An update!

Thank God I checked my application status online yesterday for UC Santa Barbara to find out I got accepted, otherwise I would have gone home, checked my mail, found a rejection letter from UC Davis, and killed myself!!! Thank God.
The weird part of the story is that I thought I had the best chance of acceptance in UC Davis compared to the rest of schools I applied to. Oh well. As long as I would have got into one the schools I applied for, I would be happy. So now I am happy. I am thinking to blow all my savings, which isn't much by the way, on trips to Europe and Iran this summer. Sounds good huh?

The Truth

Ever wonder why you don't see people like Charley Reese on mainstream media in US of A? Because of what these people have to say about Israel-Palestine conflict. Here is the latest piece by Reese. The points he makes are quite simple. It should be easy for any "unbiased" person to comprehend what Reese has to say. I just hope, and pray, that more and more American people learn about the truth. The truth that if US was completely unbiased towards the Palestine-Israel conflict, not only the world would end up being a safer place due to a huge decrease in terrorism, but pretty much everyone in the world would end up loving America, not hating it!

Oh Yeah!

Today, I received an extremely good news. I got my first letter of acceptance from one of the graduate schools I applied for. Ahhhhhh... so nice... you know what's the main reason for its niceness?! It is that now I know what I will be doing in September. I don't know if you have ever been in a situation that your near future (near future <= 6 month from now) is under major uncertenty or not, but if you haven't, take my words for it: it sucks! While you are in school or have a stable job, without any unexpected event such as getting kicked out of school, or getting laid off, you know what you will be doing in the upcoming year, or in the near future! (are you getting sick of "near future" or WHAT?) But if like me you have a temporary job (and you know it is temporary because they catogorize you under "Temporary Employment") you have to be worried about your N. F.!!
Now that I don't have to be worried plus the fact that I so badly wanted to go back to school equals much happiness for me right now. So there, I am happy... now carry on please.

Chatting with a dude

(i don't know why, but today i feel like writing. people, this is unusual!)

ok, here is a conversation that went on via email between me and this dude in UCLA's department of Bioengineering last week:

the dude in UCLA: dear applicant, please submit the following for your file to be complete and send for review: TOEFL scores. regards, dude.

me: dear dude, i studied in toronto for 4 years. so that's 4 years in an english-spoken university. so isn't it true that i did not need to take the TOEFL? best regards, me.

the dude in UCLA: dear foad, Since Canada is both English and French, the TOEFL score is required. Please send what you have. thank you, dude.

me: yes, canada's official languages are both french and english, BUT (CAPS=frustration) all courses in the university of toronto are taught in enlish! also, i applied to 6 other univ. in cali, but no one asked me for TOEFL scores.

so i am thinking this guy himself is probably asking for the TOEFL scores as this is one of the stupidest things i have heard of!

the guy didn't reply back for two days. i called him. it turns out that it is UCLA's regulations that just because some part of Canada speak French, studying any where in Canada doesn't count as studying in an English-spoken school. Now is that stupid people or what?
but it turned out to be ok. the guy himself was Canadian, and he "knew" that Toronto is all about English. So he sent my application for review before i even called him. FINGERS CROSSED!

How to feel?

Meh! so "the big" Friday passed by. The parliamentary elections in Iran are finished. The results are out. About 51% of the people according to the "official report" of the Interior Ministry have voted. Some reformists are unhappy about the turn out number, as it is higher than they expected. Some reformists are however happy as the number is lower than last elections. Some conservatives report "high" turn outs and another slap in face of "the enemy". There are reports of cheating. There are stories of people voting because they have to: they need the stamp you get when you vote because they want to get into state universities, or they are in army, or they are retired and they need their retirement payments from the government, or ...
I really don't know how to feel about the Friday's outcome. I was hoping for a low turn out of course. Closer to 10% rather than 50%! But I am not living in Iran right now. So perhaps I cannot expect anything from those living in Iran. I simply don't have the rights. I cannot expect them to not vote, nor can I expect them to rise up, demonstrate, and throw out mullahs so I and many other Iranians like me living abroad can go back to Iran and live the way they live now, a freer life. Because lets be honest, not many of us are willing to go back right now and live in Iran since it is "too hard"! We are used to living outside Iran. So now, I cannot and do not expect anything from Iranians living in Iran. But once I finish my graduate school and go back to Iran to live there, I earn the right to expect things from my fellow countrymen and women. Till then, I love you Iran, and I love you Iranians living in Iran. And I shall respect you all and what you choose. But when I come back, things better start changing or ELSE.. :) (just joking of course...)

Read

People of Earth, please check this article out! It has been published in the New York Times.

thanks to my bro for sending me the link.

Less than 24

hours to the end of Friday's parliament elections (or "selections" according to many) in Iran! In 24 hours, we would know how many people have actually voted. I just hope the number of votes reported will be the real one and not some bogus (high) number to perhaps prove the legitimacy of Iran's government to foreigners. I think this elections will be remembered in history as the down fall of Iran's current government. I hope I am right.

Soccer + Politics = ?

