What Do I Fancy?

What captures my fancy!
Aircraft carrier
Helicopter
iPhone
Slim HD TV
Cable TV
Computer
Fiber optic
Internet
NIC Card/Ethernet
GPS
Love for Airplanes
Paper
Dot Matrix Printers
Color TV
Color Printers
Color Pictures
Color Magazines
Heart Transplant
Submarines
Space shuttle
Telescopes (?)
unix
Watches (both mecanical or digital)
...
for now

Boss, by Farhad Farnia (Mehr "Jay" Shahidi)

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2011/12/16/free-speech-zone-boss-finally-television-masterpiece

“Boss”, Finally a Television Masterpiece

“Boss”, Finally a Television Masterpiece

A Commentary by Mehr “Jay” Shahidi

Boss is a must-see for all of us who are concerned, worried and outraged about the current shape of our social, economic and political conditions, not only in America but the world. It is a meticulously-crafted cinematic work intended to entertain while simultaneously demonstrating, questioning and wondering as to why we humans are corruptible and have been so through the ages.



It is stimulating and thought-provoking but deftly, subtly and politely leaves the judgment to the viewer.

Not since Westwing, starring the great Martin Sheen, have I seen or heard of a fictional television mini-series with socio-political dimensions, which comes close to the caliber of Boss, an eight-hour Starz Channel production which ended last Friday. The first season will be re-shown starting December 26, 2011 on cable, satellite and direct TV. Or, you can get it on-line. Boss differs from Westwing, in substance, design, intent, mood and outlook. It is much more pernicious and outrage-producing. It is similar to it only as it relates to the lives and acts of political leaders. But, Boss shows us the hidden side. Both productions, however, endeavor to take great strides in elevating the status of for-profit home screen up to the level of public television’s Masterpiece Theater and the best of documentaries while competing with the best motion pictures such as God Father, Platoon and All the President’s Men.

Boss is a different type of made-for-TV movie. It is a fiction but feels like a docudrama. It is also masterfully thrilling, suspenseful, intriguing, and awe-inspiring. Yes, it also has profanity, sex and blood.

Kelsey Grammer, the acting legend of television’s comics “Cheers” and “Frasier”, is now demonstrating his electrifying dramatic abilities as the autocratic and fearsome mayor of Chicago, Tom Cane, the Boss. His performance is so powerful that after watching the first episode my imagination transformed Grammer, the actor, into the indispensable mayor of that city. (I remembered the real Boss of Chicago who ruled in the sixties and seventies). And, after watching the eighth episode diligently, I felt I was in the same daze as when I had read King Lear and Citizen Cane.

The story was created and written by Farhad Safinia, of Apocalypto fame, and he, with the help of luminaries such as Gus Van Sant, Brian Sher, Richard Levine, Lyn Greene, Stella Bulochnikov, Grammer and others wrote the acting scripts and executive-produced it. Most of the initial reviews were so positive that the financiers decided to produce the second series before the first episode of the first series was aired in October. It is a thriller. But it is meant for highly intellectual and mature audiences. This is no film made for TV to increase the consumption of beer and popcorn. And, if you have no patience to watch each show alertly, keep the frequently alternating scenes in your head, and, concentrate to memorize names, dates and places, then, this set of movies is not for you.

Safinia, unlike Shakespeare, uses the colloquial American English esoterically to dissect and expose the current socio-political psyche of America’s power-politics, power-economics, power-corruption, power-control, power-immorality and power-ego-tripping. He brings into action highly profound issues of life, liberty, prosperity, justice and the “promised” democracy. Who rules America and how do they do it? How do our elite pursue their goals? What means do they use? Does the end justify the means? Any means? Is timely garbage collection from the streets more important than the democratic process? Is staying in power for the benefit of the rich and powerful more valuable that the lives of innocent children? Is might, any might, always right? Cane, becomes so drunk with the arrogance of his power that nothing and no-one could or would stand in his way. He even would use his wife and the one and only daughter as instrumental objects to maintain and accumulate raw power. Then, he becomes sick. Would the thought of his mortality transform him into a better or worse person? Watch, analyze and form your own take.

