Monday, June 23, 2008 7 Random Facts About Me!

The great sea battle off Cape Trafalgar in October 1805

So, the martial discord randomness meme got me too. =) I have been tagged by Hrafn Thorisson to come up with 7 random facts about me and post them here along with a random photo of a martial discord [above].

Of course I have to mention the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like.

Now we have a technical glitch. =P I can't exactly tag 7 people for this! Why you ask? Because I already did! =)) Less than a year ago, Optimus passed something to me that was similar to this meme, and at that point I asked "who wants to do this?" and I ended up tagging every English speaking blogger I know!! So I'm afraid I can't have them do it again, although the rules are different and so I'm writing this. [There may be overlaps though! =P] So I guess I'll leave it open. If there's anyone who would like to re-write this, let me know! Or maybe I'll figure out who didn't write it last time. =)

As to my own 7 random facts... there we go:

1 - When I'm asked about my origins, I usually say "Persian - Welsh", cause those are the major 2. But if I go into the details, the answer will look more like this: "Persian - Welsh - Turkish - Indian - Russian". =) Oh, I also am legally Canadian.

2 - When I had just turned 9, one day in school the comp-sci teacher of the high-school kiddies caught me messing around with QBasic in the high-school computer lab. And that's how my coding career started. [She started teaching me stuff and....]

3 - I have a sort of an affinity with the colour blue. I loved the colour ever since I was a kid [apparently it was the first colour I showed reaction to as an infant], which is why my friends put the "Aasemoon" nickname on me. Aasemoon is Persian for sky. [And I love height too!]

4 - I hate coffee with a passion. And everybody I ever come across, guess what, loves coffee!! My friends, family, colleagues, class-mates and school buddies.... somebody rescue me!

5 - I love LEGO. I'll never grow out of this. =)) I still buy LEGO, build stuff with LEGO and enjoy it. Yeah.

6 - I'm an optimist by nature. I believe in a higher power at work and I believe that everything happens for a good reason.

7 - I'm a proven and recognized musicphile. I listen to music from morning to night, while working, studying... doing whatever it is that I may be doing. I enjoy almost all genres, types and styles of music, and I can effectively change my own mood or improve my energy levels using the right combination of tracks. I'm however not an audiophile, because although I love high-quality sound, but I enjoy music regardless of what sort of device its coming out of.

Ok, that's it. Now since as I said I can't just re-tag everyone, if you're up to writing this, give me a shout and I'll tag you! =P

Saturday, May 17, 2008 Me & Other Sicial Networks [So Far] - Me & Twine [So Far]

