Another Mo classic interview story - for an engineering job they
were
discussing how to provide documentation for documentation!
He interviewed at Foster-farms once and asked the CIO, what is your
competitive advantage? The CIO thought and then said "Fresh Chickens".
[Updated whenever a memory comes - otherwise,
might be completed based on notebooks some day!]
Once I detected Eddy Van Halen walking in throught the airport's
departures
area - with several guys around him. I followed him out. The guys went
away - it was just him and the Limosine and a guy giving him a list of
stuff they had brought. Then as he waited out there we had a nice chat
- he was so nice, friendly, down-to earth, and cool. Got a few
autographs
for him - he wrote: "Come party with us Ray". Since Faith was with us I
got an autograph for Sara too.
================================================================================================================
In Lake Tahoe at a small concert Chuck Berry played.
Lennon
had said that if Chuck had been white he'd been bigger than Elvis. I
was
sitting first row. His band was really bad - it wasn't his band - it
was
sad for such a man to have a backup band who don't even know the breaks
of his songs. He's just strum a chord while deciding what song to play
next. He'd look around - I shouted "Rock'n'Roll Music". And he played
it
- while looking at me - I think he'd detected I was a Beatles fan and
I'd
knew and appreciated his greatness. Last song he said 6 guys and girls
come on stage. Before he finished his sentence I rolled on stage and
"jammed"
with him. He was an old man - trim and tall - and full of incredible
energy.
On another occasion in Tahoe I went hiking up a steep mountain. There
was a huge rock. As soon as I stepped on it I landed on my belly. The
rock
was solid smooth and I was on the middle of it hanging like a spider
with
barely any resistance under my feel and under my palms. To the right
was
a huge canyon and a fall would have been fatal. My whole life passed
before
my eyes as death was right there. I was utterly still without the
ability
to make any move. All of a sudden the body jumped and turned around on
my back with palms on the rock - it was amazing how I could not have
thought
of such a move - the body knew it itself. Then it was easy to slide
down.
Once I drove to an ATM to get money. There were two ATM's. One was
off, one on. I put in the card and code and asked for $20 or $40
dollars.
As the money came, the other ATM, which was OFF, clicked, and dispensed
$100! Wow!
(June99 in Baden the bus ticket machine dropped 70c as soon as I sat
next to it - whether a sign or not it was nice).
Once I was checking my postbox at the post office. Usually I did not
lock the doors there as I'd be in and out. As I walked out, aMexican
guy
was leaning in my window. I said, HEY, and as he came out, probably
stoned
as hell by pot, he was holding my wallette. I grabbed the wallet and he
ran away. I immediately ran to the phone and called 911. The lady
seemed
to take her time asking me what happened, etc. I said, come on, send a
police because they guy just ran away. I didnt know that meanwhile she
was punching the info in the computer. As soon as I hanged up a police
car drove up. The guy asked me to come in and asked if I would
recognize
the guy if I saw him. We drove down the street. Meanwhile he's talking
in his radio to another officer who's apparently caught the guy -
saying:
as soon as I saw the "red", reacted... When we got there they put
spotlight
on him and I recognized him. The officers arrested him and were quite
pleased
at their own performance. All of this happened in a flash - one of
highlights
of the American efficient processes.
Once I helped my cousin buy a truck. I did all the negotiating for
him I got him an incredible deal. At the end of the negotiations, the
dealer
offered me a job as a salesman!
Another time, I spent 6 hours negotiating a car for myself. First
they
asked for $200 per month for 5 years for a car with no airconditioning.
I got the car with airconditioning for $170 a month for 4 years!
Talking about customer-service, once in Orange, California I ordered
a vegetarian pizza and it had meat on it. When I took it back the
owner,
a huge fat tense guy who was busy making pizzas held up this huge knife
and said "get the .... out of here or else...". I had no objections.
I had a friend whose brother could write an essey about any subject
without knowing anything about the subject for university exam ... and
always pass.
Passing by a church heard blasting music. A big party - the black white
wearing, tamborine playing kind ladies invited on in. "What's the
occasion?"
'it's home-going'. The guest preacher gave a talk. "He was 86 when he
passed
away. Everytime uncle would come to visit us he's get me out of bed no
matter what time it was to sing together - in my underwear on cold
Xmas.".
[That's the way you do it - death deserves sing and joy - it's not a
horrible thing. It a part of life&love.]
Real-life stories - Europe: [VERY INCOMPLETE..]
Another mission impossible just completed....
My life seems to have been a series of mission impossibles that came true...
This time it had to do with dad's visa.
Unfortunately in this day and age a person of Iranian origins
aatttracts animosity by the virtue of his origin no matter how far he
lives from Iran or how far he is in his mind from any traces of
fanaticism. As a result of the current image of Iran in the world, it
is harder for Iranians to get visa for many countries than it used to
be.