In a preview of the series, Safinia says of the fictitious mayor “he is not a bad guy, but, he does very, very bad things.” What has happened to American politics? Why does a political leader have to do bad things to stay in power? Why do we, the people, or at least most of us, keep silent and acquiesce to the perpetual state of undemocratic conduct and, indeed, tyrannical rule by some members of our elite? Safinia identifies, analyses, and brings to our attention what is and what is not possible. He evokes that notion once uttered by Don Quixote: you realists want the world the way it is. We idealists want it the way it should be.

To call Boss “….a sinister melodrama that defies common sense and cheapens the thrill of bad behavior”, as Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times does, is insulting to the audience. Of course we know that not all politicians, even the late Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, were that way or that bad. Safinia’s job, as an artist and social critique, is not to simply chronicle and report the society’s people and events. He laboriously has created and assembled several plots into his story simultaneously and, at times, he does border on exaggeration and satire, in order to capture our attention and drive his points. And, he does it eloquently. Francis Coppola did not mean that most of Italian American leaders belong to the Mafia and Charles Dickens did not brand all wealthy people as being Scrooge.

Boss is not just a magnificent work of theatrical production. It is a biting critique of our collective social malaise. It is a call to action. It is a courageous indictment by Safinia, and his eclectic cast and crew, of our corruptible nature when we gain power (and/or money). But, it is also an inspiring testament to our resiliency that, despite all odds, we keep dreaming, wishing and trying (the reporter, the daughter, the neurologist).The tale needles our inner being to awaken, motivate and strive for correction. It is a condemnation of the bad. It is a tribute to the good. Cane, himself, vacillates between man the vulgar and man the noble. For a relatively new writer-producer in Hollywood, Farhad Safinia has now proven his extraordinary intelligence to see the dark side of our political/corporate existence and boldly devise an exemplary artistic creation to tell us about it.



M. J. Shahidi is a small business owner and human rights activist living in Minnesota.

Religion and Peace - Can they Coexist? One Man's Efforts

My friend M Jay Shahidi who lives in Minnesota is a human rights activist among other hats he wares.

I have these Youtube videos following him around and recording some of the conversations and interviews. On the first video congressman Keith Ellison is present and shows his support.

September 21, 2010, International Day of Peace


*** 2nd Video***


***third Video***


*** Last Video ***

A Terrifying 15 Minutes Dream

I had a terryfing dream.


24; Not and nothing to
do with Jack Bauer!
The following takes place between 11:30PM and 11:55PM (Music to follow: Dang Knock dang dadang dang dadang.
It’s 11:30 PM and I’m fast sleep... I must have fallen sleep soon after going to bed and a short while later fell into deep sleep, the dreaming stage. Here is what I started dreaming of:
I walked in on them and I must have surprised him. But I know he didn’t care (one of them was my old buddy whom I have never met in real life!) There blood all over the sheets on the bed! The room had a totally different look. It was day time, but all the shades were drawn, except on some corners where you could see the light. One would draw that there was daylight and a bright sun shining outside. Very much like a Vegas bedroom scene. Both of them were still laying in the bed, but not sleep. And what a huge bed it is. I must have especial ordered it, because it was clearly bigger and wider than a California King. It was probably the same size that Sahquille O’Neal or Kareem Abdul Jabbar would buy. I must have loved sleeping in it. I quite couldn’t figure what might have happened there the night before or at least most of the night. The room had a different look and smell to it. It was cluttered and messy and I realized that most of my furniture was gone!
I asked, what the hell was going on! As I stretched my hand in front of him, before I finished saying another word, he grabbed my arm and bit me. His bite punctured my arm and I could feel the extreme pain shooting through my spine. I didn’t have time to scream foul! His teeth bit me deep! Blood squished out of my arm just above the wrist, where he had deeply punctured it. He did not let go of my arm or his bite. He and I both knew he had done something horrific and awful, but there were no regret or sorrow in his eyes. He must have known the he’d be infecting me too. He was HIV positive and his open soars were bloody.
He was pissed at the world and anyone who wasn’t HIV positive. He knew that not only I wasn’t gay and not interested in men, I was very careful and my playboy days were long past.
I grabbed his face to relief the pain in anger. The adrenalin rush had just instinctively put me into a defensive fight or flight mode. I couldn’t run since he had a good grip on my arm. As a result I grabbed his face and as much of his jaw that I could. I don’t know why I didn’t punch him on his head or on his face. Trying to separate myself from his tight grip, I grabbed his upper lips and nose. I tried very hard to open his jaws and force his mouth open. I used all the power in my left hand to force his mouth open mean while blood started gushing out but I knew it was too late run. I was fighting back. My left hand’s fingers and his upper jaws were all bloody now. Screaming in pain, from the top of his lungs, he let go of my arm. But now, I was the one who had grabbed his jaws, with all the power in me, was trying to split his jaws, face and skull.

