Back to APEGGA

I failed the damn National Professional Practice Examination of APEGGA two years ago in a Nov. day. I was so frustrated and agitated which abandoned everything and never thought about that until a few weeks ago. The exam is not really hard to pass. Just too many things to remember. I got 6 out of 10 and that was kind of 6 which wasn’t 65% , the passing score.

Last Fri., I just was notified that they finally answered to my request of membership re-activation and application to re-write the exam. I’m writing it in Nov. But it took more than 3 weeks to get it pushed forward and costs me more than $250. I’m determined to pass it this time and have already started.

How Beautiful Your Life Could Go?

I didn’t go to my regular exercises today and just came back from D. H.’s. You listen to this ‘cause that might sound interesting to you:

I’ve already written about my first friend and also landlord, the Bangladeshi guy, D. H. but the D. H. I met today is different from the guy he used to be. If you consider his feature and look and the way his house is arranged, he’s still the same guy: stuff all over the place, unwashed dishes in the sink, dirty floor and so on. Regardless of all that fact he’s the same generous and nice guy he used to be. He was nice and generous even when he was totally broke and lived based on his few tenants’ rent. But the guy is rich now. He’s sold his property back home and is involved in car dealership and property business now. He told me that he’d been to Japan 4 times so far. He goes there to buy used cars and import them to Canada. He’s not allowed to import less then 15-year-old cars but he says BMW and Mercedes cars with less than 60 K on them will make good money here. What sounded huge to me is he showed me the paper of a property he’s planning to buy and that piece of land worth about $900,000! The land with a huge 5-bedroom, 4-bathroom bungalow and two big sheds (Or may be barns) is located just a few min. drive from High River. So he got lots of money now.

Not very surprisingly there’s a sweet Chinese girl living with him now. She takes care of the kids and of course he and life is beautiful! The girl, I can’t tell, may be is not more than 25 while D. H. has passed his 40! I don’t know how he gets these women but it’s not unexpected. Although he’s a rich guy now but he simply used to do that even when he was suffering from poverty. Some men are like that: As they can’t live without women, they have the power and ability to attract and keep them. Some men are stupid and incompetence in that regard, like me! They are able to attract women but lose them easily ‘cause they think there would be always another one! And that’s silly.

An Inconvenient Truth

This summer has been a very crazy one so far! We see a storm every 3 or 4 days here. Wind is howling now and sliding windows are rocking. So do trees. You’ll be in trouble if you go outside for jugging or cycling. The temperature went up to more than 39˚ C in parts of B. C. few days ago! Calgary felt 30˚ C at the most but the worst things are the thunder and hail storms.

I have a weather forecast center warning system installed in my computer which is connected to Environment Canada through Internet and gives you everything like temperature, wind speed, dew point, pressure, humidity and so on. It’s called CFCN @ Work, provided by CFCN network. When there’s a weather warning, a window pops up and shows you a map of province of Alberta with the effected areas distinguished by current metrological warning. Then another window (this one is like a menu bar) appears and gives you the detail name of the towns and cities which the warning apply to them.

It’s a very good device but sometimes very annoying. Imagine you’re reading, writing or doing anything on your machine and the said window pops up almost every 2 minutes! There’s nothing you can do but watching the warning and then close it. The only other way is uninstalling it! When there’s a storm passing by the province, the intelligent system follows it step by step in advance and warns you in every minute! I remember last week I was at the desk and the warning was hitting me continuously! That felt like a stab! I don’t remember any summer like this. But fortunately it hasn’t been hot lately here in Calgary. It’s only 15˚ C now.

It’s said that the dramatic climate change in earth is an outcome of global warming.

Al Gore the former vice president of the US has recently made a documentary called An Inconvenient Truth. It’s about what the human kind has done to the earth so far which led us to the current weather situation we face today. I haven’t seen the movie but I guess he’s won a few awards for that. The movie wasn’t shown publicly in many theatres like an ordinary one. He said he's not running for '08 presidency but supporters hope he does.

(Photo: Al Gore the 45th U. S. Vice President in a scene of his documentary, An inconvenient Truth)

Accent

I was shopping at a Safeway and when I got in line to check out, I noticed two young guys in front of me. First I thought they are kind of rednecks who hate everyone who’s not Caucasian. But then one of them let me go before him and I was surprised. His friend started a friendly talk with me and then I thought they might be gay and as it’s Fri. night they are looking for some fun!

