The Library

I go to Fish Creek branch of Calgary Public Library for studying and should admit that it's so amazing. There are so many things that you can do and mostly free with registration. You can listen to CD music or books on CDs using the provided CD players. You can borrow CDs, DVDs or videos. There are different activities for kids and teens. For example celebrating Alberta's 100 years, guiding to buy a digital camera and many more. It's most of the time busy. People come to borrow books and other stuff or just sit there and read. Reading is something that people are very interested in. You can see the top sellers in Calgary Herald every week and Chapters, the most important bookstore in the city, is always busy. I should find out how many copies of each book is usually published. I looked at one of the books I've bought here but didn't see anything.

Green Day

Green Day is my new discovery in the world of music. They won 6 major awards in 2005 MTV Video Music Award. Wake me up when September ends is among the songs that I like a lot. Wonderful! It's vidoe is very nice too. There are also Boulevard of broken dreams, Holiday and more. Here is what they say in the first said song:

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Like my father's come to pass
Seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Ring out the bells again
Like we did when spring began

Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars

Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost

Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Like my father's come to pass
Twenty years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends

Wake me up when September ends
Wake me up when September ends
(Photo: American Idiot, the album which brought all of the awards to Green Day)

LA for Louisiana Not Los Angeles

America's costs usually are hit by different types of hurricanes. I don't know how they are named by meteorologists but a few weeks ago New Orleans in LA was hit by hurricane Katrina and more than 1000 people got killed (Out of more than 450,000 pop. while the whole city was drowned). Texas was hit by another one last week, called Rita. I don't know what exactly happened in there but know that they were ready and based on the experience they got from the last one, were pretty prepared. This story being told every year.
But what links this to another post of mine which is goin' to be told here is the movie JFK. I bought this movie I don't even know when! May be 2 may be 3 years ago and just finished watching it tonight for a few reasons. First of all it's a long movie: 03:01 hour! Second of all as the whole story happens in the South (Reminds me of Southern Comfort, another movie which the story happens in LA!), it's really hard to understand their strong Southern accent. It's like a strong British accent to understand. As hard as that! Also if you wanna know what's happening in the movie, which is an investigation to John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963, you gotta focus and understand every part of it.
...Hold your horses! (As Southern people say for what most of other people say: Wait a sec. or Hold on or as Jim Carrey says: Hold the phone!) I just saw in Yahoo! that the DVD set (Which includes 2 disks) is released in 11.11.03. So less than 2 years passed the date I bought it.
Anyhow the movie is so brilliant and but complicated too. You have to remember every name and who met who to understand the whole network of the assassins. I wonder why such movies never affect people. For example Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore (I don't like this asshole at all. Hate him a lot!) which intended to prevent George W. Bush to win the election for the second time, never worked and he won. I should indicate here that I was really happy when Bush was elected again because of what he's doing in Iraq. JFK is much stronger than that and impressed me deeply.
(Photo: This map of southern US and gulf of Mexico shows the possible path of hurricane Rita, which is different from Katrina's, the one that hit New Orleans)