As you might know, today Iran's soccer team had a World Cup qualifying game against Qatar in Tehran. The game was at 7:30 AM pacific time. of course i watched the game. it was actually a nice game with a happy ending. Iran won 3-1. But aside from the weirdness of an empty Azadi stadium due to a ban, the number of times a message saying "voting is good, please vote on Friday in the parliament elections" rolled on the bottom of the screen was also amazing!! it seems the conservatives are quite worried about people not going to ballots this friday. i read somewhere that some 46 million people are eligible to vote. now imagine only 5 million vote this friday!! it would be funny/sad/pathetic/ugly/good(i think!). Don't you think?

Oh how I knew this would happen...

Ever heard the (persian) phrase "Khoda ba CHOOB zad to saresh!!"? It means "God hit him/her in his head with a BAT!!" I don't know about you, but I remember we used it whenever someone's head was blowing up due to excessive amount of ego, and then BOOM, something happened to reduce the person's ego down to minus fifty! well, i kind of had a feeling, a bad one, about my previous post. oh i knew something is going to happen when i thought i am sooooo good at snowboarding!!!! oh man, how pathetic now that i think about it. well last saturday, at 10:30am, i broke my left elbow while guess doing what, thats right, snowboarding! now i have a cast around my left hand (i am lefty by the way, so feel more sorry for me please...), i share the shower with a plastic bag, sleep in one position, wash my face like an idiot, and eat funny! oh how i knew something was gonna happen... oh well, i learned my lesson. i always thought i was good at keeping the ego down, but hey, i am only human and mistakes are inevitable!

keep it safe people...

note1: the above picture does not represent my arm! my cast is wayy cooler.
note2: i just realized, it is quite ironic how this post comes right after last post!

me and snowboarding...

I realized that my blog doesn't reflect me and my life as much as it should/I want it to! I definitely like writing about politics, but I think I also like to write about me, people around me, my job, my latest haircut, my newest buddy, my oldest buddy, my new hobby, etcetraetcetra. (hey maybe with this resolution i'll have more posts for you all eager people out there WAITING for new posts in Made in Iran specially my good friends booody who i still have to call. tonight i'll call you boody, i promise!!)

anyways, i was gone snowboarding AGAIN this weekend. i have gone 13 days so far this season and i am lovin' it. i started snowboarding on dec 16th (i know, my life is kind of boring at the moment) and now, after 13 days of snowboarding, i am the king of the mountain with my board! i go to double black diamond with no worries. i hike to go even higher than where the chair lifts take me to enjoy some real powder. i started to make good jumps with good air AND good landing. i overall think i am doing well with snowboarding. maybe i even try to get in two X-games in a year or two!
anyways, that's what i was doing on saturday, and that's what i will be doing this saturday: snowboarding. and if anyone is interested in learning how to snowboard, here is my suggestion: go to a cheap resort and get a instructor. don't ask your friend to teach you since he/she will ditch you after 20 minutes. well that is what my friend did to me. and start in green runs and stay in green runs until you get bored of them. then move on to harder runs. and one extremely important note: do not be afraid of falling down!

cheers everyone...

Ain't they the same?

Reading this latest piece by Charley Reese (I know, I refer to him a lot. But he is one of my fav Americans these days), I just thought of an interesting similarity between George Bush and "the mayor" in Spin City. They both, Bush and the mayor character, seem to be likeable human beings. However, how should I put this, they are both not smart enough(kind of stupid) for the job they have!! They both are surrounded by people who do their work such as writing speeches, deciding what to do on different matters, fixing up the mess they both make, etc etc etc. But here comes the difference: Bush has a combination of neo-cons/morons/attached-to-big-corporations individuals, but "the mayor" actually has wise people around him. well ok, only the deputy mayor is the wise guy, but that seems to be enough. And I know, Spin City is just a TV show and could be far for reality, but the similarities are just interesting to me. You also may say all politicians have people around them who do their jobs, but I simply don't agree with that. Anyways, that's all for now...

Stupid Ban

Yet another stupid policy by the good government of US of A! Some of you might have heard about this ban on articles sent from Iran. Now they cannot be published in American journals. Now this is stupid, because who do they think might be effected by this ban, the mullahs in power in Iran? Were they thinking that since the Iran's government is so concerned about scientific achievements and Iranians' papers being published in journals they are going to back down and be friendlier towards US? Seriously, what the hell were they thinking? Wouldn't Iranian scientist be giving up the information they have about a research subject by submitting their papers? Wouldn't they be "sharing" the scientific information they have reached? So who really benefits from this sharing of information, the scientists around the world, or the ruling mullahs in Iran? No honestly, answer me this: who loses by this ban? Yeah sure, the Iranians researches lose perhaps a bit of recognition! But all they have to do from now on is to submit their papers to European journals. If this ban is not removed, I promise you, the European journals will become more popular since they collect "everyone's" work and hence will be better references. Anyway, if you think this is as outrageous as I think it is, go here and sign the petition. You will notice that rightfully many non-Iranian scientists and technicians have also signed the petition.

p.s. I tried to find a link to the news, but I couldn't. I got a link via email, but I have deleted the email. I will try to find one in the afternoon, but if you have a link, please let me know. thanks.