Then the guy notified me that he sees an accent in my speaking and asks where I am from. I encouraged him to make a guess but he couldn’t tell. I explained Persian language to him and its root. I gave him, obviously, a short version. I shortly after found out that they are French and from Quebec. The other guy was barely able to speak English but the one whom I was talking to, was good. He said that he had found kind of accent similar to theirs in my voice. So simply they thought they had found a French guy and tried to be friendly! I've heard that French people of Canada are more friendly. The Brave indicated that. That was none of what I thought!

(Photo: The location of province of Quebec in Canada. This province, Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick established the confederation in 1867 which then known as country of Canada. But there's a strong willingness of separatism in the province now. They lost a referendum in 1995. That was a close loss. I might get to that later)

Invitation

I received the invitation letter to oath ceremony from CIC finally today. That took almost 6 months! I have to attend the ceremony in Aug.24. I was gonna give them a call in Aug.07 as that would be the day which 6 months has passed the day I wrote the citizenship test. The funny thing is it's stated if I wouldn't be there to take the oath, I either had to apply again or convinced the judge that I've had a good reason!

Another thing which sounds like a joke to me is that I can have a holy book as an optional choice when I'm swearing to the Queen! I have no idea how many people have made that swear, got their citizenship and then received the Canadian passport and misused it but using a holy book to make a false declaration is really funny.

... let's be more possitive and look at the bright side of the things!

(Photo: Ahmad Khadr, a Canadian citizen(!) who then became known as a very old and close friend of Osama Bin Laden, was killed in action almost 3 years ago, I guess, in Pakistan, fighting against American troops. I have a few posts in this regard back to Dec. of '03)

Protein

I found a very useful article in the last issue of Impact Magazine which I picked in Talisman. I, first, became familiar with the magazine once I was in Mountain Equipment Co-op about 3 years ago, I guess.
The article talks about protein and I summarize what’s the most useful part here for anyone who’s interested and I encourage you to go through and finish it ‘cause it really helps:

1. A number of bodily functions and substances are dependent on protein in our daily diet or more specifically amino acids which they are comprised. How the body works in that matter is the body digest them and then they are shipped off to different parts to be used. So basically lack of protein will cause serious problems for the body, mostly because amino acids do what’s described herein after.
2. Amino acids repair muscles and connective tissues (tendons as far as I know), supporting the nervous and immune system (It’s very likely to get sick soon if you don’t feed your body with enough protein), creation of hormones, enzymes, nails, hair and in some cases providing an energy source (remember that having protein doesn’t necessarily mean that you have enough energy for your activities and that’s very important)
3. Important point: Vegetable protein sources only contain some amino acids and must be combined in order to yield a complete protein.
4. Eggs (any kind) are considered the perfect protein. They contain all the essential amino acids along with a wide array of other vitamins and nutrients. It’s the best-absorbed type of protein. Its biological value is considered 100 and all other sources are measured with respect to egg. Examples are:
   a. Milk = 91
   b. Beef =80
   c. Soy = 71
5. For non-athletes a 0.86 g per Kg of body mass per day is sufficient for meeting the body’s requirements and preventing deficiencies.
6. For endurance athletes, however, it’s a range of 1.2 to 1.4 g per Kg of body mass. For example for a person like me who does daily exercises the appropriate amount of protein would be 88 (Kg) times 1.3 g makes almost 114 g per day.
7. Very important: As the amount of protein in daily diet increases, so too should water intake. The reason is the by-product of protein is ammonia and that must be converted to urea and excreted.
8. Extremely important (actually I guess all of them are!): The athlete must avoid taking proteins in short duration exercises (less than 150 min.). First of all because protein is not a good source of energy. The body is dependent on carbohydrate in the first 120 to 180 min. of exercise. Secondly protein is slowly digested and only restrains absorption of carbohydrates.
9. Protein is not stored in the body for later use like glucose does. Protein must be provided after endurance workout. But remember to take carbohydrates with protein as they help the absorption. A good combination would be 3:1 carbohydrates to protein.
10. The appropriate amount of carbohydrate is 0.5 g per pound of body weight.

