No Leaf Clover

Idas sommarvisa

2012-01-28T11:52:00.000+01:00

Du ska inte tro det blir sommar,
ifall inte nån sätter fart
på sommarn och gör lite somrigt,
då kommer blommorna snart,
Jag gör så att blommorna blommar,
jag gör hela kohagen grön,
och nu så har sommaren kommit,
för jag har just tagit bort snön.

Jag gör mycket vatten i bäcken,
så där det hoppar och far.
Jag gör fullt med svalor som flyger
och myggor som svalorna tar.
Jag gör löven nya på träden
och små fågelbon här och där.
Jag gör himlen vacker om kvällen,
för jag gör den alldeles skär.

Och smultron det gör jag åt barna,
för det tycker jag dom kan få,
och andra små roliga saker
som passar när barna är små.
Och jag gör så roliga ställen,
där barna kan springa omkring,
då blir barna fulla med sommar
och bena blir fulla med spring.

Words by Astrid Lindgren

I'm back!

2012-01-28T10:53:00.000+01:00

Happy birthday my old man

2011-12-22T11:32:00.002+01:00

Uncanny resemblance 6

2011-12-20T21:14:00.000+01:00

Change

2011-11-24T23:08:00.000+01:00

"The significance of the moth is change. Caterpillar into chrysalis or pupa. From thence into beauty..."

- Dr. Haniball Lecter

Associations

2011-11-06T11:55:00.002+01:00

Home to me is not a house

Filled with family faces;

Home is where I slide in free

By rounding all the bases.

A tie to me is not

Clothing like a hat;

It means the game is even up

And I wish I were at bat.

Words by Eve Merriam, painting by Leroy Neiman.

The first day

2011-10-24T11:05:00.001+02:00

Today was the first day that I took my daughter to the daycare and left her there. Leaving the major piece of your heart and the consequent sadness on her side is without the doubt the hardest part. It is a major milestone in her life now that she starts her social life ON HER OWN and starts to interact with other people. At the same time, she starts to learn a new language (among others) - another step in her evolution.

Man how time flies!

If only I could freeze the time to this moment...

She is growing up by minutes and I am getting older...and that is kind of sad but unfortunately, (and I hate to sound so typical) that's life.

5 years again!

2011-10-19T10:20:00.001+02:00

Five years past the day that I finished at CTH -that day!- and yet I find myself at CTH again by pure coincidence. Good thing that little by little, not only I don't have some of those nostalgic feelings but also I feel quite happy to have moved on or rather moved 'out'.

One should always look forward, looking back, however useful every once in a while, only reduces the pace but it is not constructive.

Such a strange feeling

2011-10-18T23:40:00.000+02:00

Almost ten years ago, I was living in an otherwise empty student room with one window facing the hotel that I am staying in now. Since I did not have a computer at home, I used to come all the way to this hotel to use the Yahoo! messenger on the PC in the lobby of the hotel to chat with one special one for hours past midnight.

Ahh...those days...those early days that surprisingly do not seem so far away now...if I only knew what I know now...

Chichén Itzá

2011-10-10T05:27:00.000+02:00

Forgedaboudit

2011-10-02T20:42:00.000+02:00

1. According to Donnie Brasco (played by Johnny Depp): "Foreget about it" is like, if you agree with some one, you know, like "Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, forget about it." But then, if you disagree, like "A Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it!" you know? But then, it's also like if something's the greatest thing in the world, like minga those peppers, "forget about it." But it's also like saying "Go to hell!" too. Like you know, "Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker!" and Pauile says "Forget about it!" And then, sometimes it just means forget about it.

2. New York term for "No comment" or "I would rather not say"

Vinnie: So Tony, how much money you made at the race track yesterday?

Tony: Forget about it!

3. A response to another person's statement indicating disbelief.

Joe: Tony Montana took 23 gunshots to the body before they took him.

Mickey: Forget about it!

Source: urbandictionary.com

To KG, when he was a little boy

2011-09-27T21:01:00.000+02:00

Like Jesus said

2011-09-19T23:09:00.001+02:00

"My God
My God

Why have you forsaken me?"

- Matthew 27:46

Solitary confinement?

2011-09-16T18:43:00.000+02:00

"Is that you John Wayne?

Is this me?"

I am on the verge hitting the pinnacle of my isolation from the world. This 'leave' as much as being vital and necessary to some regards, it does take its toll on you when it comes to human contact and socializing. Being in a new city in another country does not necessary loosen things up but I guess things would have been more or less the same had we stayed home.

What can I do?

What should I do?

Will I miss it later?

I don't know but the loneliness and the silence is getting hard to bear, I guess 'det är bara bita ihop' and move on...somehow...

Best of you

2011-09-12T21:43:00.001+02:00

I've got another confession to make

I'm your fool

Everyone's got their chains to break

Holding you

Were you born to resist or be abused?

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Are you gone and onto someone new?

I needed somewhere to hang my head

Without your noose

You gave me something that I didn't have

But had no use

I was too weak to give in

Too strong to lose

My heart is under arrest again

But I break loose
My head is giving me life or death

But I can't choose

I swear I never give in

I refuse

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Has someone taken your faith?

It's real, the pain you feel

You trust, you must
Confess

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Oh...

Oh...Oh...Oh...Oh...
Has someone taken your faith?

It's real, the pain you feel
The life, the love you'd die to heal

The hope that starts the broken hearts

You trust, you must

Confess

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

I've got another confession my friend

I'm no fool

I'm getting tired of starting again
Somewhere new

Were you born to resist or be abused?

I swear I'll never give in

I refuse

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?
Has someone taken your faith?

It's real, the pain you feel

You trust, you must

Confess

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

Oh...

Song by Foo Fighters from the album "In Your Honor".

Back in MTL, QC, CA

2011-09-10T23:39:00.001+02:00

Yeah, finally made to Montreal again for the third time in one piece but what a trip it was. It took almost 24 hours from bed to bed, and things are not particularly easy when you are travelling with a one year old child. The poor kid who normally sleeps 15 hours a day, could only sleep for 2 hours in 24 hours during the long journey, once we managed to put her into sleep on the floor of the plane during the 7 hour flight and only after one hour we had to lift her up due to a stupid and extremely short turbulance!

Anyway, I am very glad that it's all over. This is going to be the longest period that I will be staying outside Sweden and filling my time effectively, now that I am the kid, is going to be real challenge. A confession: After staying home with baby on the parental leave I have realized that it is NOT exactly a walk in the park rather it could (and it is) at times dull and boring. I used to be quite jealous of the people who were on parental leave before but I guess I wouldn't be anymore.

I have many ambitions in mind for this month, a important one being taking care of resolution 13 but I am very much afraid that I will not be able to do as much as I want to due to lack of consistency, energy and laziness in general, may the force be with me!

So far, apart from jetlag and all the small adjustments, I have been quite apathetic to the new enviroment, maybe it is the foot injury that has been nagging me in the past week or maybe it is the lack of having a personal attachment to here which results in that but hey, I came here just for a change of scenery and it is a change alright so let's keep it that way. In addition:

1. Food and the variety of edibles are really good
2. The "moka problem" has been resolved with a great solution

So if I just put myself in the groove for 'the resolution' and my foot gets better, I've got nothing to complain ;-)

AMS

2011-09-01T13:33:00.000+02:00

I love Amsterdam.

There is a sense of laid-back, liberty and above all, I-don't-give-a-#€%k about it that makes it very appealing. This is topped by its unique diversity, a perfect place for a reunion for a bunch of guys longing for good old times and missing their social interaction...just as we did last week and needless to say, it turned into a blast.

"Now there is grey inside and outside..."

- Mr. P

2 more practices and the season is over

2011-08-24T11:33:00.003+02:00

Another season is about to end and I am yet to play a full game. This year I was ready to have a push for my summit and to some sense, I was feeling that I was in mental and physical shape to do so and I thought with the help of the new coach would was not to play this year and me not going to work due to parental leave, I would be able to fix 'the issues' but I ended up playing the least ever due to the fact that the idiot that is running our team (who is actually a guy that I like in certain aspects) and one important individual in the back office had little faith in me. The real reason behind this is unclear for me as I busted my ass off at practice sessions but I suppose my biggest shortcomig was just when it was the right time to convince them otherwise, I lacked consistency and I failed. I got very pissed when I was denied a shot at the game and I tried to talk things over at an early stage to avoid a disaster from unfolding but at the end, that totally backfired. Like I said, despite feeling that my throwing and my fielding had improved, at least compared to last year, the mental burden and frustration went beyond my capacity and obviously, it had an adverse effect on my game and what not. It was a tough season for me personally and I was driven to quiting the whole damn thing on several points (and a number of my apparel failed or started to fail as well!) and the ironic thing is that I did enjoyed several productive and tiring practice sessions and I literally played nothing this year. I have never missed 'my very own fantasy baseball team' so bad that I did this year...or at least my closest buddies who I could have a word or two over a drink or something, man I am so far and I miss my people!

On a seperate and sort of relevant note, I had the chance of playing at the national arena tomorrow in a stress-free and the-result-doesn't-matter game since our home game was cancelled last Saturday due to rain. I think I would have enjoyed taking on that field but unfortunately I can not since I have to stay home with the kid...deepest sigh! And then I will miss a doubleheader some 600 Km away since I will be away to on a reunion, not that it matters.

New 2

2011-08-14T11:24:00.001+02:00

Resolution 12. Readings and learning of Hagakure should be carried out on daily basis.

Resolution 13. Learn the thing that you have always wanted to learn, and don't be lazy about it!

A decade!

2011-08-13T11:05:00.011+02:00

Today marks the tenth year of me leaving "home" for a new home, not that there's anything significant about it. Man, what a ride has it been even though the pace has been remarkably lower in the past couple of years. I suppose it is fair to say that the highlight of the last 'decade' (I like use this word to make it look more grand) top 5 noteworthy happenings, without particular order, can be defined as:

1. First child

2. Marriage

3. Graduation

4. Travels

5. Aging or rather noticing the aging!

Better not to get entangled with nostalgic feelings and in the past, andiamo avanti all the way.

Closing:

"To be yourself is all that you can be..."

- Chris Cornell

Happy 1st birthday!

2011-08-12T12:30:00.003+02:00

Cet indéfinissable charme

Cette petite flamme...

Metallica in Ullevi on May 30, 2004

2011-08-12T11:00:00.001+02:00

Playlist XI.

1. "The Ecstasy of Gold" by Ennio Morricone

2. "Blackened"

3. "Fuel"

4. "Harvester of Sorrow"

5. "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"

6. "Frantic"

7. "For Whom the Bell Tolls"

8. "I Disappear"

9. "St. Anger"

10. "Sad But True"

11. "Creeping Death"

12. "Battery"

13. "Wherever I May Roam"

14. "Nothing Else Matters"

15. "Master of Puppets"

16. "One"

17. "Enter Sandman"

18. "Leper Messiah"

19. "Seek & Destroy"

Forty six and two

2011-08-11T21:09:00.001+02:00

My shadow's

Shedding skin and

I've been picking scabs again

I'm down

Digging through

My old muscles

Looking for a clue

I've been crawling on my belly

Clearing out what could've been

I've been wallowing in my own confused and insecure delusions

For a piece to cross me over

Or a word to guide me in

I wanna feel the changes coming down

I wanna know what I've been hiding in

My shadow

Change is coming through my shadow

My shadow's

Shedding skin

I've been picking scabs again

I've been crawling on my belly

Clearing out what could've been

I've wallowing in my own chaotic and insecure delusions

I wanna feel the change consume me

Feel the outside turning in

I wanna feel the metamorphosis and

Cleansing I've endured within

My shadow

Change is coming

Now it's my time

Listen to my muscle memory

Contemplate what I've been clinging to

Forty-six and two ahead of me

I choose to live and to

Grow, take and give and to

Move, learn and love and to

Cry, kill and die and to

Be paranoid and to

Lie, hate and fear and to

Do what it takes to move through

I choose to live and to

Lie, kill and give and to

Die, learn and love and to

Do what it takes to step through

See my shadow changing

Stretching up and over me

Soften this old armor

Hoping it can clear the way by

Stepping through my shadow

Coming out the other side

Step into the shadow

Forty-six and two are just ahead of me

A Serbian Film

2011-08-10T10:12:00.001+02:00

This is by far the sickest and most disturbing movie that I have even seen, "Irréversible" is absolutely nothing compared to this. Tim Anderson says, and I can not agree more, "If what I have written here is enough to turn your feelings of wonder into a burning desire to watch this monstrosity, then perhaps I haven't been clear enough. You don't want to see Serbian Film. You just think you do."