To be quite honest, I've never liked delicious very much, instead I prefer the link directory in my own website. I don't use Flickr in any serious manner, never have, and I just post my photos in my own little private self built online photo gallery. I find Twitter quite useless, and I have an official dislike for MySpace and similar services. I guess one of my major issues is that I don't like to sign up for 292384 different services, and have 292384 different profile pages, and 292384 accounts, to do 292384 different tasks for me [and often even repetitious tasks!]. I find that my friends and family, as well as all other people that I know and care about, tend to find it quite comfortable to just go to my website, read my blog, have a look at my new links, news, pictures and everything else as it's all in one place. I get the feeling that I'm not a fan of disconnected / decentralized / all over the place data, which is one major reason why I like the whole set of ideas behind DataPortability [hence the "I Support" logo].
Of course I have a Facebook account which I was pretty much forced into signing up for, given that some folks I know only keep in touch that way. But well, I only log into it every once in a blue moon. I have a passionate dislike for what they do [or don't... when it comes to things like Google Friend Connect] with your personal info [yeah... "those"].
In general there are a lot of things that I don't like about current social networking websites. The constant competition among users to add to their popularity scores by going around and randomly adding people they don't know, have no interest in ever getting to know and have no common interests with, bothers me. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy it very much when somebody adds me to their network because of... well... "something", anything other than being just another face in the list. I enjoy getting to know people who like to share something with me very much. But I'm sick and tired of constantly receiving add requests from people who don't even read my profile before pressing the "add" button. What royally boils my noodles though, are the people who send you rude messages if you don't accept their add request. Fancy that! There's also the spam, the chain messages, the conspiracies and cyber bullying that result in people committing suicide and tons of other annoyances. Interestingly enough, yesterday I came across this article that summarizes the best of what bothers me. So instead of writing it all down again, I just direct you to the article.
So, with all of the above reasons, the only social networking capable websites that I seriously use, are the very few very special ones that I find worth it. If you Google my nickname [Aasemoon] you'll see that I've given a try to almost everything that's out there, including some very recent social networking / bookmarking websites like Zigtag, Mento and Myrl, but out of all of that, here's what I actually use:
Shelfari - Although I have had my share of disappointments with it, as I receive too many really annoying spammy messages in there, and therefore I have cut out of all social networking capabilities of the website and I'm just using the shelf [and for that, it's the best].
last.fm - I love this one... just love it... absolutely nothing else like it for the purpose.
And of course, the most recent addition is twine. This one has impressed the heavens out of me so far. =) I didn't just come across twine. I was Googling for something with the capabilities that twine has, and that's how I found out about it and eventually joined the beta. So far, I love it. I have to confess, my approach to twine has been a very self centred one. Ever since I joined the beta I've been mainly playing with different features trying to find out exactly what twine can be for me. I also have to mention that sometimes I have a way of using tools in ways that I find beneficial for me, even if how I use that tool isn't exactly the intended purpose of the tool [as long as I don't bother anyone else, that is!]. So that's exactly what I've been doing with twine, and here's the result: I'm now using twine as my ultimate social bookmarking tool, my 1 line blog, my image blog, my twitter, my interest profiling tool and a whole load of other things, and in time I'm sure I'll find more uses.
I have created a few twines related to my interests where I and other interested people post relevant links, pictures and all sort of data. That's very cool because I get a chance to have a look at what other people with similar interests are looking into, and I've ended up learning a lot that way. I've also created a public personal twine, where again I and others post all sorts of things... anything that any of the members of the twine might find cool. That's also where I post images, thoughts, notes.... it's very multi purpose. I also have a personal personal twine, that only I can see or post stuff to, and I mainly use it for testing twine related stuff or collecting articles to read later.
Another thing I like about twine is how alive it seems to be. I constantly see changes, improvements, new features and new ideas. I guess a large part of that has to do with the fact that the developers of twine are very open to suggestions from users. I know that there's a lot more that needs to be done before twine goes public, a lot that the users and developers want to have before they can call it ready. But even as it is right now... I'm really enjoying it, and honestly I'm a little surprised with a few articles I've read here and there on the web talking about people's disappointments with using twine. Hey, it's beta after all... come on! I'm only hoping that the day twine goes public, the spam protection capabilities will be fully "there". Other than that... I just want it to go public so that I can show off with my twines. =D ;)

Saturday, April 19, 2008 25!

So, I turned 25 today. Actually well, it's a bit of a funny situation this year: I was born on Farvardin 31st of the Persian calendar, which is usually the same day as April 20th. So my official birthday is supposed to be on April 20th = Farvardin 31st. But this year is one of those mixed up years that Farvardin 31 = April 19th! =P So this pretty much means that I was born both today and tomorrow. [According to aMUSiC, the previous sentence is a "testament to temporal grammar": I was born both today and tomorrow! =P] So yeah, the whole thing is a bit funny. And I guess it's not even unexpected that my 25th is starting rather odd, as it's obviously going to be one of the oddest, most twisted, most exciting, most weird, most complicated, most challenging, most curious, most ... well... everything, years of my life. The start is quite fitting to what I know is coming. =} heee.... heee..... heee.... wish me luck.... O_o .... =D .... \0/ ... ?? .... heeee ........ !!&$$!#&%%@#&&%$***...

Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4 Days Left!

Oh God... Oh God.... OOOOOOOHHHHHHHH GGGGGGGOOOODDDD.... only 4 days left. As previously mentioned on the Purple Blog, on Sunday the 16th I shall fly to Zürich, and have what will probably be one of the most unusual and exciting holidays of life. So much is coming... so much is about to happen... soooooooo much to look forward to. Of course right now every second feels like an hour, every hour feels like a day and every day feels like a month. I guess the reason for the major excitement overdose is obvious: there's a little city not so far from Zürich, called Solothurn, and there's a certain Genox in Solothurn... well... yeah! =)
And there's more.... a lot more. It's very complicated right now, I can't foretell what's going to happen in the coming months, but lets just say that in the not very far future I may not need a plain ticket anymore when I want to see Genox. I have some serious homework to do while I'm in Switzerland. I have to figure out the final details of what I may be getting myself into. So much excitement, so much to do..... ;)

Monday, February 26, 2007 5 Facts About Me!

