Anees

Thoughts

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:10:31 GMT

Wow, its been over 6 months since I've posted here. Time really does fly; what we do with it is up to us.

I've really been wanting to get this out of my brain and onto some kind of medium, a medium that only a few people can see.

I'm pretty active in my religious community, I do a lot of things with other youth and pre-youth but for some reason, I've never really been able to connect with any of them in a deep, meaningful way. All of my best friends are non-Baha'is, not that I don't like that and I really, really appreciate them, but I don't know how I'm supposed to enjoy myself in my Faith when none of my best friends come from the same religious background. All of my friendships with them are something between superficial and deep, and sometimes I really don't know what they are. I've always noticed this barrier. I don't know if it has something to do with the way I dress, I speak, I act, or anything else. I want to be outgoing, but I don't want to be thought of as weird or odd, especially around girls. I don't know what my problem is.

The Baha'i Writings tell me that God only tests people according to their own capacities, maybe this is a test for me.

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 05:02:10 GMT

Ok, I haven't posted in a long time so here it goes...

I don't think I'm the only one who thinks that this country is going to hell. Now, we really do have some evidence that it really is happening.

The value of the dollar is sinking every day; one British Pound is worth $2 and 1 euro is worth a $1.40. Confidence in the US market from international investors is also fading. Wages have been stagnant for the last 30 years or so. I've read that if we adjusted 1970s wages for inflation, they'd be higher than wages are now; an explanation for this would be all the money that CEOs are taking home now as opposed to 40 years. Consumer debt is at an all time high, around $8.2 trillion, about equal to 64% of GDP. Subprime mortgages are available everywhere and at the same time, foreclosures are on the rise. I saw on OPB a picture of a cul-de-sac that was under construction, and it had been FORECLOSED ON; even before they were finished!! The gap between the rich and poor is at its widest since the Great Depression.

Unfortunately, our economic system is built on the notion that there will be infinite growth from now until eternity, which is ridiculous as continued growth is not sustainable.

We're slowly being pushed off a cliff here, and its going to take a little more pushing or one big shove from either a mortgage meltdown or a tremendous spike in the price of oil.

Wed, 16 May 2007 23:31:41 GMT

Interesting story today...

I was on my way to the Beaverton Transit Center when the train broke down between Sunset TC and Beaverton TC. The train operator told everyone that the control that made the train go forward was malfunctioning. So, the operator got out of the train went to the car behind ours and put the train in reverse and went all the way back to Sunset TC where everyone got out and had to wait for a new train.
You'd think that after the millions of dollars they paid for those trains, their controls wouldn't break.

Anyways, thats all for now.

Higher ed budget cuts

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 22:53:56 GMT

Goddamit, what the hell is going here? When will they ever stop decreasing funds for higher ed?! The state budget for higher education got whacked by 33 million dollars and the capital construction budget for PSU (money that's supposed to go towards renovation and improvement) got cut by 357 million dollars!!!!!!!!! What is going on?! Don't our lawmakers realize that pumping money into k-12 is not enough?! A high school diploma will do nothing for you in the 21st century! Isn't it ironic that a state with a large high-tech base also has some of the lowest rates of per-student college funding? Oregon is just shooting itself in the foot.

Sun, 18 Mar 2007 06:43:56 GMT

Wow, wow, wow, wow. This occupation of Iraq is getting very, very out of hand. Its gotten to the point were Iraqis are getting fucking gassed by insurgents. What the hell is this war going to devolve into? What next, anthrax?, dirty bombs?, water contamination? What the fuck is going to happen?

Thank you so much Mr. George Fucking Bush. The lives of Iraqis are as miserable as ever.

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:34:00 GMT

Private transportation has been with us as long as we have been around and won't be going away anytime soon. Beginning with the beast of burden, its latest manifestation is the automobile. However, as we already know, cars pollute, are noisy, and contribute to urban sprawl.

If the car isn't going away, then there are several things automakers can do to improve them:

First, begin thinking about replacements for the internal combustion engine, an inefficient piece of nineteenth century technology. (Honda already has a working hydrogen car that utilizes a fuel cell which is 60% efficient, compared to 20% efficiencies for combustion engines.)

Second, build cars out of different materials. Start using lighter metals and/or carbon fiber and other composites for the car bodies. Replace glass with lighter but stronger composite.