Dad did not
Mission Accomplished.
-----------------------
In Milano airport, a guy sits at the next table anxiously preparing
to attack the tray. He downs a plate of pasta in less than 3 minutes.
Within the next 2 minutes he downs a plate of almost raw dead animal
meat which smells disgusting. Then he downs a ball of mozzarella and a
piece of white bread. The whole thing takes less than 10 minutes, and
now the momentum has stopped.
Told taxi driver in Monaco who asked for 15 : why is it sometime 12?
He: traffic.
But there is always traffic.
ok you pay 12.
fact is there is a fixed rate of 12. But they charge more if they
can get away with it. Nothing to get stressed about. It's common...
-------------------------------------------
- My good friend Markus Schmid, has a very common name. He was
surprised to hear there was only one or maybe two Reza Ganjavi's in the
world. In the little village he was living (NB) there was another
MS who was born on 5/11. My friend was born on 11/5 -- so they always
got each others' bills...
- Met this guitarist guy on train in Switzerland - had a guitar - he
said some years ago he brought some drug from Holland and got busted
and
now some years later he's serving jail time... on weekends they get to
go out - theie job is to feed chickens and cows, etc... and has cell
phone
in jail.
- She said in Belfast the homeless break a window in winter to go to
jail - they get 6 month term in warm place and get food and get
released
when the weather is warm...
FEB2000
- Karma's amazing. Waiting for N met Silja at meeting point waiting
for another. "Sorry I'm late" I joked. She was upset at having waited
for
30 minutes for the guy but she thinks she was late and he left, etc.
VERY
INTERESTING because once I was suposed to meet her and she stood me up
- kept me waiting for 1/2 hour and later said she was sick or
something......
And then she gets stoodup the same way - and I arrive "hello"! Very
misterious!
Is it "karma"?!?!?
23-OCT-99
X said she and her friend arrived to a Southern state in USA on a
Sunday
- there were no people and no cars in the streets. The next day,
friendly
people said: how are you today? In German it'd mean, I saw you
yesterday...
but they were sure they saw noone yesterday! She was impressed by the
friendliness
of the people, and found the lifestyle boring - to and from work
all the time...
24-May-99
Today I met and played football with a 21 year old Swiss boy traveled
for 4 months in America on bus and train. His stories reminded me of
India:
the bus was 3 hours late, you can get stuck in a city because there are
no seats in the train, bus broke down... At one station a 'grandma'
beat
him up with her handbag because she thought he was cutting in front of
her. In the bus, his seat was at the back by the toilet that stank.
Someone
got locked in the toilet and was knocking on the door. He helped open
the
door - it was Grandma inside! And she accused him of locking her in and
complained to the bus driver who just laughed. He found people
friendly,
the youth hostels dirty. The only place he met people were at the youth
hostels. Night trains are extremely expensive - $100 for a couchette.
Compared
to that traveling in Europe is a breeze. Now Switzerland seems too
small
for him, so he wants to move to Zurich from his 3000-people village.
Coming back from Italy once at the border customs officials came in
the train. I had a white t-shirt on, my hair was not its best shape,
had
a necklace, and was drinking s non-achoholic beer (he couldn't see it
was
non-alchohol), I was playing the guitar, and I was quite relaxed and
happy.
He was sure I had drugs, so he searched everything - even in my
toothpaste
- only to his surprise keep finding condums!! At the end, frustrated
that
he could not find anything illegal, he took one of my business cards. I
was worried that he might makeup a story or something, but then I
thought
no, this is Switzerland... The next day I got a registered letter from
the post office from the border city, and the following day the PO was
closed, so I worried for 2 days that this guy might have caused me
trouble
- only as good old Emerson said, to find out my worries were unfounded
- it was an unrelated package...
Once met 2 young (19) American girls on train. They were in Europe
for a week and were already homesick. "What do you miss most about
America?".
They said: "The chocolate, and the American Cheese"!!!!!!
This was in Switzerland, which is the capital of chocolate and cheese.
And "American cheese" is not even cheese - it's some processed junk.
================================================================================================================
Woman in Switzerland:
We had everything - he just wanted to die.
One days my daughter and I came back from a 2 day ski trip and found
out he had shot himself. He was a very successful civil engineer. We
had
money, home, horses, holidays, cars, and social life - though he seldom
attended. He had it well planned. On his calendar there were no more
appointments
beyond that day. He was a workaholic. Now my son is very nervous and
chews
his nails and has mentioned suicide. We tried everything - pepper,
chili
(yam yam) but it doesn't work...
