mehsen2022-11-16T17:03:10+00:00https://mehsen.comMohsen Dastjerdi Zademe@mehsen.comForbidden Planet (1956) film review2018-08-24T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/review/2018/08/24/forbidden-planet<p>tl;dr I do recommend watching this movie and I have some notes and a suggestion.</p>
<p>First things first; I have to say I’m not an old movie or a sci-fi nut. I thought maybe it’s a good idea to give an old sci-fi movie a chance. after some web surfing and research, I decided to watch this particular movie; in part because I just loved <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Forbiddenplanetposter.jpg">the poster</a> design. The art style excites my inner child.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet">Forbidden Planet</a> stars a very young <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Nielsen">Leslie Nielsen</a> in a surprisingly serious role. That was probably one of the main reasons I picked this film as my gateway to vintage sci-fi. The movie was photographed in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Color_Negative">Eastman Color</a> which I would guess is a pretty big deal because they tell you this right at the begining. And honestly for a movie from 1956 the quality of the picture and colors is really impressive. There are a lot of special effects going on, despite serious technical limitations, they do set the atmosphere just right. In many cases I prefer these old school methods to modern CGI –<a href="https://sploid.gizmodo.com/why-jurassic-parks-visual-effects-still-look-amazing-to-1785364417">Jurassic Park vs. Jurassic World</a> anyone? Props to the FX crew.</p>
<p>The acting and directing are a bit over the top with a lot of dramatic and sudden changes of behavior. The whole thing looks very theatrical and dramatic; add that to the bizarre set and plot and you get a very theater-like experience.</p>
<p>The plot has everything you’d imagine a ’50s sci-fi would have: Spaceships with all-male military crew, huge and funky looking gears, dialogues with scientific-sounding nonsense, a humanoid robot that can barely move, stereotypical gullible and sexualized young blond girl that’s the target of an awful lot of sexist remarks and exploitation attempts, Freudian psychology, and unknown technology from lost alien races. They say it’s a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest">The Tempest</a>, but honestly I haven’t read that play so I wouldn’t know.</p>
<p>The part where this movie shines the brightest is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSPr-L2N9aTlJ0EzUA9DFvUqVxcnPrcm8">the music score</a>. It simply couldn’t get any more futuristic. What I didn’t know when I was watching the movie, is that it was the first ever completely electronic film score. I can hear the influence of Bebe and Louis Barron’s iconic new sound in many sci-fi and horror movies to this day.</p>
<p>All that said, I think you can enjoy watching this movie both ironically and un-ironically. My suggestion for you if you decided to watch this movie is to watch it late at night in the dark for a more immersive experience. The cinematography looks like a dream albeit cheesy so you may want to consider watching it half-sleep or under some kind of influence. The planet’s landscape is amazing.</p>
<p>Have fun. Bonus: <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/killian-eng-forbidden-planet/">Killian Eng’s Beautiful Poster For ‘Forbidden Planet’</a>.</p>
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A Late-night Thought2018-05-10T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewriting/2018/05/10/latenight-thought<p>looking out the window, sodium lights on wet asphalt, an alien gold. I used to stare out at the city at night and just listen to music; giving my mind full autonomy over any kind of interpretation. I rarely watch music videos, they conflict with my inner accompanying image of the sound.</p>
<p>Years ago I listened to simpler music; over time they got progressively more abstract and wilder to picture. I would say Sigur Rós was the height, doesn’t get old, gives you freedom over what you get from it all the while carrying a strong, strong emotion.</p>
<p>What is art? How can we define it? For me, art is the medium for conveying feelings. Anything giving an emotion can be art if you feel it right. Be it even air hitting your face.</p>
<p>Can art be detached from the artist? There’s one specific version per observer, each with a unique personality. No one looks at the something and sees what others see. Our own past experiences, current feelings, and place are all mixed with whatever gets into our minds and form some image, that no one else can ever see.</p>
<p>Some work hard and try to make something best representing <em>that</em>. Try to remake it with every tool they know; be it setting focus point and shutter speed on a camera; or hitting the strings on a guitar. Some may build a world, word by word, on a blank paper with two holes, some may lay out detailed instructions for a computer to follow.</p>
<p>They may try to make you uncomfortable, deceived, immersed, or even frustrated. And you let the artist forever change you in ever smallest ways. Though we should all remember a single degree diversion over a long distance will result in a huge displacement.</p>
<p>For all we know the next music track you’ll listen to can be a determining factor in where you live five years from now.</p>
<p>How easily we let life happen to us without much thought…</p>
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Milky Way2017-11-11T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/inspired/2017/11/11/milkyway<p>One third of the world’s population can’t see the milky way. There is even a generation of people whom have never seen the milky way.</p>
