Another Day

We had a supply guy at the office. The guy's duty was not defined I guess. He was everywhere. Ordering supplies., checking the floor shop parts, answering the phone for others, customer service,...
Every afternoon at 3:30 while he was leaving he used to say: "Humm, another day"! and everyday I was wondering how time was passing by with a mixed feeling of regret and happiness of leaving work soon! Hours, days, month, years,.. they pass faster and faster everyday. I can't believe I'm 30 years old now. I don't feel like it. Anyhow, this is the truth.
Happy birthday.

P.S. The cake was delicious however I couldn't eat more and I got many messages from friends on FB. I like getting birthday greeting even if I am 30 years old!

There is Something a Man Should know

Someone hit a girl with his car. For some reason he witnessed the accident. He helped the driver to take the girl to the hospital. The doctor checked her and said she was alright. They walked down the hall to take the elevator and leave the hospital. The elevator door opened. There were two old women and one man in the cabin. Three of them went in and the door closed. The girl broke the silence. She hugged the driver. “We are going to marry” she said. Everyone looked back. The old man looked at the driver and said “Go get a tattoo”. One of the old women said “There is something a man should know”. The old man fixed his purple tie and said “There is something a man should know”.

Fates Warning Concert, A Waste of Money

I like Jim Matheos for his great work in OSI with Kevin Moore. Both of them are ex-Dream TheaterBlack musicians which by default is a great credit for them. Mike Portnoy, the drummer is still playing in Dream Theatre though (he left OSI after recoding their second album "Free"). The music of OSI is mostly based on Jim and Kevin Moore’s creativity. Some say OSI is the hard rock/heavy metal version of Kevin’s own solo band Chroma Key because of his dominant programming in all OSI songs over all the instruments.

Jim Matheos plays great in OSI. Beautiful minimalist music with great riffs. OSI has worked with many good musicians like Steven Wilson (No-Man/Porcupine Tree), Gavin Harrison (King Crimson/Porcupine Tree), Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Sean Malone (Cynic) and Tim Bowness (No-Man) but the main members are still Jim and Kevin. Unfortunately, OSI like Chroma key doesn’t look like a real band but more of an experimental project. It seems like both members are so involved in their own work that don’t bother promoting their albums seriously or put some shows here and there.

When I heard Jim Matheos’ band Fates Warning was going to play at Avalon, Hollywood, I thought I gave it a shot. At least I could see Jim Matheos work.

Less than half of the theatre was empty. Mostly lousy bands played for about two hours before they came up. It was a total boredom. The singer, Ray Alder tried to give some energy to the crowd. Poor guy tried his best but it seemed like the rest of the band were trying to work against him. All of them were standing right in their positions not moving at all. Jim Matheos only played three solos in the whole show. He looked like he just woke up from a deep sleep and was dragged into the show. After a while even those enthusiastic fans in front of the stage stopped cheering. In the end, people applauded like they were forced to have them come up again and play a couple of more songs. What a shame. This time, they tried to give some energy to the crowd like they knew they bored everyone and wanted to make up for it!

Four people standing on stage playing with their least interest is not called a show. If you can’t or not willing to be responsive to the people who came to see you, you better don’t put any shows at all. Both Avalon's sound system and their sound engineer were awful too.

I’m going to see Cold next week. Let’s see what those guys do.

My name is "Advantage"

It was sometime around 1AM. He was deeply asleep. The cell phone rang suddenly and woke him up . He was so sleepy that he couldn't remember where he was for a few seconds. “Who’s this?” he answered. A man’s voice said “This is advantage.” “Who?“he asked. “Advantage” the voice answered louder. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Advantage? What the fuck? It’s early in the morning and someone calls with a strange name with an unusual Indian accent with a strange name?” he said to himself. He got scared a little. He repeated “Who?” pretending he didn’t hear the name and hoping to hear a usual one this time. The voice stop for a couple of seconds like it knew what was going on. It answered”mmm… This is Oliver”

“OK. How can I help you?” he answered with more confidence now.

“I’m calling about the plan?” the voice said.

“What plan?”

“The plan” the voice answered louder.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He hung up and looked back at the window. There was a red light flashing probably from across the street. It looked like one of those Neon lights of convenience stores but there wasn’t any store around his place. The closes one was one block down the street. As the red light was becoming stronger sleep overcame his thoughts.

Norooz and Death

Lots of death of my dearest ones have happened around Nowrooz. It’s like the angel (!) of death has this long list due by the end of the year! This is so fucked up. I really hate to say I am scared of Norooz now. Call me superstitious. My grandma, my uncle, my cousin and now one of my best friends father all died in the end of the year or during Nowrooz.

