My Life and Everything Associated with it!

Trolling at the Globe & Mail

2011-09-01T01:50:00.007-04:00

I'm not posting that often anymore because I'm just so busy with life these days. However, I just wanted to share this little trolling snippet I found in the Globe & Mail that made me laugh to tears.

On an article about cheese, Durgan gives an off-topic post about how cheese used to be great back in the days when men were men. The response to this off-topic post was priceless!

The responses are a reference to the Simpson's episode Last Exit to Springfield in the scene Grandpa is hired as a strike breaker by Mr. Burns, as part of the many stories in this show. His tactic was to tell stories that went nowhere.

You can find his quote here

See you next year!

Emirate-gate Analysis

2010-10-15T11:08:00.003-04:00

I read the news today and learned of a story that really irked me not because of the original contents, but because of the way it was spun by the Canadian media.

I'm talking about the Emirate-gate scandal that has the Canadian government up in arms. To sum it all up, the government of the United Arab Emirates is basically telling the Canadian forces to vacate the Camp Mirage facility outside of Dubai where they are stationed. To add insult to injury, The UAE also banished Canadian Defence Minister Peter MacKay from their airspace.

To me, that would be the last straw. If I were Stephen Harper (the Prime Minister of Canada) I'd send their ambassador packing from Ottawa, recall our ambassador from Abu Dhabi, and banish their two airlines - Emirates and Etihad - from our airspace entirely. I mean seriously, how dare the UAE do this to our government and our military!

However, after reading more into the story, I saw some things that weren't accurately reported by the Canadian media but talked about in publications from the Persian Gulf or international newswires.

The biggest one that I will talk about is during the time Camp Mirage was used, there were also negotiations going on between the Canadian government and the Emirati government regarding extra landing slots and the permission to fly to more airports than Pearson International (YYZ) in Toronto. As it goes right now, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways can only fly to YYZ three times a week and no more - which is actually quite unfair.

The Canadian government and Air Canada - Canada's flag carrier - stated quite simply that there aren't enough Canadians traveling to the UAE.

In my honest opinion, if Emirates and Etihad want to fly these routes six or seven days a week each, then more power to them since they are taking that risk. But why is the Canadian government and the Canadian flag carrier - two entities that are completely separate from these Emirati airlines - dictating that there won't be enough people using the services of these airlines?

As well, these are the only airlines that will fly non-stop from Toronto to either of the UAE hubs. Air Canada doesn't fly to DXB or AUH, and if I wanted to seriously not fly with either Emirates or Etihad, I could fly out of New York JFK or Atlanta and take United or Delta - but that would mean a very long journey since I fly from Canada to either of these hubs and I might not be flying direct to these airports. There's also flying to Europe, transiting, and then going to the UAE from there but why transit when I could fly direct?

Anyways, I digress. So how does this relate to Emirate-gate? It appears that the lease on this base where the Canadian forces are stationed expired this past June. The government of the UAE, in order to expedite negotiations with the airlines and the Canadian government extended the years-old lease for three more months to expire on October 10. It was "a show of goodwill" from the Emiratis.

This incident with Peter MacKay happened on October 11 - the day after this lease ended. The way it was spun by the Canadian media is like taking a coupon for a free burger to the fast food joint a day after it expires, being told that the coupon won't be honored since it is no longer valid, throwing a fit by saying that the fast-food joint discriminated against you for whatever reason and then reporting the story in favour of the person who was in the wrong to begin with.

The Canadian media made it look like Peter MacKay was on the plane to the UAE when an air traffic controller on the ground told the plane that they don't have the right to land anymore as if it was out of the blue but the Emiratis are saying that this whole issue was known about beforehand.

Overall, the Canadian media failed on this story. Instead of holding the government accountable, they acted like a bunch of yes-men and towed the party line. A little bit of research could have gone a long way...

Dmitri the Stud: A Story of Dark Humour, Hilarity, and Self-Reflection...

2009-09-22T11:47:00.006-04:00

After a two-day (My own doing; not any airlines or anything like that) journey to my new home, I check Facebook and find that one of my friends has posted a lovely (in a very dark way) story about a guy who is known colloquially in Toronto as "Dmitri the Stud!"

Long story short, girl goes out to have drinks with friends and is approached by our friend Dmitri. According to said girl, he keeps pestering her about how cute she is, yada yada yada. To get rid of him, she hands him her business card and he goes along his merry way only to call later on and basically hand her his very abstract life story that sounds almost too good to be true (Why do I keep thinking of myself when I'm writing this?). He later issues a very veiled threat to return his call as a way to save face by advertising himself as the catch of the century.

This "stud" should learn some serious lessons, and this comes from experience. In a similar manner, Dmitri reminds me of myself a few years back. I was an insecure person who tried to save face and market himself as the perfect guy. I won't say whether it worked or not since that is the past and we all learn from the mistakes we make or perfect our technique...

Anyhow, here's a few rules for our friend Dmitri:

1. No such thing as a perfect guy. Flaws help to create character. A man without a flaw is a man without a character (Maybe I'm compensating for myself when I say that!). I have my flaws and I'm sure a lot of my friends can name them without thinking! I don't know if my flaws are attractive, and judging by the number of women that approach me... oh wait, next line...

2. NEVER tell a woman how many other women approach you (real or imaginary) per day/week/month/annum as a way to show yourself as a stud. It should be common knowledge but in case it isn't: in our culture, one woman is (read: should be) the world of the man, not "six or seven!" If you're a guy from another culture and want to pick up a woman in the typical western world, don't talk about other women, no matter how real they may be and if you really like her, it is a HUGE turn-off. I'm just saying this from personal observations...

3. Job and money: I don't know why this should be included at all when you meet someone for the first time in an attempt to "pick up" said person. Someone who instantly mentions their job or pay (either numerically or saying that "it pays great") is really insecure about him/herself (I really should take this piece of advice for myself!). We all have our moments of insecurity, don't let it take over you. If you feel insecure, do something that'll make you feel better. Some like to kick back with a few drinks, but I haven't found my groove yet...

4. Implying that the woman has psychological/personal issues as the main reason for not calling back is just plain wrong. I don't think I need to explain this!

5. This is anecdotal, but a woman likes to be told she's pretty to a certain extent. By which I mean that they'd love to be told they're pretty, but they also want to be seen as a person who has achieved something apart from looking pretty. None of my close female friends want to be seen as a sex object. Try the lost art of conversation and get her talking about things she knows and does. You know what? By this point, I should be taking all of this advice for myself too so I'm not going to say "I should really take this piece of advice" anymore!

6. Finally, if she doesn't return your contact, she's not interested. It has happened to me before, and it will happen again. It is just as inevitable as the sun rising. Funny how I write it and realize just how much this last rule hurts but that's my reality.

I wrote these "rules" down because it pisses me off to see a guy act so desperate in his 20's (at least) since I see myself as a teenager and I must say, I don't yearn to go back since I am enjoying my third decade much more. I had my happy moments, the times that I would never forget were there, and I have made friends that last a lifetime so I'm not the least bit upset about being a teenager. Being a teenager was an awkward time of discovery that would sometimes feel humiliating but in hindsight, was no biggie.

A lot of things go through my mind when I write this down. I think about certain people, what I've said to them, and other things. Sometimes I come off too strong, sometimes I don't seem interested enough and sometimes I just ignore them and boast about myself (I'm trying to work on this last one). I've realized that this Dmitri fellow is the man inside us all who yearns for that special someone and when he finds her, can't explain to himself why she won't return his calls so he makes up things to ease the pain of his shortcomings and part of it is blaming her in some manner or another. I have been in that boat and I can't say that I'm off it completely since it wouldn't define me properly.

The only difference between Dmitri and myself is that he expresses it in words to which we all think he is a borderline psychopath and should instead stand in front of the mirror and do certain things to himself that I won't write down since he believes that he is God's gift to women!

Still, I don't have a job that pays great and I don't think that six or seven women approach me every day - unless they're airline stewardesses and asking me if I'd like tea or coffee!

EDIT: I found out that this "Dmitri the Stud" is actually an actor and this is a viral advertising campaign of some sort...

On My 9/11...

2009-09-11T21:33:00.004-04:00

I've been inspired to write this blog posting after reading The New York Times earlier today about 'happy' memories on 9/11. These aren't exactly happy memories per se, but they aren't unhappy either.

On my 9/11 I was with my friends and classmates from my entire grade 10 class up north for a weeklong leadership camp. I was only 14 and when looking back through the journal I wrote at the time, I was a child but thought greater of myself - typical teenager mentality. I had my reasons for being so gallant including the fact that I finished one adventure to Iran and the UK which had lasted for over a month that previous summer and here I was on another.

That previous summer, I had seen so much more than before. It wasn't the typical going-to-see-family trip that we had previously, but I saw my ancestral homeland's ancient history, a decent piece of Europe, and now I'm with my school on an adventure that would stay with me. I have been traveling to various places in Europe, Iran and the United States since I was a two-year-old, but these last trips really stuck with me.

Back to 9/11, we had just finished breakfast and were waiting to do the day's activities in each of our groups. It was at that moment that the first plane had hit the WTC Tower but we were clueless of it. There was no internet, no 24-hour news channel to turn to, nothing. We were disconnected from the rest of the world and would soon be going on our activities.

We were innocent yet we were growing up and discovering ourselves at 14 when the world changed.

When the towers fell, my group was lost in the forest. Doing a compass activity, somebody made a typo on the navigation sheet and we ended up going off in the wrong direction! Even the navigation counsellors were puzzled with the new scenery - that definitely was not a good sign!

We finally made it back to the camp right around lunch with not enough time to debrief but I think we all learned something about ourselves in that activity in the midst of being lost. We sensed fear because we were lost but banded together on getting back to the camp based on memory and teamwork.

By this time, I and many others were still blissfully unaware of the fear, terror, paranoia and suffering that was happening just south of us.

Only two days into this experience and all of us were quickly becoming friends, laughing together, and just enjoying ourselves away from home and school - what a different world we were in.

The bad news came from one of the teachers who was chaperoning this trip at around 1 PM. "There has been an attack in the United States today" he says to which I had no idea how to react. "Today, the world has changed," he continued and I look out to my fellow campers since at this point, I don't seem to understand what he's saying. The magnitude of the situation hit me when I saw one of the counsellors welling up. This was serious.

All of a sudden, we learned about airliners hitting buildings in New York, the White House was bombed, loss of life in the tens of thousands and all sorts of other apocalyptic stories. Could this be true or was this a way to bring the campers even closer together?

A lot of questions went through my mind, but the show went on. There was still no way in getting the information and I was a bit of a visual person so hearing or reading about it didn't exactly work for me.

I cannot remember what my group was doing that afternoon, but we had about two hours of free time after the activities before dinner and instead of going for a swim like I always did that week, I stayed and listened to the radio that one of the guys had in his cabin but I lack an imagination so this whole incident was still difficult to comprehend. The best thing to do was to wait it out until we would get home - three days later!

That evening after dinner, there was a campfire where we sang songs, some of the counsellors and campers did skits among other things. There was no talk of what had happened that day, the latest news or anything at all.

We continued to laugh, make jokes, and were back to being normal. The next few days we all spent together were doing more activities, a massive Olympics-like game between all groups, and a dance!

Once this week was over, I had this feeling that we were all more than just friends, that we were a tight-knit family. This feeling went right through high school all the way to graduation when we chose our different paths.

Eight years have gone by since that one week of discovery. Many of us who spent that week together up north are still friends, have moved on to greater things and have embarked on our own amazing journeys. Thanks to technology, we're still in contact but I can't help but wonder if what happened during that week was a contributor to us all being close. The answer may seem obvious to you, but I'm scratching my head...

This blog entry is my last one for a very long time because of what is coming ahead for me so this one is for all the friends made during that one week when the world went mad and we had to depend on each other for strength.

White Pine; September 9-14, 2001.

BREAKING NEWS: Former Iraqi Information Minister joins Iranian Government

2009-07-08T00:40:00.003-04:00

TEHRAN - After a disputed election which rocked the Iranian nation and its government to its very core through bloodshed and protest, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under the blessing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has appointed a Minister of Information and Propaganda to his Council of Ministers - former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf.

"It is not at all an unusual move" said Mr. Ahmadinejad in a press conference that was only attended by pro-government journalists since all foreign journalists and government critics were deported or jailed; "Mr. al-Sahhaf has shown his courage and dedication to his government even under fire... its not like he was running through a red light or acted like a soccer hooligan when he was arrested by the infidel Americans."

"I would like to also add that he is a Shia Muslim so he belongs with us in Iran" added Mr. Ahmadinejad later on.

Al-Sahhaf was previously the Information Minister of Iraq and rose to popularity in the buildup to the 2003 war with his often comical rhetoric of being very optimistic and even delivering such memorable lines as "there are no American infidels in Baghdad" when only a few blocks away from a convoy of American-led tanks.

He was briefly an icon of popular culture and had gained the moniker "comical ali" with websites dedicated to him such as We Love the Iraqi Information Minister

The former minister was captured shortly after the invasion of Iraq was completed but released since he did not have any information that would have led to the capture of the higher ups in the government of Saddam Hussein nor was he ever a wanted man to begin with. He has lived with his family in the United Arab Emirates until this appointment.

"Let me assure everyone that I will report the truth and only the truth to the people of Iran" said Mr. al-Sahhaf during the press conference, "my aim is to show that this very legitimate Iranian government is as transparent and stable as any other government in the world."

The former Iraqi Information Minister has used his "let me assure" rhetoric before to tell reporters the Iraqi government's very optimistic information of destroying Americans during the war and as a result, a small chuckle emanated from the audience of journalists, with Mr. Ahmadinejad looking rather puzzled.

With his appointment, the number of members in the Council of Ministers within the Iranian government is now 22, but many critics outside Iran argue that Mr. al-Sahhaf's limited knowledge of Farsi - the main language of Iran - will be a big obstacle for him.

However, it appears that Mr. Ahmadinejad's stance on having a fellow Shi'ite Muslim in his cabinet as well as Supreme Leader Khamenei's recent blind support for the Iranian president has taken priority over this.

No comment has been received from any of the opposition candidates currently.

The In-Flight Magazine - Please Let You Be...

2009-06-30T21:50:00.005-04:00

I love to travel. There is no disputing that statement whatsoever. For any excuse (and if I have the money to do so), I will jet off somewhere because I want to. I usually travel economy because its all I can afford right now but I'm young and ambitious!

In my life, one thing that has remained constant through all my travels was the in-flight magazine in the seat pocket - and I have been traveling since I was very young.

Before the days of individual screens that had different channels for different films, television shows, or music videos, I would read the magazine. It also helped that when I was younger, I was an avid reader and could easily amuse myself with just about any publication. I'm still an avid reader and a regular library and bookstore-goer!

I don't remember any of the articles written since these magazines are more of a diversion rather than an intellectual gain for me but one thing that I've noticed now is how much of a preview these publications were for the places I was going to visit.

One example was earlier this year when I was traveling from Cairo to Abu Dhabi and the magazine on board the Etihad Airbus was talking about the upcoming Red Bull Air Race as well as current events happening in the Emirate and the best malls to go shopping.

Another such example is when I was on a flight from London to Baku several years back and being on a smaller aircraft (Airbus A320) than the one that got me across the pond (A brand new Boeing 777 at the time), you pretty much had to entertain yourself by reading a book or a magazine but I digress.

The fact was, this magazine - even though it was an English publication (I'll let you guess which airline!) - gave me such a good preview of the city of Baku and the country of Azerbaijan. It also gave a really good preview of Iran and the city of Tehran as well as other locales within Western and Central Asia.

In my short life - and also my shorter adult life - the great majority of my traveling was for pleasure and while these magazines are great, I found them and their tidbits of information more suitable for the business traveler - a sort of Lonely Planet for the businessman or woman who might have a bit of time at the end for sightseeing.

That still didn't divert me from reading them. What has kept me interested in the magazines was the fleet information of the airlines involving either photographs or drawings of the various aircraft in the fleet.

I plead guilty to tearing out those pages when I was younger! I also plead guilty to actually taking the magazines themselves either because apart from the destination previews, the articles were interesting or there were some really nice photographs. They served as a great diversion within the cabin but once I was out and about, these magazines went to the wayside. I guess there's a formula - or the articles are so boring that because you have nothing else to do on the plane, you might as well read it to pass the time!

I write this entry because of something I read from a while back about how Emirates Airlines planned to get rid of their in-flight magazines to save on fuel and in my opinion, that's getting rid of an institution in air travel. Instead, the magazine can be read on the screen in front of you.

Maybe it's just me, but I would rather prefer to read something that I can hold in my hand like a book and not having that makes me kind of uncomfortable. I guess nearly 20 years of reading books can do that to you!

I've flown on Emirates before and I really liked their magazine, although I was more awed at the time with their seatback screens and remotes some 15 years back - something I'd never seen before but is now pretty common on all medium to long-haul - and even short haul for some airlines' - flights.

So far, the Dubai-based airline is the only one to have taken away the magazines but I'm sure other things could've been done to save on fuel. I suppose every little bit adds up in the end.

I guess I'm just a young idealist with a very romantic view of the past and the in-flight magazine gives me that view of a time when flying to a far off locale was a very adventurous thing to do...

Facebook is Nothing but an Update of Personal Websites

2009-03-03T22:38:00.003-05:00

There has been so much stuff in the news about Facebook being intrusive and putting your life up for the world to see, but the fact of the matter is, it's nothing but an update to the personal website that computer nerds would put up about themselves during the nineties and the early part of this decade.

When I was in grade nine, I had my own free website, chock full of ads, on homestead with my favourite shows listed, my favourite music, etc.

My e-mail, a little thing about myself and the occasional update were fully visible to anyone who would have had a passing interest in me. Nobody really noticed nor cared and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing!

I didn't have a digital camera nor a scanner at the time (I was a disadvantaged geek), so there were no pictures and I ended up using photographs that I could yank off the internet to make my photo albums, mainly about the places I would like to go.

The passion for my site died eventually and I went website-less. I don't think that the site exists anymore and I haven't bothered searching for it since I can't even remember what my e-mail was nor what the name of the website was.

Facebook is nothing more than my little website that I butchered with HTML back in grade nine, except that it has the extra perks of posting photos, keeping in touch with friends, uploading videos, having apps, and other things, something that I was never able to do with my little corner of the net.

Quite frankly, this is an evolved form for me and everyone saying that it's dangerous and that sort of stuff just doesn't fly. Facebook is only dangerous if you make it out to be dangerous. By adding total strangers to see your profile could be the worst thing you ever do.

As well, keeping your security settings to only have your friends see pictures or other things is a step closer to keeping yourself safe, but many of us aren't tech-savvy and are afraid to play with the profile settings.

I admit that Facebook had the thrill of being on the internet and meeting new people, but ever since it went from a university student-only initiative to a worldwide network and one of the most visited websites on the internet, I have had a policy of adding people I met in person or people whom I work with. Those friends that I added for the hell of it when I first got Facebook to pad my friend numbers are getting the boot from my friends list, and I don't think any of them would shed a tear.

Even then, I'm risking it a bit, but I'm no longer accepting the friend request from the guy in Australia who is also a fan of Kimi Raikkonen or the guy in Pakistan who said that "because you've been to the Monaco Grand Prix, you're my friend," both of which were real events that happened in the last two years.

To close off this post, Facebook is only safe as long as you take the necessary precautions, keep your privacy settings on high and only add friends who are friends, not people whom you share a vested interest like Formula One or attending a Grand Prix.

A Tribute to Undergrad.

2008-12-10T23:28:00.003-05:00

It's pretty much done. I have all my marks minus the final assignments, but even they are all passed and done. I only have one exam in five days time and then I can close the chapter on a tough part of my life. It's had its ups and downs.

The upside was seeing the world in a totally different view that I would've never seen. The downside is the depression that befuddled me in my first year of classes - a result of the weeding out process that the university undertakes to separate the men from the boys as well as some personal issues that I wouldn't publish on the internet - even though nobody would read it!

Anyhow, to lay tribute to 4.5 years of partying, travelling, and working my ass off, here's a little animation that tends to show up on the life science message board of my university about the mentality of how I was a student at the torturous institute known as the University of Toronto. Enjoy!

Me at the beginning of the term:

My attitude at the end of the first week:

My attitude at the end of the second week:

My attitude before mid-terms:

What I'm feeling during mid-terms:

How I am after mid-terms:

Before the finals:

Once I find out the final exam schedule:

How I am with seven days to go before the final exam:

Six days to go:

Five days to go:

Four days:

Three days:

Two days:

One day:

The night before:

One hour to go before the final:

The final exam:

Right after the exam finishes and I leave the exam hall:

During the holidays:

This has pretty much summed up how my undergraduate career in university went. Now that I look beyond, I really wish I was back in September - but not September of first year!

What happens from here? I don't know. Does anyone have a job for me?