I am just wondering what purpose does it serve to make such a twisted and disgusting movie, I guess human being never stop amazing one other.

My god....so sick!

Lesson never learnd

2011-07-26T11:15:00.001+02:00

What recently unfolded in Norway reminds us, yet again, that any kind fundamentalism or extremism is doomed to result in catasrophe in which the lives of innocent people is most often lost. And it really doesn't matter what ideology, culture, up-bringing, geographical location or religion you have, the outcome is pure disaster. Unfortunately, this was not the first of its kind and I amvery much afraid that it won't be the last.

What the...?

2011-07-26T11:03:00.000+02:00

Perfect weather, not too warm, not too cold, with a tiny dash of cool breeze, slightly cloudy to cover the strength of sun rays, perfectly cut grass and well done clay for the infield, an up-raised pitching machine, lots of new balls, cage, electricity, bats...the stage is set for a good sweating and everything you could possibly need for a wonderful practice or intersquad game is available. How many present? 4! Only 4 people showed up for the practice yesterday and that includes the coach. What the hell?!?! We ended up with 120 swings each and that's about it. I suppose people were on 'vacation'....my god!...so much for the attitude of team with winning ambitions.

Unbelievable!

2011-07-22T14:23:00.000+02:00

By 2107 tonight, it has gone exactly one year since my sunshine was born.

Oh man!

I just can't believe how fast it has gone; probably the fastest year of my life! Once again, I am speechless, I wish I could only freeze the time, right here, right now.

Oh my!

2011-07-18T12:44:00.000+02:00

It is amazing that how a series of tiny, unrelated, careless and stupid events can ruin an entire entity.

It's just bloody amazing!

Fortune, fame, mirror vain

2011-07-16T23:04:00.000+02:00

No one writes to me.

No one reads this.

"No one writes to the Colonel."

And yet, the Colonel checks his mail every day, sometimes twice a day...

Cold water

2011-07-09T13:17:00.001+02:00

Memory: After a hard fought basketball game, I used to head to the shower room at the back of the locker room and seldom took a shower there. Instead, I opened the tap and let the water ran till it got cold (this was a pleasant waiting) and I drank endlessly from it "the way that camels close in on water!" I then washed my face, arms up to elbow, armpits and back of my neck, the drops of cold water ran down my body...an amazing uncomfortable feeling. Slowly I dried myself and without saying much words, I let myself sink very smoothly into a state of mental stand-by and never said much while others were usually making a lot of noise by talking trash or pure nonsense with the never-ending voice of gym caretaker in the background bugging us to leave the locker room ASAP since it was either too late and he wanted to catch his ride home or it was ladies' practice.

After heading out from the gym, we crammed in a few cars there were available and went some place to grab a bite and chill out; to sip slowly a large cold drink which tasted as sweet as victory.

From The Hurt Locker

2011-07-07T00:20:00.003+02:00

Colonel Reed: You the guy in the flaming car, Sergeant James?

Staff Sergeant William James: Afternoon, sir. Uh, yes, sir.

Colonel Reed: Well, that's just hot shit. You're a wild man, you know that?

Staff Sergeant William James: Uh, yes, sir.

Colonel Reed: He's a wild man. You know that? I want to shake your hand.

Staff Sergeant William James: Thank you, sir.

Colonel Reed: Yeah, how many bombs have you disarmed?

Staff Sergeant William James: Uh, I'm not quite sure.

Colonel Reed: Sergeant?

Staff Sergeant William James: Yes, sir.

Colonel Reed: I asked you a question.

Staff Sergeant William James: Eight hundred seventy-three, sir.

Colonel Reed: Eight hundred! And seventy-three. Eight hundred! And seventy-three. That's just hot shit. Eight hundred and seventy-three.

Staff Sergeant William James: Counting today, sir, yes.

Colonel Reed: That's gotta be record. What's the best way to...go about disarming one of these things?

Staff Sergeant William James: The way you don't die, sir.

Colonel Reed: That's a good one. That's spoken like a wild man. That's good.

Source: imdb.com

The Big 4

2011-07-05T14:15:00.002+02:00

I was at the Big 4 concert 2 days ago, a very impressive line up that included Anthrax, Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. We entered the Ullevi arena at around 1730 and when we left, it was 0015 or something. Obviously, Metallica was the last act and they played for a good 2 hours non-stop. Others played for one hour and there was a roughly 30 minutes break between each of them. One day before the concert, I realized that the Swedish national TV i.e. SVT was going to show the whole concert live, one of the few things that can only happen in Sweden. I remember that they did the same for Iron Maiden concert back in 2005. I am sure I would have gone to the concert had I known this before, but I'm sure glad that I did specially now that I think back and remember that I missed the Sonicsphere festival last year in Istanbul despite buying the 3-day pass and flight tickets. Anyway, here's my take on the show:

Anthrax:

I myself have never been much into them, so I didn't care for their performance much. The sound quality was not good neither and the only guy that I knew from the band i.e. Scott "NOT" Ian was not there. Andreas Kisser of Sepultura was with them instead and the highlight of their performance was when they played "Refuse/Resist"shortly. I just noticed one of their songs which is called "Antisocial".

Megadeth:

They were a major disappointment despite having a quite good track list which included the likes of "Holy Wars", "Hangar 18", "Peace sells", "Symphony of Destruction", "Trust" (the opening song) and "In my darkest hour". The sound quality was bad and I could barely hear Mustaine's voice. Although Ellefson was also there, they looked not so excited throughout their performance and conveyed little energy to the people.

Slayer:

Same ol usual stuff with a not so good track list. Of all the famous hits (or my favorites) they played only "War Ensemble", "South of Heaven" and "Raining Blood". Kerry King claimed that he had many technical problems in the beginning of the show and I noticed that Dave Lombardo was kind of arguing with behind the stage staff at one or two occasions while playing drums. Tom Araya looked very strange as he was at times smiling with no reason and his few attempts to engage with people were lame and unsuccessful. Jeff Hannemann was not present due to a spider bite (I discovered later) and they had brought a guy from Exodus which was OK. The other tracks were unknown for me but they rocked pretty hard in total.

Metallica:

Despite being commercial and very mainstream, they were by far the best of the night. At one point, I was thinking to myself that even if they had started in 1981, it has been 30 freaking years that they are doing this and that itself is something. James, Lars, Kirk and even Rob played hard and rocked the whole town with great energy. The track list was:

1. Hit the lights: massive song for opening the concert!

2. Master of puppets

3. The shortest straw

4. Seek & destroy

5. Welcome home (Sanitarium)

6. Ride the lightning

7. The memory remains

8. All nightmare long

9. Sad but true

10. The call of Ktulu: the fact that they played an instrumental song was really cool but I would have prefered "Orion" or "To live is to die"

11. One

12. For whom the bell tolls: I went crazy for this one!

13. Blackened

14. Fade to black

15. Enter sandman

16. Am I evil: They brought all the other bands on stage to play this one, yet again Mustain's could not be heard at all and I noticed that no one from Slayer was up there. I read in the paper the day after that Kerry King said they decided not to show up since they changed the song from "So What" to "Am I evil" in the last second which I find was pure BS since they had played this song together with other bands in Big 4 in other places.

17. Damage Inc.

18. Creeping death: a great song for closing

Of course, I would have put up another track list had they left it to me but I was very happy at the end. One cool aspect with them was that they always put some of the not-so-well known tracks in the list and not insist much on the latest material. It was an excellent concert nonetheless.

First day of parental leave

2011-07-05T13:16:00.000+02:00

Today, I officially started my first day of 4 month parental leave and it started off not as smooth as I was hoping for: woke up with sore throat and after working for a good 3 hours non-stop trying to get things in order in the house and one hour of unsuccessful bout to put the kid into sleep, I noticed that not only I have to change the diapers but also due to an unfortunate 'leakage', all my white shirt and my brand new pants are stained with stool...one hell of a way to kick things off!

90's Alternative

2011-05-28T12:02:00.001+02:00

Playlist X.

1. "Sure Shot" Beastie Boys

2. "Devil's Haircut" Beck

3. "Song II" Blur

4. "Creep" Radiohead

5. "Wonderwall" Oasis

6. "Big Me" Foo Fighters

7. "In Bloom" Nirvana

8. "Down By The Water" PJ Harvey

9. "Only Happy When It Rains" Garbage

10. "Sabotage" Beastie Boys

We who are

2011-05-14T09:46:00.001+02:00

We who are not as others

Huckleberry

2011-05-12T14:31:00.005+02:00

Our coach for this season is a retired sherif from Chicago area called Tom "Huckleberry" Nolan, the author of the book titled "Chasing dreams - I". He is one helluv a character and at times, he does remind me of our dear friend, Chewie. We've had such interesting discussions that I was (and still am!) very much tempted to record our exchanges, sometimes of pure philosophical nature, to get myself good material for this blog for some time to come. We've had a couple of high tempo practices which were exactly of my taste: non-stop hard work and sweat. How much our little team with so limited assets will accomplish under his leadership is yet to be seen since making some soup out of this mix of uneven (read oil and water) chemistry and being short-handed almost at all times is a very tough challenge.

I am reading his book on the way to and from work and I can say that the baseball content of the book is very rich to say the least. Anyhow, I am more than happy to experience a real (probably my first ever) baseball coach and I will try to squeeze as much as I can out of him which given his "Hilly Billy Huckleberry" character is not an easy job. According to his book, "baseball is designed to have fun" and that (among some other minor things) is my main goal for this season.

Waiting for P & S

2011-05-07T19:23:00.002+02:00

Place: Geneva airport

In the flesh

2011-05-04T11:15:00.005+02:00

Back in the days, Pink Floyd and The Wall were incredibly popular at home, everyone liked them and even those who couldn't spell their name or their tracks were spraying Pink Floyd on the walls. This wide popularity which I regarded to be genuinely shallow led me to dislike or rather hating them without even listening to their music for once. This and the fact that my brother and my musical idol wrote something on my wall but that's a whole another story. Anyhow, in the early days of my university, a good friend of mine aka mzmk_ir, who was much into Pink, gave me a print out of the lyrics of The Wall album and a worn cassette and insisted that I gave it a shot. I was reluctant at first but finally I gave in and...well, as cheezy as it sounds, the rest is history.

Now many years have passed since I started listening to Pink and many many unforgettable moments have been created throughout the years that are associated one way or another with Pink Floyd. Tonight, I am going to see Roger Waters play The Wall (for a last time?) and I know that when I hear the last solo of "Comfortably Numb", I will be crying out loud with each and every one of these people right beside me:

Xerxes_g

Mazda

Farah

mzmk_ir: Thank you again for showing me the light!

Amin Feiz

babak4

bsrod

sagmehr

lolo

Alim

Chewie

p.kh
aghahe
Soord

dadasha

k-me

Said B

Parsa & Farzad

Peyman & Mazi S

Ishtinbil

Stephon S

Gharach

Shirzadi

FFaili

KAZZ
ARNouri
PTL
The boys of mtl-75

And many more which just don't pop into my mind at the moment, it's gonna be a blast y'all!

My fantasy baseball team

2011-04-20T11:10:00.007+02:00

Shagging in the outfield during BP is slow and boring job but at the same time, it gives you some time to contemplate. I normally get drowned in my own thoughts and here's one of them: What if I could replace everyone in this team with 'my guys'? That would have been mainly my friends who were related one way or another to basketball. What if we all played baseball instead and formed a so-called "doostan" baseball team? So without further ado here's the line-up of such fantasy team:

1. Pitcher: AHF: Simply because he is the only one with solid pitching experience. McVich would be the relief pitcher or closer but his arsenal is limited. We need more pitchers and the fact that our pitching staff is not so deep would be an eminent weakness of our team.

2. Catcher: AJK aka Chewbacca: He would be one of the few or the only catcher who throws with left, yet another one of his mysteries! He is capable of stopping the runners on home plate and with a good left arm, he can throw straight to 2nd to burn the stealing runners. His knowledge of the game and being able to call the game correctly is a given and more importantly, he can/does establish a good chemistry with the man on the mound.

3. 1st base: Ghajar: He is also an obvious choice, one of the power sluggers in the team who fits perfectly well for 1st base.

