Stupid, Lying Pervert

There's this guy that I've known him before the training started. A group of of us got matched by the training center before going to the in-person training to practice on some minor topics. Despite a good start, our relationship was faded away after only 3 weeks or less. I think race played a major role although he pretended that it didn't have to do anything with that. 

I'm not a cellphone guy and for that I normally responded late to his messages but then he did the same and there was no exchange anymore after that. 

I then realized that he hang out more with girls than men(!), hugging them, kissing them and touching them on butt and everywhere else! I was quite surprised to see him acting like a pervert especially when he's married with one little kid and one of the women is divorced with two kids! 

This as*hole started lying from the get-go! He said that he was making $200,000 a year but there was something that he felt he was missing in life and decided to join the training (at the age range of 40-45!) to find what he was missing (with a newborn kid less than 2 year-old!). Then as a liar usually has a short memory, he one day forgot that he had lied and said that he had been a home-dad for over a year! 

one time he became aggressive and insulting as well but I shut him down by simply saying " Calm Down " because I know if anything happens, they take his side and I'm out of here in a matter of minute! 

This guy is so stupid that he says he drinks black coffee with no sugar because sugar is bad for him but drinks glasses of chocolate milk (which is loaded with sugar) every freaking day! His idiocy is not limited only to that. I usually eat lots of vegetables when it's either dinner or lunch and this goes and asks: What do vegetables have?! 

I once wanted to say something to him but I decided to keep my mouth shut. I have come this far. I have a very good chance to finish the program and go to my career after less than 2 months. Why would I ruin such an opportunity by doing something to a stupid, lying pervert?!
The funny thing is once just a few days ago I was talking to the divorced woman, to see if I can get any help from her and I was talking to him very quietly, almost whispering, I noticed that the SLP was kind of trying to see what was going on between the two of us!! He was gazing toward us with big eyes, wide open! I was going to say: Relax man! I'm not going to f*uck this smoker, idiot, ugly woman, if that's what you're concerned about! 

My First Encounter with an Iraqi

I'm going to tell the story of my first direct encounter with an Iraqi. As some might know Iran and Iraq were involved in a bloody war for 8 years, the longest war of the 20th century. The war started in Sep. 1980 with Iraqi forces crossing in to Iran and Iraqi jets attacking different airports across Iran. The latter was what the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, at the time, thought would be a good start. He thought by repeating what had happened in a previous Arab-Israel War, he could gain advantages but unlike that, their air assault was unsuccessful, mostly.

With that in mind I wanted to also add that 8 years of my youth years was spent during those years. I lost a friend and two classmates. Another classmate came back wounded. They were all volunteers. Now after more than 30 years since the war has ended, most of the people have forgotten those years. The new generation barely know anything about it but there's still hostility toward Iraqis within Iranians despite the fact that now Iran basically controls Iraq.

Anyways I met an Iraqi last week and we shock hands after he introduced himself to me. We had a chat. However that might not always be the case. He is a Shia which is the majority population in both Iran and Iraq. These people were discriminated against where Saddam was in power and they were very restricted, which I didn't know to that extent that he told me. He is originally from a small town in southern Iraq where the Shia population lives but that has always been my question and I will ask him the next time I see him:

With the Iraqi Shia population concentrated in south and being supported and even supplied by Iranians, I always wondered why Iran was never able to capture any major southern city of Iraq, mainly Basra where they had a number of attempts. Iranians later were able to surprise Iraqis and capture the port city of Al-Faw but then after nearly 2 years were thrown out by Iraqis. That's where my friend from the university days, A. Dehghan told me that he was fleeing during that attack by Iraqis. Iran had a number of attempts at Basra (including a major one in 1986) and while this city is only 30 Km away from the border and is a Shia majority center, they were never able even to get close to the city. 

At aside, the fella Iraqi told me that has been living in Canada after the American led forces overthrew Saddam. He seemed happy about his life (although his face always shows he's sad!). He has been to different parts of the world but mostly The Third World countries, because he believes that they need money and they let everyone in. I have been thinking of going to Iraq one day. Now I know this fella perhaps I can get assistance from him. Who knows what will happen in that part of the world by the time that I'm ready to go there?!