Wowed Beyond Belief at Mumbai Terrorist Attack

2008-11-28T21:41:00.003-05:00

It's absolutely unbelievable what has happened in Mumbai. This is an attack that had gone on for nearly 59 hours. Many civilian places targetted, many civilians murdered for what the terrorists claim was their religion.

It's amazing that while the human death toll is at the time of writing about 20 times less than that of the 9/11 attacks, the psychological power of this attack was just as strong, if not more.

These terrorists were faceless, I have only seen a few pictures, and that was when they were in action, with most of the images being grainy.
The best picture that could be found shows a young guy. He looks like a guy I would sit next to in my biology class and would be the type of guy who'd fight tooth and nail to get into medical school. It's hard to believe that indoctrination created what could have been brilliant people who would save the world into people who create more havoc.

Just looking at this attack, it is something that has wowed me. Watching images online for the most part is something very interesting. At the end of the siege at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, there was a cell phone picture of what appeared to be the body of a terrorist who had jumped to his death from the window.

The image of the body with a gun and blood around was very gruesome, but allowed a human element at the same time, something that just wasn't seen in the mainstream media. We heard the term 'gunmen' so often that we were desensitized to it and had the thought that it was just a bunch of raving and well-coordinated lunatics running around with religion as the mentality.

Still, this attack was terrible, and while my scribbling here is any indication of my attitude towards this now-over siege, I'm still stunned...

Kordanifying, Kordanizing, and Kordan in general...

2008-11-18T20:50:00.005-05:00

A shame that Jon Stewart hasn't brought this up. It would've been something right up his alley.

If you hadn't heard about it either, then you're not alone. This happened to have happened (Yes, I used the same word twice in the same sentence) on U.S. Election Day, when "Yes We Can" was the moniker, as opposed to "I swear to Allah that I have received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University!"

The culprit was none other than former Iranian interior minister Ali Kordan, a man who claimed to have received an honorary doctorate in law from none other than Oxford University in London! Problem with this is that Oxford is not located in London, it's located in Oxfordshire, a town that's about 55 miles away from London, but whose keeping tabs?

After making this announcement and showing off his degree, which contained the signatures of no less than three professors, none of whom were related to the faculty of law, all published in CAPS LOCK, which makes it look very 'official,' and had a few spelling errors, academics and especially Oxford University started scratching their heads.
After doing a thorough check of their records, Oxford found out that Ali Kordan had not ever received an honorary degree from Oxford, nor had he ever attended Oxford University to begin with!

Of course, with Kordan vehemently defending that he indeed did receive this degree, more speculation came that he ordered this very official-looking degree from a diploma mill that emphasizes life experience over academics.

Anyhow, with this funny episode, I'm reminded of a certain sketch that the Australian group known as The Chasers did. Basically, one of the guys paid $400 to get his dog a degree in medicine, essentially creating a new Dr. Zoidberg!

Anyhow, Ali Kordan has given rise to a new set of words that would be good to use to describe and if you read the London Guardian, this is a good way to bring new words to the English language.

Kordanize (v)
1. To get a PhD without having a Bsc
2. To become an important person (eg. minister) by presenting fake certificate or documents

Kordanification (n)
1. The process of getting a fake degree, especially from a prestigious university (e.g. Oxford)
2. The relationship between happiness and telling a big lie
3, A method to gain self-confidence

Kordanism (n)
1. The philosophy and strategy of telling a lie to a large group of people (e.g. a nation)
2. A psychological method for deceiving people and laughing simultaneously

Kordanic (adj)
1. Happy
2. Self-confident
3. Relaxed

Kordanicaly (adv)
1. In a Kordanic manner

Power stirs corruption in an already corrupt country...

Debt, debt and even more debt

2008-11-13T14:36:00.002-05:00

So much is in the news about debt, plummeting markets, big powerful corporations going to the cleaners, etc. There's a credit crisis because banks and predatory lenders aggressively gave those who couldn't afford the American Dream of a house in suburbs, two cars in the driveway and much more. They couldn't afford it and with the interest rates so high, they will be paying interest with no end in sight.

As a result, it's snowballed into the rest of the economy. This is a very simplistic view of looking at this economic crisis.

I can see how bad this economy is. I'm finishing university in approximately 32 days from the date of writing and the prospects of getting a job here is bleak at best.

Luckily, I'm not on any student loans because my parents have helped and I worked over the course of my university career so I'm not in too much trouble just yet.

But, at the same time, I really want to have a meaningful job. Working with the people at the Red Bull Air Race is awesome, but I doubt I'm qualified as a reporter with them because this is just a hobby.

The irony of that above statement is that a fellow named Harold told me that you're a journalist if you can tell a story, you don't need a degree to prove that.

Anyhow, back to debt. I feel for my friends. They are all knee-deep in loans and looking to pay it off by getting a job. But with an economy that's in shambles, how will they be able to?

The EuroTrash Post or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Techno...

2008-10-26T00:59:00.004-04:00

It's been a while since I've commented on my life or anything that was associated with it.

Today, I cleaned out the troughs of the house, a very messy and possibly dangerous job. It was fun running around on the roof of my house and busting a move while trying to scare the hell out of my mom. She was pissed :)

Anyhow, during the course of keeping my balance on a slanted roof and attempting to rapidly age my mother, I was thinking of old Euro songs that were popular like Eiffel 65's Blue or Sash's Ecuador. I used to be an avid follower of Euro and techno songs, but my tastes have expanded. I still listen to Euro and techno, but I also listen to pop, rock, and anything else that may catch my ear.

For some reason, I was reminded of a song by a German dance group named ATC who had a single out about seven years ago titled "Around the World (La La La)."

I went over to my laptop after to check out the video for this song. While on the handy dandy video site named YouTube, I discovered this gem:

Yep, another German dance group whose song pretty much matches tune for tune the original ATC song. I do know that ATC's song was the cover for a Russian band 10 years ago, but this was interesting. As well, the dark-haired Swiss chick in this video is pretty hot too! I just hope she isn't taken :)

Even though the tunes are the same, the video isn't too bad. Then again, I do like seeing new things...

I Don't Care.

2008-08-21T15:32:00.002-04:00

My background is Muslim. It's a shock to many of my friends, but I don't care, and neither do they. There's a great many things I don't care about, and that includes slander towards a race, group or religion.

Anyhow, many times it has come to my attention about a certain group on Facebook called "Fuck Islam." It is an enraging feeling when you see your religion as being singled out, but then I realize that it may be slander, but it's slander done by people who really crave attention.

The "Fuck Islam" group is an excellent indication of that. It's just a bunch of people who have no knowledge of the world around them or the religious book they intend on craving their attention from. Some also have gone to the length of spending endless amounts of time by putting in why that religion is wrong. If they choose to waste their time doing that, then that's fine with me. They just don't have a life.

So, will I debate them?

No. I would rather enjoy my life and go about my own business.

These people are just like the 9/11 conspiracy theorists. They crave attention and target a certain group of people to get a rise out of and feel important. If they feel justified to give their skewered version of the Koran, so be it. I don't have the time nor care to convince them that they're wrong because they have only one mentality and it'll never change.

I'm not a particularly religious person, but that should not be a justification for me to not debate.

When it comes to slandering Islam, I couldn't care less at all. Let the slanderers do what they crave, and I'll let God be the judge.

The world is full of things to see, do, explore and learn; don't let something like opposing a religion stop you from that.

Inspirational words for a hobby journalist.

2008-08-15T00:13:00.002-04:00

Bad things happen all the time, right? Today, a deal went awry for the stupidest of reasons, but that's said and done and the ID10T that committed the act of stupidity and his attempt to scam me will get his dues through karma.

But, to every bad result, there is a silver lining. My brother wanted to sell his snowboard, but the person went nuts over a small chip saying it's worth $50, even though you can repair it for less than $1. In the end, the guy didn't get his snowboard, all the while trying to claim that he could buy it for new for $50 more. He's a terrible liar. Back on course though, the silver lining was that I ended up with a new snowboard and free lessons from my brother, the snowboarding instructor! A new skill to keep fit over the winter is great. It's your loss Mr. Binda, my gain!

Anyhow, when thinking of the bad, I think of the good and the inspirational. Not being a business-minded person, I really don't have any business heroes. I dream of having something big like an F1 team or, more recently, a Red Bull Air Race team, the latter of which would be a hell of a lot cheaper!

So, who is most inspirational to me? The doctor that guided me in losing ~60 Lbs last summer? No. Of course, that man inspired me to lose weight after he told me his story of being in the same position as me, and helping me diet appropriately, although the diet was a bit extreme. It's because of him that I'm a normal guy and no longer stand out as "that fat guy," even though I'm still a tad overweight.

The person I find most inspirational is not a Formula One driver, team boss or anyone in the league. I don't even find any of the Red Bull Air Race pilots whom I talked to a lot during my assignment in Detroit as inspirational. The person I find to be most inspirational is a man named Harold.

Harold is a publisher for the Detroit city website, and when I was on assignment at the Red Bull Air Race in Detroit almost three months ago, he said something at one of the Red Bull parties that really stuck with me: "you are here, covering something that's both historical and amazing. You are in a place where many who are successful and have made it want to be, and would give anything to be here. By that token, you are a successful person."

I was really flummoxed by what Harold told me. How many Red Bull Vodkas did he have? He was perfectly sober. He did have his fair share of grey hairs and wrinkles, he must be onto something here, but what? I am successful, but what can I show for it? I eventually asked him, "there is no money in this 'success' that you speak of" to which he replied, "you have made it, but now it is up to you to turn that success into money. That's what you have to work on from here on in."

I don't like to think of myself as having reached the top, but if someone with a lot more wisdom than me is going to say that, I cannot say he's wrong, am I correct there? Harold is by far one of the most inspirational people that I have met so far, not because of him saying that I am successful, but because he sees that I have the potential of reaching the pinnacle.

He was right when he said that I was in a place where those who have made it would want to be. I talked with my cousin, who is a doctor, and someone I see as a successful and productive member of society, and he said that he would give his MD up just to be there. Maybe it was a rather extreme thing for him to say, but that's what he sees, and I'm happy about it, I guess...

Message to the only three cell phone companies in Canada

2008-07-09T11:43:00.005-04:00

Well, it's official! Price gouging has hit a new high here in Canada. As of August 8th and August 24th, two of the three cell phone companies in Canada will start charging for incoming text messages.

How stupid is that? Why must people pay for something they don't initiate? There are three big cell phone companies in Canada: Rogers, Bell and Telus. Their prices are all similar and they all have hidden charges of some type on your bill that can cause a simple $25 monthly plan to balloon to about $40.

I used to have a cell phone with Rogers on a 3-year term, the minimum that is most affordable, while in the EU, the maximum time for a cell phone plan is 2 years. You also have to sign a contract, which by definition means that both sides have to abide by it. If the consumer wants to change the specifics or just leave a contract entirely, they have to pay dearly while if the provider changes, they send you a notice in the mail and no plans to compensate or anything like that. Disgusting.

It is really frustrating to have something like this. I look to the United States and the competition they have. Many of their plans are cheap, have more options and basically have more bang for their buck. They even have unlimited options, but you certainly don't see that here in Canada!

I vow never to buy a cell phone from any of the big three cell phone providers. I have a phone from Virgin mobile where I pay only one price per month, and it is VERY convenient! The only downside is that it won't work in the US, but that's why you have to unlock a phone!

Frustrated by my government and frustrated that I'm being gouged.

In Defence of Detroit

2008-06-03T23:55:00.003-04:00

The motor city has received a bum rap for being dangerous in recent times. You have a lot of jokes about it being immensely poor and crime being its largest industry (Although with Kwame Kilpatrick as mayor...), and the list goes on. It was compared to the city across the river, Windsor, Ontario, in the film Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore. More recently, it was named as the most dangerous city to live in.

So, when I got the call from BleacherReport.com and Red Bull to go there and cover the Red Bull Air Race, the first thing that ran through my parents' mind was "will he come out of there alive?"

Deep down, I knew that what was said in the media was exaggerated in order to garner both advertising money and viewers, which brings in more advertising and more money - a positive feedback loop per se! But, I was a little afraid myself to be going there considering the fact that this was a city I had never been to and I usually am one to stand out, even though I try to blend.

Well, anyways, upon arrival to the Marriott at the Renaissance Center and GM World Headquarters, my perceptions of the city were starting to change by the minute. Firstly, the bellhop who brought our luggage up with us gave us a brief talk of the city, where you can get entertained, etc. and upon entering our room, told us everything that was available and even went to get ice for the ice bucket. These were small gestures, but no doubt that they showed Detroiters as nice and laid back people.

That evening, I got my media briefing from the various sponsor representatives and went back to my room. After a little talk, a knock came on the door, and it was the same bellhop saying that my media package had just arrived.

After going through all the goodies in there, my mom, whom I took because she was the only one that was able to come after a certain somebody bailed out on me at the last second, was hungry, so we went downstairs in the vast corridors of the RenCen to find food. We couldn't. So, we ended up running into a security doing their night shift telling us where to get food. We had to go to Greektown and take the Detroit People Mover - Public transportation! This got my mom a little agitated, and I was a little on edge as well, but the security guard assured us of its safety, and we went on anyways.

When we got to our stop, we went looking for something to eat, and we even asked for directions from guys that looked like gangsters. These gangsters were very nice, asked us if we're foreigners, which we were, told us where to eat, and even told us to enjoy our stay in Detroit! That was very nice of them! Overall, the people were nice, from the police officer to the gangsters to ordinary locals and security guards. Just a nice, misunderstood and laid back city.

If there's anything that this trip taught me, it's that the media just doesn't give you the same perception of things that you, the ordinary person, would see. If they say somewhere is dangerous, it probably has to do more with statistics, which don't show the entire story. You have to get on the ground to see whether one place is dangerous or not. I'll be going back to Detroit if there's another Red Bull Air Race!

All Those Billions to Start a Record Company?

2008-05-04T12:48:00.007-04:00

I was reading the news, doing my regular reminiscing, and this story has taken the metaphorical cake! Charles Ray Fuller of Fort Worth, Texas went into a bank to try and CASH, that's right, CASH a check from his girlfriend's mother for $360,000,000,000. In case numbers aren't your forte, that's $360 billion, that's right BILLION!
Words cannot explain how funny I think this is. If this guy's girlfriend's mother had $360 billion in her account, how come I didn't know about this?

As well, $360 billion to start a record company? Why? With that kind of money, just buy an island in the South Seas, live out the rest of your life. If you're a little down on money, just rent it out for a few million per day with some A-list celebrity. But for a record company, come on.

Finally, another blogger by the name of Ed Shull has said that since Charles Ray Fuller was a black person, the teller had to call his girlfriend's mother to see if they can cash a check of that amount, thus equalling racial profiling. Ed is an idiot. He claims that because he was black and had a huge check, then he must have been a criminal. Ed, whenever any teller who was cashing a check for a huge amount, and would like to keep their job, would call up the person who issued the check to confirm that the check was legitimate. My parents gave me a check for $2000 for my 20th birthday, and when I went to deposit it, the teller called my mom up to make sure it was legit, and I'm her son! This teller made an effort to ensure that the check was legitimate so don't try to play the race card on this person. Black person with a huge check doesn't equal criminal, but since it was a forgery, this guy has a criminal record now.

Apart from that, an hilarious story to read, and just added to my procrastination. Finally, a little message for Chuckie Ray:

If I had $360 billion, I would've bought an F1 team, not a record company!

Oh the satisfaction!

2008-04-07T19:55:00.002-04:00

Well, I was reading today about insurance. Not sure why, just stumbled upon it. I noticed something about what insurance really was: a safety net that would make good on a total loss.

So basically, that means that small claims that are below the deductible should not necessarily be reported since it means that you will have higher rates, even if you weren't at fault.

This goes right to the issue that happened almost a year ago with two South Asian scammers whose names won't be mentioned. If they were going to the insurance company to make a claim to get money, boy are they stupid! To recap, there was a rear-ending on the highway which hardly made a scratch, but the female of the two scammers claimed that all the rust and decay on her jalopy were a result of this touch. There was no dent, no scratch, nothing to give evidence that the vehicles had even touched, but the woman and her male went to the collision reporting centre in the hopes that they could make a big payday, and accusing me of being the driver (and dare I say, made a huge deal out of it that even the police officers were laughing about this!)!

Anyhow, after seeing that small claims, even if they aren't your fault are reported, then your rates do go up because insurance is supposed to cover for a loss, not a nuisance. If insurance covered me for nuisances, I would have gone to my broker and would ask him to insure me against this woman and man! Anyhow, the insurance company had an accident forgiveness thingy, and even they didn't use that because there was no police report written on the scene, so it's like this didn't even happen. But, Mr. and Ms. We-think-insurance-gives-us-money have their rates increasing! Oh how satisfying that the victim-turned-villain gets their due!

BREAKING NEWS: John McCain announces his defection to the Democratic Party

2008-02-21T19:07:00.003-05:00

Following in the wake of the today's report in the New York Times about an affair with a pretty hot female lobbyist, Senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain has announced that he is officially switching loyalties to the Democratic Party.

"The Republicans have always pissed me off" says McCain in response to why he's switching. "The Democrats don't dictate who or how many women you get to screw with. Bill Clinton did it, so did JFK and FDR, and they were all great presidents" adds McCain with a smile.

The reaction from the Republican Party has been muted. Mike Duncan, head of the Republican National Committee, the main body for promoting the Republican platform commented by saying "John was always confused." He goes on to say that McCain "was always too liberal for our liking, and when he decided to jump ship, we all let off a sigh of relief because he was making us all into a bunch of socialist loving, big business hating, environmental protecting morons."

As for what will happen to him as a presidential candidate, the Democratic National Commitee has welcomed him with open arms and proposed that the 916 pledged delegates join in the Democratic convention. Howard Dean was reported to be high-fiving with McCain and learning how to scream properly when he loses a caucus. When asked about how he'll balance it with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, he took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a microphone and started yelling "WE'RE GONNA WELCOME McCAIN TO THE CONVENTION, AND WE'RE GONNA MAKE CLINTON LIVE WITH IT, YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Bill Clinton on the other hand was very happy with McCain saying "we have another brother who feels like a true Democrat. It doesn't hurt the nation when you sleep with someone else other than your wife, but Republicans like to steal money from the working people." When asked to specify what he meant by the female reporter, he responded by saying "you can find the answer to that in the toolshed out back", to which he proceeded with a wink.

An idea to make Formula 1 more accessible, but nobody's reading this!

2008-01-31T22:22:00.000-05:00

I was thinking, many, if not all major sporting leagues in North America have an All-Star and/or skills competition that happens midway through the season. What about the most watched sport on earth, Formula 1? It does take the most TV ratings each year, but it's not a single event like the Superbowl or the FIFA World Cup Final. Many young boys and men watch car racing or even passively follow it, so it's not just something that is kept going in the background for fanatics. So, my thoughts asked me, why is there no Formula 1 all-star Formula 1 skills competition?

On the calendar, there are anywhere from 17-19 races per year that take place ranging from brand new tracks like Shanghai, Bahrain, and soon with Singapore and Valencia, to legendary tracks like Silverstone, England; Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium; the Nurburgring in Germany; and Monaco. These are all fine tracks, but they are selective. I know that tracks have to be designed in a specific way, but what if at the end of each season, like middle-end of November, there is a special skills competition using the previous year's-spec cars in a series of both team and driver focused competitions? An example would be the quickest pit-stop by changing 4 tires, putting in a specific amount of fuel and changing a nosecone or a track obstacle course?

What's even better that instead of a track that's seen action, a different city where a race has NOT occurred host it for a weekend? A world city like Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, New York or Toronto would be ideal and a big population can see the cars up close and maybe even meet a driver or two.

Not only does this make people more friendly to car racing, but the sponsors get airtime and Formula 1 becomes more recognized. I hope that if Bernie Ecclestone reads this, he considers this idea because there is a market to be tapped, and that means more money for you and more entertainment for the people. Think about it.

Taco Bell presents: The Dave Kori and Candy Tistadt Show

2008-01-26T01:12:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you've all heard about this by now. High school senior in Virginia calls up public official to ask a question about the snow day policy, and then he receives a harassing and abusive voicemail from the spouse of the public official.

Well I for one would be ashamed to be that public official if my wife was calling up those who made an inquiry of snow day policies. If you haven't heard it, here's a YouTube video of it:

Anyways, to give some background information from what I've gathered. Candy Tistadt is the wife of Dean Tistadt, the public servant working for the Fairfax County Public Schools district (FCPS). Candy herself is an elementary school teacher.

Dave Kori is a senior student at the same school district, and he called up Dean's office on a heavy snow day, to which he couldn't get an answer, and then called the home, a listed number (Public information) and left a message including his name, number, and who he is. Candy reacts. Mind you, according to Kori, and many other people, he says that he wanted some information about the snow day policies (Or something to that effect), not about why Dean Tistadt did not close the schools.

