10 days ago I traveled to Japan for a robotic competitions. My trip to this amazing country took about 8 days and I got totally impressed by Japanese people. I am still thinking deeply about their behaviors and cultures and I think this would take much longer. Japanese are kind, responsible and friendly people with a permanent will to help. You will never feel lonely in Japan when you face a problem.

I do not know if a Japanese will ever read this post or not, but if so, I would like to thank you all …

Today is Persian New Year (Norouz). One of the greatest traditions of Norouz is Haft-Sin table which includes seven items specific starting with the letter S or Sîn (س) in Persian alphabet). The items symbolically correspond to seven creations and holy immortals protecting them.

Egg do not start with Sin (S)(س) in Persian alphabet, but egg decoration is very popular among Iranian families, They add decorated eggs to their haft-sin table.

Each year, near Norouz, a popular contest is held in our faculty named “Egg Decorating Contest“. Students from all over our university take part in this big contest. It was the second year that I gave my friends an idea to decorate the egg! (Just the idea, I can not even paint a simple sheet of paper!)

Last year this egg finally became one of the top 20s (Thanks Shokoofeh):

This year I didn’t have time to participate, but again I just gave one of my friends the idea. We are all member of Parsian Robotic Group, which is a robotic team working on a group of Small Size Robots. This year is the second year we are working on this project and our team is one of 16 teams which were qualified for this year RoboCup Competitions.

What could be more better than a “Robo Egg” ?? This egg didn’t took place in top 20s, but the Judge Team gave that egg a special prize for the concept !!! Here are some other pictures of the egg beside one of our robots:

As I told, I didn’t go to take photos from this year contest, but last year (@ March 13th 2006) I got some great photos which I didn’t publish, if you want to see some creativity of decorating eggs, take a look:

These days, I am almost hidden from others' sight! 'cause I am heavily under pressure by a robotic projects. We are working hard for preparing for this year Robocup Small Size league competitions.

A tree with blossoms in a public traditional cemetery in Iran – March 9 2006

Yesterday, I was invited to the 2nd reformists’ Persian bloggers meetup , hosted by Doctor Mostafa Moeen, Persian politician who was one of the candidates in previous Iranian Presidental Election in June 2005, The election that led to victory of Mahmood Ahmadi Nejad, current Iranian president . Dr.Moeen was candidate of reformists’ parties and was supported by most of Iranian students, [modern] women and bloggers, Eventhough he was unable to reach to presidental chair , he continued his meetings with his supporter bloggers till now.

As a supporter it was the second time that I was invited to the meeting , The last time, I was unable to go because of some conflicts in my plans , but today I was lucky enough to meet so many other great persian bloggers. By my estimations , There were 40 people in the meeting which was held in an office located in Tehran downtown and lasted near 3 hours.

Well, meeting people , most of them writing with their virtual names was very exciting, most of topics discussed in the meeting were about Iran nuclear program and IAEA watchdog reaction, Internet filtering inside Iran and bloggers rights and effects on society.

Most of the bloggers were university students and journalists in ages between 18-25. so many popular bloggers were invited like h.mazrooi , alpr and farnaaz. It was very intimated and full of points discussion. It was very obvious that most of the people there were againts Iranian government official foriegn politics and social rules, and they want democtratic reforms in politics and society.

People outside Iran usualy can not see this group of Iranians, and they judge Iranians through their government’s actions, But I get very proud when I see these high level discussions held inside Iran by young and active persians and I get proud when I see many other Iranian modern youth who we can count on to reach a free and democratic Iran. I can’t say that I have a good politic view so I can not expect myself as one of them , The main reason I was there was my efforts on Moeen Supports webring and some other technical assistants I made through Iranian ‘05 election for Dr.Moeen supporter bloggers.

No power even to think, I rather sit somewhere and rest, I wish I could be able to find a way to get rid of these “Endless Questions�?.

1. How many fall downs are enough for someone to change the way?
2. How many times should someone forgive?
3. What is the best way not to like others?
4. What is the best way to be able to hate?

I told before, People think I have an exciting life, with lots of activities. It’s been a while that I’ve been in a hard challenge with myself to change things in a way that I want. All I want is a normal life. I don’t need others’ respect; I just want to feel happiness continuously, I don’t want to let “small people�? to grab my happiness and fall me in a situation that I am currently in,

But, The end of the story is clear, As far as I can’t find the answers to those questions, as far as I believe in giving chances to the others, as far as I am living with positives thoughts about others, I will not be able to change my situation. People will use, test, leave and forget …

If I could change I would,
To get the pain I would,
To trace every wrong move that I made I would.
If I could …

There is no official WordPress wallpaper! There is no shop.wordpress.org to obtain T-Shirts from, Only an official logo is available and all a WordPress fan/user/developer/hacker can do is putting the WP logo as his/her mobile background logo!

