Hoorah! This semester is finally over. I just emailed my last paper to my professor. It’s now about 30 hours that I haven’t slept. It was the most frustrating final term of my whole life. First, all those ruthless allegations by that American blogger followed by an Iranian blogger whom I assumed was a “friend;” and then the recent problem that happened to me and my friends which was even worse than the first one. I still don’t believe that I made it. Next semester at the time of exams I will disconnect myself from the whole world! I’m so tired that I think I won’t recover for days. All my bones and muscles ache. My throat is hurting because I have resisted crying and I have been smoking a pack a day (to be honest sometimes more than a pack.) I seriously want to quit smoking. If the condition I was in, in the last two weeks, would continue, I’m sure I would get seriously sick. I want to quit smoking, cook the whole week, clean our house which is literally a sh*t hole now (!), swim, sunbathe, and go out! I’m tired of this futon and laptop I’ve been sticking to for two weeks. But at the same time I should work my a*s off to meet the deadlines of the project I’m working with my friends in Iran. I think more than anything our project – which is an online network for Iranian women in provinces of Iran – was negatively affected by all these stupid stuff. Wow, what horrible two weeks I passed! I don’t know when I’m going to recover.
*Update: I got straight A’s! :D I was expecting A for two of my classes, but not the one that I put its paper here yesterday. I wrote it just in three days (well, we can say five days because I didn’t sleep for two nights!) and I even didn’t have time to proofread it. But it seems its professor liked my paper. It was a good ending for all the drama!

22 comments
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Sunday, May 7, 2006 at 10:12 pm
kalagsiah
it’s good to have a copy of your essay here. it seems that somebody used to think in persian and translate it in english. i mean overal view is Iranian style, i am not going to say this is Wrong or Right. just i drop a comment to say i will going to read this cearfully and get back to you soon.
also you have to have more smoke if you want to have a good rate in olympic. actually in smokers section.
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 12:42 am
David
First, go to bed! :) You have earned a good rest!
Years ago, I smoked for a brief period. I couldn’t believe how fast I became addicted! Well, I stopped smoking, but only because I chewed a lot of nicotine gum. I chewed that stuff for a year and was still addicted. Finally, I learned how some vitamins might help me break the addiction. B-Complex vitamins helped a bit to curb the craving (they are great for general health also). Also, increasing the amount of omega-3 (walnuts and salmon are excellent sources) in my diet made me feel better too. Ultimately, though, it did require some will power to quit chewing the gum. I slowly tapered it off. There are extra chemicals that tobacco companies put in cigarettes that make them even more addictive. If you can switch to the gum, it may be easier for you to eventually quit. Good luck!
I downloaded your paper and will try to read some of it. :)
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LS: Thank you so much dear David. I’ll try to work on what you said about quitting!
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 2:36 am
SoloGen
1-Is it real that you had not slept for 30 hours?! Without any sleeping break? How did you think then?
2-Please publish your papers as PDF or PS file. MS Word DOC files are not appropriate for publishing stuff as 1) the page formatting is not consistent on different computers, 2) MS Word is not available for everyone (specially when you should buy it), 3) it is a Microsoft production, 4) It may be infected by a virus, 5) … !
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LS:
1- Yes, it’s real that I hadn’t slept for 30 hours. I guess I didn’t think very much! That’s obvious in my horrible paper, isn’t it?!!
2- I don’t have PDF maker at home. I just wanted to put the paper online for one day, because some of my friends were curious how Iwas going to write that paper after all that happened to us last week.
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 8:26 am
neda
hi.. I tryed to put your link in my page 2-3 times, I don’t understand why it doesn’t appear..don’t know what’s wrong.
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 10:21 am
رها
صنم جان, انگار خورشید خانم امریکایی نمرده ها!!! یعنی این که فقط به فارسی نمی نویسی؟؟
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آره رها جان این وبلاگ “آمریکایی” رو که نبسته بودم از اول. من خورشید خانوم رو بسته ام و فکر هم نمی کنم خیلی این دو تا به هم ربطی داشته باشن.
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 10:57 am
Solmaz
I was almost screaming when I found that you are still writing your english blog!
I am glad that you could get yourself together and meet your deadlines, go sanam joun!
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 12:13 pm
mahnaz
ladysun, if some1 wants to “cite” your paper, he/she can and wont need your permission. what he/she can not do without consequence, is using your work without citing it.
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LS.
You are right. “Permission” and “cite” were bad choices of words (thx. for putting “cite” in quotation marks by the way!!). By permission I meant contacting me. I was tired and didn’t know exactly what I was writing! But what I actually meant was that please don’t quote it without first double checking with me because it’s a work in progress and might change a lot. I didn’t have time to even read it once to correct the typos before sending it to my Prof. By the way, I have seen many people who put their work-in-progress online ask others not to quote them before first contacting them. Also, actual “citation” doesn’t need permission only when the work is “published.” It’s the subject of debate, at least in the ethics of anthropology, whether you can cite blogs in your research without asking for their consent.
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 1:39 pm
mahmoodreza
Just finished reading your paper. Well done job. I gave you an A:)
BTW, you had some grammar and spelling errors. I think its good to have someone read your paper before you submit it. Sometimes you cannot find the errors because you are tired of reading it several times.