His lover now was frozen and stunned in his place on the bed. I was taken back of how much adrenalin must have been injected into my muscles, to be able to tear his mouth and jaw apart. He was becoming red and blue and his face and was becoming quite disfigured. He was going into shock and losing consciousness. His lover, by now, knew that he had practically destroyed my life and killed me too as well.
I gradually calmed down and realized that everything from my decorative and expensive bachelorette pad was missing!
It seemed I must have had this penthouse apartment for a while. It was single condo with a very large huge dinning & living room. Why the bed was in the living room? I guess it could’ve been a single apartment. I don’t know, but that‘s all I can tell you about it. I didn’t see any other rooms or a kitchen in my dream! But, I had this intuitive feeling that I must have had this place for a while and my friends used to come and party and crash. All of the expensive decorative paintings and the rest of the furniture, except for the bed and night stands were gone. In my terrifying dream, it was easy for me to put 2 and 2 together to realize that “he” (I can’t remember his name from my dream) must have sold them to satisfy his insidious and incautious coke and drug habit.
With my heart beating fast and pounding my chest, I woke up terrified of what had I just dreamed of! It was now 11:55 PM. And all of this was a short terrifying 15 minutes dream! I got up and had a cigarette and pondered about this dream. It had been a long while since I had a such a scary dream.

The Dream of Flight

Childhood, Adolescence & Adulthood Dreams or just my dreams at nights.
Dreams:
The Knight'sDream by Antonio de Preda
Read about dream here in Wikipedia, but I’m talking about another kind of dream & it’s not day dreaming either!
For the past year or so, my dreams have become so engaging and fun that I really enjoy them. Everynight, I look forward to another episode full of fun and adventure.
The BEST part about it that I become some kind of a super hero-like character. I don’t have any another special powers except the ability to flay and soar above ground at high or low altitudes. I have no special gear or wing or anything either. It’s just a will power & a Superman like flight, but I don't go nearly as fast him. The other nice thing about it is that i'm always involved in a pleasant and fun filled adventure. No crary dreams. At times I wake up and I feel like I could write it all done, but the following morning I don’t remember anything except that I had one of those fun dreams.

I used to have a different kind of dream (not while sleeping) when I was in high school. I never wanted to be an astronaut, but I wanted to be involve in creation and conception of futuristic space exploration vehicle of some sort and perhaps work for NASA. One of my earlier heroes was Dr. Werhner von Braun, the German scientist, the designer of the Saturn IV rocket in the Apollo Missions which took the astronauts to the moon. This reminds me of one of my favorite songs David Bowie’s Space Oddity and hear another gorgeous version by Natalie Marchant.

Here is just an off-the-wall song which has nothing to do with this dream of mine, but it’s a note worthy song, an Artetha Frankling’s Day Dreaming and when I fly above rivers and lakes I’m reminded of this perhaps for when I land and arrested for speeding: Bridge over trouble water

The Dream of Flight

Homeland Security Dependents on God

Atheists sue over reference to God in Kentucky homeland security law.
See Here or Here


Atheists sue to take God out of state's terrorism law!!!

John McCain - The Manchurian Candidate (2008)

Look for the similarities between the three Manchurian Candidates and draw your own conclusion!

John McCain – The Manchurian Candidate (2008)

Plot Summary

While in captivity in Vietnam, was he brainwashed (became a sleeper agent) by the Communists into believing he can run for the President of the United States? Was he ordered to select Sarah Palin (the queen of diamonds/Alaska) as his running mate, a heartbeat away from becoming the next President of the United States? Won’t this result in the biggest blow that the Communists could inflict on the United States?

