is going on
You can have three wishes
If you don't take too long
I said well
I wish they all were happy on the Lebanon
Wish somebody'd help me write this song
I wish when I was young
My old man had not been gone
Genie said consider it done
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through a window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home
Genie said I'm sorry
But that's the way it goes
Where the hell's lamp sucker
It's time for me to go
Bye
There's something in the air
And you don't know what it is
You see someone through a window
Who you've just learned to miss
And the road leads on to glory but
You've used up your last wish
Your last wish
And you want her to come home

Depressed!?

You can analyze a system by looking at the action and reaction between elements inside it or just observing those relations with other systems outside.

Human beings are amazing creatures by themselves, I agree; but there are some drawbacks to them when you consider the actions and reactions of it as a system. Let's approach it from another point of view. Human beings have got two states: wake and sleep. No need to talk about sleep state cause there is no worthy sub states to be mentioned. In other hands, in wake state there is lots of sub states worth to mention.

In order to simplify those sub states, I set a definition rule named 'Need' to define the sub states. Wake sate of human beings can be basically subdivided to at most number of hands fingers. One needs something to eat, something to wear, someplace to stay, someplace to defecate and someone to mate. You can simply gather all other minor needs like rest, shelter, or live in someplace to stay. Although now we can not imagine ourselves nude in public but also something to wear keeps us warm and protected.

I think still these five basic needs rule the human being life. There is no there needs and if there is, they are artificial. There is no place foe creativity or motivation for a pure goal. There is no ideal way for leaving. All the moves are somehow toward satisfying those five, even these writings somehow and that’s the bothering!

Nowruz نوروز

Celeberation and happiness are necessary for the life of each normal and hopeful human being. Additionally, paying attention to the beginning of the year has a meaning its meaning is for us to know that a year of our age has been finished and another year is beginning a year is gone and another year is coming. It is to remember the gone year and evaluate our goodness and bad behaviors it is to plan for the coming year and to think for goodness. It is obvious that all these behaviors should be accompanied with good well intentioned and benevolent emotions as well as happiness and hopefulness.


see this

300 Cartoons about Persia

I lately saw the 300 movie trailer. it bothers me some how. I planned to write about it after I see the movie. Today in a weblog I read something about it and i liked the idea. here is the link and the content:

300 the movie is an ongoing collaborative art project featuring art by
artists using the theme of 'ancient Persia'. Driven by an admiration for arts,
and united by a common concern about the barbaric and demonic portrayal of
Persians in Frank Miller's graphic novel and
the movie 300, we have come
together to voice our objection in a uniquely artistic fashion. The call for art
has just been released and the initial gallery will soon be set up. If you are
an artist and would like to participate, please send your art to submit at
300themovie dot info .You can join the growing list and link to us by copying
the following line of code on your blog or website.
300 the movie

Calendar

I really like astronomy. The Stars and planets above our head in night sky are astonishing. One of the related topics in astronomy is calendar, the system which people in countries use to calculate the days and month and other events in a year.
We just passed the first day of new Gregorian year. Today is the first day of Islamic calendar. We will reach to Chinese New Year's Day in a month. And in March there will be Persian New Year's Day (نوروز).
Mostly the old calendars are lunar type. A lunar calendar is a calendar oriented at the moon phase. The only widely used purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar, whose year always consists of 12 lunations.
A solar calendar is a calendar whose dates indicate the position of the earth on its revolution around the sun. Gregorian and Persian calendars are examples of solar calendars.
Chinese calendar is lunisolar, The reason for this is that a year is not evenly divisible by an exact number of lunations, so without any correction the calendar year will drift with respect to the seasons.
The interesting question is always popped: Why this day is New Year's Day?
Gregorian calendar decided the birth of Christ (actually a day between two most saying) and Islamic calendar decided the first day of great journey of Prophet Mohammad.
Chinese calendar uses a bit complex mathematical and astronomical calculations to determine the first day. In one sentence, the Chinese New Year is the second New Moon after the winter solstice.
The Persian year starts at vernal equinox. (The time when the sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night are of equal length, marking the beginning of spring.)
The Persian mathematicians used a simple and universal method for the calendar which impress me too much.

What we loose!

When time passes by we always missed somthing. Most of our positive thinker friends believe that we gain somthing during spending time. I agree in some cases. At least we gain good experiences.
Vice versa we also loose something. There is always a balance between these two. I think we mostly loose our intimacy and friendship. I don’t want to blame anybody here. It is mostly the society we leave that make us behave so.