Flightplan

Ali G. called me yesterday around 12:30 PM to plan for a chess game and catching a movie. When he was here, at my place, to go together it was almost 06:15 PM! First went to a Safeway to get a Calgary Herald as he's looking for a house to buy (We didn't take a look!) then he took me to a Burger King and honestly the burger was really tasty. I've never tried that. Then we headed for Chinook and played chess. I lost both games but was better in the second one! Flightplan was the movie we were there for. Incredible movie! I never was able to predict what would happen in the next few min. Ali G. is a nice guy but like most of Iranian guys who have spent most of their life at this part of the globe, is kind of abnormal. He doesn't have a friend, his brother in B. C. is the only one who he usu. talks to on the phone, he usu. is not well-dressed and although has been living in Canada for more than 12 years, has never had a gf. Actually he found one, I mean a prospective one, a few months ago, in a Mercedes dealer, but I don't think she was really willing to be his gf. May be they just went out for a few times and then the girl just dumped him. He's not usu. shaved, his hair is oily, like he just got in from a rainy day! his mouth, God!, smells really bad even when he has something! So obviously nobody wants to spend even a few min. with him! Regardless of all the facts, he's a nice and innocent guy. Anyhow the reason for this post is Flightplan not Ali G.! But I thought it must have been written here earlier. One more thing about the movie: An Arab is accused of kidnapping J. Foster's little daughter in the movie as they are good targets after Sep.11.01 attacks. Also there's a scene that one of the passengers swear at Arabs who are on board but at the end of the movie we find out that it was one of the crew and the security guard who did that. The movie ends in this way: Foster carries her daughter to an ambulance while the Arab guy, with beard, handed her purse. Foster doesn't say anything nor apologizes. Just gazes at him and leaves. I, myself, don't like Arabs at all but I think that was not fair. The director, the writer or whoever made this movie should have put the apology scene at the end. They didn't and it means that they still hate Arabs and they never forget Sep.11.01 and other terrorist attacks which is understandable. I guess that's one of the messages the movie wants to convey: We still don't trust you, Arabs and we'll never do.
(Photo: Jodie Foster and Peter Sarsgaard (a guard against SARS disease!) in a scene of Flightplan)

Eaton Electric

There was a job posting in Calgary Herald a few weeks ago indicating that Eaton Electric needs a Quality Champion (The one who supports quality) for their office (Or plant) in Airdrie (A small town just a few min. up north Calgary). I applied for that job, sending my resume by e-mail (It was Aug.29) and the day before when I checked my voice mail box, I noticed that have a message from that company.
I called them and a woman called Debbie asked him to call back at noon and indicated she's in the US, somewhere in a Central Time division. I don't remember the city she mentioned. I told her that I'd call her again at about 12:45 PM which is 11:45 AM their time. When I called again she apologized for not taking my call and said that can't take it now either! She said she would call me. But she never did! Strange people!

Quarter A Century

Today is Sep.22.05., 25 years passed the day Iraq invaded Iran in 1980 which led to an 8-year devastating war. I feel so sad and almost burst in to tears by looking at the war photos. What happened to my country and innocent people is unbelievable. I can't write. Just adding a photo and leave.
It's -1 ºC now. The first night that we get below zero temperature here in Calgary. The first day of fall is tomorrow.
(Photo: Brave Iranian soldier defending his country, fighting against Iraqi tank with a rifle and wearing runners)

Human or Machine?!

I was thinking about my life compare it to the others I know or I don't. I mean a normal human being at my age:

• I work a hard job 8 hours a day, sometimes 6 days a week and stay overtime off and on!
• I barely see people, I mean as friends of mine. May be once a month! Most of my social life is through the net which is not considered sociable at all!
• I have no girl in my life or better to say my sexual life is completely shitty!
• I don't eat good food most of the time! It's mostly healthy food but no taste or variety!
• My hobbies are mostly watching movies or going to a movie theatre once in two weeks or e-mailing my friends and surfing the web, going to gym and running like a kicked dog(!) or lifting heavy plates(!) while people come with the most beautiful girls and of course the ones who don't have their own after work out! I wonder how I do this at this age after working so hard!
• The place I live in now is not a place that a human lives! No one else would live here but I have to 'cause I want to pay off my debts. The last two places I were to,  were much more better.
• The way I study for my CQE exam sucks! And it's all because of the problems mentioned above!

Simply put the way I live now is far from the way a normal human being lives! And I wonder how I'm used to that! I was thinking the other day that It's very hard for me to get married because I have no time for a woman in my life! That's why I never ask the girls I like out or never go to clubs, bars and parties to find someone for me. Consider this: The plant is off in the coming Sat. and here is my plan:

1. Fri. night: stay overtime until 09:00 PM (14 hours work!) get home at about 09:45 PM. Have a shower. Eat dinner. Check e-mails and favorite websites. Go to bed!
2. Sat.: Prob. have my breakfast in Denny's (It's been more than a month that I wanted to go there!). Photography of fall in Calgary. Prob. playing chess with Ali G. (If he's not busy with his gf). Study. Going to gym.
3. Study. Go to gym.

