Master and Commander: The Far Side of 2012

It’s the end of another year - it’s time for another yearly review. I can now write about all the travels I went on this year, about the philosophical question that bugged me, or about my alias. I’m not going to do that this year. Instead, I’m going to write about leadership. Last year, ’11, was the year of “first times”. 2012 was for me the year of “leadership” and by that I don’t mean leadership by other people. I’m writing about me taking leadership. At work, I started to teach and lead the research group, at weddings, I was not any more a simple guest but either the “best man” or “the guy who married the couple”. I organized events, I chaired consultation, and I planed hikes... well a hike and only one other person showed up for that hike. A good leader knows when to do a task himself and when let other people do the work, and is not ashamed to show some tears. As a leader you have to work instead of to party.
Now, let’s try to make a forecast for the next year. What will come after “the year of postdoc”, “the year of first times”, and “the year of leadership”. Maybe, it will be “the year of inspiration”, because I write my first novel. Actually, I started to write my first two novels - so maybe 2013 will be the year of “finish one freakish thing before start a new one”.

Why not?

The Name of the Bros

My brother Sina has birthday. This year I am going to give him a picture I drew as a present ... and this post. Don't you love if you get something which comes from heart in stead from store?
Sina is the big brother. He has been around all the time I was in this world. That has some drawbacks. When I was little, I was nicknamed "Susu". That was a long time ago and since everyone stopped calling me that. Everyone except Sina - he still does. To tease him, I nickname him "Sisi". Two can play that game.

Susu and Sisi

Because my name is Soroosh, which is for most people difficult to pronounce, spell, and remember, people often try to come up with a nickname for me. My policy is: I will ignore the nickname and pretend they are talking to someone else. Depending on who is more stubborn either the nickname dies or it catches on. Most of the time, people come up with variations of my name as a nickname, like "Roooosh" (Thanks to David "The Faz" Faroz for that name). Girls like to add an extra vowel at the end of my name, very common is an "i" or an "a". The nickname "Doctor Doctor" is because I'm Dr Pezeshki (Pezeshk is Farsi for physician). From time to time, people give me the same name as heroes from popular culture. I have been nicknamed "Snoopy", "Spiderman", and "Harry Potter".

"Roooosh" is not just a name, it's a lifestyle 

Ohh, I got off track. I wanted to write about Sina. What did I forget? O yes. Happy birthday, Sina.

Next year, I will make a vase out of clay for Sina's b'day

PS: Some other nicknames include but not limited to: Super Soroosh, Evil Soroosh, the dream crusher, sope

Me, Myself & Blog

I am busy with the redesign of my blog and homepage. A lot is going to change. I will let you know once everything is done. Because of all that I don't have time to write a longer post. But you will not miss out on your weekly scoop of me. Here are some post from other people about me or where I am mentioned.
These post have been confirmed to be about myself:

• Married to ADD: The 15th step of the 5 step process 
• Rezalution: Sunshine on My Shoulders Makes Me Happy!

And this post is assumed to be about me; Affirmation is awaited:

• wired uk

Election

A horrible time ended fortunately last Tuesday with the election. It's done for now, no more electioneering. It was an awful time but at the same time it was interesting to see the differences to electioneering in Germany. Some people here see it as there duty to put signs of whom they support. In the Halloween season the most terrifying decoration in the lawns were political signs.

Political signs in the lawns

Barack Hussein Obama was re-elected. Some call this re-election historic. I think his election was historic and big and I don't see how his re-election can keep up with that. Historic persons will be subject of TV documentaries, soap operas, and vampire movies. It's a matter of time till "BHO" will be on HBO.
A very interesting development happened on state level. Colorado, Oregon, and Washington had proposition to segregate from United States and become a part of the Netherlands by legalizing marijuana. The proposition in Colorado had the number 64 and the supporter got donations from pro marijuana groups from all over the US. With that they had more funding then the opponent. With all the money they run an intensive add campaign. At the university campus (where else?) the pot heads covered each place with there adds. Proposition 64 will legalize marijuana and tax it. The collected taxes will go to schools in Colorado. It will be the first time that smoking weed will help our schools. In Colorado and Washington the propositions were accepted. Now, the question is if the federal government will allow the legalization of marijuana in those states. BHO would not be the first president who would fight segregation, not even the first from Illinois.

"Yes on 64" in Denver university campus

More money and more advertisements

New York, I kinda like You

Back in November 2010, I went to LA and did a side seeing of all the places known from movie and TV. Last September, I went to New York and Washington DC to continue my side seeing. New York is of course known from the movie "Sleepless in Seattle". I was not traveling alone. My brother came, too. Two brothers on the road of course known from the movie "Rain Man".  It was his first visits to the US and so I had to introduce him to the American cousin. And for that there is plenty of opportunities in NYC - there are about one million hot dogs stands, so there are one million hot dog sells men and women in New York. One million sells personnel to feed the 2 million police officers.

That's the closest I got

We saw the statue of liberty (known from the movie "Ghostbusters 2"), we went to the central park (known as the "romantic road" in the movie "Die Hard with a Vengeance"), time square (known from the movie "Vanilla Sky"), and over the Brooklyn Bridge (known from an insurance commercial - also known from an insurance commercial: Mount Rushmore). We went to museums and didn't paid the recommended price (known from the TV show "The Simpsons").

Brooklyn Bridge

We went on a day trip to Washington DC, because it was close by. It's funny, when you visit a city as a tourist everything is close by but as a local it's not. For local people most sides are too far away to go to. And sides that aren't far away, are not going to vanish. So why go and see them now? That's why I haven't seen one side in Hamburg/Germany.
In DC, we saw the white house, the capitol, and the Lincoln memorial with the reflecting pool. The Lincoln memorial and the reflecting pool of course known from the movie "Forrest Gump".

The reflection of the Washington memorial is pointing where Forrest and Jenny hugged

But it was not all nice and beautiful in New York. We had also rough moments. For example, when we end up in Harlem and the Bronx. It was tough man.  Sad thing about what I just said is a lot of young folks don't get the reference thanks to Giuliani's politics of "New York needs to become a secure, boring place". Thank you, Giuliani. The even sadder thing is I went to Harlem and Bronx to tell people how rough it was.