God bless him.

I always think people who die of sudden causes like heart strokes or accidents are very lucky. They don't suffer much pain like a person with cancer or any mortal disease that eats you up gradually. I hope I become one of these people but I don't want to die in Norooz.

I'm Sweet

It's 1AM. I really feel like writing something. I want to note this date as another damn anniversary beside April 5th. I'm overwhelmed but I can't write.
Let it be. Life is too short. Take it easy and all those crap to calm you down!
May be I read some Khayyam or something!

Flow of Life

There are not a lot of decisions we can make to change the flow of our lives. There are some pre-existing factors that define this flow. While we are riding on it, there are few chances of really changing direction. Otherwise, life goes; faster and faster.

How many success or failures stories do you hear about people that turned their lives around? Not a lot. Maybe there is something behind the scene. I don't know. I'm not saying there is a written destiny for each of us, but there are not a lot of things under our controls either.

People give up when they come to know their stories. That's when they say this is who I am and it is my life. This is as far as I can go.

When the clock goes off at 6AM everyday, I open my eyes and ask myself what I am doing. Is it really what I wanted to be? Am I happy or sad? and I can't find the answer.

Average People

Hi, may I have a regular coffee?

Sure, What size?

Medium

Hi, Do you have medium size of this shirt?

Let me see,...mm, there it is.

I thought it was on sale!

No, 'casue it's medium. We sale the items when we run out of their mediums.

Can I have the pepper steak, please?

Sure, how do you wanted?

Medium please.

How tall are you sir?

Average,mmm... somewhere around 5'9"

I see....

What's up man? how are things going?

Nothing much, just daily stuff...

What kind of music do you like?

Not too loud, not too slow, something in between, you know....

How much money do you make?

Mmmm, not too much. Something around average.

What kind of car do you like?

Not too big, no too small, not too pricey, not too cheap....

I never want to become and average person.

Halloween and Iranians

This is an old post but still worth posting!

Have you ever noticed how Iranians like Halloween? It's like it is their own tradition! Some Iranians here don't care about Norouz as much as they care about Halloween.
I have never gone out on Halloweens. Seeing how drunk people try disparately to scare you is not very attractive for me. Plus, I have to come up with a costume too; a pain in ass!!
Anyways, I think I will try it next year just for the sake of it!

Curb your enthusiasm> Ultimate sarcasm!

Since I watched Whatever Works movie (you can find its post right below this one) I have been obsessed with sarcastic character of Larry David. Recently I came to know that he is the main character of a HBO TV series called "Curb your enthusiasm".
The show is all about his everyday life as a writer and comedian very similar to the famous Seinfeld show in which he was the main writer too.
I love this show. I just can't get enough of it. Apart from all, I think I am picking up his way of thinking too!
Highly suggested!

Whatever Works: A Reaction to the Randomness of Our Worthless Lives

Whatever works is about a man (Boris Yellnikoff) who believes in randomness in life. Whatever works right now is what to be embraced without thinking about the consequences. For this reason, he wants to get rid of his life in which everything should be planned ahead of time. Movie starts with a scene where he explains his wife about his intuition of life and complaining how their successful marriage and careers are against his ideology. In the end, while her wife is shocked by the reasoning, he jumps out of the window! Not being lucky enough, he doesn’t die but gets a chance to start the life he wants with no strings attached. No family, no job, not a single responsibility! He goes with the flow of life without any resistance.
Like most Woody Allen’s movies, the story has a narrator who is Boris himself. He even talks to the camera which I didn’t like that much. Overall, it’s a funny movie especially with extremely sarcastic remarks of Boris explaining his ideas to everyone who has an ear to listen whether it’s a child or an adult.
I think the movie is on a limited number of theaters in Los Angeles. I had to go to a small crappy theater where I had to knock on the entrance door to get in! Independence doesn’t pay, let’s hollywoodize ourselves!

Some quotes:
"My story is, whatever works as long as you don't hurt anybody. Any way you can filtch a little joy in this cruel and pointless life, that's my story."
"I happen to hate New Years celebrations. Everybody's desperate to have fun trying to celebrate in some pathetic little way. Celebrate what? a step closer to the grave? That's why I can't say enough times, whatever love you can get and give, whatever happiness you can filtch or provide, every temporary measure of grace -- whatever works! Don't kid yourself, it is by no means up to your human ingenuity, a bigger part of your existence is luck. Christ, you know the odds of your father's one sperm from the billions finding the single egg that made you? Don't think about it or you'll have a panic attack!"

Epitaphs

Searching clues for the future without grasping the past
wasting the present, though it's running by fast;
but the rivers flow
to join the seas forever

Frank Bornemann