<p>In 1994, an earthquake shook Los Angeles, 4:30 AM, and caused a city-wide blackout. People anxiously came out of their homes to check out on the neighborhood but what greeted them up in the sky was so alien and strange to them that some called emergency and asked if the giant silvery cloud had anything to do with the disaster. (<a href="http://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/astronomy-topics/light-pollution.html">Light Pollution - PBS</a>)</p>
<p>It shouldn’t be like this. We are becoming increasingly detached from the universe and drenched in our day to day struggles. We are losing the bigger picture.</p>
<p>I think we should all take some time off to gaze at the endless sky above every now and then. I’ll describe how your amazing star gazing trip goes.</p>
<p>First you find a place far from cities and their light pollution. Maybe use <a href="http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html">a map</a> to find a remote place. Next, using a <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/">lunar calendar</a> and <a href="https://clearoutside.com">the weather forecast</a> of the place; you pick a date in the beginning or end of lunar cycle with clear night sky.</p>
<p>On the chosen day; you get into a car, solo or with one or two close friends or loved ones, and hit the roads. You Take a country lane or a dirt road and drive away from road lights; You see a nice place, you go a bit off road and stop at a nice, flat surface. You get out of the car, and place a mat on the ground. From this moment on you avoid any kind of light, like your phone’s screen or headlights on your car. You also avoid looking at the sky for now.</p>
<p>You lie down on the mat with your eyes closed, listening to silence; no music or talking for five minutes. You are giving your eyes time to rest and adapt to the dark. Also with minimal sensory input, your brain can rest a bit, and slowly put away all the filters it has set up throughout the day.</p>
<p>Now you feel you are ready. You open your eyes to the sky above and see the same magical thing your ancestors used to see. you see <a href="http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-resources/how-many-stars-night-sky-09172014/">thousands of tiny balls of light</a> scattered on this unbelievably vast black dome; they look so close that if you just reach out with your hand you can grab one. But of course they are light years afar. In the middle, stretched all across, is a wide stripe of silver. This stripe is made up of billions of indistinguishable stars, in our home galaxy, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way">milky way</a>; each millions of times bigger than the earth.</p>
<p>You have seen pictures and videos of the night sky. But no device can ever replicate the majesty of this mind boggling image in front of your eyes.</p>
<p>All of a sudden you see a shooting star! There are one or more meteor showers going on. You have looked up <a href="https://www.amsmeteors.org/meteor-showers/meteor-shower-calendar/">tonight’s shower’s radiant points</a> and keep an eye on those parts of the sky. You see tens of shooting stars through the night.</p>
<p>Your imagination runs wild. You stay up all night, wondering in amazement. You try to comprehend the vastness of our galaxy but the numbers don’t make any sense, they are just too big. Then you think about the countless other galaxies in the universe with their own hundreds of billions of stars. And let’s just put away the thought that there might be infinite number of parallel universes, that’s just too much.</p>
<p>With all these worlds out there, we can’t be alone; It’s probabilistically impossible. There should be entire races of people out there, looking above and think the same thoughts. People with their own planet, society, culture, history, gods, problems, struggles, feelings, and questions. Some of those may know the answers to the age-old questions of humanity. What are we? Do we matter? What is my place in the universe? Did this infinitely big universe conspired to make me just so I can ask these questions?</p>
<p>You think and think, but there’s only one thing for certain, <em>this</em> is beautiful. Just being able to observe this incredible beauty fills you with joy. You are looking at a painting with a canvas as big as the space and as old as the time itself. Your chance of even existing is close to zero. You must have been pretty important to the universe or maybe just <em>extremely</em> lucky. What does it matter?</p>
<p>You may use a pair of binoculars to take a closer look sometimes. Eventually <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus#Observation">the Morning Star</a> comes and announces the imminent sunrise. You watch the sky as it’s getting brighter while a breeze caresses your face. Slowly but surely the tip of a white ball of flame appears in the east horizon; as it has for billions of years before us, and will continue to do so billions of years after we are long gone and forgotten.</p>
<p>After this experience, you will never be the same.</p>
<hr />
<p>This post, in its entirety, came to me in a dream in form of an English podcast (I know, weird); In the morning of August 18, 2017.</p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>Image credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lhanaphotography/15515134986/">Milky Way over Colorado - Max and Dee Bernt</a> (<a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">CC BY</a>)</li>
<li><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.stardroid&hl=en">Sky Map</a> - Android App</li>
<li><a href="http://www.stellarium.org/">Stellarium</a> - Cross-platform, free and open source planetarium program</li>
<li><a href="http://hubblesite.org/">Hubble site</a> - Find mesmerising high-res images from deep space</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLflfic2qZOnFwbEp1gy7YhAxDc5GLVtVv">Our place in universe</a> - Recommended Youtube playlist to watch before going on the trip</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLngxw98Y5Jeiv7tJujqVjE_hvbF7arnqL">Valtari - Sigur Rós</a> - The music I was listening to that night</li>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrazExh7y1I&index=8&list=PLhThZKYHRb1CWCHctw77MQzSHt1NUKTKw">Untitled #8 - Sigur Rós</a> - The music I was listening to right before falling asleep</li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamchaser">Dreamchaser - Sarah Brightman</a> - Beautiful album with a dreamy space-inspired theme</li>
