RIP Master Ivry..

 One of the last Legendary violinist .. Today Ivry Gitlis passed away..

Elgar : La Capricious

I consider myself lucky to have met him several times between 2013-15. he was around 92.. still lucid, wit and funny .. 

Once he was looking for seat in a concert so I offered him mine .. I was in the second row.. 
He said: Cannot sit too close to Stage .. the violinist is a friend of mine (gilles Apap).. don't want him to see me ... I play violin too .. 😁😁😁😁.
Yes Maestro.. I know .... 

Faraway in Spacetime .. WTF

Antoine showed up on FB.. 

Voice call followed. then a photo.... WTF.. out of  the very distant spacetime. A history of our future.. 

Antoine , Hanna,  Jimi, Robert and  few others are around here, Joseph is in Vancouver, Ghassan is in Florida... Samih in Vienna etc.. All high school mates (and kind of elites .. whatever that means in a trash can named Syria)  and Mr. Basti , the teacher who created the love of physics in me.. 

Emotional ? sure .. Romantic? Not at all. Romance is just an illusion.

They were few of the best (whatever best means in the garbage land).. expected to have good future. 

They are already in Montreal for few years .. we didn't hear from each others for about 40 years give or take.
time changed .. damn ..

Let's see what happens when we meet .. They got old .. So did I .. Don't know about their health conditions.. I thought of asking .. but didn't want to hear bad news.. I had enough of that ..... enough  being worried about everybody around me, just because I can't be worried about myself.. 

Meanwhile ..  little Salam is getting married today .. he is Iraqi/Canadian/American.. from NJ.. his bride is Iraqi/British  from London .. they are in Antigua.. getting married by preacher in London and invitees are virtually from all over the globe  .. they got together (virtually) on zoom ceremony .. 

time changed 

I want to see my old colleges in flesh and blood .. not online

The trophy .. Power of productive anger

At work.. I was chosen as one of the best employees of the year.. got gift certificate for 2000$ and a trophy.

They did a zoom show.. with music and graphics .. they really spend much time preparing and rehearsing. 

The show was nice .. about 45 min. each or the winners has to thank somebody for his success. his manager and colleges etc.. 

OK .. now .. why did I got this .. didn't do much .. really .. they thought I did big job.. but I didn't. 

Never was career oriented, Never wanted to do much for work and never did. I just had some issue after my trip to Germany .. Got angry about few things. I needed time for myself to sort things out... didn't want to deal with people much .. didn't want to talk and discuss.. so I turned into some activity that doesn't require much contact with others ..
I did what I do best .. thinking..  

For them .. that was heroic .. and I became some kind of example of good specialist .. who helped his team achieving much (by not having much contact with them) .. I think it is funny.

Well .. I don't know what I'll do with my price .. I don't need anything ... I guess I'll use it to buy presents for people who got me pissed off .. they were the reason of this success 😁😁😁.. 

In other news.. my parcel is late .. about 3 weeks to deliver e-liquid, usually it takes 2-4 days.. looks like canada-post is all overwhelmed with Xmx deliveries, or simply lost my package.. would have been easier to order from China.. 

The 9/11 of 2020

 A New year coming up .. what a joy !!!.

Earth circled the sun once more . WAWWWWW. who thought that was possible.

I do have reason to celebrate .. 2 weeks of not working.. very unusual in north America.
what makes it bad is that I cannot travel anywhere to see friends I miss very much.. 

Most special of this year was Covid.. killed many and inconvenienced all.

That made the whole year mostly waste of time .. instead of being the special year for me as senior citizen for the first (and last) time .. 

Didn't see friends much .. didn't travel as much as I used to ..everything shrunk around me.. 

But what bothered me most is the non-stop complains.. Every one wanted different rules and regulations to be in place .. they all agree that what's done is not right.. but none of them agreed on what's right.. 

Statistics cannot be applied to case by case basis .. and it changes all the time with new input.. 
the more data , the more accurate .. but still not on case by case.. for the moment there isn't enough data to judge best behavior against Covid.

Here are a gym owner, restaurant owner etc..
Gyms are closed ..  you want people to be unhealthy !! how are they going to fight covid?
Restaurants are closed .. why?? allowing people to be together on planes and trains but not restaurants?
Aviation - railroad: but people don't travel during pandemic unless it is an urgency .. you cannot stop them.
Etc.
The most common complain: 
No matter what they do , numbers keep going up.. so why bother
If I am healthy and in no danger from covid, why can't I lead normal life ?? 

Nothing abnormal with the above claims .. in normal times .. BUT
Think of 11 Sep. 2001.. 19 terrorists and 3000 victims..  made every passenger a suspects..
Millions of passengers who travels frequently are much more inconvenienced than before.. boarding planes is becoming kind of hassle .. 

In Pandemic (like in terrorism),  If you are not a Victim , Then you are a Suspect.. 

So shot up and hope there will be enough data to do better next time.. 

celebrated , pissed of , alive , dead , sick, vaccinated, Santa or Satan believer.

Earth will continue circling the sun .