Feb., Not a Good Month of Running Practice

Today is the last day of Feb. and I didn't have much chance to do my regular running exercises. There are three reasons involved:
1- The running track is most of the time – actually the best time of the day – occupied by different teams. Yesterday it was occupied from 6 to 9, the time most of the athletes are willing to run. Today it was occupied by Canmore Eagles from 4 to 5 and that was fortunately only the 2 inside lanes and then from 6 to 9 again by others.
2- I was sick for a few days and couldn't attend my regular exercises.
3- I had a trip to BC and that took 3 days from me.
So I only had 9 days this month and got my best time (10:59:574) in this month. I only made 6 laps and got tired soon. I also noticed that my wrist watch’s pin is gone today. Actually I lost its guard, the plastic ring that protects the watch from shocks a few days ago when I was in BC and today the pin that makes you able to switch between the options was gone and I’m no longer able to use the stopwatch (the chronometer), the alarms, etc. That’s actually a very old watch and I like that a lot. I bought it years ago when I was in Iran. I paid a little more than 70,000 Rls for it and that was 13 years ago. It was a lot of money for a G-Shock Casio wrist watch on that time but worst it.

Squamish

I flew to Vancouver in the early morning of Sat. to meet with A. J. and talk about the job offer he made a few weeks ago when we were talking on the net or phone. He’s running a small construction company and has a few projects in hand. There are two big houses in district of Squamish, a small town between Vancouver and Whistler, which are about to be finished. He has bought two old houses in the same town which are going to be demolished and rebuilt after he gets building permit form the municipality. A few more old houses in other parts of great Vancouver have been bought and they are all going to be re-built soon. What he wants me to do is to work as a kind of project coordinator or project controller for him. You could also call it site supervisor.
I really am tired of this shity life now and all I want to do is to work for a few months or years and then go back home and may be live there happily forever! Loneliness is the worst part of my life. At the same time A. J. and some others that I usu. talk to prevent me from going back there.
I have that CF job still in process but I’m not really optimist. Who knows what would happen in 2 years? I have to tell A. J. that whether or not I’m going there. I had one interview today at 01:00 PM with a recruiter of the company I used to work for. The recruiter told me that he would call me. If I’m hired with them, they want me back as a supervisor but that’s too far from happening. I used to work for them for about 4 and a half year and they never gave me the opportunity to show my capabilities and talents. Why would they give it to me now? I also had to start a job which I attended the orientation last Fri. That one is a machinist position for a manufacturing company which supplies drilling equipment to the oil and gas industry. They provide the full training. I was introduced to them by Randstad but the problem is that’s a night shift job, starts at 11:00 PM and finishes at 07:00 AM. So I didn’t go!
I always called me a tough guy, a warrior and a challenger. Now I don’t fucking understand why the fuck I’m so weak emotionally and mentally. I have being paid EI since when I was found eligible and have no financial problem but not having a good job, loneliness and being single and uncertain future is killing me.

(Photo: I took this from the sun deck of number 2022, one of the two big houses which are being built in Balsam Way, Squamish. Scenic)

Bad Luck or What?

Ioana from Randstad called me last week and said that there was a possible opportunity as a Maintenance Assistant and asked if I was willing to try that. My answer was positive. She sent me all the information through e-mail. The interview was set for yesterday, Tue., Feb.20.

At first I was wondering why it is set for Tue. and not Mon. Then I found out that Mon. is Family Day and a statutory holiday in Alberta. When I went to the Government building regarding the problem I had with an employer, I was quite surprised: Half of the building was closed! That’s a Government building and because that was not a national holiday, they were working although it was very quite. There were only 1 or 2 customers around. At the same time some provincial employees work in the same building and they were off! Same story in the city: Banks and companies were closed but Canada Post mail deliverers were working because they are Federal Government employees.
Anyways that was the story of Family Day that doesn't mean anything to me. My interview was set for 10:00 AM yesterday. So I left home a little early in order to be able to find the place. When I tried the address in Google Maps, the number of the building, 5201, didn’t come up. That was not a good sign. Then when I get to the street that the building was supposed to be there, I didn’t find it. It was almost 09:30 and I had half an hour to find the place. I decided to call Ioana and ask her but I noticed that I didn’t have her number in my mobile phone directory. I was going to go back home to give her a call and suddenly the mobile rang. That was her! She told me that she had received a call from the employer indicating that the position was filled during the weekend and apologized!
So what do you call this now? Bad luck or what? I try to get whatever that keeps me employed and brings me income but seems that nothing is working for me.

