The Real Canadian Cold

I wanted to go for my usual jogging tonight so waited until almost 06:00 PM for the traffic getting light. And although I check the weather a few times before going out I thought to myself that it should not be very bad. I put a few layers on and went out. It was brutal! I cleaned up the car and headed for Bow River Pathway. I parked and got out. There was absolutely nobody on the path. It was intolerable! I was out for only 5 freaking min. and that was all! I had to go back to the car and drive back home! The temperature was and still is around -17 degrees C which the wind chill brings it down to -28 degrees C! The wind is of course always worse by the river. A Monkey Hat would help but what the hell! It's funny that I was thinking of going to Jasper this weekend! I don't think it will be possible!

A Redneck Stupid Disgusting Woman

There's this woman who was hired shortly after I was employed and was placed in the work station next to me. We do not work in the same discipline but she was located there in the beginning for a few weeks or months, I don't remember exactly as it was quite a long time ago, due to limited available space.

This fucking whore is crazy: Talking to herself, laughing hysterically loudly, you name it.

She gets a Starbucks coffee in the morning, of course before stepping in the office and then warms it up in the microwave to drink it!
Once we were talking and somehow we got to this discussion of buying property in this city and I go: It's not very good idea to live here forever due to its extreme arctic weather condition, 8 months long winters, etc. The bitch says: Yes! You should leave the city soon! It's obvious she has a problem with foreigners. But how the hell can you make me leave the city moron?! How about thousands more who live here and has no plan to leave? East Indians, Lebanese who have been living here for generations and few of them do not even speak their native language but know themselves as Lebanese still, Chinese who have their own Chinatown and don't even have Canadian passport! Lots of Pakistanis and Afghans!! What are you going to do about them, bitch? Don't you fucking think it's too late to change the society by telling one person, your colleague, to go!? 

One days, months after the dialogue, I was about to recycle a piece of paper and lifted the recycle bin's lid. I noticed somebody's Driver's Licence copy on the top of other papers just torn to half. I looked and it was hers! I thought to myself: how could she be so fucking stupid to reveal her personal information to everyone like that!? There is a shredder next to the bin! Indeed you're a fucking goofball. If someone wants to misuse the information you gave him/her the opportunity. 

Back to the Old Country: Day 5 (Fri. 02-Oct-14)

*** This is a postponed post ***

Woke up early because we had been to bed early. Fri. Is a disastrous day in Isfahan, I should say. The majority of the businesses either public or private are closed, I would say 99%. We just spent our time on chores. I turned the old PC of The Lady and we did a clean up for that. Then she wanted to scan a bunch of documents of hers and her siblings from the time they had been to primary school, junior, etc.  A few of the documents belong to the time that I had not been born! Food, or better to say homemade meal is usually the best time of the day in Iran. For today’s lunch we had Barely- Mushroom Soup and Eggplant-Whey Meal, both incredibly delicious.

I call this photograph The perishing and the unborn. I took it from the small garden of my in-laws in Isfahan. For other flower photographs from different places refer to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/49680327@N05/sets/72157646483091865/

In the afternoon I thought I should take a walk in the city so I got out around 03:00 PM. It was like you were walking in a graveyard! There was barely anyone on the street. It was a bit hotter than the previous days. I went all the way to where Zayandeh-Rood is supposed to be. It was very disappointing and sad to see the river is dried up. I don’t know what the real reason is but I've heard there are dams that authorities of other provinces use them for their province’s purposes. Let’s not discuss stuff like this here because the number of problems are so high that they cannot be simply discussed here in one or two posts.

(Photo, top: I took this picture before getting into cab where we had been to do a few administrative stuff. I do not know the name of the rock, unfortunately)

Planet of the Apes

I was finally able to see a good movie after a few disappointing ones (Godzilla, Fury) but this one is a movie from 46 years ago which I bought from HMV: Planet of the Apes. It is such a brilliant movie that makes it hard to believe that it has been made over 4 decades ago!

Most of the elements in the movie are awesome. A great location is chosen, although even for me who has never been to Grand Canyon, it didn't take long to realize they are there. The story is good and the acting is acceptable for the time. The dialogues of the movie, especially for someone who his first language is not English is a bit hard to understand because they use the words and terms which are barely used in today's conversations. 