(Photo: Eggs are the best source of Protein and as it's usually acknowledged a good source of cholesterol too. But as that's not the point of this post, I'll leave it)

A Very Dirty Toilet

That stupid clash between Lebanon and Israel still is going on and seems there's no near end to that. I really give a shit what happens to Lebanon or Israel. Let them kill each other to the last person. My concern is Canada where I am in at the moment and exerted too much effort to get in here, legally, and still am struggling. That's all because I wanted to be away from all that fundamentalism, fanaticism and third world country culture. I wanted a peaceful and nice place to live and enjoy everything I like.

But in the past 2 years this side of the globe, the supposedly very cold part, have been turned to the biggest and filthiest public toilet in the world.

There was a time that the country mostly accepted educated people and in case people who was really in need of a higher standard of living. People who were not very different in culture and was easy for them to adopt themselves to North American type of life. But now the door is opened and everyone is coming in. They turned it to a real shithole. The one that you smell it everywhere.

You go to the North East part of the City where Afghans, Arabs, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Indians, Kurds and such people live, you'll see streets like Mumbai, Dacha, Kandahar or Karachi. (Don't ask if I was there!) Rubbish is all over the place. Disgusting smell annoys you. People don't even know what recycling means! Most of them are not able to speak English after years of living in here. Telling you about driving, almost all of them pass the driving exams by cheating or bribery.

But what all these have to do with the Israel-Lebanon fight, thousands of miles away? Many people has fled to Canada as a result of Israel's attacks to Lebanon. These people are considered Canadian because for example they have lived for 4 years in last 10 years and received a Canadian Citizen-cheap (Instead of citizenship!) They really give a damn to Canada. I'm not more catholic than Pop but Canada is just a temp. harbor for them. They were complaining about the Government slow evacuation program!

Why Canada is doing this? They probably say we let this people in, they work, they make money, they pay taxes and that's fine. But these idiots doesn't see the drawback.

But there’s something about the Blacks and that’s some special gifts (!) they have given to North American society. Among them are Hip Hop music (What an intellectual and intelligent work of art!), Basketball and Football (Honesty without them NBA, CFL, and NFL would be meaningless) and their strong sex drive (Lack of this would kill Canadian girls! Poor them!) In the light of this condition Blacks are mostly are very welcomed in Canada. At times you see advertising programs on TV that encourage you to donate to humanitarian organizations who travel to Africa or guide you how to adopt a child (And why not a boy? Your Canadian girl would benefit enormously later! You kill two birds with one stone)

(Photo: Don't let the look fools you. Open it up and see the dirt and mess. Don't forget to hold your noise or you'll faint!)

The Crazy Diamond Isn't Shining Anymore

I was doing my exercises in Talsiman yesterday and in a short break, grabbed an issue of Time. There’s always a page at the beginning called Milestones which says about what happens to people: arrests, deaths, retirements, etc. What caught my eyes was the death of Syd Barrett, the founder of Pink Floyd. He died in Cambridge, England at the age of 60. Barrett left the band 3 years later because of mental instability which had been caused by using LSD. He wrote most of the early noble songs of the band.

Another interesting and also sad thing I learnt today is Pink Floyd actually sang songs Wish You Were Here and Shine On You Crazy Diamond for their former member and buddy, the brilliant Syd.

It’s not known why his death is just disclosed while he died in July.07 or 11 . He just released two solo albums after he left the band and withdrew music industry and lived a simple life which barely confronted the fans and journalists. Pink Floyd made sure he receives the royalties from his work with them.

Here’s part of what they say about the crazy diamond (I'm listening to it at the moment):

Remember when you were young,

you shone like the sun.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.

Shine on you crazy diamond.

You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the steel breeze.

Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!

Pink Floyd has always been my favorite band and I don't like any other better than that. The first CD album I bought here shortly after my arrival was their incredible and untouchable The Dark Side of The Moon, one of the all time best albums in the history of music.

Thanks Syd and thanks Pink Floyd. You gave (and still give, off and on!) me lots of beautiful and pleasant moments of pure excellent music.

(Photo: The early Pink Floyd, formed by Syd Barrett in 1965. From left: Rick Wright, Roger Waters, Syd Barrett and Nick Mason. There are thousands of websites that you can refer to for the root of the band including Wikipedia)

Ralph in Calgary?!

I went to the ESSO snack shop nearby to buy newspaper in the morning and someone got my attention, getting in: The man looks like Ralph Klein, premier of Alberta. But that's not him. Here? in Calgary? alone? having casual cloths on? Driving on old ordinary car which everyone affords? Buying things from a snack shop? With no gurad or companion?