Personally, if I were a parent with a child of mine in Candy Tistadt's classroom, I would insist for a reprimand or even a public apology over this issue. If she treats young people this way, then how would she treat my child if he/she asked her a question that might have been sensitive to Candy? This issue that Kori called about was none of Candy Tistadt's business, and she took this issue so far into her own hands that she denigrated herself and made her true opinions of young people known. She really should be ashamed of herself for doing something so stupid, and if I were Kori, I would probably have called back to tell her that I was questioning a public official, a principal that the United States is built on, and since she isn't that public official in question, she should stay out of this.

However, Kori took it in the wrong direction by making it an internet sensation. He could've blackmailed, but as the old saying goes "hindsight is only 20/20!" Hopefully, Dave will learn that to make a point, he doesn't have to get the WWW involved, he can just call up again and clarify himself to Dean, preferably in his office, not Candy (Although she might also be in Dean's office to fight her hubby's battles!), but we should remember that Kori isn't 25 (The age when the frontal lobes of the brain are fully developed), and neither am I!

A little British humour, if you follow England's favourite sport...

2007-12-16T00:30:00.000-05:00

...Formula 1! Now, we all know that the Brits love their fast cars and loved it even more with Lewis Hamilton nearly making history in two aspects: the first black F1 world champion, and the first rookie F1 world champion. He was beaten by 1 point by Kimi Raikkonen, FINALLY! As well, this season was mired in scandal when Hamilton's McLaren team was fined $100,000,000 (One hundred million dollars) for using Ferrari documents on their car, a big no-no. Anyhow, after looking at the regular F1 places, I found this lovely joke article that pretty much sums up the F1 spy saga:

The Ferrari F1 Team fired their entire pit-crew yesterday.
The announcement was followed by Ferrari's decision to take advantage of the English Government's "Work For the Dole" scheme and hire unemployed youths from Liverpool.

The decision to hire them was brought on by a recent documentary on how unemployed youths in Liverpool were able to remove a set of car wheels in less than 6 seconds without proper equipment, whereas Ferrari's existing crew can only do it in 8 seconds.

This was thought to be an excellent yet bold move by Ferrari Management, as most races are won & lost in the pits, Ferrari would have an advantage over every team.

However Ferrari expectations were easily exceeded, as during the Crews first practice session; not only were "da boyz from Bootle" able to change the tyres in under 6 seconds but within 12 seconds they had resprayed, rebadged, and had sold the vehicle over to the McLaren Team for four dozen Stella's and a gram of Charlie!!

Anyways, there's more fun stuff. Check out this picture from a Portuguese F1 site.

This roughly translates into:
David Coulthard: There is a conspiracy in favour of Kimi
Fernando Alonso: There is a conspiracy in favour of Lewis.
Flavio Briatore: There is a conspiracy in favour of McLaren.
Rubens Barichello: There is a conspiracy in favour of Michael ... uh no wait... Jenson... oh forget about it!

Anyhow, I'm burned out.

Good night!

Dear religious extremists: SHUT UP!

2007-11-30T11:28:00.000-05:00

Seriously, extremists in general should take a coffee break because it might just clear their mind. There is the issue of the teacher in Sudan who got arrested because she complied with a vote in her class to have a teddy bear named Muhammad. There is also the man in India who married, and impregnated his daughter, because he claimed that Allah told him. It's people like these, at least the most high profile of them, that make Islam, and religion in general, a terrible thing.

This case is so crazy that I'm not sure where to start from. The Unity school in Sudan is a school where teachers from all over teach there. The teacher in this case did a unit on animals, and the class had a vote on what to name the bear. The kids all voted to name the bear Muhammad. The extremists got pissed. Knee jerk reaction.

If anything, these children are receiving religious education, right? I would assume that some of the religious educators are the same extremists who wanted this woman jailed, and now killed, right? If it should be anyone that's prisoned, it should be the religious institution of Sudan who hasn't taught these children their Iconoclastic ways before. The same people who are calling for the death of this teacher should be the ones that should be sent to prison and lashed.

As well, extremists of any kind are uneducated, to say the least. They use religion to over-emphasize their intelligence, which is sadly moot. If anyone is going to get a religious education, they should also have a general understanding of the world and take a relativistic approach to other cultures and religions. Religious education should be about understanding of not just your own religion, but the other major ones too, and only that way will there be some harmony to both religion and culture.

Santa Claus is coming to town...

2007-11-18T00:50:00.001-05:00

... and what a way to welcome him than to call him Kimi Räikkönen! That's right, I believe that Kimi Räikkönen is Santa, and here are the top 10 reasons why Kimi Räikkönen is the real Santa:

Santa is apparently from Finland – Kimi is Finnish
Santa doesn’t mind a drink, especially not on Christmas Eve – Well, we all know Kimi doesn’t mind a drink
You never see Kimi just before Christmas, the time when Santa is getting ready for Christmas
Kimi is one of the fastest drivers in the world, and we all know Santa has to be speedy getting round the whole world – surely a poignant factor.
Red overalls a problem for you? Kimi has his own set, as does Santa.
But wait I hear you say… ‘Kimi is too toned to be Santa’. Well, as you don’t see him just before Christmas, it is possible he could ‘bulk up’ but there’s also things known as ‘fat suits’…
However, you never seem to see Kimi without his personal trainer for the rest of the year… it’s all a conspiracy!
According to In Gear magazine, Santa has an interest in cars, as does Kimi.
Children like Kimi as well as Santa
Finally, lots of people still believe in Santa, and lots believe in Kimi too.

So, that's why I think that Santa is indeed the Kimster. He was finally confirmed as 2007 World Driver's Champion, and I'm happy and looking forward to 2008. Maybe a double finish for him?

Between "Tomorrow Never Dies" and "Die Another Day" , was there another Bond story?

2007-11-09T23:24:00.000-05:00

This has been racking my mind for the last while, but I heard in the few days after September 11th, 2001, the writers of the next James Bond film had to change their story because the story of the next film (what would become Die Another Day) had a story that was similar to the events of 9/11.

I remember reading something like that on one of the major news sites (I think it was ABC) and the film would be delayed by something like 6 months. Does anyone know about that? I have been investigoogling and I haven't found anything like that, apart from Conspiracy sites talking about how James Bond must have made 9/11 conspiracies popular because there was talk about someone making a huge payoff in "Casino Royale" after 9/11.

So anyways, anyone know anything about this or is this just going to be another thing that was reported in the media frenzy after 9/11?

Political incorrectness... I don't care!

2007-10-31T10:57:00.001-04:00

There is a person in my politics class. She sits within my vicinity and she is a libertarian and very politically incorrect. She doesn't make an effort to be correct, and frankly, I couldn't give a damn, seriously. She hates the Middle East, even though she's never been there, she watches Fox, and I guess that could be the reason why she's like that...

Anyhow, I don't like calling myself as right wing or left wing. As a matter of fact, I have left politics out of my life for good. Politics is for people who want a feeling of belonging.

If there's anything that politics in general has taught me, it's that nothing works the way you want it to and that's because of ideology. It's a pain in the ass and then some! I have a new (Relatively) idea for ideology and that it should be based on practicality. Why should a politician stick by his ideology of liberalism/conservatism/libertarianism/whateverism and go according to that stringent rule of ideology? Why can't they go and see what's better for the greater good rather than what promises they made during the election? I say, when looking at an issue, be practical, see what's the best outcome.

I know that the 3 readers reading this will say that "politicians look at what is the best outcome already." To be honest, I don't see it that way. They aren't practical, they either go with party policy (In Canada), or promise policy (In America), not always by practical policy.

Anyhow, that is my rant on the interwebs, ciao!

I'm just asking questions...

2007-10-10T13:33:00.000-04:00

... and this time, I promise not to bash 9/11 conspiracy theorists! Actually, I'll be talking about something totally different!

I was brought up in an academic setting. Most of the family had university education and most of my cousins now are doctors or something along those lines (Two cousins are graduate surgeons). Naturally, my parents would want me to follow in the direction of going to medical school and becoming "Aghae Doktor", but I have other plans; plans that I think will make me happy in life.

I'll be the first to admit that my current GPA is not good conversation, unless you happen to be my worst enemy, and my personality in general is rather lazy. But, I can't stand people, whom I think are better qualified than me in many respects, put me as a benchmark of perfection. I overheard someone saying to his friend in a study group that "we should be better than Sheiban." Fine, whatever.

I think with people who compete with me, they only see the way I manage to organize my notes and other things. I guess they make the association that organization=good marks. I don't believe that and if you happen to read this, please note that Sheiban is not that amazing! He has a mediocre GPA and he's in a library writing on his blog instead of studying, and yes, I'm failing psychology!

Clunkity clunk - and I'm on the floor!

2007-08-26T00:50:00.001-04:00

I'm sure you've heard of them in some form or other. They claim to speak the "truth", but can't seem to agree on it. For every one of them, the "truth" is what only each individual, and not the collective, believe. I'm not talking about religious fundamentalists, I'm talking about 9/11 deniers. One says space beams, the other says potato! A confused group of mainly early teenagers and some ex-professors, none of which are in the proper fields to be making these kinds of analyses, preach that the attacks of 9/11 were an inside job, created by the US government.

Of course, I have no interest in debunking them, there are a lot of engineers and people who are qualified to take care of them. As a life science student, I can only comment on the G-forces that the human body can withstand, so I'm not qualified to be discussing the collapse of the WTC buildings.

However, even though I'm not an engineer, I can certainly tell when an argument is so stupid that not even engineers will look at it. Below is a clip of Sofia Shafquat, the narrator of one of the many tired out internet films about that day, "9/11 Mysteries". She uses the most peculiar argument I have ever seen to get the word out:

Now, I'm not sure what to say. Obviously, buildings don't speak English when they fall and I certainly know that they don't say "Clunkity clunk"! Apart from the mind-numbing stupidity that made it onto the History Channel, there is also the fact that the building was not hit at the very top and therefore, wouldn't be going "clunkity clunk" 110 times. I'm not going to debunk what Sofia said, since she's already done that, but I would just like to highlight how crazy and stupid the conspiradroids get when they realize that they're running out of ammo...

Updating from "Stop making a big deal..." and how much I "love" insurance!

2007-08-23T17:01:00.000-04:00

Anyhow, it's been a while and now it's back to me! The Turkish Grand Prix is on its way and I'm hoping to see Ferrari and McLaren go at it again (And me cheering for Kimi!). I'm teaching some people on how to do well on standardized tests, and I'm just working out in general...

Anyhow, I pick up the letters from the mailbox yesterday and I discover that we have received a letter saying that we are 100% at fault for the accident that occurred over a month ago. That's fine, with us. If you hit someone from behind, it's your fault with the exception of the taillights of the car in front not working. The damage was tagged at under $50 so it doesn't really affect us, as in, the damage was so very tiny that the insurance company won't take our premiums up because this is the first accident that my mother's been involved in almost 15 years. P.L. and her husband, Q.L. have indeed reported the "damage" from the incident. I didn't think they would go that far, but hey, they have shown that they can be cheap people!

Anyways, my mother calls up the insurance company to once again, tell them that she has nothing to claim because a claim form came with the letter. After logging almost an hour of phone time going from one customer service rep to another because "it is not their department" or some other excuse. The file number is given, my mom asks for what the other party has been claiming because she is curious and then she is sent to someone else because of something or another.

After going through confirmation, file numbers, names, secret codes, whathaveyou and the likes of it, we find out that P.L. and Q.L. are still negotiating with their insurance company on how much they should be given! For the rest of the day yesterday, I was just in a happy mood and nothing could have made me upset simply because of this! It is my assumption that maybe, in the past, they have given exaggerated claims, and the insurance company will want to investigate the claims to make sure.

It's been over 40 days since the incident and after thinking this through, and from the sorry state of her vehicle, I am assuming that P.L. has been in quite a few accidents where she was the one to blame, and therefore, her premiums were way up.

When this incident occurred, she wanted to get revenge, and immediately went to the collision reporting centre (CRC), knowing full well that we wouldn't want to get the insurance company involved, and going to the CRC for us would be the last thing we would want to do. Unfortunately for her, she talked too much there and we got a phone call saying that the incident has been reported and there is an inconsistency in the story. We reported the accident so that the insurance company can have both sides of the story. A really lucky move for us! We also mentioned that her right taillight was not functioning when the incident happened, which could probably bring them under scrutiny. I would also assume that the damage they are reporting is not consistent with our damage. They might have even reported the chipped paint on their back bumper, which even the hood of my mom's car can't reach is the damage! I'm so glad the CRC showed how high off the ground the damage of her car was!

Over 40 days have gone by this very minor accident, I've moved on, my mom's moved on, but P.L. and Q.L. are still in negotiation with their insurance company about this incident. Day in, day out, they are probably on the phone trying to see what to say next. Quite amazing when you see that certain people have an objective in mind when something minor happens. C'est la vie!

The plans of a scammer have been thwarted. We did not want this to go to the CRC, but they went and banked on the hope that we won't go and only their exaggerated side of the story would be present when they go to the insurance company. Funnily enough, we went to report this in order to put their exaggerated claims into perspective and now they are having a hard time at receiving anything, rightfully so. I'm just hoping that their claims are so heavily exaggerated (Such as maybe hammering the back bumper so much to destroy it) that it could be considered fraud and have the case simply thrown out! I only hope the case is thrown out and nothing else. I don't want the law to get involved with this for their sake.

Anyhow, Turkish Grand Prix coming up! P.L. and Q.L. are still going at it with the insurance, which is probably not budging on them, and I'm away! Ciao, Prego!

A friend takes the checkered flag in life...

2007-08-09T19:38:00.001-04:00

Over a year ago, I met an old lady at my work in the university booksale. She was a professor in French and she loved to talk with young people. Her job was coming to University College once every week or so and looking at the French books that were donated to the college and price them. I was introduced to her one day when I was asked to help her price some books because of a bad wrist. No problem.

As we were pricing one day last year, she told me of her life when she was younger in France. Last year, naturally, Renault, the fabled French F1 team, were winning and I told her about the team. She told me of her dreams to be a racing driver in Formula 1 when she was younger. She told me of the day she went to try out for a French team, which would eventually become Renault. The mechanics would put her through oil slicks, water and other obstacles in the tryout. It was truly an adventure that she went through. She passed the tryout with flying colours. There was however, one small problem, she was a woman, and she would eventually get married to start a family, therefore she wouldn't have much of a racing career, 5 years at most. Because of that minor issue, she was not able to race because the team would not get their money's worth through training.

Marie went on to become a professor in French, and retire, but I don't think that desire to race, even as she was in the final year of her life, would retire from her mind and heart. In the brief time I knew her, I always had the feeling that she was regretting that she did not continue to prove herself a racer. Sometimes it takes a woman to do a man's job, and Marie certainly was out to prove that, but she was prevented. I hope that in heaven, she is racing with the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Ayrton Senna, Alberto Ascari and Richard "Dick" Seaman. RIP.

Stop making a big deal of something small and tiny...

2007-07-15T15:57:00.001-04:00

Some people are very rude, some people are inconsiderate of other people's feelings, and there are some that are just motivated by nothing more than a desire to destroy and hurt other people for their own personal gains. These people walk amongst the majority of honourable and good-valued people. Every basket has a few bad apples, so to say.

The reason I talk about this is because on Friday evening, on our way to my cousin's place, on the other side of town, my mom is driving through the Friday evening traffic jam and when trying to change lanes, the van in front, whose right rear taillight is not working stops on a dot and my mom not being able to see it until it's too late, gently bumps the rear of the van. Nothing happens, no body or paint damage to either car whatsoever. The woman's (Referred from here as "P.L.") van is rusted in many areas, including the back bumper, just to give an idea of how well her van was taken care of. So anyways, after the light bump, in the middle of the highway, P.L. comes out and starts preaching to us that her son could have been killed and takes a menacing attitude in general towards us. Her son opens the sliding door and jumps out gleefully (I could see a very large grin on his face, it probably means nothing) onto the highway, to which he is told to get back in, a very dangerous action by the boy.

My mother on the other hand is distraught, and tells her that she will pay for any damage that has occurred as a result of this. P.L. says that she MUST call her husband, gets into her van and starts making phone calls to her husband and God knows who else. This is all happening in the middle of the highway, quite dangerous.

After about 5-10 minutes, P.L. finally agrees that we have to get off the highway and discuss this, and all the while, she's refusing to exchange insurance information. That's right, refusing, because she says "I cannot trust you." As far as we could have known, she was probably driving without a license and/or insurance. I bring up contract law, she is taken aback, and goes back to her van. So we wait for P.L. to start her car and move off the highway. I take the driver's seat because my mom isn't in the best state to drive. P.L. is not moving. A good 5 minutes waiting in both cars at a perfect standstill in the middle of the highway is very dangerous. I'm honking on the horn because I'm afraid now that this woman is endangering our lives. P.L. can kiss my ass when she says that we could have killed her son and at the same time she knowingly endangered our lives.

We finally get off the highway and stop at the side. My mom brings up the proposal to pay for any damage whatsoever as a result of this tiny bump. P.L. says that my mom has to pay for the paintwork. This is where we realize that P.L's motives are now for her own personal gain because her van is rusting around the edges and paint is coming off on just about every area of the van. My mom becomes very upset about this because as far as we're translating, she wants the entire van's rustwork to be fixed and she is using this situation to her advantage. To give an idea of the two vehicles, my mom's car is an older model Nissan Sentra, a small car, while P.L's van was a much larger Dodge Caravan, an older model on that as well. The bumper of the Sentra is not able to touch the back bumper of the Caravan because the Caravan's bumper is much higher than the Sentra's front bumper. P.L. has now been established in my mind as a scammer and a shark and she is still consistently refusing to exchange information due to her distrust, or lack of license or insurance.

A police officer arrives on the scene to resolve this issue and P.L. unwillingly gives her information. Finally, the issue seems to be about resolved for the moment when all of a sudden she demands to see my license because according to this person, I was the driver when the accident occurred. I have now lost count of how many times she tries to weasel something out of us. She became very adament and made it her objective that I was the driver. She even got a little hostile and charged towards me. She is taken back to her van. The police officer pulls me aside and asks for my side of the story. I tell my side of the story, the officer is convinced and he leaves. Beforehand though, P.L. was very adament and tried convincing the officer that I was the driver. In the end, this wasn't reported, no tickets were written, and we thought it was over. A verbal contract was made between my mother and P.L. that we would contact each other within 24 hours before anything else was done. The officer was the mediator for that.

This is not where it ended. After coming back from my cousin's place, we have a message from the collision reporting centre that P.L. has reported this collision, and there is a conflict in the story saying that I'm the driver, not my mother, and we must report this. P.L. has broken the contract.

We go there the next morning, report the collision, the officer inspects the damage, tags the damage at under $50 because it's the lowest amount he can go! The officer has said that this damage should be categorized as unreportable because it is so very minor. P.L. hasn't contacted us in trying to get a settlement yet, and should she take this claim to the insurance company, her claim will be investigated. She would have to spend her own money before getting access to the insurance money, and judging from her actions that evening, I doubt she'll bother. But you never know, people are complex animals.

After this incident, I have a mixed faith in humanity. On one thing, my faith has been renewed because the police officer on the scene did a good job of remaining impartial and understanding, and the officers at the collision centre remained impartial and gave the truth straight up, with a touch of good humour! On the other hand, my faith has gone down because of P.L. and her objective of trying to take advantage of something very very small.

If this story does make its way to the hands of either party in this case (If there ever is a case), this is not actual evidence nor should it be used as evidence in any form because of the circumstances under which it was written. I have done my best at keeping both parties as anonymous as possible and of course, there is bias, because this blog is of my thoughts and my feelings, and anything harsh that came from me should be noted as such, it is not evidence nor slander (There are plenty of blogs out there that profess hate to Muslims, Jews and other groups and individuals, so get a grip). Just know that this is from what I remember with my mind on weekend mode. If P.L. or her husband reads this, please give the other side of the story in the comments section, I would be happy to receive this.

A lot of things happening...

2007-07-07T19:29:00.000-04:00

Ok, it seems like I'm out of my funk after returning from Europe, going back to work and just getting back to real life in general. If you want to see pictures of my trip to Europe, I better know who you are, and if you're on Facebook, you can see them. Among other things, I've helped out my mom in moving house. Europe is now a memory, but a very sweet one.

Anyhow, today at my mother's house, someone rang the doorbell, and lo and behold, it was a Jehovah's Witness! As far as I can remember, I never had a Jehovah's Witness come to the door, so this was another first for me! They were giving out their propaganda and telling me of a big gathering of Witnesses at Copps Coliseum, and I was invited! I told them that I wasn't religious and wasn't interested in converting because I'm a Satanist. Naturally, they took that like a slap in the face and left.

I'm actually a secular Muslim, but according to them, it's no better than a Satanist! They're not the Westboro Baptist Church, but they do share a lot in common. Anyways, I never really thought about why Jehovah's Witnesses are viewed as a cult, just that they are. So, I looked up Jehovah's Witnesses online and with the regular Watchtower and other publications dedicated to this, I saw sites that, had I been a Witness, would not be able to read because I wouldn't have the freedom to do so.