4. 2nd base: Mani: Here I had a hard time to find the right person but I think he will do very well in this roll. He is short and fast and we definitely could use some fast runners on the offensive end. He covers his area well and doesn't need to have a very strong arm as he throws mainly to 1st or 2nd.

5. 3rd base: Myself: I put myself in my favorite position and I have a good on and off the game contact with all the infielders and pitcher and catcher.

6. Short stop: Shirzadi: Again, difficult to find a suitable person here but Shirzadi's agility and many other capabilities as well as his unselfishness and game vision leaves me with no other better choice.

7. Left field: Kamran Nejad: Because he is a lefty and the slowness of outfield activity fits his character.

8. Center field: Farah: Another power hitter in center with good arm to throw to 2, 3 and home.

9. Right field: Mazda: 2nd fast runner in the roster and a righty.

1st base coach: Ffaili: Functions mostly as a moral support and is in synch with 3rd base coach.

3rd base coach/batting coach: Fkhaleghi: He is the perfect person to take advantage of every tiny mistake by the opponents, read their game and give the orders accordingly.

Pitching coach: BTourani: I don't think I need to say anything here.

Manager: Kavoos: Tobacco chewing, short tempered and extremely foul-mouthed manager with little knowledge of the game and is in constant fight with umpires, gets tossed out frequently and kills each and every one of us on practices with conditioning drills and hard labor, he is JUST PERFECT for us.

Batting order:

1. Mani

2. Mazda

3. Ghajar

4. Myself

5. Shirzadi

6. AHF

7. Nejad

8. Farah

9. Chewi

In the dugout:

ATN (OF)

Hesam Z (OF/DH)

Nima (OF)

McVich (P, IN/OF)

Masters of improvisation

2011-04-18T22:02:00.001+02:00

Hossein Alizadeh Tar

Kayhan Kalhor Kamanche

Madjid Khaladj Daf/Tonbak

I saw these masters last year and at one point during the concert, I inevitably cried.

It was one fantastic spiritual journey.

I had seen Kalhor once before with Shujaat Husain Khan (sitar) and Swapan Chaudhuri (tabla) which formed Ghazal group and I enjoyed it a lot. Here's the thing: once you have seen Kalhor's playing, you can barely listen to others play kamanche, the bar is set so high that it is impossible to top. That performance had obviously more theme of Indian in it but this one, with the combination of Alizadeh and Khaladj was something else. It not only touched my heart but also made me proud, it seldom happens that you feel this way during a musical performance.

It was indeed something else.

Trademark songs of "You look so precious now..."

2011-04-15T12:43:00.002+02:00

Playlist IX.

1. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" Metallica

2. "Paranoid" Black Sabbath

3. "In The End" Linkin Park

4. "The Beautiful People" Marylin Manson

5. "South Of Heaven" Slayer

6. "Breathe" The Prodigy

7. "Aenima" Tool

8. "Dead Skin Mask" Slayer

9. "Dead Horse" Guns N' Roses

10. "No Leaf Clover" Metallica

A little house keeping

2011-04-14T13:13:00.006+02:00

Work is being done to find a new and better look for the blog...veuillez patienter!

Courchevel

2011-04-11T12:14:00.005+02:00

The love of the mountains and the thirst for feeling the raw and unfiltered speed were sufficiently quenched by one week of staying at propbably the largest ski resort in the world. The picture below does the justice to the beauty and the greatness of the 'matter' at hand more a thousand words.

Photo courtesy of AB.

One of the many subjects that the company of ours touched during this trip was the reason why we are so passionate about mountains. Answer (according to me): Because they remind us how minuscule we are in terms of being a 'being' and that, somehow, not only makes us happy in a strange sort of way but also creates a sense of passion and respect. The same goes with the stars and heavenly bodies or bodies of water in the nature. It's just that different people choose different paths; some choose the mountains, some choose the sky and some choose the sea. This long discussion is better left unfinished here and in conclusion, on a sort of irrelevant note, I wrap up by a quote by non-other than his holiness(?) The North Face which was reminded to us by Mr.P himself:

"Never stop exploring!"

Season started

2011-04-11T11:21:00.003+02:00

Yesterday, I kicked off my baseball season with a good practice. 8 months of sloth and gluttony has not done me good: I have got a pleasant pain in various parts of the body today and I hope that I get back into some form of acceptable condition with good consistency...fingers crossed!

The most important thing is however to find the right mindset and goal through the season, a real mental challenge that has to be resolved somehow.

Where have all the cowboys gone?

2011-04-11T11:19:00.002+02:00

Letters to Clarice...last updated 1 month ago

banoon.blogspot.com...last updated 1 month ago

Thoughts ++...last updated 1 month ago

Xerxes...last updated 2 month ago

confessions and cerebral mal-function...last updated 2 month ago

jookhe.blogspot.com...last updated 2 month ago

What am I doing here...last updated 2 month ago

Where is everyone?

What should I read now?

Well I guess I should just carry the flag meself: 2 weeks of parental leave should give me enough time to make up for the past and the other cowboys, so

Andiamo avanti!

One of my dilemmas solved...once and for all!

2011-03-19T23:21:00.003+01:00

I am releived to see that according to Merriam-Webster:

"A preposition is a perfectly approproate kind of word to end a sentence with."

As an objective evidence for truenss of such claim, it may suffice to remind oneself of the response of Sir Winston Churchill to all the people who were against ending a sentnece with preposition:

"This is just the sort of nonsense up with which I will not put!"

From the new machine

2011-03-19T18:47:00.005+01:00

This is the first post that I am writing from my new iMac machine. The decision to get one was made about 1.5 years ago but it materialized 2 weeks ago. Like the saying which goes "Once you go Mac, you never go back", I can see myself never ever go back to that Windows crap.

Ce...leb...rate good times, come on!

Uncanny resemblance 5

2011-01-25T21:43:00.002+01:00

...or maybe not?!

Leaving Las Vegas

2011-01-25T15:25:00.005+01:00

This film is more about loneliness than anything else. How human beings feel, behave and react when they are lonely, and how miserable they become in that state. It is very sad story of loneliness in the shadow of all that extravagant Vegas life; a grave and yet attractive contrast.

Why are we build that way? Why can't we just bear loneliness? Why does it drive us crazy? And above all, why are we all so god damn lonely at the end of the day?

Roy is gone, King is in

2011-01-19T11:55:00.003+01:00

After a turbulent and mostly disappointing couple of months, the man I once labeled "the best manager money can buy" left and King Kenny was brought in to induce some adrenaline in our wrecked ship. While he is yet to win a game after 3 matches, I personally believe that we should have stayed with Roy a bit longer and given him some time to make his impact. Kenny, however very popular among hardcore fans, has been away from the scene for too long and doesn't seem to have his mojo these days, unless he performs some magic right off his sleeve.

A good analysis of short reign of Hodgson can be found here at Phil McNulty's blog.

Depressing times nonetheless, we just have to hang in there and not lose our faith; not the easiest job.

It's not you...

2011-01-19T11:51:00.001+01:00

Scene from the episode "The Lip Reader" of season 5 of TV series Seinfeld.

[Setting: Monk's coffee shop]

Gwen: I'm sorry George.
George: I don't understand, things were going so great. What happened? Something must have happened.
Gwen: It's not you, it's me.
George: You're giving me the "it's not you, it's me" routine? I invented "it's not you, it's me". Nobody tells me it's them not me, if it's anybody it's me.

Gwen: All right George, it's you.

George: You're DAMN right it's me!

Into thin air

2011-01-18T14:45:00.004+01:00

1. Go to control panel, select add or remove programs, a window with a list of programs installed on your computer shows up. When selecting each program, it also states how often that program is used. So is the same with every man's character or soul or whatever. Everyone has many sides, facets, programs into his being, some are used very often and on daily basis, some are used occasionally or rarely. Nevertheless these sides are still there until being uninstalled completely.

2. Mountains and climbing them is one of the sides of me which I seldom use nowadays. Being born and raised at the foot of Alborz range, I have always had a deep passion and a high respect for the mountains. I used to watch the mountains, which laid to the north of the city, and dream of being on top of them. This spiritual experience materialized even more every time I laid eyes on Mount Damavand (5610m) whenever clear air allowed the naked eye to see the ceiling of the world (gonbad-e giti) from a 60 km distance.

3. My late grandparents used to escape the heat of the summer in the city and go to their village which was in the higher altitude (compared to THR) somewhere inside the Alborz range. When I visited them during summer vacations, my grandfather use to take me to the nearby mountains and their peaks which surrounded the village. These hikes, or climbs as I used to call them back then, were at times demanding for me and more importantly, very long. We could have spent a whole day in the mountains just wandering around or chase a mountain deer in vain. When we sat down at our camps or top of the peaks, we started some fire to make the smoked tea and we drank it with grilled local cheese and bread. At the end of the day, I was completely spent (I was visiting them from early age until I was a young teenage or something) and normally passed out after dinner. My grandfather was avid hiker. He always took these long hikes in the mountains, even in the city he walked everywhere. Very seldom did he take bus or cab to get to his destination. He walked. I guess I took his passion for nature and mountains during these hikes. My father also took me for hikes in the nearby mountains almost regularly during weekends. When I grew a bit older (and so did he!), I continued this activity with friends for the fun of it for many years.

4. The pinnacle of my mountaineering was a ascend of Mount Tochal (3964 Km) which I did with 2 close friends. We started in the evening from very bottom and slept at 2 story building which served as a sleeping camp for climbers. We attacked the peak at 6am in the morning after and we were on the summit by 9am. It was beginning of the fall and the first snow had landed on the slopes. We left the main route intentionally to save time and climbed a glacier instead. We were poorly equipped for any kind of ice work i.e. no ropes or ice axes or any rescue gear, just the not-so-watertight military boot and crampons and some extra clothes and food in the backpack. It was indeed the most difficult and the most satisfying climb that I have ever done in my life. After spending a half hour or so on the top, we decided to descend to another side, and not having a compass or map, we got lost several times and we ended up hiking for 6 hours or so until we reached our destination. Stepping through a knee deep snow with nobody around, we slowly sank into a state of mental trance; we stopped complaining to one another and we moved on silently for hours. It was an unforgettable and sacred experience.

5. In 1996, Jon Krakauer was sent by Outside magazine along a commercial expedition to climb Mount Everest and write about it. A series of unpredicted events led to the fact that the worse tragedy in the history of climbing this mountains unfolds and Krakauer tells his take on that in this book. In the beginning, he tells a little bit of the history of climbing Everest which at first sight, seems kind of boring but it is very interesting and worth reading at the end. The book is filled with a number of interesting parallel stories as well as thoughtful quotes at the start of each chapter in the same manner as Into The Wild. It is obvious that he has done a good job in conducting a systematic research on the subject especially when some of his errors came to light after his piece was sent to press in Outside (he wrote an article for outside first right after coming back from Nepal but then he realized that he has failed to pay his dues to the tragedy so he wrote a book with more details and concrete research).

6. I have very seldom encountered any book like Into Thin Air. I can only think of Papillon by Henry Charrièr in this category for the time being. However, I must emphasize that my fascination to this book is in a whole new level. I was staying with a friend for a couple of days and he had a very bad cold. He could barely do anything, lying in bed all day with doors and windows shut tight at the end of the summer making his small studio flat a sauna. All he did during that time was to read this book. This rose my curiosity so I started reading that book a while after and I finished it in 2 weeks. I don't remember that I have read any book so fast. By now, I have read this book 3 times, each time I got it more than the previous one. I suppose not only I am attracted to the style of writing and the way the story is being told but it somehow touches some sides (read programs) of me that I rarely use these days and brings that old but not-died-out passion to the surface.

7. I know I can go on and on and write about this book and my fascination with the subject matter and yet feel that I haven't done justice to it. Hence, I decide to leave it as it is - unfinished - and just wrap this up with an extract from the book:

"...Mountaineering tends to draw men and women not easily deflected from their goals. By this late stage in the expedition we had all been subjected to levels of misery and peril that would have sent more balanced individuals packing for home long ago. To get this far one had to have uncommonly obdurate personality.

Unfortunately, the sort of individual who is programmed to ignore personal distress and keep pushing for the top is frequently programmed to disregard signs of grave and imminent danger as well. This forms the nub of a dilemma that every Everest climber eventually comes up against: in order to succeed you must be exceedingly driven, but if you are too driven you're likely to die. Above 26,000 feet, moreover, the line between appropriate zeal and reckless summit fever becomes grievously thin. Thus the slopes of Everest are littered with corpses..."