</ul>
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On creative work2017-09-30T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2017/09/30/on-creative-work<p>“Hard to start off, boring to continue, impossible to finish up”; ingredients for failure in any given task.
Add unhealthy criticism to the mix and you’ll have how I feel about every thing I do or want to do.</p>
<p>Starting new things is hard. They just are. I try to fight this by tricking myself into starting something while it doesn’t seem like doing so. From there on it’s just changing what’s already started and not that intimating.</p>
<p>Anything big enough to matter is going to take long enough to get boring. Sometimes adding some unplanned stuff can spice things up a little bit. Other times the only way would be taking a break.</p>
<p>I know exactly why I can hardly finish what I started. The ol’ perfectionism is to blame here. Whatever you do <em>must be</em> perfect, but nothing can ever be perfect; so the sure way to avoid doing anything imperfect is not doing anything at all. What a brilliant solution!</p>
<p>Breaking free from perfectionism is probably the longest ongoing battle of my life. Looking back I made a lot of progress. Nowadays I worry about finishing a task more than I do about it being perfect. And I try to stop adding details that have diminishing returns. But actually doing something leads us to the next problem.</p>
<p>Unhealthy self-criticism is the new battle front. Now that I hesitate less when making, I make up for it when I have to share. I can’t remember the last time I actively tried to show-off or promote something I did. The rationale here is: if I promote it, everyone will see it and its flaws and they’re going to judge me, laugh at me or whatever. Better just leave it somewhere and don’t tell anyone about it.</p>
<p>In reality though, the truth is, no one really cares. People are too busy with their own lives to look for mistakes in your creations. And they don’t just happen to stumble upon your work that often. Any creative work without an audience becomes a tedious and demoralizing in its own way. I mean what’s the point if no one is going to see/use it anyway?</p>
<hr />
<p>All that said, this whole post started as a recommendation to this short video that really changed my mindset and helped me a lot to open up. I re-watch it from time to time and I guess you can benefit from it too.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5RH3BdXDOY">▶ A guide to worrying</a></p>
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Memory2017-07-27T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2017/07/27/memory<p>I’m a night owl. The silence and the darkness of the nights are the things I seek. Makes for a clearer head in my opinion.</p>
<p>I remember, in our late home, there was absolute silence at nights. Hardly anything noisy was going on. But the things that did occasionally make a sound, had the chance to be heard fully and with clarity. The one thing I remember from every night up, is the sound of sweeping.</p>
<p>Every night around 4 AM, I could hear the sound of sweeping on the street below my window. It had a calming quality to it. I would halt whatever I was doing and just listen. Sometimes I would go to the window and watch the sweeper as he worked his way down the street. This sound was my signal to call it a night and head to the bed.</p>
<p>You were a valued companion in my sleepless nights Mr. Sweeper. Though we never met, you’ll be remembered.</p>
<p>P.S. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjgDxfqJci0">Memory by Andrew Lloyd Webber</a> is a pleasant late night tune.</p>
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Back to routines2017-07-01T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2017/07/01/back-to-routines<p>For whatever reason, I stopped doing all my daily routines one by one. I had a few things I did daily and often on a specific time of the day. There are a lot to be said about good habits and routines, and how they can help you grow as a person every passing day. For example I used to do 5 minutes of some course on <a href="https://memrise.com">Memrise</a> every night; it’s obvious that I learned something each time which is a good thing. But the reason I decided to start doing specific things at specific times each day again, is something completely unrelated to the task and more to do with the intervals themselves.</p>
<p>The thing I noticed in my routine-free life is that now I have no sense of time. Like rising and setting of the sun, those timely tasks gave me a sense of time passing by. Now that my days are a chaos of unscheduled activities, I can’t say with certainty when I did what; it wasn’t used to be like this. That’s reason enought for me to go back to doing routines, including these nightly freewritings.</p>
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It's a trap2017-06-28T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2017/06/28/trap<p>I fell in the perfectionists trap again for posting here.</p>
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Friendship, Kindle, and Elon Musk2017-05-11T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/review/2017/05/11/elon-musk-book<p>Here goes the story of a friendship,
how I got introduced to a book,
how and for what I use my Kindle, and why you may want to own one.</p>
<h2 id="friendship">Friendship…</h2>
<p>The story begins by a message in Telegram<sup id="fnref:telegram" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:telegram" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> from Amir, one of my closest friends.
