I'm greatly sorry for your loss Pouya. May your mother rest in peace and may God have mercy on her and increase her rank.

You did what you could. Don't blame yourself. You did everything that was in your capability. You're not burdened more than your capability. You sought help far away from home. You became knowledgeable in some aspects of medicine. That's more than an average person's capability already.

Everyone eventually passes away. Patience in the face of calamities is better than remaining seated or showing weakness. You are your mother's legacy on this world. Don't think about disappointing her by leaving it unscratched. Everyone has his time. Let fate guide you to your destined place. And once there, make your mark on this world. Do not lose hope in the goodness of truth.

You're studying linear algebra? How useful is this subject? Our department does not offer a course on the subject (which is extremely weird because I can already sense that it is of extreme importance to any computational work particularly CFD) and I was planning to take the course at the electrical engineering department which is the closest. But then again, I've heard some very mixed views from "engineers" on this subject. Might be because a lot of them don't understand it quite well, being the math-hating "engineers" they are. But I do wonder if there's a way around studying the entire subject and jumping right into the more applied and computational concepts.

Nice choice for Calculus though. Steward's book is one of the best ones on the subject.

Bro, it's a sign of Karamat. You've become so selfless, that you're no longer even aware of your own alleged narcissism. Sorry to break it you but you can't do anything about that aura and it's going to stay with you as a testament to your Karamat.

But on a more realistic note, I was once that type of person myself. Back when I was the "smartest" person in my school (not that I asked for it or that it was a feat, just an average school with an above-average guy, me, in it) I looked like a complete narcissist. And kind of like you, I strived to be best at everything. I wasn't really a genius when it came to soccer, (even though I still excelled at my favorite sport, swimming) so I trained every weekend with a crappy ball, did a lot of sprints and stuff, with the aim of becoming better than our school's best player. And I kind of did. The thing that really helped me was my stamina because all other people around me were still kids while I was becoming an adult (final years of middle school). Now however? I don't give a damn about soccer. It's my most despised sport probably. Not to mention the injuries. Two things to learn from this story. Firstly, what was the point of what I did? I became good (in reality, again, only above-average) at something I didn't enjoy in the first place just to prove it to myself. Well I mean I was only a kid back then. Secondly, and most importantly, I wasn't focused with my life (not that I am now but things are looking a tad better relatively). So that's something I wanted to address before I explained what I did next.

I changed. I completely revoked my personality. I think I might have even been an introvert back then. Not that I hated my school or friends. I just wanted to have more me time even when at school or with friends. Now? Not so much. I would much rather be in crowded places and stuff, more active places. But not everyone needs to change.

So here's my advice. Try to smile in conversations whenever appropriate. That really helps. Then, try to act a little dumb, as if you're not in full control or fully aware of your surroundings. Like, when someone asks about that really hard trick you pulled off or that really hard math question you solved, act as if it was by accident, something you didn't quite intend or understand but eventually managed to pull off. But be professional about it. Don't make them realize you're doing it to sort of shatter that aura. Smiling and laughing it out, really helps in this regard. Or sometimes, the exact opposite, meaning expressing discontent at your own doings even though you know you did well. Imagine a scenario where I turned in an assignment that no one else had turned in. I would express discontent at my own work by saying something like “This was a waste of time. I completely wasted my time finishing this assignment. I could have done something better with my time instead.” But Imagine if I were all like “Yeah, I turned it in. It was hard but I did it.” That just doesn’t work very well. Act dumb and silly when necessary is what I’m saying. People can’t handle “facts” and “statements” very well. Socializing isn’t about “statements”. It’s about talking shit and moving on.

2016 was quite the year of death. So many great people died. Hopefully, it's a sign that 2017 onward will be much better years. I'm sort of optimistic about it.

Yeah. Sorry for that. Uni's been keeping me busy for absolutely futile reasons. But sometimes I miss these forums and you guys so much :-) Definitely one of the best communities on the internet. Too bad it's shrinking day by day though from the looks of it :-(

Rug may be old but the patterns on it are still wonderful.

Tintin and Tarzan. They also happened to be some of the only comic book series available where I lived. Beautiful rug by the way.

Basically, every single one of these threads every time.

Satan 2 also known as "Putin's middle finger to the US."

See. This is one of those instances that I'm OK with this. FBI already does background checks on every Middle Eastern who enters the country legally so nothing much will change in that regard anyway.

Let me say first, that MENA is not a race. MENA is a culture. Even culturally MENA countries are very varied. But in many instances, especially the cultures of the "Middle Eastern" countries resemble each other to a great extent. It's good to be able to be identified as such. Because here in the Middle East we seldom cared so greatly about someone's race or skin color. There are Berbers, Persians, Kurds, Arabs, Coptic people etc. There’s not a single race. Anyone who was part of this culture was essentially part of "us". That's unique and in accordance with how we feel towards our homelands. We're not all white like Europeans and North Africans are not black in general like the rest of Africa. And we don't care about that. As long as we're part of this culture, we can call these lands our home. It's great for US as well because it can show off its diversity this way.

I watched Friends except for the last two seasons. The show started pretty good and managed to stay interesting for some seasons but it gradually became more and more cliché to the point that it seemed I was re-watching the previous seasons. That's when I finally gave up on Friends. But its novelty did take a very long time to wear off for me nevertheless. I just think later seasons weren't on par with the rest of the show.

As for Seinfeld, I only watched one single episode of it and didn't like it. It was that episode where a certain vendor refused to offer his service to one of those guys anymore and some other stuff. It might have been a weak episode and that may be the reason I didn't like it so if anyone remembers that episode, do tell me if it wasn't one of Seinfeld's better episodes. But I just think that its style of comedy is not to my taste.

One of the most underrated "sitcom" shows I've ever watched is The Looney Tunes Show however. I don't understand why people hate it so much. I guess they just wanted more classical Looney Tunes which they didn't get. But I found the show refreshing. Hadn't seen anything similar ever done with cartoons. Nostalgia helped as well. People just have to admit that it's not Looney Tunes. But it was still pretty great and unprecedented IMO. But we will probably never hear of it again and no new seasons are in production.