An Slow Process

I contacted my file manager a few times and as I didn’t receive an answer, decided to go to the recruiting centre and see what is going on. I was told, over there that the person has been moved and there’s a new file manager. They gave me his card. I e-mailed him and there was no answer and then I called twice and left massages. I finally received a reply to my e-mail.

I was told that there are missing information and I have to complete that. The said needed information then came in an envelope. When I opened it and went through, I noticed so many syntax errors and funny mistakes. Sofla which is part of my mother’s surname had been changed to Sofia and known as her nickname probably! I used to work for a company called Almase Saz Co. for about a year and I mentioned that in the form. That company turned to be a government company for unknown reasons! My place of birth has been written Iraq instead of Iran and so many other errors!

I wrote a letter in three pages and corrected everything. Then I went to the recruiting centre to deliver that. The officer in reception desk went in and came back with an old lady after about 10 min.! I noticed that she’s the one who entered all the information and got the errors from the computer! Fortunately the little old lady, probably in her late 60s, was a very nice one. I sat with her for about 15 min. and we double checked everything. When I asked why Security Clearance takes about 2 years (That’s what I heard at the beginning and was mentioned by the new file manager again) she said that is the maximum time. She said that she just received one which had been sent in Apr. of ’06. So that is for everyone not only for me. But I think mine takes longer as I wasn't born in Canada. I mean it takes 2 years or more or get stuck somewhere. But there’s no other choice. I have to wait if I want to join CF. Besides I have enough time to make myself ready for the interview if I’m lucky enough to stay in shape after 2 years! I went to the gym for the first time in three days of sickness (I had a very bad cold) and only was able to make 5 laps out of 10 I usually do! I’m not recovered completely yet. But I simply am able to beat the time they want from me.

Degraded to Class 4

I got my class 4 driver’s license after a long struggle with bunch of idiots and fuckers and also after pre-failing(!) my attempt for a class 2! I was doing very well according to what the trainer told me in the first week but then in the first day of the second week, they sent me home because I was not wearing my glasses! And then in the second day, after we finished the daily prectice, they asked me to go home and come back in 3 months(!) if I’m ready enough! That was because I passed 3 red lights(!) and then I was turning right without seeing a car approaching, according to what the trainer said! They also told me that they received a call from Calgary Police Service indicating what I did at the traffic lights! I can try another company which provides the same sort of training for the same job but I’m not goingto. Because first of all they might be in touch with each other and have a kind of black list and secondly I think I’m simply not good at this job. It’s a very risky job especially in winter. The life of less or more than 20 kids are in the hands of the driver. Besides he or she has to wake up very early to get the bus ready every morning and everyone knows how that feels in winter when snow is falling down or other extreme weather conditions are in effect.
So I decided to give a cab company a try. I need a class 4 to drive a cab. I was trying to use the same written test I had for class 2 because it was paid by the company but I couldn’t get the copy so I went and wrote the test for class 4 and passed. Then I went for the road test and in order to do that I went to the same person who took me for class 5 a few years ago. He failed me in the first time. I was good in everything except for turning left at an intersection, according to what he said. But he was not very tough the second time and I passed. He earned $150 altogether for this test and I don’t know what portion goes to his pocket directly. Then another issue came up! I didn’t have a medical exam and I took a copy of the one I did with the bus school company to do my road test but that is not acceptable by the fucking registries! So I went and I did another medical exam. I asked around for a fair price and I received different quotes from $75 to $110 and finally get one for only $30! I went to a registry and got my interim license immediately after the medical.
Then in the morning of today I went to a City of Calgary authority to see how I get a cab permit. That’s completely crazy. I pay $475 for a one week course and then a $75 to $100 for some shit called Defensive Driver’s Certificate and if I pass both of them, then I pay another $75 to get my permit! What’s funny is there’s no guarantee that you get a job after getting that piece of permit because obviously cab companies are independent form the City of Calgary and Government of Alberta! So you may spend almost $650 and get nothing at the end. I think there’s a demand but I’m not sure. I’m going to call the companies tomorrow. Another funny and stupid thing is, as I said earlier, everyone here tries to screw you in the hardest way he or she is able to! These guys told me if they don’t hear from me tomorrow, they will delete my file! Because they say to themselves: OK. This guy is here let’s give him the binder and make $475. We don’t fucking care what’s he up to, has money or not. Let’s screw him now because we might not be able to reach him later! So that fucking class 4 driver’s license have already costed me more than $200 with no benefit. My problem is I don’t know what I’m goin’ to do! I just grab whatever I find because the one I really want to do, the CF job, is completely silent and I can’t even talk to my file manager. I also can not be sitting all day long doing nothing and all the interviews I attended have brought me nothing. So I don’t know if I want to spend another $650 for something that I’m not sure I will be doing.

