Desperate Blogging

You best blog, when you think you'll die if you don't. There is something inside you which can't wait: either too excited not to share the joy of it, too inspired not to claim the patent for the insight, too disappointed or confused to stay alone, or even too angry to cope with the pressure. Well, the list can go on but the simple fact stands out: YOU ARE DESPERATE TO TELL IT TO SOMEONE. That's the best blogging ever. This same thing is what I was desperate to publish! Isn't blogging sometimes wonderful?

Two silly things: one: blogger's spell checker doesn't recognise the words 'blog' and 'blogging' as English! Two: if you image-google 'desperate' the only result you get is pictures of 'Desperate Housewives'. Aarrgghh!

I quite misunderstand you!

It is a relatively long time that I am convinced that people relate to each other through a 'Misunderstanding' called 'Understanding'. Well, it may look a bit scary, bluffy and too bad but I am afraid to say that it is true. And the funny thing is that the very means which is allegedly responsible for human communication and understating, i.e. language, is the same and main source of this misunderstanding.

Well, let me first clarify what I mean by 'misunderstanding'. By 'misunderstanding' I am actually referring to more subjective aspects of human communication. In other words, if two people are pointing towards a bicycle and describe its physical features, it is more likely that their misunderstanding of what the bicycle is made of, or its colour etc. is minimum. But the moment they begin talking about how cycling feels, their mutual understanding is more a matter of convenience rather than a matter of reality.

Why? Because individual background of each person is so unique to him/her that there is zero possibility of complete understanding. The tricky bit is that no one never knows how much s/he is understood. Understanding is a delusion upon which life has long established itself. There is also a possibility that by some chance two persons may get too close to a reliable understanding of each other, but again they usually don't know about this either. (This is the beginning of a series of posts on this issue-I hope.)

Which comes first?

Well, it is an old question now: which is prior to the other: language or thought. That is, you think without any need to have a word or a group of words to do it, or you are unable to think if you don't know how to articulate it with language? It is a tricky question and has tantalized lots of scholars to find a convincing answer for it. But what I am personally interested in is the feeling of it. Have you ever been conscious about it? How do you feel about it? Some of you may be bilingual and may have a psychological bond with one of the languages you are fluent in. You might have been asked to say in what language you think. Or in what language you dream. Then does it mean that 'language' comes frist? Or even if you just talk one language, have you ever been thinking outside the boundaries and possibilities of that language? Is it possible to do so?

Is it a male thing, me or what?

I had this Mico freeview box (to watch digital tv) from Asda. No sooner did I install it than I found out that to enjoy its high quality image you should first have high shooting skills to use the remote control: 30 degree angle, level with the box etc. If it happened that you were relaxing yourself on the sofa not facing your top-set in 30' angle then you were brutally reminded of your nonstandard non-hightech watching style. Anyway, I had it for over a month (I suffer from 'return-phobia') and then it began to act weirdly: switching itself off and on and failing signals. I could finally talk myself over to return it on the grounds that 'it is faulty and I am not a compulsive returner' etc. (And no points to me there; Asda is the best ever for returning; the guy did not even open the box).
So I go to Tesco and buy a Bush one. And voila: Bush is not so crap after all! And I can finally relax and watch digital channels. Isn't it a luxury!? You cannot believe how relieved I am now that I have a fully functional remote control. All this past month or two there was always something gnawing at me.
It is always like that with me. If my gadgets fail me, it goes right into my blood. Am I yet to grow up? Is it a male thing? Eccentric? Or ...

Themla and Louise: A Wrong Answer

I just watched Thelma and Louise. No doubt the film has a serious agenda: feminism. Though I have huge problem with the way the question is raised, I think the answer to it is responsible for even more problems. Violence to condemn violence. And the film ends so sadly that the viewer is left with no option but to sympathise with the characters and even uplift them to a position of unavoidable martyrdom. It is an implausible film too.

Another Planet's Hell

These days there is only one inspiration left for me to blog: quotations. Well, I just bumped into this one by Aldous Huxley: "Maybe this world is another planet's hell." When it comes to me, I don't take it as a joke at all. Huxley must have taken it seriously too, or he wouldn't bother to create his Brave New World. I loved reading it.

Gathering Data

In an interview in late 70s, Saul Below once said seven days of the week we keep busy stuffing ourselves with data. No sooner do we begin to use the data to our good that the new week begins and we again make it our business to gather new data. He made his diagnosis three decades ago yet we don't seem to have ever tried to do something about it. I wonder if it was his diagnosis in a pre-internet era what he has to say for now.

This combat footage is about Iraq war.

Unasked for Help

Today a friend offered me some unasked-for sympathy and possibly help. It made the offer far more beautiful and invaluable. Thank you friend. I offer the beauty of the following memory to you.