It was just a single link with no description.
The actual conversation in its entirety is as follows:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Amir, [05.03.16 18:36]<br />
<a href="http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html">http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/05/elon-musk-the-worlds-raddest-man.html</a></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>Mohsen, [05.03.16 21:32]<br />
[In reply to Amir]<br />
added to pocket. will read on kindle. thanks.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This kind of telegraphic conversations is one of the reasons I cherish my friendship with Amir.
<em>We can skip formalities.</em>
In part it’s because I trust his opinion and taste so much so
that I’m sure the content of the link is of quality.
He doesn’t have to explain why I should check it out.</p>
<h2 id="kindle">…Kindle…</h2>
<p>The link, like other long reads, went strait to <a href="https://getpocket.com" title="Pocket is your place to quickly save, discover, and recommend the best, most interesting stories on the Web">Pocket</a> and waited for <a href="https://calibre-ebook.com/" title="calibre - E-book management">Calibre</a>
to retrieve my Pocket articles using
<a href="https://github.com/mmagnus/Pocket-Plus-Calibre-Plugin" title="Pocket+ recipe for Calibre">Pocket+ plugin</a>.
Calibre then makes a nice ‘issue’<sup id="fnref:issue" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:issue" class="footnote" rel="footnote">2</a></sup> out of those; and finally emails the issue to the Kindle. One of the conveniences of a Kindle is that you can email a document to it and it’ll show up in your Kindle.<sup id="fnref:send" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:send" class="footnote" rel="footnote">3</a></sup>
The issue waited till I turned on the wi-fi.</p>
<p>With the issue downloaded, all I had to do next was to open the Issue, and read the post.
13 days after the initial introduction to the article;
I finally started reading it.</p>
<p>The illustrations of the article are <em>really funny</em>. The article is Part 1 of a four-part series on Elon Musk’s companies.
To be honest I skipped the other three. What I did instead was to mark the biography book mentioned in the article, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22535480-elon-musk" title="View the book on Goodreads.com">‘Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future’ by Ashlee Vance</a>, as ‘to-read’ in Goodreads and downloaded it on my Kindle after that. At the time I was (and still am)
halfway through <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5297.The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray" title="View the book on Goodreads.com">‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde</a> —recommend by another friend. I have to admit while the characters are well developed and the writing is rock solid and I kinda enjoy reading it, classics are not for me; as it seems to take me forever to finish them. But they are usually in public domain and free, therefore economical choices for reading.<sup id="fnref:gutenberg" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:gutenberg" class="footnote" rel="footnote">4</a></sup></p>
<p>It took me a long time to finish this review of the book and that would have been impossible to do without the highlight feature. It can be a real timesaver to have all of your notes and highlights of a book in a list.</p>
<p><code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">I'm writing the following segment months after finishing the book and I couldn't do this without reviewing my highlights. Reviewing highlights of a book can freshen the whole experience therefore a good habit to get into for someone forgetful like me .</code></p>
<h2 id="elon-musk">…Elon Musk</h2>
<p>It took me more than two months to finally open the book and start reading it.
The irrational guilt associated with starting a book while I haven’t finished the last one yet was to blame.
All the same, a month after that the 400-page book was finished.</p>
<p>Getting to the end of the book, I wished it never ended.
I couldn’t get enough of the fascinating (true) story I was reading.
