Religulous

 This documentary is an amazing one that I don't think you can show it anywhere: It's called Religulous! The word Religulous is amalgamation of the words Religious and Ridiculous! This is a documentary by Bill Maher about different religions and how nonsense they all are! However he reviews the three main religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The other thing is that the film was made in 2008 where the social media was not even introduced and there was not this much religious tension in the world. 

What can I say about it as I don't want to ruin it for you. You have to see it but if you're a Muslim or Jew and even a Christian, you'd most like not like it and some would even be offended. I'm an atheist and I like films like that but I have to conceal it at times because you can get hurt even in Canada!

I remember when I came back, failed from CFLRS, I was sent to this toilet company, a big warehouse and in there a House N - - (!) and I got in to a sort of discussion and he said something to me like God does this or says that and I told him that I didn't believe in God! He didn't like it and was about to preach but I don't remember what happened exactly because it was 2017 but what happened next and I'm not sure if this was the direct result of that or not but maybe it has some impact, I was asked not to go back to work! I said: F- - it! I got a better job just a few months after that. Anyway if you're not religious or have doubts make sure you watch this documentary. 

(Photo: Maher in Vatican where he questions Catholicism!)

Still Scary Downtown!

 I did two out of the three CWB examinations for my Level I certificate this week. This was, probably the third attempt! No! You can call me dumb or anything you want but I don't even want to discuss that here. I either have not had enough time to study or was too tired to do so. That's my excuse! I fail at least one of the three each time and then I either have to re-write it or my time is up and I have to write all the three! I will write about this attempt when the results show, next week, most likely but I paid Kevin M. a visit on my way back, in his Downtown workplace building. 
I barely remember when was the last time we had met but I think it was 2019, perhaps. He looked much older and had lost a great deal of hair. We are all aging but I think his aging has been fast. Whatever is left is gray now but we leave him alone in that department. The good thing, for him, is that he has been with the same company since, If I'm not mistaken, 2011 and he will, most likely retire there. I don't think he makes anything less than $130k or he'd be a sucker! Even if he doesn't, and even if he makes $100k, the important thing is he's all set, in comparison with me that I have to start over! I saw them to see if he could do anything about the application I had earlier sent. I highly doubt that. 
Nevertheless, I had to park somewhere and walk to the building and Downtown seemed scarier as always, perhaps even scarier! Despite a small population of some Caucasians and some foreigners who work in the businesses and buildings in Downtown, the majority of the people you face are foreign refugees and asylum seekers, fraudulent immigrants or poor addict and extremely low income and almost homeless people. Downtown Calgary is way better when you compare it to Vancouver but still gives you a very bad feeling, in most corners of it, particularly on a cloudy and cold day of March! 
Shopping carts with dirty clothing piled up in it, lots and lots of Punjabi Sikhs, male and females marching around (I spent an hour with my friend and when I came out, saw the same people wandering around then all went inside a building in Downtown west side, almost opposite Kerby Center, which I don't know what it is but we all know many Indian Sikhs come to Canada as student and work), construction and more construction, smokers and lost of smokers. You get depressed by walking in certain parts of Downtown! And then I saw one or two moving trucks and told myself: I will do anything it takes not to have to move to a rental building and generally anywhere in Downtown Calgary! My mental health has been affected enough, I certainly don't want to end up in a mental institution!

The interesting thing is you never see disgusting, scary and nasty scenes you see in Western cities in any Iranian cities and despite one or two individuals, I saw no one like these creatures in Tokyo with more than 14M inhabitants!  

(Photo: McDougall School, which is known as McDougall Center now, was built in 1907 as a center for training teachers. It is located in the less scarier part of Downtown Calgary!)

