Time to move on…!

I came back from Iran on July 26th. I do have many interesting stories from my trip, but I realize none belong here. This blog has had its run. I will enjoy looking back at some of the posts here, from time to time, as one would enjoy reading back an old daily journal. It will be nice to remember.

However, life moves on if nothing else.

To “Bar Exam” seekers of information; I say good luck and I hope you find at least a piece of what you are looking for here.

Ciao!

This is probably my one and only post while I am still actually a guest of the Islamic Republic. I am returning to the States next week. It has been great to spend time with my family, visiting the old neighborhood as well as the new Tehran–a sprawling monsterous city of over 12.5 million people. Suffice to say when I left this place it had all of 3.5 million people living here and we thought back then it was too crowded. We were wrong!

The best I can describe life here is by analogy. I am not “Neo”, but every home I visit here is like “outside”–unplugged-and every time I set foot in the streets; especially when traveling by car in an absolutely chaotic web of streets, expressways and highways–it feels like “We are going in! To the Matrix”…I will not say another word. I have to run before the “agents” catch up with me..:-)….George Orwell would have such a great time studying this society. I cringe. I am lucky. I knew this before I left California, but this is a great refresher course. I look forward to coming back, but I will miss my family here and no matter what, I will return here to visit them when I can.

By the way, good luck with the Bar Exam.

I am leaving today for Iran–yes, it is 1:50AM and already Sunday; so today–flying around 7PM.

I told a friend today, “Yes, I would love to go to Tuscany instead, but I have no family there”; and there lies the essence of the matter. We all know how many unknowns are associated with traveling to a lively place like this, but life does not stop and allow you to plan where your roots will grow. Your roots  sprout before you do. You are who you are when you disocver existence; and that is that–for some it would be London, but for me it was Tehran.

I am looking forward to it, and because my children are with me I hope all stays peaceful while looking forward to coming back “home”–here. However, we plan on having quite a great time there, and I hope and believe we will.

If I have Internet access there, I will post. Too much to tell, but I am too tired to attempt it now. Need some sleep and still have things left to do in the AM before we leave.

Ciao for now–

As we approach the July Bar Exam, number of my visitors is way up as expected. If you are looking for any information related to my Bar Exam experience, use the search field on the “Home” page. Almost all questions I receive came up last year when I was going through this and my posts at the time reflect these.

I am sure happy not being in your shoes. Good luck!

Also, congratulations to those of my good friends who passed the February exam! The great feeling never gets old; it has not for me anyway, and some attorneys I know make the same remark. Enjoy your success.

If you need a few laughs, check this out. As claimed–actual answers to exam questions that obviously did not sit too well with the takers. I loved it!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/5107/They-didnt-study

Nearly a year since I went through the Bar Exam madness…

I recall 1L, first class, first night of it all; during the short break in Criminal Law lecture, one of the more senior students of the school responded to some of the 1L’s groaning with, “Don’t worry! There is life after Mr X”–referring to the professor who had a particular reputation for being tough.

There was indeed life after Mr. X. I aced that class, the professor was a great teacher, 1L breezed by, and I can still recite the precise definition of “larceny” with ease. Of course 1L’s population was cut by half mid-year; by the time we graduated about one third of those who started with me were left standing to receive their JD papers. It came down to believing you have what it takes, and doing what it takes.

Tell yourself you can do it, and you will. Believe in yourself and do the work. There is plenty of life after the Bar exam.

Bar Exam is gone for me…lasting memories of all sorts and shape…but gone. I am an attorney and my particular Bar exam is nearly a year old. Yours will come and go too. Hang in there. If you have what it takes, and more importantly, if you do the work it requires, some day soon you will look back and a year will have gone from the Bar exam you passed; the one that made you an attorney-at-law. No one will ever take that away from you, and no feeling in the world is like it; so keep going till you get there.

Apples and Oranges! The difference a year can make!

Originally, this post was a follow up to another. I decided to delete the first one, because it was not some of my best words. It was petty and angry. I dislike pettiness and find anger to be only effective when used with control and purpose–which negates the nature of itself; but that is another discussion.

Bottom line, I did not like the author who wrote that post. So, this being my own blog, I did away with the offending words. Maybe at some level I had some real issues to discuss. But, I am certain I could have written them more effectively and not in a diatribe. Enough said. This ended up being a close reading of my own words–very useful. The end is not near at all.

Just wanted to post here that this blog turned one year old tonight–well, before midnight anyway!

What a year it was! I will not clutter my words; the posts here speak for themselves.

I hope by next year this time I have made similar progress towards my goals in life–but above all; I pray and wish for continued health for myself and everyone I care for and love. Without that nothing else matters.

 

OK! So let’s say a handful of people visit my blog. Still, if I can present something here that sets even a single person straight about an item of importance, I am well justified for indulging in posting my personal views on any specific subject. It is my blog afterall…:-). THAT is the only smile you will get out of me for the rest of this post, because this is a serious subject. When the movie “300” reared its ugly head I felt insulted in ways the likes of which I had not experienced–ever. Hollywood is now doing to Iranians–Persians–what they did for decades to Native Americans, and Zack Snyder manages to use the familiar “Black & White–African & Not” cliche’ to deliver a multiple whammy that insults about everyone except white six-pack endowed Spartan beefcakes!