Laugh, clown!

2011-01-03T12:34:00.004+01:00

"Ridi, Pagliaccio,

sul tuo amore infranto!

Ridi del duol, che t'avvelena il cor!"

Words by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

At the bottom of the hole

2011-01-03T10:47:00.001+01:00

Source: swipelife.com: Inappropriate Golden Books: Movies R, Fun by Josh Cooley

Tourani letters

2010-12-30T10:16:00.007+01:00

Back in the days, my father had a book in his library titled "The letters of a father to his daughter" by the great Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru. I never read that book and I regret that deeply. I know now that he wrote about 30 letters to his then 10 year old daughter, Indira Gandhi teaching her about life and everything else. The idea of writing letters to my daughter from this early age i.e. 5 months old is per se very interesting and most tickling. However, my dear friend BT, who wrote a letter upon her birth developed this idea further and one email and a reminder in the PS after, he started a blog on these letters. The main drawback, in my opinion, is that not until you have taken long walks after a hyper exciting and controversial basketball match with him on the way home* or spent time with him in worn-out and dirty student dorms on basketball tournies, it is a bit difficult to FEEL these letters, I suppose only a handful of people are in that circle.

*The philosophical exchange of 'BS fiction' nature after the climax of a sparked game, in some cultures, can be regarded equal to joy of a fat J on summit after a long climb.

Long nights

2010-12-11T11:03:00.002+01:00

Words by Eddie Vedder.

Have no fear
For when I'm alone
I'll be better off than I was before

I've got this light
I'll be around to grow
Who I was before
I cannot recall

Long nights allow me to feel...
I'm falling...I'm falling
The lights go out
Let me feel
I'm falling
I'm falling safely to the ground
Ah...

I'll take this soul that's inside me now
Like a brand new friend
I'll forever know

I've got this light
And the will to show
I will always be better than before

Long nights allow me to feel...
I'm falling...I'm falling
The lights go out
Let me feel
I'm falling
I'm falling safely yo the ground

Re: Into the wild

2010-12-10T15:55:00.005+01:00

I finally finished reading this book on the way to and from work on the bus. Like the other book by Krakauer, it is well written, well researched, rich in meaningful and deep quotes and very enjoyable book. Despite what I was thinking, the film still stands well as a good adaptation as far as the story of the boy is concerned. The book however includes a very detailed insight to the matter as well as many parallel and similar stories. I particularly enjoyed the story of the solo climb of the writer to one of the peaks in Alaska. I suppose one could roughly claim that the touching music and beautiful scenery in the movie are analogous to the interesting and thought awakening quotes in the book, something which I have to return and study again and again.

My original post on the subject can be found here.

Long necked deer

2010-12-10T14:53:00.002+01:00

Once upon a time, in a far away land, there was a large savanna where many deers lived in. This place was so beautiful that no one had ever seen a more beautiful one. There were so many deers living there that no one had ever seen so many deers in one place, it was filled with green and sweet grass and there were so many water fountains that no deer was ever thirsty.

Every year, many deers were born in the herd and the herds grew larger and larger. One year, a young deer was born with a long neck. The news of this unusual birth was spread everywhere very quickly and groups of deers came to visit and mostly, they laughed at the long-necked young deer. The parent of long-necked deer were very sad but they couldn't do much about this. So they took their child and went away from the herd to find a quiet place to live so that their child will not be bothered anymore.

Times past and the young deer grew bigger and bigger and her neck grew longer and longer. When her parents noticed that she was old enough to take care of herself, they left her and went to join one of the large herds. The long-necked deer lived alone for a couple of days but then realized that living alone is very difficult so she decided to enter a large herd. A couple of big deers with long horns stopped her and the biggest of them came forward and asked, "What do you want here?" Long-necked deer said hello politely and said, "I have come to live with you guys." Before she had finished her sentence, all the deers laughed at her loudly. The long-necked deer became unhappy and thought to herself, "What a rude bunch of people! Probably all the deers in this herd are like these. I don't think I would like to live with them." So she continued and went to find another herd but it was the same story. When she asked them why they were laughing, the big deer said laughingly, "You want to live with us with that long neck?"

Long necked deer said, "Yes, may I?"

The big deer frowned and said, "We will never let you live with us because other deers will make fun of us and we will be embarrassed and be forced to move out of this place."

The long necked-deer said, "Which herd should I join in then? There are deers in every one of them and I can not live alone!"

The big deer said, "With that long neck, no one will ever let you in."

The long necked-deer said, "But I am a nice and kind deer, I will keep quiet and work even harder than everyone else."

The big deer got mad and while he was pointing his sharp and long horns toward her said, "We will never ever let you in our herd and if you come close to us one more time, we will hit you with our horns!"

The long-necked deer was very sad and left them while thinking, "There are many other herds, one of them will eventually accept me..." but she had no success. Everywhere she went, she got rejected and at the end, she went far away. So far that there was no other deer around and she settled by a small body of water. She was very lonely and there was no one to talk to but she had to put up with all these hardships. She never let go of the thought of living among other deers however.

Many years passed by and many deers were added to the herds and no one remembered the long-necked deer anymore until one year, there was no rain. Days passed without any rain. Fountains and pools became less, the grass turned yellow. After a few more days, all the water dried and the grass burned and yet, no rain. The deers were hungry and thirsty. At first, they thought that only one part has dried but the more they looked, the less they found food or water. Many of them died because of thirst or hunger and the large herds became smaller and smaller.

The deers were looking at the clear blue sky until one day, a very large and black piece of cloud showed up and since he was tired, he stayed there right above them and went to sleep. The deers were very happy to see the cloud but the cloud was tight asleep and no rain came. The deers gathered to see what should they do. The wisest of them all said, "We have to ask the cloud to give us the rain." Everyone accepted and then, the wisest deer turned to the cloud and said, "O dear cloud! Could I ask you to give us some rain since without it, we all are going to die from hunger and thirst." But the cloud was asleep and couldn't hear him. The deers screamed their request all together, the could was still sleeping. The deers looked if there were any hills or mountains which they could climb and make themselves heard, but there were any as the field was flat. The all got very sad because if the cloud would wake up, he would leave without giving any rain and everyone would have died. Suddenly, the oldest deer remembered the long-necked deer and said, "Do you remember the long-necked deer who wanted to live with us and we didn't let her?"
"Yes, we do. What can she do for us?" replied the deers.
"If we find her, she can talk to the cloud with her long neck." said the old deer. The deers were all happy and asked him to find the long-necked deer.

The old deer accepted and went on to find her. He went and went and before finding her, because he was too tired and too hungry, he passed out in one remote corner. When he woke up, he saw long-necked deer with some water and grass sitting beside him.

He was very surprised and asked, "Are there still any water or grass around here?"
The long-necked deer said, "Where you live, there are many deers and they eat up all the food and water. Since I live alone here, there is still little left for me." After eating his food and water, the old deer said, "It's true that we have not treated you kindly, but we need your help." The long-necked deer said, "I like you all and I am ready to help you but no one had ever asked for my help before."
"We need your help now." said the old deer and told her the story of the cloud and the drought.

The long-necked deer thought for a while and then stood up, turned to the cloud and shouted loudly, "O dear cloud! give us some rain please!" The cloud heard her and was awake. Looking to long-necked deer he asked, " Who are you and why did you wake me up?" The long-necked deer went closer and told him the story of her life.

When the cloud heard that no one let her into their herd and she has been forced to live alone, he felt sorry for her and cried. He stayed there for a couple of days and nights and cried. Instead of tears drops, big rain drops fell over the field. The fountains were again filled with water and green and sweet grass started to grow again. The deers were sorry for the way the had treated the long-necked deer and went to her and asked for forgiveness. She forgave them all and they all live happily ever after in the big beautiful field.

Story (in Persian) by Jamshid Sepahi
Drawings by Youta Azargin

Lezaj*

2010-11-21T07:47:00.011+01:00

After ca 10 months of laziness and mental battle, I convinced myself (read was forced!) to head to the gym and started work out at a gym just a walking distance away from my home. I had passed by there many times and from the look outside, I tell you it wasn't that pretty. When I went in and signed up, I realized that in this case, one could easily judge the book by its cover. In fact, it was much worse. A not-so-big worn out and crappy gym with old equipments and most notably, a revolting stench. It reminded me of Lezaj very much, a gym that I used to go very close to my home back in the days. They play very loud music which could be annoying at times. None of these, bothered me at all as opposed to my previous gym which was the most expensive one in town and I was very unhappy with. As a matter of fact, I kind of like it because:

1. It is Lezaj in every sense! So there is a sort of nostalgic touch to it.

2. It has all the basic equipments for all the fundamental exercises that I like to do.

3. Due to the vast macho/hardcore atmosphere governing the place, they play mostly heavy metal and rock music which is more than fine with me. Yesterday I was about to leave the place when Rammstein songs came up, I stayed a bit longer and add some abs!

All in all, I am quite happy to have left the state of sloth or sponge as we used to say, I just hope that consistency doesn't fade away.

*Lezaj is the name of a gym taken from "Quick and Flupke" series by Hergé. Just for the sake of nostalgia, I put one episode of them below, unfortunately I could not find the one with the gym.

A statement

2010-11-16T11:51:00.003+01:00

After 2010-07-22, 21:07, every single second that I have not spent with her has been, is and will be a total waste and hence a complete loss. Sad thing is that these seconds will never ever be gained back.

- Myself

Back to the deep

2010-11-01T17:00:00.005+01:00

With the start of the winter time, today is actually the first day that when I leave work, it is completely dark outside...and it is going to be a while before it gets bright by time I finish work. I feel like a fish who has come to the surface of the water for some light and now it's time to head back down to the depths of the ocean again.

Fire is the cure

2010-10-31T09:44:00.002+01:00

3 months and a week

2010-10-29T12:16:00.001+02:00

By 2100 tonight, it will be exactly 3 months and 1 week since my daughter was born. To be perfectly honest, I still find myself in a state of disbelief from time to time. Where did she come from? Who is she? How did she conquer me? Oh man, I love her so much and I have been enjoying every single second of being with her, I already miss her early days so bad, hell I already miss her yesterday so bad! She has been nothing short of THE BEST in every aspect. Sad and at the same time most joyful thing is that she is growing so fast right in from of my eyes, she has changed a lot from early days, the days that I wasn't myself and did everything by instinct without thinking or pausing for a second. That was one amazing experience and like I have said before, beyond words and inexplicable. I just want to sit and look at her endlessly, I wish I could freeze the time and enjoy her current age even more but that's impossible! she has been the sole bright light of the past low times. My wife and I can not be happier and we are very grateful for having such a wonderful gift with us. At this point, I am going from "most beautiful girl in the world" which per se is still valid to "The most beautiful thing in the world" which I strongly believe is an understatement.

Apathetic

2010-10-28T19:27:00.004+02:00

Yes, that's how I feel about this year's World Series. Why? Because:

1. I don't like the Giants closer Brian Wilson, I think he looks ridiculous in that stupid beard. I don't care if SF has made it there for the first time in history. The hell with them...very nice park though!

2. Former owners of Liverpool which pulled the club down to unprecedented levels as well as Mr. W himself were former owners of Texas Rangers, so sorry cowboys, no love from this guy to you!

Problem located!

2010-10-28T12:56:00.001+02:00

Q. Why I don't write as often as I want to?
A. Because I don't read my own blog as much as I read others' blogs.

While I have failed to keep up with resolution 8 on the frequency of blogging, this Q&A calls for yet 2 more resolutions:

Resolution 10: Older posts have to be reviewed at least once a week.
Resolution 11: Posts should not stay in draft status more than a month.

I have to do a massive follow up on the resolutions and do some shake-up since I am way behind...not good, not good at all...consistency is the key goddamit!

Finally!

2010-10-28T12:32:00.002+02:00

Well, we saw it all: horrible season, massive debts, loss after loss, getting kicked out of the cups, reaching a new low after low, and long court battle on the ownership which ended hopefully for the better. Finally my beloved Reds won 'a game' last weekend to relief of everyone and reduce the pressure off manager and many others involved. Also El nino or Ferri as I like to call him scored after a long drought. Now we just have to hope that 'we will be holding our head up high' and reach 'the golden sky'.

Keep the faith and "We'll never walk alone".

