My Avatar

Yahoo and MSN have these new avatar features, where you get to make your own digital representation. Here are my first goes at defining the virtual me. Click on the pictures to make your own. Make sure to show me the new virtual you too.

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Take Over Canada 2

Brother: "What is the capital of Canada?"
Me: "I think it is Toronto."
Brother: "Yeah ... we can take Toronto."
Me: "Umm, bro, you've been watching a little too much South Park lately."
Brother: "You think they would even fight back?"

[Ok, I know! Toronto is not the capital of Canada! But if you thought there was a good chance that it was, click here for some informative material on our "friendly" neighbor to the north.]

Take Over Canada

Brother: "I think I am going to marry a Canadian."
Me: "Why?"
Brother: "So I can have a person on the inside when we take over."

U.S. Flags

Yesterday I ran to the store to pick up a new U.S. flag for my grandfather. He is a World War II vet and has flag hanging from a 50-foot pole in his front yard. (My grandmother says it reminds her of the post office.) Anyway, a recent storm had left the flag tattered, and he sent me to the store to pick up a new one. Upon arrival, I searched around a bit, but couldn't find it. So the first employee I saw I asked "Excuse me. Where are the U.S. flags?". She thought for a bit, then replied: "You mean the American flags?"

Dylan's Birthday!

Dylan turned seven yesterday and we had a little family party to celebrate. He got to choose what we had for dinner - surprise, surprise - it was pizza! (One of like two food groups - the other is hamburgers.) Then my mom brought out the “Death by Chocolate” birthday cake with seven little candles, which Dylan blew out successfully with a single breath! Then, to commemorate the opening of the presents, Dylan initiated a ceremony derived from the game of “Hot Potato”, where we passed the presents around until he said "Stop!". Of course the presents always stopped when they got to him... I was disappointed of course because I didn’t receive any gifts, so he generously gave me “The Chronicles of Narnia” on VHS tapes. I was naturally excited, but he couldn’t help me when I explained I also needed a VCR…

Mountain Biking, outside Grass Valley

Here's a picture of the boyz (brother Devan, Dad, brother Ryan, and me) before we hit a nice little mountain bike trail out in the woods. 

Grass Valley House

This is my parent's house in Grass Valley. You can see we are close to nature. The photos were taken around the time my parent's bought the place, but don't worry, it still looks the same. 

Barnyard action

This is a photo of the barn outside my parent's house. It currently houses the BowFlex machine, the treadmill and the ping-pong table. Click on the link to see how buff I will become using the BowFlex.

Grass Valley photos

This is a photo of the driveway to my parent's house in Grass Valley. You can see the barn on the left. 

I am Gandalf

I just took the "Which character are you" Quiz [after seeing it on Farshid's blog] and guess what? I am Gandalf. I was hoping to be Neo from the Matrix, but Gandalf is kewl, for a wizard.

Dylan's Halloween display

Dylan created a Halloween display. Scroll down for close ups of the signs.

Halloween

This is a picture of my parents and Dylan before a Halloween party. My father said he was dressed as an "indigenous person", however, we informed him that he looked like a hippy...

Mom went as a wicked witch - she looks quite wicked I might add.

Dylan is a Jedi. (not a pirate!)

On Halloween my father and I accompanied Dylan while he trick-or-treated. After about 2 blocks he got tired and we went home. Dad tells me that is the shortest trick-or-treat run in Portillo history.

Japanese girls gone wild!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-123322263707848424

-i caught the- cat in the act!

Ryan got a bike

Introducing my brother Ryan, artist and now: biker. He dropped by to show off his new ride, check the pic. Devan (another brother, all same mother) and I appear in the second pic.

Dylan says...

D: "What letter is ah-ah-ah-ah?"
Mom: "Ah ah?"
D: "No! AH-AH!"
Mom: [Quizzical look]
D: "O!!!!"

Visit to Santana Row

Last Sunday I visited Santana Row in San Jose with Navid, Gloria, Neda and Mohan. Here's a picture Navid took. Displayed are our empty boba drinks, which were delicious. (Boba = tapioca pearl tea) I was surprised to find Santana Row to be the new hipster scene for the south bay. For example, THE place to show off one's new Ferrari and (I imagine) new plastic surgery. (OK, I witnessed the former, but not sure about the latter.)

Anyone in the market for an island?

http://wiki.ehow.com/Buy-Your-Own-Private-Island

Conversations with Dylan

D: Guess what I am! (Furiously kicking and chopping the air in 6 year old kung-fu fashion)
J: A chinese ninja!
D: No!
J: A japanese ninja?
D: No!
J: Can I have a clue?
D: (Sighs) What runs fast?
J: The Flash!
D: (Rolls eyes) No! Animal!
J: A cheetah?
D: Yes, I'm a Chinese cheetah ninja!

Conversation with Dylan

J: That's a nice bandana you have on Dylan!

D: Yeah, it's the kind Chinese ninjas wear...

Hmm, should I go home, or stay in the U.K., where everything costs twice as much? Hmm...

Ria, Evelyn, Vince (doing his best Deniro impression) and muah at the Afnan-Murray residence in London. The scrumptious breakfast spread Vince arranged for us is at right (note the prominent "Tesco" brand cereal. Imagine a cross between Trader Joe's, 7-11 and Safeway and you will have the beauty that is Tesco.) Just in case you were wondering, these last few photos are from my recent trip to London. :) 

Manijeh and Vince stike a pose. (Photo from Ria or Afnan-Murrays... thanks! ) 

Ah! A fine serving of spotted dick! (Photo courtesy of Manjieh and Vince Afnan-Murray, thanks!) 