The sites I looked at talked about people's families being torn apart because one of the members said something or had done something. I would have expected that a religion, like other religions, would intervene and take a diplomatic stance, but instead they encourage the shunning or disfellowship of the family member. Usually the shunning happens because the member read something about the Witnesses from a former Witness or something to that matter and has formed his or her opinions about their religion.

I'm saying this with utmost diplomacy, but I find that Jehovah's Witnesses forbid you to think on your own. You cannot read anything except the associated publications with the religion (Mind manipulation), you cannot congregate with non-members or former members (Social manipulation), no birthdays or any sort of celebration are allowed, even mainstream religious ones, and you have to dedicate around 10 hours of your time per month going door to door and spreading the word.

It appears to me that this establishment, for lack of a better term, controls the lives of people. I wouldn't want to be a part of it and I wouldn't know why people would. Their teachings don't reflect that of Christianity in general, yet they profess to be Christians, and they preach love and tolerance, like other religions, but shun members for thinking for themselves.

So basically, don't knock on my door, I'm not converting. Check out more info here, and here and see how the people are controlled.

Haven't posted here in a while!

2007-06-25T17:36:00.000-04:00

Hello to the few readers who stop by. I haven't posted here in almost two months, but that's because I went on a trip to Europe and I'm enjoying the summer. Anywho, I'll start posting again once I settle down from my Euro-funk. Keep watching this space...

Happy 4,000,000th Land Rover!!!

2007-05-10T14:31:00.000-04:00

This is a sign that I'm truly bored and will do anything at all to keep my mind busy. People can say "Sheiban, why not a Jays game?" or "Sheiban, why not extend your trip for a little while"? I don't want to go to a Jays game because the Jays suck, and I don't want to extend my trip because then it'll feel like I'm living in Europe, and I would rather live in Europe when I have that amazing career as the intrepid F1 team boss (As if that's ever gonna happen!).

So, anyways, I was reading the Beeb, and there was a story about Land Rover producing their 4 millionth vehicle, with statistics saying that around 80% of them are still being used, since they started being built in 1948. If anything, that's probably the most reliable SUV and probably more reliable than a Renault! I have fond memories of the Land Rover. It was the vehicle of choice for family in Iran, and everytime I rode on it, it was an adventure because they were so high off the ground, and the noise that the engine made made you feel like you were in command of the desert!

Another interesting memory I have of the Land Rover is of the one parked near my late grandparents' house. Since as far back as I can remember (The first time I was in Iran was when I was 2), there was this Land Rover parked in the same exact spot, and when my mother went to Iran last time in December 2006 for the funeral of my grandmother, the Land Rover was still there. That Land Rover has been parked in the same spot for at least 20 years!

The tires aren't flat, it's just sinking into the pavement, the paint is coming off, but there's no rust. If it weren't for the popped out headlights and the missing radiator, it would have been in good shape to drive away, but man, what a car. I'm raising my diet coke to Land Rover tonight for making an amazing vehicle that still runs after almost 60 years in the business! I may be anti-SUV, but this was an SUV made for any land and wasn't simply a family car on steroids!

Paris Hilton sent to jail and my opinion...

2007-05-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

I've tried to simply ignore this story and get on with life, but I keep seeing this posted everywhere. Paris Hilton, the hotel heiress, socialite, and modern day sex toy has been arrested for violating her probation and driving drunk and all that jazz! It's causing a lot of buzz because Paris will be leaving her mansion and going to an area the equivalent of her brain, one cell! She has a crack team of lawyers who are doing anything and everything to have her avoid prison.

Hilton is now blaming her assistant for not explaining her probation and other things. I'm just wondering how hard it is to explain to a person that their license is suspended, they cannot drive drunk, and they have to have their headlights on at night. It's simple, and it takes little to no explanation.

Her mother is being outspoken about this, and her attitude is that her daughter, nor anyone else should be touched by the law, even if they put a number of people in danger, because, after all, they're rich and they're not supposed to be going to jail or to be in court for these things. Just look up the attitude that Kathy Hilton took in the courtroom during the sentencing.

That is what agitates me. The fact that they believe they are above the law is just stupid. This is not the feudal era anymore, everybody is the same under the law whether you are the rich billionaire or the homeless guy on the street. If you have a jail sentence, pay your debt to society and move on, don't complain that because you're wealthy (Which is essentially what Paris Hilton is using), you don't get a "get out of jail free" card.

Another thing that annoys me is the online petition calling on the governor of California to allow her to be released because she "made a mistake" and "should be pardoned". I would boycott this petition, and I would ask anyone who reads this to boycott the petition as well, because as a member of society, she should pay her debt, and not simple get a slap on the wrist because she is a celebrity. It's only 45 days, take it and go, stop making a big deal about it. There are far worse things in the world happening in the world right now. Don't sign the petition, let her go to jail, let her learn her lesson.

Reflections on my past, and dreams of my future...

2007-04-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

I was busy procrastinating today, and I wanted to check my e-mail, so I click on Firefox to open, and since I have my homepage set to a random Wikipedia page, it would teach me something new and interesting. When I opened up Firefox today, the random Wikipedia page that came up was about the Concorde airliner. In an instant I remembered the time I was a kid and would get anything related to airplanes, especially the Concorde. As a child, I would look forward to a trip every time simply because we were flying there. I didn't care if we were going to Iran, London, LA, or anywhere in the world, all that mattered was that we were flying there. Everytime before a trip, I would ask my parents what type of plane we were flying on, what type of engines it had, and how many people it could accomodate. I knew how far a Pratt & Whitney engine would go before it needed maintenance vs. a Rolls Royce engine among other things. Needless to say, I gave my parents a headache for all that information!

With my "technical" knowledge of airplanes, I had dreams of becoming a pilot, and the plane that I always wanted to pilot was the Concorde. It was such a big plane, for a person my size, and it would go so fast, past the speed of sound (I can't remember exactly how fast, but I used to). Everytime we arrived in London, I would ask the information people if the Concorde was there so I could see, and I was always disappointed to learn that it wasn't. Now that I'm going to London for the umpteenth time in a few weeks time, I could re-create my childhood and ask the information people if the Concorde is there, I don't think I will be disappointed this time!

I had big dreams as a kid, and they involved designing race cars and piloting a Concorde were the ones, which would be the most satisfying of dreams. Unfortunately, I grew up. My childhood dreams left me and I entered the "I'm being judged by my peers" mindset. I am now 20, and I am out of the insecurity of being a teenager. My childhood dreams are coming up bit by bit, albeit, a little more realistic now. I won't be able to be a pilot for the Concorde, but I can be an amateur pilot. I won't be able to design race cars, but I can contribute. It's only a matter of time, just time.

Never forget, never repeat.

2007-04-17T10:04:00.000-04:00

I was shocked in learning that yesterday, a shooting happened at a university in Virginia. It turned out that it was a South Korean international student majoring in English named Cho Seung-Hui. My current feelings are of sadness and anger. Sadness that 33 people died, anger that it had to be at a university, of all the places in the world. As a student, this affected me because something like this could have happened at U of T, and U of T is just as large as Virginia Tech, according to the map that is available. I'm usually at all places within the university since I know a lot of people, and I have classes in different buildings all over campus. Unlike other science students, I'm not limited to one corner of the campus.

However, it is unfortunate that in an "in your face" society, we are desensitized to death, shootings and killings that we hear in the media. I don't feel desensitized though. I can't take death very well, and I can't take people who kill other people. Maybe it's just me.

Jetsetting: Munich

2007-04-15T15:44:00.000-04:00

Not exactly one of the most pressing places in the world which I'd like to see, Munich is one of those destinations in Europe where it is close to just about everywhere else, and has so much to see within the city as well. As a racing fan, heading into the continent where motorsport originated, I would love to see the BMW museum. I'm a Mercedes Benz fan, but they're in Stuttgart. I hope that they have the BMW Sauber F1 racer from 2006 on display there, because a racecar is always a treat to look at!

I won't be going south though, where Neuschwanstein Castle is. For those that don't know, this castle is the inspiration for the castle you see at the beginning of Disney movies. That is one of the sites I'll be missing out, but I'm pretty sure that Munich has many things to offer. Until next time...

I did the unthinkable...

2007-04-05T23:03:00.000-04:00

I paid for my trip to Europe. After my HMB304 test, which I probably screwed royally, I went over to the bank, withdrew the money (over $2000) and walked the three floors down to the travel agent! On my way to the travel agency, I was so paranoid, because I was carrying so much cash in hand. I put the money in my jacket, zipped up my jacket, and went there.

When I got there, I was informed that it was time! I unzipped my jacket, took out the envelope containing the new $100 bills, and handed them over to the agent. He counted them one by one, and they were right down to the penny. He put it in, and I was ready to go! The ticket will arrive in a few weeks, and I have the unenviable task of saving up some spending money for this trip!

Anyhow, I'm counting down the days for this trip! It's coming fast, and before I know it, I'll be on the plane back home to Toronto from Amsterdam!

Iran frees sailors. Interesting to watch...

2007-04-04T16:11:00.000-04:00

I'm sure many of us have been shocked to hear, out of the blue, that everyone's best friend, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad freed the British sailors that they captured nearly two weeks ago. It was something that just blew me away!

However, I believe that this was a very interesting move from the Iranian government. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played his cards very well. Why do I believe this? Firstly, the Iranian government is not North Korea. North Korea has no diplomatic relations, and any member of the American or British government would have themselves captured, without warning. Iran, on the other hand, has some diplomatic relations with the UK, and a better relationship with the UK than the US. Had these sailors been American, this standoff would've gone on for a much longer time.

I also believe that Mahmoud played his cards well because of the fact that he held these sailors for 13 days, and the UK was powerless to do anything. If they tried adding sanctions, Iran would've held the sailors for a longer time, and maybe deny oil to the West as well as other goods that the West needs. Iran played their game very well, and there seems to be no real issue that the families have with Iran or the government.

I don't think that this had anything to do with the uranium enrichment thing. I think this was just to show that Iran has power, and they will use it against anyone that should go against them. Great show Iran!

The way that the American media handled this was of course, the way they would handle it with any of their enemies. What they did was interview the former hostages of the American embassy siege. Times have changed since then and Westerners aren't looked in a bad light anymore. If you're a visiting Westerner, with blond hair and blue eyes in Iran (Even if you're from Israel), you're taken in with open arms. You will feel welcome in the country from wherever you're from now. The dark days of the revolution are over, the people want to get on with life, the governments don't!

I impress even myself...

2007-03-25T18:05:00.000-04:00

I applied for a job at Air Canada and got a call for an interview. I went yesterday for it. They said that they would give a general knowledge test, and in order to pass, you needed a 60% on it. I was afraid, because when I would need to pass, I would only need a 50%, and this one had the ante upped! I wasn't afraid because I was dumb, I was afraid because I was overconfident. So, test time came, and to start things off, they gave us a list of cities and corresponding airport codes, and given five minutes to memorize it. I fell asleep halfway through the memory test, because I've been to the many airports that were on the test!

The math questions were the best! I wish my finals had those types of questions! There were a lot of percentage questions, multiplication, and other types of questions. I flew through the test and finished in 20 minutes! I had to wait a further 40 minutes until the time was up. That was easy!

Next came the application process. Seeing as to how I'm technically a visible minority, I put myself as a visible minority, and in order to increase my chances of getting hired, I put myself as having a working knowledge of French.

That was a bad idea!

Why did I say it was a bad idea? Simply because I haven't taken French since Grade 10 (Almost 5 years) and when it came time for the language test, the interviewer, I think, didn't like me. The test was 5 minutes long, and for 1 minute, she asked some biographical information in English, then for the next 4 minutes, she spoke French with me! I was able to respond back, somehow, and she passed me on my ability to speak French! That was impressive, and I would never want to do that again!

At the end came the interview, and I think they liked me, just a matter of time to see if they'll respond...

I have a problem...

2007-03-21T22:42:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, I bought an air freshener for my room, so it would feel a little like spring in my basement apartment. Anyhow, when I bought the air freshener, it was great, my room smelled amazing, and it even had a little fan thing to spread the smell. My parents commented that my room smelled too good, and to unplug it and plug it in every so often, I did that. Now, my problem is that when I go to bed, I can't sleep and need it plugged in, and when I plug it in, the smell annoys me and I have to unplug it. I hate this air freshener. I feel like a person who has spent all their lottery winnings and have nothing...

The Europeans and their sense of humour in Formula 1...

2007-03-18T13:06:00.000-04:00

Being a Formula 1 fan, you think you see everything and hear everything that's related to the F1 racecar. Well, after looking around for a while, I discovered that former British F1 commentator Murray Walker has a few of his own gems and is very dynamic compared to James Allen and Martin Brundle. As well, there is an Austrian named Heinz Prüller who makes the same interesting commentary. It seems like the boring commentators are on this side of the pond. Anyhow, here's some quotes from Heinz Prüller:

"only 5 left in the same lap: Michael Schumacher, Ralf, Montoya and Barrichello..."

"a race driver must at least weigh 70kg, because if he only weighs 79kg..."

"The countdown starts at zero again..."

"Mansell is in lead being 6 seconds behind"

And here's a few from Murray Walker:

"Unless I'm very much mistaken ... yes, I AM very much mistaken."

"The lead car is absolutely unique - except for the car behind which is identical."

"There's nothing wrong with the car except that it's on fire."

"With the race half gone there is half the race still to go."

"I imagine the conditions in those cars are totally unimaginable."

"The atmosphere is so tense you could cut it with a cricket stump."

"Prost can see Mansell in his earphones."

"Either that car is stationary or it is on the move."

"And now excuse me while I interrupt myself."

"And now the boot is on the other Schumacher."

"Do my eyes deceive me or is Senna's car sounding a bit rough?"

"Damon Hill is leading ... behind him are the second and third men."

"Tambay's hopes, which were previously nil, are now absolutely zero."

"I've just stopped my startwatch."

"That was exactly the same place where Senna overtook Nannini that he didn't overtake Alain Prost."

"A mediocre season for Nelson Piquet, as he is now known, and always has been."

"There's only a second between them. One. That's how long a second is."

"The young Ralf Schumacher has been upstaged by the teenager, Jenson Button, who is 20."

"There's no doubt in my mind that if the race had been 46 laps instead of 45 it would have been a McLaren first and second. But it didn't, so it wasn't."

"And it's Mansell ... Mansell ... Nigel Mansell," (The audience was actually watching Alain Prost)

"He owes a lot to his parents - mainly his mother and father"

"You can't see a digital clock because there isn't one"

"It's raining and the track is wet."

"Nigel Mansell has gone from seventh to sixth to fourth to fifth and now to third and this is lap twenty three"

"Seven of the previous champions are on the starting line, and four of them are Michael Schumacher"

"Now we go into lap 53, the penultimate last lap but one."

So, there you have it. European F1 commentators are a lot more fun than the F1 commentators on this side of the pond. In the heat of the moment, they can throw the most interesting and some of the craziest quotes you can find. It kind of reminds me of Steve...

Working out: Week 2

2007-03-10T15:38:00.000-05:00

Well, the first week was good. I was able to avoid fast food (With the exception of a slice of pizza!). I have a lot more energy now, and that was evident with the workout I went to yesterday. I was able to do the full hour on the cross-trainer and had enough energy left over to run a few laps around the track, do 500m on the rowing machine and use other gym equipment. I came out pooped, but relieved! I did not follow the three times a week plan for going to the gym, due to the fact that the weather this past week was way too cold. I didn't go to the gym because of assignments and work, and getting a cold during this time is too costly, and not worth the reward in the end. So, I have pushed myself back by about half a week. Overall though, the difference is being seen. I need to buy a smaller belt soon because the one I currently have just doesn't get tight enough anymore, I am not taking the bus, when there is something that I can go to by foot. Hopefully, I can drop the 25lbs and head off for Europe by the end of May...

Diet and working out: My plan and Week 1

2007-03-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

I'm going to Europe this summer, and I'm vying for a spot to go to China. I want to look my best so that when I take pictures, I could see myself as a good looking guy, and rather not a big fat guy. I also need a haircut, but that can be done later. I am hoping that by May 23rd, I can be at least 25 pounds lighter or have acquired some muscle mass. Since Tuesday, February 27th, I have been eating breakfast that has a lot of fibre in it, a very light lunch, along with a normal dinner. For snacks, I would take nuts or fruits or vegetables. They're just something to munch on, nothing interesting. I also take some gum so I can chew on something when I feel hungry. I intend to not eat any fast food anywhere for this month, and if I'm with friends, only have an ice cream or something, but not fast food. Today, after class, I plan on going to the gym for a cardio workout. I intend on doing a workout tomorrow as well, but just a little more intense than today's.

I have been following the regiment for two days only, and I can already feel a difference. The differences are small, but they feel good nonetheless. My grandfather's ring feels less tighter, and my jeans are getting a little big on me. I have already lost a significant amount last year, the sign being that I had a hard time keeping my ski pants on when I went skiing last week. So, I will document my weight loss and work out regiment. I have a good magazine to read when I'm on the treadmill or stairclimber, I have plenty of water, and I have a towel ready to go! Let's see what happens! See you on the other side :)

I'm such a nerd!

2007-02-27T21:06:00.000-05:00

Yeah, like the title says. What happened today which proves that I'm a nerd was when I got up, I checked the tv listing to see what was on and I saw on Showcase a program called "The Fibonacci Trio." I thought it was about the Fibonacci number theory, but instead, it was about a band from Montreal. I like numbers so much that I think numbers instead of actual objects. I'm such a nerd...

I know what I want to be when I grow up, if I grow up!

2007-02-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've been reading and hearing the news of celebrities going wild all over the place, mainly Hollywood. It mainly has to do with a lack of education and having a lot of money and, sadly, power. The reason I say that the problem with the current trend of having celebrities shave their heads, say that 9/11 was an inside job, have substance and alcoholic abuse as well as voting Democrat (Kidding!) is because they lack a proper education, or a high school diploma in some cases. There are celebrities who are educated such as Owen Wilson, who attended the University of Texas at Austin and Rachel McAdams who attended, sigh, York. The interesting thing is, you really don't hear about celebrities who have some formal education in the tabloids and they put on some really stellar acts, and some mediocre ones at times.

There is Britney Spears, who recently shaved her head, with my assumption of her being an attention whore, as well as being a regular whore. Nothing about education, and she is depressed as hell, at least currently (I'm sure People magazine knows). Anna Nicole Smith dropped out of high school in Grade 11 and is now deceased taking her spot next to Marilyn Monroe, who happened to die at a young age as well. There is speculation of prescription drug overdoses. I'm sure that if you had at least a high school education, you wouldn't have died because you would've known what the drug would do, or would've at least listened to the doctor who prescribed it to you or the pharmacist who filled out your prescription.

My point is that education doesn't end when you toss your mortarboard after the valedictorian has given his/her speech, you are given the training to go out into the world and make your decisions based on the skills you have been taught in school to critically think about what is coming next.

Finally, the title says what I want to be when I grow up. Wanna know? I was thinking that since there are more uneducated, or stupid celebrities, who lavish attention in any form, I would like to be a therapist or psychiatrist in Hollywood. So many dysfunctional celebrities, KA CHING!!!

Guys distributing black history booklets. Are they a scam?

2007-02-12T18:23:00.000-05:00

Now, I don't know if this is legit or not, but there are times when I'm wondering whether or not these people are doing it for the promotion of black history or to make a little extra money on the side. I don't know if you're familiar or not, but there are these people that hand out the booklets near the subway and ask if you could make a "donation". Once, I took a booklet and then the guy demanded that I GIVE a donation to the cause of black history month, and this was July 2005! Since I was in a bit of a tight spot and in the downtown core, I wasn't willing to let this guy get on my nerves so I gave him a loonie, since it was all the change I had at the time, but then he was saying that I give him a toonie! I said I couldn't help him out and then just went into the nearest store because I was starting to get intimidated by him.

That night, I decided to look at the booklet I was given for some light reading. One of the facts about black history was the fact that Jesus was a black man. That can be disputed, but, this organization, whoever they may be, took a speculation and put it as fact. I can't remember all the facts, but there were maybe 2 out of the top 10 facts that could be correct. I'm not a history major, but I am educated to know that when you take speculation and put it as fact, then you're asking for trouble. If I were a black kid growing up in the inner city and read this, I would be joining a gang and doing other things to oppose the oppressive forces of the white man, fantasized oppression. It would probably land me in worse things and maybe even crime.