Lucky for me —and all of us, really— he is alive and well and in his golden years. Hardly any day passes without him or one of his companies making headlines. Following the news around him is somehow reading the book after the (metaphorical) back cover.</p>
<p>More than anything, for me, the book was a huge motive to work hard. Musk and employees’ superhuman work ethic is the ever prominent topic in the book. As one <a href="https://en.wikipedia.com/wiki/SpaceX">SpaceX</a> intern puts it, “You can work whatever 80 hours a week you want”.<sup id="fnref:intern" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:intern" class="footnote" rel="footnote">5</a></sup> This way of work was in dire contrast with the chill atmosphere portrayed in the book I read right before this —<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23158207-how-google-works">How Google Works</a>. And all that hard work actually sounded so fulfilling and rewarding. For a few glorious days I was working harder than I ever did before.</p>
<p>There are also dark sides to this hardworking startup genius, and the book does not seem to shy away from those at all. Musk’s impatience on what appears to a normal human being as trivial; and disrespect for his employees opinions; and his (dare I say deserved) huge ego cost his businesses a lot of top talents.</p>
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<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:telegram" role="doc-endnote">
<p>A popular messaging service as of writing. <a href="https://telegram.org" title="Telegram Messenger">Telegram.org</a> <a href="#fnref:telegram" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:issue" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Documents in a Kindle are either books, or issues. Each issue can have several ‘sections’ and ‘articles’. <a href="#fnref:issue" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:send" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle/email" title="Amazon.com: Send to Kindle by E-mail">Send to Kindle by E-mail</a> <a href="#fnref:send" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:gutenberg" role="doc-endnote">
<p>There are thousands of public domain books in <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/" title="A digital library of free ebooks.">Project Gutenberg</a>. You can also find a whole lot of public domain stuff from books and audiobooks to paintings and photographies in <a href="https://www.archive.org/" title="Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music...">The Internet Archive</a>. <a href="#fnref:gutenberg" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:intern" role="doc-endnote">
<p>The exciting and grueling life of a SpaceX intern, where you meet Elon Musk and ‘work whatever 80 hours a week you want’ <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/life-on-rocket-road-what-its-like-to-intern-at-spacex-2015-6">article on Business Insider</a>. <a href="#fnref:intern" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
This2016-09-22T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/quote/2016/09/22/integrity<blockquote>
<p>There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.<br />
– <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/221497-there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-minor-lapse-of">Tom Peters</a></p>
</blockquote>
Night Hike2016-09-04T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/report/2016/09/04/night-hike<p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/LCkgJq"><img src="/public/posts/2016-08-30/tehran_lights_mountain_20160816_04_1200px.jpg" alt="Tehran city lights from mountain heights at night" /></a></p>
<p>“<a href="https://flic.kr/p/LCkgJq">Tehran city lights from mountain heights at night</a>” by <a href="https://mehsen.com/">Mehsen</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a></p>
<p>A while back my cousin suggested that we go on a night hike to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tochal">Tochal peak</a>
like we did a few years back.
I agreed on the spot since I’m always up for a good hike.
We planed on starting the hike on 6 P.M., August 15. A night with near full moon shinning all night.
Hiking under moonlight is an unmatched feeling.
As we ascended, we talked and catched up with each other.</p>
<p>We didn’t make it in time to get into and spend the night in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirpala_shelter">Shirpala shelter</a>.
We rested behind its shut door a bit then carried on.</p>
<p>I spent some time taking pictures of the night sky.</p>
<p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/LFjM2g"><img src="/public/posts/2016-08-30/orion_night_sky_20160816_04_1200px.jpg" alt="Night sky and Orion constellation" /></a></p>
<p>“<a href="https://flic.kr/p/LFjM2g">Night sky and Orion constellation</a>” by <a href="https://mehsen.com/">Mehsen</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a></p>
<p>Finally at 4 A.M. we decided that we are too sleepy to go on; and the moon was setting too.
We slipped into our sleeping bags and dosed off quickly afterwards.</p>
<p>One and half hour later we woke up because we were freezing.
We lighted a bush and savored the heat!
As soon as the fire was out; we started moving not to freeze again.</p>
<p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/KJs4bz"><img src="/public/posts/2016-08-30/burning_bush_tehran_mountains_20160816_03_1200px.jpg" alt="Burning bushes in Tehran mountains" /></a></p>
<p>“<a href="https://flic.kr/p/KJs4bz">Burning bushes in Tehran mountains</a>” by <a href="https://mehsen.com/">Mehsen</a> is licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY 4.0</a></p>
<p>From then on we continued (rather slowly) till we reached the top.
