I'm back!

It's been two weeks now... I'm starting to get used to my new life style! Not worrying about my defense every single second... and I've actually started going to the gym again! feels good!

I've also had my birthday last week and had one of those house parties that end up in singing Persian folk songs! It was fun...

Nazly and I have been watching the Olympics figure skating competitions and I must say it's pretty exciting... there was this one night when the pairs were competing for their complementary dance and OH MY GOD, they kept falling left and right... I mean, it was ridiculous, couldn't believe it! Tomorrow night is the competition for women's free skating and that should be nice too... I so wanna see if Russia wins the gold or the U.S.

I should get back to reading novels, that way I'll have something to write about!

Read the rest...

After...

It's all over now... I'm actually breathing... and I do have my Master's degree now!

The defense went a lot better than what I had expected... the examining committee didn't kill me, although they were sometimes tough. And afterwards my supervisor actually said that I did well! yaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyy...

And the best part was when we went out for drinking and dinner later and people were buying me shots and stuff... that was cool...hmmmmm, at least from what I remember!

I did miss a new episode of LOST however, but i'll download it or something. And there was the Grammy's and I guess I have to say: "Go U2" ?!

Here are some pictures of the historical event! Enjoy!


Saba, after the defense:


Saba and Nazly, packing after the defense:


Saba and Taraneh (M.A.Sc. supervisor):


Brendan, Steve, Shora, Saba, and Nazly:


Tom (PhD supervisor), Saba and James:

Read the rest...

Help...

I never had the chance to read that novel: " the five people you meet in heaven"... but I'm sure those people were not my examining committee for my defense! .... or maybe they were?! hmmmm... that way it should have been "hell" instead...

Anyway, wish me luck and I'll keep you posted on how things are later...

PS- it's tomorrow BTW!

Read the rest...

A quiet little town, not far from here...

I just finished watching Dogville and had to write about it because I can't forgive myself for not watching it earlier. You wanna see the darkest sides of human nature? You wanna know the extremes people can go to when you allow them? watch Dogville... if you're too optimistic about the true nature of mankind, this movie makes you reconsider for sure...

Not that it specifically tries to be pessimistic, but it touches those far unreachable corners of your soul and you instantly know that it can all be happening in the real world... the question is how or if you prevent it from happening.

there's a dialogue in the movie that goes somehow like this [not exactly though]:

- these people are doing the best they can, under very hard circumstances.
- yeah... but is their best, good enough for you?

And I guess that's something people should really consider when they're trying to just close their eyes on all the problems and say: "well, these people don't understand any better... let them be". Nope! you have to help them understand because you should have your own standards. Of course, I wouldn't exactly follow the example of the movie to solve the problems... but still, you have to let people take some responsibility at least.

You can even oversee the fact that Nicole Kidman is acting in this movie... which BTW, was the reason why I did not want to watch it all this time.

Read the rest...