8Jun99 Regi wrote:
>Gooday Ray–––lovely name especially eaglerays are amazing
>animals–beautyful.i was lucky enough to observe already several of
them,
>while diving....pure freedom,flying through the big blue like
>butterflys....have you heard about the stranded whales on the
>northsea,Greenpeace had to declair the those dead bodies as special
rubbish,
>beceause their meat was completely poisened by all sorts of
>pollution.including car and computer carbage, that gets thrown to
the
>sea.....aren`t we stupid creatures???I guess our task would be to
proof the
>opposite.
- Met nice girl from Israel - She lived with her grandmo from 13 to
16. Everything grandma cooked was beige - so she said i only eat
coffee-flavoured
yogurt and bagel - so she didnt have to eat the beige food. So she ate
no meat. Then she moved to a small flat in NYC with no kitchen. Cooking
meat was too complicated "I only ate easy food - nothing you had to
cook.
so I became a vegetarian. At thanksgiving the turkey would smell good
but
i didn't like chewing meet any more - I couldnt even think of trying
it."
Once in Black Forest at House Sonne I woke up early and found out there
was crisis downstairs. What's going on? Gopal has lost his glasses and
he has to catch a flight and can't do without glasses. Everybody was
going
around looking for the missing glasses. I walked up to the bookcase
where
I remembered him hanging out last night, picked up his glasses from top
of the books and handed it to him! (it was not just memory, but
something
else).
During the same trip I think, CW had lost her watch in the forest. I
went along, and found the watch! She was a gift from the forest.
Woke up one day and had a strong dream of dad. Called him - 3000 miles
away. He had had the EXACT SAME DREAM - SAME EPISODE - at the same
time!
My father and I are one.
12oct99
Guy from N. Ireland said he knows a guy who hijacked a car with a comb
- to drive him home - he was drunk - and the driver turned out to be
someone
in the neighbourhood who knew him. Obviously Police arrested him...
SOUTHERN ITALY
There are volcanic islands near the coast of Sisily which are very
beautiful, and you can witness constantly erupting volcanos. Southern
Italians
are very hospitable. Scooters are essential part of young people's
lives
in Napoli, who gather outdoors by the coastal road in huge numbers
every
day. Alchohol is not that popular, but almost everyone smokes
cigarettes
(sold illegally everywhere to avoid tax), is into astrology, and noone
wears a seat-belt! Their food is outragously good and their hearts
warm.
thanks - very funny.
reminds me of a story my grandma was saying: a mother was telling her
son: son, so this and don't do
that and be good etc. etc. for a long time. At the end of the talk
the son said: mom, did you notice
while you were talking this fly sat on this donkey 43 times....
:-)
>An old friend from Canada was so emotional when he got the CD
that
he called
>at 3 a.m. - woke me up to tell me "I cried when I received the CD
- it 's
>the most beautiful CD
>
>a.g.
>
>It happened already once in my life, I was blaming a student of
mine,
a
>girl, because of a bad performance of hers, when she broke into
crying
with
>a lot of nose-noise and tears. I thought that my blame had been
powerful
and
>effective but lately her brother told me that just whilst I was
talking
her
>she had been biten by a bee.
>
>AG
English lad said - at first day lunch in a very formal Swiss
organization:
"what do you think of the difference between the American and European
drinking habits."
I said, In Calif, they don't drink - it's unhealthy - they drink carott
juice.
Woke up with the smell of fried something 8 a.m. on Sunday shouting
"it stinks" hoping she hears it. I was afraid she was frying dead
animal
meat which could make me throw up but it was just Pilo and vegetables.
No wonder after the welcome lecture I gave her yesterday and the
pictures
I showed her from the gruesome magazine I got as part of "junk mail"
from
some vegetarian society.
The neighbor had hear her scream the night before from frightful
dreams.
"It is impossible to live without fear as long as you eat meat of the
fear
the animal feels when it is being ruthlessly killed..."
She was so happy to have met someone in this house. She'd never been
alone in her life, and now suddenly in this quiet Swiss village in a
house
where you barely hear people she was dying from loneliness. "Maybe it's
good for you - to be in a retreat - a quiet place - like people who go
to the Himalayas."
She was from Himalayas - well, almost. The thought of a "retreat"
was
frightening to her - being alone was like being in a prison. "You can
be
with other people and be lonely, or be alone and not lonely!". She
disagreed
saying when she is with others she is never lonely...
You may get married and have kids and not be lonely
- I'd be very happy then
Then the kids grow up and leave - and husband may die before you -
and you'll suffer from loneliness.
- Then I'll have friends...
Whom you'll depend on for your happiness
- Yes. They're lonely too - so we keep each other company.
When you depend on someone or something for your happiness you're
denying
your freedom!
- It's a mutual dependence, they're suffering too.