Having been ridiculously busy in the past week or so, I hadn't found the time to check out my favorite blogs. Now that I finally stole the time to do some reading, I figured that Optimus has passed on a kind of a pyramidoid game to me, where you basically write down 5 things about you that your readers might not already know. Hmmm ok, then I guess I'm not gonna write stuff like I'm into electronics or I listen to tons of music. Hmmmmm.... what am I gonna write... lets see. =)

1 - I tend to remember stuff, and I mean that in a bit of an unusual way. The details of everything that happens to me, everything I hear, everything I see or smell or taste... I remember everything in details, no matter how long later you ask me about it. I have clear memory of my childhood, even very early stages. Even if there's something that I don't remember right away, if I sit down and concentrate on it for a few minutes, I can recall the whole thing with high-def picture and surround sound. Now this thing, is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing aspect of it is ... well... memorizing stuff, very handy while studying... specially when I'm studying something like a new language or so... or remembering the lines of the books I read [and well I read plenty] .. or remembering the sound track for every single movie I see [lol =P]. Oh well, it's a useful thing. Hoowwwever, the curse aspect comes in when I'm dealing with memories that I don't like to remember!! I mean naturally it happens for everyone, events that one might not really like, dark memories... stuff that most people tend to send to the recycle bin of their mind. No such luck for me, I have the carry the whole thing for... well.. basically forever.

2 - I'm an optimist. I believe in the bigger image and the higher force, and I believe that everything happens for a good reason. I've had a life full of events... full of ups and downs, and I have came to believe that I may or may not see the reason for what happens right away, but in time I will. And when I see that... somehow it's always for the best.

3 - I LUV LEGO. =) I've always loved LEGO, ever since I was a kid I was deeply into it, and even now... I seem to only get more and more interested. =)) I like to sit down and put together the pieces and bits for hours and hours and hooooooooours, and design my perfect spaceship or submarine or robot or a little tech city full of... well... all mentioned. =)) Some people say that's because I'm a logical thinker... or engie student... or she-nerd. =)) I donno.... that may be.... but I just love the total peace of mind it gives me. And of course I do enjoy playing with others!! =)))

4 - If someone asks me where I'm from, I usually say that I'm Persian. From Iran, that is. Because I was born and raised there. However, if you want to break it down to the genetics, then it gets a bit more complicated than that. And I mean... very... complicated. =)) Here's a list of where I'm genetically from [as in, where my parents routes] , the higher in the list has the bigger part:
- Welsh
- Persian
- Azeri
- Indian
- Turkish
- Russian
Addition: My friend insists that I should add that I'm also considered a Canadian now, having lived here for a while... and the citizenship and everything. Well, one more for the list. =)))

5 - In my entire life, I've fallen in love only once, and it's been the most precious gift in the whole existence. Thank you for everything, Oli. =) <3 <3 <3

Well, that's my 5 facts. =) Now I'm supposed to pass this on to 5 other people, and that's not gonna be easy, because apparently some people like writing something like this, and some don't. Well I'm not gonna pass this directly to anyone, I'm just gonna say this to everyone who's reading this article: Write the 5 facts if you like to, and let me know if you do so! =D

Update: Well it seems like so far 2 people have managed to write the 5 facts. =) Check them out:
Appearing Offline
Genox

Saturday, December 09, 2006 My Glasses! =P

Ok hmm... this is gonna be a bit of a ridiculous post, but it seems necessary, since I keep getting asked the same question over and over again. So here's the answer:
The pair of glasses that I wear every now and then, are not exactly medical glasses. Yeah I'm talking about the blue frames. The glasses have got AR Coat, so to some limited extent they help prevent the eyes from getting exceedingly tired, while staring at the monitor for long hours. Of course the even more important reason for wearing them, is simply the fact that I like glasses. Ok? =PPPP
I hope it's all clear now! =))

Saturday, October 14, 2006 Surprise, SURPRISE! :)

There's music I like, there's music that can make me happy, and then, there's music that can take me to the 7th heaven. Well of course the last category is the most difficult to find. That's why when an artist who can create that certain kind of music, releases a single track after a period of absence, that's definitely the cause for some serious excitement on my side! :) Wonder what I'm talking about? SURPRISE SURPRISE people, Genox just released a new single! YAY! I've been listening to this same track over and over and over again since last night, and I have absolutely no words to describe it. I might have said "incredible", but that just doesn't cut it. So check it out for yourself, and experience the effects of "Various Shades Of Blue". :)

Update: Ok it seems like Genox just uploaded a whole bunch of his tracks, which you can access through his blog. So... check it out! :)

Tuesday, November 18, 2003 Me & My Mom!

Hey look what I've got here! A very cute picture of me & my mom! Well...Ok maybe not the real us....the "South Park" versionz of us.....there'z quite a resemblance though!! I really like this pic...we both look great...couldn't resist posting it here!!