(Photo: When Iraq invaded in Iran, their intention was to capture the country within a a few weeks. They were driven out. However in the last year of the war, with the help of Americans and French they rebuilt heir armed forces and recaptured the areas which took Iranians 2 to 3 years to liberate, in just about a month or so! Then after the ceasefire in 1988, which was willingly accepted by Iran and a little break, Iraq invaded Kuwait which eventually led to fall of Saddam's regime in 2003. This map shows what Saddam Hussein intended to do by invading his neighbours) 

A Beautiful Fight

The interesting thing about this training center is that people from different backgrounds and all over the country gather together for one goal: To attend the training, graduate and serve the country and of course enjoy the job and benefits. With that being said there are differences between people which at time might lead to disagreements. That is fine until eventually someone turns the disagreement to hostility. That actually happened today and I must admit: It was quite entertaining. 

One of the guys was discussing a question with an instructor and I guess one gal said something to him and he didn't like it and said something in protest to what she had said. The girl in response went: Shut the f**k up! There it was the instructor: Both of you out! And she accompanied them. 

They spent a few minutes out and came back. In some training institutes/school that would have been a different result that just a simple talk. Here, since the employer had already spent thousands of dollars on the students, nothing happens. In fact unless something really bad is done by a students, the training school is quite flexible and open. 

The problem, and it's not with this training center, it's everywhere, is that when people spend a long time together, they build strong friendship or animosity and then one day one of them erupts particularly because people are under stress for too much to study, being away from the loved ones and family, having to have foods that they might not like and other factors. 

That fight, in my personal opinion, was nice and interesting! Too bad it didn't last longer. I have seen other agitated and irritable people here who even said nonsense and stupid things to me but I just simply ignored them! My good is just to focus on the courses and pass the program. Once I'm out, I won't have to even see any of the lowlife retards. The nice ones, will be in my notebook! 

(Photo: I didn't see the faces of the opposite(!) sides but they could have not been that bad. As well, they were not this close!)

Instructors

We have a large number of instructors in our little training center. From bad ones to excellent ones. Similar to any other training school or institute. The good thing is that we get to provide assessment in regards to their performance at the end of each part of the program. I didn't provide anything for the first part because mainly I was busy with doing my re-write. However had I done that, I would have been true and at the same time, should I say, harsh on a number of them. The problem with the training center is ignoring the fact that if someone is a good employee, it doesn't necessarily indicate that he/she could also be a good instructor/trainer as well. 

We have had a number of excellent and phenomenal instructors. You don't even realize how the time passes when they teach. At the same time there are others that are miserable and every 10 minutes you look at your watch to see how much time is left. There was this instructor (whom I'm not going to say anything about the gender, the course was taught by him/her and what other branch he/she works for) who was quite a character. Here are a number of his/her bull's eye performances(!):

1- I don't know what I'm doing (at the start of the class!)

2- Go enjoy your lunch (while smirking and being clearly sarcastic)

3- ... Yeah, I'm going to do that at my branch! (while reading the course material!)

4- Go for break for ... 35 min. ... well 45 min.! Who cares!

With that in mind I remember in one class an instructor, who was talking about corruption, named a big number, a very high dollar value, that the training school suspects that has been lost over a very short period of time as a result of employees not being ethical and such. No wonder why someone talks like that during a course, then! He/she perhaps thinks: I say all sorts of nonsense about my employer but at least I'm not stealing!

There was once another instructor that we only had him for one full day and one course and he was really horrible. The instructors usually ask the students to follow the course material either on the paper format or electronic format. The students are even at time asked to read the material. This one was not only didn't do that but also when I tried to see where he was going, lost him after only a few pages! Later on I realized he was all over the story! Explaining something on page 15 and then jumping on page 36 and then back to 27 and then again up to 45! Fortunately we never had him again and I was able to study and understand the material by myself. The only question I had during that course was asked from different instructors and were never answered! One of them even recommended me to contact another organization/agency! I haven't done that yet and I still don't know the correct answer to that question!

Rising from the Ashes?!

I got the second chance to rewrite my test again the distressful failure I had, this past weekend. I studied a little bit more and of course I'm not going to say even a word about the subjects that I had to focus on but when I started I felt much better but then the climb started! 