Motorstorm

2010-10-26T21:05:00.002+02:00

My brother was bugging me for quite some time to try this game, actually he was refering to Motorstorm II and I responded exactly like myself: reluctant to try anything new. ATT who was kind enough to lend me his game i.e. Motorstorm (and not II!) and I tried it and came back again exactly the way I am: I got hooked up pretty good. I guess the high speeding and high jumping and the dirt and dust as well as the close competition and racing on the edges and above all, a Grand Canyon landscape together with acceptable dose of rock music in the background, just cut it for me. It's pity that they haven't put more tracks like "Breed"; I would have been happy to see some from Linkin Park and bands in the similar genres. I think one of the success factors lies behind the fact that it has been developed by Sony and, man those Sony people know what's gaming about: the existence of PS3 itself is an obvious proof of that.

Now, while I am still not done with this one, I am really looking forward to get my hands on the II and many thanks to my master for this.

Where were you

2010-10-06T12:43:00.004+02:00

A gray Sunday morning, the streets are empty...man and woman are in the car, man is driving, he is about to be away for some time...after a while woman puts man's sun shades on to cover her tears...both are silent...man is talking to her in his head:" For every single drop of tear that you have EVER shed, I have cried a thousand times...a thousand times...and you never noticed it since I always cry on the inside..."

Music from the car's stereo:" Where were you when I was burned and broken...While the days slipped by from my window watching..."

Pee-pipe stuff

2010-09-22T21:28:00.011+02:00

Scene from the episode "The Wife" of season 5 of TV series Seinfeld.

[Setting: Jerry's apartment]

George: They could kick me out of the health club if he tells them!
Elaine: So what do you want me to do?
George: Talk to him!
Elaine: How can I do that?
George: You said the guy gave you an open-lipped kiss!
Elaine (enunciating clearly so George gets the point): yes, but he wiped his hand on the top of the bottle when I offered him water!
George: Well, that doesn't mean anything!
Elaine: Are you kidding? That's very significant! If he was interested in me, he'd want my germs!
He's just crave my germs!
Jerry (patiently): She's right, George. Bottle-wipe is big.
George: Well, what about the open-lipped kiss?
Jerry: Bottle-wipe supercedes it.
George: Yeah, you're right. Alright, maybe he's not interested, but you still know him - can't you just ask him?
Elaine: George...but if I ask him now, I will have no chance of going out with him.
George: Why?
Elaine: I...I don't know...
George: Aha... aha! could it be because you don't want him to know that you have a friend who pees in the shower, is that it?!
Elaine: No, that's not it!
George: Oh, I think it is! I think that's exactly what it is!
Elaine: Why couldn't you just wait?
George: I was there! I saw a drain!
Elaine: Since when is a drain a toilet?
George: IT'S ALL PIPES! What's the difference?!
Elaine: Different pipes go to different places! You're gonna mix'em up!
George: I'll call a plumber right now!
Jerry: Alright, can we just drop all the pee-pipe stuff here?
Elaine (to George): Okay! Okay! I will talk to him.

Final notes on the season and a sort of conclusion

2010-09-17T13:21:00.002+02:00

Yeah, our season finished exactly 19 days ago and I am left with a slight emptiness even though, when looking back at the whole thing, lows can be found with much ease than highs. Anyway, I thought this would be good time to reflect and write down a few notes which may come handy later, a self evaluation if you will. So,

1. Throwing: Despite my higher ambitions early in the season, the same ol' problems are still there, mainly due to the fact that I never placed a consistent focus at the problem and try to solve it once and for all. In the practice sessions, given the limited time we had, we practiced on many things and we still ran short of time. Other than a warm-up catch ball and occasion infield-outfield drills, we didn't focus much on throwing and neither did I. The only thing that I noticed, which could easily be just random, is that in some days the throwing was better than my average. However these days were not numerous so still, there is a lot, and I mean A LOT of work has to be done. I hope that I will be able to put that on top of my agenda if there would be any sensible practices during winter. This inconsistency in throwing reminds me of my jump shots when I had very random and mostly low percentage jump shot and above all had no control of it for maybe 6 years or so until 'that day' that everything changed for the better. I must admit that I really focused and worked hard on that which yielded good results to a point that, I think, I was probably the only guy around whose jump shot was much better than his dribbling skills! Anyhow, I certainly hope that I'll be able to resolve this issue soon but you never know how long it's gonna take.

2. Fielding and stuff: I suppose I could sing the same song here but thanks to my own persistence and a little bit of practice I improved a bit on the fly balls despite the fact that I am still catching them in a wrong way i.e. one handed but it works OK unfortunately! so why complain much. Same applies with fielding ground balls but since I didn't practice on that equally as much, there are still A LOT of room for work.

3. Batting: I can not possibly emphasize more on how much work I have to put into that. I need more power, more coordination, more effectiveness, I need to hit line drives and what not, I need to face many live pitches, I need to do a lot! My performance in the farm team despite not getting the playing time that I think I deserved, was actually not so bad especially when I did a slight mental adjustment during a game and made a lot of hits. This was by far the highest point of the season and made me proud of myself for once at least. I guess you could argue that the performance of the pitchers in that division are not that good but still I give myself a lot of credit for hanging in there and making that shift for the better, it's not something that I do everyday!

4. Base running: I was picked a couple of times on the 1st, totally stupid. I need to run the bases with more aggression, more concentration and be able to read the plays better and faster. I need to get into shape for that and lose a couple of kilos first.

5. Mental: It would have been an understatement if I just go ahead and say that my head was just preoccupied during the season. There were many things going on, both related and unrelated to baseball. As far as baseball is concerned, I guess I can name 3 essential factors that gave me the most discomfort and hence resulted in unbalanced state of mind at times: a) the 'burden' of being benched: this was felt to an extent that I 'deserted' some games just to skip dealing with this, I really have to come into terms with it one way or another, b) the general lack of self-confidence leading me not to take the opportunities instead of welcoming them and c) the lack of close relationship with other teammates: this is something which has been there almost from beginning and I really don't have a remedy for that. I even tried to take a long trip to South in hopes of that spending more time with them during a journey would make us a bit closer and I took part in the team's party where most get drunk and supposedly more 'open' but I can confirm that not much has changed on that front. I did all these as I had a new born baby at home and leaving her with her mom was on my conscience all the time. There were also times that I felt that I had to specifically ask the coach for playing time and do certain things according to what I believed was right e.g. not wasting time during practice chatting and etc. Since I am not used to these uncomfortable circumstances and, I was left with a stark inner paradox which was not very pleasant to say the least.

All in all, I think I did gain some good experience for better or worse and if I am smart enough, I will be able to use these in the next season. But first, I have to work my butt off...

High speed climbing Mount X in autobahn

2010-08-28T16:33:00.005+02:00

Playlist VIII.

Part I by Rammstein

1. "Keine Lust"

2. "Eifersucht"

3. "Moskau"

4. "Du Hast"

5. "Sehnsucht"

Part II by Prodigy

6. "Smak my bitch up"

7. "Breathe"

8. "Funky Shit"

9. "Firestarter"

10. "Voodoo People"

Paradox

2010-08-25T15:06:00.002+02:00

Every time I feel like writing, I am not here.
Every time I am here, I don't feel like writing.

Vater und sohn 3

2010-08-21T11:53:00.007+02:00

On España: Part II

2010-08-19T12:54:00.001+02:00

Yo soy Español, Español, Español!" As a whistle in Johannesburg ended the final match of the 2010 World Cup, 5,000 miles away, an entire country burst into song. From the shirtless kids taking a celebratory jump into Madrid's Cibeles fountain to the couples draped in Spanish flags dancing their way down Barcelona's famous Ramblas, all of Spain, it seemed, was chanting the same joyful lyrics. But perhaps no one sang with more fervor than Mahbubul Alam. Watching the game through the window of a café in Madrid's Lavapiés neighborhood, his entire body shook as he belted out the words everyone was singing: "I am Spanish, Spanish, Spanish!" The fact that Alam is Bangladeshi hardly seemed to matter.

Every World Cup has its stories, but this year's competition was especially ripe with overarching narratives. From the romantic (in a live, postgame interview, ecstatic goalie Iker Casillas planted a kiss on the shocked reporter who — sigh! — just happened to be his girlfriend) to the financial (the win, promised several newspapers, would bring a boost to the foundering economy), Spain's 2010 World Cup was about so much more than goals and penalties. It was about identity — what it means to belong to the new Spain.

Take, for example, the spectacular rise of Spanish athletes. When Andrés Iniesta took the shot, deep in overtime, that would be the final's only goal, he brought to an end an 80-year drought that had left Spain, despite its undeniable talent, without even a World Cup semifinal to its name. Throw in Formula One star Fernando Alonso, a handful of basketball players who, when they're not tearing up the court individually for the Memphis Grizzlies or the L.A. Lakers, are together winning the European championship, and a tennis player you may have heard of named Rafael Nadal, and suddenly the country is an athletic powerhouse. "Thirty years ago our footballers would play in alpargatas [flat-soled espadrilles] on dirt fields," says Roberto Palomar, editor of the sports daily Marca. But when dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, the democracy that followed brought in a Socialist-led government that created state subsidies and built the infrastructure necessary to raise a generation of serious athletes. "Today, there's a multimillion-euro athletic center in every town, and they all have AstroTurf," says Palomar.

Spain's World Cup win also tells a compelling tale about nationalism. In a country where the provinces of Catalonia and the Basque country, each with its own language and heritage, strive for ever greater autonomy from the central government in Madrid, soccer has long been an arena for symbolic politics. The vicious rivalry between Barça and Real Madrid derives in large part from the fact that support for the Barcelona team was one of the few means that Catalans had during the 40 years of Franco's dictatorship to express their regional identity (Franco was a big Madrid fan). Many Catalans, who dream of one day fielding their own team at the World Cup, have been loath to support any team bearing the name of Spain.

But this year was different. The national team included seven Barça members and, by promoting itself as La Furia Roja (the Red Fury), garnered a broader embrace than it normally might have. "If you feel your nation isn't Spain ... calling them La [Furia] Roja lets you still feel passion for the team," says Barcelona-based communications consultant Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí. "Their uniform was a single color, but it held a variety of shades."

That doesn't mean football eradicated the country's regional tensions. The day before the final, Barcelona held a massive demonstration to protest the Spanish constitutional court's decision that the Catalonia region, although entitled to an extensive degree of autonomy, did not have the legal right to call itself a nation. But the following night some 75,000 Catalans turned up to watch the game on a giant screen that the municipal government, for the first time in its history, had erected outdoors. "I marched at the head of the procession on Saturday and then went home on Sunday to watch the game with my family," says Barcelona mayor Jordi Hereu. "You can do both."

The soccer-driven sense of togetherness didn't stop with the Catalans. In Lavapiés, one of Madrid's most ethnically diverse neighborhoods, Chinese wholesale shops press up against Moroccan butchers, and Peruvian women in long black skirts buy fruit from Senegalese grocers — all the result of a massive wave of immigration that has, in recent years, raised the percentage of Spain's foreign-born residents to 11% of the total population. On the night of July 11, however, the neighborhood was a sea of homogeneity — one red shirt after another. José Romero, an immigrant from Ecuador, had even painted his black-and-white dog Spot with the Spanish colors for the occasion.

Seated outside with friends, Azhar Abbas, from Pakistan, was ecstatic before the game even began. With a red-and-yellow scarf tied around his neck and a Spanish flag emerging from his collar, he was sure Spain would win because it was such a good country. "It's not like Germany or Italy, where there's discrimination," he said. "Here there's no difference between Spaniards and foreigners." And just in case ethnic tolerance wasn't enough to guarantee victory, he added, "I went to the mosque today and prayed for Fernando Torres."

They were praying, too, at the Baobab, an African restaurant up the street, when Casillas blocked Arjen Robben's shot. Glued to the restaurant's television set, a group of Bangladeshis, one Chinese woman, a couple of native Spaniards and a half-dozen red-shirted Senegalese screamed in outrage when Nigel de Jong's foot connected with Xabi Alonso's chest. In unison, albeit in several different accents, they shouted obscenities at the referee.

