Robo Egg !

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:

Mani under pressure !

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.

Life HAS to go on …

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

The lovely Mazandaran

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.