Sweating all over, I was walking along the pathway in the campus. It was an exceptionally big campus, so it could take me some 30 minutes to reach the main enterance where I could take a taxi. As is not a rare thing to happen in Iran, a car stopped and asked me to pop-in. I did. I thanked him lavishly. He took it very lightly and asked me to see it as his duty. He then insisted that he really meant what he said. "As a human being whatever I can do for others is my duty," was his cool unforgettable reasoning in that hot summer day.

whispering

behrooz asked me to "contribute", so here i contribute! and soon he'll ask me not to or i'll find him borin' and will go. right, we've been mates for sometime now, but we are mates cuz we know how to disagree in a mately way. we are galaxies away and then somehow glue together by some unseen gravity beating physic laws. what the hell we may see in each other thus goes beyond my grey cells. for the record: i contribute, donc i am.

Blogging Is Cruel!

Some are private and some are public; I am private. Blogging for my kind is one of hardest things to do. You practically attack your private self; it is self-destructive. You feel exposed to those whom you don't know. You leave yourself at the mercy of their judgment, whatever that may be. You subject your 'self' to a challenge which may more destabilize you than otherwise. Masochistic? .... yet you blog; don't you?

Such a Dear Living Dead!

'How can piles of dead cells be the cause of such great liveliness and love?' It's now some time that I have been charmed by the question. More than the question, like all others of course, I have longer been captivated by the unquestionable beauty it brings to life.
Sometimes it is prestigious when it is short; then you see a long flirting one and you wonder: 'what of the other one?' Next, it is black which shines out and intensifies beauty with contrast and challenge. Yet, before long you are left astounded with golden glimmer and glow of an irresistible blonde. Only to go ecstatic with the exotic composite of the brunette and still more exotic blends of beige, black and what not. All the same, you can never imagine what next would take your breath away. And the story repeats itself with the number of diverse forms, colours, blends, fashions, cuts, etc. of hair you see on somebody's humble head.
Funny enough, even the lack of those dead threads of hair can also be charming because they have a story of their own why they are not where they are supposed to be.
Throughout centuries hair has so affected aesthetics that many aesthetical recognitions are primarily flagged by some features of hair. If it is not its colour (blonde, black, ...), it's the feel of it (soft, silky, ...). While some fantasize their imagination with the length of their beloved's tress, others get lost in the frivolous ringlets of the the shifty mistress. As smoothness and willowing flow of it does so little to fully bewitch reluctant brags, curly loops may do even less to trap fool heads. And some even may choose to write a mock epic on "The Rape of the Lock" (Alexander Pope).

Whatever your story of hair, I have yet a long tale left with me to braid....

Englishness (1)

There are things I don't like in the English and I am sure I will find enough occasions to grumble about it. For now, though, I really feel it 'right' to say what I like in English people. They are not pushy. There is genuine self-control in the majority of them. True, this may sometimes look like being cold, yet the bright side of it is that they let you live your own life. I like this a lot.

The Issue of God!

Hi there... Truth is I'm not back. I just had an idea about belief in God and I just wanted to freeze it somewhere; then I thought why not here.
I was thinking that belief in God has a direct relation to 'social security': if people in any society could enjoy a reasonable degree of social security they would often not feel the need of believing in God, not at least in the sense that He is believed in non-secure societies. In other words, if the course of life and its prospects are fairly balanced against the proportion of the energy /mind you put into it as well as the odds you are happy to face then you do not feel socially insecure. Pension payments, NHS availability and treatment, secure streets, fair and vigorous law enforcement, affordable average life-style, programmability of life (whether or not you intend to incorporate more than average ambition into it), a sensible amount and feel of political and social justice are some of the constituents of a God-free social life.
When I say God-free I actually have two meanings in mind, one in which there is no presence of God and one in which there is no need for such presence. I mean we can let God get rid of us and feel free. A society which does not pester God with endless moaning and groaning. This is a society in which both God and people would enjoy most, unless it is suggested that God enjoys seeing people worse off and ever moaning and groaning! I would not like to believe in such a God.
Yet, as life works as predictable as Windows XP! And there are lots of viruses, crashes, hangs etc on the way, even people in secure societies are from time to time reminded of their Old Pal, God. Accidents, diseases, family problems, unfulfilled dreams, and you name it are also tricky bits of life which still call for God's slight of hand and His supervisory power.
There are also some who just love divine favoritism! Who said I am one of them?

Enjoy These Short Videos

Salmon
Yoga
Tale Pong
Changing a Wheel

Saddam and the Key of Detroit

• Tonight you can watch Bill live on GMTV at 8. It is a very brave thing they do. Who knows things may not exactly go according to plan.
• "As it turns out, in 1980 Saddam Hussein (then America's Cold War ally) was given the key to the city of Detroit." (From Ask Yahoo)

I like these

• Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long." - Ogden Nash
• It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. - Voltaire
• A conservative is a man who believes that nothing should be done for the first time. - Alfred E. Wiggam

Star and my brief Soho tour

• I liked "Star" because I could resee my beloved lively Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music". In the musical Star she stars as Gertrude Lawrence. Those interested in how to attract women could find lots of practical tips. The top one was: do not be Mr Wussy Nice, be Mr Ignoring Tough.
• In London, I got on a double-decker and naturally went upstairs! to have a better view. I found a place by a lady 10 years older than me (it's safe to say it, you know what I mean). She asked for an address which I did not know: "Where is Debenham?" And then she said are you Iranian? !!!!!! I really did not talk much to say Iranian conspicuous accent betrayed me. She said I looked liked Iranians!! She was from Tanzania.
• (Aside) I had a tour round some streets of Soho area. Did not see much, though I saw some very naughty shops!!! To be honest, I did not know what I should expect to see. So I did not see 'it'!! Like a little school boy I asked a catering man who was smoking outside a snack-shop:

"What is Soho so famous for?"

