Adventures of Mr.Behi

Go Gadget

I am getting better with my personal organization and could already manage to finish some overdue tasks and projects. Thanks to extensive usage of Microsoft outlook, I can survive without forgetting things. Each day, I receive requests via e-mail and through personal talk. In the company we have this funny term as "passing the monkey to someone else" when you want to assign something or politely put something on someone else. Although e-mail is the standard way of communication in our company, there are many colleagues here in Libya who do not like responding to e-mails so you have to go to their desk and followup. Normally when I receive requests by e-mail, it is easy to create an outlook task but here it is easy to forget things with people asking you stuff in the coffee room or in the hallway. That is why I have this pocket PC to sync with my outlook. Yes, too many USB devices I carry with me everyday. My bag looks like a big suitcase...a big Dell M90 laptop with its heavy adapter, two external hard disks, USB hub and adapter, wires for the pocket PC, GPS, hard disks, two USB memories, software hardware keys, ipod and all the accessories, let alone those days that I take my personal Mac to work. When I go to my clients to present, I add to this a desk projector to show things. Each time that I spend minutes packing from office to home and reverse, I think to myself that the next breakthrough shall be removal of all these wires from accessories. I am now planning to upgrade my ipod and purchase a 1 Terabyte disk. I also need to buy an airport extreme base station and connect the disk to be able to  do data transfer wireless. Last week we saw a herman/Kardon ipod car charger and FM transmitter with a full feature monitor and a music changer stick but I gave up in the last minute. I should quit this sickness of getting excited by computer accessories. oh...I am also getting into audio books..audible.com is a good place to find and buy. I am getting into books by Hemingway. Already listened to "the old man and the sea" and now have a new one in the ipod.   

Let me share with you this fantastic piece of software that I use: Mindjet Mind Manager is a package that I can not live without. I make maps of every thing...things to do, important things, week in a glance, customer breakdown, project  milestones,  marketing brainstorming, etc. It is known that our brains saves and restores data in a tree format in a sort of relational tree while we tend to put data in our publications in linear format. This is not an add by the way and I do not have any affiliation with these guys but this is a real piece of art that really saves time. I have started a map for all the links and comment that I receive in the blog and I should find time and complete it.

Will you let it go?

It is like an epidemic feeling. When I was inside Iran, reading blogs of Iranians living outside, I could feel a certain degree of exaggeration or if not, an elevated level of sensitivity towards unpleasant political and social news in Iran. Now that I am rather outside, I guess I am getting covered by the same shadow.
The pathetic habit of media in bringing all the ugly in front of me makes this shadow much darker and more scary. Will Iran ever become what we are hoping for her to be? and what are we hoping for anyway? under the shadow, in the darkness, in search of what we are moving our hands so desperately.

Sadly, Iranian government is like an angry gangster that always avenges its owns citizens. They claim they are "Islamic" but they act so harsh to people. If you are an intellectual, you are a spy, if you are a cleric who does not like them, you are "diverted". If are young and want to be just young, you are "made fool by the enemy". I do not want to generalize and be like those who give a picture of Iran as if it is hell...it is not...but the government should just let people live as they want...they can not suffer from economic disasters AND more sanctions AND threat of war AND social restriction AND ban in normal stuff AND censorship AND lack of freedom of speech AND political limitation and and... will you please let it go in one area at least?

While I am getting more into work these days, too busy to write, Mrs.Behi is busy writing. Today she wrote about what she would be involved with if we were in Tehran (read her insights here).

Perhaps I should just give up nagging for the moment. We have rented new movies that we want to watch and it is 10:30 p.m after a long day. I need to go back to Mrs.Behi and did you know how cute she was when she was little? see this

Tehran

Link: TEHRAN. I miss you...This is a good photo collection...

Europe or Africa?

After some days of rest -I had a bad fever last week- and a good weekend -visited Tripoli old town, will post the pictures soon- I started a fresh working week, loaded myself with lots of work and will spend the rest of the days carrying them.