The scene was much the same at Hasan Keyf's doner kebab restaurant around the corner. At one point during the evening, the 20 young Moroccan men sipping Fantas at tables draped in Spanish flags broke spontaneously into a chorus of "Viva España." "They're gods of the game," said Mohammed Dauud, referring to the Spanish team. The 22-year-old immigrated by himself to Spain from Morocco when he was just 12, and the intervening years, he said, explain his loyalty to the Spanish team: "This is where I live, who I am now. Of course, Spain is going to be my team." Asked if, by that logic, he supported Real Madrid, Dauud shook his head. "Are you crazy?" he asked. "I'm a Barça fan."

The original article from Time.com can be found here.

MJK

2010-08-17T21:54:00.001+02:00

This is tribute to the fine memories of friendship and great music in Lowland festival 2007 which was held exactly 3 years ago.

"You are the light and way that they will only read about..."

RE--SPECT!

2010-08-14T21:56:00.006+02:00

Resolution 9. It is of utmost importance that one respects the place and the role of the others involved, precisely in the same manner that one requires to be respected. This rule is valid for any game, the most significant one being the game of life.

"So in the end

I want to see some respect

(I said)

You better show some respect

(I said)

Attitude and respect..."

On Barcelona: Part I

2010-08-11T10:01:00.004+02:00

Preface: I had the intention of writing a piece based on my visit in Barcelona a couple of month ago when I ran into the following article on Time.com and I found it very much coherent with my own findings. It's a bit overdue since it should have been read just before the WC (and its sequel just after the WC) but since both parts are interesting reads anyhow, I put them here nevertheless.

Forty-five million Spaniards drew a collective breath at the news on May 2 that Xavi, the playmaking genius of FC Barcelona, was carrying an injury that might prevent him from playing in South Africa this summer for Spain's national team. His club coach said Xavi, 30, had a 3-cm rip just above his left calf muscle; if aggravated, the tear would require surgery, ruling him out of the World Cup. But with the Spanish league in its final stretch and Barça needing victories to stay ahead of archrival Real Madrid, Xavi opted to keep playing. "He is committed to this club," coach Pep Guardiola said at a press conference. "He is an example for everyone."

Not everyone was pleased by Xavi's devotion to his club. "I thought to myself, We don't need him to be an example. We just need him to be fit for South Africa," says Sergio Soto, a pharmacist's assistant in Madrid. "Because without Xavi, our World Cup dream is finished."

Spain had to wait a nerve-racking week before it could breathe easy. Xavi (few fans know his full name: Xavier Hernández i Creus) played his last game of the season for his club on May 8 and emerged without further injury. Speaking to TIME shortly afterward at Barça's training complex outside the city, Xavi says his countrymen needn't have been on tenterhooks. "I know my own body," he says. "People all over Spain were worried, but I'm all right."

It's not unusual for soccer-crazed nations to get exercised over the well-being of their star players — all of England winced at Wayne Rooney's groin strain, and Germany felt the pain of the egregious tackle that ended Michael Ballack's Cup hopes. But Spain's agonizing over Xavi tells a deeper story, one of soccer rising above politics and bridging ancient divides.

Xavi is from Catalonia, the northeastern province washed by the Mediterranean that historically has had an uneasy relationship with the rest of Spain. Many Catalans see themselves as a separate nation and dream of independence. They speak their own language, Catalan, which sounds to the untrained ear like an admixture of Spanish, French and Portuguese. And like their Basque neighbors, they have a culture and history that have been often at odds with those of other regions of Spain. During the Franco dictatorship, authorities in Madrid sought to stamp out the Catalan identity, often by bloody force. The dictator favored Real Madrid, sowing the seeds for one of soccer's most bitter rivalries.

In turn, many Spaniards have long regarded Catalans with distrust. In soccer, that translates into a frostiness toward Catalan players, a suspicion that they don't play for the national colors with the same enthusiasm as they do for FC Barcelona, a club so closely linked to the Catalan identity that its crest includes the Catalan flag. Barça's slogan, "Més que un club" (More than a club), hints at its political role. Some Spaniards blame generations of Catalan players for the fact that the national team has never won the World Cup despite fielding world-beating talent every four years. During the 2006 Cup, Spain flamed out to France even before the quarterfinals.

And yet in South Africa this year, the hopes of the Spanish national team — known as La Furia Roja, or the Red Fury — rest on a group of Catalan players: Xavi, Cesc Fabregas and Sergio Busquets in midfield and Carles Puyol and Gerard Piqué in defense. (Goaltender Victor Valdés is also on the squad bound for South Africa, along with three non-Catalan players from Barça: Andrés Iniesta, Pedro Rodríguez and the club's latest signing, David Villa.) The Catalan contingent, products of Barça's vaunted youth system, has helped the national team sweep all before it in the past four years, becoming European champions and flying up the FIFA national rankings from 12th to first, before being overtaken by Brazil. Now, thanks to the Catalan stars, La Furia Roja will travel to South Africa as favorites to win the tournament. "Catalan players do their best in the national team, and we are proving that," says Piqué, 23.

In that time span, Barça has won three Spanish league titles and two European championships. "This is Catalonia's golden generation of players," says Marc Ingla, a former marketing chief at Barça and a candidate for the club's presidency in elections this month. "Both the club and the country have benefited from these riches."

For the players, the distinction is unimportant. "A footballer doesn't understand politics. What he wants to do is win," says Xavi. Says Piqué: "As a player, your dream is to play in the national shirt and defend it against the world."

But Xavi and company can't expect all their fellow Catalans to see it that way. For some Barça fans, the only "national" team is a collection of Catalan all-stars that plays occasional exhibition games in the region's colors. "One day we will send a Catalan team to the World Cup," says Xavier, a university student who refused to give his last name. "Until that day, that tournament means nothing to me."

That sentiment is shared by the club's top official. Joan Laporta's highly successful seven-year presidency at Barça ends this month. He and Ingla have done more to turn the club into an international soccer powerhouse, with an annual budget in excess of $500 million and hundreds of millions of fans around the globe. "Barça belongs to the world," says Laporta. "Barça is Japanese, it's African, it's American." But is it Spanish? Laporta pauses for thought, then shrugs. "I have no emotion for the [Spanish] national team," he says. "It doesn't matter if six of my players are in it." Some divides not even soccer can bridge.

The original article can be read here.

1300 Km for playing ball

2010-08-08T11:36:00.007+02:00

It has been a while since I have been taunted by the question of why do I like baseball. I have been banging my head ever since trying to find a concrete answer with little success so far. I just know for sure that , at least for the time being, I enjoy very much doing it despite all the 'strange' sides of the game. Ideally, I would like to interview a bunch of people e.g. the guys at our team, and based on all the collected answers be able to answer this question.

This is not a direct answer to the question but it does shed some light into this: This Friday-Saturday, I traveled about 1300 kilometers just to play a double header which turned out to be 2 games of just 5 innings, leaving all my old and new attachments behind at home. I guess if I had traveled the same distance vertically I would have exited the atmosphere! We spent almost 16 hours in the car to play roughly 4-5 hours. If I step outside from myself and look at this, I can easily see that this does not fit with any logic whatsoever.

Yet, the question remains unanswered...

Those...

2010-08-04T19:43:00.006+02:00

They have been ruling us in every f-ing aspect in the past 30 years and still don't let go. They have been telling us what to do and what not to do, what to eat and what not eat, what to drink, what to think, how to behave, how to f-ing everything. They have deprived us of our very basic human rights and what not.

What do we do in return? We just stand there, get humiliated, get pissed at, get angry and desperate at times, let them crap on us all over and again, get mad to the point of explosion, we scream...but at the end of the day, we just f-ing stand there!

Every time I try to get the hell away from this god damn regime and everything associated with it, they just drag me back one way or another and remind me of my very unfortunate affiliation with that country which for me is nothing short of a revolting stench. OK, I am fully aware of my own shit but sure as hell, I certainly don't appreciate it to be rubbed in my face every now and then.

I have a problem, 'They' don't let me have it my way...god damn!

"Gotta find a way, find a way, when I'm there

Gotta find a way, a better way, a better way..."

To my precious one

2010-07-30T14:04:00.001+02:00

A dear friend wrote to me

2010-07-28T22:41:00.007+02:00

اردشیر عزیزم

به شدت و خیلی به طرز خفنی از شنیدن خبر و دیدن عکس این موجود کوچک و نارنین خوشحال شدم. ان شاء الله که چشم بنده کف پای بانو کلاریس! حتما کار خوبی کرده اید که چنین گنجشک لطیفی نصیبتان شده چون شاعر می فرماید تو نیکی می کن و در دجله انداز، که ایزد در بیابانت دهد باز. این همان است که ایزد باز داده. می دانم که شما و خانواده به واسطه خبط سهم داشتن در تالیف قانون اساسی جمهوری اسلامی هر روز بر پشت دست می زنید و افسوس می خورید و آه می کشید، اما به دنیا آمدن همین طفل زیبا نشان از آن دارد که ظاهرا نیت همان کار هم خیر بوده و البته که نیت بر هر چیزی مقدم است.

امیدوارم که طبق سنت ذکری چیزی در گوش بچه نگفته باشید؛ اگر خواستید بگویید به نیابت از بنده دو سه خطی ژیژک (همان Zizek خودمان) برایش بخوانید برای آتیه اش خوب است. فقط زنهار می دهم که مبادا چامسکی بخوانید ها! بچه چپی می شود، از فردا راه می افتد در کوچه و خیابان می خواهد در هر اعتصاب و راهپیمایی کارگری شرکت کند یا اینکه برود سوار کشتی های کمک رسانی به غزه بشود، حالا بیا و درستش کن. کشتی هم که هزار ماشاء الله کم نیست در این دوره و زمانه، سوار کدام کشتی بشود فقط خدا می داند.

بدینوسیله به شما و بانو (که وجودشان تا پیش از این کاغذی که مرقوم فرموده بودید بر ما پوشیده مانده بود) تبریک می گوییم (خودمان یک نفری) و آرزوی صحت و عافیت برای هر سه شما، نوگلان باغ نبوت. باشد که این دختر ژان دارکی چیزی بشود و قومی را از عذاب نجات دهد. نگران این که "کدام قوم؟" هم نباشید؛ الحمدلله چیزی که در این دنیا زیاد است، قوم در عذاب.

من باب تاکید و محض اطمینان عرض می کنم که اصلا این کتب ضاله چامسکی و امثالهم را اصلا منتقل کنید به پستو. دم دست بچه هم نباشند بهتر است؛ باعث فساد می شوند. اصلا چرا برویم سراغ فرنگی؟ یک جلد دایی جان ناپلئون و یک جلد هم "چنین کنند بزرگان" نجف خان دریابندری بالای سر بچه باشد، ان شاء الله که آسیبی به ذهنیاتش وارد نمی شود.

زیاده گویی کردم، ببخشید.

روی ماهت را می بوسم از دور، کلاریس و بانو را سلام برسان.

به امید دیدار

محمد تقی خان پسیان

سوم حوت سنه 1289 شمسی

Clarice

2010-07-26T00:18:00.006+02:00

After about 9 months of impatient wait, my little daughter was born on July the 22nd at 21:09. I really don't know how to explain my feelings as all has been mixed up to large extent. All I know is that I was drained emotionally during the labor which took some difficult time but that has been transformed to exuberant joy and astonishment. I really don't know what has happened and where does it come from but I feel an immense and unheard of amount love for this little one and that is somehow uncanny! Feels like the 'love' switch was turned on all of a sudden and it will never ever be turned off again. Finally, I have to say that I will bow humbly to my wife for not only doing a fantastic and beyond-imagination job but also for giving me this amazing gift and above all, the gift of never ending love. Words can't possibly express my gratitude to her.

Here's a song for my precious one:
Lyrics by Prince

"Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world?
It's plain to see you're the reason that God made a girl

When the day turns into the last day of all time
I can say I hope you are in these arms of mine
And when the night falls before that day I will cry
I will cry tears of joy cuz after you all one can do is die

Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world?
Could you be?
It's plain to see you're the reason that God made a girl
Oh, yes you are

How can I get through days when I can't get through hours?
I can try but when I do I see you and I'm devoured, oh yes
Who'd allow, who'd allow a face to be soft as a flower?
I could bow (bow down) and feel proud in the light of this power
Oh yes, oh

Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world?
Could you be?
It's plain to see you're the reason that God made a girl
Oh, yes you are

And if the stars ever fell one by one from the sky
I know Mars could not be, uh, too far behind
Cuz baby, this kind of beauty has got no reason to ever be shy
Cuz honey, this kind of beauty is the kind that comes from inside

Could you be the most beautiful girl in the world?
So beautiful, beautiful
It's plain to see you're the reason that God made a girl"

Last push

2010-07-21T13:20:00.001+02:00

"I know there's something going on
I know there's something going on
I know it won't be long
Won't be long before you're [come]

There's something going on
There's something going on..."