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LS.
Thank you! But I had to work more on the paper, I didn’t have much time. And you are right about editing. It was so late I couldn’t give it to anyone for editing (and it was too long, room nemishod!)
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Leva
HORRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAA!
Mine start this week. fourty hourse work and three hard book that I never open one of them during the term, but who cares? it is my life and I chose that. I saw MI3 last week when I had a teset on its tomorrow morning and I got myself drunk after that to sleep w/o strees.
But I am happy you back girl. Enjoy Florida’sun and Jaee maro khali kon khanoomi!!!
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 5:36 pm
shirin
Hi Dear!
U wrote some other paper about womens situation in Iran for some time ago. Would you please upload that one here too for a short time! The same paper you got A for. I just wanna read that too.
I’m so proud of you. Take care dear
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Sara
First of all, Congrats on finishing the semester :) rest for 2-3 days , then start to exercise and swim and halesho bebar ! and quite smoking. I could quite so you can, too. Good Luck
Monday, May 8, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Roshanak
Dear sanam
Thanks for your kind comment and the link:) I hope everything is going well. It’s great that you are done with your exams. You deserve a nice summer vacation
Cheers!
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 1:31 am
bita
چه حس خوبیه که میشه اینجا ازت خوند.
میتونم حال الانت رو بعد از این دوهفته پر مشغله درککنم. حسابی استراحت کن و لذت ببر.
راستی این شبکه زنان هم که نوشتی فکر کنم خیلی ایده به درد بخوری باشه. . صبر میکنیم تا نتیجه رو ببینیم.
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 9:37 am
Leila
Congratulations!
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Bahareh
New York, NY—April 25, 2006. Today, Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York, announced that twenty Carnegie Scholars have been chosen, all of whom will study issues relating to Islam and the modern world. Each member of the new class will receive grants of up to $100,000 to pursue specific Islam-centered research themes over the next two years. This is the second class of Carnegie Scholars to focus on Islam.
Farzaneh Milani
Professor of Persian and Women Studies
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Title: Re-Mapping the Cultural Geography of Iran: Islam, Woman and Mobility
The past three decades have produced an unprecedented amount of writing about Islam in the West in which the Muslim woman is often a central character. In a familiar story of captivity recast now for a present-day audience, she is incarcerated in segregated spaces and trapped in her veil. And yet, as Milani points out, Muslim women have been very much on the move—a moderating, modernizing force in most Muslim societies. Seeking to analyze the complexities of women’s role in modern Muslim societies, Milani, a recognized scholar of Persian literature and culture, will research the competing narratives of mobility and confinement in Iranian literature. Borrowing from Eastern and Western theories, Milani will employ a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary perspective to pinpoint women’s struggle for freedom/mobility as a concept for social transformation and modernization. The resulting book will provide a study of women’s mobility and its effects on the social structure of modern-day Iran.
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 1:26 pm
رها
صنم جان خوشحالم که این جا رو تعطیل نکردی و می تونم نوشته هات رو بخونم. فرقی هم نمی کنه که خورشید خانم باشی یا لیدی سان!
Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 11:25 pm
رها
راستی صنم جان, وبلاگ انگلیسی ات فیلتره اون هم در حالی که وبلاگ فارسی ات مشکل نداره و راحت میشه دیدش!!! من با آنتی فیلتر لیدی سان رو می بینم!!!
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LS: I know! It’s even filtered in UAE. I’ve written why it has been filtered here:
http://www.ladysun.net/archives/000071.html
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 12:22 pm
alireza
گل افتابگردون هر روز بانتظار دیدن یاره اما خورشیدو پوشونده ابری که تیره و تاره.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 4:42 pm
niki
congratulations on finishing and doing such a nice job. i’m really sorry to hear about that american blogger’s accusations, but i am more sorry to hear about some of the iranian bloggers. i hope you will resume writing in your farsi blog.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 10:45 pm
David
Congratulations on your straight A’s! Well done! I read about a third of your paper last night (I am really a slow reader!). I’m not surprised that your prof. liked it. You are a very good writer! I’ll try to finish it some time this week. :)
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LS. Thanks David. You really give self confidence to people! :D
Friday, May 12, 2006 at 3:11 am
Soroush
Dear Sanam,
So happy to hear that you got A’s, many many congratulations! You did deserve it :) Try to relax, have more rest and let your mind be free for a while; you’ve had very hard days. I am really proud of you for being so strong, not every one can manage and survive such tough conditions. Take care of yourself dear and please forget about smoking. Again congratulations! :)
Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 5:23 am
looloo
صنم عزيز. از اين كه ديدم مينويسي خوشحال شدم. من به شدت با خورشيد خانوم نوشتههات همذات پنداري ميكردم. تصويري كه تو از خودت ايجاد ميكردي خيلي زنده و خيلي قابل لمس بود. اميدوارم در آينده هم به توليد مطالب در مورد خودت ادامه بدي!!! اين جا و اون جاش فرق نميكنه. من از خوندن نوشتههاي تو لذت ميبرم.