Disgusting Heat

I'm sitting here at home and this is f**king disgusting, this heat! I went for a walk in the afternoon around 18:30 and it was not this bad but noon time was quiet hot, I'd say around 30 degrees Centigrade. The radio said Las Vegas is 44! Yes 44 degree C! I wonder who would be the loser going there but considering much of activities are indoor, I don't think people mind that!
I went for jogging yesterday by the river and it was not very bad and I did a good 30 min. but silly me took a tumble as soon as I was about to cross the river over the pedestrian Crowchild Tr. bridge, rolled over, jumped up and continued! 

I could not sleep because of the hot weather and when I woke up in the morning I realized that I had screwed up and my ankle was in pain. I guess I'm lucky that I didn't break it but I guess I twisted it a little bit. I used a lotion and wrapped it with one of those bands. Feel better now but I'm pretty much screwed! Don't know when will go back to normal. I have already missed this weekend's hike. So I'm hoping to make it to the next week. 

(Photo: I am using this bunny photo for this post because I don't like writings without a picture although this one is not related to the short story but I took it during one of my walks. There is a good population of bunnies in the city and I have seen them mostly around Downtown area. They seem to be peaceful)

Enemy at the Gates

I watched another movie of few ones that I had downloaded back in 2003 from this sharing Website, Kazza; Enemy at the Gates. It might sound crazy that the movie, in avi format, was recorded on a CD in 30-Nov-2003 and of course  had been downloaded earlier, more than 11 years ago.

I finally asked myself to give it a try a few days ago. Not very impressive movie but OK. The fact is the movie is a combination of two propaganda and exaggeration systems:

1- Hollywood. (The US!)

2- Soviet Union.

The movie is basically the story of a Soviet sniper who in the battle of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) kills quite number of German soldiers and officers and became an aspiration for the people of the city and the resistance forces. The opening scene of the movie, partially reminds me of what I have read several times about Iranian invasions during the devastating 8-year Iran-Iraq War, the usage of human wave. Although this method never worked very well but lack of leadership, training, equipment and weapons made Iranian use this and for that they lost hundreds of thousands of youngsters in the battlefields of war where they practice this method of WWI! The only difference is a brain-washed Iranian volunteer didn't need an officer in the back to shoot at him. Here Islam was stronger than Communism ideology!

Anyways why I said the movie was a result of a Soviet propaganda? Because it is loosely based on a memoir written by the sniper himself, a Vasily Zaytsev. I have not read the book and not even seen it but apparently whatever he has claimed in it, has no other accounts. So in a way he could be another sniper such as American Sniper but we know that it's too late to do an investigation. It has been more than 71 year since Battle of Stalingrad was ended by the German forces surrounding to the Soviets.

So briefly this is the story: Vasily, who is almost a silly village boy is among many soldier that the Soviets have gathered and force them to fight the Germans. At the time Soviets situation was so bad that they had to give a rifle to a soldier and the bullets to the other one, his aid. When the rifle man died, the aid would pick up the rifle and continued his duties. We know at this stage and it's not in the movie that Allies send supply and ammunition to the Soviets through Iran.

I bumped to this Russian gentleman, originally from Volgograd on the Middle Sister trail, last year. We had a nice chat and did part of the trail together but he didn't make it to the summit. I hope he sees this and understands how appreciative I am to him. He showed me the right trail to the summit or I was probably lost or would have wasted hours!