Final notes on WC

2010-07-19T14:18:00.000+02:00

Now that the WC hype has settled for about a week, while some are facing the post cup depression possibly due to heartbreak failures, one can look back and review the event more sensibly. Inspired by SI writers, here are my high and lows of this cup:

1. SA scoring an amazing goal in the opener and adds even more hype to the already popular "Bafana Bafana", a eye dazzling start for world cup and the goals to come.

2. Jabulani ball made by Adidas and all the keeper gaffs, the most notable one by Robert Green who handled the draw to US and put England team in more turmoil. Fifa (Blatter?) pigheadedly stuck with the highly criticized ball (simply due to hefty mafiosi deals between Adidas and FIFA according to me!) and created more controversy for the authorities.

3. The annoying, never ending sounds of vuvuzelas.

4. Switzerland upsets the European and would be champions in the opener.

5. Maradona show on the side line was quite a sight.

6. Portugal pours 7-0 on North Korea, I felt really sorry for all the Koreans who watched this game live on TV, one of a few games that were broadcast live in the history of that nation.

7. France: Disgrace and controversy all the way.

8. USA goal wrongly disallowed as they were on their way to become the first team ever to come from 2-0 behind.

9. New Zealand does not lose for the fist time ever.

10. US advances dramatically in the injury time.

11. Defending champions Italy crash out with 2 draws and one loss.

12. England denied an obvious goal in crucial match vs. Germany which could have impacted the flow of the knock-out stage encounter.

13. Argentina scores an offside goal vs. Mexico.

14. Brazil goes down in quarters vs. Netherlands while leading the first half by 1-0.

15. Ghana were handed a penalty at the last minute of extra time as Suarez stopped the ball on the line with his hands. Ghana misses the penalty and they crash out in the shoot-out, drowning the hopes of a continent.

16. Germany thrashes Argentina 4-0 at quarterfinals, Saint Diego just watched the game with his arms crossed and his face frowned.

17. Uruguay lose 2-3 in the battle for the 3rd place to Germany, Forlan's spot kick hits the cross bar in the last seconds of the game.

17. Yet another all European final.

18. The Dutch, the only team to have won all its games, put on a massive display of acting throughout the tournament.

19. Andres Iniesta scores with 4 minutes left in extra time and Spain became the champions for the first time ever.

20. On a personal note: I watched a couple of reportages from SA which aim to show the other sides of the country while all the focus has been shifted to the football event. In one of them, the reporter went to an orphanage outside Johannesburg. There were many lively African kids in there from different ages, some were very young and some interviews were conducted with the people in charge of that place and some children as well. A 4 year old boy was interviewed and he spoke for a few minutes on his love of football and etc. He was beautiful, loving and innocent with no parents and presumably no future. He stole my heart badly and I deeply wished, from bottom of my heart, that I could take him into my custody and be his father. Not because I felt sorry for him and many others who were there and I want to patronize them. No, I just fell in love with that boy...pure! That boy's name was 'Prince'.

Spain: 2010 FIFA World Cup Champoins

2010-07-16T14:04:00.005+02:00

The exciting final took place last Sunday and Spain deservedly became the champion for the first time...just one of a few occasions that football proved to be fair game. Once again, I leave to the words of my favorite experts on the final:

Alan Hansen
BBC pundit on Match of the Day
Anyone with the best interests of football at heart would have been overjoyed to see Spain beat the Netherlands to lift the World Cup.

Alan Shearer
Former England striker on Match of the Day
Not only were Spain easily the best team on the night, but they were also without question the best team in the entire World Cup.

Lee Dixon
Former England defender on Match of the Day

You have to put a performance on at this stage in the tournament but it was probably the worst defensive team performance I've seen. Quite frankly we were awful and we got ripped to pieces.

Graham Taylor
Former England manager on BBC Radio 5 live

Right from the start there was only one team who really wanted to win this match and that was Spain. So their victory over the Netherlands was a victory for football.

Mike Ingham
BBC chief football correspondent
The good news is that Spain are the champions and worthy champions, but the bad news is the biggest match in the world was soiled and stained and betrayed by the Netherlands.

Clarence Seedorf
Former Netherlands international on Match of the Day
I'm bitterly disappointed for the Netherlands but, based on the 30 minutes of extra time, Spain were the worthy winners.

Chris Waddle
Former England winger on BBC Radio 5 live

You associate beautiful football with the Netherlands and that was the first time I have ever seen them play like that.

A sign in SF

2010-07-07T15:40:00.000+02:00

Welcome Roy!

2010-07-05T13:27:00.005+02:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome our new LFC manager Mr. Roy Hodgson who deservedly became the manager of the year after earning the respect of the likes of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. I leave it to the extract from Phil McNulty's blog on this:

Hodgson perfect for Liverpool

As Roy Hodgson attempted to give his nomadic career new direction with a spell in the United Arab Emirates earlier this decade, the notion of Liverpool and England fighting for his services seemed a distant prospect. And yet, while Liverpool close in on Hodgson as Rafael Benitez's successor and the Football Association debates Fabio Capello's future as England coach, the 62-year-old Londoner has emerged as the prime candidate for two of the biggest posts in football.

Hodgson, barring a late FA intervention, is expected to be confirmed as Liverpool boss in the next 48 hours, mainly as a result of his outstanding work at Fulham, where a rescue from relegation months after his appointments in December 2007 was followed by a dream run to last season's Europa League final. Fulham's defeat by Atletico Madrid looks to have been his farewell to the banks of the Thames as he now prepares to move to Merseyside.

And while Hodgson's arrival may get a muted response in some quarters, Liverpool's current reality makes him the perfect appointment. There may be disquiet among some Liverpoopl fans that the romantic option of Kenny Dalglish's return has not been explored, particularly after one of Anfield's iconic figures made it clear he wanted to resume the job he left in 1991.

Hodgson and Dalglish have been friends from the days when Liverpool used to warm up for title-winning campaigns by playing Hodgson's Malmö side in Sweden, so the suggestion the Scot will sulk in the background as some laign influence after missing out is unlikely.

It has been a long road from Carshalton Athletic to Anfield for Hodgson, taking in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the UAE - plus a spell at Blackburn Rovers - before reviving Fulham. He may not be the stellar name many on the Kop will have wanted when Benitez ended his six-year reign earlier in June, but Liverpool's reduced circumstances call for the sort of common sense management Hodgson can apply. The Reds can offer any manager a rich history but what they cannot put on the table is Champions League football or vast riches to rebuild a troubled team. The idea someone of Jose Mourinho's status may have been tempted to Liverpool originated in dreamland, even before the former Chelsea manager won the Champions League at Inter Milan and moved to Real Madrid.

Boring as it might sound to some, Liverpool need a pair of safe hands that will restore dignity and credibility to Anfield after times of turbulence on and off the field.

Hodgson is a deep thinker about football and other things besides, as an avid reader of Milan Kundera, John Updike and Philip Roth. Liverpool will hope he can apply the intelligence gleaned throughout a long career to rebuild one of the fallen giants of the game. A close study of his work at Craven Cottage confirms he fulfils all requirements at Liverpool.

There are other facets of Hodgson's character that will have appealed to Liverpool's power brokers as they drew up their shortlist. If he had any difficulties behind the scenes with Fulham's flamboyant chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed, he never chose to air them in public. In contrast, Benitez's tiresome politicking added to Anfield's instability at a time when there was more than enough to go around.

Hodgson will arrive at a delicate period for Liverpool, with the search for new owners ongoing and yet to bear fruit, leaving the dysfunctional tenure of Tom Hicks and George Gillett still in place. As someone with vast experience, Hodgson will know the obstacles that may await him at Anfield but his measured approach will suit the situation. And, crucially in Liverpool's financial state, Hodgson has shown a sure touch when working the markets without the aid of a plentiful budget and without complaint.

He mastered the art of renewing careers at Fulham, with Murphy, Damien Duff, Zoltan Gera and Bobby Zamora prime examples. Hodgson's eye for a bargain enabled him to sign Brede Hangeland relatively cheaply and turn him into one of the most coveted defenders in the Premier League.

Hodgson consoles his players after Fulham's defeat in the Europa League final. Photo: Getty

He has earned huge respect - and not only from those inside football. When Fulham beat Hamburg to reach the Europa League final, his arrival at his after-match press conference was greeted with the rare accolade of spontaneous applause from assembled journalists, such was the scale of his achievement. And Liverpool will embrace Hodgson's ability to do his job without fuss and fanfare, just like old times at Anfield.

One of my abiding memories of last season was watching Hodgson stroll across Craven Cottage with his hand in his pocket as the old place went crazy after the victory over Hamburg. He navigated his way through the throng of players, celebrating or otherwise, lying on the turf, stopping only to console Hamburg's stars on his way off. He will work with a small backroom staff, which Liverpool's hierarchy will find a refreshing change from the entire community that appeared to have been assembled by Benitez in his latter days at Anfield.

When Hodgson is appointed, he will need to work quickly to make changes to his squad. Fernando Torres and Steven Gerard are seen as easy targets, with Liverpool lacking in financial resources and the appeal of the Champions League. Persuading them to stay will be top of his list of priorities - or, if not, ensuring the best deal is done to allow him to fashion a new-look team to prepare for life without them.

Liverpool's hierarchy have been lampooned with relish amid their recent traumas but they have restored a measure of their tattered reputation with the swiftness of Benitez's departure and the good sense shown by installing Hodgson.

It ranks alongside Inter Milan as the biggest job in Hodgson's career - but his work at Fulham alone suggests he is up to the task.

With you I shall leave

2010-07-02T12:06:00.005+02:00

"Con te partirò
Paesi che non ho mai
veduto e vissuto con te,
adesso sì li vivrò.
Con te partirò
su navi per mari
che, io lo so,
no, no, non esistono più..."

Words by Lucio Quarantotto.

An iconic scene

2010-06-30T14:41:00.001+02:00

Source: swipelife.com: Inappropriate Golden Books: Movies R, Fun by Josh Cooley

ASNF

2010-06-30T13:34:00.006+02:00

Carl Brashear was poor, underprivileged black farmer boy in South and had no future prospect. When he reached the required age, his father made him to join the army so that he can build a better, secure and successful life as he himself didn't obviously make it by sharecropping in the highly segregated and racially biased society of that time. He urged him to leave and never come back to the place that he was born and raised, making sure that his son's past to be forgotten for good. However, as one last token of memory, he gave him a hand made radio that he made using very primitive and basic parts. He carved on the bottom of the radio"ASNF" meaning: "A son never forgets."*

I was forced to make a choice a few days ago; something that some close ones were asking me to do and my heart was against it. In the end, I followed my heart and I think it felt...well, not so bad and that was very sad.

A son will never forget, he will never forget the things that were done for him and damn right will he ever forget the things that were not done for him...never!

ASNF indeed!

* Storyline from the movie "Men of Honor".

Rule no more!

2010-06-28T17:00:00.000+02:00

England (my favorite team) was kicked out of first knockout stage of WC to the hands of their arch rivals Germany with the worst performance ever in world cup. Instead of going to headlines of junk tabloid which some find comfort in, I just leave it to the words of BBC experts below:

Alan Hansen
BBC pundit on Match of the Day
The debate will rage on about the Frank Lampard goal but I cannot believe how bad England were. Against Algeria they were abysmal but today they were four levels below that.

Alan Shearer
Former England striker on Match of the Day
We said they improved in the last game and needed to improve again to go through but they didn't get anywhere near it. They were hopeless from start to finish.

Lee Dixon
Former England defender on Match of the Day

You have to put a performance on at this stage in the tournament but it was probably the worst defensive team performance I've seen. Quite frankly we were awful and we got ripped to pieces.

Graham Taylor
Former England manager on BBC Radio 5 live

Lampard's was a goal, it would have made it 2-2 and who knows how the game would have transpired but that is not the point. We have lost 4-1 and been easily beaten.

Chris Waddle
Former England winger on BBC Radio 5 live

The FA sit on their backsides and do nothing tournament after tournament after tournament. Why don't they listen? Why don't they look at other countries and ask 'how do they keep producing talent?'

