Condom Contest in New York

Officials in New York City have launched a condom designing competition.

The US city's health department is keen to keep its residents' "excited" about safe sex and has opened a contest for people to sketch a special limited-edition wrapper design.

The winning artwork will appear on hundreds of thousands of condom wrappers.

The design is not allowed to be racy and the winner will be chosen from an online poll.

At the moment, the mayor's office gives away over 40 million free condoms a year in a bid to ensure people in the city are sensible when they make love.

Iran Singapore Football Match 2010 - Green Iranians in National Stadium of Singapore

Iranian football team had a match with Singapore Yesterday. more than 4000 Iranians gathered in Singapore not to actually only cheer for their football team, but to actually support the Green Movement & Support the Democracy Movements of Iran.
They were saying slogans of "Death to Dictator" and sending messages for Mousavi (The one who was supposed to win election against Ahmadinejad)

Here are some movies of the incident:

Hassles of Playing Tennis

I'm not a sport person, but I do play a little bit of many sports such as: Tennis, Badminton, Football, Bowling & Snooker. It's exactly two years now that I'm living in this "Royal Domain Sri Putramas" and within the past 6 months we have started playing tennis using the two courts. Everything was good enough in the beginning, until we came up facing the lighting problem, since we usually played at evening time. After 10 minutes of playing the lights will go off and when we turned them on, it will be the same after a while. We have complained to the management and security many times, they promised to fix it next time and next time we still face the same problem. It's almost 2 months that the same problem occurs and no clear answer we get from management.
It seems that no one else is interested for playing at evening time and since we are foregners living in this condo, complaining about matters, they don't take it seriously.
Malaysia is full of foreigners and this country is counting too much on its expats and foregners who live here, but it seems that many malaysian people are not yet aware of the situation. what if all these people who are living here, be exhasted of laziness attitudes of some malaysians and leave the country. Some may say :"Better"!!!
But I really don't believe ...

Finally Out ! First Edition

All these times, I didn't write any post , I was too busy with preparation of our first edition of "Neighbor Ads" as our local Ad Magazine. Finally the first issue is out for the areas of Mont Kiara & Sri Hartamas of Kuala Lumpur.
I'm too happy to look at it and I'm thankful to all those who supported us and helped us until here.
It was not an easy job to do and still there is a long way ahead of us for being much better than this.

We have many other plans which I hope come true in the next following months.
This picture above is the cover of the first issue.

The Truth about YOU & ME

The Leaves rustling beneath my feet

Telling me , let yourself fall!

You'll find the path of glory afterward.

The ice around you , Melting You'll See!

My Friend!

You'll lose me while trying to possess me

Our love is in desperate need of freedom , not possession!

Zara Warehouse Clearance 2009

I'm not personally interested in fashion & brands that much , but still I have my wife to follow all these clearances. We have been to many of them in Malaysia within the past two years we have been here, such as: CK, Padini, Dior, Pull & Bear, Zara & ...

This last one of Zara in my opinion was not that good I expected. Most of the sizes were not available. (Although we entered by the first minutes of its opening) Models were somehow old. However people were so happy about it, specially women of course. They had at least four times more options of choosing since they are basically woman & there were much more women stuff over there.

Most of the time, I was standing in a corner & observing people's behaviors & reflections.
They were so crazy about what they have find & what prices are available. It was like its a great job they have done. They somehow felt like, they are the only person who could buy such thing.
Human behavior is sometimes so limited to the moment and very subjective. It makes me to be sorry about our generation.
There were times,not long ago that fashion did not exist or at least it was not this much important and no one had any problem wearing any clothes, as long as they were neat & clean. What happened? Economy? Market? Advertising? Money? .... We spend money on things that we don't really need them and we buy them just in case, because they are cheap! wow! what a sensational act of us! so smart! Really?

I bought a small shirt of Zara only with a price of RM10 , almost 3.5 USD! I didn't need it too. So I bought it just in case. I have been outsmarted, I believe!

Mont Kiara of Kuala Lumpur

"Kuala Lumpur" is not a big city in my opinion who have lived in "Tehran" for many years. Traveling with car in this city is quiet easy compared to Tehran. Although Malaysian who live here do not call the whole area as "Kuala Lumpur" & all the suburb have their own local names.
By the way am living in KL and the area I live is called "Mont Kiara". Its mostly packed with residential condominiums and is a place of living for expats & foreigners who work in Kuala Lumpur.

There are many International Schools which is one reason for expats to live around. Also there are a few shopping malls which are not the main shopping malls of the city however are enough for the neighborhood.