Jam, Shah, me, L.A.dan, Leila

The San Jose crew! Navid and Gloria have already made their exit at this point... 

Shahram Badkoubei and me 

Gloria and Navid are married! I went to their wedding last Friday... I left my camera in LA, so I borrowed some photos from Ladan Mohtadi to show you a little bit... 

Dylan drew me a picture shortly after I arrived home. 

My little brother Dylan wrote a play and gave me a supporting role. He is a knight and I am a werewolf. Mom observes/talks on the telephone in the background. Coda the dog also participated and is visible at the bottom of the photo. The play consisted of Dylan slashing me with his foam sword. I dragged him away at the end but he retaliated by decapitating me... I think we have a budding actor on our hands.... 

Saturday night we went to the Stanfurd/Davis football game at Stanfurd. I was rooting of course for Davis as it is of the illustrious University of California. It was a very exciting game (although I wasn't paying attention to most of it and only arrived a few minutes before halftime) and Davis scored a touchdown in the last ten seconds to win! Four of five Portillo brothers are pictured, see if you can pick them out. All star California Bahais - (from left to right) May, Britney, Kelsey, Maryam (2nd row) Devan, Neisan, Ryan, Josh (3rd row) me, Kasra, Roya. Thanks to Neda Maani for the photo. 

Peter Sjostrom's pop art 

Life after Haifa (Episode 1 - continued)

So my first adventure to 24-fitness almost deserves its own post... basically I weigh 200 pounds less than the average gym goer, and about 50 pounds less than my brother Devan. But I did my best to lift all the weight he put on my bar, but by the end let's just say I could barely walk... and there was this one guy who kept walking around saing "whoo!" every time he finished a set....

Okay, so back to London town! The night I arrived Manijeh and Vince picked me up and introduced me to the wonders of Tesco, the mighty English supermarket chain. I had a love affair with this wonderful store while I was there, and I recommend you all do the same one day. It is a beautiful, beautiful store... (with tasty chicken wraps!) The next day I met up with Dumazi who very kindly walked me past all the central London sights, inlcuding Big Ben and 10 Downing street (sorry, I didn't see Tony Blair). We also took a ride on the London Eye, which is kewl but at almost US$25, not that kewl. I also had fish and chips, and let me tell you, the fish is good, but basically tastes like fish stix... The next day we went to the resting place of Shoghi Effendi and later shopping for a new TV.... several stores later Vince and Manijeh purchased as sleek LCD television, on which we promptly began to watch Matrix .

The day after that I met up with Shahrooz Badkoubei and Seena Samimi and we checked out some museums. Next day we went to Cambridge with Ria and Evelyn. Ria is engaged to the famous George Costant, and the three of us (Evelyn, Ria and me) hit it off when we discovered we all went to Cal...Cambridge is beautiful! Everyone should go there, and make sure to go punting! Weather was so nice the entire time we were there....

The next day I met Vince for lunch then caught the Tate Modern, which was awesome! Then went to a park and then to Ria's place for dinner, where we observed the Greenwich Median Line, where time begins! The Royal Observatory shoots out a green light at night and there is a line drawn on the ground for nerds like us to photograph... :)

So then I went home in Virgin Atlantic airlines, which I highly recommend. Arriving in San Francisco, I noticed that my friend Badi wasn't there to meet me like he had said he would. I called him to find out where he was. He told me he had shown up to the airport an hour ago, but a cop pulled him over. Turns out his registration stickers were expired and the cop wanted to tow him. Badi, being the expert negotiator that he is, he was able to persuade him not to tow him, just to issue a fix-it ticket instead. But the cop wouldn't allow him to stay at the airport any longer, and told him, "if you don't leave right now, I'll tow you!" Haha, so Badi got chased away by the cops! (Badi, if this story isn't true..)

Life after Haifa (Episode 1)

So I have been out of Haifa for 2 weeks now, so thought I should get to documenting my life after...

A tearful week of farewells preluded my drop off at the Haifa Mercaz train station, where I had only a few moments to gather myself before catching the train to Ben Gurion airport... I made it there in about an hour and was pleased as always by how smooth the ride was, much better than the sherut! I then proceeded to El Al's rigorous check-in which seemed not that bad this time... I made it to the gate with a few minutes to spare before boarding started so I really couldn't complain. In flight they showed a horrible movie called "XXX: The State of the Nation" (which I recommend you never see) so I chose to catch up on my 2 and 1/2 year sleep deficit...

London was awesome! Loved it! Manijeh and Vince were excellent hosts, and I was the first guest to sleep over in their new apartment! It was such a nice place, totally reminded me of San Francisco - hard woord floors, large windows. So then.... okay, my brother wants to start me on a 12-week "get buff course" , also known as "fight the skinny", so we are going to the gym. Dear friends (smirking), I will finish this post a bit later....

Back in Cali

I just got back into Cali last night and decided to plunge into the fray of blogging madness... Please have patience with me as I learn to express myself online. ;)

PS--MANY MANY thanks to all the kind, generous, warm hearted and beautiful people who made my stay at the BWC so special! I truly miss you and hope this blog helps us stay in touch...

Love,

Justin