The guy somehow manages to get out of a wave attack alive and shots a few Germans, killing them all with one shot, not wasting a single bullet! This is where the lies begin a I wonder whether this is something put in the movie by the Hollywood guys, which seems a little odd as they always to downgrade their enemies in their movies, or originally in the Zastsev's memoirs. No matter who put that in the story, it seems so unreal. A Political Officer, which was an ordinary position in Soviet armed forced on those days, witnesses this act of bravery and skill and decides to use that as a way of heroism and encourage the citizens to stay and defend. He discusses that with Khrushchev who happened to be one of the commanders at the time of the battle. He later became the Soviet primer. Khrushchev likes the idea and supports the man but then like most of Hollywood movies, a woman emerges in the script to make it more attractive and sexy! I don't know if it is in the actual memories or not but the two soldiers hit it off and make the Political Officer jealous as he is in love of the beauty as well and he decides to ruin the hero's character to avenge him! In the meantime Germans sent a Major to Stalingrad to fight the guy. This guy whom there's no record of him anywhere but in Zaytsev's book enters in to a battle with the Soviet guy and the story is interesting and take you with it but the soundtrack or music is horrible and that was the thing in the movie I disliked the most. The Soviet guy eventually manages to conquer the German sniper and that's about it. Of course I skipped all the detail in order not to spoil the movie for the ones who have not seen it but there's one scene that I like to mention and that's the scene between the lovers! The guy is laying down on the floor with other soldier in a sort of shelter. Everyone is so exhausted and  beat. The girl comes in and they do it while are covered by their winter coats. The scene that the woman, Rachel Weisz, slowly pulls her pants down is very sexy and the whole love making scene between her and Jude Law is amazing and that's what I'm talking about. No matter whether it's a romance (Titanic), a war movie (Enemy at the Gates) or a horror (Fri,, the 13th), there should be a sex scene just to remind you that you have a part of body that should be used in conjunction with a woman's body in order to accomplish an act(!) no matter where you are, even if you are a dirty, stinking, hungry, exhausted soldier in the ruins of Stalingrad! 

So basically the movie is not about the siege of Stalingrad entirely. It is mostly focused on the sniper. It quiet similar to Patton. Patton is about General George C. Patton and it's named after him. Enemy at the Gates is about Vasily Zaytsev but not named after him. Perhaps they should have named it Soviet Sniper! I would give 3 out of 5 to the movie but it's definitely a multiple-watch. 

(Photo, top: Vasily Zaytsev with his sniper rifle. This gun or one similar to it is kept in a museum in Russia now. The guy was named Hero of the Soviet Union. He died in 15-Dec-1991 just 15 days prior to the official announcement of Soviet Union's dissolution)

Stupid Invention

I read it once that Coffee is the second most traded commodity in the world. It's a bit hard to believe because apart from North America, this beverage is not consumed as much anywhere else. At least that's what I've experienced. The three big countries in the world, China, India and Russia are not Coffee drinking nations. It's not a popular drink in Asia at all unless for the people who wants to show that they are Westernized(!) In my recent trip to Iran after more than 6 years, I noticed that coffee shops have become popular among the youngsters because that makes them feel modernized! While drinking alcoholic beverages is prohibited and results in heavy fines, Coffee is the next thing to alcohol that people can drink to show they are from a high class society! 

But Coffee is a favorite beverage in Arab countries and it's consumed completely different. It should be added here that Coffee was originated in Yemen, the county which is in the depth of a civil war now. It's a very beautiful country with a long history and thousands of year and now has become the battlefield of Shia and Sunni, where Iran and Saudi Arabia are behind the opponents of this devastating religious war. The word Coffee is taken from Arabic word Qava ad through decades it has been changed and became Coffee with the pronunciation we hear it on daily bases. 

Speaking of the different ways that Coffee is consumed reminded me of my trip to Damascus in the 90's. Syria was a stable and war-free country at the time under the rule of Hafez Al-Asad. We spent a week in the city and must say that we enjoyed ourselves. At one occasion we were in a cafe where people were playing Backgammon and drinking Coffee. We ordered that too and although years have passed I remember that it was served in tiny small cups, with no cream but lots of sugar. That was not bad for us who had very rare experience with coffee. Coffee was popular drink within Armenian minority at the time in Iran and it was being served in their family parties or similar gatherings. You probably have heard of Turkish Coffee and French Coffee which shows how different every nation drinks this beverage but still it's hard to believe that make it the second most traded commodity in the world! 

