Absolute Random Nonsense

With the completion of the 1982 World Cup, an updated set of World Cup soccer cards were issued. Brazil continued to lead the pack in all categories (other than goals received). Still having a soft spot for Italy, I was somewhat agitated that they hadn’t overtaken West Germany as the second highest team in overall points. The fact that West Germany was in such close pursuit of Brazil in all categories made me uncomfortable. With the possibility of them eventually catching up and passing Brazil, I made a conscious decision to always hate the German national team and all things related to German soccer. Poland’s third place finish in the World Cup hardly ranked them high in these cards’ standings as their poor past performances yielded a low aggregate number of points. Updated stats aside, another observation regarding the new cards was the shoddy work that had been done regarding their pictures. While many of the pictures were just too dark, the actual content was also questionable....

From leaving Iran as a refugee to Germany in 1986, moving to the US in the year 1989, to establishing herself in the city of Los Angeles – Bita Milanian’s inspirational journey is nothing less than incredible. Always leading from the front, she has worked with a number of organizations and by sheer hard work and an innovative spirit, created a special place for herself in the technology-oriented global telecoms domain. As an Iranian who came to the United States in 1989, Milanian knows how different her life could have been had she stayed in her home country. “I remember I was 12 years old,” she says of the time when she was pulled over by Iran’s morality police. “That day I was wearing a colorful scarf, and I believe that kind of triggered them. But, my hair was fully covered.”  Her love of cuisines and cooking led her to start BitaKitchen.com where she shares her simple, quick and healthy recipes with all. “Food connects us,” Bita writes, “and when we are connected, we have the p...

“Thomas, for the last time drop your stupid ATM idea. It’s not gonna work, plus you will be in a shite load of trouble once you get caught.” “No one will get caught. People do it all the time, probably everyday.” “Yes, people do it every day in the movies, not in real life. In the movies everyone’s a hero and nothing ever goes wrong. Wake up man, this is the real world.” “Kurt you’re blowing this out of proportion. Movies are based on people’s lives anyway.” “Listen to me for one second, just one plain example. In the movies you see a guy being chased by the police. He looks over his shoulder and sees them drawing their gun. He hears them yell freeze. He continues running. He then hears the gun being fired. He’s still running, in slow motion, and he feels the bullet hit him in the shoulder. It throws him off balance but he still manages to stay on his feet. He tries to stop the blood by applying pressure with his other hand as he continues to run. He finally manages to shake ...

Shally Zomorodi is one of the more well-known and incredibly prolific members of the Iranian diaspora. Her day job is as a news anchor of Fox 5 San Diego Morning News where she’s been waking up San Diego for more than a decade now. However, her journalism career spans over two decades at this point, including a two-year stint in Texas where I live. But over the years, she’s also been heavily involved in the greater Iranian community, through her show Bereez o bepaz, through the many lives she does on her Instagram page interviewing other Iranians, or giving glimpses into her embrace of Iranian traditions in her home, through her Iranian gher breaks on her morning news show, and so much more.  Shally won the title of Mrs. California Globe and was 3rd runner-up to Mrs. US GLOBE. She also held the titles of Miss Orange County Teen USA and Miss Orange County USA. It was during her competition at MISS CALIFORNIA USA that Shally won an award in journalism. She left law school to pursue h...

Before the Pakistan Street Tournament could take place, we arranged a few preparation matches, the first and most prominent one of them being against 16A. Within days of forming our team we challenged them to a game and while both teams considered it a friendly, we all knew it was anything but. For them it was a matter of brushing us aside as some breakaway nuisance that would self-implode and scatter once they inflicted an embarrassing and convincing defeat upon us. For us it was not only a matter of establishing legitimacy for our newly formed team, but also showing them who in fact should be considered the A team. Kamyar and I typed up fliers to advertise the game, colored the borders in florescent colors to make them noticeable and posted two of them on each street, one at the beginning and one in the street itself. The advertisements seemed to work as a sizable crowd of spectators had gathered for the game. Once we arrived, the fact that 16A was already present in matching shirts ...

