Absolute Random Nonsense

In the late 80s and early 90s, before leaving Iran, I read Chariots of the Gods, The Gold of the Gods, The Teachings of Don Juan and other ones that dealt with non-ordinary realities and allegorical work. Later on, thinking back to that time, I kept remembering the sentence "When life is too short, we live it too long" but I couldn't figure out which book it came from. I eventually caved in and googled it.  I discovered it was from Samantha Fox's 1987 song My True Devotion.  

Two more Barca Residency Academy talents have been called up to the U.S. Soccer U-15 Boys National Team for an upcoming training camp taking place March 16-23rd in West Palm Beach, FL. Forward Arman Alagha and goalkeeper London Stern have been named to the 24-player camp roster, once again continuing Barca’s strong representation within the national team system. The camp is led by U.S. U-15 Boys’ National Team head coach Brady Short and is a part of the Federation’s continued focus on the U.S. Way philosophy. An initiative that emphasizes increased programming for Youth National Teams to create more opportunities for young players to advance through the pathway to the senior National Team, with the goal of representing their country at a world championship. This is Alagha and Stern’s first USYNT call-up at this level, the result of their strong seasons and continued work U.S. Soccer Talent ID Centers.  Arman is a technical and versatile attacker who can play centrally or out w...

When I was in the second grade, one time at a gathering at our house, a teenage boy asked another one if they were a girl. When the girl responded yes, the boy asked that she prove it. Everyone snickered although I didn't quite understand the punchline. When I went back to school I tried the joke on a girl in class. The first one just brushed me off. The second one, Liz, held her face in her hands and pretended to cry. I told her that did not prove it. I'm not sure what response I would have found acceptable.  

Sahar Delijani is an Iranian author. Her internationally acclaimed debut novel, Children of the Jacaranda Tree, has been translated into 32 languages and published in more than 75 countries. She was born in Evin Prison in Tehran, while both her parents were detained as leftist political activists. Delijani, her older brother and her cousin were raised by her grandparents and aunt until their parents' release. "I was born in Iran in 1983, four years after the revolution. Both my parents were secular, leftist political activists. In 1983, my parents were arrested, along with my uncles and aunt. My mother was pregnant with me when she was taken. I was born in Evin Prison, in a hospital affiliated with it. My mother kept me with her for about a month before I was handed to my grandparents. They raised me, my 2-year-old brother, Rouzbeh, and our cousin, Siavash—who was also born in prison—until our parents were released.  " I think that there is probably no difference, from th...

During the 2026 World Cup group play, teams entered the field as Alan Parsons' song Sirius played. My introduction to the song was in the 80s and also for a sports program as it frequently would be used in sports clip montages. At the time I imagined it would be good music to the scene in The Omen where the father is sifting through Damian's hair and discovers the 666 birthmark.  

Two faculty members at Central Washington University recently promoted an outdoor camp restricted to black, Indigenous, and people of color, reasoning that they haven’t had the same opportunities to experience the outdoors as other races. A video posted to X by Libs of TikTok features the two faculty members, Assistant Professor Hannah Shamloo and Science Outreach and Education Coordinator Nicolaus Zentner, promoting the “Rock and Role” event. Professor Zentner is shown saying, “So is this open to everybody? Not really.” “There’s a growing number of people who are younger and are from much more diverse backgrounds who typically don’t go to those events for a bunch of reasons, so this is a BIPOC community event,” Zentner added. Professor Shamloo said The Bronze Chapter, the host organization for Rock and Role, aims to “increase participation of BIPOC members in the outdoors.” "There is always a part of me that wants to reveal this other side of my culture—the culture I was raised w...

Mr. Ghavami was our biology teacher. He was old and seemingly harmless and other than the fact that when calling a student to the board he would ask them to retell not some but all of the previous day’s lesson, no one had any issues with him. He would occasionally get angry and yell at us although he rarely beat anyone. Nima and I became the exception to this rule. One day as we were sitting in class I brought Irene’s old biology book instead of mine. Most of the content was the same and the differences were mainly the pictures with hijabless woman removed and men or covered up women replacing them. As I leafed through my book I pointed out each picture to Nima and he showed me the one from his book as we compared notes. With Putra sitting in between us we had to either call out or make a hand gesture to get each other’s attention. After about 15 minutes of this Mr. Ghavami had had enough. He approached me, probably because I was at the near end of the bench and began smacking me at th...

Kat, a mononymous mommy blogger and former model, has racked up millions of views on videos that expose stark and alarming differences between clothes made for boys and girls. “This is what Old Navy thinks your five-year-old little girl should be wearing to go down the slide,” she said in a recent video, holding up a pair of tiny denim shorts that resemble underwear instead of play clothes. For comparison, she holds up a pair of much longer “quick-dry” khaki shorts created for boys the same age. Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. Shahrzad Jalali agreed that uncomfortable pants can create unnecessary friction between a child and their environment, curbing learning and peer-bonding opportunities and creating stress and anxiety instead. “A child who is thinking about whether her clothes will ride up, expose her or restrict her movement has less psychological freedom to simply move,” Dr. Jalali told The Post. The California mental health expert added that freedom of movement supports explo...

In the second grade there were 4 females that I found attractive. One was Darla from the Little Rascals. One was Cindy from the Brady Bunch. One was a cartoon which I think was either Penelope Pitstop or Tinkerbell. The last one was the only one that I had seen in real life. She was a girl named Diane who was in my class. I liked the fact that she was honest because when we played Seven Up, sometimes I would press her thumb down and later if she correctly guessed that it had been me I would deny it and thus not lose. Actually thinking about it now this speaks more to my own dishonesty.