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Thursday, April 29, 2004
Kafkaesque
........................................................................................ I always thought Kafka's The Metamorphosis was strange until I read the Judgment. The Judgment is much shorter than the Metamorphosis and no one is transformed into a gigantic bug in this one but I have a hard time understanding it. Is it me or this story is not as well developed as the Metamorphosis? Perhaps the fact that Kafka wrote this in one sitting, from 10 PM to 6 AM of the following day, explains it all. But I must be overlooking some important details. I know if I read it as much as I can I'll come to a realization but I don't have time to do that. So I've gone to library and brought home every single book about Kafka and the Judgment. Everyone finds it funny that I seriously plan to read them all. As if it's impossible to read ten 300-400 page books in two day.
P.S. When I was searching for a picture of Kafka using Yahoo! Image Search, I saw a whole lot of random pictures. The strangest one was that of a big, black dog. The file was named Kafka so I figured it was its name. How absurd is that? To name your dog Kafka! at 12:45 AM by negar Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Spring in Texas
 This is one of Texas Paint Brushes I photographed on a cool, wet day in early April. These and Bluebonnets and a whole bunch of other wild flowers grow in East, South and Central Texas every spring. This is a picture of a Bluebonnet for Nazanin. I found this one on the web but it somehow resembles my picture. Or I think it does.  at 10:13 PM by negar
Guess who's back!
........................................................................................All right, I'm convinced. I can't go on without this weblog anymore. My decision upon quitting for a while distracted me rather than helping me focus. I'm happy I tried it though. This few days of not blogging were not totally useless. I got to start reading Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, which is a very boring book by the way, and some Kafka stories for my literature project. Also I started preparing for my finals. That means that I've found all of my text books and piled them up next to my bed! The next step to "prepare" for finals is to find out when they are and that's something I plan to do tonight! Anyhow, I'd like to thank those who encouraged me to write again. at 8:48 PM by negar Saturday, April 17, 2004 ........................................................................................ Friday, April 16, 2004
Yet, another link!
I promise this is going to be the last link I post today. Not that I think it's annoying, I just don't have time to find more links with interesting content!!! Some people buy domains for a good cause. at 1:34 PM by negar
In other news...
........................................................................................The Bush-Cheney 2004 camp recently began airing an anti-voter ad in 20 major urban areas nationwide. "Are you going to vote for a candidate whose campaign promises would cost America $1.9 trillion over the next decade?" the ad asks. "Of course you aren't. You aren't going to vote at all. In the last election, half of you didn't even show up. So, on Nov. 2, just spend the day right there at your dead-end office job, talking to your coworkers about your new sweater and e-mailing your friends photos of your stupid 2-year-old daughter you shouldn't have had." The ad concludes: "You make me sick." Source!!!: Onion at 1:12 PM by negar Wednesday, April 14, 2004
New Mantra
........................................................................................"I shall paint my nails pink," I kept repeating to myself after we dropped off my sister at the airport. I don't know how it came to my mind. I had no intention to do anything with my nails. And even if I did, why would I choose pink? The color that I hate so much! Then I said something that strikes me as quite strange. "I shall paint my nails pink and come to kill you," I said without having anyone in mind. Just a few minutes ago I found myself whispering it to myself again. Then I realized that unconsciously I've stolen half of my new mantra from a poem I had read a few months earlier. I Shall Paint My Nails Red Because a bit of colour is a public service. Because I am proud of my hands. Because it will remind me I'm a woman. Because I will look like a survivor. Because I can admire them in traffic jams. Because my daughter will say ugh. Because my lover will be surprised. Because it is quicker than dying my hair. Because it is a ten minute moratorium. Because it is reversible. -Carole Satyamurti The killing part, however, is an original work and that's what scares me. Should you ever see me wearing pink nail polish (toenails don't count), make sure I'm not there to kill you. at 1:42 AM by negar Tuesday, April 13, 2004
At the end of a conversation...