A question might be what is the sequence of 1) Planet of the Apes, 2) Rise of the Planet of the Apes and 3) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, while they are other movies in the franchise as well? There is no doubt that movies number 2 and 3 above come after another with the same sequence and there might be a few others that I haven't seen yet and the last one should be this recent movie, Planet of the Apes because according to the movie decades has passed and it is the era of the apes and humans are considered animals and they are all mute! It's a very interesting ending to a civilization! 

The star of the movie is Charlton Heston who was  a big actor at his time and I have seen Soylent Green of him which I like a lot but he owes his fame to playing bigger roles in movies such as The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur which I have not seen any and not interested in watching either. Now that I have seen this one, I'm interested to see the rest and I'm hoping a sequel to Dawn of the Planet of Apes is made.
In Rise of the Planet of Apes, the animals, the apes evolve based on a gen therapy and become able to performs activities which require wisdom. Bright Eyes is the first specimen of this kind. In Planet of the Apes, the apes thinks the one guy that they call him Bright Eyes has evolved and become able to talk! The sentence Get your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape! is used in both films and both times by humans but in Rise of the Planet of the Apes it is the animal control shelter guy who uses it against Ceasar while in Plant of the Apes, Heston's character uses it against his ape captors. It is obvious that these coincidences are intentional to make people connect between the movies. I would highly recommend this to anyone who like science-fiction and give it 4 out of 5 stars.  

(Photo: The scene in the movie when the spacecraft crashes into water was filmed in Lake Powell in Colorado. Here you see the film crew and actors. Heston is easily recognizable in his white spacesuit on the left)

Changes in Weather

It was said that this last Sep. was one of the warmest in Canada. I didn't feel so much warmth particularly when I went to the old country. The weather was not hot and intolerable. Unlike Sep. and Nov., this month, Oct. started itself with rain and snow right from the beginning. 

I went for a little walk yesterday and it was lightly raining but I got socked after a few minutes. So I went back and put proper clothing on so I could have a longer walk. 

I started from Stanley Park and headed south. By the time I reached Sandy Beach Park, the snow had been changed significantly by mother nature! You could barely see around yourself and in a few minutes the ground was covered with a layer of snow. 

I noticed something moved very fast when I was at St. Mary's Cemetery looking over part of the city and Mission Road. It was this little cute bunny. I could not get closer and having this little camera did not give me a better shot.

Unfortunately the trial is closed after the Sandy Beach Park. The City is doing some renovation, alteration and construction in the area. In that point I was at Calgary Golf & Country Club which, of course a private property and I could not cross into it. My initial plan was to walk all the way to North Glenmore Park but for that I had to walk Elbow Dr. until I pass the mentioned golf club and get into the Elbow River Pathway again and that is what I did not want to do, especially because my socks were socked! I had this old New Balance runners of mine on and of obviously they are not good for this type of weather. Therfore I headed back and got into the car. The entire walk took some 01:40 h which was not a very back exersice but I need more. 

(Photo, top: This is part of the Sandy Beach Park. I had not been to this part of Elbow River Pathway before but I have to say that it must be interesting and beautiful to have walks and jogs in summer here)

German Trip (9): Königsplatz and Propylaen

Munich is the birthplace of National Socialist German Worker's Party and there are still many buildings which have survived the fatal battles of the WWII and remind of German Nazis presence from late 1930s to mid 1940s. Berlin, of course, was damaged more intensively compare to other German cities and town but I don't know how Germans were resisting during the Allies invasion. I do not remember much about Koln as I didn't get the chance to view all around it due to being with a fucking jerk in my trip to that city but I will check at least 2 or 3 other German cities including Berlin and will read about them. 

Konigplatz or King Place or better to translate to English The King's Square is one of the places in the city that has surviving buildings which were very liked by the Nazis and is still standing after 69 years of war and 152 years passing their construction. The place's history goes back to King Ludwig's era. He was one of Bavaria's kings that you see and here a lot about him in different place of the city including the Residenz and Nymphenburg Palace. Propylean which is a city gate in the complex of Konigplatz evokes an entrance by the same name in Acropolis of Athens. 

This picture selected from the Internet, a website called The Third Reich in Ruins shows Hitler's bodyguard unit marching through Propylean in Nazi era. 

There is also a museum in this neighbourhoad but I didn't visit it as I had already spent too much money! This place and its magnificence, as I stated earlier was a place for Nazi marches and Hitler even hosted Mussolini once. Getting to Konigplatz is easy as there is an U-Bahn station with the same name nearby.

(Photo, top: Propylaen gate in Konigplatz. Today there are traffic lights and raods around this gate but no car can actually go through it)