I drink at least 2 cups every day myself and depending my whereabouts, I get it from different sources. My favorite was once Tim's Double Double but then I switched to McDonald's and now I get either one with no sugar and has recently started to eliminate cream as well. At home I have a Black&Decker coffee maker that I use at times, mostly weekends. Coffee machine are available in different capacities and shapes and models in the stores. You can by them from $20 to $250 and more. The one which has recently become popular is a single cup machine and I guess Tassimo is one of the leading brands. This, by far is the stupidest invention I've ever seen in food industry in my life anywhere! Imagine you have a few people over or sitting for breakfast with the family and relatives. You ought to make every cup of coffee, each after another and served them one by one! In fact the the time that the last person receives his or her coffee could be 10 or more minutes after the first one! I don't know what the idiot who brought this idea to work, was thinking but I'm sure he or she (most likely a he) was not even thinking of the huge amount of waste this stupid invention creates because in a Capitalist society people only think of money and that's all. Nothing else maters. 

I don't know how popular these machines are within the society and how their markets are but I do know people jump to new things here as soon as they see it. So if you're a sane person with at least a little functioning brain in your skull, you'll never waste your money on such a garbage.

(Photo: Single Cup coffee maker on display in a major retailer)

Turtle Mountain (Crowsnest Pass)

I finally got a chance to reach the first summit of 2015 by going to Crowsnest area in southern Alberta. Although I had driven through Pincher Creek and Fort Macleod on my ways last year, I had never been to Crowsnest municipality district and I have to insist that it is such a beautiful area and I will have other programs for sure. I set my wrist watch as well as my new Fitbit Flex for early morning and my destination was Turtle Mountain where the disaster of Frank Slide occurred in 1903. I left the town when sun started coming up , heading south on Highway # 2 and at the town of Nanton I took Road 533 to west. The little town of Nanton where I had this idea in mind to buy a property in, maybe in a few years from now, is located almost 70 km from the city skirts. I was once thinking of doing my work commute from this town but that distance could be a problem, very tiring. That'd another subject to discuss maybe later.

Road 533 takes you to Cowboy Trail and Chain Lakes Provincial Park but at junction, I turned left and headed south for Highway #3 or Crowsness Pass. Cowboy Trail is such a beautiful road with ranches and wetlands at both sides. At the intersection of Cowboy Trail and Crowsness Pass, I turned right and that is where you see all the small communities one after another. There is Bellevue first and then Blairmore, Colleman and others. I was lucky that I had communicated with a very nice gentleman from Frank Slide Interpretive Center and he had directed me with any detail to the trail head. So at exactly 08:02 hours I had my boots on, the car parked and the gear packed and ready to hit the trail in the town of Blairmore. The trail starts basically in the basically  of 15th Ave. and it has a very rough starts. It is so steep that for the first half an hour or so I was sweating like a pig and I had to take the windbreaker out. The weather was nice and the trail and view were fantastic. I kept sweating a lot until I reached the false summit. I had to take my sunglasses off and clean the lenses or in fact dry them out every 10 minutes or so on the way and I was very tired when I reached there and had this great inclination to head back down because of tiredness but then I looked and I realized that I was not at the summit! I took my map out that confirmed it as well. There was still a challenge to reach the summit. I had to climb down the big rock of false summit and then work my way up from an exposed trail until I reach the highest point. I looked at my watched and I realized that I had wasted too much time and considering the wind was getting stronger, I took my windbreaker out, drank half of the water I had brought with me, fastened all of the straps and started going down the rocks, heading towards the summit. It was not too bad. Government of Alberta has installed monitoring tools on Turtle Mountain to observe any movement and they can be easily seen from false summit. So finding the way to go up would not be so hard. Just follow any way which heads towards to the tools. There's also a helicopter landing platform on the south side of the peak but I didn't go there. I eventually reached the 2210 m. summit of Turtle Mountain at 10:45 hours. 

View to the north from the summit. Frank Slide Interpretive Center is the white building which can be seen on the right side of the photo above the road which is Highway # 3 or Crowsness Pass. The rocky side on the right side of teh photo is where mining community of Frank was buried in 1903 as a result of part of the mountain being collapsed on the top of it. 