You see? There's no room for normal life activities! Am I a human or a machine? May be I'm a robot! That reminds me of the song, Robots by Kraftwerk! But the life I have is closer to an animal's life rather a machine or robot!

Shalimar the Clown

I usually buy Calgary Herald on Saturdays for it's working section. There's an interview with Salman Rushdie, the Indian novelist who was sentenced to death by Imam Khomeini in 1989, in the last issue. The interview indicates that Rushdie, lives in Manhattan, NY, now with his forth wife and uses his real name and goes everywhere freely, while keeps his flat (apartment [us.]) in London, England.
The reason that he was hated by Muslims, especially the ones in Pakistan, Britain and India is his book called The Satanic Verses. But the main reason for the recent interview is not that book and his years of disastrous life in Britain. It's about his new book, Shalimar the Clown which is about Kashmir. I haven't read The Satanic Verses but I'm gonna buy and read after I finish the two books I'm currently reading. Kashmir reminds me of my Kashmiri friend in here, R. K., who his story will be told later.
(Photo: Portrait of Rushdie)

DivX

I bought a Philips DVD Player from Bestbuy a few months ago and paid, I guess more than $90 just because I wanted something to play my DivX movies which has been downloaded from the Internet. But that was just waste of money! Many functions of the machine is not applicable for DivX movies, including fast forward and rewind! So basically all you can do is just sit in front of the TV and watch the whole movie at once! Or if you're lucky pause it and continue in a few min.! The salesperson also sold two sets of cords for a better audio and video!!! Can you believe this??!! You buy a DVD Player because you believe that DVD has a better quality compare to video tape and then you have to pay a few dollars more for cords and connections! I didn't even open the packs. Returned them in a few days!! But the truth is, I think, the sound quality is very bad! Explosion, engine noises of the cars and all other loud sounds can be heard properly but dialogues, the most important parts of the movies, are not perceived very clearly!

Besides there's another problem: Most of the movies I've tried so far has a problem and get stuck in the machine!! That's may be because I used no name CDs for writing my movies. But even some others (Maxell) have the same problem. Conclusion: I tried to save money by downloading movies through KAZAA (107 movies so far!) and paid a lot for DivX Player but that didn't work!

Minacs

I had a phone call today from Minacs, the company I applied for a position as Quality Specialist, online, last night. That was a short phone interview and looks like I might get a second call from them but not sure. The headquarter is in Toronto but they are opening a new office in Saskatoon. It's a office job not a plant job and I'll be lucky if I get that, regardless of the fact that the office will be in Saskatoon.

The likely interview will be in Toronto, I guess. So may be another chance to go there, if they send me the ticket. I have to go anyway, if they send me nothing, in case of an interview! I have to be very careful, not to mess this one up again like what I did last week!

Fingerprint

Sometimes I'm about to believe that I'm a very unlucky guy! I received a mail from CIC indicating that they need a finger print from me for my citizenship purposes!! And that's because They f**king think that my names resembles somebody else's who might have done a crime or has broken the law!!! They didn't mention that but implied it! I call one of the places which do finger print and was told it costs about $26 but I'm goin' to call them and ask them for the reason, although I don't think that I can change anything. I'm sure it's because of my name 'cause I haven't done anything. Paying $26 for nothing and taking one day off the work just because they don't like my name! That's all. They also started processing my application in Aug.26 which is almost 6 months after I sent the documents. I guess It'll take one full year if I'm lucky enough!

Absolute Mess!

I didn't want to write about the interview I had last Tue. and messed it up so bad but thought should write 'cause it's a good lessen for me and also experience.

As I mentioned earlier that was an interview for a ISO Auditor with a big oil and gas company called Worley Parsons. I was on time and two ladies, one from HR and the other one the Quality Manager interviewed me. It reminds me of the period I used to work for EIED, a branch of OIEC. The Quality Assurance Manager over there was a lady too and I had a good time working with her (Well most of the time I made up stories and fooled her!)