The questions started to become harder and I was watching my time. I skipped a few big ones and continued to the end and I realized I still was doubtful about a number of them! 

In a nutshell the test was not easier than the first one. It was just the fact that I had studies a little more. Had I not been the miserable, careless, lazy ass in the first place, I would have passed. 

This was notified to us (the two in the class) today before noon and what's amazing, and I'm appreciated for that, id the support that I got from the classmates and the instructors! A number of instructors reached me either in the class or in the corridors and talked to me and gave me confidence. That was just amazing. Classmates, I have to admit, that they were awesome. A good number of them told me, and I believed them, that they were nervous for me! As per me I was still hopeful but I had doubts that I would pass. Same feeling that I had the first time with the difference that it was a bit better but still wasn't sure. I even packed(!) part of my stuff, cleaned the room and everyone I saw in the mess hall or anywhere told them that I doubted that I would pass. 

If I want to break down the final result and compare the two, this would be depicted as follows: 

Total number of courses: 19.

Number of courses passed in the first take: 7

Number of courses passed in the second take: 13

I must add that even if a student fails one question from one course, that course is considered a fail but not every course has the same number of questions. 

Now I have to focus on the second part of the program. We don't have much time.
(Photo: I use this beautiful painting of Phoenix for this post. I hope the artist does not mind. Courtesy of a young lady artist named Olesea) 

The Result of Being Lazy

We were informed of our half-course test results today and since there's nothing confidential that I'm going to write, I can post what happened.

I was a disgusting lazy the weekend before the examinations, written and practical, and that resulted in failing one of them! The practical examination is comprised of three segments and I was hopeful to pass 2 of them but happily my understanding of the mistake that I had done in the last minute and correcting it helped me to come out with all three accepted results. The written examination that I was hopeful to pass, was actually bad. I failed. I and one classmate are the only ones who have to rewrite the exam within a week while everyone else has already gone to celebrate and relax, starting this afternoon. Only 11.1% of the class failed which is a good result for the instructors.

I started by printing some material and studying one. I know I can do it, just the way that I did the practical exam. I only have to sit my ass down, distance from the computer and study a bit. I'll be fine.

(Photo: This at times is me while at other times I go for lap runs around the training center while everyone is lazing around. This situation could be detrimental at the exam time!)

The Old and New Sanctions

When I went back to the old country in 2008 after more than 6.5 years (which I admit now it was a big mistake and not just for the sake of going there but the purpose of it) I visited a few friends. M. E. was one of them. I later met him in 2014 again, during my 3rd trip to that part of the globe in the past 17 years or so. M. E. is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering in the same school that I did my degree, although that's not why I call him M. E.! That's his initials! Despite of the fact that he was from a religious family, we became friends, particularly in the last years of the university.

Now back to this side of the globe(!), after my return to Canada from the third trip I received an e-mail from him requesting help, once. A technical assistance, perhaps I should say.

His company had participated in a bid and they wanted to build a sort of stack and he wanted to make sure that the stack was resistant to wind. It must have been a long one! I guess that was what he wanted to make sure of. He was looking for a software to perform that calculation. 

My first question was: Aren't you, or anyone in your company, able to calculate that?! Aren't you a graduate of Mechanical Engineering with nearly 20 years of experience?! Of course I didn't ask the questions from him because he's my friend after all. I should stress here that M. E. has always been known as one of the smartest and most prominent graduates of the program. That's why I was surprised. Despite this surprise I contacted a number of the companies and then an American company responded that they would so it. I can't really recall how the company was found or why it was an American company not a Canadian one but I asked M. E. to send me the drawings and he did. I then forwarded them to the company and the answer was interesting and surprising at the same time. The company refused to do the work because of the sanctions imposed on the country at the time, quite similar to the ones that are being imposed now. 

We were both shocked as how they had found about the origin of the drawings and I still don't know how but they must have had methods! 

(Photo: This picture might seem unrelated but this is showing an Iranian oil platform in Persian Gulf when it was attacked by Americans in 1988. The US claimed that Iran used this and other platforms to attack tankers)