Another time, I ran into another one of these people and he offered me a book and wanted a "donation". I asked him where the money went. He hemmed and hawed but never gave me a straight answer. I asked him if they had tax receipts so I could claim my "donation" on my income tax. He said he didn't have one but never said why. I asked if they had a website where I could consult and see a little more info about his organization. He said that the information in the booklet was all out on the web. Clearly, I wasn't interested in the information in the booklet because I had already seen it, but the information on their organization had me wondering what type of people would hand out booklets and then demand a donation from people. I got into an argument with one of them handing out booklets another time while walking out of the subway station. I had refused their book because I was running late, but then he shouts that I'm a racist. I was outraged at this. I go over to him and when in close proximity with him, so not to cause a scene, this happens:
Me: Please tell me how I am a racist for not accepting your booklet, which I already have.
Guy: You didn't give us a donation to our cause (That's paraphrasing what he said)
Me: I have the freedom to give "donations" to whomever I want. The fact that I don't give a donation to you guys doesn't make me a racist. Maybe I'm poor and have nothing and am living on welfare, you don't know that. You can't label me a racist through a three second encounter.
Guy: Umm... Hey sister, we're spreading black history, please take a booklet and we would like a donation.
If I had time, I would've loved to continue with this fellow, but I was seriously running late and I had to run.

I would think that people, oppressed people especially, would want to get their message out at any cost, but I think that these people that hand out booklets and then demand a "donation" are simply scam artists. I believe that they try pulling at our hearts and make us feel pity for them, so we take a book, and then they demand a "donation", and when you say you don't have any money, they would want their booklet back, which I think is just stupid. Naturally, I don't believe that all blacks are like this. Many of them (and by many, I mean 99% of them) are decent, hardworking and friendly people. The gangsta rapper types that I know are really nice people as well, and sometimes they have some very good freestyling skills. It's just that the media hasn't painted a nice picture of these people and we still live with this prejudice. It's scams like these that pull at our heart and have us say "well, I'm going to go against what the media says and I'll show them I care by opening my wallet or purse." There are other ways of showing you're on their side rather than a financial donation. I hope I didn't come off too much of a self righteous idiot...

Jetsetting: Liechtenstein

2007-02-10T19:57:00.000-05:00

I'm just working on my trip, and I see that I'm headed to Liechtenstein for a day. That should be interesting. It's not a small a country as Monaco or the Vatican, but it's landlocked between Switzerland and Austria. It's a staunchly Catholic country, so I better be on my best behaviour. Getting around the country is also amazingly cheap! It costs less than $10 CAD for a weekly bus pass! The wine there is a local delicacy, so I'll buy a bottle for sure, as well as some other things. Overall, even though it's going to be a day in Liechtenstein and not much to see, I expect things to be packed, so I better get a good grasp of things!

Fireballin', Jetsettin', and just all round interest...

2007-02-03T21:23:00.000-05:00

Fireball. If you're not at U of T, then it sounds horrendous and something out of a 9/11 conspiracy theory. If you are at U of T, it's something that's even more magical than prom and all your semi-formals combined (I had the flu for my prom, so no prommin' for me!). I was supposed to go to Fireball tonight, but I'm not going. Why? Because when I checked my schedule after buying my tickets in January, I was filled up to the brim, and thusly, had to cancel my plans to go. I sold the tickets quietly, mainly because there would be a few people after me. In first year, I was too immature (And many of my friends still say I am!); in second year, there was a party with the Liberal Party (And it was free!); and this year, I have so much stuff to do, that I can't go. I hope that fourth year will be nice to me...

Apart from the Fireball, there is the trip to Europe! I'm going, at last! Yesterday, I went to the travel agency and put down my deposit on my trip, which'll take place May 19th-June 9th. If you happen to be in France, Monaco, Italy, Germany, Liechtenstein, Amsterdam and some other places that can't come to mind right now, send me a line, and if you happen to be on the Mirabeau, Piscine or Rascasse turns of the Monaco Grand Prix, CALL ME ASAP!!!!

Now, currently going on with my jetsetting project which I last went on in December, one of my destinations to visit is the Vatican City. Home of all Catholicism, and where Latin is STILL an official language! I would love to visit the St. Peter's Basilica (and do it while hiding my sexuality!) as well as the Sistine Chapel and the many museums there. I would also love to go to an ATM and get service in Latin! Even though it is the smallest country in the world, statistics show that Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world, mainly through pickpocketing and exorbitant pricing of souvenirs! In that case, my wallet is close to my heart, as is my camera! The leader of the Vatican is also the Bishop of Rome, who is also one of the only citizens of the Vatican and finally, is the Pope. Currently, the Italian city state is being run by a German named Benedict XVI. I don't know about the laws there, but I'm sure that it's a nice place to visit, and I will be looking forward to visiting the Vatican...

There are times I feel like Ryan Seacrest...

2007-01-29T18:50:00.000-05:00

I'm Sheiban. I'm an average 20 year old guy with the mental capacity of a 13 year old! I like cars, Star Wars, and other teenage nerd things. However, I also have the working capacity of a horse. I work 2 jobs and I'm looking for a third. It's not to pay the bills or anything like that (Well, maybe to finance the trip to Europe), I just have a lot of time on my hands. I can't spend the rest of my life debunking conspiracy theorists! I need a radio show, a television show, a talk show, and a weekly top 40 countdown to keep me occupied along with some other things! Anyways, that's my mindless persona! Keep on truckin', as Marge Simpson put in a family quilt!

F1 2060

2007-01-25T19:02:00.000-05:00

This is a concept that's been brewing in my mind for the past few days. It's the story of a cast of human F1 drivers against a new team (Adelaide-Ligier) which instead of using human drivers, they use androids which take the form of humans and are able to take the physically demanding driving that is now used in Formula 1 in 2060. These androids are obedient, fast, cheap, display human emotions, but are not human in the end.

On the other hand, human drivers are now some of the most athletic and quick reacting people in the world, but they are expensive as the demands of their job are getting more and more rigorous. The public would like see androids race because more passing can be done with androids calculating how much speed and grip they will require to do it. Humans cannot take the risk to pass in tight areas anymore because of the intense speeds that Formula 1 is going to

Adelaide-Ligier and their team boss, the rarely seen Gustavo Marquez are bent on winning a constructor's title in their first year as an experiment to show to the other teams how obedient and cheap the androids can work, thus ending the reign of humans in Formula 1, and to mark the beginning of the age of computerized racing. Gustavo Marquez, who is also the President and CEO of Marquez Robotics has successfully sold the idea of his androids to the public through his media secretary, Danielle Macintosh. She is usually the one on the pit wall directing the androids to work. Her job is great, she travels the world and meets new people. Gustavo is hoping that the implementation of androids in racing will bring his company higher profits.

The other teams that use human drivers are Ferrari, Mercedes Benz (Which by now have bought out McLaren racing), BMW, Aston Martin, Williams, Toyota, Honda, Brabus and some other startup teams.

The main characters are:
Daniel Lõhmus, 29, male, Estonian. Twice a world champion 3 years ago, drives for Ferrari, is a new driver for the red team which has won a constructor's championship the previous year.
James Forbes, 26, male, British. Drives for Ferrari, never a champion, but always brings in the points.
Johnny Webster, 25, male, American. Drives for Mercedes Benz and his looking for his first world championship. Has won a handful of races here and there, but nothing like his teammate.
Nat Andersen, 28, female, German, drives for Mercedes Benz. Has one World Championship under her belt. She is not the first woman to race in F1, but she is the first one to win a World Champion. She is also the first German to race for Mercedes Benz in F1.
Mostafa Pahlavan, 24, male, Iranian. Drives for Aston Martin. His second year in F1 as a driver. Has only won the 2059 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Francois Mirabelle, 30, male, French. Drives for BMW. He is the older and more experienced of the other drivers, with 3 successive World Championships in his career.

On the track, these 6 people are competitive as ever against each other and the droids of the Adelaide-Ligier team, but off track, it's fun and games, with limits of course! In the first race of the season, everyone is back from the off season, ready for a new season, but not looking forward to the challenge of having to pit themselves against computers. Gustavo Marquez is at the race, but incognito, to see how his new team, and especially his manufactured drivers, AIPF11 and AIPF12 do against the humans. If his team wins the World Championship this year, then the head of Formula 1 and the FIA, who is now a corporate puppet, will call an end to human drivers. More to come, either through animation or blogging...

Another retarded dream (And it doesn't involve Julia this time)

2007-01-22T13:10:00.000-05:00

It seems like my retarded dreams (The ones I have in my sleep, not my real life ones) have a following, to a certain extent...

Well, anyways, my retarded dream kind of stems from Julia's birthday party on Friday. We were all at the Duke of York socializing and being idiots, like when Hien got drunk off of Smirnoff Ice, and Shaharin was talking about her father giving her the whole virginity talk. She was talking about how her father told her that she should conceal the map until she gets married and that sort of stuff.

So, anyways, down to the retarded dream. If you know Shaharin, she likes to be flirty and a little odd, because it's Sha, that's what makes her cool! So, in my dream, Sha is having that same kind of cool and down to earth attitude that she always has, and then I bring up the topic of sex in some way or another (My memory on this part is a little fuzzy) and then she gets very serious and gives me the EXACT same lecture that her father gave to her about how I should keep my virginity intact until I get married and that sort of stuff. It was a baffling and retarded dream! She also told me to put spicy food on my penis to kill off any sperm as a method of birth control! That is something I would expect Bharat to say!

I really should stop sleeping :D

My crazy and retarded dream. Does it make me a retard?

2007-01-18T23:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not talking about my long term dream of running an F1 team, I'm talking about the dreams you get when you sleep! In the past two weeks or so, I've been having some crazy and retarded dreams that I remember. I think last night's dream took the cake both in terms of detail and sheer stupidity. I had a dream that I was in a familiar area, a peaceful place, not sure where, but all of a sudden, out of nowhere, appears my Italian friend, Julia. That's not the retarded part. The retarded part was when she unzipped her pants and showed me her "brand new" penis! All of a sudden, she started peeing everywhere with it and being very happy to have it! I ran away and she started chasing me with it! That's more or less that I remember about the dream. The ending just had me run under the dome of a building which had a dome and hid there with my laptop. I hope nobody has become retarded when they read my retarded dream story. I'm so confused!

Money, old or new?

2007-01-08T19:24:00.000-05:00

This had me thinking for a long while. "Old money" or "New money"? A lot of my friends on this side of the world tend to be "new money" while I'm just your average guy. Even though I've known these people for a long while, I still find it interesting that the "new money" people like to talk about, well, money while the "old money" likes to talk about other things like traveling and the such. That's why I don't have very many "old money" friends on this side of the world.

I honestly cannot stand it when somebody talks about the money they have in their bank account or what they did to get it. It's not interesting. I'm friends with a person because they intrigue, interest and challenge me, not because of what they have. I'm not a woman that has friends who have money and nothing else to add to that.

When I'm with my friends and family in Iran, the old money type, I feel so relaxed, at home and at peace. Some of them aren't even Persian Iranians; they can be Arabs, Lebanese, Palestinians, and other creeds and nationalities, but their personality and class makes me feel like a part of them. They talk about the adventures they had or the trips they have taken, not about how much they found this article of clothing at a boutique. They seem to have an interest in everything around them and actually look around their surroundings. They treat even the poorest people as people and are modest in nature. I would do anything to be with them and chill out right now.

I came to the conclusion a long time ago that people with new money aren't my type, since all they can do is talk about their wealth and live extravagantly beyond their means. The old money people, while exclusive, are a different group of people, and in general have a more rounded personality than the previous group. If I were to accumulate any wealth in my lifetime, I certainly wouldn't hang out with the new money group since being around them sickens me.

My conversation with Dylan Avery, complete with full dissection!

2007-01-02T14:04:00.000-05:00

Last night, I was banned from the Loose Change forum for expressing the view that 9/11 was indeed committed by terrorists and not the government. Well, I wanted some shit to hit the fan, so I contacted Dylan Avery, the creator of the Loose Change movie and self righteous idiot, to talk about my banning and how come he's not bothering to say anything scientific. Here's the conversation we had, there may be spelling and grammatical errors, and I told him beforehand that I would be putting this up to be seen, but he responded with no mention of the blog. If he told me not to put it up, I would have had the decency to keep it a secret. So, here's Dylan's big moment in the spotlight of shame! We start with me, after my banning after a deranged and crazy 13 year old thought I was a shill:

Hi Dylan,
I'm not going to bother protesting my ban from your boards since I think the boards are stupid and you keep trying to milk the CT cow. But that's not even the point. You probably banned me because I called your film a mockumentary right? I'm not sorry. You present speculation as evidence and then give it to 13 year olds thereby creating a new opiate for the masses, as Karl Marx would like to describe. I'm just wondering that after all these years of creating these films and starting this truth movement, why you're still alive. I would expect that the Bush government would probably create some sort of accident and have you silenced. Well, I'm just speculating here, like you do in your films. Finally, don't worry, I'm back on the forums already. Try to block my IP, I'm on a proxy server. Toodles and a Happy New Year!

The Silver Shadow!

Yep, that's hatemail alright! Just wanting to tell him that his film doesn't address any facts or anything at all. Either way, I'll just continue on with Dylan's response:

See, this is why you're not welcome. Your childish attitude.

-Dylan

Snazzy response there Dylan! You sure as hell convinced me. Not really in the mood yet to start anything and still not acknowledging him:

Whatever.

I wasn't interested in starting any sort of argument just yet. I was just testing him to see whether he would respond or not. Dylan does respond, a little insecure now:

See?

Yep, Dylan decides to be a little random. Nice to see that some people have humour. I respond back with a bit of my own dry humour:

No, just like your mockumentary.

Not feeling that I had entirely justified what I said, I continued:

If you want the truth, Dylan, then I'll tell you. I was intrigued by your film at first, but then after snooping around, I found your film to be a factual nightmare. There are no facts, simply speculation and even then, your film doesn't look at the entire speculation, just the one that suits your needs and doesn't show the entire picture. Call that childish? I'll just wait until your final cut comes out, I'll be sure to get the dvd. It'll be a crappy film but it should make a good coaster. Anyways, see you on the forum, you can never get rid of a shadow!
The Silver Shadow

I decided to get wise with him. He comes back on his high and mighty horse. He acts high and mighty, but it's all empty, like my fridge at home:

You'll be watching it in American theaters. I'm sorry that you can
actually discount factual things like Northwoods and the wargames as
"speculation," but at least you've found bliss in ignorance. Keep
throwing insults and cutesy phrases.
-Dylan

Now, Dylan has spit out the regular speculation that he and his followers take for fact. I think it's wise to say that no regular person would take what he said about Northwoods and the wargames as fact since there is no link between these, yet he's speculating that there IS a link! I give him my mind:

Northwoods and the wargames don't prove anything. It's just that there's speculation, it's not fact. If you want to convince me, where are the real facts? I think you're just going along with the whole CT thing because it makes you money. I honestly think that you don't believe the things you say but you say it so you can rake in a little more.

I admit it, I gave a cheap shot there. I talked dirty about the fact that he likes to rake in money. Any smart person knows that it's not about the money but rather the principle of the argument. Naturally, this specimen fires back:

Well, guess what, you're wrong on that one, like I've told you people a
million times. How does spending $30,000 of our own money over one
weekend to educate people for free "in it for the money"?

This is why you're not welcome.

-Dylan

Well, there are two possible reasons Dylan. One, the money doesn't mean a lot to you and you're just not a cautious spender (Stupid reason) or two, you make a lot of money and $30,000 in one weekend probably means nothing to you. Maybe you're not showing the entire story Dylan, just like you don't show the entire story about 9/11. Also, how come you acknowledged that Northwoods and the wargames are speculation? Finally, I never inquired as to why I'm not welcome so he's just creating a little more bs for the taking. I decide that a little insulting probably wouldn't hurt him, so here it is:

Whatever, I'm not interested in your finances or anything like that. I just speculated, like what you do in your film. You have yet to give me scientific evidence.

Thus starts me demanding evidence that's proper and not speculation. He fires back:

"Whatever" again. Good counter. You ARE interested in my finances
because you brought them up, not me.

-Dylan

He ignores my request for evidence and goes to the part most pertaining to himself. Dylan Avery, the world doesn't revolve around you. It didn't revolve around Saddam Hussein, it won't revolve around a stupid man-child from New York state who is probably wearing the tin-foil hat to prevent the government from reading their brain waves. But the thing is, tin-foil hats increase the radio waves coming from our brain thus making it easier for the government to read your minds. I did my research, don't ask or rebut what I said! Anyhow, I'm just going on:

I guess you don't like it when I speculate yet you do it in your film like crazy. I really couldn't care what you do with your own money. Whether it's spending it on "educating" people or on hookers, I couldn't care less. Where's that scientific evidence?

Serves him right. I ask the infamous question again. He replies back 28 minutes later with:

good riddance.

This got me on the floor laughing. Dylan spends 28 minutes finding evidence, can't find it, needs an excuse and sees time fly by. Replies with good riddance to have me on my toes! I send back:

Is that the best counter you can come up with? I would expect that a prominent figure in the "9/11 truth movement" to have better counters. Well, since you can't seem to come up with scientific evidence or anything at all apart from speculation, which isn't fact, I'll just publish this conversation we had on my blog, when I get home later tonight. Speaking of which, I'm in the lab right now, all alone, and I was thinking, since I'm in a scientific institution, where is that scientific evidence?

Better counters couldn't come. I told him that I'll publish this conversation we had, he doesn't seem to care. It probably won't make a dent either because I'll be commented as a shill by those that are dumb enough to take Loose Change as the gospel truth! Either way, Dylan can't find evidence. I lead him on that I could use some evidence while I'm all alone with this specimen. Here is his final reply:

Because if I spent all day responding to the likes of you, I'd get
nothing done. I don't care if you're in a lab.

So, with the stronger evidence that he claims to have, he can't seem to counter my belief with any physics or anything that says that it indeed wasn't Arab terrorists. What a crying shame Dylan Avery. You really can't come up with anything to counter me and dismiss it as getting nothing done. I spent all day talking to you and in the meantime, got the new HDTV that my dad got for Christmas setup as well as having observed some drosophila, and going to the gym. Nice productive day, and Dylan's having trouble finding evidence and can't get anything done as a result. I'm still waiting for you. I sent off a final e-mail with more damning allegations to see if he would respond. He didn't bother replying. As said earlier by Dylan, good riddance. He has the mentality of a child, can only see one perspective, his own and anybody against that perspective is a shill.

Well, if you still believe what he says in his film, you really need to do your research. Dylan's mockumentary provides little, actually, no evidence and complete speculation. His method of research is simply reading one page, tearing out 3, read another page, tear out 3 more and conclude that the evidence doesn't add up. I've yet to be convinced, I show the truthers on the forum that it's indeed a terrorist attack orchestrated by an advanced terrorist network and I get banned. I guess I'm just a troll for truth! Anyhow Dylan, try to counter me. My e-mail's always open to your views and posts, unlike your forum!

Trying to present the other side and what do I get? A ban!

2007-01-02T01:41:00.000-05:00

For all those that still believe the lies of the Loose Change people, what happens when you try to present the other side? You get banned! Dylan, I'm crying, you took away my freedom of speech, nooooooooo!

For those of you that don't know what Loose Change is, it's a mockumentary created under the premise of a documentary which says that the government orchestrated the 9/11 terror attacks. There's just one problem: they don't have any sort of credible facts, or they use half of the facts and seem to forget to put the other half in, can't imagine why!

So anyhow, after heavily criticizing a fellow today about how his facts don't match, I get banned. So much for freedom of speech, right? Anyhow, I can still log on to their page and laugh at them. They are so precocious and can't seem to tell their asses from their elbows. Hey Dylan, I hope your final edition comes out soon so I can show a video of myself smashing up your DVD's. Dylan Avery, Korey Rowe and Jason Bermas are the worst swine on this planet. They exploit those lost on 9/11 and make a killing off of it. As for killtown, that little 13 year old tries so hard to suck up to Avery and the gang. He knows very little and can't seem to tell the difference between a 747 and a 757. There's no shame in that, he's 13 and has the mentality of a 2 year old. Just glad he isn't related to me, I'd be sure to disown him quickly!

These people are trying their hardest to prove a non-existant theory. Nobody listens to them and yet I did. That's my big mistake. I had to listen to them...

Saddam Hussein EXECUTION in IRAQ FULL CLEAR

2006-12-31T11:42:00.001-05:00


The Excecution of former iraqi leader Saddam Hussein This was taken with a cell phone camera and it's a little graphic but you get the idea...

I saw mother kissing Bin Laden under the Cameltoe!!!!!

2006-12-19T17:52:00.000-05:00

What a great euphemism! Time for the holidays, a time when to compensate for the depression of short days and long nights, we are given 2 (or 3 to even 5 if we're students) weeks of cheer and joy to counter that slump! Christmas and a whole bunch of other celebrations are coming up. What a better time for the US government to put up posters of the Most Wanted Terrorists in where else but the airports! This is not a joke! The US government is looking for terrorists and what a better way than to ask travellers in the nation's airports to find them for rewards upwards of $10 million. The most valuable terrorist, for the 6th year in a row on the poster is Osama Bin Laden! It just intrigues me that in order to find some terrorists, the US government would ask you to look around you to see if any of these terrorists are hanging around in an airport near you.

