Netphotography Journal

You are the promised kiss of springtime
That makes the lonely winter seem long
You are the breathless hush of evening
That trembles on the brink of a lovely song

by Ella Fitzgerald

The ancient Persian Goddess “Aredvi Sura Anahita” the divinity of Water associated with Fertility, Healing, and Wisdom in the universe. She is also associated with War, Protection, and Peace. Anahita means “the immaculate one”.

Sculpture was first created by my grand uncle Jallil Ziopour. He was a Fine Arts university professor, cubist artist, and anthropologist. I think he reproduced the sculpture of Anahita based on his many findings during his excavations in Iran (not too sure which area exactly. ) He gave me that print in person when I was 6 or 7 years old.

The date on the artwork says that it was built about 50 or 60 years ago. ( notice the beautiful Alien shape eyes! )

His reproduction of Anahta was later on destroyed by his first wife over relationship issues. My uncle, being a visual artist, was always surrounded by beautiful women and models, and that didn’t have the best effect on his marriage.

So that small print is perhaps one of the very few original ones left from that amazing art work, and perhaps how Anahita might have looked like.

Also a good indicator that Persians worshiped much better looking gods before the Arabs take over and enforce their ideology on people for the next 1400 years.

It was my Dad’s 58th Birthday. We made this movie using the isight camera on my MacBook Pro.

So … 1, 2, 3, 4, … 58!

I can’t believe I am doing this. When I was a kid we use to live in UK where my parents were just married and both university students. My dad just got his first stereo and record player, and that’s when I got introduced to ABBA. My dad still loves ABBA, it makes him feel like a young university student even after 29 years.

I confess I like ABBA music too, their songs still make my hair stand. These videos are pretty cheesy, but they are original. Thank goodness for youtube!

My mother is walking 60K to raise funds for Breast Cancer research. The money she raises will benefit the BC Cancer Foundation, a leader in this critical cause.

Most of us know someone close to us who has been affected with some sort of Cancer, I lost a girlfriend to cancer myself few years ago. My mother has also lost a close friend to cancer just recently.

We can join forces and make a difference and as they say "Let’s make Cancer history".

Your can make your donations directly to the CIBC bank when you visit my mother’s personal page on the BC cancer foundation website. Thank you kindly for making a difference.

One of the greatest things about being a Canadian is that you get to celebrate all the happy events coming from your culture and other cultures. I am a Canadian who was born in Iran, so we not only celebrate Christmas and New Year on January 1st, we also celebrate the Persian New Year.

In Canada every event such as this one is yet another excuse to get together with friends and have a great time, regardless of what race or culture they are coming from.

Norouz means “The New Day” which is basically the celebration of first day of sprint according to the Persian calendar. Some believe that celebration of Norouz goes back to more than 15000 years ago with pagan origins. ( Who thinks earth is only 6000 years old? )

Norouz is not really a religious event, although in many families in Iran it has been tainted by Islamic elements such as the Qoran book. Reality is that government of Iran has been trying so hard to make Norouz less significant compare to other Islamic religious events. In fact many people still get arrested for celebrating the “Chaharshanbe Suri” ( Celebration of the night before the last Wednesday of the year ) which involves making fire and jumping over it. These were all events that date back long before the time Arabs took over Iran over 1400 years ago, and force people to convert to Islam.

Celebration of Norouz and last Wednesday of the Year have strong roots in the hearts of Persians and no religious government can make those traditions disappear.

What you see in this picture is the “Haftsin Table” ( The Seven S table ). That means there are at least 7 elements present which their names start with letter “S” in Farsi. The items symbolically correspond to seven creations and holy immortals protecting them, for example:

• Sib: Apple symbolizes beauty, health, and Paradise, ( or Pardise in Farsi )
• Sir: Garlic is for health, medicin and a way to keep the demons away
• Senjed: the dried fruit of the oleaster tree symbolizes fertility, love and sex
• Sabzeh: Green Grass is the symbol for Nature in Spring
• Samanu: a persian Sweat desert made from weat is the symbol of sweetness of life
• Sekeh: Coin is the symbol of prosperity and wealth
• Somaq: sumac berries - symbolizing (the color of) sunrise
• Serkeh: Vinigar is the symbol of age and patience. Some believe that Wine was originally used, but after the attack of Muslem Arabs, Vinigar was used, since drinking wine is prohobited in Islam. In our family we use both.

Other present symbols are:

• Fish: is the symbol of Life on Earth
• Decorated eggs: fertility
• Orange in Water: Planet Earth floating in the space ( Yes they have known it long before Gallileo )
• Mirror: is the symbol of light

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I’ve got moments that my self-esteem takes a nose dive down. The darn thing is like a chain reaction and suddenly I feel like I am unworthy of pretty much anything. Last night at the Swing Dance party I was keep losing the beats, sweating like crazy dancing with new follows ( ladies ), not having the guts to ask some of them to dance, or feeling horrible if my request was turned down. Which is silly, since in the swing community people are often so laid back that a request for dance rarely gets shut down.

I have been working on a set of copy writings for my new corporate website, and due to the lack of incubation time, I am having such a hard time putting words down. Time flies and I hate to write under the self appointed deadline I set few weeks ago.

I haven’t had the chance the chance to visit my family. I have talked to my mother few times. She called me just to see how I am doing, although I feel she is reaching out to talk to me about something. I miss her, I miss my dad, and my brother, and our cat Aristocrat who no longer recognizes me when I drop by.

I’ve realized that the self-esteem dive happens when I stretch myself thin over too many plans and projects. When I don’t spend enough quiet times re-charge my batteries and lose myself in thoughts. When I don’t pay enough attention to friends, and family members who love me, and proud of me.

I have a 9-5 job, I think I make one of the highest salaries for somebody in my field. I work most days of the week at home, and drive to Langley BC few days a week to attend meetings. Meetings are usually over things way too simple for someone in my field, but I get myself to be understanding and patience. I am a problem solver, a consultant, and love what I do.

But those long driving hours to Langley take sometime 4 hours a day specially on bad weather days. By the time I get home I am so exhausted that I fall sleep on the sofa with my clothes on, and by the way dinner is often served over the kitchen sink.

And one more thing, in the future ( I won’t be telling you when ) I will never ever want to work for a large corporation. Large corporations specially the sales and marketing oriented ones are the most unfriendly environment for software engineers, programmers, and analysts to work. All that stress, interruptions, and control, control, control, hierarchies of power, and more control. Protecting the status quo is a day-to-day operation in a large company. And interesting enough, being that big they don’t often deliver the best services and products! They just manage to take over the market using their large army of sales staff, and mind altering strategies developed by the Marketing department. It’s called Market Penetration, and in some nasty corporations i think it is consumer penetration. In a large company only the lack of adaptability to the rapid market trend changes can diminish their dominance.

NOTE: by this I am not criticizing my current full-time client they are very nice people actually, I am talking about the whole concept in general.

Anyhow, back to the self-esteem nose dive topic, I have noticed what works for me is to start working on small things that I am good at, and feel so proud with the results. Again it becomes a chain reaction but in a positive way.

Right now I am sitting in a cool coffee shop in commercial drive, people are dressed up in cool funky ways, I like the variety of looks and faces in this neighborhood. By the way, the coffee is really good. I am charging my batteries … both my laptop and myself. And looking at what this post has become, I think the writer in me, no matter how green and in-experienced, is finally coming out

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