A PhD candidate accused of planning to use Molotov cocktails in a terror attack on the Gold Coast on Australia Day has been denied bail. Sepehr Saryazdi, who worked at the CSIRO, appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after being charged with one count of acts in preparation for or planning a terrorist act. During a bail application, the court heard the 24-year-old had been brought to the attention of counter terrorism officers after information was received about things he was allegedly posting online. Commonwealth prosecutor Ellie McDonald told the court the alleged offending related to Facebook Messenger chats within a private group containing over 50 people. Mr Saryazdi was a high achieving student who last year posted on LinkedIn about having graduated with a combined Bachelor of Science and Master of Mathematical Sciences from the University of Sydney. He had also worked in robotics and even gave a lecture at a Physics in the Pub event on graphing application Desm...

In fall of 1997 I took a job as a middle school coach. I had a number of keepers present at tryouts but I only selected two for the final roster. I had a starter and a backup keeper although gradually the starting keeper gravitated towards playing as a defender and thus the backup keeper became the starter by default. I wondered how his soccer career progressed following middle school so I looked him up. He had passed away at age 26 in California. Rest n peace Jonathan.  

Outside the quiet, rural hamlet of Garrison, in Upstate New York’s Hudson Valley, the early 19th-century clapboard home of Iranian-American artist Y.Z. Kami reveals a cache of deeply personal objects. Chief among them is a masterfully woven silk Persian rug, richly red, given to him by his mother. Others clustered on surfaces include a silver-framed photograph of his parents, honeymooning in Rome, and a small collection of ceramic vessels. “In the very old Persian pottery I have, I see the dryness of the land and the different colors of the earth from the part of the world where I come from,” he says.  At a time when Iran is dominating headlines and Kami, 69, is about to open a major solo show at Gagosian gallery in Los Angeles, his relationship to his childhood home of Tehran is being drawn deeper into a politically complex conversation. But it is one that exists outside his approach to making art, which is philosophical and contemplative, exploring notions of selfhood and spiritu...

Without a schedule in the first few weeks, it was anyone's guess what we had each period. One day as we sat through chemistry class our teacher, Mr. Adeli, was showing us the periodic table, capacities of elements and how they combine. He explained how we had to switch the capacities for the elements when they combined (for example hydrogen with capacity of one and oxygen with capacity of two produced H2O1 or H2O). He did a few examples and then combined sulfur (with capacity of four) with oxygen (with capacity of two) and wrote it as SO2. He then asked the class how many of us thought that for this scenario sulfur had a capacity of two. A few students raised their hand. I was writing the material on the board and thus I ignored the question. He suddenly turned to me and said, "Well you didn't raise your hand. That means that you must think sulfur doesn't have a capacity of two. Why do you think that?” Completely caught off guard I said, “Excuse me sir? Could you repea...

Sharouz Hamidi Hashemi was on the People's Court. He  says he rented a room in the defendant’s apartment and witnessed underage drinking involving her son, strange people coming and going, and even an illegal hair salon operating in the unit. He claims that when he told the defendant he planned to move out, she snapped and locked him out, so he’s suing. The defendant says the plaintiff turned out to be a heavy drinker and once locked himself out after running out of the house in the middle of the night. He won the case and got some of his deposit back but no lost wages.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMKL1lmi3rc    

In December of 1995 as I approached the library door of the university, a student exited at the same time and held the door open for me. As I thanked her I realized I knew her as she was one of only 2 American students in my Arabic course during freshman year. She also recognized me and we began briefly chatting. She told me that this was her last semester and that she was graduating at the end of this fall semester. She then gave me her number and told me to call her so we could hang out. I kept procrastinating but finally decided to call her towards the middle of December. A recorded message informed me that the number had been disconnected.