Alternate Plot

The Manchurian Candidate 2008 is an American thriller saga about a Republican Party white hair dude’s (John McCain) campaign for the presidency of the United States of America. It is about the Son of a prominent US Navy family who has been brainwashed while in captivity as POW in Vietnam into becoming an unwilling assassin for the Communist Party.

The Communists intend to use McCain as a sleeper agent and using the queen of diamonds (queen of Alaska, Sarah Palin) in a political campaign as a subconscious trigger compel him to have a fatal heart attack 24 hours after he was elected the President of the United States and Sarah Palin as his vice president.



John Sidney McCain III :"(born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona and presidential nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 presidential election.
McCain graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he nearly lost his life in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973, experiencing episodes of torture and refusing an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer; his war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations."

Read about Hanoi Hilton, a name used by the Vietnam War POWs to refer to a North Vietnamese prison here.




The Manchurian Candidate (1962):
"The Manchurian Candidate is a 1959 thriller novel written by Richard Condon, adapted into films in1962 and 2004. It is about the son of a prominent political family who has been brainwashed into becoming an unwilling assassin for the Communist Party. The novel has been banned in communist states "for political reasons" and was "condemned by the American Legion."


Plot summary
"Captain Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw and the rest of their platoon are captured during the Korean War in 1952. They are all brainwashed into believing Shaw saved their lives in combat, for which he receives the Medal of Honor when they return to the United States. Years after the war is over, Marco, now an intelligence officer, begins to have a recurring nightmare in which Shaw murders two of his comrades while being watched by Chinese and Russian officials. When he learns that another platoon member has been having the same dream, he sets out to uncover the mystery.
The Communists intend to use Shaw as a sleeper agent and, using the queen of diamonds in a deck of playing cards as a subconscious trigger, compel him to follow their orders, which he does not remember afterwards. Shaw is controlled by none other than his own politically ambitious and domineering mother, who is working with the Communists in a plot to overthrow the U.S. government.
Film adaptations
 The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
 The Manchurian Candidate (2004)"





The Manchurian Candidate (2004):
"The Manchurian Candidate is a 2004 American film based on the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon, and a reimagining of the previous 1962 film. The film stars Denzel Washington as Bennett Marco, a tenacious, virtuous soldier, Liev Schreiber as Raymond Shaw, a U.S. Representative from New York, manipulated into becoming a vice-presidential candidate, Jon Voight as Tom Jordan, a U.S. Senator and challenger for vice president and Meryl Streep as Eleanor Shaw, also asenator and the manipulative, ruthless mother of Raymond Shaw."