It seems like the US government is so unbelievably paranoid that the world's most dangerous terrorists seem to be hanging around in their very own airports. Everybody run for the hills, invade Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Israel (Since they're always complaining), Lebanon and just make a glass crater out of the Middle East. Hopefully that'll quell the violence and bring peace to the world, thereby giving the contestants in beauty pageants something else to think about.

Talk about tangents! I went from terrorists to airports to beauty pageants all in two paragraphs! But in all seriousness, the US government tries so hard, yet they can't find their man. I got some news for them, Bin Laden is actually hiding in North Korea right now in Kim Jong Il's place! Better jump on the opportunity. Merry Christmas, I'll be turning 20 in a week!

Jetsetting: Starting up and gathering info

2006-12-16T16:12:00.000-05:00

For the next few months, this blog will contain me (as always!) in my quest to go through Europe. This is going to be that trip that will actually materialize, unlike the previous two attempts. For the first few months, I'll be looking for info on the destinations as well as me getting the ticket and finally, photos of the actual trip. I have scheduled for my tour to begin on May 19th so that it'll be after exams and I'll be in Monaco for the F1 weekend, though I doubt I will get a chance to actually go and see the race. At least I could have a chance to go to the Parc Ferme and take pictures with F1 cars up close and personal, and maybe with a grid girl as well! The trip I plan on taking will start through London, France, Monaco, Italy (Venice, Florence and Rome), Austria, Munich, Lucerne, Amsterdam and back to London. I'm going to post some interesting facts about the countries as I do a little research during my spare time.

The one country that I'm currently interested in is the Principality of Monaco. A very tiny country, with an area 1.95 square kilometres, it is home to the Monaco Grand Prix, an F1 event that happens every year. It is the most prestigious race and the most glamorous. Apart from the race, there's also casinos in the Monte Carlo area as well as a beautiful port and the royal palace. What intrigues me is that in this principality, there's no less than 10 primary, secondary and high schools and a university. When I think about it, the entire U of T campus is Monaco, yet there is a university right there!

I also would've thought that a place so prestigious, and home to the wealthiest people in the world would only have the best restaurants and cafes in the world. Boy was I wrong! There is actually a McDonalds' there, but I doubt I'll actually go since it might be on the other side of the nation! Still though, very nice place to visit, so I would love to go there, but I would love to go there when there is the F1, so it'll look cooler! I could probably take pictures of Fernando Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen speeding through La Piscinne or Rascasse!

The past, present and future...

2006-12-11T21:03:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, news from the other side of the world came in saying that my grandmother had passed away. My grandfather had died 2 years earlier and she was alone for that period. Of course, my mother was very distraught from the news of my grandmother's death and she immediately packed her bags and went to Iran with my two uncles, one who lives here and the other one living in Washington DC.

The three of them left right upon hearing of the death and they got together in Paris to take the final flight together. The funeral came and went and the memorials were held. Family and friends from far and wide converged on Iran. My mom told me about her high school friends whom she met for the first time since then, the cousins and aunts and uncles she hadn't seen since she was a child and the infamous funeral crasher! I won't talk about the crasher.

I write this today because my mother returned today, and I was very happy to see her again since I'm such a mommy's boy! She told me of the funeral and the memorials, and it was the most amazing thing that could be allocated to a person after they die. The life of my grandmother was celebrated more than the mourning of her passing. My mom told me about the people who met each other for the first time since they were kids and just how different the atmosphere was. The atmosphere was, of course, of mourning, but there was also hope and happiness for a life well lived.

What made me react with a bit of sadness was the fact that the house they lived in, the large and beautiful house, had been cleaned and anything that contained a memory of my grandparents were gone to one of the 8 children in the family. It was a sign that the two of them were truly gone, no more. My mom brought back some things that are pretty difficult to describe, but they contained memories of the two of them. One of the items I can describe is a letter I had written to my grandparents in Farsi when I was only 8 years old! It brought back memories, and surprise to me that I'm still able to read Farsi, even though I'm terrible when it comes to speaking the language!

There are no pictures of any coffin or body, and that's the way I would like it. I would rather remember my grandmother as the woman who, even though in a lot of pain (arthritis), was cheerful and smiling to everybody. I like to remember her as having class and being charitable to those that didn't receive any charity or government help, like the Afghan family she gave work to. Most of all, I would like to remember my grandmother as a grandmother, plain and simple. The grandmother that would spoil her grandchildren much to the chagrin of the parents and give wisdom to me, my brother and all the cousins that were around. She was always concerned about our studies and kept encouraging us to pursue until we are the best, and then strive to be better than you are currently.

Every good quality about me can be attributed to my past and what I may do in the future can be attributed to their encouraging and pushing of me to do better. High values and high hopes will always raise you to the top, just look at my family, they are all successful and some of them are the best in their fields. I hope I can emulate that for the better. Love.

Mean Girls and how it wasn't my high school!

2006-12-09T22:07:00.000-05:00

Over 2 years after the fact, I saw the movie Mean Girls. It's a film that was shot at my old high school! There's only one difference, even though my old high school was in the middle of a primarily white and pretty affluent area of town (Noted by a friend as a place where $3.5 million homes and bums can peacefully co-exist), it was nothing like the high school shown in Mean Girls. ECI was everything that Mean Girls wasn't! I have some good experiences up until Grade 11, after which I learned that I couldn't stay there forever and had to go to university, so grade 12 was a bit of a crap year for me.

ECI had this camp thingy called "White Pine". You go there in grade 10 and just get to act like a bit of an idiot for a week, after which you come back and get involved and other things for the rest of high school, and continue acting like an idiot, provided you have the balls, or chutzpah to do so! Everyone gets to know each other and you meet the people that you never thought existed. Friends were made, crushes were formed, and broken, and a new you emerged, mentally. You returned with confidence and got involved! I was involved in grade 9, with Reach For the Top, but that's about all my involvement in my first year of high school. Grades 10 and 11 were the power years for me!

Afterwards, I tried everything I could to make my years in high school worth it. I really cannot remember anything that I learned in high school, other than improving my ability to masterfully play with numbers and devise meanings and patterns in my head, and even then, I taught myself that, but it impressed a lot of people! I tried, and failed, due to an incompetent team member, to create a radio station for the high school, I was able to help our team win a few Reach For The Top games, but we never rose to the calibre of MCI or Leaside, and I won an award, for best Junior Player in Reach For The Top that year! I was head boy for prefects! In high school, I was a nerd, a popular person (Don't know whether I was popular to hate or popular period!), and an overall nice guy (People can dispute that!).

Overall, high school was great! The cliques and groups that existed in Mean Girls did not exist in ECI. I remember seeing the hot chicks hanging out with the Asian guys, and not for any sort of sexual reasoning, the immigrants (for lack of a better term) helping out the jocks, the jocks fraternizing with the nerds, it was good! I can't really say that there was any sort of way to define who was who or what title they carried like the characters would in that film, we were all mixed together like assorted nuts and we got along very well together. I don't remember a lot of people whom I graduated with, since I'm terrible with names, but the memories of White Pine and the semi-formals among the other things will never go away. High school was fun, I hope that if you graduated from ECI in 2004, you would think so as well!

Speed Dating...

2006-11-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

To be with a friend, I went speed-dating tonight. It was fun, I met lots of nice women, but none for me since I'm not a ladies man! I found speed-dating to be something new, but I wish I had more time to talk to some of the women whom I thought were quite interesting, including the two medical students, whose names I won't give up. I didn't bother getting numbers or e-mails but I wish I did now! I'm sure that I will bump into the two med students though because I'm gonna be around their domain, the medsci building! Overall, a lot of fun, met new people and I realized that speed-dating isn't what it's made out to be, at least from my perspective.

An edit: three women chose me and would like to meet up later...

UCLA Taser incident, as if you've heard enough!

2006-11-21T15:58:00.000-05:00

Firstly, even though I'm Iranian, I am not biased against the UCPD, but I will say that their actions against this student was stupid, to say the least! Last week, an Iranian-American (Although I think where he was from is hardly a matter) student was tasered at 11:30 at a UCLA library. He believed he was being racially profiled so he was in the process of leaving. OK, he's leaving, get out!

As he was walking out the door, he was confronted by UCPD officers. What happened next, I'm not sure since I don't know the entire story, but he said some things, and then police handcuffed him. There is not a whole lot that you can do when you are handcuffed right? Well, apparently, the police wouldn't think that way and then attached electrodes to his chest. Let's get something clear here: they didn't shoot electrodes onto him like you would when you're trying to immobilise someone with a gun or a weapon, but you actually attach it onto him. If anything, this can be classified as torture, similar to that of Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib.

There is also where the police are threatening around by saying that if anybody comes close, they will also get tasered. That's ok for crowd control, but when you're also having the students demand a badge number for the officer and then getting threatened, that is classified as assault, and you don't need a grade 12 education to know this stuff! For an incident such as this, I would call their bluff and actually phone 911, since they're not real police officers, on this because what they were doing is considered criminal to such a high extent.

Overall, you don't taser someone because they yell obscenities at you and furthermore, you don't taser someone when they are consciously immobilised. The UCPD took such drastic measures against something that could have been very mild and insignificant and has reached this guy typing away at his computer in Toronto! I think that the officers involved should be reprimanded and called to explain their actions before the students and to a greater extent, the world that witnessed this. I also think that this student deserves an apology and some sort of compensation, financial (I don't recommend throwing money at this) or otherwise. This is a heinous crime and the ones who committed should explain for what they did.

Richard "Dick" Seaman, what a story!

2006-11-12T14:44:00.000-05:00

I was watching the Discovery Channel this morning and I saw a documentary called "Nazi Grand Prix". It was about the story of Dick Seaman, a race car driver in the early 1930's who made a decision to race for the Mercedes Benz, which was being run by the Nazis at the time. He was a brilliant driver, with the cunning ability of Michael Schumacher today.

In the 1938 German Grand Prix, Mercedes Benz ordered that Seaman not win the race and let his teammate, a German, to win the race since it was the German race and the German people needed a hero, who was of the same nationality! The German went out of the race because of a fire during a pitstop, and Seaman won the race. He saluted Hitler on the top step of the podium not once, but twice! It is rumoured that Hitler stopped watching Grand Prix racing after this race.

I won't go into the specifics of his life, but Dick Seaman lived the life that would look good in a Hollywood biopic. He was good-looking, really fast (for his time!), married a beautiful girl (Erica Popp) when he was 25 and she was 18 (I think), all against the wishes of his mother, and died doing what he loved. I was riveted to the story of his life, and a movie of his life would be a beautiful thing, provided a big name Hollywood director didn't direct it. Back to working on my health presentation now!

Some people are very rude

2006-11-08T23:14:00.000-05:00

This is by no means a rant, but there are very many people who are rude on the phone. I thought that it would only be for telemarketers and their like, me being one until almost 2 years ago, but there are people who are naturally just rude. I got home one night and had to get to my uncle, so I called 905-212-9779 thinking that it was my uncle's number, I heard the answering machine say that I called 905-282... and I hung up because it was obviously a wrong number. I called 905-212-9779 again, still thinking that it was my uncle, but all of a sudden, somebody picks it up and says nothing. I'm obviously very confused at this point, so I give a "hello" to see if maybe there was a problem in the communication thingy. An old and very rude woman says to me in a very demeaning voice "why are you calling a fax machine?". I'm obviously very taken aback by this and just slam the phone since I don't want to talk or associate myself with her crap.

I hope that if this woman reads this, which she probably won't because she knows nothing about technology or how to work a fax machine, that even though you may be old and very senile, it doesn't mean that you can just take your anger out on people who call a wrong number. This person who lives at 905-212-9779 is a very rude woman, and shouldn't even have a telephone so she won't be able to spread her verbal diarrhea to the world and make it a worse place to live.

Saddam's execution: Justice or revenge?

2006-11-07T16:45:00.000-05:00

The verdict was read, he created a lot of hoopla, but Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq has been sentenced to death by hanging. Was it revenge? Was it justice? We shall never know. Being a Shia Muslim from a liberal family, I, personally, can say that the hanging of a tyrant is not the way to deliver justice. I've never been a fan of the death penalty, and that includes killing Saddam Hussein.

I also find that this is embarassing both for Iraq and for Saddam Hussein himself. It is embarassing for Iraq because through this ruling, of one of history's greatest tyrants, they still believe in the eye-for-an-eye rule. It is embarassing for Saddam Hussein simply because he has gone from feared leader to a simple criminal, albeit, a high profile criminal.

I find that there is US bias as well in this ruling. The judges were Shia Muslims. Saddam put the minority Sunnis in charge of almost everything and made the majority Shias suffer. Sunnis were given special privileges over the Shias. There's nothing bad about that other than the fact that both should be given equal status and nobody is above the law. If anything, the judgment should have been done by both Sunni and Shia judges and not someone that the US has trained in law and judging.

Saddam Hussein also held mock elections, which he considered real enough to run, was the only candidate running in the two elections before the war, and he won those both with 97% and 100% of the vote respectively. What gets me wondering is how does someone who is the only candidate running get 97% of the vote?

Finally, Saddam got the death penalty for one of the many massacres he committed against people. There is nothing about the Iran-Iraq war, where hundreds of thousands of young Iraqi and Iranian men were killed off. The gassing of the Kurds, that's a back issue. If anything, I believe that the leaders who gave Saddam weapons to commit atrocities against his, Iran's and Kuwait's people should be tried for criminal negligence. That list would include many notable names including Donald Rumsfeld and Ronald Reagan, who would be tried in absentia!

Hope you enjoyed reading this, keep on truckin'! I still don't know what the latter means!

Hi!

2006-11-03T13:25:00.000-05:00

Nothing much to say other than the fact that my life was busy and now it's the calm and devastation after the storm. I saw the Borat movie last Wednesday in a special sneak preview (and Tink really wants to kill me) and I'm going to see it again simply because my Persian-Jew brethren requires his due! I'm really tired and really nervous, but that's life after test! I'm working on the 2007 Solar Car as part of the U of T team and I'm looking forward to the competition in Australia next year with a revolutionary two-seater and a long underwear system for the drivers to wear which will keep them comfortable in the intense Australian Outback heat. That's me, my life, and everything associated with it, toodles!

Nude pics of Jessica Alba, in here!!!!!! What's hot, what's not, and what shouldn't even be on the internet.

2006-10-24T17:09:00.000-04:00

Firstly, if the title caught your attention, leave a comment! I don't have any nude or clothed pictures of Jessica Alba. I might have a few clothed somewhere on the Hard Drive cache, but I'm not a technologically advanced person!

As for what's hot, I'm not sure because my viewpoint changes day in and day out. However, what remains in my viewpoint as hot is newer and newer technologies that look cooler and sleeker and help us out in some way or another. That's hot.

What's not? Simple, anybody that burns, desecrates or defecates on a nation's flag, be it Israel, US, Iran, China, Australia, anywhere! Desecrating flags hurts everybody. It hurts the people you're implying, it hurts your family and their reputation and it hurts just about anyone that associates with you. It's wrong to do. If you go ahead and burn the American flag, you're not hurting the US government, you're hurting the people there. The people of America and other places have different views on different issues. So therefore, the ones you're targetting are the ones that will technically be in minority to the rest because of the vast number of views.

What shouldn't be on the internet? Simple, watching a naked woman desecrate a flag! A female truther (Member of the 9/11 "Truth Movement") posted a gallery on the internet of herself desecrating an American flag. That's not hot, that's not cool, that's hurting people, and that's hurting yourself as well, both figuratively and literally!

I'm surprised that this group still survives with the bulk of the membership of it being self-righteous idiots. I talk about this again because I originally believed the Loose Change videos until I did some snooping on my own and found them to be wrong, massively wrong. I hope that they will collapse at some point, and the truthers will realize that they were blindly following Dylan Avery, to which they will find him and hang him after a Kangaroo Court session! I pray for the day, that may never come!

Anyhow, enough babbling from me, here's Kimi Raikkonen to give the final word with Martin Brundle at the 2006 Brazilian GP
I was having a shit

Investigation and what we can and cannot investigate!

2006-10-17T22:08:00.000-04:00

It's kind of funny. We live in a society which emphasizes free speech and the investigation of our politicians ad nauseum. However, we come under fire when we investigate a group that is non-governmental and maybe even anti-governmental. I'm talking about the 9/11 truth movement. It is a real thorn in my side when I read about them. I'm not a neocon in any manner and I don't support George W. in any way shape or form.

What fascinates me is that so many people start believing what the "truth movement" says and they don't even show the proper story. I find that whenever one of the 'truthers' (What I'll call them from now on) is asked about something, they go nuts and say that we're wrong because they "did their research". However, if they did their research, how come they're not talking about their research? It baffles me that they say that and don't back it up. I also read somewhere that the producers of the film, when they got into a debate with a prominent radio show host, walked out of the studio because the host didn't believe what the film said. The director and writer of the film also said that debating against someone who believes the official story would be "a waste of energy"! If YOU have the stronger evidence, you'd wanna show it right? I don't believe a word these guys say and wouldn't even listen to these people.

If they ever come to Toronto, I would go to watch them speak and then ask some very pressing questions such as, if a missile hit the pentagon, how come my uncle, who worked in a law office across the pentagon, saw a plane on that day hit. You can refute all the claims in 10 minutes, 72 minutes less than it takes to watch this film. It's kind of hard to believe that in this generation, one of the most educated generations, there are people who just don't accept scientific fact and I find it even harder that there are people who are making money off of such a tragedy to hit humanity.

Off to more interesting things, I was able to acquire the chrome Michael Schumacher 7 time world champion model. It came at a stiff price, $200, but it's worth it! It sparkles, shines and makes for a great centrepiece for that F1 collector. I also got Jacques Villeneuve's BMW Sauber, simply because it's the last F1 he drove. It's nice! I have to show you guys my favourite videos I found on YouTube. This first one is a scene from the movie "Dumb and Dumber". If you're not Iranian, it looks pretty straightforward. If you're Iranian, this is a whole new way of looking at things!

This second one is the North Korean version of the Daily Show:

The future of F1

2006-10-09T22:21:00.000-04:00

Well, less than 2 weeks separate us from the final race of the season at Interlagos, Brazil, which is just outside Sao Paulo. Anyhow, after reading all these rule changes that there will be an engine freeze in terms of development, this got me thinking of the future.

It used to be that there would be no tire changes in a race, and that was cool. It was because less rubber would be used per race, and we all remember what happened in the 2005 US Grand Prix!

Now, I'm starting to think that the FIA, the world governing on motorsport, might one day impose that no engine be changed no matter what the circumstances may be. Even if you blow up, you gotta keep that engine for the rest of the season! I can only imagine this rule coming into effect in 2010 and the Grand Prix of Monaco would go something like this (With commentary courtesy of James Allen and Martin Brundle of ITV):

James Allen: Hello and welcome to the Monaco Grand Prix. It is a beautiful May afternoon here in Monte Carlo and the competitors, all of them with blown up engines from the various races of the season, are gathering on the starting grid with their respective pushing crews to push the cars in the race.

Martin Brundle: That's right. So even though all teams may have blown up engines, that doesn't mean that they can't go fast, with the push crews helping out with the pushing.

JA: The parade lap has begun! Fernando Alonso in the McLaren is getting plenty of pushing from the push crew, and they're pushing him very well through the hairpin.

MB: Amazingly enough, this is Team McLaren Mercedes' first pole position in 4 years, after 3 time world champion Kimi Raikkonen, who now drives for Ferrari, took pole position at Monza in 2006 and lost the race to now Ferrari team owner Michael Schumacher.

JA: There's Kimi Raikkonen in the chrome red Ferrari trying so desperately to warm up his tyres and the push crew already look emaciated from pushing his car around the hairpin.

MB: Fernando Alonso and the push crew did an amazing job to qualify him for pole position yesterday in 17min. 32.444 sec. That was a stellar job from Fernando and the push crews for Team McLaren Mercedes.

15 minutes later at the starting grid

JA: Finally, we're at the starting line. As is now custom, the pushing crews will take a 5 minute break to rejuvinate themselves deeming the tire warming useless.

5 minutes later

JA: Now, the lights go out, (lights go out) Let's race!!!!

MB: Look at that! Tiago Monteiro in the Spyker Midland Toyota Minardi Cosworth has jumped up 4 places from 24th to 20th, and he is now right behind Takuma Sato in the Super Aguri Honda, whose pushing crews are doing an amazing job pushing that car!

JA: Look at the front, there's Raikkonen in the Ferrari against Alonso's McLaren and what did that push crew member of Ferrari do the McLaren push crew member? I think he shouted an obscenity!

MB: That's right James, there is ferocious battling at 8 Miles per hour here in Monaco. Great racing from these two drivers, but should Alonso win this battle, he takes first place in the Constructors Championship.

2 Hours later: The pitstops

JA: Here's the first round of pitstops, there's Jenson Button being pushed into the box by his push crew, they look exhausted. Push crews will change along with the tires. There is no fuel to be put in the car in order to keep it light, and off he goes in 17.3 seconds.