Anyway she started asking questions about ISO 9000:2000 and I didn't give her good answers as I didn't expect her to ask me technical questions. The HR lady asked a few questions too that I was better at. Here are a few of them which are considered new:

1. Did the company only send you for further education or there was somebody else? (I told them that I got a certificate from SAIT in QA and she asked if the company sent me and I confirmed!) (I guess she was teasing me! Why would someone ask such a question in interview?)
2. What was your salary compare to what you expect from us? (They asked me to give them a range and I said 45-50 K and then told them - in response that it's a little bit higher than mine when I used to work in Iran!)
3. Do you have your references' contact with you? (Damn! No one has asked me that before. I'll have 'em ready next time I'm being interviewed!)

The other questions are mostly the same crap that are being asked in every f**king interview. Damn me! I lost a very good opportunity and may take weeks, even months to have a career like that posted: Downtown job, travels, well-paid, good experience. F**k!

A Sound of Thunder

I watched A Sound of Thunder yesterday in Chinook. I enjoyed a lot. Good movie. And I was also scared a little bit. The movie is based on a short story by Isaac Asimov which I read it years ago in Daneshmand monthly and I enjoyed a lot on that time too but nothing is mentioned about Asimov in the movie, as far as I remember. The only week point (in my opinion of course!) is one of the actresses (Catherine McCormack) has a strong British accent and I didn't understand the most part of what she said!
It's a story about a company, Time Safari, which arranges dinosaur hunt in million years ago. There's a scene that a big dinosaur is approaching and they receive the fire order but the laser guns malfunction and they are in trouble. That scene was so exciting because I forgot the story I read years ago!
(Photo: Time travellers have their jump suit on and are ready to go back to million years ago)
Correction (Wed. Sep.14.05): The story is by Ray Bradbury. He wrote it in 1953.

The Cable Guy

I watched The Cable Guy for the first time through Movie Central when I was a roommate of Resurrect. The movie is one of Jim Carrey's that is not as popular and likable as the others of him like Dumb and Dumber, The Mask and Liar Liar. Then I bought the DVD (Only about $14) from a&b Sound and watched it a few more times and I like to watch it again. The more I watch the movie the more I understand that the characteristic of the lead actor of the movie (Carrey) is close to Resurrect in certain ways!

Of course the main difference is the cable guy suffers from a disease that makes him in need of speech therapy and because of that problem the guy is lonely and desperately seeks for friends while in the other hand Resurrect is an angry, ugly, unsociable, thoughtless, crazy guy who nobody is able to tolerate him for a long time. I used to live with him for a 12 months period and the only reason is we didn't used to see each other very much. Hojam used to be his roommate for 13 months and then ran away! He once said when I get close to that townhouse, all the memories come to me like nightmare!

(Photo: In this scene of the movie Carrey as a bathroom attendant gives Wilson a good service!)

Twin Bed

One of the things that I've seen a few times here and made me surprised is that most of single people here have either a twin or bigger bed! I don't! The following people are among the ones that I have in my mind:

1) Resurrect

2) M. M. (The girl I dated briefly in Toronto)

3) The Chef

4) The Brave

Obviously all of the said people are single but they need a company for a few minutes every week! So I totally understand their need! I haven't had even a single bed until last June! I used to use a mattress on the floor when I was a roommate of The Brave in his house. Then I moved to a one bedroom suite which there was a bed in there and I moved that bed to the townhouse I used to share with Resurrect. That bed was old and noisy and its mattress was not good. In order to get rid of that, I made up an story and sold it to Resurrect and he bought it! (Such a naive guy!) I said that a physician banned me of sleeping on this bed. We threw it out and I used an empty bed in the house which has been moved to my new place here! (I paid for that!)

Damn gasoline price is soaring

I bought $20 gas last night from Esso as I've been driving to wrok since Mon. and it was 97.4 cents per liter. Today I was passing by the same gas station and it was 114.4 cents per liter! God! I think I have to cut off some expenses as when the one who gives me ride comes next week, she'll ask for more. Soaring gas price affects everything. For example many items in Safeway is more expensive now. I have to spend less on food and other things. Also I don't pay for car insurance but what if I had to?
Only the new career might help me. I called the lady and she arranged the interview for the coming Tue. at 09:00 AM.