Plot
"Maj. Ben Marco (Denzel Washington), is a war veteran who begins to doubt what is commonly known about his famous army unit. During Operation Desert Storm, Sergeant First Class Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber) supposedly rescued all but two members in his unit, of which Marco was the commanding officer. While this made Shaw a war hero, gained him the Medal of Honor, and launched him into a career in politics, Marco and other members of the troop feel that while they remember that Shaw didrescue them, they do not actually remember him doing it.
The members begin to come together in the dystopic near-future of 2008 after Shaw, now a United States Congressman, becomes his party's candidate for Vice-President. He is an unexpected candidate, as Connecticut Senator Tom Jordan (Jon Voight) was the leading choice for some time. Jordan is pushed aside by Shaw's mother, Virginia Senator Eleanor Shaw (Meryl Streep), who blackmails the party leaders into nominating her son. An obvious rivalry exists between Eleanor Shaw and Tom Jordan, partly due to a past relationship between Raymond Shaw and Jordan's daughter Jocelyne (Vera Farmiga).
After Shaw is nominated, Marco begins investigating what really happened during the war. Allied with a female FBI agent named Rosie (Kimberly Elise) he links the mystery of his lost platoon to Manchurian Global, a global conglomerate with major political connections, including the Shaw family. Soon Marco discovers Manchurian Global's brainwashing of his "lost" platoon, and their plans to take over the White House with Shaw, under the power of the company and Eleanor Shaw, who is even more power hungry than she appears.
Soon Eleanor Shaw begins to take matters into her own hands, trusting Manchurian Global less and less. Her ruthlessness is shown when she uses her own brainwashed son to assassinate Senator Jordan, who had been contacted by Marco and had begun to support his investigation in an attempt to expose her plan. As she becomes more and more controlling, it is soon revealed that the Vice-Presidential spot is not what she has in mind for her son, but the presidency. On election night, the newly elected president will be assassinated, and the planned assassin of Shaw's running mate is none other than Marco himself, who was also brainwashed in the war. With the help of the FBI, Marco arranges a private meeting with Shaw in a school which he was to cast his vote in. Marco tries once again to convince Shaw of what is happening to him. Shaw seems to agree, and gives Marco his Medal of Honor, which he says he does not deserve. Marco takes it, and Shaw receives a phone call from his mother, who wants to talk to Marco. Marco answers it, and is soon "activated" by her.
Shaw and Marco begin to regain a conscious state even while under Manchurian Global's control. At the election night celebration party, the newly elected Shaw and Major Marco realize what must be done. Shaw leads his mother onto the stage with him, and Marco fires one shot, killing both of them as they hug. Just before Marco can kill himself (which had been part of Eleanor Shaw's plan), Rosie stops him by shooting him in the shoulder. The FBI covers up Marco's involvement, pinning a Manchurian Global conspirator with the shooting. In the last scene, Rosie takes Marco to the compound he was brainwashed in, apparently in conjunction with the FBI investigating. Marco realizes what has happened, and lets the sea take away a picture of the "lost platoon" along with Shaw's medal of honor as if erasing what happened in that compound."

The Secret Oil Deal That Helped Sink the Shah of Iran

Showdown at Doha: The Secret Oil Deal That Helped Sink the Shah of Iran
Article from Middle East Institute – Middle East Journal
Author: Andrew Scott Cooper
MEI:
“What led to the calamitous drop in Iran’s oil revenues in January 1977? Politics, religion, culture, and economics have been identified as factors contributing to the collapse of Iran’s monarchy in 1979. But, until now scholars have been unable to access documents that shed light on the inner workings of the relationship between senior US officials and the Shah of Iran, who Henry Kissinger lauded as “that rarest of leaders, an unconditional ally, and one whose understanding of the world enhanced our own.”1 The declassification of the papers of Brent Scowcroft, who worked in the Nixon and Ford Administration, marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the origin of the Iranian Revolution. They reveal that in 1976 the US and Saudi Arabia colluded to force down oil prices, inadvertently triggering a financial crisis that destabilized Iran’s economy and weakened the Shah’s hold on power.”
Cooper discussed this article on the MEI Podcast: here

Okay, I guess, since the oil prices are high enough; we can now take our country back!

Also covered on radio on KPCC.ORG – AirTalk hosted by Larry Mantel, Monday Oct. 20, 2008:
A New Look At The Fall Of The Shah Of Iran:
“In a New Report based on previously classified documents, scholar Andrew Scott Cooper suggests that Nixon and Ford administrations undermined the position of the Shah of Iran in the late 1970s and contributed to the country’s Islamic Revolution. The report published Friday on the fall issue of the Middle East Journal, examines the role of the White House policymakers who, trying to roll back oil prices and curb the Shah’s ambitions weakened his position, thus precipitating the takeover of Iran by Islamic radicals. Andrew Scott Cooper joins Larry to discuss his research.”
Link to AirTalk

P.O.V. on PBS: Soldiers of Conscience

Conscientious objector
When is it right to kill? In the midst of war, is it right to refuse? Eight U.S. soldiers, some of whom have killed and some of whom said no, reveal their inner moral dilemmas in Soldiers of Conscience. Made with official permission of the U.S. Army, the film transcends politics to explore the tension between spiritual values and military orders

Desertions
The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq have been the occasion for a growing number of desertions — defined by the military as soldiers absent without leave for more than 30 days. In 2006, the Army reported 3,196 desertions, a sharp increase from two years earlier, which saw 2,357 desertions.

POST-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
"Although the symptoms and syndrome of PTSD have been observed in veterans for hundreds of years, PTSD was not formally recognized as a mental disorder until 1980..."