Based on the presence of all these different nationalities (Korean, British, Arabs, French, Spanish & ...) who live in this area, there has been many improvements since past few years. Many new outlets and restaurants have been opened which are mostly considered luxurious and expensive. Also the price of property in this area is high in compare to other areas of the city.

The weather is a bit better than city center , in a way that you can go for walking in the afternoons if its not raining. The area has mostly good enough pavements.
Our Magazine which is called "Neighbor Ads" will cover this area. We are still working on it.

Today's Rainbow

I Just wanted to share this picture of beautiful rainbow we had today from our balcony.

Challenges of a New Country, New Plan

Coming to a new country with some intentions & plans, however the plan goes totally in a new direction and you find yourself lost in different ideas & plans! This happened to me!

Malaysia is a great country with many positive facts for me & my wife, though staying a little confused maybe difficult, specially within the first years of marriage. Thanks to life that we are doing great between ourselves, however we were lost in ideas for a long time.

Recently an idea of establishing a new magazine was suggested by a friend of mine & at this time we are working on it. It's almost more than two weeks that we are only doing market researches & market evaluation with different points of views and try to be as innovative as we can.

I can not reveal the idea behind this magazine at this time, since it's still not published and the idea is almost unique. (at least in Malaysia) We must go through a long path of publishing permit and bureaucratic procedures of Malaysia. I hope this one works.
I will let you know about the first issue of our magazine as soon as its out.

Memories of a lost angel

We were about six or seven years old. Summers & the strong sun of a blue sky in noon times of Tehran , Almost 1987. The war between Iran & Iraq was coming to an end , but no way we were not caring about the war as we were only engaged playing as deep as we could. Sweet and soft was my playmate. Sweet & soft was our small world in which we were only dreaming about a happy future. She was the best friend of mine, though she was my "Uncle's Daughter".

We used to go to our Grand Pa's home every weekend with our families. It was the best moments of those days, wandering around & not listening to anybodies advice on where to go and what to do.

Things are too complicated in a society. How one family can get too different from others around. This happened to her family and as she grew older, she got more & more separated.

We still met each other once in a while however she was forced to stay distanced from me, based on her father's religious views. I could feel the pain in her, I could see her efforts for being free. I could feel the way she looked in to my eyes every time.

I left Iran for my studies. She was 20 at this time. I heard the sad news , "she had cancer"!
There is too much of this story to explain ... But I don't want to!

She died at the same day of her birthday!

Divorce?

A friend of mine a few months ago discussed with me his marital situation and his life issues with his wife. I tried to advise him in a very supportive way and tried to keep their relationship as good as it could be. He was somehow lost in his way & he was looking at it in a way that maybe his relationship & his marriage was the problem. I knew his wife very well & actually she was a very supportive woman and a very lovely wife for him within all the years I'd seen their life. In the beginning of their relationship things were not so easy for him financially and she was one of the best who could handle the time and stay beside him with support & working with him in a company. At this time, it's not too easy to find a girl who can handle this situation in Tehran at the beginning of a marriage. They usually expect too much; but she did not.
Now years have gone & he does not remember. The only thing in his mind, is now a better lifestyle and more money and new discoveries which he does not remember he could not achieve even this much, without the support of a young lady, like his wife!

I don't know what to tell him. I heard he's asked for divorce!

My Life & Memories

They say "time flies" as you all know. Sometimes it happens for me that I still believe am only 13 , strolling around our cottage in the jungles of north of Iran. Noon times of loneliness & the blue sky of Alborz mountains*! Smooth breeze of afternoons & reading a poetry book of Hafiz* or Sohrab*.
A mind free of all worries & a heart full of hopes, wishes & dreams. Crying a few teardrops as the effect of reading poetry over the book & coming back to the cottage with no real conclusion.

I can't believe my age , though it may not seem too much for many of you. My birthday is close & this years candle will be the last , having a number 2 in front & I'm not believing it.



This summer, when I was back home in Iran, I scanned a few old pictures of mine from the family albums. Mom & dad were so young as my age right now or even younger; everything was so simple. I don't remember the time of this picture, but it must've been a happy day when dad took this one from me & mom.
Maybe as Emily Dickson says : "That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet."


* Alborz Mountains : The highest mountain ranges of Iran - Located almost on north of Iran , between the capital & the Caspian sea
*Hafiz: Is the most admired & famous poet of Persian history (7 centuries ago)
*Sohrab: Is one of the contemporary poets who died about 30 years ago at the age of 51.