Back to reality 2.0

I came back from another conference, this time held in southern Sweden. It was one of the better conferences during my time in the students' association. Some friends left the organization and new blood was welcomed. I am starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Do I really want to see what's out on the other side?

This is a view from the hotel room.


Typical Soviet, spartan architecture with a great pinch of communism added to it. It looks terrible, but that's how it is when you travel on the expense of the members of the association. Their admissions indirectly finance my trips and my stays. But hey, I'm giving something back! Ha!

The funny thing about the hotel was that it was frightening from the outside but it was really fresh on the inside. It's a cliche, I know, but this one is actually for real. Except for a fucked elevator that scared the shit out of me every time I was in it. The funny thing is that there were no stairs so you had to use that horrendous elevator. Hotel Sparta in the city of Lund will always hold a special place within me, some place deep, deep down inside, hidden somewhere in my subconscious mind, far away from reality.

It was a pleasant trip all in all, except for a train delay due to a storm. I had booked a first class ticket on the train, and the ETA from my hometown to Lund was roughly 2 and a half hours. The sum total of the trip was approximately 6 hours, and the worst part was that I had to give up my lovely first class seat for a murderous bus trip through the boring district of Småland, with Swedish countrymusic boosting out of the cheap speakers. Sometimes I love my iPod. I drowned the music with macho stuff and Gigi D'agostino.

I came back on Monday afternoon, a relief to "begin" the week with a Tuesday. This week is stuffed. I'm not that worried though, I've had worse weeks.

Thank you for reading.

Back to reality

I just got back from my short trip to freedom (and I can't stress that enough). It was well needed and well deserved. I've had a lot to deal with the past weeks.

I would like to apologize to a couple of people that reached out during the weekend and wanted to see me. Believe me, I wanted to hang out too, but unfortunately time is something extremely limited in my life these days. I don't want you to feel forgotten. I hope to see you soon again!

Goood night.

The antithesis of euphoria

The title of today's thread probably sums up my current state of mind. I am trying to stay positive but sometimes there's a need tilt my mind and unload all negative weight that floats in there. This happens to be a terrific channel for that.

I've had a long day at campus. 4 meetings in one day, that squeezed out most of my energy. On top of that I'm trying to figure out why some people are impossible to communicate with. Some people tend to make the least complicated conversations as complex mind mazes. The funny thing is that nothing works when it comes to possible solutions for the problem. Silence doesn't work (because we need to talk). I've tried to engage in conversations with this moron but it still doesn't work. There was a time though, when this individual would come to me any time and we could talk easily about almost anything. Those days are gone and now this asshole is giving me a hard time. Thanks. This is what I call gratitude.

Another thing, I need to make an announcement once again. Lex Jante is still something that bothers me and that exists in my everyday life. It popped up today during a conversation with a guy at campus. His propaganda was too much for me so I tried to round it off politely, telling him that his views on certain issues were antique and narrowminded. Deep inside I felt like punching him in the face, but that isn't civilized or correct in any way. I guess it's a part of the culture of the society we live in. It's difficult to rub it off without facing problems. All I know is that is a stupid way of thinking and that it prevents progress.

So, with this being said, I'll leave. If she plays heavy with me it's her loss. In other words, if she doesn't like me, too bad!

I hate firecrackers

It's almost 2 weeks since new years eve but the kids (and sometimes even grown ups) play Baghdad Bowling out on the streets 24/7. What's the fucking thrill? It's like putting your notes on fire.


It's nice one night every year, not more. I wish the retards would quit.

What defines one's nationality?

The first week is now over. It's Friday night but that doesn't really mean anything. January will be one of those months when too many things attract my attention and keep me from seeing how time passes.

I've had a cool day though. I have studied a little but I haven't exactly been working my ass off. I've been distracted by some shit at PFDC lately. Here's the story.

There's this Iranian footballer in the Swedish league, Behrang Safari who quickly has become one of the better players on his position. He was recently awarded with a berth in the Swedish national team in some upcoming friendlies in North America. Unfortunately, Behrang was interrogated at the airport where the Swedish national team was changing flights. He was stuck there for 2 hours and missed the plane with the other players on it. It's usually common that Iranians are "interviewed" like this after 9/11 and all the other problems going on in the Mid East. So far so good.


Here's the annoying thing. Behrang said in an interview (that I myself did with him last summer!) that he would join the national team that calls him up first. That means that if the officials at the Iranian football federation (which is a mess at the moment with a new president) would have called Behrang up for one of the many worthless friendlies against Arab teams, he would most likely accept that invitation and become an Iranian international player. Behrang was never called up by Iran, and I completely understand him when he accepted the invite from Sweden's headcoach Lars Lagerbäck. I mean who would turn down an invitation from a national team in order to wait for another one (that might not even come...)? It's stupid!
Now, people are going around calling Behrang all different kinds of things. Traitor, Swede (as if that is something negative) Iran hater and other nasty things. The funny thing here is that these kids (99 % of them) don't even live inside Iran. Most of them can't even read or write Farsi! Now they're preaching all kinds of stupid things about patriotism, nationalism and pride. Well, spare us please! Have you ever heard of Zlatan Ibrahimovic before?


Henrik Larsson? Zinedine Zidane (one of the biggest players of all time)?


It upsets me that people don't see this in a distanced and nuanced way. Some people see the world in only black and white.
Enough about that.

------------------------------

I have an exam tomorrow afternoon. The coming weeks are as I mentioned earlier, pretty tanked. But what the fuck, it's not the first time. I've had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy inhuman stress during the past 6 months, so I'll be a big boy and suck it up.

