Unreliable

I was driving to gym yesterday and it was not really bad, the road and the weather. As I was approaching 39 Ave., I noticed that when I push on accelerator, it really doesn’t work. It doesn’t boost the engine. That was strange because it had never happened before. I thought that’s because of the cold weather and the engine is still not warm enough. That could be the reason. I was in lane 2 and all of a sudden the engine went off! My goodness! I didn’t even have control over the steering wheel! I turned my right signal, checked the mirror, did shoulder check, fortunately there were not too many cars behind me and lane one was clear. There was only a truck and he was a cautious driver. I turned right to 39 Ave. and parked a few meters away from intersection while turned the key back! I sighed. That was close. If it was a weekday or a busy day, I’d be in real trouble. I waited for a minute inside the car and then ignited the engine. It started! I simply turned to the first back alley at right hand, made a U-turn, got back to the avenue and drove like nothing ever happened. I was fine.
Imagine you’re driving such a horrible car in a national highway and it suddenly breaks down! Hojam said once that I could drive it to anywhere but I never will. At least I don’t drive it in winter. If I want to have a trip, I take it to an authorized dealer and have it checked completely. I was in Jack Carter’s which is closest to my place and I was told that everything done will cost $100 per hour, no matter what it is and they are the ones who determines how long that would to be fixed! So I didn’t but if I want to drive it far or if I drive that in town and have enough money, I’ll take it there and ask them to do an entire check.
Hojam once told me get some kind of aerosol called Quick Start. That is sprayed in the air filter inlet of the old cars like mine and makes the fuel-air mixing easier and the car starts fast in real cold. I bought that thing from a Canadian Tire but there was a time that I had parked in a Safeway parking lot and when I returned, I couldn’t start the engine in any way. That damn Quick Start didn’t work at all. So I left the car there for 2 days and after that just turned the key, started the engine and drove away!

Mullah Nasreddin

Mullah Nasreddin is a fictitious comedian which is known in different cultures by different names. The factual accuracy of his existence is disputed. I remember the funny jokes related to the events of his daily life when I was still in primary. One little funny joke which is applicable to the situation of the Government of Canada is this one:

Mullah Nasreddin was seen poking his balls with a big needle! He was asked why he was doing this to himself, making such a misery! He said that he didn’t have anything to do and he was bored, so thought it would be better to do something that makes him a little busy and excited!
The Government of Canada sometimes is so busy with the problems it makes for itself, the problems that are not the nation’s issues, which actually deflects it from what it’s supposed to do. Arar case was the recent issue that the Government was involved in and that not only made the RCMP’s chief to resign but also cost about $M 10.5 to the taxpayers! Stephan Harper apologized for what had happened to him and his family on behalf of the Government of Canada (not the people of Canada! but that doesn’t make a difference because the government is actually rises from the people) and they supplied him with a compensation package which made him very happy and he’s set for life. The good thing is Arar is still in the US’s terrorism list! Canadian officials have recently asked Americans to remove him from the list of suspicious persons. Their answer is really firm and simple: We never listen to the other governments to tell us what to do!
A similar case to Arar’s is now in process, this one from China. A Canadian Citizen, who has been born in a northern province of China with a large population of Muslims, is now in custody of Chinese authorities. He’s accused of being a member of a terrorist group. The only difference is China wouldn’t act the way Syria did and does. They get rid of him immediately or torture him a lot and then put him behind the bars for life. They never release him just the way Syrians did. And obviously China isn't Syria. Nor the US neither Canada know that they can’t mess with PRC. China is the second largest trader of Canada after the US. Everywhere you go and no matter what you are looking for, you see Chinese manufactured products here. There’s no doubt that Canada will lose this game again and this time not to the victim but to the Chinese government.
(Photo: The Mullah's ride has been always his loyal mule! Mullah means clergyman in Persian and some other languages, may be but in the far past, the very old day, it would be used for educated people and the type of guy that people would go to, if they had a question. The custom of wearing a turban is still followed in many countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan, India, etc.. In Iran only the clergymen, educated in religion schools, are allowed to wear turban and that is only after a ceremony but I saw it once in village close to Birjand which is close to Afghan border)

Freezing Rain

 Freezing rain is probably one of the worst whether conditions in North America. There are actually many different ones(!) but I haven’t experienced them all yet. Today I dealt with Freezing Rain and I was quite ready and conquered it. The first time it happened and I was driving, I was so frustrated and that was stupid because I didn’t know what to do! I turned around, parked and went home!