MB: The two championship contenders have come into the pit lane...

4 hours later: race ending

JA: Fernando Alonso has crossed the finish line in Monaco, the push crews are exhausted, and he exits the car a triumphant man! The first win for McLaren in almost 5 years, since Kimi Raikkonen's amazing overtake on now Honda driver Giancarlo Fisichella in Suzuka.

MB: Yes!! Amazing win to Alonso, and Raikkonen takes second, his fourth podium at Monaco. Just look at those push crews! They're exhausted beyond all means! It's now 8 PM here in Monaco, Alonso sprays the champagne into Raikkonen's helmet, Raikkonen is reacting with another drunken fit by knocking Alonso in the face.

JA: Yes, as you all know, Kimi Raikkonen is now getting drunk easier and easier these days and now it's a simple sip of champagne that does the job! While these two men get separated, we're calling it a day from here in Monte Carlo, have a good day!

And that's how F1 will be in 2010, with all these rule changes!

Calm Spaniard blows his Tapa and sports I'd like to try out!

2006-10-04T15:17:00.000-04:00

Hey all! For the five of you that read my blog, I've got something to say: Why would anyone cheer for someone who blows their top when they start losing? I'm talking about Fernando Alonso. The 2005 F1 World Champion is now blaming absolutely EVERYONE when it comes to him now losing. He has blamed the team, he has blamed his teammate, today he blamed Michelin tires for giving him shitty tires (Which he happened to select!) and tomorrow he'll blame global warming for the bad conditions he was in for this to happen. Clearly, he's not a sportsman, he's just a whining crybaby and I'm glad I never cheered for him in the first place. Word of advice Fernando: Stop whining and start driving the car, you're not winning any respect by saying that Formula 1 is a business venture, blaming your team, who worked hard to get you to drive and your teammate, who was loyal enough to help you win by coming behind you. Be a man, suck it in, you win sometimes, you lose sometimes, that's life.

Now, enough of Alonso, on to me, I'd like to try out some sports and hobbies before I die. They include the great sport of the Sultans, Falconry, Cricket, Endurance Touring Races and golf. That last one is merely to attract the eye of the golfer who reads this, no real reason why. Anyhow, Falconry is the sport that's at the top of my list that I'd like to give a shot, and I'd like to try it out in the place where the Sultans lived, the Middle East! Take care, thanks for reading this, you have a lot of patience!

Nature Girl!!!!! Where are you!!!!!

2006-09-29T23:39:00.000-04:00

I have random dreams at best. I had a dream the other night about me riding on the subway and at Royal York (I think) station, a very beautiful girl, who looked very familiar yet I don't know who, came on the train, sat next to me and started yelling "NATURE" in my ear in a very happy tone! She was wearing a U of T hoodie, was blonde, and had the bluest eyes I had ever seen. At least I think they were blue. That's my random dream, kind of funny huh?

Olympics at Vegas!

2006-09-25T17:35:00.000-04:00

I had a conversation with my mother the other day. We're planning on leaving for the US and she says that she would like to go to Las Vegas to live and teach. I immediately thought of the F1's plans to switch venues by 2009 to have the US GP at the Casino strip in Las Vegas. When I mentioned that I would love to go to Vegas by 2009, she asked if the Olympics were taking place there. Yeah, we got flummoxed! But then the thought came to me, if the Olympics were held in Las Vegas, would it be ethical and would it even be a sound idea?

Now, I don't like to talk about conversations with my family because I am a separate entity from my family and they kind of realized that. Nothing wrong with being a separate entity. However, I thought to myself about the Olympics going to Las Vegas. It would be interesting. I thought to myself whether or not any spectators or atheletes would bother showing up to the events.

Put it this way: Las Vegas is the place to play. If you live there and work there for a living doing certain things, like office job, etc, you're bound to go to a casino, or an arcade, to play around and have fun. Also, the slogan, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"; isn't that a little redundant? If you're going to be broadcasting the biggest event on earth to nobody because it stays there, then what's the point? I've just realized that I've typed out 3 pointless paragraphs here. I'm just going to leave before I do anymore damage. Toodles

It's official! Dylan Avery, you're an idiot, and a big one at that!

2006-09-20T20:06:00.000-04:00

I'm back, for no real reason. I'm still under the weather, but on the rebound. However, in my life, I have many likes and dislikes. I have many likes that I don't think about and don't really care about either because they are just the way they should be. Now, I have things that I don't like, and there aren't many things that I hate, because in a world of suspicion and hatred, why can't just one of us be blissful? I don't like to dislike people, and I don't like to hate people either, but everybody has different opinions and some people just can't tell their arse from their elbow. One of those people whom I have no respect for is a fellow, about my age, from Albany, New York, by the name of Dylan Avery.

In case you've been living under a rock (And there are a few that are), Dylan Avery wrote, directed and narrated a documentary called "Loose Change". It was a film about the Sept. 11th attacks. There are many documentaries that have that as their pretext so I see no problem. The film said that the US government orchestrated the attacks of 9/11 in order to go to war with Afghanistan and Iraq. OK, my ears are burning for more info to be sent this way. I know that the US government is fraught with overthrowing foreign governments in favour of more Washington-friendly people, so this grabs my attention. I'm going to watch this movie.

So, one beautiful spring day, I sit down and watch the film. OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!!!! I'm burning with rage! The US government did something like this and the evidence is there. I talk to a few of my friends about this and tell them how the US government could have orchestrated such a thing. They shake me to my senses and tell me to go over the facts again. I go back to my handy dandy computer and do some more reading.

I start off with Popular Mechanics, a notable pop-engineering magazine. I see that there are some holes in what Loose Change says about the collapse of the trade centers. Still though, that's 1 fact that they might have messed up, no biggie, we all make mistakes. I see another mistake, and another mistake after that, and some more mistakes. Dylan Avery, the writer, director and narrator of Loose Change says that he's spreading the truth, but all these mistakes at the same time? I think we can safely say that he's just attention whoring by the 3rd minute of the film. Even science, which is the best litmus paper test of our time says that Dylan Avery isn't telling the truth.

I'm not upset that Dylan Avery played me (Which I made it so easy for him), and plays many others still. I'm upset that Dylan Avery and the rest of the Loose Change people haven't looked at all the facts. With information being so freely available, how come you don't go on Google and search for the truth. Scholarly journals are more available to the general public today than at any point in history, yet you go to the one journal which has 9/11 deniers as the peer-reviewers (I can't remember the name of the journal off the top of my head).

Dylan Avery definetely made the rounds in the news media after the film. After doing the research and watching him speak, I realized that he had the same personality as an uneducated person. The way he spoke during interviews showed the type of person he was. When he was speaking without a script, you could see and hear how naive and uneducated he sounded. This is the person that everyone believes as the truth seeker of 9/11? It's really sad.

You can go ahead and call me a NeoCon, and I'll tell you that I'm anything but. I am vehemently opposed to Bush's policies and was actually smiling when Hugo Chavez called him 'el Diablo' today at the UN. That's me, see you on the other side of next time!

Religion, racing and I'm sick :(

2006-09-18T12:19:00.000-04:00

I'm back, for no real reason. Firstly, I'm pissed! Pissed off at the fact that people don't accept the Pope's apology for the words he said regarding Islam. Many Muslims accepted the apology, but the American media make it look like his apology fell on deaf ears. The extremist Muslims of the world are turning into extremist Jews of the world after Prince Harry's Nazi costume debacle. Religion is merely the foundation to curb our fears of death with promises of the afterlife and to make us better people. Yet, it is the one thing that is supposed to bring love and peace in this world of ours, yet it does the exact opposite. More people have died in wars in the name of religion rather than wars in the name of politics and the right way of life. Either way, this makes the world a worse place to live and since I'm a westernized Muslim, things could get worse for me.

Now, in the world of F1 racing, a sport where Nike doesn't have sponsorship and is the richest and most advanced sport in the world, the great Michael Schumacher retired from F1 racing. However, much to my chagrin, the man to take his place would be Kimi Raikkonen, the Flying Finn. Kimi Raikkonen is a good driver, but I wish he could've stayed at the Mercedes Benz racing team (That'll be the name next year) for one more year so that he could race alongside Fernando Alonso so that we could see whose really the better driver. Seriously though, Kimi is the Flying Finn regardless and I'm sure he will do well at Ferrari. Speaking of which, Shell brought over an F1 Ferrari to display at Galbraith and I was there to snap a few photos of it. Here are a few:

Finally, I'm sick :(. That's not cool.

Frosh WEEK!!!!!

2006-09-09T13:26:00.000-04:00

It was FROSH WEEK!!!! The upside, I wasn't a froshie! I was a leader, somewhere I belong! I'm a Behind the Scenes Leader, that's where the actual leading is! I was working for the SAC, while the froshes were at their respective colleges and were having fun doing their own thing. I was working for the SAC to prepare for the grand finale in which all the colleges come together and parade through the streets of Toronto and hold up rush hour traffic on a very beautiful and sunny friday afternoon. This was better than my frosh week for two reasons: I'm dying to lead, never to follow; and I know people this time and we all got together and had our own fun! Ian and I had the *ahem* honour to lead the University College people along with Ian's girlfriend from Western. During the parade, the official photographer for Blue Crew, a really nice guy named Faraz, joined us and snapped many photos of the parade, including many of me holding the sign for University College and wearing the skin tight SAC shirt (Remind me to express my displeasure to SAC later on!).

Of course, there was so much more than this SAC parade at the university. Ian and I got paid big money to post posters for the Metric concert all over and anywhere on campus simply to get rid of them all. I was actually surprised that there were people who knew what Metric was and for that matter, like Metric as well! I had never heard of Metric until we had to put up all those posters! What surprised me more is that people wanted those posters and took them from Ian and me, which was a good thing since I didn't want to post up 2000+ posters all over campus, but we did anyways! That was the little bit of me that didn't lead, but followed, on my own terms though.

Finally, I have thoroughly enjoyed being Blue Crew and will do it again in a heartbeat. There are volunteering hours, but I never needed them in the first place but I'll still hang around and do more stuff! I thought that my only job in university would be studying and studying some more with no opportunity to get involved. Well, this year, I have become totally involved and I have made many many many new friends from all over. University is turning out to be the most interesting experience for me so far, until other things come around!

The increasing shrinking of the Gender gap

2006-09-05T22:26:00.000-04:00

THANK YOU GOD!!!!! Racing isn't exactly what you would call a sausage fest anymore! In these days of women's rights and the feminazi occupation of all things masculine, except for the stand up urinal, racing was widely believed, mainly by both sexes, that it was a fraternal organization, and not the usual matriarchy of 'female' sports such as croquet, synchronized swimming and dish washing (I'm totally going to get slapped for that last one)*! But, there are those that are asking "Sheiban, why are you GLAD that racing isn't a fraternity?". I put it this way, I'm Sheiban, 'nuff said. It's not exactly easy for me to find a person of the opposite sex who likes things that I like, such as automotive racing (Of mainly European and International leagues. I stay clear of North America when it comes to racing, unless it's the ALMS, but that's really not American in the first place), writing blogs, going for long walks on the beach, watching movies together on rainy days, going out at night, and all that other stuff that women claim to like, and yet it doesn't bother me. But, today, I met a lovely lady at St. Mike's who was so into F1, but hadn't a clue who Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Pedro de la Rosa or Michael Schumacher were. Still though, it's a start, and she also thought that Toro Rosso had a nice looking car. You're entitled to your opinions, I'm not going to say anything about that. I think I can safely conclude that there ARE women who are into auto racing, and the sophisticated and more technical type, than one might think, and they're also NOT engineers!

Now, when it comes to women, I used to hastily jump to conclusions when I met a 'perfect match'. If you're one of those who is reading this and was part of my early thoughts that you're the one (and I mean this in the most innocent way), well, I have reformed and letting this so called faith take control, not that I have much faith in it to begin with! However, with this lack of faith to begin with, I'm NOT AT ALL bothered because I would rather see the world and make my mark rather than having a woman fall into my arms, not that there's anything wrong with having a woman fall into your arms, unless you trip her! It's just me, and I can't help being me. I think women are the essence of our world, and they are indeed the bearers and beginners of life.

So, why should women be excluded from certain things? I think they choose to exclude themselves from these things because of societal pressures to be 'proper' women. I'm happy that in this world, there are many, many women that break away from these barriers of society such as housewifing (It's not a term, but it works), male sexing (Use your imagination and don't think of anything dirty while you're at it!), child rearing (That's the only proper term I have), and MRStering in university or college. Either way, good job to all the women on the planet, now you have something better to do rather than sit around and look beautiful all day, which was a perk, but is just not working anymore these days!

*I'm a part time chauvinist, for the record. It's not in me to be chauvinistic, it's society, or, if you're from South Park, BLAME CANADA!

Bomb threats, borders, school and some space crashing...

2006-09-02T20:57:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back and where can I start? Well, on Thursday, I ran into a bomb threat with my really good friend, Myck. We just met out of the blue and as we were talking, we discovered that an area of St. George and Bloor was cordoned off. We were scrathing our heads wondering what on earth could be the problem. We found out later that there was a fellow in a taxi cab over on the street claiming to have a bomb. Of course, I took this as paranoia at it's finest. However, after staking out a great vantage point, we were literally 20 metres from the cab, and closer than any other police officer would dare go. We found our refuge within the University of Toronto High School. As we watched, a cameraman from Global TV spotted us and brought his camera in to shoot. With all the hype happening, we really thought that there was seriously a bomb threat. We could hear at least 3 helicopters flying overhead, even though I could only see one. After almost 1.5 hours, we were told by the police that the threat of a bomb is 'imminent' and we had to evacuate the school where we were. We left, and saw a sniper approaching the cab. I seriously thought that this would end in bloodshed. The sniper disappeared around the corner, and we heard a really loud bang, and pigeons flew everywhere. 'That's it', I thought, the standoff was over and they had shot the guy in the cab whom he claimed that he had a bomb. I thought that this was over, but from the very limited view that I had, I saw the police take a black guy and hose him down. It turned out that the police had actually shot tear gas into the cab and then they wrestled him down. It turned out that there was no bomb at all, and that life went back to normal in the end. It was a very interesting sight to see. I got to see the police's little bomb disposal robot thingy, which strangely enough, reminded me of R2D2 of Star Wars fame. All it was missing was a larger golden droid which could have been saying obscenities!

Next order of business, the border, more specifically, the one with the US. Now, my family has US Visas and they want to go to live in the US. Great! Nothing wrong with living in the US, just prepared to get shot when you're in Europe! I'm just kidding! Anyways, we were visiting my cousin in N. Kentucky at the time, and thought it would be a great idea to try and get our Green Cards. When we get to the Detroit-Windsor border, we were surprised at how mean and inhospitable the female border guard was! There were some things we couldn't understand at all since she had such a thick Louisiana accent as well! She questioned us so meticulously and kept twisting our words around that we left angry and disappointed. We tried again this week by going to New York State at the Niagara Falls crossing. Over there, the Customs official was so nice and even shook our hands to welcome us to America. What a great feeling!

Now, final order of business is the upcoming period that dominates 2 (3 if you're not in university) seasons. I'm talking about school. I start university in over a week and with a clean slate of all things! I will be taking a lot of courses that I now like, since I'm in third year and I can choose whatever I desire. I got a lot of great courses, and next week, I won't have a moment's rest since it's that great time in a first year's life known as Frosh Week, and I'm one of the Frosh Week co-ordinators! No rest for the weary, at least for me, since I have just finished summer school and I'll be going back to school soon as well...

Now, as I was writing this blog, I realized that the American and European Space Agencies seem to enjoy crashing their probes into things! I just read on the BBC about the ESA wanting to crash their SMART 1 satellite into the moon, since they want to end it! I think it's all great and NASA did a thing like that last year when crashing a probe into an asteroid, and you should've seen the explosion as well! It seems like space agencies are dying to get attention, and they will crash their multimillion dollar probe into space bodies to be seen! The article can be seen here!

Yale Shmale, YOU FAIL!!!!

2006-08-30T21:16:00.000-04:00

I don't really care about this incident, since it's regarding a university of a lower order than U of T, but I care at the same time since it concerns our good friend George W. I'm not a fan of the antics of Dubya, and I'm not very pro-Republican either. As a matter of fact, I believe that the Democrats are the only good leaders of the US, and that the Republicans are only and only concerned about the corporations that they receive campaign contributions from. The Democrats have the same problem, but they seem a little more benevolent than the GOP.

So anyways, back on topic, I saw these posters on campus that had a picture of Bush and on them said "Yale Shmale". They were ads for Lakehead University, a small university up north in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I personally thought that the ads were quite interesting and eye catching, since they caught my eye, and I don't pay attention to ads anymore. Anyways, I don't know what the fuss should be about. Dubya graduated from Yale, big deal! His father was wealthy, it doesn't mean that because you're wealthy, you're gonna be smart. Lakehead University was showing that an elite institution doesn't automatically make you the best. Maybe I have the rose goggles on, but I bet that even a guy who was educated in Ryerson or York can become president and beat the guy from Harvard or Yale or Stanford. No offence to the Ryerson or York people and equally no offence to the Harvard or Yale people!

Now Clinton, he was an inspiration. Bill Clinton was born into an uneducated family, or a family with no postsecondary education (I'm not sure of which one) in Arkansas. He was from a regular, average joe family. He studied his ass off to become what he is today and I admire him for that. Not only that, he was able to lobby for the poor of the US. In a land of so much wealth, there is very little equality when it comes to healthcare, education and essential services. He worked to change that, although he could've done better regarding a universal medicare coverage. If I were to ever move to the United States, I would join the Democratic Party there just because they're a little more diplomatic with the so called 'rogue states' and they have no desire to spend all the money they have on military but rather on social services.

I heard today that the government of Ontario is planning to put money into bursaries and scholarships for those whose parents or family never had a post secondary education. Now if only they would do that in the states, so that at least there would be equal opportunity for everyone. Everybody might not go to university, but at least they would've had the opportunity to go. Back when my life ends...

Accepted racism in small town America...

2006-08-23T21:14:00.000-04:00

I've just been through an arduous road trip through the US of A and I'm here in N. Kentucky. People are very nice to outsiders and they welcome us very nicely. I guess that Southern Comfort is referring to South of the Border, since I was only in Ohio when the niceties came my way. An example would be that after seeing me wear a U of T hat, and my overall foreign look, the girl at the McDonalds I was at gave me my salad with no tax. So many nice things from people. Canadians are always welcome since we're the peace loving neighbours. I don't want to be in the mindset of Blanche DuBois and put my faith in the kindness of strangers. I've learned that people everywhere are nice to foreigners and they expect it when you're in their shoes. As Atticus Finch would say "you never understand a person until you climb into their skin and walk around in it".

And God bless the person that Atticus Finch was derived from. People are nice, that's nice! But only when you're a foreigner. While I was munching on my vegetarian lunch (I've turned a new leaf!), I overheard an old couple talking together. I really didn't care what they were saying until I heard the old lady say that she doesn't want "that African American guy" to be principle of the local high school. She once worked with an African American and he was "very dumb", according to her. I wasn't sure how to react. I know that it's none of my business but this gives you a sense of what type of people small town Americans can be.

Of course, that was an older and more conservative woman. Being a "nigger lover" these days, as Bob Ewell would've said, are in style! I'm sure that people are less conservative and are willing to be friends with just about anyone who shares a common interest with them. I've got friends who are Chinese, Sri Lankan, Indian, Canadian, American, Iranian, Arab, African, Jamaican and the list goes on. I can't stand it when someone says that black people are all gangsters and lazy. I knew two guys who worked at a call centre and doing surveys just so they could pay for medical school tuition, which they were aspiring for. They were both black.

9/11 conspiracy coverup...

2006-08-20T22:32:00.000-04:00

What a big joke! As we're approaching the half decade mark of a very notorious terrorist attack, I watched a video called "Loose Change 9/11". OK, so it raised alot of eyebrows. I was thinking of how the US government could have covered up such a thing and have so many holes in the so called evidence and then it dawned on me: if there were so many holes in the evidence, the greater public would've realized this by now and the Democrats would have called for Bush's ass on a platter. The fact is, it wasn't the government, otherwise there would be a lot of people (at least a lot with enough common sense) to demand this. After viewing the film two or three times, I made these observations:

#1. There is no interview at ALL with an expert about the topic. Anything that is talked about isn't talked about by experts but rather by onlookers, who are experts in another field.

#2. Every sort of evidence they point towards a bomb or an explosion in the towers are used from similes (ie/ 'such as', 'like so', etc.).

#3. The towers did NOT pancake onto each other completely. They collapsed but the debris rained on the rest of the area, which led to the collapse of 7 WTC later that day.

#4. The towers were completed in 1973. Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 were created and used in the 1980's and 90's to fly farther and faster, thereby, taking on more fuel. The rest is pretty easy to understand...