But that was him! When he was started talking to the clerks, I recognized his voice which I've listened to it from the media several times. Even the storekeepers were surprised. I asked them if he lives here in Calgary and they affirmed. But how does he do his duties? His office must be in Edmonton. Just doesn't make sence. I wish I could talk to him. Even if that was a short simple question. He looks an interesting guy to me. He's planned to be retired soon under the pressure of the opposition and that would be prob. in late '07. Budget surplus as the rising price of oil made his government to send a $400 cheque to every eligible Albertan in 2005, which I wrote about earlier and it's said that there could be another one in the coming Sep.

I wonder what the government does in Iran with all the extra money they've recently earned as the high price of oil. They prob. have been turned to Hezbollah missiles or something like that as well as more money in officails' bank account in Switzerland or any other paradise they have booked for themselves! ... I'm goin' too far!

(Photo: This cartoon depicts Ralph Klein, the premier of Alberta as a rich cowboy who doesn't know what to do with all the money. But what's behind that election idea, I've no clue. Any opinion?)

The Initial Outcomes

The recent conflict between Israel and Lebanon (actually Hezbollah of Lebanon) has brought many concerns round the world. First of all Israeli officials say this is a whole show to deflect world's attention from Iran's nuclear plan. Secondly a big concern for Lebanese-Canadians who criticize the Government for not only the late response to the disaster, but also for supporting Israel in what's being done to Lebanon by them.
The point here is no mater how long people live in here, they still belong themselves to where they were born, mostly. You find rarely who's not thinking of his origin unless he or she is born here and that's a different story. But it's different in Arabs. Once I was told by a close friend of a Lebanese Arab that their kids are sent back home shortly after they are born here (or in any other country than their ancestors') and are able to travel that far. And it's done just to keep them in the environment and society with all Arab culture. I'd never do that to my kids. No one from any other ethnicity has never done that.
Meanwhile the relationship between Arab community of Canada and Harper's Conservative government is hurt badly after Canadian officials' reactions.
There are, though people who barely think of their homeland or have any interest in it. Ali G. could be among the people that, I believe, would never be gone there. I, myself, if I find the career I've been looking for, may not go there in next 10 years but still follow the news and will be in touch with family, of course, relatives and friends. But that's way too far from Ali G.'s attitude.
But back to Iran's problem with blames on its nuclear plan and support for Hezbollah, I think it's absurd. I never liked Iranian government and any official and never voted in Islamic Republic era but supporting people who are considered your friends or allies or sending your troops to part of the world because you want to back up your friends is purely reasonable. Didn't the US do that during Vietnam War? Didn't the US send its troops to Korean peninsula in 1950? So why not Islamic Republic? Every country does that for a reason. Canadians are in Afghanistan not because they like Afghans. That's because they have to make Americans happy. Otherwise they would have many issues with their neighbor and their most important trader. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf in his book It Doesn't Take A Hero points to this fact, several times, that Americans mostly disliked Vietnamese. They didn't even let them in their officers' clubs they had in Saigon! They were only there for a political reason and clearly not because they liked to protect gooks from the Soviets!
(Photo: The fanatic poster which shows Americans' interest in giving a good piece of advise to Iran but I don't believe they would. They have learnt lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan and also don't have enough support for such an act. Besides there's always something behind the close doors. Like something I just explained earlier in a post titled: A joke called democracy)