Third, make autonomous cars a reality. DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sponsored a contest among universities to see who could build a car that could drive itself through a course in the desert. Stanford won, and is going to participate in a test that involves city conditions.

Fourth, start manufacturing PHEVs or Plug In Hybrid Electric Vehicles. These vehicles can travel far more on electricity than normal hybrids and can be used to supply power back to the grid when not in use. Conversion kits are available for hybrids but no manufacturer has made them yet. An article in Scientific American said that if all cars in the US were switched to PHEVs, fuel consumption would drop by 70%.

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 04:27:54 GMT

I hate to say it, but I think the next major ideological conflict (as a matter of fact, the one we're in right now) is going to that between moderates and fanatics. That is, normal people vs. the adherents of politicized religion. 9/11 showed us for the first time what politicized religion can do and we keep seeing it in areas of the world that have a majority of Muslims. The bulwark of moderation and secularism is slowly unraveling and I'm afraid though, that as political Islam gains strength, so will political Christianity grow as a response to it in the West, also as a response to the moderate failure to defuse the conflict. We're also seeing political Christianity grow, especially here in the US, and the implications are sounding very ominous, especially for someone like me who isn't Christian and of a different ethnicity than most people. The religious fanatics in this country haven't reached the level where they use violence to carry out their agendas....not yet at least.

We think we got rid of political religion with the Enlightenment but it has come back to haunt us.

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:05:29 GMT

"Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education, can alone, cause it to reveal its treasures and enable mankind to benefit therefrom."

-Baha'i Writings

"All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth."

-Baha'i Writings

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 07:49:27 GMT

Mr. Bush wants to send more troops to Iraq, he wants to do this and that, this and that. The problem is that neoconservatives don't seem to live in reality. Its totally fine to invade a country without understanding its history and culture. Again, democracy is impossible in Iraq as of now, just as it would be in 17th century Germany. The fighting between the Shiites and the Sunnis is just like the fighting between the Protestants and Catholics, only with automatic rifles and RPGs in the case of the former. Democracy as we practice it has taken hundreds of years of political and social development to come forward, historical experience which the Mid. East has had none of.

The Middle East will never be at peace until oil runs out or the rest of the world finds a substitute for it. This is the way it has been in the past, the present, and will continue to be in the future. This is a issue very close to my heart because my relatives are oppressed because of oil. Countries like Iran can only maintain massive police, military and paramilitary apparatuses through the use of oil revenue. If oil revenue dried up, so would those institutions, opening up the country to change.

The world must wean itself off oil before it's too late.

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 19:13:53 GMT

We have really fucked up the environment.

A 25 SQUARE MILE piece of ice just broke off from a ice sheet in the arctic.

Here is the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061229/sc_afp/canadaarctic

Its getting worse and worse all the time.

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 04:13:17 GMT

Its that time of year again!!!

Buy, buy, buy.
That is the chant of corporate America, even more so around this time of year. I am absolutely disgusted by the materialism and rampant consumerism that has come to define the holiday season. Christmas is not about presents and shelling out three months of your income to be frivolous things. It is to celebrate the birth of a man who brought enlightenment to a dark time, and who freed people from complacency and sloth. I'm not Christian, but that is what Christmas means to me .

On a different tangent:
Our leaders are as blind as ever. I don't know how they think they can impose a democracy on a country where people still identify themselves through tribal affiliations. IT IS SIMPLY NOT POSSIBLE! Though there are differences, I can liken this whole experience to trying to impose a democracy on 17th century Germany; a place and time that was rife with sectarian conflict as well as conflict between various regions for supremacy, just like Iraq right now.

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 20:23:47 GMT

Well, last night was pretty interesting. Looks like a big storm hit not just Portland, but the entire Pacific Northwest. PGE was reporting that nearly 30 percent of its customers were without power. That was pretty apparent when my dad and I were driving home from Forest Grove. Hillsboro was completely blacked out with the exception of the Tuality Hospital and Intel. Both sides of TV Hwy were blacked out, no traffic lights, no street lights, no huge neon lit signs; nothing.

Its just so interesting to see how technology speeds up the pace of life, and in its absence, slows everything down; just as the traffic along TV Hwy was limited to stop and go. To us, a world without technology can be a very frightening place indeed.