#5. When Bush claims to have seen the first plane hit the North Tower, he was wrong! It is after a long and traumatic event that causes you to think of one thing that may be similar to another and interpret what you think as THE one. In layman's terms, your memory is altered after witnessing something terrible to something else. The footage of the planes hitting the towers after that day were being played over and over and over again that it gets ingrained in your memory.

#6. Last, but not least, and there is a lot more, but I'm too lazy to write on, is the fact that they showed different building fires with the result being that the building didn't collapse. Dylan Avery, the Twin Towers were hit by planes, significantly weakening their structure. You, my friend, are comparing a bullet wound to the common cold.

That's my little spiel, thanks for reading and letting me vent!

First it was goats, now it's snakes...

2006-08-19T23:00:00.000-04:00

Snakes on a Plane. Snakes on a Plane. Snakes on a Plane. Ok, so there were Snakes on a Plane. I've seen people bring boa constrictors onto airplanes, or, as Samuel L. Jackson would say, "I've seen motherf***ing people bring motherf***ing boa constrictors onto motherf***ing planes". That's all I'm gonna write about this overrated, par B film. I don't think it's even worth sneaking into a theatre to watch let alone paying.

I read the National Post on Thursday. Now people would ask "Sheiban, why the bloody hell would you read the National Post, especially since you don't read the newspapers anymore and rely on reporting from all sorts of different angles?". Well, this is one of the angles. Anyhow, I check for usual interesting reporting that you wouldn't find anywhere else . Now, it just so happened that the paper has a part where people submit what they have overheard and one of the most interesting things I read was a quote saying, and I am not altering it in any way

"of all the barnyard animals in the world, the goat has to be the most exciting one".

Whoa! Whoever said that really, REALLY REALLY had issues! I'm not sure what to say, it sounds so wrong...

JonBenet Ramsey murderer caught. I hope you parents have learned a lesson...

2006-08-17T20:08:00.000-04:00

On my 10th birthday, a little girl in Boulder, Colorado, a long way away from me, was murdered. Why have I heard about this? Simple. The media made a big deal of it because:
#1: She was white, blonde hair, blue eyes and very pretty (without the makeup of course)
#2: Her family was white, upper middle class, two cars in the garage, the real American dream.

JonBenet Ramsey and the rest of her family were victims, but not of a 41 year old school teacher arrested yesterday, but of the media. The media portrayed her as a beauty queen who had won numerous awards the year before, at the age of 6. They portrayed her as a sexual desire by showing all the clips of her walking on stage in cowgirl outfits and all those other things, and as a child too. In my opinion, that's quite disturbing. Her family, more specifically her parents, on the other hand, were portrayed by the media as not the killers, but THE KILLERS; no ifs, ands, or buts.

I have been conditioned by the media for the great majority of my life, but I'm starting to see things as more than black and white in the way that the media paint the picture. I remember watching the news programs on Fox (I shudder about it now) and MSNBC after the murders, when they were interviewing absolutely everybody in the town from the district attorney to the guy who delivers the mail to their house. When I think about it now, why weren't they covering the murder of someone else in this sort of light? I guess hindsight is 20/20.

Another point that I would like to put is putting a 6 year old in a beauty pageant. Now, I have my opinions about beauty pageants, but when you put a child, not even at the age to go out on a saturday night with her friends, on a stage with a boatload of makeup and hair gel and all that other stuff on them, they're bound to become an object of desire to pedophiles. Parents, you can only protect your children so much. Also, hasn't it occured to you that child beauty queens, or beauty queens in general tend to come from higher income families, so therefore, they would live in a more spacious house? That, therefore, gives advantage to the rapist who wants to get in, complete the deed and get out.

Anyways, maybe this guy is the person who killed her and maybe he isn't, but I would rather see a stick thin, petite, 20 something woman at a beauty pageant rather than a small, 6 year old girl. When you're 6 years old and a girl, you're supposed to be at school and try to give cooties to all the boys in your class!

The Unintentional Flashmob of ROSI and steps to take to get into the courses you want!

2006-08-15T09:46:00.000-04:00

For the record, it was completely unintentional, but the Repository of Student Information (AKA: ROSI) was flashmobbed today, in computer terms. For those who don't know what a flashmob is, Wikipedia is your best friend. Although, what happened is, it was for a website. At the university I'm at, and I'm sure it's for others as well, you apply for courses online through a student repository that is totally automated.

I had applied for my courses already, but for some other courses which were reserved for specialists (*cough* HMB303 *cough* HMB304). Anyhow, the priority to specialists were removed at 6AM today and anybody could apply for the courses now.

Now, when it came to applying, oh lordy! Firstly, I log into ROSI a few moments before 6AM, and knowing that there could be a backlog, I copied the course code so I could constantly paste in the code over and over again until I got it. The spaces in the course went from 13, right before 6AM to 7 spots, when I was able to get through. I took one spot and by 6:03, there were no more spots left.

Next up, HMB304, the course with only 3 spots left for the taking. I repeated the standard procedure now to make it through and took my spot. It was then that I took my fist, raised in victory like Kimi Raikkonen winning the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix after going from worst to first! It felt like a true victory for me.

Anyhow, the videos about the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix are up on Youtube, and I realized that it's best to watch an F1 race in Spanish since they go wild at any passing, and not the British sort of wild, which I find immensely boring (Since they just let out a big "OH!!!")! If you're interested in the slightest of seeing an F1 race in Spanish, check out this clip.

Congratulations Jenson!

2006-08-06T13:59:00.000-04:00

Haven't posted here in nearly 2 weeks! I'll start off by saying that this weekend is a long weekend here in Canada so I don't have to get up early in the morning tomorrow, luckily! I have an exam later this week, so I'm hoping to make a big dent in that, and then I can enjoy one solid month of summer (August 11-September 11!).

I woke up early this morning to watch the F1 from Hungary and was hoping to see Kimi Raikkonen win it all! Unfortunately, he crashed about halfway through. What got me happy though was seeing both Renaults out of the race with Fisichella having problems and the same with Alonso. I was thinking that this was going to be a very close championship with Schumacher against Alonso, if he were to win it. However, there was an amazing pass on Schumacher by Pedro de la Rosa of McLaren Mercedes (YAY!!) and eventually another pass with Nick Heidfeld of BMW and Jenson Button of Honda inheriting the lead after Alonso's shunt. The Ferrari of Michael Schumacher eventually retired after he had steering problems, so that meant that Ferrari really took home nothing from this race. However, Jenson Button's first EVER win as an F1 driver in 113 races was the real highlight. This was the first time in over 3 years that a Brit won an F1 race, even though Formula 1 is a primarily British sport since most of the teams have their facilities located in the UK.

I have to say, Jenson really deserved the win he got and the smile on his face was that of a genuine winner! I'm glad he won.

More From Me....

2006-07-24T17:36:00.000-04:00

Well, to start off, yesterday, I watched the Miss Universe pageant. No real reason to watch it other than the fact that I was bored and was too lazy to reach the remote. Anyhow, I realized how the world perception of beauty has gone towards the European perception of petite stature and a relatively small to moderately sized bust (I have no idea what size cups are small and what are huge) along with a 34-24-34 size (Which totals to 92! I'm a math geek, I know!). Now, no doubt that the women were quite pretty, especially the Swiss miss (She's stolen my heart!), but I realized that the result of having one type of feminine beauty is a result of colonization in the first and second rounds.

For those of you that don't know what the first and second round of colonialism was, the first round was the discovery of the New World (North, Central and South America) in 1492 by Columbus thus bringing many spices and goods like potatoes and different peppers to Europe, which technically fuelled the Industrial Revolution, and thus causing the Empires to expand, mainly into Africa, in order to open up new markets.

Along with bringing new markets, a new class of colonial administrators, sometimes from the indigenous locals, were created in the colonies, thus having them adopting new European values and to do "European things" and to think European. The European thinking got a little too far methinks because along with colonial administration, media, in one form or another, entered and European beauty came into the colonies (for markets) thus showing skinny and petite models and encouraging women to be small.

This is just a small example of what causes one perception of something like beauty. Everybody now strives to be the smallest they can be, and as a result, can lead to anorexia and "bag of bones" syndrome! Just embrace the person you are and get on with life. Even if you achieve a certain body type, it won't stay with you forever. There is something called ageing and eventually, it'll come and slap you in the face! Anyhow, before I rant anymore, I'll just go now! It's sometimes liberating to write here, and I am a guy! However, I'm not a white male, but I am between the ages of 18-49, so people will at least give me one ear to listen!

Being Me

2006-07-20T19:56:00.000-04:00

I see myself as a lonely person. I do everything on my own and it's usually right. However, being alone doesn't mean achieve happiness for me. I'm not the type of guy to go hunting for a girl at all costs, have a one night stand and call it a day. I'm the type that wants a companion, a friend, someone to talk to and be tolerant of me. Unfortunately, it's only a woman (at least in my mind) that can achieve all these criteria, plus they have a pretty face so go figure! I'm not asking for a girlfriend to all of a sudden come out of the blue on the net, I'm just merely saying I'm lonely and I'm ok with it to a certain extent.

Anyhow, I was reading here and there about things, since my anthropology test is over and done with, I was reading random useless crap on the Internet. Anyhow, I ended up going to a website about the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. I remember that kidnapping. Any kidnapping is terrible, especially if there's no immediate suspect to go to and no real MO either. The diary that she was forced to write was interesting though. I used to write a log of all things happening, including some thoughts I had about some people. Some of those thoughts tended to have been very affectionate, and some were plain hatred. What would've disgusted me was the fact that the kidnapper would look at the diary to make sure she was writing good things. My log was secret, totally secret. I've stopped writing in it because life has taken over me, but I remember some of the things I wrote in it and how I loved, and liked, some people over others.

Anyhow, I'm done for the day, I'm gonna do some stuff, and drink a bit. In case you're wondering, I'm gonna be drinking water, nothing else. In a hot day like this, only H2O can satisfy my thirst!

Meeting with F1 history, and the rest!

2006-07-15T19:15:00.000-04:00

Where can I start? Oh dear oh dear, where can I start? Firstly, I work at the bookroom at the University of Toronto. What we do is we take donations of books, sort them, price them, and sell them at the big book sale in October. One of the pricers is a former French prof. I got to know her a bit since she has trouble writing the prices of books, so she asks me to write them while she tells me. She started telling me about the 1950's when she was in University herself and living in France as well. As it turned out, she was a big motorsport fan, and was able to try out for the Renault Formula 1 team of the 1950's, which they had a different name, to which I cannot remember. Anyhow, she drove in an F1 car and described it to me as the most 'exhilirating ride of my life'. She told me that she would have been accepted into the team, had she not been a woman, since it costs alot of money to train a driver. Hiring a woman would have been a bad move since she could only race for a little while and then raise a family. She was heartbroken, and couldn't race.

Anyhow, it has been a dull couple of days, apart from that meeting with history. I have been busy, and I will have to be choosing courses for next year on Monday. Anyhow, from what I've heard, the system to register (better known as ROSI) is actually much better than last year and you won't stall as well! I can only imagine how great it is. Actually, I can't!

A nice few days of loneliness, to a certain extent...

2006-07-10T21:12:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm gonna put it this way, my mom's in Iran, half way around the world in a foreign land where I've only been 8 or 9 times in my short, 19.5 year life. Now, my brother's going away until Sunday for some camping trip. That'll leave me at home with my dad. It should be fun. That means I have a ton of freedom until Sunday, so I gotta use it well! Anyhow, I was on the FB aye (Facebook, aye), and saw that a global group was created by one of my friends for all people from my former highschool. The spooky part about this group was that the great majority of people from the University of Toronto. I think we're all a bunch of naive idiots to go to U of T to believe that we are the best and can become the best.

I watched the World Cup finals yesterday and much to my chagrin, actually there were a few, Shakira was singing before the game (Bringing more Shakira jokes to me) and that Italy won, France should've won and by alot too. I think a stupid thing was one of the Italian players calling Zinedine Zidane a 'dirty terrorist', to which he replied with a headbutt, and the Italian flew back on the ground and Zidane was given a red card for that.

Anyhow, I'd like to have a wrestling match with drama queen football (soccer) players because it would be so entertaining. Or, they should bring Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane in Celebrity Boxing to see who is the better soccer player by faking it. I bet you anything that Ronaldo would cover his face so that there is no damage to his very pretty face (Yes, I'm a guy and acknowledged that Ronaldo is quite good looking!). It reminds me back to the threads I had on biome about who would win in a fight and it would be a poll between two different characters like Darth Vader and Harry Potter. You would have soooooo much discussion about these two characters, like the fact that Vader uses the force and can immediately force choke Potter, but Potter can use the killing curse or something like that to kill Vader and all that crap! Man, what a great way to kill time, but as one person said in regards to these things, 'Sheiban, you need to get laid!'.

That's me for today, I've had enough stupidity going on today and I'll send it to your comments, if anybody cares to read this blog...

Rose goggles and the loss of them

2006-07-09T18:45:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, my anthropology prof talked about two schools of Christian thought during the Renassiance, the monogenists, who believed that all humanity was divine and that only the indigenous peoples of other places had simply devolved, the second school of thought was the Polygenists, who believed that it was only Europeans that were Christians and that the other people weren't even human. That is one of the reasons why you had the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the slavery and killing of indigenous North Americans.

Anyhow, I thought we as humans had evolved and all differences that were in the past were in the past. Boy was I wrong! My prof did mention something about White Supremacists using the words of Thomas Hobbes and other notable philosophers of the time and took them out of context in regards to Africans and other non-Whites as being savages. I believed that these groups were fringe groups and were merely a nuisance. I believed that these groups didn't have a large following.

I checked Wikipedia (As I do all the time to feed my curiosity) and there were many many many notable names of white supremacists, the majority of them being in the US (No surprises there!). Anyhow, the lingo and expression used on their websites were very interesting. They kind of reminded me of Bob Ewell in "To Kill A Mockingbird", using 'nigger' and other racist terms in their language. They talked about the Nigerian 419 scams (To which they called 'Nigeria' as 'Niggeria'. That's no typo!), which unfortunately is a chimera on our cyber planet, and used that as a justification of why they believe they are supreme over all other skin colours (Although, a white scammer was caught just over a year ago).

Overall, my heart hurts that the ideology of white supremacy still lives today in our societies. I think that living in a very multicultural society, where you can get Italian and Japanese food on the same block, has given me a rosy view of the world at large. Unfortunately, it's things like these that hinder us and stop us from reaching a point where we all can embrace each other for being different.

A month, or so

2006-07-08T13:54:00.001-04:00

A few days ago, my mother left for Iran, since my grandmother is ill. That leaves me alone with my little brother and my dad. Nothing wrong, but I feel a little alone (Go ahead, call me a mommy's boy). The benefits of my mom not being here is that I get her car, credit card and other things! This one month also revolves around social and cultural anthropology for me as well.

Anyhow, I was looking at the different courses that wouldn't be offered next year, and to my shock, I'm not gonna get to do youth culture next year. I was looking forward to that course, but at least I still get to take physiology (phew!). Anyhow, tomorrow will be the big game in Berlin for the World Cup finals. France takes on Italy. Go France, show the world that the Italians can be beaten when they play dirty! That's all for me here, I gotta take a shower now and shave off my goatee, I'm getting the Jacques Villeneuve look!

Thinking and loss

2006-07-04T22:13:00.000-04:00

Today started a new anthropology course with a professor whom if you just go by name with association, can think of many atrocities caused, and she seems to be causing university atrocities. I don't know what I meant with that last sentence, but yeah, I started a new course today called Social & Cultural Anthropology. It's ok, if you like politics and other things. I used to be a political junkie and dare I say, a troublemaker as well, so I feel quite at home with this course. Even though I do believe in the left wing, her views are more left wing. She absolutely despises George W, while I don't believe he's THAT bad! He pushes for social reform to a certain extent, but unlike daddy Bush, he's not putting any pressure on Israel and lets them reign supreme over the Middle East. I am not anti-Israeli, but I do believe that the government does cause alot of atrocities, one example that comes to mind is jailing the whistle blower on their nuclear program for 18 years and they haven't joined the NNPT either as well. But that's the part of thinking for the day, I can't change the world, but I can say what's happening, in the hopes that somebody on a higher level of the International hierarchy (Whatever that is) sees it and thinks, which I doubt since they have to be monitoring terrorist threats in chatrooms and online forums!

Anyhow, to the loss, it was Germany's today. A very sad ending to a truly magnificent game against a great Italian team. Unfortunately, Germany, on home turf, just couldn't master a win against Italy, posting their first loss to a European team since 1998 when they lost 3-0 to Croatia (I read too much!). I watched the two and only goals scored against Germany while listening to "I Believe In You" by Il Divo and Celine Dion, a far cry (No pun intended!) from the usual fast paced Eurodance I listen to. Anyhow, I'm a tired person today! Thanks for reading, and if you didn't then you can't see the motions I'm making either!

Beaches and the Haircut

2006-07-03T20:14:00.000-04:00

Nothing interesting happened today! I'll be working this week at the Bookroom and promoting events. Today though, what happened for me was that I went to get my haircut, the first in over a month and it feels great to be light! I went to the Vietnamese side of town, which was interesting. I noticed though that beside the barbershop, there was a Vietnamese restaurant which had some interesting things in it. What was most interesting about this Vietnamese restaurant were the owners! The owners were not Vietnamese, they didn't even come from anywhere near Vietnam, China, Korea, Laos, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore or anywhere around those areas. The two owners were Iranian! They were standing outside and speaking in Farsi which I could understand. A fellow from one of the mentioned areas (I don't wanna discriminate) came and asked one of them how the food was to which he replied "It is perfect"!

After that little episode, I drove myself around town, went to the Danforth, and then making a few twists and turns, ended up at Woodbine Beach. I found a parking spot (Which was quite hard to do), walked to the beach and started skipping rocks while children and sunlovers were enjoying themselves. I was dying to go commando just once in the water but saw children running around, and the water was too cold to do that as well. After about 15 minutes, I jumped into my car and gunned the engine back to Etobicoke. A fun day, but I'm starting class tomorrow as well *cry*

Ironic Indy!

2006-07-02T15:16:00.000-04:00

I watched the US Grand Prix from Indianapolis today and was quite surprised by the almost irony taken out from last year. In case you've been living under a rock, the USGP had some issues with the Michelin tires thus causing 7 of the 10 teams (14 out of 20 cars) to not race at all, leaving Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi to race. This year, After the first turn, a 7 car pileup occurred, leaving 15 cars to race, minus a few that returned to the garage because they weren't able to race anymore, leaving only 9 cars to finish. Ferrari finished 1 and 2 this year, like last year with a subpar driver, Giancarlo Fisichella for Renault (He's just not a good driver), taking third place.

Back to the crash though, man, what a crash! Something about crashes is quite mesmerizing, but I'm also very glad that everyone involved walked away. I realized something was wrong when I saw Nick Heidfeld for BMW Sauber flip over when the camera was focusing on the first turn, and then everything came together. Anyhow, as a McLaren-Mercedes fan, I was quite saddened that both Kimi Raikkonen (BEST DRIVER EVER!) and Juan Pablo Montoya crashed in that pileup as well, but life goes on. I'm not too disappointed that they couldn't compete, I was simply saddened to see 2 beautiful cars retire from the race (The McLarens are just beautiful!). Anyhow, life goes on and my life doesn't revolve around F1 racing. I have a course starting in 2 days, so I'm preparing for that, unfortunately, but what the heck, it should be fun!

Heeeeere's Sheiban!

2006-07-01T17:27:00.000-04:00

Well, this is my first posting of a blog, my first blog ever! I avoided blogs like the plague and stuck to updating my facebook profile, but then I couldn't post more than 3000 characters, so I'm here on the blogway! I'm a University of Toronto student. I am majoring in Human Biology and double minoring in Human Physiology and Anthropology. I am not keening to go to medical school, but I will try for it nonetheless.

My hobbies include watching sports, mainly Formula 1 racing (Go ahead and say it's not a real sport!), collect model cars as well as building a few myself, play trivia (I know alot of useless facts!), travel (I've been to many places, mainly Europe and the Middle East!), and I like to go out and about with my friends (A hell of a lot of them too). I enjoy James Bond movies, movies of a historical nature (My favourite being 'To Kill A Mockingbird'), and the odd Sci-Fi flick here and there. I don't watch alot of TV but I love to watch The Simpsons and Futurama, Airport (The British version) and from time to time, like to watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. There'll be more of me coming since I'm taking a full university course in one month (For those of you don't know what that means, I'm basically shooting myself in the foot!). I listen to alot of Eurodance music mainly because I'm a European junkie!

My dreams include wanting to drive in the Le Mans 24 Hour Race for either the Audi, Pescarolo Judd, or Aston Martin Racing teams (I wanted to race in F1 before, but then I grew to be 6'1"), living in Monaco and visiting, just visiting, North Korea just to say that I've been there. Anyhow, I'll be around, hopefully!