a glance

Murderer

2007-01-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

The following is a few paragraphs from the book "My name is red" written by Orhan Pamuk. The following paragraphs are words of a murderer in the story. I found the passage rather beautiful!!!

Let's consider a piece by Bihzad, the master of masters, patron saint of all miniaturists. I happened across this masterpiece, which also nicely pertains to my situation because it's a depiction of murder, among the pages of a flawless ninety-year-old book of the Herat school ..... it recounts the story of Khosrow and Shirin. You, of course know the fate of Khosrow and Shirin, I refer to Nizami's version, not Ferdosi's:

The two lovers finally marry after a host of trials and tribulations; however, the young and diabolical Shiruye, Khosrow's son by his previous wife, won't give them any peace. The prince has his eye on not only his father's throne but also his father's young wife, Shirin. Shiruye, of whom Nizami writes, "His breath had the stench of a lion's mouth", by hook or crook imprisons his father and succeeds to the throne. One night, entering the bedchamber of his father and Shirin, he feels his way in the dark, and on finding the pair in bed, stabs his father in the chest with his dagger. Thus, the father's blood flows till dawn and he slowly dies in the bed that he shares with the beautiful Shirin, who remains sleeping peacefully besides him.

This picture by the great master Bihzad, as much as the tale itself, addresses a grave fear I've carried within me for years: The horror of waking in the black of night to realize there's a stranger making faint sounds as he creeps about the blackness of the room! Imagine that the intruder wields a dagger in one hand as he strangles you with the other. Every detail, the finely wrought wall, window and frame ornamentation, the curves and circular designs in the red rug, the color of the silent scream emanating from your clamped throat and the yellow and purple flowers embroidered with incredible finesse and vigor on the magnificent quilt upon which the bare and vile foot of your murderer mercilessly steps as he ends your life, all of these details serve the same purpose: While augmenting the beauty of the painting, they remind you just how exquisite are the room in which you will soon die and the world you will soon leave. The indifference of the painting's beauty and of the world to your death, the fact of your being totally alone in death despite the presence of your wife, this is the inescapable meaning that strikes you.

Memories

2007-01-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

6 سال پيش وقتی کوله بار رو مي بستم که بيام آمريکا، قبل از اومدن با يک سری از بچه های دانشگاه و دبيرستان برای خداحافظی دور هم جمع شده بوديم. رفته بوديم باغ بابای يکی از بچه ها. هر چی به اون روز فکر ميکنم، مي بينم که اون روزم مثل تمام روزای ديگه بود. همون قدر خنديديم، اذيت کرديم، مسخره بازی در اورديم. اصلاً شبيه روز خداحافظی نبود. هنوز درک نکرده بودم که از فردا ديگه هيچ کدوم از اين بچه هارو ديگه نمي بينم.

فکر مي کنم هنوزم درک نکردم. خيلی عجيبه! دنياي فيزيکی يه چيزایی رو به آدم تحميل ميکنه، ولی آدم لزوما اونارو نمي پذيره. باورش نمیشه.

خلاصه اينکه اون روز، يک دفترچه با خودم برده بودم که هر کدوم از بچه ها برای يادگاری چيزی توش بنويسه. امروز، بعد از 5 سال داشتم ميخوندمش. بارها خواسته بودم برم سراغش ولی دست و دلم نمي رفت. ميترسيدم. خلاصه اينکه نشستم و تمام دفتر رو خوندم. تمام يادگاري هاي بچه هارو. دلم خيلیگرفت. از دست خودم خيلی ناراحت شدم. دلم براي همشون تنگ شده. دلم براي خاطرات دبيرستان و دانشگاه هم خيلی تنگ شده. بچه ها دلم براتون خيلی تنگ شده.

در ميان اين همه دلتنگی و ناراحتی، چند تا جمله از بچه ها خنده را رو لبم آورد:

-- از همون روز اول که ..... منتظر يک همچين لحظه ای بوديم.

-- هرگز نشه فراموش لامپ اضافی خاموش.

-- مرام بزار با لهجه انگيليسی صحبت نکن.

-- حتی الامکان اي ميل نزن.

-- وسطی ترمزه!!!!!

-- قرصای نمازت يادت نره.

.....

Our times

2006-05-15T23:13:00.000-07:00

ISCAO showed the documentary our times last night. At first, the movie seemed to be about the Iranian presidency election, but it completely changed directions and followed the story of a 25 year old woman who had nominated herself for presidency.

It was quite a sad documentary as are the majority of documentaries about Iran (surprise!!!). There are constant debates as to whether this is
a sign that Iranian cinema has not matured yet, but I don't want to talk about that.

Either way, it made me think about how easy it is to forget things. How easily I have stopped thinking about the situation that many Iranians live in. How fast human begins can find their place in a new environment and adapt themselves to it.

It makes me ask myself, what does it take to belong to a place? Being born there? Being raised there? Living there for a long time? Having good memories there? Picking up habits that are hard to give up, there? ...? ...?

I am not sure!