Tasted her rice and pilou she had at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday!!! She is
overweight
- and slept all morning.
Real-life stories - Iran: [VERY INCOMPLETE..]
Real-life stories - Iran
28-May-99
Persians have a custom called "taarof" which means for example, the
host really insists that you eat more. The guest also does Taarof,
which
means, for example my cousin would come to our house, we'd be having
lunch,
there's plenty of food, we ask him to join us, and he'd say: "no
thanks,
I've already had lunch" while he hadn't, and is hungry. It comes from
shyness,
fear, and also, a really beautiful thing - generosity, hospitality,
etc..
For those who understand this custom, it's easy to handle it, but
for a foreigner, for example, it can be quite interesting. Some people
like myself are not Taarofi - which means if I am offered something and
I say no, it means I really do not want it and am not just Taarofing.
There
is a saying that there's a risk that Taarof may be accepted, so do not
bluff too much - for example, offering your new jacket to someone who
complements
it (common behaviour displaying, love for other, generosity, etc.),
might
mean losing your jacket (never happens). I had a guest over last night
and I offered her additional serving of meal. She said no. I said, come
on, you have to have more - a typical Persian remark which I said out
of
humour for that tradition, and explained to her the context... It was
funny
speculating reactions to such a remark if someone didn't know the
cultural
background (e.g. anger...)
One funny story about Taarof is, once at my aunt's they had guests
over
and after dinner my aunt told the guest the typical after-meal Taarof
line:
"you didn't eat anything". Nahal, her daughter who was a tiny kid said,
"no mom, she had 3 scoops of rice, and 2 servings of stew..." :-)
A couple of times in Tehran I visited a shop and had to wait
for something. Once a print shop, once a photo shop. As the place got
busy,
I helped run the shop - no knowing the owner before - but it seemed
normal
for a "stranger" to just step in and help - at the print shop I even
collected
money for copies...the guy gave me access to his cash drawer - the
level
of trust and brotherhood is amazing.
Often when you buy something and want to pay the vendor says: "Ghabel
Nadare" (please accept it as a gift...). This is an old, beautiful
custom
which comes from generosity of heart - but these days it's sometimes
abused:
the vendor says it then turns around and charges you more than the
normal
price...
Once I bought a new mattress and the old king-size mattress was sitting
around. One day I heard a street vendors who announce their presence by
shouting (or talking on microphone) "we buy coats, trousers. we buy
appliances,
fridge, ovens, etc. we buy this and that..." they buy everything - but
watch out because if you ask for 100 Toomans they offer you 5 toomans.
They come to middle to upper parts of town and buy old goods for cheap
and sell them to villagers and poorer people. So I sold the old
king-size
extremely heavy mattress. "How will you take it", I asked. "No problem"
and he showed me his old beat up motor cycle. He asked my help in
placing
the thing on the back of the motorcycle. It was hanging to the sides
like
crazy And surprizingle enough he drove off with it. IT WAS SO FUNNY!
================================================================================================================ she won a $95.3 million Powerball jackpot.
Her odds of winning were more than 1 in 195 million. She opted to take a lump sum payment of $49.9 million, saying she plans to buy a recreational vehicle and travel the country. she
used a well-worn strategy to win the December 1 top prize -- picking a
set of numbers and staying with them each week for years.
Her
winning combination of 5-10-11-12-20, with a Powerball number of 2, is
a combination of her birthday and that of her two children, she said.
"I
picked these numbers at least 6-and-a-half years ago and stuck with
them. Even if I had to gather quarters, nickels and dimes, I bought
them," she told reporters.
================================================================================================================
AP
"Sit down," the judge shouted again, then yelled at the guards to take her away.
Khalil pulled off her judicial robe in anger and threw it on the floor,
then tried to push away guards who grabbed her hands, yelling, "Get
away from me."
As she was pulled out of the court, Saddam — sitting in the
defendants' pen — objected. Abdel-Rahman told him to be silent.
"I'm Saddam Hussein, president of
Iraq. I am above you and above your father," Saddam shouted back.
"You are a defendant now, not a president," the judge barked.
============================================================
AP:
Driver Has 18 Times Legal Alcohol Limit
VILNIUS, Lithuania - Lithuanian police were so astonished when they
pulled over a truck driver and his breathalyzer test registered 18
times the legal alcohol limit, they thought their testing device must
be broken. It wasn't.
"This guy should have been lying dead, but he was still driving. It
must be an unofficial national record," Saulius Skvernelis, the
director of the national police traffic control service, told the AP.
"He was of high spirits and grinning the whole time he was questioned."
Lithuania has one of the worst road safety records in the
European Union. Last year, 760 people died in traffic accidents in this
country of 3.5 million residents. Most were alcohol-related.
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