PS. It seems as if there ARE some wordpress related stuff, See Ryan in this picture! A cap and a T-Shirt, Where can I obtain one ?

Iran is beautiful; there is no doubt about it. But with such non-democratic non-modern government and political structure, many people in the world have a bad mental background about Iran and Iranians. Last week I had a great 3 day trip with my classmates to Mazandaran (From our university located in Tehran) , in north of Iran. I decided to write a little about the place (Mazandaran) and publish some photos I took.

Where is Mazandaran?

Mazandaran is located north of Iran, between Alborz Mountains and Khazar (Caspian) sea. Because of its narrow width and locating between sea and mountains, the humidity is very high and its soil is very great for farming. There also so many rivers located in the province. The space between seashore and jungles in some part of this area is less than a kilometer. Mazandaran is one of the most internal touristy poles in Iran.

I am from Sari, the capital of Mazandaran Province, so this trip was not an exact trip for me, because I’d seen these places so many time before, but going there with friends from other parts of Iran (which are usually dry) proved me that Mazandaran is really beautiful. Then I decided to publish some photos and let people from other countries see the beautiful Mazandaran!

Please mention that these pictures were taken in autumn with a Mobile VGA Camera.

Roads

Here are two pictures from a road in Mazandaran. (It’s an entrance road somewhere near “SavadKuh�?)

Seashore

Khazar is the world’s biggest lake and people usually name it Sea, Some pictures from “Farah Abaad�? seashore (30km south of Sari), Taken early morning (except one).

Jungle in autumn

These are some beautiful pictures from “Shahid Zare’�? Jungle Park (3km east of Sari). I love this place because my school was somewhere near the park and I studied 7 years there!

“Soleyman Tange�? Dam

40km south of Sari, There is a Dam on “Tajan�? river surrounded with beautiful jungles. This place has a great view over the valley.

“Abbas Abaad�?

The last place we visit was “Abbas Abaad�? Jungle Park in Behshahr (55km east of Sari). This place is famous because of a special historical buildings founded by “Shah Abbas Safavi�? –The Persian King- more than 200 years ago. The building is located inside an artificial lake. We had a great lunch program there with lots of fun.

This trip had a great effect on me, I wrote about it before in my Persian Weblog.

I am really interested to know your comments if you are not Iranian, What do you think about the place? What do you think now about Iran?

Updated (January 2009): Mazandaran in Autumn, Pictures from Mazandaran in Autumn, a great photo set  prepared by my friend, Nima.

I talked to myself in a mirror today! I tried hard to convince myself to change some things in my life, It was the first time that I used this trick , I knew that I am good in convincing people, but I’ve not tested that on myself, It was not a bad experience ….

PS. I am not mad or crazy at all , I am just trying hard to overcome some feelings and change some suffering part of my life.

Writing here about myself rather than my Persian blog just means one thing, I need a little more privacy! I’ve never been this much confused, I really do not know what going to happen, From others’ sight I have a good life, at least not boring, Studying in a good university, having a good family, so much activities, so many people around and of course a permanent will to help others … But they can not see inside, just because I always pretend like I am ok, I rather not to talk about my problems and inner feelings and that makes them harder to overcome.

The more I grow, The more problems come from my relationships, Experiencing so much pressure from this point in past 6 months, fall me in a manic depression challenge, I can not understand why things get worse even though I try hard not to let them to become so, In all kind of my relationships I try not to transfer expresses to other side, I always try to help other people, I always try not to be rude, I always behave extra logical, I always try not to offend people, I always try to accept their mistakes, I always try to be a good man, but I get depressed when I see they do not see this , or even worse they except more!

I usually do not even think about the things I do, I try not to talk about them, but tonight I wanna SHOUT! They tell me that they DO like me, but they are not ready to help me, That’s right, I don’t tell them to do so usually, but at least when I tell them, I really expect them to do so, but they always leave me alone… They even do not expect me to be sad!

I am afraid to say the more I go and try to be ok, I gain less, in past 6 months, 3 people told me one thing with different words: “I DO like you, You ARE extra good, But I can not help you, Please stay as a friend for me, but do NOT expect me anything�?.

I keep everything inside and even though I try, it all fell apart …