Sad Ironies

I am learning Turkish these days.  The process rekindles the sweet memories and excitements I used to experience as a kid and later teenager, when I used to learn English as a second language.  I still feel the same joy of opening doors to a new world through learning a language.  I also realize how much slower my brain seems to be processing and remembering newly learned grammar rules and vocabularies.  It is called aging I guess.  It is nice to discover so many common words and cultural similarities in Turkish, Persian, and Arabic.  It seems like as long as you know one of these languages, you can pick up the vocabulary of another one, fairly well.  Naturally, I look for such commonalities, and how one word changes as it travels from one language to another.  These days, every time I find the relationship between a Turkish word and a Farsi word, I become happy for having been able to solve a puzzle.  It must be the analyst in me, liking to break down the words into pieces (and Turkish is the perfect language for doing so, since phrases and sentences can be made by adding suffixes and prefixes to a word).

But for once, I was sad to find such a relationship.  Well, not really the relationship between words this time, rather learning a Turkish word that is used as a name in Tehran.  Maybe somethings are better left unlearned.  I learned that "ev" means home in Turkish, and "evin" means house.  How has the sweetest of words and places become a prison in Iran, the forced house of many?!

Innovation

A cool idea comes to my mind. I start brainstorming, writing notes, adding more thoughts, scenarios, cases. It looks like I have something going, I tell to myself. I feel the adrenalin rush. What if it turns to something big, what if it changes one city, one country, then the world. What if, ...? Then, you think of the logistics. How would I make it happen? Who would I bring on as team members? Should I quite my job? Where would I get funding from? I am convinced it is something worth pursuing. Then, I check the internet. I search for similar ideas and technologies. Someone else is on it already. Not too long ago, a company launched just a year ago. Someone is few steps ahead of you. It does not matter you thought you were a genius and came up with the idea all on your own, without cheating. It does not matter, it is being done. For those few minutes when you were feeling creative and innovative, that excitement, that adrenaline rush, that was enjoyable. It makes you want to experience it again. Maybe once for real, without it fading away. Are there any cool ideas left that someone has not explored yet and matches my passions too? I wonder. There is no other way around, other than to keep looking, and thinking. It is hard to be innovative in this day and age, I think.

What to do?

Did I get into the wrong field for me? While I have learned about many scientific and engineering areas through computation, and while I have been enjoying all those learning experiences, I have so many other passions and interests I like to pursue outside work that I do not have enough time for. From writing essays and stories, to introducing some changes in society and even laws! What shall one do in so little time?

Scope

It is amazing to me how sometimes the concept of scope is misunderstood or not even considered by some people.  Do you expect an astronomy journal to publish articles in medicine?  Or a math journal to publish short stories?  Usually not.  How would you judge and trust the scientific claims made in a fashion magazine?

While we may grasp the concept of the scope in above examples easily, when it comes to news organization and public media, expectations seem to change drastically.  For example, some accuse  Voice of America for not being the voice of the people of other countries outside the U.S such as Iran, Egypt, Turkey, etc.  Well, of course it is not and nor should it be in my opinion.  They can report the events and news as they happen, and how U.S. government responds to it, but that is about it.  Similarly, a local newspaper for Los Angeles has different content and objectives from a local newspaper in Baltimore or Tokyo.  In fact, if one government's media talk about goals and points of views of people in other countries, one should question their authority and judgement in doing so, in my opinion.  One can only expect truthfulness and validity of the claims and news being broadcast and hold media accountable and demand evidence for what they deliver within their scope of work, not for what they are not supposed to deliver nor for what they did not deliver.

I have seen the same thing happen on personal Blogs and Facebook pages.  Some think to show your cool factor and open-mindedness you should accept and keep all posts and comments made by others on your personal page.  Well, it is my "personal" page not a board for others to spread their ideas, especially if I do not like to promote those ideas.  My personal page is out of scope for reflecting many topics of interest to others!  I find it acceptable to delete automatic ads that are posted as comments to my blog posts as well as out of scope comments, equally the same.

I have just been needing to throw it out there once and for all.

Happy Monday!

I just love what I do, where I work, and the people I work with.  Even with all the annoying rules and bureaucracy, I still find reasons to carry on every day.  For that I am grateful, every morning, even Monday mornings.

Cappuccinos

I miss these tasty Italian cappuccinos, that were strong enough to energize you, but not so strong to keep you up at night or upset your stomach like the American ones do to me. The ones that are not too big, nor too small, and are presented nicely to you like a piece of art, and yet they are cheaper than what their poor quality counter-parts are sold here in the U.S.

Small World

I spent three nights in a Villa in Tuscany for my cousin's wedding. She, a Persiam from a Muslim family, married a Jew from a Germam family. They met and live in England. The groom and bride sat in front of Persian, Muslim, and Jewish traditional wedding elements. Their marriage was officiated by a female rabi, breaking her own religion's law of only males being able to hold this position, and a female relative who read Persian poetry and led the Islamic and Persiam wedding exchange of wows and promises. Guests were from Iran, Germany, Italy, England, Australia, France, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States. Among them were two gay couples, enjoying the celebrations and reunion openly. The world was so small,so beautiful, and so perfect with green scenery, delicious meals, dances, and laughters. Everyone was happy. The End.