Religion: The Absolute Bullcrap in any Format

I had heard a lot about The Last Temptation of Christ years ago when I used to be a university student. I heard that it was even banned in some Christian countries. So once I borrowed that from a friend and watched. Obviously I didn't get much because first of all like most of the movies we used to get in Iran it had a very low sound and picture quality and secondly I was really good at English, I mean considering that it was a good VHS tape, I wouldn't be able to understand much. And the last but not the most, I had to watch it, hiding from my family because of the explicit scenes in the movie. I really didn't find what the director or the writer; Nikos Kazantzakis wants to say, in a nutshell.
I rented the DVD finally the weekend before and got completely disappointed. That’s one hundred bullshit. The movie or the book is obviously is an autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew (Why is a Jew become a prophet for Christians? I don’t know!), who all of a sudden became a prophet and gathers a bunch of followers called apostles and … Jesus returns the dead people to life, makes blinds able to see again, get crucified and returns back to normal life, get married and have family and children and dies like a normal human. I didn't even know that such a crap would make people angry to ban a book or a movie. I mean we have the same crap, in a way worst and in a way better in Islam, with all those big lies and stories which are just good to deceive villagers and the ones who actually deprived of a healthy mind. So what made them to ban a stupid movie like that? I don’t know and I don’t care. Religion is just a bunch of stupid misty beliefs in any form. Listen to what I heard from someone whom I know for quiet a short time:
There’s a guy in his early 50s whom first was seen by me in Talisman. I call him here F. J. He recognized my previous nationality through my necklace and ever since we say hi and great. He is kind of a boss to a government organization which helps newcomers. I went to the gym a little late and as soon as I stepped on the track I saw him waving at me. I went to him and very unexpectedly he started a chat, talking about his past. He mentioned that he’s Bahaee in his story. I don’t care who follows what and as long as he’s not an extremist or not a close friend of mine, I’m fine. What he said about his religion is really funny and just a stupid scum believe in that. He said if you ask what Americans are famous for in the world, everybody would say, for example, they landed man on the moon, they did that, they did this (Just follow his philosophy!). If you ask what Jews have done so far for the world, people will say they have Einstein, Isaac Newton, this, that. And finally and most importantly if you ask what Iranians have done for the world, everyone says they introduced Bahaeeism to the world!
I have seen different people from different parts of the world and different Iranians with different background but have never seen such a scum with such a fucking stupid idea! But I didn't say anything or teased him because in this part of the world you need everyone. I've already cut off with too many people because of their stupid behavior and that’s enough.

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)