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:54:41 GMT

Finals weeks is here along with all the stress of doing well in such and such class. Engineering was relatively easy but Chemistry and calculus still remain, though I'm not too worried about chem. Oh the choices, I still don't know what I want to do with myself. Should I go into alternative energy? Medicine? some sort of engineering? I really don't know at this point so I guess I guess I'm going to keep taking classes until I get somewhere. I want to do something meaningful and that represents a service to humanity, as prescribed by my faith. There's a quote from the Baha'i Writings that keeps me going and helps me keep my optimism even as I don't know what to do and as the world around me spirals out of control:

"All men have been created to carry forward an ever advancing civilization."

It tells me that there is some hope, some light at the end of the tunnel both for me, my friends, and the world at large. Oh well.

Hopefully, next term will be better. Zeb might be attending PSU this winter, so that will be a change for the better. It'll be nice to see a familiar face after such a long time.

Thats all for now.
Khodahafez.(Goodbye in persian)

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 05:32:32 GMT

Today was the second time that I got honked at for no reason while crossing a street. I promptly flipped off the person who honked the horn. I don't know what it is with certain people, they seem to enjoy making other people miserable or angry. The first time, a group of young adults somewhat older than me honked a horn, this time, it was some high-school girls. People just don't have any shame anymore, none whatsoever. The same goes for the spate of violence against the poor and homeless, done for no reason other than for a thrill and because the attackers know that they victim won't fight back. Is this the low that certain people have sunk to? People reeeaally have no shame anymore.

In other news, I won't be around during Thanksgiving because I'm going to Tennessee to attend a wedding. Hopefully I won't be lynched by a mob of fundamentalists, or subjected to humiliating security checks though I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of nasty looks.

That's all for now.

Mass Transit Mania!

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 03:34:51 GMT

Work on a commuter rail line stretching from Beaverton to Wilsonville is now underway. It will be completed and put into service in 2008. (Fry's Electronics, here I come!)

MAX Green Line will run from Downtown Portland to Clackamas Town Center and will be complete with service in 2009.

I love Portland.

Why American telecom should be regulated.

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 02:33:57 GMT

Towards the beginning of the 90s, people all over the world, including in the United States knew of the word "information superhighway," what we now know as the Internet. Telcommunications companies promised that they would deploy new networks made of fiber optic cable in order to tap into this new "highway." Once they had promised that, the government gave those same companies $25 billion in tax breaks, but, they never built the network. Now, over a decade later, those companies are just starting to roll out fiber optic services while the rest of the industrialized world has sped ahead of us in terms of access speed and capability. Since those same companies supposedly cannot deal with the large amounts of data being sent over the internet today, they want to impose fees on the amount of data sent either from end users or enterprises. However, this opens up more possibilities. If telecom companies can now regulate our data flow, there is no stopping what they can do. Sites we like might be censored, or even worse, manipulated toward certain agendas, the Internet being the bastion of democracy that it is will be stifled, at least for us Americans. Those companies should have built that network in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have this problem. That 25 billion belongs to the American people, the telcos should give it back. If they continue this behavior, they should be REGULATED and FINED into submission for disserving the government, the public, and enterprises that could have benefited from better Internet service. This cabal of telecommunications should come to and end.

Illegal Immigration?

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:20:28 GMT

I really don't get what all this hoopla is about. People should be free to go wherever they want to. If America was the third world nation and Mexico was the first world one, I can guarantee that Americans would cross the border to go to Mexico, legally or illegally. Also, its worth noting that California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas all used to belong to Mexico. Also, when the first white Americans were moving into Texas, the Mexican government required THEM to be Catholic and speak Spanish. What goes around comes around.

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 00:00:46 GMT

My dad wants me to become a doctor, I don't want to become a doctor. I want to be an engineer, my dad doesn't want me to be an engineer. I think, If there are no roads, how will you get to the doctor's office; if there is no electricty, how do you expect people to have surgeries done on them. Alternative energy is a good one too, but that's dependant on the price of gas. Fucking people and their fucking Hummers.

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 01:58:04 GMT

The last thing the Muslims need is an apology from the Pope. Muslims tend to wear their religion on their sleeves which means that every little criticism infuriates them. They have problems besides worry about what the Pope has to say about Islam.