Escape from Alcatraz

Prisoners, either they're POWs or inmates have been the subject of movies many times. Some are based on true stories and some have fictional characters. If I wanted to name a few I would say The Great Escape, The Bridge Over the River Kwai and probably a few more. These two movies were a big hit at their time but probably not today. They would most likely not impress the young audiences today. I saw the first one many years ago when I was a kid in the old country on VHS(!) and it was dubbed. It was a favorite movie by adults at the time because of McQueen's role. I did or perhaps I still do have the second movie on digital but couldn't watch past the first few minutes!

This movie that I've watched and is a bit better has a historical accuracy: Escape from Alcatraz is based on the attempt and actual escape of three inmates from the maximum security prison in the island of Alcatraz, nearly 1.25 miles off the shore of San Francisco in 1961.

It's obvious that many parts of the movie is based on the speculations that the writer and screenplay write have but it is still good considering many events could have been checked with the former inmates who were there at the time. 

Alcatraz Island and the main prison building. Photograph courtesy of FBI. The island is a tourist destination which I don't mind visiting. Perhaps sometimes soon when things go back to normal.

The movie has a few known actors. Eastwood is the main character. Fred Ward who has an amazing play in Southern Comfort comes in later and becomes one of the characters who plan and participate in the escape. There're a few more who are not known as much but they play well. The movie might sound a bit boring because it's not an action film. It's about planning for an escape but still worth watching, if you can get your hands in. I read that there're tours for the island and the facility, which was closed less than a year after the infamous escape but with all the opposition to travelling to the US, I wonder if it will be a favourite destination for many! 

(Photo, top,: From Left Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin, escaped the maximum security prison in the north of San Francisco in 1962. The FBI does not believe the men could make it and handed the file over to the US Marshals office in 1979)

The things that Canadians are Proud of!

They say desperate times call for desperate measures. It's more than 7 weeks that I had nothing but a phone call and an interview which led to nothing and my E. I. hasn't even started. I decided to get some help from a local food bank and they were great, although the diet really is different from what I'm used to! They give you lots of sugary snacks, old meat and stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in Don't look at the gift horse at the mouth, and I still use the stuff as I have no other choice but look at a few things I've found in the packaging of the stuff I've been give:

In the Turkey Breast package, it clearly says that only 20% of the content is meat! What the hell is the rest then?! Does anyone cares?! No! Not when everything was reasonably priced. People just eat whatever they can get their hands on and what's better than something which requires no preparation!

The back of a package or most packages in Canada proudly states it could not be recycled. When there are thousands and thousands of open water at each side of the country, why would anyone care about recycling?! Just throw them in the big ponds at each side of the country or send them to The Philippines! 

Then we get to the packaging itself. I need to clarify here that " garbage " and " trash " is one of the major exports of Canada! How much do they earn from that? I know they earn lots of dislike in The Philippines! That's one of the destinations where Canadian garbage ends up. You see that they proudly indicate in the back of the packaging that it could not be recycled! After all Filipinos have something to protest on the streets. You can't just stay in your slum and make babies, although the countries who depend on cheap labour might have problems! 

(Photo: The so-called Turkey Breast packaging. By the way it tasted awful, nothing like Turkey!)

The Inverter Story

The fact that lots of stupid, pinheads have well-paid permanent position in Canada in undeniable. This story is proof and I decided to say that because I have not much to do but study, eat(!) and job searching, and a few other occasional activities. 

Inverters used in Solar Plants transform the DC electricity in a solar plant to AC electricity so it can be transferred. There were as many as six inverters in the first solar plant project that I started to be part of, back in 2022. They were huge and very heavy, of course. A big mobile crane was used to install them on their platform, no doubt. Everything is good so far. Right? 

The crane comes, lifts the cubic-shape, giant piece and puts it on the concrete platform. Physics says that a big structure's weight helps it to be stable. Right? It is 4400 Lbs. structure. The weight forces the inverter  toward the ground, downward. If something, like a strong wind or side force pushes it, the structure does not fall or in fact even move due to its weight but what did the genius do? He ordered the legs to be welded to some metal plates on the columns of the platform! 

