Namaste!

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On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund

The first day of Iranian calendar falls on the spring equinox, the first day of spring. This year Norouz falls on March 19th at 10:48pm PST (March 20 1:48am EST).

The seven ‘S’s is the major tradition of Norouz. The Haft Sin table includes seven items, each has a meaning:

1. Sabzeh (Wheat, Barley sprouts growing in a dish) – Symbolizing rebirth
2. Senjed (dried fruit of Oleaster tree) – Symbolizing Love
3. Sib (apple)- Symolizing health
4. Somaq (sumac berries) – Symbolizing sunrise
5. Sekek (coin) – Symbolizing wealth
6. Sonbol (hyacinth flower) Symbolizing beauty
7. Sir (garlic) – Symbolizing medicine

other items: decorative eggs (fertility), mirror (cleanness), lit candle (enlightenment), Quran, Orange floating in a bowl of water

Yourself …

Your Buyer ….

Your Lender …

Your Appraiser …

Your Tax Assessor …

I am reading a book about EQ by Travis Bradberry and I am enjoying it a lot. EQ is totally different than IQ. There are people who are extremely intelligent but do poorly with regard to EQ. EQ taps into the fundamental element of human behavior that is distinct from your intellect. The four skills that together make up emotional intelligence are: Self Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness and Social Management. The first two are more about you and the latter two are more about how you are with other people. The physical pathway fo EQ starts in the brain at the spinal cord. Your primary senses enter here and must travel to the front of your brain before you can think rationally about your experience. But first travel through the limbic system, the place where emotions are experienced. That is why we first feel our emotions, before we get a chance to think it over and act properly. EQ requires effective communication between the rational and emotional center of the brain. Without EQ we may act only base on our emotions which is not necessarily the right way to handle things. Identifying our emotions and managing them requires lots of self monitoring and analysis. Research shows that managers and supervisors have the highest EQ among different job titles. Interestingly, senior execs or CEO show incredible deficit in EQ! Also women on average have an overall EQ score that is higher than men’s. But there is always room for improvement! the good thing about EQ is unlike IQ you can develop it and build on it. This is the beautiy of being human being. You are in charge of your own self growth.

The Pitahaya is tropical jungle cactus vine originated in central america and has been cultivated in Vietnam for 100 of years. It got pink to redish skin and white interior which is dotted with balck sesame like seeds. It is mildly sour and the flavor is likened to that of the Kiwifruit and can weigh up to 3 pounds. It is rich in vitamin C.

The other day I was talking to one of my colleagues and he said: “You, middle-easterns, are so and so.” It struck me in such a way that after two weeks I am still thinking of this stereotypical comment. I keep thinking why do we have exagerated and highly simplified views of other people or cultures? Some say this is a useful tool for us to deal with the world. Some say it is there because we are lazy, and don’t want to take further steps to learn and understand the world around us. Some say it is a technique to sort people to similars and dissimilars. Whatever it is, I think it comes from an unintellectual, closeminded and superficial mind. I believe every person is so unique that there is no way to generalize his/her personality to a group or culture. If you take this approach it would be a very superficial observation, like you might say all middle-easterns have dark eyes. But can you minmalize every aspect of a middle-easterner’s personality into his or her eye color?
It is funny that no one would reject a positive stereotypical comment, but everyone hates the negative ones! For instance if someone says Iranians are unique in hospitality I would never argue with it, but if someone says Iranians are extreme I won’t tolerate it. Why does a negative stereotypical comment irritate me but a positive stereotypical comment doesn’t? If stereotyping is not proper then I should have the same response to both negative and positive ones. So, maybe I am reacting to a criticism and not to a stereotypical comment!

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