........................................................................................- Wait a minute! - What? - I want to make sure you don't think of me in a different way after all I've told you. - [silence] - Damn it. You do! - [long pause] Take care and sleep tight. Bye. - [sigh] Bye. at 12:50 AM by negar Monday, April 12, 2004 It's 1:06 AM and I'm starting to write a paper over a book called Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism which is due tomorrow morning. You can't imagine how much fun I'm having at the moment. This paper is supposed to be 3 pages. It's 1:52 AM and I've written only one page. I'm so distracted and tired that I keep forgetting my thesis statement so I find myself arguing against it. Sometimes it's really NOT ok to contradict yourself. I should learn that. Why in the world am I writing this post while I should be thinking about LBJ's Great Society? I really don't know. Alright, I should stop. at 1:58 AM by negar Saturday, April 10, 2004
I can't think of a title for this post
........................................................................................It's been already six days since my last post. I was quite busy on Monday and Tuesday and after that I went into a feel-like-doing-nothing state. Which happens to me frequently without any particular reason. Actually, I'm still in the mentioned state but I'm forcing myself to write because I know if I don't force myself out of this I will spend the rest of my life staring at my beloved 52" TV. By the way, we now get this 20 some Iranian channels. I'm happy because I'll get to watch some new Iranian movies and also soccer games. Other than this, they are truly annoying. I mean I'm rather shocked by their tastelessness. The ugliest graphics and backgrounds, the most disgusting commercials (especially for dentists), the phoniest smiles and facial gestures, the cheapest music videos and oh yes, the worst hair colors I've seen in the past few years. Why are they so obsessed with blonde hair color? It seems to me that they are under the impression that blondes are the superior race and now that God has been bad to Iranians by giving them dark hair, they have to take action. No matter how unattractive most of them look with that yellowish, cheap blonde hair. That's one reason I love IRIB so much. In IRIB you don't see a fifty-ish, yellow haired woman wearing something that you can only find in the "Girls" section of department stores. Another good thing about IRIB is their program listing. That means that they know what program they are airing at what time. They even let you know how long this particular show is before it starts. Now, this US based channels have no respect for the viewer. Yesterday I was watching a pretty good movie. At the climax of the film they cut away to commercials eventhough it's right in middle of a scene. You never see that happen in American channels but that's ok. I wait. Yes, restaurant in Dubai, phone card, dentist, supermarket in Dubai, Googoosh's new album, concert in Dubai, rug cleaners, blah blah blah. After 15 minutes of commercial there was no sign of the movie. A News Show was on air for at least 1 full hour, perhaps more than that. I was so angry that I had lost track of time. To make a long story short, I should say that the rest of the film was never aired. At least it wasn't for the next two or three hours that I was home. How's that for annoying? at 7:15 PM by negar Sunday, April 04, 2004
What and Euphrates?
Now I call others stupid. But I'm no genius myself! Last week I had a Global Village exam and for 75 minute I was trying to remember what was the name of the other river. I was so frustrated that I was about to write "Dejleh & Euphrates"! I thought if I went through alphabet I would remember what letter it starts with. So I started "A, B, C, D...D? No, not D...E, F,..., J? Nah!, K, L, M,..., W, X, Y, Z, Z? That's all? Are you sure that's the whole alphabet?" so I did it again and I got no results. I tried to picture Iraq's map. "Ok, so there's Iraq. Here are two rivers. One is labeled Euphrates. Good. And the other one...oh crap! It doesn't have a name!" so I gave up on my visual memory. I tried getting the auditory part of my brain working. "What and Euphrates?!" I asked myself once. Twice. Again. No, it wasn't working at all. As if Westerners didn't know about such river so there was no name for it in English. Finally I turned in my exam and totally forgot about it. Just a few minutes ago I was reading Nazanin's post about her Tiger And I went "Aaah! That's it! Tigris! Tigris!!!" Yes, I finally remembered but that was considerably late. at 11:13 PM by negar
Mitra: Your Persian Master!!!
........................................................................................Persian boys are only good for slavery, then when you're done with them, gotta give them the flick. Quote from Mitra's article. On Friday, while I was spending my time staring at the clock in the Student Health Center (I have a bad sinus infection), this was published on The Iranian. I just read it and I'm very offended by her use of profanity. I mean you don't expect something like that to be published in Iranian. I thought what is sent to Iranian is evaluated against a standard and then it gets approved. Well I was wrong. I don't know why Mitra wrote this. She hasn't made a new point except that she wants to make it clear that eventhough "[her] English is bad" she can cuss all right. She didn't even dare to answer any of my questions, she just gave a link to my weblog to tell her readers how controversial her article has been. Good job Mitra! You wrote a controversial piece of crap. There's not much in her second article that I could respond to. Any mature reader will find out that it was written by a sex obsessed teenager or a woman with incredibly childish behavior. She suggests to her fans to live their lives. Because the right person will eventually come along and they'll know he's the right person. Hmmm...I've heard that one before! Doesn't he ride a white horse also? Mitra! Maybe you watched too many romantic comedies and read too many fairy tales. By the way, how does this advice of yours go with the rest of the discussion? I don't want to comment on your lifestyle because I think it's none of my business eventhough you insist on making it everyone's business. Again what bothers me is her over generalization. Mitra! You say most Iranian guys are stupid. You also said in your last article that it was the first time you dated an Iranian guy. So what's the basis of your claim? How many Iranian guys do you know in total? What fraction of say 30,000,000 living Iranian men is that number? You can do the math, can't you? Afterall you're very educated! She claims our productive age is 15-50. Who says so? Productive in what way? Maybe she means reproductive! Her mind seems to revolve around sex and that's why to her everyone below 15 and above 50 is useless. Grow up! There's much more to life than sex. However she gives some good advice at the end: Go see the world, play a sport, write for your local magazine, educate yourself, read books. Do something productive. What was the last book you read Mitra? (I'm just curious) at 3:05 AM by negar
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