A fillet weld was deposited at each side of the structure's leg, each nearly 16". On the second thought, I think I don't think the weld was at each side because the inner side was not accessible and the weld had what role? To help to keep the structure intact on the occasion of side force!  

What makes this stupid is that the donkey who was in charge employed a company who was a CWB Division 2 company! This nasty, pretentious poser did not know that the division of a company has nothing to do with the quality of the one deposits! This nasty animal's position, in case you need to know was Project Manager! I shit in the mouth and eyes of the animal who hires animals like this in the first place. 

(Photo: Long chains on the hook. The crane is preparing to lift the inverter. One of the pillars, of the other platform, is seen on the left. It is, of course not seen here but each platform has a metal plate buried on it and its surface is exposed. That is where they deposited the weld! )

The Three Billboards

These days I don't have much to do rather than wasting my life, suffering from cold and hunger, job searching and occasional doing of other things, at times I watch a movie. Not a new movie in a theater! I wouldn't even go, if I was employed! I have been to movie theaters by myself in the past, when I was working but not very often. That is the situation where you feel the biggest loser in society! 
Everyone is there either with a gf/bf, a spouse, a friend or the family and you're the only one sitting by yourself. What would you feel rather than being, perhaps, the biggest loser in the entire universe?! But I usually go early, when there's 20 minutes or earlier before the start of the film and I go sit in the last row, on the top! In that case I don't have to walk by myself in front of couples and families to get to a seat(!), although you get the feeling when you're leaving! 
So the movies I watch are the ones I have either on my old PC or on DVDs. I watched Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, not that old movie, only 8 years! The movie is not bad and the acting is good but it didn't have the impact that I was expecting. For example not the same impact as  Mississippi Burning, The Killing Fields, or even Malcolm X (these are just examples) In this kind of movies, you would like to go back and watch, over and over because of their strong story, great acting and good screenplay. Three Billboard ... is good, but not as good and it's sad. You feel bad about the teen and her mother and you feel bad for mostly all of the movie characters or maybe it's because I watched it at this time! Give it a try. 

(Photo: Frances Mcdormand in a scene of the movie next to one of the billboards. The deer could have been added using computer-generated imagery technology or simply brought and released there!)

How Wrong Was I?!

I called The Mumbling Guy a few days ago and he didn't respond with the level of enthusiasts(!) that I was expecting and I got both sad and angry but we decided to meet after his work somewhere close to his office on his way home. He came and he spent nearly 2 hours with me helping with my job search and interview. I was really impressed and surprised! I wasn't expecting that from him and I thought perhaps I never gave him enough credit. He's the same guy as always: Bragging about every aspect of his life but what do I care about as long as he's nice and helpful! He's a cheap bastard too but listening to the stories of his life in India, I understand where he comes from! The funny thing is even if you call him from that country, he doesn't like it. The interesting thing is he goes to India regularly, though! 
He had a few good points for my resume which I'm certain working on, would help me. He also gave me hope and told me to work on my interview skills as well and go for the job. I left him with plenty of positive things while I wanted to call and cancel it due to the distance (almost 85 Km or 52 miles round trip! There I promised myself to not only take his family to lunch, or have them over, but also buy something for them, like a gift for their home. It's not going too far away. I realized how wrong I was cutting off every one simply because they had flaws, while I have many flaws myself! Now I've stopped that but it might be too late for some. I called a schoolmate who had not received any messages from me for over 5 years. He had a short conversation but when I asked to meet him he said he'd be busy and later didn't respond to my message. Yes. I was wrong. I was wrong many times but I think I still can recover to some extent. My father used to say:  One enemy is too many but one thousand friends are not! He was a very popular person and so have I been but he stuck to the first part and I haven't! I created more! 

(Photo: This is what has happened to most of the resumes that I've sent! Not that I'm not able to do the job. I presented myself badly)