Good night.

2008, the end of a long tunnel

Here we are, on the other side of the mountain. We have finally left the tunnel. 2007 is over and a new year has begun.

This is what I said a year ago:

It felt strange right from the get-go. I never felt that 2007 would be a year to remember. Don't ask me why. I know that things tend to turn out the way you bend them yourself, it's in your own hands. But truth to be told, 2007 sucked in many ways. Political tension and turbulence, my injury, friends who let me (and others) down all contributed to a mediocre year. Minor things (in this context) such as stress and "trouble" at campus didn't directly help me either.

Some positive things took place during the past year, amen for that. I don't want to build up a castle of expectations for 2008 because I am aware of the risks of such behaviour. Before you know it things go sour and there you sit, disappointed and sad. 2008 shall be a good year, hopefully. The least I can do is to try to make it a good year. The rest is not in my hands.

I feel excited about the summer. We have the EURO 2008 finals in Switzerland and Austria and I'm looking for some EURO 2004 vibes.
My assignment within the student association will be over by the end of this semester, and it's going to be strange to leave it. At the same time I can't deny that it is going to feel great, to remove a burden from my shoulders and to hand it over to someone else.

I have high hopes for this coming year. I really hope that I'll get the opportunity to get closer to some people that I've drifted away from. I hope it will be a year full of prosperity, success and happiness. I hope that this will be the year when peace will spread all over the world, and that cultural, religious and ethnic conflicts end. I hope that this year will be the year when dialogue and respect replace weapons. I hope that this will be a successful year for the Swedish and Iranian national teams in football. But who knows? Nobody knows what the future holds.

Life is a strange path. It's a very fast trip with stops, amazing passages, changes of directions and collisions on a regular basis. No matter how much we try to change the outcome of our lives, we still end up powerless at the end of the day. I am once again pointing out that I am aware of what this trip has to offer me. What I'm trying to say is that I still try to go my own way, even though it might seem impossible sometimes.

Opium

I just came across this clip. It's a little boy smoking opium (probably to numb the sense of hunger). This clip almost made me cry.



Opium is smoked by the poor. This little boy was given the opium by his fuck of a father (who probably was stoned at the same time). This ruined my day.

METALLICA

2 nights ago a friend of mine approached me and asked me if I wanted to join him and a few others the coming day when Metallica came to town. I had no ticket and I never managed to get one when they were released. It's fucking mayhem each time and this time was no exception. Anyway, they happened to have one surplus ticket due to a late decline from one of their friends. I didn't actually have to think before I answered, I knew I wanted to go but I had to be sure it was green. I had planned to go and see Porcupine Tree with a friend in Gothenburg, but we didn't think that it would be worthwhile to go so far, so I eventually accepted the invite to go and see Metallica. I was aware of the fact that strange people usually attend these events and it was confirmed when we got there. It's always a blast to see how some behave and dress like.

Anyway, Metallica bottomed me out pretty bad and it was fucking great. I had never seen them live before. I have many bootleg albums and concerts but it's a completely different thing to see them live. The setlist was absolutely great. Some surprises were included and it was really great to see some variety in their choice of songs. "The Unforgiven", "No Leaf Clover" and "Disposable Heroes" are as far as I know not played very often when they are on tour. "The Unforgiven" was special and "Nothing Else Matters" as well. They didn't play too many new songs, actually none from the latest album ST ANGER (amen for that).

Thank you for last night's show!



The No Leaf Clover intro.



Mater of Puppets









Kirk Hammet hammering out tunes to the 32000 ecstatic fans.



Hetfield live on one of 3 big screens

Hetfield, playing "The Unforgiven" on an acoustic guitar. One of the best songs of the evening in my opinion.

Close-up on Hetfield

An hour or something before the show.

The number of people in the stadium is increasing.


This punk was running around, dancing, making funny moves and shouting out nonsense. I couldn't resist to take a shot of him :D.

Many fans from all over Sweden were there to see the posterboys of Rock n' Roll.

Updates from Camp Baghdad

I'll be off to the physiotherapist in an hour or something. That guy has more or less saved my summer. I shall recommend all friends with (God forbid... wtf I'm not even religious...) future injuries to visit this guy.

Roger Federer won the Wimbledon trophy once again. It was an extremely even game 2 days ago and I enjoyed it. I was rooting for him all the time, although I believe that Nadal deserved to win as much as Federer. I was told by several friends during my last year in high school that I look very like Roger Federer, and from there I started to follow his game. Nadal's time will come, it's amazing to see that guy play.


I was out last night with a friend at a bar, we were watching AIK playing like lost champions against defending champions Elfsborg (damn I really hate that name). First of all, let me just say that Elfsborg probably has the ugliest jersey in Sweden (if not Europe). Too many sponsorship ads and names combined with a nasty design. Umbro screwed up!
AIK lost 0-1 and my old hero Stefan Ishizaki (now playing in Elfsborg) scored the winning goal.
2007, the year that never existed.... that prophecy is proving to be true...


The AFC Asian cup 2007 adventure begins for Iran tomorrow. Uzbekistan is our first opponent and I am hopeful to see my team win with at least a goal difference of 3 goals. Australia faced Oman (if I'm not completely mistaking) a few days ago and they drew. Oman should have won but the Aussies levelled the score in the last minutes of the game. I am really hoping to see a decent performance tomorrow. No more losses against teams like Bahrain or China.

Kaebi joins Leicester

Rumour had it that the guy was joining Arsenal a few years back. He didn't do that, but today he signed with Leicester instead. Not a fancy move as one to Arsenal, but still very good.