My homework this week

Read at least two articles about Michael Moore's new movie,Fahrenheit 9/11, one pro and one against. Then go and see it.

Worth the time

" When the war began 15 months ago, the president's Iraq policy rested on four broad principles: The United States should act preemptively to prevent strikes on U.S. targets. Washington should be willing to act unilaterally, alone or with a select coalition, when the United Nations or allies balk. Iraq was the next cornerstone in the global war on terrorism. And Baghdad's transformation into a new democracy would spark regionwide change

...complete text


It's a bit long(3 pages) but I think it's very realistic and analysis are sensible.
will remember the writer's name, Robin Wright, for the future.

I registered for water skiing classes. They will start tomorrow:).

Warning! I am in a really bad mood!

I am listening to the album A Gift of Love from Deepak Chopra and Friends and try to write something here. Might help the bad mood. Well, I can not write everything because some people who know me in the real life read this web log(I doubt if any body else actually does!)Self censoring sucks! Might create a new one and not give the address to any friend.

" do you love yourself more than you love me?...(the answer is no ofcourse!)" well I think I can never love somebody like that. I mean loving him more than self.I am too rational for it. Let's make a list of what I want to do in the summer:

1. Just found out that Cornell is offering water skiing classes. If I am lucky they will have space for me. I will register for that. At the moment that's my biggest source of excitement.

2. Have to learn and work with C, the programming language
3. Web designing
4. LINGO( I am a geek, this is a software again)
5. My driving license (Have to take classes)
6. Loose weight. The ideal weight is 115. I am 138 now. Not sure if I can loose all that in summer but as long as I am making reasonable progress every week I would be happy. I have lost 8lb this month(June)
7. My research: was totally out of the track of studying the last two semesters. Have to get back to my self discipline again. If I am satisfied with my work means that I am doing a good job. I am my worst critique. Know that part for sure!
8. Can't write it here but it is a matter of taking care of my self.
9. Can't write this one too. Actually can't do anything about it anyway. Just wish...
10. Be financially smart. Pay the credit cards a bit so that I can travel in the Fall.(Couldn't go to NY city this weekend because had no money. That's actually one of the reasons that I'm in a bad mood. The main reason is that I can do NOTHING about No.9)
will add to the list later if something comes to mind.

These are worth a look!

Thought you might like reading this about women bloggers in Iran.

Please give me the name of the website which you think has the most unbiased and up to date news and a web site and/or a weblog with best analysis on political issues. I am fluent only in English and Farsi(Persian) just in case that you don't know!

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Just found this weblog. It is done by an Iranian guy living in CA. Will add it to my links.

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This is just my night. I always adimred Bill Maher for his great sense of humor and above that for his really open mind. This is his official web site and believe it or not he has a blog. I will try my best to be in NY for his next appearance. Probably won't be able to make it for July 7th though.

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Just found that Bill Maher has graduated from Cornell! This is defenitely my night!

FYI- It's 3am here. I just keep adding to the same post instead of creating a new one.

Mission report

Not accomplished! Friends came after me at 1am. We went to watch the boats, listened to music, drank and now I am home at 6am. Had a great time though. I will really miss them. They will be gone by the end of this week until end of August.

My mission until Monday

I enjoy staying up really late at night(we're talking about after 4AM), reading, web browsing and listening to music. But the bad part is that I can not get up the next morning. Since everyone else wakes up in the morning this schedule just doesn't work. I either have to move to the North Pole or change my routine. Thus, the mission this week has been to go to bed at midnight. Monday was successful. Tuesday Failed. I am determined to sleep early tonight. Will keep you posted:)

Weblogs

Well, I started web logging because I thought it is cool to have a website for myself. (It will be eventually)Koozeh has described why she likes web logs. I agree. We are fortunate to communicate with people in Iran through a pure and honest way such as web logs. But I think the best thing it is doing for me is to help me organize my thoughts. I am going through a phase when one starts questioning everything, even the most solid ideas in the mind, and validating them. It is mostly because of the immigration and the changes in my environment. I understand why it is happening but it is sometimes really confusing. So it is good to have a place to actually express myself.