You have a very nice 360 degrees from the top and the peak is wide enough even to accept more than 20 hikers but fortunately I was alone for the entire time of the trip. I always like to have a photo on the summit, similar to everyone else and although this is not a fourteen-er, I wanted to try it with my flag which is always folded and in my backpack, particularly because there was nobody else around, the summit was not very windy, not as much as the Middle Sister's and there was enough room to move around. Just one day before my trip I was looking for straps to use them for the Alberta flag I had bought earlier, in fact the previous year but didn't find any and then didn't spend any time to look for it. On the summit there was a flag post with lots of plastic strap attached to it. No flags though. I took two of them and considering I only had a small tripod on me, took a few photos after strapping the flag to my hiking stick but none of them cam out well. At least I have to straps that even if they get damaged, I have an idea as what I need to get. As well it was a little bit of photography practice so for the next summit I know what I would have to do, in case I am by myself again.

After the photography, I finished all of the water in the backpack and I have to add that I didn't eat anything, as usual and when I started heading down, it was almost 11:15 hours meaning that I had spent half an hour on the summit which is very unusual for me. 

Going down is not easy and consists of two stages: Stage 1 you need to get yourself to false summit and that comprises of going down the summit and then scrambling up the rocks and reaching the false summit. The second part of the first stage is a bit hard and challenging and that is the part which make this hike falling in Class 4 category and I enjoyed it very much. Stage 2: getting down the false summit to the trail-head which is bad for the knees as the steepness is too much but the trail, as I said earlier, is very beautiful with lots of photo opportunities. 

On the way back to the trail-head you first need to reach the false summit and for that you need to do a bit of rock climbing and that in fact is very easy and enjoyable but at spots you need both hands and this passage is one of easy ones. 

A storm shows itself coming from west at almost where Crowsnest Mountain is located, the clouds started to filling in and the wind blew when I started Stage 2 of the return hike but that actually made the hike much easier and more enjoyable. There was a cool breath and the weather was so delicious to breath it in! I stopped a lot on the way down but when I finally got back to the car it was almost 13:15 hours. Turtle Mountain's regular return trip is considered 5 hours. It means I did not very badly considering the 900 m. elevation gain, lots of stops on the way up and down and the lengthy stay in the summit. 

I drove around the town for a minute or two but didn't stop anywhere because I had to go back. It gave me an idea of what I would be looking for the next time I was in the area. I drove back the same way I came down and the road was even more scenic! That means I'll be back! 

(Photo, top: Turtle Mountain summit from its false summit. Part of the town of Bellevue can be seen far bellow)

Fitbit Replacement

I had troubles with my Fitbit Flex activity tracker for about a month or more. I finally decided to communicate with them with through e-mail and address the issues. I did that last week and the answer was that they would send me a replacement. Good.

It's obvious that they can see that there's no pattern in my exercise and at time I lose recording my activities due to the problems the system has. The other issue was the exercise period confusion! I would go for a walk at 12:05 for about an hour and the system would show my walking at 10:00 AM! So it's now replaced and I set it up. I hope there will be no problem no more. 

(Photo: The replacement device in its pack. It took less than a week to arrive. Thank to Fitbit for that but as you the charger USB adapter is included which I already had. I'd appreciated, Had they sent a wristband as I broke the large one and I know am using the small and is not very comfortable. I guess it's some $20 for a new one which I skip for now. There was no charge for the replacemnt)

Stupid vs. Crazy Stupid

The story of a young woman being stuck by a big pick up truck while trying to stop it after the driver drove off the gas station without paying, was all over the news last week. I didn't want to post anything about it as this is not a news-blog but then felt that I should write something to clear a few things in case someone is interested to know as this would have never happened to a Caucasian or even East Indian fella, had the Centex gas station attendant been from that ethnic group, if I may put it that way.

