Merry Merry

Sitting on the couch,
wrapped in the hugging warmth of those loving arms,
watching the orchestra playing on TV,
and the dancers on the shiny ice,
Looking out through the window to even more layers of ice everywhere,
and feeling merry.

Happy holidays to you my dear reader, I wish you all lots of love, joy, and peace.

Fighting FUDS

Nothing is more harmful to a positive creative attitude than fears, uncertainties and doubts (FUDS); yet most people let FUDS control their lives. It is much more productive to learn to control your FUDS; to transform destructive negative attitudes into a new, positive reality. To do this, simple acknowledge the negative feelings and then focus your energies on what you want to substitute for them.
Suppose you are driving along and your oil pressure gauge comes on, warning you that your car is overheating. This is a negative indicator. However, you don't ignore it, nor you become paralyzed with fear. You simply stop at service station, have it corrected and drive one. Following this incident you do not look at the oil pressure gauge continuously while you're driving, allowing the gauge to monopolize your thoughts. To do so means slow and erratic driving, if you had the courage to drive at all. So it is with your fear and doubts. you need to acknowledge them, and then replace them with positive thoughts.

-Michael Michalko, Thinkertoys.

Orchestral Christmas

I like holiday season mostly because of its musicality. I enjoy different chorus signings and also many of the holiday orchestral pieces. I'm listening to this Pandora station, quite drowned into the music.

Things I never say

Things i never say
still looking for the kids land where words are spare
haunted by my expectations
silent
in the land of all words.

Mundane

This post is from an email I received from my friend Maro today. I think it is well worth sharing:

I am sending you an article that I find very interesting. No, it's not about the world politics, nor the local sale, yet it affects most of our lives and those of the world population (and no, by most I don't mean the merely 50%, but closer to 100).

Here are some quotes from the article:

"However, Basow and Braman (1998) have demonstrated that negative evaluations of women's body hair are not confined to 'excess' growth. In their study, participants, who were randomly assigned to watch a video-recording of the same bikiniclad woman either with or without visible body hair, judged the woman as less attractive, intelligent, sociable, happy, and positive when hairy than when hairless."

"As such, women's depilatory practices not only contribute substantially to the cosmetic industry, but reinforce the view that underpins all the body-changing procedures, from make-up application to cosmetic surgery: THAT A WOMAN'S BODY IS UNACCEPTABLE IF LEFT UNALTERED." (Please pay special special attention to this last sentece.)

"the cultural assumption that a 'properly' feminine woman would not produce facial hair at all (Brownmiller, 1984; Chapkis, 1986) necessitates not only its removal, but also the avoidance of any signs of removal (such as the 'five o'clock shadow' often evident on men's faces). As Freedman (1986) put it: "having 'unwanted' [facial] hair [is] shameful and removing it [is] equally shameful" (p. 222)."

"Feminist critics of normative femininity have long pointed to the ways in which women are socially required to expend time, energy, and money transforming their bodies to better fit the feminine ideal. The present study has documented some of the most taken-for-granted body-altering practices of our time. Our results testify to the work of femininity. The requirements of this work place women in a double-bind: trivialised for taking them seriously; treated as feminine failures for not doing so (see Bartky, 1998). By refusing to trivialise women's 'beauty' practices, then, we question the narrow definition of 'acceptable' feminine embodiment, which maintains--at the most 'mundane,' and, hence, insidious level--the message that a woman's body is unacceptable if left unaltered."

Just Enjoy the Show

Clip: Directed by James Gulliver Hancock and Lenka

Click here for the clip. YouTube doesn't allow embedding it.

Being religious

I loved this story of BBC. It is in line with my way of looking into religion.
No one has the right to define how another human being must practice his faith.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...pix1.shtml


Photo from BBC Persian. The girls exiting mosque room after the prayer.

The found book

My lost library book just came back to me in Campus mail :D

I'm jumping up and down!