I don't know

Sat, 16 Sep 2006 05:07:42 GMT

Oh, what to talk about.
There are so many things going on that I don't know where to start. Why the hell aren't I in school yet?!! Oregon universities don't start until September 25th.( It may have something to do with the fact that state support for public universities in Oregon is ranked 46th in the nation.)And I thought that I lived in a progressive state.

Among other things, Iran and the West are still at odds over its nuclear program (which it has no right to considering that inflation there is in the double digits and there is massive amounts of unemployment, the Middle East is as unstable as ever, the income gap is growing, and the whole world just seems to be going to hell. Speaking of hell, I wish all the Christian and Islamic fundamentalists would disappear, we would be better off without them.

You know what I'm going to go ahead and say this: The Middle East isn't going anywhere and won't go anywhere unless it changes its mentality. I like to describe this phenomenon as a kind of "medieval modernity," meaning that the Arabs have access to the amenities that modern life provides but there is one downside to that; their thought processes aren't modern whatsoever. What place does a culture have in the 21st century that still allows the stoning of women and the behading of criminals and dissidents? They don't tolerate civil law and the other things that make the West relatively peaceful. I know I'm being a little biased but the fact is that they need to change in order to combat the terrorism and authoritarianism that grips their countries. Being the greatest civilization in the past is nice, but that won't get you anywhere now.

Irony

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 05:25:49 GMT

Now if any of you guys like irony, there's plenty of irony in this news story.

Communists join Wal-Mart's ranks

Here is the link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5281218.stm

Blah

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 02:01:25 GMT

I don't know what to say...

Well, at least I'll recap what I did so far this summer. I went to San Jose/Santa Cruz to see friends so that was fun and my aunt and uncle came to visit us which was even better. Other than that, nothing has been going on lately. I'm still working but a bunch of things of gotten in the way lately. The biggest concern I have is the fact that my family and I are moving to another house which is not nearly as convenient as my current location in Cedar Hills. Going to and from PSU is going to be a pain in the ass and I won't be able to go to the movies or the soon-to-open Powells Books. I also think the other house is going to be too small for the stuff my family has given that it accumulates everything it gets its hands on. Argh!
I'm gonna miss so many people. Every passing day is one day closer to the start of school but I guess it won't be that bad.

Sardarotron out.

Today

Sun, 02 Jul 2006 05:44:18 GMT

I saw the movie Casablanca this afternoon and I really liked it. Rick, the cafe owner, seems to represent every one of us deep down. We are only looking after ourselves, minding our own business, trying to make our own way in the world. Events beyond our control often intervene in our lives as is shown by the Nazis coming to Casablanca; and sometimes we just have to leave our lives as we knew them behind in order to start anew someplace else. Its the way the world is and will be. Some of us will "always have Paris", some of us won't. That however, does not the change the effect others have had on us and will have on us in the future.

"Here's looking at you kid."

Microsoft > Robots ?????

Wed, 21 Jun 2006 02:37:30 GMT

I saw an article on the web today, and no it wasn't from The Onion. Microsoft is looking into developing software for robots and other automated things like robots. Here is a quote:

"Microsoft has unveiled a community technology preview (CTP) of a new Windows-based operating system designed to power robots.The Microsoft Robotics Studio development platform is designed for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers creating robotic applications for a wide variety of computing platforms."

I can imagine it now. SYSTEM ANALYSIS...COMPUTE...COMPUTE: ERROR..ERROR..SYSTEM ERROR..DRIVER ERROR FOUND IN CIRCUIT 553A-B...SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT...PRESS CTRL+ALT+DELETE..PRESS CTRL..ALT..DELETE..SYSTEM NOT RESPONDING...FAILDSUSERdfndkjs I2342347#$@&*^(&098348) CRASH..CRASH..CRA*9504 t4598q!`18493()&*^___*&*$))). (robot blows up)

Books

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 03:14:55 GMT

I read an article in the newspaper yesterday that brought a smile to my face.

Powells Books is moving its westside branch to Beaverton Mall/Cedar Hills Crossing and will be open by this November. OMGzors. Not only do I get to walk to Borders but now I can walk to Powells too. OMGzors again.

Compute..Compute..