Watching Soldiers of Conscience
Soldiers of Conscience takes a powerful look at a central drama of our time — how a soldier decides to kill or not, and the life-changing consequences that come with either choice. We asked military chaplains, human rights activists and veterans groups to comment on the film.

About the Film:
Soldiers of Consceince

Mehregan 2008 - Orange County Southern California

October 11-12, Sat & Sunday
Mehregan 2008 Orange County, CA

The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God

I was listening to Air Talk on NPR (also on KPCC.ORG) today and Larry Mantle was discussing author Jonathan Kirsh’s latest book, “The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual”, with him today. A very interesting discussion, subject, and book. Go figure!

The point emphasized in this book is to show how power and blind faith can turn human beings into vicious animals and terrorist against others under the guise of righteousness. Sounds familiar?

The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual
A History of Terror in the Name of God
By Jonathan Kirsch

"The inquisitorial apparatus that was first invented in the Middle Ages remained in operation for the next six-hundred years, and it has never been wholly dismantled. As we shall see, an unbroken thread links the friar-inquisitors who set up the rack and the pyre in southern France in the early thirteenth century to the torturers and executioners of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia in the mid-twentieth century. Nor does the thread stop at Auschwitz or the Gulag; it can be traced through the Salem witch trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the Hollywood blacklists of the McCarthy era, and even the interrogation cells at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo."


Here is more information from the publisher, Harper Collins:

The twelfth century birthed a new and sinister brand of sanctioned terror, an international network of secret police and courts, an army of inquisitors whose sworn duty was to seek out anyone regarded as an enemy, and a casualty list numbering in the tens of thousands. The original agents of the Inquisition—priests and monks, scribes and notaries, attorneys and accountants, torturers and executioners—were deputized by the Church and their worst excesses were excused as the pardonable sins of soldiers engaged in a holy war against heresy that became the obsession of Christendom. Yet the first rumblings of Western civilization's great engine of persecution provided no indication of the ultimate scope and influence of the inquisitorial toolkit and how the crimes of the first inquisitors were perpetrated again and again into the twentieth century and beyond. Despite the importance of this legacy, the history of the Inquisition remains a subject that has largely been overlooked by general historians.
With The Grand Inquisitor's Manual, national bestselling author Jonathan Kirsch delivers a sweeping and provocative history that explores how the Inquisition was honed to perfection and brought to bear on an ever-widening circle of victims by authoritarians in both church and state for over six hundred years. Ranging from the Knights Templar to the first Protestants, from Joan of Arc to Galileo; from the torture and murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent women during the Witch Craze to its greatest power in Spain after 1492, when the secret tribunals and torture chambers were directed for the first time against Jews and Muslims to the modern war on terror—Kirsch shows us how the Inquisition stands as a universal and ineradicable symbol of the terror that results when absolute power works its corruptions.
The history of the Inquisition is draped in myth and mystery, a favorite theme of both artists and propagandists throughout the six hundred years of its active operations. Yet when we pull aside the veil, what we see are the original blueprints for the machinery of persecution that was invented in the High Middle Ages and applied to human flesh ever since. The Grand Inquisitor's Manual exposes the dangerous circular logic of the Inquisition so that we do not perpetuate its brand of terror.

A Religion IPO

A new beginning. Let's ask God to come up with a new religion that we can all agree on. In a way an Initial Public Offering for a new religion we can all worship and believe in. An IPO open to everyone!


I like to ask God to please come up with a new religion. Forget about all past deeds and promises. Let’s start with a clean slate and a new religion so we can all share and stop fighting each other.

Let's ponder on that for a while and let me know what you all think. I warn you to keep an open mind and no insults allowed. Imagine that!

Six Under 18 Memes

I have been tagged by Foreve Under Construction (Homeyra) to list Six Things One Should Do Before 18. Here are the rules of the game:
1. Post these rules before presenting your list.
2. List 6 actions or achievements you think every person should accomplish before turning 18.
3. There are no conditions on what can be included on the list.
4. At the end of your blog, choose 6, or less, people to get tagged and list their names.
5. People who are tagged write their own blog entry with their 6 suggestions.
6. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged.

