my thoughts.

This is my latest discovery. I think he is smart. I will be a reader. You might enjoy it too. As all Iranians, this weblog has also a flavor of politics.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Pope warns feminists

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Pope warns feminists

who needs a  TV anyway when you can watch everything here?I think this movie is a very smart move. As they say it will probably help him to more look like a regular guy. I agree that he seems a bit remote.

I think John Kerry did a good job. I didn't watch it but I think it's a good speech.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

A friend sent this to me. It's just a joke of course. My favorite one is Einstein.
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GEORGE W BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either against us or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road

 HANS BLIX: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against  it!

 RALPH NADER: The chicken's habitat had been polluted by unchecked industrial greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hard-working American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet that somebody out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars. And when I say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took from you to build a road for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

 JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay --- isn't it obvious? Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was going to the "other side." That's what they call it -- the other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too.

 DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road?   Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

 ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain. Alone.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

 GRANDPA: In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody  told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

 BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart-warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

 RONALD REAGAN: What chicken?

CAPTAIN KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has ever gone before.

SIGMUND FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the  road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

One at a time

Well, It is not easy to manage two blogs and not repeating myself. But I think my mind is busy enough to produce enough posts for both. This way I will not get bored and those few people who occasionally read both blogs will know more of me.

This is my latest decision: Start one new thing every day. Let me clarify. There are so many things that I want to do or should have done before but for a variety of reasons are not done. Well, I came to the conclusion(not easily of course) that it is impossible to wake up one morning and be a totally different person. It just doesn't work that way. So, instead each day I try to start one of them. Yesterday I went to Tops to do my grocery shopping my self. I got the bus and asked people and came back by bus instead of asking friends to give me a ride. Today I had my favorite Vietnamese food with out rice. That is, I started my diet to loose weight since I am sick of the way I feel in my body now...I think it would work for me this way. As time goes by I will get better and in a month I have started 30 new things that I have wanted to do. That's a good progress I think.

Well, I have missed blogging so much that I decided to go against my rule and update at work. They should have activated my internet connection by now(Verizon, DSL) but haven't checked yet. In the last two weeks that I didn't update I realized how much this blog and my Farsi blog help me to sort out my thoughts and express myself. It's just  that I think as one grows up it becomes harder and harder to make friends and trust people. When you migrate it is even harder because then the rules of socializing are totally different. The body language is different. People have fun in different ways. It is just different and you have to adjust with all of that.  No I am wrong. You have to learn all that from scratch. It might sound funny but you have to learn socializing again.  I don't say it is not fun to learn new things but it definitely is not easy.  The consequence is that you feel really lonely for a while. There is nobody to talk to. You miss the energy you used to get from friends.

I am not complaining. I am happier and happier as time goes by, cause I feel I am getting the hang of it. But I am trying to explain why I started blogging and why I like/miss it a lot. This is the place that I can mostly be myself. Express my concerns and get them out of my brain to make room for new things. I wish I could be like that hundred percent but I can't. On the other hand nothing in this world is perfect any way.

Update

Well, here is an update of my life:

1. I can ski now. Not very stylish but I can get off the water for a little while. I think going for water skiing was one of my best decisions ever. It has changed my whole perspective about going to gym. Now I work out to be strong to do my hobby. It's my tool and is way much more fun now. Rather than counting the calories I picture myself skiing. Will register for the Fall course as well and will start the snow skiing in the winter.

2. I moved. It took forever to settle down but I feel home finally. I hated the dorm room that I had. It was depressing and I gave up cleaning it while ago. The new place is huge. Should have a house warming party sometime soon. My latest discovery is that I am not used to having guests in my place and only buy grocery stuff only sufficient for myself. Consequently I am out of berries now! It's not that I didn't want to have my friends over but the places have been really small and I am not home most of the time anyway.

have to go to library now. I will try to catch up with the writing. Promise!

New things

Have to pack today. I am moving tomorrow to my new place. So excited. This is the first time in my entire life that I have no roommates or house mates. When I was a kid I either shared my room with my older sister or the younger one after she was born. I like those years a lot though. We fought and played a lot and built up a lot of memories. Specially with my younger sister. I have totally spoiled her. My undergrad was in another city so I lived in dorm and shared my room with 2 to 5 other friends all the time. Again, great great years. Then I came to United States. The first year I had a house mate in a one bedroom apt. Then I came to Cornell and have been living in dorm the last two years. I have had house mates. Now, I thought, It's time to move on to new things. Let's try living alone and find new things about myself. I am looking forward to it.

9/11 Fahrenheit

I saw the movie. My reaction? Well, I realized why I love being in United States. This is what makes this country different. People can talk. I am not sure to what extent but coming from Iran I definitely know what it means to be censored in every detail of life. The down side of the culture is that most of the time people make the choice of not to talk. They repeat what they hear without using the great power of analyze. The power of media is some times devastating. I choose not to talk about the movie now. I have to do my homework and see the movie again. But I tell you one thing: there were parts that I really wanted to cry.

Just to remind myself

Love cannot exist in peace, it will always come accompanied by agonies, ecstasies, intense joys and profound sadnesses.

Paulo Coelho, The Valkyries.

Anxious

I have my second day of water skiing tomorrow. Since I am not physically ready for the sport I am not sure if I can learn it in 3 weeks.(even trying it was/is a lot of fun though!) Wish me luck. I really really want to learn it. (As the teacher says...Positive thinking. He said I should imagine my self skiing on the water. Imagine my self at my ultimate goal).