No progress on books. Have had a great and fun weekend but no reading! Will catch up during the week. Promise!

Summer life

I am so proud of myself. I finished reading the book: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Everyone seemed to have read it except me. My friend moon goddess, who is a professional reader, told me that it is a classic. I loved it. But most of my happiness is that for the first time I really felt the advantage of knowing a second language. If I didn't know English I could never read this book. This though gave me the motivation of learning a third one. What do you think of Spanish? I am also happy because I used to read a lot when I was back home but here, since studying in English was hard by itself I really couldn't read English books and obviously there were no Farsi books around. I was really feeling that my brain is rusty. Now, my brain is really happy. I will start The Picture of Dorian Gray tonight. Also have to read about American history...Any suggestions of a fun and informative book? I was thinking of American History for Dummies :)

OK...Have to go read some papers. I haven't worked in SD at all.

Pictures

Here is the picture of the giraffe I fed. This is the Sea Star I held!That's my hand.This is the parrot named Pantea with his trainer.

I am back!

I had a great time. I really needed the break. I spent the first week window shopping, sleeping and eating Persian cuisine. In the second week I visited the wild animal park, the sea world and the Balboa park. Here are the things that I have learned about animals: elephants and rhinoceros have delicate skins. That's why they put a lot of mud on themselves. It apparently works as a sun protection cream for them. African elephants have bigger ears than Asian elephants and their trunk has two fingers rather than Asian ones which have one. It takes two years to deliver a baby elephant. A giraffe's tongue is grey and is as long in inches as the animal is tall in feet. For example if the animal is 12 feet then the tongue would be 12 inches. There are 17 kinds of penguins out there and not all of them live in the cold weather. Some of them are small and live in Chili and Peru and can easily live in an environment like San Diego. (temperature wise)A shark bites you because it can not touch you. It senses the movement in the water then bites you and sees that you are all bony and you are probably not the seal he was looking for so it releases you.(My conclusion: The heavier you get the better chance you would taste like a seal and get eaten up by a shark...stay fit). Also, I watched elephant shows, fed a giraffe, touched penguins, held a sea star(alive!), watched sharks and whales from underwater tunnels and heard birds talking and singing. Believe it or not one of the parrot's name was Pantea. He was quite a good singer. I will post pictures if I can learn how to do it.

I am in San Diego!:)

OK! I am in San Diego, CA taking some time off and enjoying my life. My time is basically is divided between shopping, movies and eating in Persian restaurants. Tomorrow I will be more cultural and visit the SD zoo. Want to see the Sea World as well. I saw the old town today but severe shoe bites almost nailed me to the car. The nature is beautiful, the weather is great and my host is one of my best friends. The trip was tough though. We had more than 3 hours of delay because they changed our plane 3 times in Chicago. Something with the hydraulic systems was wrong in the first plane and some other stuff that they didn’t really describe in the second one. It was frustrating but I prefer to know it on the ground rather than up there.

Hmm… any thing else? I wrote this while I was in Syracuse catching the flight to Chicago:

In Syracuse Airport

Well, here I am in the Syracuse airport with my roast beef sandwich and a medium diet coke waiting for the boarding time to start. Have you seen the movie Love Actually? Do you remember how it starts and finishes with saying that if you want to see love, airport is a place to go? Today I definitely agree with that. I watched guys dancing for the arriving girls, little kids screaming with joy for their grand parents and a very big and bald guy crying because his woman was leaving. But the best thing was seeing a little bird right in front of me in the middle of this food court. I have no idea where it came from but it was going around safe and sound looking for food and everyone was moving slowly and smiling to not scare it. It flew away after a while but as a person who believes in signs I think this is a very good sign. I think I will have a good time in San Diego with my friends.

I think my interpretation of the sign was correct. I have had a great time so far. Any suggestions for places to visit?