The Licence

I went to Stampede today for the second time this year. This time just by myself. P. M.'s gone to Edmonton with his family to see her sister as it's her birthday one of these days. Ali G.'s mom has come over from B. C. and he's busy with her and the other friends are just as useless as a Picasso painting! (Believe it or not I just made that one up! Not bad. Yeah?)
It was not very busy as I expected to be. May be because I got there around 12:00 and that might consider early for people who spend their time out usually until 02:00 AM!
I parked in Spiller Road and went up the hills of Union Cemetery to see whether or not I have a good view of Stampede Park for some photos. I only took one from Downtown and went down to 25 Ave. That was a good spot with great eye on Stampede Park, Saddledome and chuckwagon race track (If I can say!) but the seats were all empty. I later found out that races and rodeo usually begins in the afternoon.
Then I went to a Canadian Forces recruiting centre in front of Saddledome where they demonstrate a plane, a tank, an armoured vehicle and a chopper and talked to a guy about the recruiting steps. I already knew the basics of what they need but wanted to talk to the guy to see what he says. The important part is if you have a degree and that degree is recognized in Alberta, you'll be an officer. A higher rank, a better salary and of course easier job. Like everywhere else. The problem though is I faxed the application form to write the exam. to those sons of bitches two weeks ago and even started studying but they didn't reply me. Then I e-mailed the fucking exam. coordinator, a gook, probably a fucking Vietnamese, one out of a million who might ever able to get an office job like that, but that useless piece of crap didn't answer too. So what I'll do this week is I call them to ask what the hell is wrong.
I wrote the exam two years ago in Nov. of 2004 and I received a 60-65% score. I was happy at first, assuming 50 per cent is the passing score but soon was notified that 65% is what I should have gotten. The exam result says that I got 60-65% but not 65% and I failed! So I have to write it again. But why don't I get a reply from them? They might have a black list! That's what I'm going to find out next week.
Rather than that I need another licence, probably a more important one and that's citizenship. I passed the test in Feb.07 and haven't been invited to Oath yet. I called CIC once and a lady told me if I wouldn't received the invitation letter by Aug., I should have given them a call so they would inform Calgary centre of the delay! That's pretty stupid. But listen to this: I called another time and I was told that I should attend interviews and pass other steps as well! Which is not what's mentioned in CIC guide to citizenship. So citizenship is another challenge.
But what I spent that $12 for to go to Stampede again was not the recruiting centre of Canadian Forces. I paid that admission fee to see the amazing and incredible dance of First Nation or aboriginal people of Canada. I went to Indian Village and they started at about 01:15 AM and that was so beautiful. The very difficult and exciting loop dance then was performed by a young aboriginal and unfortunately I ran out of my roll! Regardless of the fact that I don't have a video camera. After that I just spent a few min. and then headed home while I got an stamp for re-entry.
I return to the Park at about 11:00 PM again and that was after doing a few things at home, exercises at Talisman and grocery shopping. And the only reason I got back, this time, was to have my dinner at that amazing Flat Iron Steak. This time the girl asked me how I would like my steak and I asked how they usu. make it ready and she said medium and that was great with the sauce and beans. Nashville North indoor stage was as busy as usu. and Country music performers were entertaining Cowboys and Cowgirls and others as well. I didn't want to stay in the line to get in so I just watched fireworks and left the Park for home.

(Photo: The very tasty Flat Iron Steak which is served with fries, beans and garlic toast. You never want to stop eating that)

Jehovah Witness (2)

I was cleaning Ali G.’s truck last Sat. when I was moving out and noticed a Canadian woman and her little daughter are approaching. The woman was in her, I'd say, mid 40s, prob. a little younger (You never know how old these poeople are!) The little kid was about 10. She said hi and we started talking and just shortly after, I noticed that she’s one of the people who are out to find new members for her faith! She was a Jehovah witness!
We talked a little bit and she handed me a few issues of a magazine which I later left them all in Ali G.’s truck and never even opened them! Actually I wanted to read them to see what that crap is they claim, especially because I brough up the problem they have with blood transfusion and one of those magazines has a full coverage in that regard.
Simply put what she was saying was quite funny. I try to bring some of them here as don’t remember all. I have too many damn things in my head and this blog is actually a device for me to keep the valuable and memorable ones in a safe place for future use! This is what I have at the top of my head:

1- Jehovah is God! That’s another name for God! That’s like you say you’re a man but you’re a human as well!
2- We don’t care about Canada and we never vote for any party in the elections. What we believe in is the government of God, the kingdom of God!
3- We’re waiting for the one who’s going to settle everything down! And that’s Jesus! He’ll be back. We don’t know when but we have to make ourselves prepared and ready!
4- There are so many false religions in the world! (In response to me that said there are different Christian sects. For example Catholic, Orthodox, Mormon, etc!)
5- I told them that I’ll read the magazine and write down the questions and we’ll give her a call (She actually gave me her number) She then said that she would directed me to a brother(!) and I made a very surprised and insulted face and said: Why? What do you mean? She said that anything might happen! (She was smiling at the time!) And I asked “Like what?” She said “A relationship! It has happened before!” And I replied “If that’s a healthy relationship, what’s wrong with that!?”