This was driving me crazy. I needed the book and it was checked out by another patron for long. I had put on a call back request for it. I waited impatiently for it to come back to circulation; saw the available notice on my account, but i didn't have any good recollection of actually checking this one out at the library desk. But it appeared in my account as checked out. I had looked EVERY inch of my office, apartment , car and 17 bags for it. I was convinced that i'm suffering from Anterograde Amnesia!
The envelope doesn't have any useful information on it, just my campus address and the sender is the mailroom; so i don't know how the book found its way back to me. I bet it has an interesting story to tell, had he be able to talk! Good to finally see you Hosmer and Lemeshow's Applied Survival Analysis: Regression Modeling of Time to Event Data!

Pilobolus, an old friend, and I luv NY

Isn't this clip great? :) I don't see the need to add any comments to it, except for a very old friend of mine sent it to me. We were classmates and best friends when i was 14, and then each of us drifted away on her own way. She went to a different highschool and different college. I finished my school in Iran and came to US, she married a Newzealander and moved to England. Now she is in Arizona, US and we talked on the phone yesterday. After more than a decade. Many things have changed in her and in me, but we shared an I-Love-NY moment. It's funny how life paths divert and converge sometimes.

You can more info on the dance group, here.
There is also a TED-Talk about them , here.

Non freezing office space

MBA ladies have moved to another building and now it's only me tampering with the air conditioning gage which controls half a dozen rooms in this floor.
Life's small pleasures...:)

8-8-8

Image: Infinite Eight, David Friedman, Kabbalah Art

Eight-Eight-Eight,

and so it is, five years.
Half a decade of smiles and tears, of ups and downs
on this repeated 8 day.
In my anniversaries i usually look back
to what i did, to the paths i took, to what happened.
This year, in this 8-8-8, i'm gonna look forward
to what i can accomplish in the year that is in front of me
i am determined to make it something i'll be proud of in the next 8-8.

Küçelere Su Serpmişem

I watered the dusty alley
so when my darling passes through
No dust is rising.

So when she'll come
there's no hard feelings between us.
I fired the tea kettle
I put sugar cubes in the tea
but my sweetheart has gone away.
So lonely i am
Oh her memory, how sweet and how dear.

In the mountains runs the deer,
in the meadow, sings the nightingale
Why did you get upset with me?
Don't, please don't go, my deer,
Let me bear all your aches
If i can't look into your eyes again,
no sight will be left in my eyes.

Who falls for love is a man,
and who doesn't is a coward...
This is my raw translation of a Turkish/Azeri folk love song. I don't know any Turkish, but when someone sent me the Farsi translation of the song, i was touched so deeply that i couldn't let go of it. You can listen to a version of it here. If you have seen the English or Farsi translation of the song or other nice performances of it, please let me know.

Paolo Conte - Veini via con Me

Away away, come away with me
Enter this dark love
And don't get lost, for God's sake
Away away
For God's sake don't miss
The variety show
Of someone in love with you...

Please vote for my friend!

This is a singing contest, as far as i understood. Please view the clip and give my friend 5 stars. She is a very sweet girl!

Living in a single shot

Morrow Plots/Observatory, University of Illinois, Larry Kanfer

Sitting behind my desk, in my office, the calendar on the wall shows this image. I can't get my eyes off it. I have been to that observatory. I have sneaked in between those corn bushes before. I have seen many dark blue clouds ready to burst. But somehow the combination of all these elements all together in one shot has a mesmerizing power over me. I picture myself right in front of the very first row of corns, looking at that view. I can feel the moist dirt under my toes, and the humid wind on my face.

The absolute best Thai Soup in SF and elsewhere!

If you go to San Francisco,
make sure to wear some flowers in your hair,
and also make sure you taste the Thai coconut shrimp soup with the glorious his majesty Alahazrat!

The soup was lightly sweet, and yet lemony, with button mushrooms and shrimps and onion slices floating in it. It did had a coconut taste to it. I don't much regret i didn't make a picture of it, cause no pic could resemble the heavenly taste of that yammy soup! They serve it in china bowls with cute china spoons.