All through the hike we met amazing people and felt challenged all the time.</p>
<p><a href="https://flic.kr/s/aHskFEN2Ls">Night hike album on Flickr</a></p>
<p>Here’s a song to set a good mood :)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoW0QJ-sOpw">▶ Play “Chris de Burgh - The Same Sun” on Youtube</a></p>
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Summer Update I2016-07-04T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/update/2016/07/04/summer-update-i<p>It’s been a long time since my last post here.
Mainly because I haven’t been practicing freewriting lately.
I’m not as passionate about writing as I used to be a few months ago.
It may be since I’m not currently reading any work of fiction.</p>
<p>This is the first post after my university exams and I want to focus on what I did on the first 13 days of summer. Starting a whole new category (Update).</p>
<p>As you can see in <a href="https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/09/for-when-im-bored/">this post</a>, written during last semester’s exams, there’s always a flood of new ideas on a variety of things you want to do during exams that you can’t afford to do then and there; because you have to spend as much as you can on studying. In the same post I presented a solution to get rid of those thoughts during exams, <em>and</em> not being bored afterwards. The idea was to write them all down. And that’s basically what I did.</p>
<p>These days I’m going through that to-do list. A lot of them don’t look that appealing now, but some of them are still looking good. This list saved me from boredom and inaction so far.</p>
<p>Traditionally I spent summers doing nothing. I was and still am an expert in that. Not Patrick-Star-level, but impressive nevertheless. By nothing I don’t mean leisure activities like watching movies or hanging out. Nope. Pure nothingness.</p>
<p>But this year there was a long overdue change. Now I have stuff to do and lucky for me I like those stuff.</p>
<p>A brief update on what I did so far:</p>
<ul>
<li>Kept a journal; which is why I’m able to list these things in the first place. Unfortunately my memory is incapabale of remembering all these stuff on it’s own.</li>
<li>Watched <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgtL4S7Hrwo">a video</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_van_Rossum">Guido van Rossum</a>; author of Python language. <a href="https://twitter.com/shalbafzadeh">Reza</a>, a close friend, recommended it and I’ll forever be thankful for it. It touched me and truly changed how I see the world. He told me he had similar feelings about the video.</li>
<li>Started learning Python 3 after that and fell in love with it.</li>
<li>Had long, deep conversations with a few of my friends. Something I rarely did in the past; but now I find vital; specially for mental well-being.</li>
<li>Read <a href="/review/2017/05/11/elon-musk-book/" title="Mehsen.com: Friendship, Kindle, and Elon Musk">an interesting biography of Elon Musk</a>. It was motivating with an enjoyable and easy-to-read writing. Totally recommended.</li>
<li>Went on a road trip with family and had a splendid time.</li>
<li>Spent a day in a startup accelerator in Tehran, and observed the atmosphere and the work flow.</li>
<li>Started drafting a lesson plan for a <a href="https://github.com/mohsend/everyday-nix">‘everyday *nix’ class</a>.</li>
<li>Went to a gathering with many of the old and late friends and had a blast.</li>
<li>Started learning to sing in a choir. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sinaswebz/">Sina</a>, A good friend of mine, was kind enough to tutor a few of his friends and started an amateur choir. He chose <a href="http://www.gasworkschoir.co.uk/node/11">‘Moon river’</a> as our first song to rehearse. I’m singing the Tenor part.</li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/mohsend/the-plain">Tweaked a Jekyll theme</a> to support right-to-left languages for a <a href="http://pe42.ir/">friend’s blog</a>. It’s a really nice, minimal, and overall well-made theme. I’m considering using it for this blog too.</li>
<li>And a lot of other insignificant things that don’t look like much, but are the first steps for doing significant things down the road.</li>
</ul>
<p>Hopefully by listing these here, I’ll motivate myself and maybe you to do more, to do greater! We all can be a bit better, a bit happier, every passing day.</p>
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What a Time!2016-05-23T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/05/23/What-a-time<p>It amazes me every time I think about how enabling computers are.
When used correctly even a very underpowered one can be a powerful tool to do incredible things. Coupled with the Internet, everyone with a PC has unlimited information at disposal, and can also contribute with information of one’s own.