Alphonse’s Back

I was checking my e-mails in a CPL branch last Sat. and noticed that Alphonse’s back home. That was a bit sad because that’s a story of someone being defeated. But that, I guess, is his own fault partially. He was not able to write a simple letter and not able to talk fluently after more than 4 years living in the States.
Alphonse received his Bachelor and Masters both from Polytechnic and then applied from different universities of the US for his Ph. D. Then he got there, to a university in Massachusetts but surprisingly and for unknown reason to me, he had to do another Masters instead! Then he worked for a company for a short time (I don’t know how long) and according to what he told me on the phone when called me a few months ago, he had a fight with his manager and had to quit! (Possibly got kicked out!)
When he called me he asked if he could stay with me for a short time so he can get back to the US after that, I agreed obviously although I was not in a situation to harbor anyone. His student visa was expired on the time of phone conversation and he owed quite a bit of money to credit companies. Now he’s back with no chance (may be a little is left) of coming to this side of the globe. One of the nicest and best friends I’ve had so far.
I re-discovered him just about 2 weeks before my immigration. It was right after I quit my job and just was about to fly out. He was unemployed and was studying English and investigating universities and visas. Even on that time I found out that his English was not good enough to impress employers or visa officers in the embassies. We used to go for jogging and exercises in early morning on that time. He was not feeling good, having breathing problem and was overweight. But that was all good time because I was with a real friend. What a pity. I feel really bad at the moment.

Stampede 2006

Sat. (July.08.06):
As I missed Fri.’s Parade, I decided to go to Stampede today. So when P. M. called in the morning, I made an appointment and we met somewhere in Downtown after I was done with my exercises in Talisman.

But before I get to this year’s Stampede’s story, I’d like to write a bit about my car. I was so depressed over having my car broken and my Fri. was completely ruined. I was waiting for the mechanic’s call and after one attempt, he finally called me at about 01:00 PM and asked me to be there before 14:00! I rushed to Chinook C-train Station and pushed myself in one of the cars. The train was full of Stampede fans! When I got there the guy charged me $206! A $110 for the starter and a $85 for labour! Can you believe that? But I didn't have a choice. The car now starts in a blink of an eye and I was handed in a certificate for that starter which guarantees its life for a full year or 20,000 KM.

This year’s Stampede is much more crowded than the previous years that I’ve been to. I missed the last year but was in with Mom in 2004 and she liked it very much. But that was not like this. There were so many pretty girls with Cowboy hats, mini-shorts or mini-skirts and boots that you didn’t know where to look at! We decided to get in to Nashville North, an indoor stage where beer is served and live music is performed but there was an unbelievable huge line. It probably took us more than an hour to get in. So we skip that and went to Indian Village when aboriginal people teepees’ are located and their beautiful and unbeatable dance is performed. But we were late as the dance begins at 01:00 and 07:00 PM. We then went for a supper. P. M. decided to have some steak and we had some very tasty one at The Flat Iron Steak for, I’d say a fair price. We only ordered one and we shared that and that was good enough for two because beans and potatoes are served with that as side orders. I liked the beans but not the potatoes though. We also watched the firework which was good and we took a few photos. We also tried to play some of the numerous games which are usu. presented in Stampede. I tried a few shots of basketball but I missed. There were a 3 shot for 5 bucks and 1 shot for $2. I tried both and got nothing! The basket was placed so high and far, I guess. It was so hard to reach. I saw later that two black guys missed it as well! Then there was a guy who guessed your age, height or weight. If you lost, you’d get nothing but if the guy looses by 2 (for example 2 pounds for weight) you’ll win. I played that one and the guy guessed me lb 201 while I was lb 197 and I won! I took a nice husky doll. But the point here is no matter you win or loose, you’re a looser because you’ve already paid $5 to play and that doll doesn’t cost the guy more than $1, I guess! But because that’s the game which you use the least effort, many people play that and that makes lots of money for the guy. There were an Asian mom and her daughter and they played for mom’s age and they lost! The guy was just right and the girl was so surprised!

We headed out at about 12:15 I guess leaving all pretty and sexy gals behind. But for unknown reason a girl who was coming from the opposite direction said “Bye Sexy!” to me while was passing by! The Erlton-Stampede C-train Station was so full of the people who where waiting for a ride and fortunately I didn’t have to take that. We walked to 15th Ave. and 1st St. where P. M.’s parents were waiting. They gave me a lift to 5th St. and I walked to my car from there.

(Photo: Drummers in Indian Village of Stampede Park are performing one the incredible and exciting performances. Every different dance has it's own pace of drumstick and yelling)

Damn Old Car!