So far, I have tagged From Berkeley ,Refusenik (Foulla), TopSpot9 (Nyx), Chakameh on the Web,
Mystery, and
Dreamtree.
I didn't tell them they’re under no obligation to follow up on this tagging round.

Here are my 6+ memes:

1. Expand your horizons/mind. You should spend less time watching TV or playing games (computer or game machines, etc.) and dedicate some time to reading. Try to read a few of the classics, Persian or other, but a mixture is better.


2. Try to learn a musical instrument and even learn to read music. It’ll be much harder if you wait till you’re grow up. It’ll be a great pastime.


3. Become active in sports. I’ve over done this myself.


4. Learn some outdoor activities. Try camping, fishing, hiking, anything that brings you closer to the nature (I’m not sure about hunting!)


5. Definitely learn a second language.


6. Make sure you have a hobby, something you’re passionate about. Something other than reading or already includes in the above list.


7. Last but not least, do some star gazing. Look at the heavens.

Chinese Executions and 2008 Olympics

Chinese Executions!

Some days, life feels like such a struggle. I’m very moved and saddened when I’m reminded of these sort of news when we all just got done celebrating Xmas, the New Year and all other happy occasions. Life goes on, but I’m afraid not for everyone.

When it comes to capital punishment, I’m sort of an agnostic.

China shows caution on executions; Facing pressure before the Olympics, Beijing's policy is to 'kill fewer, kill carefully.' Activists urge more legal reforms.

I’m not picking on China. Many countries are guilty of this and still practice Capital Punishment.
I just want to say something. How about all those whose punishment should not be death? Once they’re gone there is nothing anyone can do.

Monika Jalili

Monika Jalili
Monika Jalili: NoorSaaz brings to life the rich history of Iranian culture through its music and poetry. This entrancing selection of songs spans time and place; traditional Persian folk favorites stand alongside love songs from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, a time of great cultural change in Iran. Using traditional and non-traditional instruments, as well as lyrics in Persian, English and French, the artists of NoorSaaz combine their influences to present original interpretations of this music. In this spirit of exploration, NoorSaaz aspires to create understanding through an appreciation of the beauty of Iranian culture.
Vocalist:
Monika Jalili is a classically trained vocalist born in New York City with a degree in Vocal Performance from The Manhattan School of Music and in French Literature from Columbia University. Monika has been a performer on stage and film since the age of 12 and was a student of the late Beverley Peck Johnson. Her performances have taken her to Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, The Producers Club, The Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, The Moscow Conservatory of Music, The Starlight Roof at the Waldorf Astoria, The Wortham Center (Houston), Wolf Trap (Virginia), The Shubert Theatre (New Haven) and venues throughout Europe, and around the US. She has performed on and been interviewed on many international television and radio programs worldwide. Monika's great love of Persian music and culture led her to create NoorSaaz with Megan Weeder.
Rest of the bios:Monika Jalili Noorsaz

Listen to here beautiful voice here. These are some great songs:
Solatneh Ghalba-ha
Janeh Maryam
Daryacheye Noor & Gole Gandom

Benazir Bhutto

Benazir Bhutto
I’m so sorry. I’m speech less. I don’t know what to say. This is a very very sad day for all of us. What is it with these people? Which God can condone this kind of act? What a bunch of savages! Like father like daughter.

I Lost That Recipe!

I can't remember my oatmeal recipe! Was it, 1 part water, 1 part milk, 1 part oats, a dash of salt, little cinnamon, and some honey, in a pot on low heat slowly warmed and stirred until ready?



This reminds me of this song:

Mac Arthur Park by Donna Summer

This same song, Mac Arthur Park also performed by Richard Harris.

So, is it Checkers or Chinese Checkters or does it matter?

How sad that the new generation, perhaps, only remembers him by his most current roles in Harry Potter as Albus Dumbledore!

Camelot:


With Vanessa Redgrave:

As Professor Dumbledore:


On a totally unrelated subject but somehow a ubiquitous nagging in my head to include it here, I present to you:



Who Moved My Cheese? a “Self-Improvement” book that has nothing to do with cheese, but a lot with your mind that I was once asked to read to help learn to cope and resolve challenges arising from working with and managing people.

A Tale of Two Cities

A tale of two cities; a tale of two lovers, what an irony!