Each time I think about the possibilities the more excited I become.</p>
<p><em><strong>What a time to be alive!</strong></em></p>
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Ég gaf ykkur von sem varð að vonbrigðum2016-05-02T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/music/2016/05/02/a-good-begining<p>… þetta er ágætis byrjun.</p>
<p>~Sigur Rós</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DNWJ7lbshzQ?list=PL257EAB66E9A77A84">▶ Play “Sigur Rós - Ný Batterí” on Youtube</a></p>
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Backing up your entire Google account data2016-02-03T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/til/2016/02/03/google-takeout<p><em>Today I Learned</em> Google provides users a simple way to archive and download all of their data on Google. Including Gmail and Drive.</p>
<p>Few days ago someone approached me with a problem, “My Gmail ran out of space and I need all my emails, they contain important data.”</p>
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<p>Instead of doing what I usually do and telling him he should have thought about a solution before the matter getting out of hand, I looked around for solutions. This resulted in finding a thorough how-to on backing up Gmail using a command line tool named <a href="http://gmvault.org/">gmvault</a> on <a href="http://lifehacker.com/how-to-automatically-back-up-and-purge-your-gmail-every-1672481972">lifehacker</a>.</p>
<p>It turned out to be a very good tool and did the work alright. But I looked for other ways too and that was when I stumble upon <a href="https://takeout.google.com">Google takeout</a> which lets you create an archive of all your data on Google services.</p>
<p>So my archive got ready in an hour, and my attempts to <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/36q2h2/download_a_huge_file_on_a_server_cant_wgetcurl/">download it on a VPS failed</a> miserably. And by miserably I mean after a few tries I encountered an error saying: “Sorry, you have already downloaded that archive the maximum number of times.”</p>
<p>Looks like the only way to download them is to do it on a modern customer browser. Which is reasonable since the archive contains A LOT of sensitive data and is <strong>unencrypted</strong>. But with my Internet connection and prices, downloading with a web browser is practically impossible. Oh and to worsen the situation, once I tried to download it on Chrome I faced a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_403">403 error</a> presenting itself in XML format to me. The joys of using the Internet in Iran!</p>
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Untitled I2016-01-31T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/31/untitled-i<p>Way past midnight I contacted a friend and I’m glad that I did.</p>
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<p>We share a lot of feelings and thoughts. I consider myself privileged and lucky to have been found by such friend. There were a lot of —renowned— people who were deprived of this gift. Sad for them but lucky for us, those people found solace in papers and pens and now a lot of us can read what left behind and feel connected.</p>
<p>I’m also grateful about the technology that enables us to talk to each other this late at night and over such considerable distance.</p>
<p>I long to see him again in person.</p>
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Back, in style2016-01-30T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/30/back-in-style<p>It’s been a while since I practiced <em>free writing</em>. And not-so-coincidentally It’s been the same while since my last exam. The struggle is real people!</p>
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<p>Anyway, I wasn’t exactly a worthless piece of some usually-brown matter in the past few days. I finally settled on <em>middleman</em><sup id="fnref:middleman" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:middleman" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> as my static site builder of choice to host these writings and actually did go all the way of implenting it. Which wasn’t a cake walk by any means. The commands from the official documentation didn’t work for me!<sup id="fnref:bundle" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:bundle" class="footnote" rel="footnote">2</a></sup> Someone should write a good getting started on this thing for people who are not familiar with <em>ruby</em>. To be real someone probably have done already, But I didn’t happen to stumble upon such thing. By the way I just —in the middle of typing— decided to link to the project<sup id="fnref:casper" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:casper" class="footnote" rel="footnote">3</a></sup> that actually finally made it work the way I wanted it to after a day of dealing with errors. Be this a thank you to those people.</p>
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<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:middleman" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://middlemanapp.com">middleman</a> is an static website builder written in ruby. <a href="#fnref:middleman" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:bundle" role="doc-endnote">
<p>I should have appended <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">bundle exec</code> to the begining of the commands in the doc for some reason. <a href="#fnref:bundle" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:casper" role="doc-endnote">
<p><a href="https://github.com/danielbayerlein/middleman-casper">middleman-casper</a> is an elegant theme for middleman. As of writing, this blog uses this theme. <a href="#fnref:casper" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
Mightier2016-01-17T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/17/mightier<blockquote>
<p>The pen is mightier than the sword.<br />
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sure. But on top of that I believe:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The pencil is mightier than the pen.<br />
—me</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>What I mean by that has nothing to do with the original and famous qoute.
I just find writing with a pencil more inspiring.