I also got to visit Scharffen Berger chocolate factory in Berkeley with dear Fly-on-the-wall. The tour was fun. We got to taste the roasted cocoa bean nibbles, and cocoa butter. If you like dark chocolate, I do recommend their 70%. Try their raspberry brandy truffle too, meltyyyy and yummm:)

Auld Lang Syne

One of the sweet moments of the Sex and the City movie, was listening to this song by Mairi Campbell & Dave Francis. "Auld Lang Syne" is a poem written by Robert Burns in 1788. "Auld Lang Syne" in Scots means "old long since". It's a poem about love and friendship. Read more about it , plus the English translation, here.

From Berkeley

Blogging brought to me not only the joy of writing and being read, but also the friendship of some very good people. I spent an evening in the company of my blogger friends in Berkeley. Good friends, good food, good drinks, good laughs and good gelato:)

----------------------
P.S.1.The title is a tribute to my beloved From Berkeley.
P.S.2. Naia serves its gelato in very cute lotus shaped cups. I ordered hazelnut (Ala's good recommendation) and Scharffen Berger chocolate which as i was told is a signature of Berkley. Both tasted yammm.
P.S.3. If you are going to San Francisco, Be sure to remember where the fabulous Mr. Bayramali has parked or you'll end up looking for the car for an hour;)))

Like Father, Like Son

This past memorial weekend i went to Chicago to a concert of the legendary Iranian singer Mohammadreza Shajarian. He had his son in the ensemble as a percussionist as well as a co-singer. Aside from the beautiful performance, what touched me was the absolute similarity between the voices of the father and the son. It was so similar that the first time they switched turns, and it happened while i was not looking at the stage, i didn't realize it's the son that has started singing and not the father. My amateur ears had not heard two human beings sound this identical ever before. I was thinking to myself, how is the father feeling about this... having another individual sitting next to you, producing exactly the same sounds as if it's you yourself singing. It should be quite some feeling, outliving your voice in somebody else.

The story of the Pan Flute

It all started with this: The Lonely Sheppard by Gheorghe Zamfir and James Last, from the soundtrack of the film Kill Bill. I remembered how much i like this instrument which i figured out is called Pan Flute. The first time i heard this instrument played live was my 2nd christmas here when i went to San Antonio to visit an old highschool buddy. There in the River walk passage i saw a small band playing Latin American tunes and the sound that intrigued me the most was of the Pan flute.
Here's the old methodological story of how the pan flute was originated according to Ovid's Metamorphosis. Pan was the Greek god of shepherds, with legs and horns of a goat. Once in a pasture, he sees Syrinx, a beautiful nymph(human) known for her chastity. He chases her and she runs to the river's edge and asks the river nymphs to help her hide from Pan. An thus she is transformed into hollow water reeds that made a haunting sound when the Pan's frustrated breath blew across them. Pan could not find out which one of the reeds is indeed Syrinx, so he cuts seven of them and makes the first set of pan pipes, which were thence forth known as Syrinx. Claude Debussy wrote "Syrinx (La Flute De Pan)" based on Pan's sadness over losing his love.

Jeni's Ice Cream

It's not a big secret that i am a big fan of Italian style gelato. I have written here before about Pacciugo Gelato shop. Now i'm delighted to introduce to you my new found place that is as good! Jeni's Ice Cream is a locally owned and operated ice cream business in Columbus, Ohio. They have freshly made icecream and gelato made from real fresh fruit, that's a big deal: real fresh fruit! I had a hard time picking 4 flavors out of their about 30 selection on the menu, but at last i ended up with (1)Roasted Pestachio & Country Honey which even had the toasty salty taste of the good nut and a hint of honey, (2)Strawberry Rose Petal which was rosy and exquisite;) , (3)Dark Cocoa Gelato which was as you were tasting a very good dark chocolate truffle except for it was light and chilled, and ... i can't believe my last choice myself: (4)Cherry Lambic! I generally dislike the taste of american red cherries, but one spoon of this icecream made me reconcile with cherries:) If I get to go back to this place, i wanna try the Pear Riesling flavor too.

And we're baking

Having bought brown sugar the week before specifically to use in a particular recipe,
Having had to deal with the ordeal of a torn sugar packet and sugary kitchen floor,
And then...
Finding yourself beating the good old white sugar into the dough!
Any better definition of "absentmindedness"?

El camino del Rey

Amazing video. It gave me a feeling like i am stepping on this walkway myself.

"Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an approach to Makinodromo, the famous climbing sector of El Chorro."

P.S. Fly has gathered more info about this passage. Check it out!

Dreamy

Dreaming...
Of so many little insignificant unnecessary things i can't sort them out in my head
Of a white sand beach, and deep blue sea
Of a flower garden, with vivid colors surrounding you from everywhere
Of a sunny warm day where you can wear light clothes and get worried about getting sunburned!
Of a fast car and an empty road and this music i have on the previous post playing loud
Of a new pair of comfortable shoes and a lane next to a lake
Of a glass full of carrot juice and vanilla icecream
Of cool feeling 400 thread egyption cotton sheets, down comforters and a super duper mattress
Of this, and of that
All these unsorted dreams send me off to bed... dreamy
(Or greedy... )

127- Perfect Esfahan Blues

I so much enjoyed this clip, i couldn't let go of it unless i posted it here. Besides the interesting music and lyrics, the video reminds me of all those road trips i had in my days in Iran. The music is composed by a rock band in Tehran, called 127.

P.S. The credit of introducing this clip of course goes to the grand Mr. Bayramali.
P.S.2. This update is dedicated to the dear old friend who asked for it!

Kronos Quartet

Tonight, Kronos Quartet came to U of I. The performance was "different" and i liked it. I knew that they have a modern/minimalistic approach to music, but i was pleasantly surprised to see the theatrical edge they had incorporated in their performance. In one piece for example, the four were playing some music and when they turned their note pages in front of them (which was a pronounced theatrical act), the music would change drastically to another totally different genre! Or in another piece they were using the non-instrumental components they had set on the 4 corners of the stage to create a new twist, that included an old iron stove, pipes and metal pieces David Harrington was hammering, something like a chain saw the young guy was using, some pots and pans and something like a vacuume cleaner at the back! The set design and the light effects added a real "different" taste to the performance . In the second half of the program they performed some pieces inspired by middle eastern traditional music, Iran, Iraq, India and Balkans. That was good too.

Jeer's Picture Chronicle of New York

New York's photo chronicle

My first photo of New York, in route to the hotel from La Guardia airport.

From the observation deck at the top of the Rockefler Center (Top of the Rock). You see the Empire State building on the back.

From the observation deck at the top of the Rockefler Center (Top of the Rock). You see the view of the Cental Park.

The crystal star they put on top of the New York's Christmas tree each year. The tree is set in the plaza of the Rockefeller Center.

In front of the United Nations, Visitors Center.

Iran's gift to the United Nations. The portrait of the secratary generals of the UN woven in silk carpets.

UN, "Do unto others what you would have them do onto you."

Iran's section in the Metropolitan meuseum. It's not recognized by the name"Iran" there, it is "Near Eastern" section.

The writting on the wall towards the left reads:

"By the grce of Ahura Mazda, I built this palace... And i built it secure and beautiful and adequate."

Darius I 522-486 B.C.

Cup with a frieze of gazelles, Gold. Northwestern Iran, Caspian region, Early 1st millenium B.C.
Look how beautifully the gazelles' head is tilted out of the cup.

This staute used to be inside (?) World Trade Center towers. They have temporarily put it here and after they reconstruct the towers, it is going to be placed in front of the new buildings as is.

View of the city from top of the rocks in the Central Park. Manhattan is standing on top of big rocks. They need to explode these rocks whenever they want to make foundations for a building.

Times Square, past midnight. This is where the magic of New York overwhelms you. I stood there in the cold windy night, amazed for quite a while.

Chocolate is better in color, or in the robe! M&M store in Times square.
I didn't get a chance to see the statue of liberty. It was too cold and rainy and i was short of time.

Trees on the walls of the Trump building in Manhattan.

The first woman wearing a chador-meshki!!!;)

Do you know what "Amazon" mean? Amazons were the female warriors in ancient Greek army.


NYC is expensive! We paid 15 bucks for this tiny piece of cake.

I have to admit, in Manhattan you can find cheap food too. I had a very tasty lamb gyro with saffron rice and for $3:50. It was halal meat!

Beautiful Hyacinth flower, in my good friend's Haftsin. Also in Manhattan:)

Norooz Pirooz

It's New Year's Eve, and i'm on a trip to New York. Sitting at the 44th floor of a big hotel in the big city, I am looking to the wet skyscrapers wrapped in a layers of cloud, and the street lights sparkling down low . Spring hasn't touched this city yet, but my heart is pounding with each minute that we get closer to the Newest days of the new year. Tonight at 1:47 past midnight, I'll have my heart open to the graceful Spring. May it touch my life and yours with its colorful warmth. Happy New day to you my friend from close and far.


As a New Year treat, i give you the photo i took a few hours ago in the New York's Metropolitan museum. It is lion shape vessel made of gold, belonging to Darius the king. The top part of the drinking jar is made up of 160 feet of extremely fine gold strings, wrapped around the jar. It was a glamorous piece of Art.

and we're packing...

"If in my whole life,
I spend only a moment with you,
That one moment is all my life,
The rest has proven vain."
Does earworm include poetry too? This Saadi's verse is repeatedly recited in my head since afternoon.

I have to pack to go on a field trip very early tomorrow morning, that's the very reason i am sitting here blogging instead of filling up that purple suitcase:(
Anybody has a magic wand handy?

Frozen Grand Central

From http://www.ImprovEverywhere.com , over 200 people freeze in place on cue in Grand Central Station in New York.
This is one of over 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include the Shirtless Men in Abercombie and Fitch, the Best Buy uniform prank, and the famous U2 Rooftop Hoax, to name a few.

Thanks to the friend who sent me the video.

Chocolate

I once wrote here about a Japaneses brand of chocolate i had come to like. Tonight i'll talk about my recent addictive sin. My kind bittersweet melty companion who's been there for me, in my times of high and low! Lady's and gentlemen, may i introduce, Ritter Sport's, a la Mousse au Chocolat:

Broken...

"You oughta let your mother know where you are," said Jem. " you oughta let her know you're here..."
Dill's eyes fickered at Jem, and Jem looked at the floor. Then he rose and broke the remaining code of our childhood. He went out of the room and down the hall. "Atticus," his voice was distant, "can you come here a minute, sir?"

-To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee.

The Total Lunar Eclipse

The song Total Eclipse of the Heart for the musicality of the post:) Photo Credit: Doug Murray
Tonight, in the brutal cold weather of 1 below, i witnessed my third lunar eclipse here in US. My first was in 2004, in those days that i was studying hard to pass my core in the PhD track. I along with 3 friends in mt study group has stayed late on campus. We walked down to the University observatory and watched the moon up close. I watched the second one on my brother's amateur telescope in our apartment's open stairways. And this third one with naked eyes, with a blanket on my head, shivering from cold in the balcony!
. "Forever is going to start tonight."

My Carrot-Non-Cake!

.
It refused to rise, and i refused to frost it in return! We ate it nonetheless!

Oops

Don't drown!

We are under a flood watch from National Weather Service. The banner on the local TV channels reads: "If flood conditions are encountered, be prepared to seek higher ground. If traveling, turn around, don't drown." I am not the only one who finds this serious message funny!

Mistified

Sitting in my windowless office, my friend came and suggested we go out for a short walk. It was such a beautiful dense fog out there. The weather was chilly but not freezing. I accompanied her to the parking lot across the campus and walked back alone. Walking down that road was like you were stepping into a black and white photograph. It was like with each step that i took i was getting closer to a gigantic snow white ocean that was all around me. i could feel it caressing my cheeks, holding my fingers, hugging me tight. It was a walk to remember. I was alone, but i could hear the heavy breathing of the sleeping snow covered grass and could feel the acknowledging look of the bare branched trees witnessing me passing by. You wouldn't see where you were headed, but i didn't care, the pleasure was it was me, walking in that beautiful mighty mist, and nothing else mattered. I was "Mistified".