As I'm back on track I'd like to say what happened to me in last weekend which had been planned one month earlier and was partly ruined!
Fri. (July.07.06):
I had planned to watch Stampede Parade this year, almost 6 months ago but I went to gym the night before and when I woke up in the morning I felt so exhausted to go all the way to Downtown, Fri. morning. Then I decided to go a CPL branch to get connected and see what’s happening. I was at 17th and 5th St., where there’s a Shell gas station and after I paid for the gasoline I bought, the damn car didn’t start! 17th Ave. was very busy, full of girls and guys with Cowboy hats and jeans and boots hanging around in the bar or just walking. I asked a Canadian guy to give me a boost and God! some of these guys are so amazing and helpful and it’s kind of surprising in the city called Redneck City and in Stampede time! But the guy parked his giant truck beside my car and we borrowed another guy’s booster cable and tried to start the damn engine but it didn’t. The guy, who lent me the cable, gave me the address of a repair shop. So I talked to the guy in the small store of Shell and they, again, surprisingly let me to leave the car there, while indeed the car blocked their driveway.
I walked to 12th and 12th and talked to the guys and they told me that I had to get the car towed to their repair shop. I tried a few numbers in the Yellow Pages and finally one of them said that he would be there in about an hour. When I got to the gas station again and was buying a bottle of water (You even have to pay for the water here!) I saw the towing guy: A young Canadian fellow with a big black Cowboy hat but very warm and friendly. He asked me to try to start again and when I did, he said that he thought it was the starter. Then he asked me to keep turning the key while he was hitting the starter with a long metal rode. He said it usu. helps. And that’s what I’m saying: The guy didn’t have to try that. He could simply towed my vehicle to the repair shop and left for another customer but spent a few min. of his time to get the car fixed right there. Anyhow he towed my Caprice to the shop while were continuously receiving call! God! what a business! And guess what? He charged me about $86!

The Three Essentials

I just reconnected to Internet a few min. ago. This service is provided by Shaw. So far so good. It was really hard living with no connection. I went to CPL two times but there's no privacy in there. People are like students at the bench in a classroom. I need Internet for online banking, writing to friends, reading my favorite news, job searching, purchasing and many more. And obviously you can't do them all in a lib. Not because of lack of privacy but your time is limited there (you get only 1 hour a day) the system is slow, etc.
I believe that there are three essentials here that life without them will be a misery: A reliable car, a mobile phone with considerable air time and a fast bug-free Internet service. Even a house is not as important as the said ones. You can rent a nice place. But wait a sec. I forgot something! May be I should say the four vitals! The forth is a good partner! Am I right? No priority is assumed for the first three ones.

Elderly People

I usually see very old people who follow their routines like younger ones here. They drive, do shopping, go to the restaurants and other public places and simply put, they live their life. But at times it’s drastically harmful to me to see an old lady is challenging to get a pack of pope out of the shelf or taking his bag of grocery to his vehicle. Elderly people even have their own residential properties. I don’t think they feel really happy in there but that’s how they live and that’s how their parents and ancestor used to live. Children barely visit their parents after they leave home unless it’s Christmas, New Year or any other occasion like that. But honestly people age here later than people in Asia, Africa or Latin America. I guess it’s all about the style of life. I may get to that later.

Today (Thu. It's after midnight now!) I was to Chinook Mall to do a little shopping for my new damn ugly rented apartment and noticed an old lady stepped out of Shopper's Drug Mart with a few bags. She was really old and I can’t even tell how old she was but probably in her late 60s. As soon as I saw her I said: “Do you need a hand with that, Ma’am?” and I grabbed the three bags of her. She thanked and said that she was not feeling good and just had her prescription from the Mart. I followed her to her Trucker, she opened the lid and I put the bags in. She was very happy and thanked me again and extended her arm toward me. We shocked hand and I left while I felt terribly bad and I still have the same feeling. The poor old lady was suffering form the heat and probably not taking her medication and there was no one to help her.

Moved

My moving story takes a whole lot of time to be narrated. And it's quite an interesting one as well, like most of the things happen to me! I'm writing this from Keiv's desktop at his condo apartment which has been bought a few weeks ago for almost $270,000. House prices has jumped up recently in Calgary as a result of booming economy of province of Alberta. Keiv's is a two bedroom, two bedroom in a condo complex. It has a large bedroom with a built-in bathroom and one small bedroom. You could buy this for $150,000 almost a year ago!