Here is what the media was reported about the victim: She was a new immigrant from Iran and a  graduate of Chemical Engineering program who had recently moved to the city and been given a position as a Process Engineer within an engineering firm but then shortly after 3 month was laid off. Her husband worked for the same company in a Piping Engineering position, also was recently laid off due to economic downturn and the couple were struggling their newly built life. So she decides to get a job to be order to pay the bills until the market picks up and she goes back to her engineering position: Here are the foolish things this family did:

1- Why on Earth did she have to get a job as a Gas Station Attendant?! There are plenty of jobs in Wal-Mart, Superstore, Safeway, Tim Horton's and such businesses and there's no way they pay less than Centex.

2- Didn't the family have any emergency funds? You know when you go to a new country where you have no family and you just want to start a new life, you need to be prepared. Going to a Capitalist society where your tiny epic ass could be kicked out of work, particularly when you're new and you still don't know your ass from your elbow, could be potentially fatal.

3- The guy didn't pay and drove off and went to the nearby The Home Depot and the woman left the gas station, attended or unattended and went to The Home Depot as well and I don't know what happened and they struck her and drove over her and vanished!! Why the hell would you go after two maniacs, driving a big ass truck, while you barely speak English and are a tiny little foreigner woman?! I hope she was not attempting suicide because if that is what she had in mind, the accused could be let go now! I'm a grown man and a tough one, have been living here in this part of the globe for many years and I don't dare driving on Deadfoot Tr. (Deerfoot Tr.) because of the number of the crazy stupid maniacs who drive their big SUV and pickup trucks on that road. What was she thinking when she approached the Super Duty? I can't think of two thing and they both start with an S: Stupidity and Suicide! It should have been one of them.

I have nothing to say about the accused because there are a lot of them in the society and we all know them. Their life is summarizes in boozing, smoking weed, driving big trucks or old cheap cars with drilled exhaust so they can be noisy, six packs, bars and fucking a stupid asshole of similar or opposite sex. A creature with description as above has no concern for a human being, especially if she's a foreigner. If I had heard that the woman tried to stop the truck and the truck driver drove around her and left, I would have been surprised! And thanks to the justice system of Canada which is probably the greatest in the world. I have previously posted that Canada is the heaven for criminals. Just today I heard that on the news that a Somali abductor who used to operate in Mogadishu area, was captured in Ontario!! Can you believe that? So it means they let everyone in and the ones who are born and raised here also given the opportunity to do as much as they intend to do. The guy was out of jail on bail and was driving a stolen vehicle. I agree that everyone should be given the second chance but for what price? Is is worth ruining a family's life and sacrificing a woman to give a scum a second chance? I personally do not believe that. 

I took this photo in 2006 Calgary International Auto and Truck Show, the only time I have been to the show so far. The this is a F-250 Super Chief Concept. The truck which was driven by the accused killer is similar to this one. 

This tragedy truly proves that having an engineering degree does not prove that you're smart. The fact is people, particularly women study engineering for different reason in countries such as Iran. Among them are: 

1- There are not many jobs available that you can make ends meet. Even with the screwed up and devastated economy of today's Iran, an engineering job would not do much but it's better than nothing. But don't worry! That'll come to Canada soon. In fact it is already here but has not shown itself completely!

2- Women, particularly if they do not have good feature, which was the case in our poor victim, are seen as member of the family who are not productive, especially in small towns. So they try to leave the family as early as possible in order not to impose extra expenses to the breadwinner.

3- Marriage is considered a big deal. People try to get married to wealthy families but if they have no choice in that alley, post-secondary education provides them this opportunity to meet people of their class who have come to the university and their philosophy is that we would do well together. That's the story of this couple as well, without a doubt. 

So you spend four years in a university, you memorize a bunch of formulas and learn to use tables and a calculator and then graduate with a degree. You're the same damn stupid with a degree added to you. Now you can calculate flows and forces but you can't calculate what would happen if I step in front of a big car with two young Caucasian fellas who naturally hate foreigners! What a pity. 

(Photo, top: The accused of striking the Centex gas station attendant in 16th Ave. SW is taken to custody by two officers of CPS. It took them less than 24 hours after the incident to find them)