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of understanding, it was the age of innocence; it was the period of belief, it was the time of disbelief; it was the season of happiness, it was the season of misery; it was the spring of confidence, it was the winter of agony; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to paradise, we were all going the other way.

Another chapter in my life.

Desiderata - An Inspirational Piece!

See and listen to Desiderata – A Very Inspirational Piece. (No Comments!)
Well, maybe just one comment, I can’t help it. Is this another inspirational BS fluff, am I being just cynical, or just more sentimental? Who knows?


By Max Ehrmann, 1924
Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, 1924
VERY INSPIRATIONAL PIECE...

(and Our own very 'Inspiration Point' at Yosemite National Park a must see place in California. Checkout California's Yosemite National Park for more info. Here is a picure of Ahwahnee Hotel at Inpiration Point)



The Confused History... (goes with the CONFUSED BLOG)

The Confused History of "Desiderata:"
The author is Max Ehrmann, a poet and lawyer from Terre Haute, Indiana, who lived from 1872 to 1945. It has been reported that Desiderata was inspired by an urge that Ehrmann wrote about in his diary:

"I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift -- a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods."

Around 1959, the Rev. Frederick Kates, the rector of St. Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland, used the poem in a collection of devotional materials he compiled for his congregation. (Some years earlier he had come across a copy of Desiderata.) At the top of the handout was the notation, "Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore A.C. 1692." The church was founded in 1692. [1]

As the material was handed from one friend to another, the authorship became clouded. Copies with the "Old St. Paul's Church" notation were printed and distributed liberally in the years that followed. It is perhaps understandable that a later publisher would interpret this notation as meaning that the poem itself was found in Old St. Paul's Church, dated 1692. This notation no doubt added to the charm and historic appeal of the poem, despite the fact that the actual language in the poem suggests a more modern origin. The poem was popular prose for the "make peace, not war" movement of the 1960s.

When Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a guest in his home found a copy of Desiderata near his bedside and discovered that Stevenson had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. The publicity that followed gave widespread fame to the poem as well as the mistaken relationship to St. Paul's Church. [1]

As of 1977, the rector of St. Paul's Church was not amused by the confusion. Having dealt with the confusion "40 times a week for 15 years," he was sick of it. [1]

This misinterpretation has only added to the confusion concerning whether or not the poem is in the public domain.

By the way, Desiderata is Latin for "Things to be Desired."

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Q: Bijan, thou art such A hypocrite! A: Why, can’t one be benevolent and like Lamborghinis too?

Oh Lord! Save me from myself! Can I count on you? Are you Just? Is this true?

Gerard Manley Hopkins
Wiki's own note: It has been claimed that some or all of this article or section is incoherent and not understandable, and should possibly be reworded if the intended meaning can be determined.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.

50. ‘Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend’

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum: verumtamen justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c.

THOU art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?

Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build—but not I build; no, but strain,
Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain

Narcissism

XLIII. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways..."
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

About Narcissism:


I picked up that line on this movie, Scoop, one of Woody Allen’s latest movies (the movie (hint: In a party, as he is talking to bunch of new people and he is exif not the last, but I don’t know that for sure and who cares!) with Scarlet Johansson:):);) See if you can pick up that line in plaining describing himself…)



And don’t get me started on her cause I’ll start to moan and groan! Now there is a woman, and I might add a very beautiful, sexy, and young woman after my heart (Not!)




A big lie!

Well ever since I broke up with Heidi, a have been seeing a lot of Scarlet, as much as my schedule and trips allows me. And, I have made it very clear to her to not to lose herself over me, because I’m not into serious relationships. I have my reasons, but that’s for me to know and you to find out;)

And, Scarlet, my dear love, if you happen to read this, please don’t get all upset and pick the phone and ask me to explain, because I know I have made myself very clear. Besides you’re too young for me and I’m not into starting a family all over again. So, sweetheart, I’m sorry to break your heart all over again (if you happen to read this on location), but you should have listened to me. Anyhow, no more about us, since this was mostly about Moi!

You wish!
"Aarezo bar javanan aeib neest", There is no shame to aiming high or you can’t fault young & playful wishes, or something like that!

Old Flame: