Six Norooz dresses

2004: The memory is kinda faded. It was my first months in US and i was still lost. I wore a organza black top with bids hand sewed on it. I had bought the top in Dubai the past summer when i went for visa interview. I think my roommate lent me her black short skirt to wear with it.

2005: A black and red organza top. It has sleeves but the sleeves were open on top and had stings to tie up in 3 places. It also had shiny bids on it. I wore it with the skirt i had bought in a Frank and Taylor closse out sale, a layered black miniskirt. I liked the outfit, but neither of them fit me now. I've shed a few pounds since then.

2006: The purple velvet long dress. It had pink and purple shinny sequins on its chest. I wore this dress to a friend's wedding later.

2007: A prom dress! With the big puffy skirt and corset top. It was in lilac color, with shinny bids in form of flower stems hand sewed on it. I found the dress in a clearance in DC's Macy's with my parents.

2008: I spent a big deal of time picking a dress for this year. I went to almost all stores in town, and couldn't find anything that would fall for. At the very last minute, in an unprecedented store i found this simple but pretty black and white short dress. It was white on the breasts, then black down. It had a big square shape colar, and i found a big square silver necklace to go with it.

2009: a long brown velvet pattern on organza dress. A gift from my cousin in Texas. I wore it with a black velvet coat on top, and paired it with brown patten fabric shoes my aunt sent me from iran. My mom's big jade earrings complemented the outfit beautifully.

Six Norooz parties in US, and six outfits. May all of you spend the Norooz and the New year in the nice outfits that bring out your beauty, inner and outer :)

Norooz on the way

One of the hits that my blog gets pretty often, is on my old post of "how to grow sabzeh" for the Haftseen. This year i'm going to be home for Saal-tahvil. So i enthusiastically grew 2 plates of Sabze, one lentil and one wheat, as it is the tradition in our family. I will post a photo of them later on.

For now look at this video. Steven Colbert talks about his picture used in an store ad in Iran, and commercialism of Norooz. Very funny.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Mahmoud's Non-Consensual Endorsement Deal

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Political Humor

Rap Battle
NASA Name Contest

The rule of Law

There was a vast power outage in our town today. i was driving, and the traffic lights were off too. However there was no huge mess, no accident, no tied up traffic in the middle of the intersections. The traffic law here states: in the case of a non-functioning traffic light, you give the right of the way to all the cars that are already stopped at the line before you did. This simple. No need for a policeman to be there, drivers follow the rule and stop at the line and cross when its their trun. Now most of you can imagine what a huge mess such incident is going to cause in an intersection in Tehran.

Why is it so? Is it because the drivers there don't know the rule? Is there a rule there to guide poeple in such incidents, at all? Is it because drivers in Iran forget the traffic laws and regulations? Why is there this big difference between here and there? Why?

P.S. "There’s a continuum of disorder. Obviously
murder and graffiti are two vastly different crimes. But
they are part of the same continuum, and a climate that
tolerates one is more likely to tolerate the other.”
-Rudy Guiliani

The princess who asked for fire

Armineh said, "Poor willow tree."
Arsineh said, "Poor butterflies."

-I'll turn off the lights, Zoya Pirzad

Joshua Radin- Brand New Day

Some kind of magic, happens late at night
When the moon smiles down at me, and bathes me in it's light
I fell asleep beneath you, in the tall blades of grass
When I woke the world was new, I never had to ask

It's a brand new day; The sun is shining...

Beautiful music, even more beautiful lyrics. It's so in harmony with my vision of life: that Sun always shines even after the darkest and longest night. It doesn't matter if you messed up the day before, if life was harsh on you, if it didn't happen. Now it's a new day. All new and shining. A new gift of life.

Gilan

National Acrobats of China

I went to a performance of National Acrobats of China.Their performance was fascinating. You think watching gymnastics in olympics is fun? i suggest you once go to a Chinese acrobat performance to see what human body can do. One of the girls there, i swear, had no skeleton in her body! And the men too: from now on, i will totally believe whatever unbelievable move i see in an asian martial arts movie!It was a magnificent show of the beauty and perfection of human body and skill.