Maybe just because I know there is an eraser I’m allowed to make mistakes thus think more freely.</p>
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Sleep on it2016-01-11T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/11/sleep-on-it<p>I’m starting to realize that good things don’t get made in one sitting. They take time over several sessions. Leaving for a day and revising your work makes all the difference between mediocre and extraordinary.</p>
<p>Also having someone around, even if they don’t directly involve with your work can make a huge difference.</p>
<p>Good things take time; sleep on it.</p>
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Late night crazy2016-01-10T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/10/late-night-crazy<p>Or how my sudden obsession with writing came to be</p>
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<p>“Then what?” the writer wondered. Why do I bother even? I was a consumer my whole life and I was perfectly happy with it; what is this new craze about writing? Why do I insist on writing even though I have nothing I want to tell people about; and I am not even good at finding the right words? hell I can’t even touch-type. But for some strange reason I always wanted to write.</p>
<p>Maybe I understood the importance of writing in just every other task. Maybe I feel muted in a increasingly vocal society. Maybe I think if I can pick up this long sought skill, I am capable of everything I put my mind to. Maybe it’s just the exams-time-syndrome.</p>
<p>Whatever it is I should stop worrying about <em>the</em> number —word count— and just get busy writing.</p>
<p>The name of this text is borrowed from the name of a (series of) tracks by my good friend, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sinaswebz/">Sina</a>.</p>
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For when I’m bored2016-01-09T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/09/for-when-im-bored<p>“I’m bored.”</p>
<p>We all said it at some point. Some like me more than others. And yet there are so many undone tasks, or things you wanted to do when you were busy and didn’t have the time.</p>
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<p>So I figured the cause of that statement is that my memory fails to remember all the things I wanted to do then. So I finally made a ‘Distant To-Dos’ list in my Google Keep notes to write down the cool things that cross my mind when I can’t afford doing fun tasks.</p>
<p>The thing about this To-Do list is, contrary to most to-do lists, it’s a list of the things <strong>I WANT TO DO</strong>; not the things that <strong>I HAVE TO DO</strong>.</p>
<p>So the plan is to fill the list with all kinds of cool stuff I like to do instead of the thing I’m busy with at the moment; and take a look at it whenever I am bored.</p>
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Tired2016-01-08T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/08/tired<p>It’s a special kind of tired. The only way I managed to describe the feeling was “I don’t wanna sleep; I want to die”.</p>
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Angle2016-01-08T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/08/angle<p>I’m generally not satisfied (about everything me) because instead of looking at quality, all I see about what I do is quantity. which is not that flattering.</p>
<p>Then there are those who got both, and I’m just jealous of them.</p>
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<p>Oh boy will I regret commiting this.</p>
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Feels good2016-01-07T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/07/feels-good<p>Being productive feels good<br />
Being helpful feels good<br />
Hard work feels good<br />
Knowing you made something feels good</p>
<p>That’s why I do <strong>Open Source</strong>.</p>
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My new theme for Focuswriter got me typing2016-01-06T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/06/focuswriter-got-me-typing<p>Typing with the sound, background and the font of a typewriter!</p>
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<p>Quite the (fake) authentic experience I say. It has a nice feeling to it. Makes me want to type more – something I’m not much a fan of.</p>
<p>but I like it nonetheless.</p>
<p><a href="http://gottcode.org/focuswriter/">FocusWriter</a> FTW…</p>
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Why not:2016-01-05T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/05/why-not<p>You might have expected a question mark at the end of the title. We are used to hear these words as a rhetorical question to answer “Why should we do this?” or a similar question. But in this case it’s to show why I should really revisit <em>that</em> decision.</p>
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<p>Last night it seemed like a splendid idea! Type without care, publish unedited. The problem with the idea is, these notes been written without care, unedited —fine, AND published on github —not that fine. A platform which keeps track of everything, after edit, or even deleting files. So I can be held be responsible for everything I publish here which is true about everything ever gets published on any medium. But I will have no escape. And the way I decided to write these just adds to the already scary situation.</p>
<p>Against all these; I might just be crazy enough to continue. With a minor alteration to the plan, I will proof-read before publishing.</p>
<p>Here’s hoping for the best.</p>
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Hello world2016-01-04T00:00:00+00:00https://mehsen.com/freewritings/2016/01/04/hello-world<p>Plan:
Start writing without purpose.</p>
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<p>Execution:
Keep typing, do as much as possible.</p>
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