Giving vs. Needing

-I need someone i can matter to.
-You matter to me, completely.
-It's hard to be around someone who gives so much and needs so little in return.
-I have enormous needs.
-Well, i can't see them, neither can Lee or Holly.
Quoting from "Hannah and her sisters".

I watched Woody Allen's film tonight. For some reason this conversation made its way deep into me. Hannah is being blamed for being too giving...

Disconnected jottings, on a birthday midnight

-I feel pretty, i feel pretty and witty and gay(not really!) and i pity anyone who isn't me today!
-Is it necessary to have a birthday post? not really. but i've had it before and am just following the pattern. I guess i also like to have a post dated January 27th:)
-I had my birthday blues- a phenomenon that happens to you in the days before your birthday comes up- a few weeks ago. This week i was over it and actually looking forward to the day.
-Good food (Lebanese), okay cake (i bake better ones!), and good company is what makes your day special. Let me add to it, the influx of sweet love from your family and warm words from your friends from all over the world.
-Black and Purple!
-Happy birthday to Mozart too!
-Lebanese appetizers rock!
-What's a good movies to see today? I have not seen any of the 5 Oscar nominees, wayee!
-Partial credits for the titles goes to my good friend Emilof.
-Good night!

... and even more jottings!
-Speaking of superiority of homemade cake... i take my word back! I went to this expensive local specialty pastry shop in town and got one slice of a heavenly chocolate cake filled with chocolate raspberry fudge. yammmmm.
-the only disadvantage of a birthday morning is your long distance friends calling you 9 a.m. in the morning! It's a tiny one though, the goodness of chatting with old buddies evens that out:)
-i didn't get to see any movies today after all!

Haircut Talks, or Gender Gap...

Two women talking:

Woman 1: Oh! You got a haircut! That's so cute!
Woman 2: Do you think so? I wasn't sure when she gave me the mirror. I mean, you don't think it's too fluffy looking?
Woman 1: No, it's perfect. I'd love to get my hair cut like that, but I think my face is too wide. I'm pretty much stuck with this stuff I think.
Woman 2: Are you serious? I think your face is adorable. And you could easily get one of those layer cuts - that would look so cute I think. I was actually going to do that except that I was afraid it would accent
my long neck.
Woman 1: Oh - that's funny! I would love to have your neck! Anything to take attention away from these football player shoulders of mine.
Woman 2: Are you kidding? I know girls that would love to have your shoulders. Everything drapes so well on you. I mean, look at my arms, see how short they are? If I had your shoulders I could get clothes to fit me so much easier.
...

...
...

Now two men talking:
Man 1: Haircut?
Man 2: Yeah
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

P.S. 1. Reading that "yeah", i burst into laughter. This is sooooo true! at least with the guys i got to know!
P.S.2. Speaking of haircuts... Being extremely bored last night, i cut my hair myself! Now my right layer is shorter than the left. i actually did try to cut evenly, i guess i have bigger curls on the right!

Gustavo Santaolla's Score for The Motorcycle Diaries

The music Santaolla composed for this film is just wonderful. Also The main theme score of the film sounded very homey to my ears, listen to it here.

.
I enjoyed the gloominess of the peaceful rainy day that passed.
This song is the mood i'm in today.
I'm looking forward to having my roomie back tomorrow...

Plain White T's - Hey There Delilah

This is such a beautiful song. The music and tune soak into you, the lyrics is so romantic and Tom Higgenson's voice is so touching. I wanted to save this for my valentine's day post, and title it the most romantic song of the year, but i've been listening to this nonstop since afternoon, and i can't wait till then!

P.S. watch it here if you can't open youtube.
P.S.2. If you'd like to learn to play it check here.

SandFantasy - Love 2008

Happy 2008

It doesn't much feel like the "New Year" to me, but it is a new figure in my calender: 08. I favor number seven in general so i'm gonna miss dating oh-seven this year.
Tonight i was thinking i wouldn't mind being a bartender on the NYE. This way i could have sent one kid who really cherish being with family and friends for his/her new year, home.
Happy 2008 to y'all. I hope you had the chance to enjoy your NYE. I did. I danced:)