Tonight' performance reminded me of an old fainted memory. I was 7 or 8 years old, a Chinese acrobat team came to Tehran for a performance, and my mom took me and my brother to watch them. This was a huge thing to the kid that i was, in those gray days of war and rigidity. I remember their performance included a human pyramid, the cyclists, and the dragon dance. After the show, we were waiting alongside the street for my dad to come and take us home. It took a while, and the Chinese acrobat team members packed up and got into their charter bus that was waiting right there. I started to wave for them, and they waved back! I was happy that i can have a somewhat closer encounter with those magnificent men (no female performers of course, in the islamic revolutionary environment at that time!) Anyways, the exchange of wavings and smiles went on for a while and then one of the Chinese acrobats got out of the bus and came to me, and gave me a small medallion/pin of their team. It was a green and gold Dragon head. Oh God, i was on clouds! I kept that pin for long, it was among one of my most precious possessions that i kept in my small collectors box. It should still be somewhere in my stuff, back home.

Rape Aggression Defense Systems (R.A.D.)

Today i went to the first session of the R.A.D class offered in our school. R.A.D is a program of realistic self-defense tactics and techniques for women to defend themselves against sexual assaults. It involves both informational, and practical lessons. I found the class very interesting and informative. For instance did you know that when you are facing an offender you have to stand in a way that your left side (weaker side) is closer to him? This will let you have your right arm free and ready to punch if you have to. Or if someone asks you the time, don't look down on your wrist, pull your arm up and maintain the eye contact. Or another thing she mentioned to me when i was practicing one-to-one with her was not to pull back the punch (which is what you tend to do especially if you do turbo-kickboxing!), let your fist stay there for a millisecond to deliver the maximum power, don't pull it back too quickly.

Anyways, there are still 3 more session of this to go, but i highly recommend you make time to take this class. If you are in US or Canada (check their website here).

Three stories in a snowy birthday night

Act 1: Never turn back on yourself

In old old days, a teacher learned that one of his students has had a break down and has wandered off. He went to seek him, and found him in a terrible shape. The student said i didn't deserve your valued lessons, I have failed you as a student. The teacher said you are still my student and i have come this far to find you and give you your new lesson. The lesson is: Never turn back on yourself. Never let other people make you disappointed in yourself. Never let them make you blame yourself. Cause as soon as you start turning back on yourself, you will ignore the wellbeing of your body and soul, and you would accept any assault towards your body and soul. always be friend with yourself and always give yourself the chance to make up for your mistakes. I repeat again, be the last one in the world who turns back on yourself, and this is my lesson to you today.

Act 2: Layla... Layla... Layla

An intern went to visit a mental institution. In the first hall he visited he saw a very sad man, sitting by the wall, the tears rolling down his cheeks. Every often he would bang his head to the wall crying out "Layla... Layla... Layla...". The intern asked what is wrong with this man, the nurse said, he was in love with a girl named Layla, but his love was unfruitful.
In the next hall, the intern sees a man in rage, chained to the bed, but angrily struggling and shouting out in fury: "Layla.. Layla... Layla...". The intern asked what's wrong with this one? The nurse answered: He married that Layla!

Act 3: Gratitude

Why is birthday a special day in one's calendar? This year, my answer to the question is in the territory of human affections. Your birthday , among all other joys it might bring, is the one day in which you get to get wrapped in the personalized kindness and care of your family and friends. It's when your sometimes cynical mind, is reassured of the abundance of kindness and care in human interactions. I am thankful to all my dear friends, and to you my reader for the kindness of your hearts.

Brad Paisley - Little Moments

Barack and Michelle Obama's First Dance

They danced to Etta Jones's song, At Last, sung beautifully by Beyonce. The highlight of all the sparkles of the day to me.

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.