I'm not connected at home now and have to find a good deal. keiv got a nice HP desktop with an amazing flat thin monitor. This is what happened:

Fri.:

I directly went to Okotoks after I finished work to borrow Ali G.’s truck. He was not home when I got there and found out that he’s at the golf course practicing! I went there and waited for almost half an hour for him to finish the balls, unwillingly! Then we went back to the house and he prepared a false selling contract, we signed it and after having my number plate I drove away to fill it up. I bought a few dollars gas and inflated the tire and was ready to drive home but noticed that the gauge hasn’t moved, even an epsilon! I thought this freaky gauge is as strange as mine and called him immediately to find out what’s wrong. He explained that the truck, an old Ford F-150, got two fuel tanks, front and rear. There’s a problem with the rear one and that was the one which had been filled up by me! I didn’t have any other choice, I drove to his house, lifted him and we both went to the gas bar and this time I bought gasoline for the front tank!

Then I drove all the way to Downtown Calgary to pick up HY. but as I didn’t know his exact address I went to 15 Ave. parked somewhere and called him. He didn’t answer and I was going to get to somewhere and this time the damn truck didn’t start! I didn’t know what to do! I called Ali G. and he didn’t know anything as well but the charger which I explained to him that I left it at home. I got back to the truck and tried again and this time: Boom! It started. I called HY. again and found him but when I shut off the engine to go to his apartment I didn’t know that the same problem would happen: The damn truck didn’t start again. Then I asked HY. to ask for help from his neighbors. We went upstairs and talked to a black guy probably from Sudan. HY, surprisingly started talking to him in Arabic! When I asked him when he learnt to speak that language he said that the guys of Bandar-e-Abbas who frequently travel to U. A. E. speak this language very well. I have to tell HY’s story once while I don’t know much about him. He’s been living away for more than 20 years as he said once. He’s a slow but nice and kind guy.

Anyhow the Sudanese guy helped us to ignite the damn engine again, using his booster cables. We rushed back to the house and loaded it but when we were done and ready to jump, again the truck didn’t start. Ali G. showed up with battery charger this time after a few calls we exchanged. He started the truck easily and shut it off and left. When we were ready to leave, we faced the same problem again! That was unbelievable! We plugged the charger in and connected it to the battery but even that one didn’t help. That was because we thought may be the charger is out of power but that was not it. We waited until 11:45 PM and that was the moment that Ali G. was about to come again and drive us to a C-Train station or somewhere so we can go home and sleep. I was on the phone while HY. got in and started: Boom! The truck started at the first time. HY. said that I didn’t turn the key all the way and didn’t push the accelerator enough! I, then, noticed that he was right. That was my own fault all the time but I didn’t say anything about that to neither Ali G. nor HY!

Sat. (Canada Day) :

I loaded the truck all by myself and then called Keiv to meet me somewhere close to the apartment. He helped me to unload the truck and then I requested him to live. He didn’t seem much happy because it takes almost 45 min. may be more to get to my place and the same amount of time to get back and that was all for a 20-25 min. help! Then when I got back Hojam, Bahram and his son were there according to our appointment and they helped me to pick the last load and the unload it.

The landlord was so mad by the time we finished our job there. He asked me to do the cleaning and install the buzzer that I took out before I go. I really don’t wanna write about that idiot but mentioning that I cleaned everything perfectly and installed the buzzer aftermath.

It was very late when I got home and as I had planned I decided to go and watch firework as that was the only thing I could do in the 139th birthday of Canada! When I got to Spiller Road, God! There were so many vehicles parked that I couldn’t believe my eyes. That’s a road which barely someone takes or park in but people all gathered to see Canada Day’s firework at Stampede Park. I had to make a loop around and get back to the same place. Police were present everywhere directing people and vehicles. I went up the hill of graves in Union Cemetery and there was nobody there but damn mosquito! They bit me all over my arms! I didn’t have a view as good as the one the people down there had but I had a good view of Downtown and Calgary Tower which could be seen from there with blazes over it. The firework started at 10:40 PM (which has been scheduled for 10:30 PM) and ended at about 10:54 PM and was very nice. I have never had so close but thought that would be much better if I was free tonight and would have been there earlier. I took several photos with my own camera and have to wait and see how they are. I had P. M.’s digital camera but that is just a piece of junk in such circumstances.