My segment manager, our beloved Brazilian has received a raise and will be managing the whole company business in Angola starting from August.  He will be replaced by a charming Italian who I met a few times before and business will continue...it is interesting because "Angola" happened to be somewhere in the career of many people I know: One of my colleagues in Iran spend a year or so in there after he was moved from Iran to Pakistan by the company and he is in the UK, my previous manager used to work in Angola and had so many adventures in there and couple of other people also....I know that is a tough place to work..I heard that you have to be careful of your health and security and things are kind of expensive in there. For my Brazilian fellow and his family, the good point is that in Angola people speak Portuguese so no  more language problem....The funny thing is that he is a real metropolitan guy as he says, he likes modern cities and settled conditions and we were all thinking that he will end up in Europe somewhere after Libya....you never know.

Physics competition in Iran

Link: Updates from the International Competition

This blog is a sort of updating pad written by members of the American team participating in the international physics Olympiad in Esfahan, Iran. It is always good to read the accounts of foreign guests to Iran. Here are some photos from the opening ceremony. Iranian students have always been among the tops of such Olympiads....I heard that almost all those who won medals are now studying outside of Iran and will probably stay there...pity. Anyway...all the best for the Iran team :)

Be right back...

One of the most hilarious things that we discovered about shops in Tripoli is the open/close sign they hang on their front door. Normally you expect such a sign to say either open or close. Here in most of the shops it says: Open and "Be right back" :)) I don't know maybe they are shy to announce that they are closed because this "be right back" may take as long as the whole afternoon :)

Cloth shops in the expensive streets of Tripoli are full of Italian and French made brands. You may get to a shoe shop, find a nice pair of shoes but the sample might be the only size or in another shop, a shirt with only one size...the shop owners are always very helpful and try to keep their customers happy. You normally hear them saying: "sorry only one size but maybe after one week/10 days/three weeks" which mainly means that you should give up and leave...

The best thing about shops here is that you find some of them open even around midnight so it is never late to buy your groceries or even look at furnitures. Coffee stores of course! seem awake all the time...

Great Expectations

Two and a half years after Bam Earthquake in Iran (Google image link) ..there are people still living on the wreckage of what used to be their homes. I came across this blog where the new post is about three short letters from Bam Children to GOD...I try my best to translate as close as possible.

- Hello dear merciful GOD. I hope you hear me. Dear merciful GOD, please forgive the people of our city, I apologize to you on their behalf. Please forgive our wrong doings dear merciful GOD. You made us wanderers of the desert and made us to live in tents. Dear GOD. each night, the horrible sound of the earthquake can be heard. Bye. (By a 12 year old)

- Dear GOD, I have one wish. Please build "Bam". Bam is too hot and the nights are too cold. If we were in our house, we could have had the heater on during the night and during the day, the air cooler was on. (By an 11 year old)

- Dear GOD, I ask you to cure me as soon as possible so that I can east something. Dear merciful GOD, please make us also rich. Dear GOD I really like that my mother could have bought the refrigerator today. (A 9 year old).

Hugged by Hugo

Look at this...

Hugo Chavez indeed goes wherever wind blows. Some bloggers in Iran are complaining about the way he is presented in Tehran as our best bud! I bet many of Iranians do not even know where Venezuela is and there is a direct flight from Tehran to Caracas!  I am sure he knows how to search pockets when he hugs..too late...I guess he is counting what he gathered from his Tehran visit right now. (BBC report)

The one who made "Birds of a feather, flock together" was a very wise fellow.

The extra dimension

Link: My Mind Room: Before and After.

One of the nice things that I love so much about Mrs.Behi is the way she always tries to understand people...what they do and how and why they do things. For me as a person who is kind of shallow in this regard, this is a valuable dimension in life. I always drive nodding and thinking while she shares all her interesting interpretations about people she has met or read about...and I think to myself..."How come I never realized this?"