Internet Censorship 2

2006-05-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

A new software named Psiphon is supposed to be launched at the end of this month to help circumvent the internet filtering in some countries.

Someone in an "unfiltered country" will run the software Psiphon on his computer. Then, he sends his IP address to a group of trusted computers in a country where some internet content is filtered. This group of computers can then connect to the computer running the Pshipon and access the filtered internet content through it.

The positives are:

(1) it imitates the job of a proxy server in a simpler way. So, it is easier for ordinary people to run the software and become a proxy server for a group of friends.

(2) Since the user in the censored country doesn't need to run the software, I think that "blocking the port" will not be a problem.

Negatives:
(1) The person in the unfiltered country needs to have static IP or otherwise he needs to keep his trusted group informed of his changing IP address. It would be nice if there was a way around this since then a lot more people could use it.

(2) Obviously, if "blocking entities" learn the IP address for the computer running the Psiphon, they can easily block it. So, it is only good for helping a small and trusted group.

(3) Psiphon encrypts the communication. There is a chance that some governments will ask (force) their ISP's to block encrypted communication (although I am not sure about this).

Persian music Webpage

2006-05-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, Nima Hekmat, is maintaining a Persian Music Website mostly to introduce the work of Reza Varzandeh.

But he also has a public forum that includes works by relatively young and non-professional performers in U.S. (you can submit your own work there too!).

Also visit his online collection .

Internet censorship

2006-05-04T17:16:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have become interested in the problem of internet censorship, and different ways around it. I would like to pursue this further as a research topic but only with real Scenario’s and quite practical solutions in mind.

As a start, I intend to explore the following two questions:

What are the main problems that internet users have to deal with regarding internet censorship? Particularly, what are some of the methods that governments or organizations use to filter online contents, or to identify users and monitor their online activities?

What are the existing solutions to these problems? How efficient and easy-to-use are they? Do they really address the problems that internet users in these countries encounter? Are they short-term or long-term solutions?

Once done with the above two steps, we can think about more appropriate and hopefully practical solutions to these problems. This could simply mean that some of the existing tools out there can be adapted or modified, or it could mean that we need to design something from scratch.

Either way, I think that steps (1), (2) already require quite a bit of time, especially since this is a project for my spare time.

I would like to use my Blog to gather some information on this topic. So, if you have any ideas or general suggestions please leave a comment, or contact me anyway that you prefer.

I will try to discuss different problems and potential solutions to internet filtering in future posts.

For a start, look at this recent news on internet censorship , which was extracted from the Reporters Without Borders ' report .
This report (Only in Farsi) mentions that Iranian government is starting a much more stringent monitoring of internet users' activities by requiring the ISP's to share all their information with the government whenever it asks for it.

2006-04-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am sitting on a bench at the LaGuardia airport in New York, waiting for my flight to get back to Davis. A friend I met at the PKC conference is sitting next to me, playing his violin!! I thought maybe we should put an empty bowl next to us and make a few box too!!! (By the way, he is an associate professor in a Math Department.)

Anyways, I think I have a few things to say about this trip in future posts.

Online chat with old friends

2006-04-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

I talked (online) to some of my very good friends from high school and University in Iran a few days ago. I haven’t seen them in a while. So, it was quite interesting to find out how everybody is doing.

I have always had mixed feeling about “online chat” with my good friends in Iran (and other countries) while I live here in the United States. I have felt that regular online chat can have diminishing effect on the friendships. This is just a feeling but I have the following guesses as to why I feel this way:

It is quite hard to express emotions (at least real ones) in mere words. I often find voice and face expressions an important part of the message communicated. Obviously, you can use voice chats and web cams to reduce this effect but it is never the same.

The major reason, in my opinion, is that we live in totally different social and cultural environments. It is hard to find “common daily topics” to talk about and this can be interpreted by either side as a sign that the friendship is deteriorating. But, it is proven to me that this is not the case. If it deteriorates, it probably wasn’t a very good friendship in the first place!!

So, I quitted chatting online for over 3 years. Just a week ago, I started to chat online again. Since then, I have had the chance to talk to 4 of my good friends who are still in Iran. It is amazing to notice that the 5 years of living here in the U.S. has not affected our friendships at all. 3 years of not knowing what they have been doing or …, seems to be of little importance!!!

"under the olive trees"

2006-04-21T00:27:00.000-07:00

Today, I am writing my first Weblog entry!! I have a good feeling about this. I am planning to write most of the entries in English but every now and then I might write things in Farsi.

A few days ago, the Iranian club at UC Davis ( ISCAO ), was showing the movie under the olive trees , by Kiarostami (1994), a celebrated Iranian director. Even though I had heard of his work before, this was the first time I watched one of his movies. I enjoyed the movie a lot. The story takes place in a village in northern Iran. The characters are amateur actors who live in that region.

I found the movie thought-provoking. It was quite surprising to me that such a simple story can be so powerful. Kiarostami makes his audience think about basic concepts such as death, life, tragedy, and love in an undramatic, but rather artistic way. I definitely recommend watching it!