More on that can be found here. For me, I suppose it is now Argentina and Saint Maradona all the way.

C.

2010-06-28T11:56:00.002+02:00

According to the calculations, in a matter of 30 days or so, she will be here. I would be very very happy and my life will be changed in profound way from that moment on.

Getting impatient now...

An analysis of WC 2010 after first 2 rounds: Part II

2010-06-23T14:39:00.005+02:00

Group E
17. Netherlands: Not so strong management from the sidelines but the squad has good quality nonetheless. If they keep the pace, they are very dangerous. The oranges have shown abrupt meltdowns in the past and I don't see this WC could be any different in that sense for them.

18. Japan: Quite similar to their Asian rivals, they have proved themselves to be serious opponents and have good chances of qualifying from group stage. Just like South Korea, the fatigue over their fragile bodies could take over their speed deeper in the tournament and mark their exit.

19. Denmark: They bounced back from the first loss to the Netherlands and beat Cameroon and are hopeful of qualifying to the next round. At times, they show flashes of good football but I have hard time seeing them deep in the tournament. Like their northern neighbors Sweden, they lack a certain glow and will tend to settle for the less come facing a major powerhouse.

20. Cameroon: Yet another major African disappointment like Nigeria except for the fact that their manager is not much to blame rather quite suitable for the job given time and patience. I suppose relying too much on Eto'o and losing first tow games doesn't leave much to say for the departure of the "Indomitable Lions".

Group F
21. Paraguay: No comments on them.

22. Italy: The reigning champions (a title that they did not deserve to win in my opinion) are nothing but miserable. They face an aging squad and lack quality players, just former great players wearing Azzurri. They are my least favorite team but I'm sure they will end up not as disappointing as they look. They may manage to pull things off somehow with the least attractive football ever displayed.

23. New Zealand: They are just happy to be at the world stage for the first time ever, happier to score their first ever WC goal and so on. No surprises, no real threat, just happy to have been there...once at least!

24. Slovakia: No comments again. I would have been much happier to have seen Croatia in their place to create some action at least.

Group G
25. Brazil: One the strong favorites to win according to many with star packed and quality players on the pitch. They have not been that impressive though but the quality is still there and can do massive damage. Their weakest point seems to be the bench as they don't seem to have the same quality substitutes. They will get to semis definitely one way or another.

26. Portugal: Disappointing in the first match with Ivory but then they thrashed North Korea 7-0! Seems like they are en route to finding their form back but it still remains to be seen.

27. Ivory Coast: Yes, again another major disappointment for Africa. They rely too much on Drogba who is not a creator (when he is locked) rather of a user of opportunities provided for him, something that the team has failed to do so because it is easily read by the opponents. A similar story as Nigeria with a (this time only a highly overrated) unsuccessful Swedish manager who not only doesn't click well with the chemistry of Les Éléphants, but has poor abilities to inspire and fire up a squad of their caliber.

28. North Korea: After losing decently to Brazil 1-2 in the opener, they were humiliated by Portugal in the second game putting the dignity of the Asian football in serious danger. I felt sorry for their nation anyway when I heard that the game against Portugal was among a few football games that were shown live in that dictator country.

Group F
29. Chile: pretty much like Uruguay and possibly Paraguay, a hard working team with occasional flashes of brilliancy. Qualified to the next round by winning first 2 games and how they will do next is just a mystery.

30. Spain: The reigning European champions and favorites to win the cup were really disaapointing theier first loss to Switzerland but pulled themsleves together in the 2nd game against Honduras, a not so convincing win which was voiced by their vet manager Del bosque. They are yet to prove themselves and El nino and many others have not started yet.

31. Switzerland: Shocked everyone by beating Spain but they lost to Chile. They have enjoyed a series of unheard football success in different stages and tournaments but they are still underestimated and hopeful of qualifying. Their savvy manager Hitzfeld knows his job well and can surprise opponent with some relatively unknown players.

32. Honduras: A weak American team which should be replaced by Colombia or something to make the competition more exciting.

Pooooofffff, that was as easy as I thought. Now, off to the last group games.

An analysis of WC 2010 after first 2 rounds: Part I

2010-06-22T15:06:00.008+02:00

This year for the WC in South Africa, I resisted the urge of entering predicting games and took the low road of tight a-- conservative approach meaning I waited for all the teams to play their first 2 games in the group stage and now I am going to release my analysis, hopefully I will have enough consistency to continue my analysis as knock-out stages unfold. One last thing: I think there is much more than WC and football in SA now, the other or rather darker sides of SA are yet to be touched and talked about...I'll see how much I can accomplish on that.

Group A
1. Uruguay: Drew with France in the opener and thrashed the hosts in the 2nd game. A very good and solid all-around team but one player stands out big (as it was expected): Forlan...Forlan...Forlan! Hell, I would have loved to see him pair up with El nino in LFC, he had a massive form during Atletico's run in Europa cup too.

2. Mexico: A lot of young faces mixed with some vets. They had a great night at the expense of Les Bleus the other night: very strong, a lot of running and much hunger but I suppose, they will clutch when facing big powerhouses from further south. They do have an element of surprise though, I guess they have really pulled themselves together after sacking the highly overrated Swedish manager Sven-Göran Eriksson.

3. France: Probably the biggest disappointment of the cup. Les Bleus are aging, don't have an inspiring leader on and off the pitch and lots are happening on the scandals front. None of the players have lived up to the expectations, their manager is too passive and not functioning, there is a major lack of mutual respect from players and management, Anelka was tossed out of the camp and the players subsequently refused to train and so on and so on. 1998 champions and 2006 runner-ups are not even close to championship calibers. Even if they advance, they will be kicked out easily with a much disciplined squad.

4. South Africa: I had very little knowledge about Bafana Bafana except for the fact that their vet striker Benny McCarthy didn't make the final squad and of course Pineaar from our rival team Everton. Given the home crowd pressure they did quite well in the opener with Mexico, a bit unlucky not to have taken the 3 points. They simply had no answer to the brilliance of Forlan in the 2nd game and the nasty sounds of vuvuzelas were shut down a bit prematurely. It would be interesting to see if the Brazilian manager Parreira would stay after the cup to build up for future or he will be sacked or leave and instability would continue as it does in many aspects in Africa--sadly.

Group B
5. Argentina: A star-studded squad and one of the strong favorites to win the cup with the likes of Messi, Hiquain, Veron, Milito and more. The short chubby man who sports an unfamiliar beard on the sideline of Argentina, yes none other than Saint Diego Armando with his unique passion and jests is as noteworthy as the quality of the football that Argentina displays. How much he contributes to the tactical game and how much respect the superstars of today lay on him is another question. They have won all the games with relative ease nonetheless and will presumably carry on until semis at least.

6. South Korea: They have defended the dignity of football in Asia by showing a fast and attractive football compared to their peers. They will definitely advance from their group and the extent of their success could be limited down the stretch as the tournament fatigue will take its toll on their bodies.

7. Greece: Not much to say here really, they are too boring and maybe aging and don't display much, they seem to be lost in the WC hype: a mere shadow of former European champions.

8. Nigeria: One of the disappointments so far. Their biggest mistake came from hiring the sacked Swedish manager Lars Lagerbäck after the failure in the African cup; a man who had literally no managing experience outside Sweden and has led his country's team to mediocre results in the past years, failing to qualify to this year's cup among them. He could induce some discipline to the Nigeria but he is far too weak, conservative, boring and has no charisma to fit with the diversity of Nigeria.

Group C
9. Slovenia: I have got nothing to say about them and haven't seen anything particular about them neither. However, as strange as it may sound, they seem in the best shape to advance from their group for the time being.

10. USA: My most favorite underdogs: they work hard and are well structured. They show reasonable tactical and technical quality at times and everyone underestimates them. By rough assumption you could say that football came to US in 1994 when WC was held there and given this 16 years, they have come along way in the international stage; something that many countries with richer football history have not managed to pull off. Interesting to see how they will do in the last group game. They were also ripped from a crucial goal by referee's mistake which can prove costly for their fate in WC.

11. England: My favorite team in WC has performed far from expectations. They have every element to succeed to the best and fail miserably at the same time. From bad luck and injuries and non-related football issues (manager-player relationship not at its optimum level seemingly and Capello being a very special person with possibly different mindset than English players doesn't make this easier) to keeper's incredible gaff and the superstars who are lost in the shadow of WC. Nevertheless, even if they manage to advance from group stage, they seriously lack world class strikers (other than Rooney who is yet to deliver) and this can cause them massive problems.

12. Algeria: Labeled possibly the dirtiest team in WC has performed quite OK so far. Funny thing that it seems most people don't even consider them as African team since they are not as 'black' as the likes of Ghana, Nigeria and etc. They still have a chance to advance from group stage but I have hard time seeing them beyond that as they lack quality and many more.

Group D
13. Ghana: The most successful 'African' team so far with a narrow win over Serbia and a draw with Australia. The loss of star player Essien has not shown any damage for the time being but it is very difficult to predict how they do in the next rounds.

14. Germany: The youngest squad in the cup impressed everyone by thrashing Aussies 4-0 in the opener but they fell short in a intense match against Serbia. They play a very versatile and beautiful football now--uncanny of effective and rather dull style of the Germans and they have great potential to advance as far as semis.

15. Serbia: I've got not much to say about them like Slovenia, very solid and physically strong team that is not and easy opponent for anyone.

16. Australia: After a massive loss to Germany, no one is taking them seriously or bothers about them 'Groos'. I think I will do the same.

Rock with Punk

2010-05-30T10:34:00.006+02:00

Playlist VII.

1. "Know Your Enemy " Green Day

2. "Celebrity Skin" Hole

3. "mOBSCENE" Marilyn Manson

4. "Sabbotage" Beastie Boys

5. "Bleed It Out" Linkin Park

6. "Hit That" Offspring

7. "Rollin" Limp Bizkit

8. "Breathe" The Prodigy

9. "Hate to Say I Told You So" The Hives

10. "Walking Contradiction" Green Day

Vater und sohn 2

2010-05-26T11:48:00.000+02:00

Stuck in the past

2010-05-26T11:15:00.001+02:00

A series of incidents and my natural reactions to them have made me realize that I, as well as many others, are somehow stuck firmly in our past: a past which is not much far in time and was not so pleasing at times. Things that didn't have much value to me e.g. my childhood library, my stamp collection and white mulberries to say the least (all refer to previous posts) seem now so invaluable that I would give anything - not exactly anything but you get the point - to have some of those things back. A friend of mine has the same feeling towards the cartoons that we used to watch on TV, another with dubbed movies and those familiar voices, my brother has his own nostalgic obsessions and so on. I am fully aware of the fact that due to the nature of all human beings, we start to value or miss more the things upon losing them, that I can buy. But on the other hand, I think that our lives have become much better compared to past, I myself feel that I have got more freedom, independence, more economical ability and etc. We've got internet and computers everywhere and they facilitate our lives to massive scales compared to past, everyone's got cell phones and communication and accessibility is much easier. Yet the question is still hanging in there: Why "the grass was greener, the light was brighter, the taste was sweeter..."?

White mulberries

2010-05-18T12:15:00.002+02:00

Walking in the corridor, a distant memory hit me like thunderbolt out of nowhere. I remember that back in the days when it was summer and we had 3 months of holidays, it was the season for different fruits and one, which I miss a lot among others, was white mulberries. The small fruit shops used to make a big pile of them in the store and have a electric fan just beside them blow away all the flies and bees. Buying them in a plastic freezer bag, taking them home and wash them properly with cold water, rinse them in colander and...simply enjoy them. the smell, the taste...oh man! Some were really ripe i.e. greener, a bit harder to bite and less taste, some were really sweet, very soft (almost too soft) and creamy color...ah those summers!

Taxi for RB?

2010-05-05T15:13:00.003+02:00

I had decided not to say anything more about the outcome of this season and my beloved reds. However, reading a post by R. Robson made me quote the most sensible line, regarding our manager, here: "If life is like a box of chocolates then Rafa is the poor fella holding the coffee cream."

What can I possibly say?

The post itself, very rich and worth reading, can be found here.

35

2010-05-05T15:08:00.003+02:00

Two days ago, I turned 35 and...ehum....I think it is fair to say that I am having a clean, text book definition and neat mid-30 life crisis! :-)

Interested to know more? Well, you have to buy me substantial beers to let you in :-)

Happy 35 birthday to me!