:: Nostalgic Notes ::

:: Friday, August 29, 2003 ::

Perspolis, the most popular football club in Iran, commenced the third professional league with a wonderful performance and a very nice victory against Pegah. The club as well as the new coach, Croatian Begovic, needed the victory to persuade those fanatic fans of former coach to not follow him anymore.
Ali Parvin, one of the best Iranian football players in his era, was head coach of the club for just about three years. He, in my opinion, is the symbol of those bigoted Iranians who strongly strive against any changes and any improvements to protect their own positions and their own benefits. He supports a very traditional form of tactic related to many years ago, and, unfortunately, he persistently states that he does not need to study the lessons of pioneer coaches and football theoreticians. Following the poor performances and poor results of Perspolis during past three years, the club manager came to this conclusion that he had to make some changes in the club. To begin reforms, at the end of the previous session and after a long dispute, the club manager hired the Croatian coach who had been extremely successful in Iran since three years ago. Of course, hearing the news, Ali Parvin tried to make some players not obey the club manager's decision. Meanwhile, he, along with those gutter newspapers supporting him, attempted to deter the manager not to make any changes in the club, but, fortunately, he and his supporters were completely unsuccessful.
Emerging new ways and thoughts, I hope we will see very deep changes in national football. I ask myself "When will we see a similar reform in the political scene of Iran?"
:: Ahmadreza 8:01 PM [+] ::
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All right, I took the test yesterday and the day before yesterday. The Listening section held on Saturday was a real disaster. I missed several questions, and, as a consequence, I answered some multiple choice questions by chance as well as by analyzing the answers! As regards Writing and Reading section, I tried to do my best, but I am not sure whether I will score required mark or not. Speaking section was not too bad. Even though I stopped speaking two or three times, I was satisfied with my performance at the end of the interview session. In fact, it was not so hard that I had thought.
At the end, I have to name a very nice friend. Mojtaba Akhtari, prosperous doctor who writes his letters from London, was really helpful; sending e-mail and giving some useful information about IELTS exam, he helped me to be confident. Thanks Mojtaba, thanks a billion.
:: Ahmadreza 10:50 AM [+] ::
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According to an unofficial report, Mr. Hashem Aghajari, Iranian imprisoned lecturer, is nominated to get the Peace Noble Prize 2003. He, of course, must compete with some world-famous rivals - Irish Bono, Pope John Paul the Second, Czech Vaclav Havel, Chinese Wei Jingsheng as well as Israeli Mordechai Vanunu.
Winning the prize is an honor, both for Mr. Aghajari and Iranians living all over the world. The prize will put the name of all imprisoned journalists and writers on the headlines, but, it, I personally believe, will not affect the blocked reform process in Iran.
:: Ahmadreza 11:46 AM [+] ::
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"He faced difficulties with the authorities in 1992, which led to him having his work licence revoked for 2 years when he made "Recording the Truth", a controversial documentary about censorship in Iran."
The quotation is a part of Kaveh Golestan's biography. Preparing a report about the war between Iraqi soldiers and coalition forces in the North of Iarq, Kaveh Golestan, the acclamied Iranian photojournalist, was killed a few months ago.
:: Ahmadreza 4:19 PM [+] ::
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Here is where exactly I desire to be. Tired of hard working for several months, I need a great holiday, but, unfortunately, I must continue; It is not the right time to give up everything and go to holiday.
After taking the IELTS exam on August 23rd, I must prepare myself to take TOEFL and GRE exam. The IELTS exam I have registered is a General Training module, which is appropriate for immigration affairs and is not accepted for academic purposes. It was not my own decision, of course. The letter I had received from Canadian Immigration Officials enforced me to sit the General Training module; the unexpected letter, in fact, changed all my programs. At that time, I postponed everything to the days after August 23rd, so, to continue my previous program, I have to begin to prepare myself for the other English exam on August 24th!
What bothers me is that I think it is too late to apply for a PHD program at the ages of 27. Now I am 27 and I got my Master's Degree just about three years ago. It is what sometimes makes me irresolute. It might seem very ridiculous, I know, but this negative thought sometimes affects me and makes me puzzled.
In spite of all these destructive thoughts, I do continue. Under no circumstances will I give up studying. Even if I knew all universities would reject my application without paying attention to my researches and publications, I would apply for the PHD program. It is what I had to do last year, but, unfortunately, I did not take it seriously and gave up everything following some problems I had faced.
:: Ahmadreza 3:48 PM [+] ::
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