Today I was going to the gym and there were snow all over the car. So I took out the new snow scraper/brush I had bought recently and started cleaning the windshield, windows, etc. Damn it! That was so hard to be removed. The snow would be removed easily and then there was a thin film of ice on the windshield. That took extra effort and time to be removed.
Then I started the engine and drove to the gym. In this case you have to turn your defogger on and put it on high, while your wipers are on as well. And I did. Even an old car like mine would be fine. But that’s much worse than snow or a heavy down pour especially when you’re scrapping it.
This is how the phenomena of freezing rain occurs:
Rain falls when surface temperatures are freezing. The raindrops become super cool while passing through a sub freezing layer a air many hundreds of feet about the ground and freeze upon impact with any object they encounter!
(Photo: This picture was taken and added in Apr of 2013 shows a side mirror of my car covered with freezing rain. The mirror will be fine in a few minutes, if not seconds after driving. The little symbol on the bottom left side of the mirror indicates the mechanism that most of the vehicles in Canada, if not the entire North America, have)

The Last is the Best

I didn’t go for my regular exercises to Talisman yesterday because I had to go for my medical exams and I waited for almost 2 hours to be examined by the physician. Fortunately Salim, the other applicant drove me there which is actually too far from my place and I took the train and went back home. But the two days before that I had my last day of running exercise in Talisman and I scored big: 11:04:445 and that’s really good starting this Jan., as I mentioned earlier, I’m doing the real 2.4 Km.
Also this month I decided to use a different type of chart to present my performance and also promise that I will have a complete analysis soon.

(Photo: Jan. running exercise is depicted here in this bar chart. Although I didn't go to gym for about more than 9 days but still was able to do the exercise for 11 days and get a very good result at the end)

Class 2

I just started a training course to get a class 2 driver’s licence today. The instructor started with pre-trip inspection and damn that was cold! We had to stand in the damn cold morning of winter at about 09:40 and see what’s behind the hood (or as it’s said in Britain the bonnet!) That was not too hard and actually was really good as you learn new things but imagine that you have to do this everyday in the cold early morning of winter and fall! I was apparently was shaking like a leaf and that was partially because I was a little excited and intimidated! She, then, showed us how to do the other types of pre-driving inspections and the other one are boring as well. Then we went for a ride. She was driving the big bastard very smoothly and continuously was checking the two big side mirrors called West Coast mirrors and the mirrors below them, the convex one. They act as the driver’s eyes as there’s no rearview mirror available on the bus. The vehicle is really long and extra caution should be taken when it’s being driven backward or turning at the intersections.
I then gave it a try and actually was doing really well. I was not excited and scared anymore and that was partially because the sun was shinning and it was completely up in the sun! Then we drove to a yard to practice a little of that cone driving thing. I was not practically very bad at that one either and that was it. I, unfortunately has lost my confidence lately. It's fucking because, first of all, of my own aggressive behaviour which leads to bad reasults. So I really have to fix this damn problem soon!

(Photo: You have to successfully pass a cone driving test like what you see here. That probably is part of the final road teat you're taking. You are not restricted by time but the bus is really big and you only can use your side mirrors. You have to do a kind of zig zag both forward and backward!)

Overqualified

I don’t fucking know how long should I keep this fucking shit going! I, again, went to a small manufacturing company called BRC Engineering through a recruiter called Randstad last Fri. This one was a completely different experience. First of all that’s a family business and one of the sons, Carter who claims he’s a P. Eng. on his business card, told me that he had gone through the website of Takestan! Then he directly took me to their small workshop. They had just a few machines and a small room for their inspection needs. There was a CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) height gauge and a couple of calipers and micrometers, of course. He asked me if I know how to work with that and I immediately said no. That was obviously a negative impact. They manufacture precise parts for race car engines, medicine industry and oil and gas and all use CNC machines. I don’t know why the fuck they are so dependent on their inspection. They probably know nothing about robust processes, SPC, gauge capability and other new engineering concepts which help you to find the problem in your manufacturing process, before that’s too late.
Anyhow we went upstairs in a small office and he asked me a few questions. What he told me was weird. I think that was a waste of fuel to go there! He said that he was not sure if they wanted to hire someone and he also said that I was overqualified for the job. But he also said that he would inform the recruiter in the middle of the net week. Finally, in a nutshell, I think that’s a mistake most of the time to apply for a position through a recruiter. They always send you there because they hope you get the job and they get their money.