Usually, I post a photo somehow related to the subject I post about. This time I could not find a single one that did not invade all of my better senses. This time words have to suffice. Below is a copy of a letter I wrote someone who was about to go and see the movie “300”–and likely did anyway; by the classic justification that this thing is an “Art Piece” (hmm..maybe it was simply the abundant beefcake) and maybe how dare I take it “so seriously”. Well…I know of nothing more serious in life than Art, Love and Politics.

Since my un-named friend was probably busy shopping for shoes , I decided to post the pertienent portions of my own words here for the millions who read my blog…;-) [A wink does not a smile make!]:

“…This time I specifically want to tell you what I think about the abomination of an ani-movie titled “300”. Honestly, there are rumors going around that the release of this thing is timed well enough to paint a pretty picture of any upcoming invasion of Iran–the direct people of which are still greatly considered Persians. I can only hope I can laugh at such speculation, but I must say after learning what this movie is about I am not so sure these speculations are so far off the mark!!!

The best I can offer in tolerance of this pile of dog doo is that if you must see it, consider it 99% fiction and historically worthless.

It used to be that as an Iranian-American one had to suffer the foolish ignorance of occasional TV educated FOX News watching morons who have the attention span of a fruitfly and whose view of history is what they recall was had for breakfast that day. So, if I had to be cornered in a darkened alley, I would have to reply “I am Persian” when asked where the heck I was from–originally. No more! Being “Persian” is evidently just as bad for my health, if you define who I am by the demeanor of my fellow Persians as depicted in “300”.

It is easy to take pride in a civilization that has been around before Babylonians had invented any letters to even write down the word Babylon. But, it takes a simple, easy to swallow lie, to reduce the competing interests of the Greek and Persian rivalry in that ancient time to a battle between “Democracy” and “Demonic Tyranny”–and not just simple tyranny I mind you; “300”‘s Persians are demons, miscreants, and non-humans. Even their animals–supposedly elephants and rhinos–look like creatures from hell and Saron’s monsters from the Lord of the Ring!

Not that any “king” was ever but a tyrant and a despot in the end. But, all wars in human history were–and are–fought by men; and sometimes women–who but for subtleties of skin tone, height, choice of weapon, fashion, and language, spill each other’s very red blood of the same crimson shade. “300” is right down racist! The Persian messenger sent to ask for the Sparta’s submission–as was customary before wasting soldiers and resources–is black; as dark as any African can be. By making him Persian, but looking African Black, and then kicking his apparently worthless presence in a really large open well–I am sure–designed specifically for such lovely ethnic cleansing occasion–Zack Snyder manages to hate Africans and Persians in a single swift karate kick delivered by no less than the king Leonidas himself! The rest of Persians look pretty dark looking as well!!

Amazingly, scientists categorize Persians racially as white and Aryan, which as a fact, in and of itself, to me shows the aburdity of how fervently some white supremacists hate Iranians and the like origins so passionately!!–Still “300” chooses to paint all Persians dark, because it is easy, racist, stereotypical to love hating the black, brown and all the dark skin tones in between–while–surprise!!–all the Spartan beef cakes are white as snow, and buff like Superman. Thus Snyder and Miller insult Africans and Persians both while intentionally ignoring simple scientific facts! This sort of selective, but purposeful fabrication enters into other creative aspects of “300”. The real Spartans who were known to wear real heavy armor–are clad in Chippendale dancing shorts to better show off those six packs and pectorals! Further, while even Herodotus reports number of Persians not to have been more than 50,000 to 200,000–which is still a huge mismatch with a mere 300–Zack Snyder advertises the movie version as 1 Million–that is 1,000,000 to 300…:-)…O.K…now Zack is making real history!!! (The 700 additional Thespians would mess up the simple title. So would other accounts of the force having been over 4000 soldiers. I mean “300 + 700” would not be as quite a sexy of a title for a comic book, or a movie!!)

Here is a genealogy of this movie: Herodotus, a Greek historian, wrote the original account of the battle of Thermopylae (The Hot Gates) according to what he himself had heard. [For a more accurate view of that history see Xenophon and his Cryopaedia ] But, at least Herodotus–being Greek–was a soldier in the Greek navy also at the time in the mid 200s BCE. Then comes Frank Miller and his bastardized version–with Xerxes having a bald head, mannerisms of a woman, and more piercings on his body that a flock of chickens skewered on a rotisserie. Likings of the real Xerxes exist prominently. Why else would Miller not use these, but for demonizing the “other”? Miller’s Xerxes is also a self-claimed “God”–which is totally false. The Greeks had a habit of considering their own rulers at times divine. But Persians had kings–flesh and blood and nothing more than “King of Kings” was required for these men to demand the respect they needed to command their empire. (Stretching from India to include Egypt, all of today’s Middle-East [] and Anatolia in Europe, and as far north as toady’s Russia)

I will stop here. I will spare you and myself from going further. I think my words here paint an adequate picture. Again, please enjoy the movie–if this blood fest can be enjoyed somehow–but know and enjoy it for the fantasy that it is.”

Just want to give kudos to those of you who just finished the 3 -Day test and wish you a win on the results.

Also, just another 20 days to first day of spring!

It has not been much of a winter here in Northern California, but spring always brings rebirth and a new chance. I am Persian; Iranian-American, and proud of my heritage. Persian New Year is the first day of Spring–Norooz; literally it means “new day”…I look forward to a great year–wish us all health, happiness and prosperity.