"For its sex shops and prostitutes!"

"Oh!"

So that was it. But passing-by girls and women looked so natural!!!!

Dangerous Laws and Rules

First please refer to the comments given by Shirin to my previous post and my answer there and also to Shirin's latest post.
1. Shirin you have every right to follow your rules. No arguing with that; but the moment you want others to follow you or the moment you keep judging others, not in the privacy of your thoughts, but in the public you need very strong grounds to first base your arguments and then to develop it into a convincing argument. Self-conviction, however enthusiastically presented, does not necessarily breed conviction in others.
2. Did you know your two pet rules can be so vastly used that even a fascist would enjoy to adopt them? Now imagine a racist puts fire to a minority's house. If he is asked: 'would you like the same done to you if you were a minority?' and he says yes, then what would happen? Your second question is even vaguer and more dangerous: how can you be sure if what you do does not 'hurt' anybody? How do you know that your difinition of 'hurting' is the same as others? (For example when you take illigal drugs, however innocent it may seem to you, you are, in effect, hurting billions of people by helping a very big and international illegal trade of drug gangs and drug dealers who take lives, rape women, do whatever it takes to run their filthy business. Are you not hurting others then?) Who is the judge of this hurting? You? What if others feel hurt and you don't? Or what if a rapist thinks the woman is actually enjoying it?
3. Please correct me if I am wrong: you do not live by rules out there, you live by your own rules. You say you may even pull the trigger and mass murder some rapists. (It is really funny: you give yourself the right to kill rapists but feel 'appalled' when rapists are whipped or stoned! I cannot understand the standard.) Well, if law cannot stop you from murdering other people how can you expect X or Y not to pirate a Video or a software for whatever code of rules they may have. What is going on? Is this all the premise you are building your argument on? What kind of world would it be when every body is allowed to play the game with his own set of rules.

Rights and Wrongs in Copy Right

In her weblog, Shirin had raised an issue which seems to have kindled a fire, however friendly: Copyright. Some straitforward points:

1. Iran has not signed up to the international Copy Right Act and can legally copy. Yet, one should also note that, for that matter, Iran is a loser too: all other countries have the right to copy Iranian products too, unless they are registered internationally. So please do not moralise things and do not blame Iran for breaching a law which it has not singed up to.
2. I have been to boot sales around the UK; I have seen loads and loads of people selling softwares and dvds almost at the same price that you may find in Vali Asr st. in Tehran. All were buying and nobody's conscience seemed tortured.
3. Copy Right issue on sotfwares is by itself a controversial one. Already Mircosoft is losing its grip on its monopolised exploitation; at least that's good news. Linux and other Open Source softwares are effectively challenging Microsoft on this.
4. It is so vital that sometimes Copy Right is discussed within the context of world justice too. I am not saying that it is right to ignore Copy Right, I am just saying let's see how much respect the world is showing to the orignial thinkers all around the world. To the Indians who intruduced numerical 1-9 system, to the Iranians for their unemployement payment system, etc. Sometimes, some people feel historically so underrated that they may not feel positively motivated to respect the rules of the new masters who have not paid their historial copy right fees. It may not seem legal, yet it may not exactly feel theft for some people either.
5. I do agree with Shirin that at least within the borders of Iran we should begin practicing to respect and value what Iranians create. I am specfically referring to what Shirin has put their as her own experiences or so many other unheard cases.

Gone with the Wind (1939)

Humm... first thank you Farzad and me! But you both ruined my surprise! Yes, the first choice was "Gone with the Wind", and I cannot understand why. Or even if I can, I suppose I really can, I am just mad at it. The point is I think its fantastic cast (esp. the unforgettable Vivian Leigh), its book appeal (as many may have already read the novel), its historical significance, its intriguing plot, and its multi-layered story line have partially contributed, I presume, to the promotion of a deluded and fundamentalist feminism. It is a fact that not all Southern girls acted like Scarlet, not even her own sisters, yet she has been usually viewed as the top model for the modern woman in general. It is here that I think it may have not exactly served a very good general purpose. Unable , or reluctant, to recognise individual differences, many may have wasted their life and energy to become another Scarlet. This endeavour has been as funny as if Margaret Mitchell named all the sisters Scarlet and asked them all act the same. Anyway, it was said that two-third of the English pupulation have put their bums on cinama seats to watch it. It's democracy and everybody is allowed to rest his/her bum where ever s/he pleases. Who can argue with that?