Montgomery Building

Montgomery Court was constructed in two phases between 1916 and 1925. It has four stories and a basement, gross square footage is 43,320 square feet. This lovely historic building (dorm) was designed by distinguished Portland architect A.E. Doyle in 1916.

Wormy Apple

Blackstone Building

This five-story building is located in the Park Blocks, just north of Millar Library, and was built in 1931. Located in the heart of campus, according to Portland State Housing Office, Blackstone residents can enjoy being in the center of everything from Portland's Saturday Farmer's Market to concerts and art fairs. I think it means it's a "little" noisy sometimes.

I don't know why they named it 'Blackstone'. Black Stone is an Islamic object of reverence, which dates back to the time of Adam and Eve. It is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, in Mecca. The Stone is roughly 30 cm (12 in.) in diameter, and 1.5 meters (5 ft.) above the ground. According to Islamic tradition, the Stone fell from Heaven to show Adam and Eve where to build an altar and offer a sacrifice to God. The Altar became the first temple on Earth.

In the pre-Islamic era, the legend of the Black Stone Pyramid is not considered to be a well-known pyramid. The legend states that somewhere in the Egyptian desert, there are/were the largest pyramids of the Egyptian rule. These legends also relate that the Gods built these pyramids before humans were living in Egypt from an unknown black stone. Each pyramid was almost double the size of The Great Pyramid in Giza with similar shape.

Anyway, there is a very long history behind this one name, 'Black Stone'. I don't think if many of the students who live in that building know about this. Maybe not. What about you? Did you know about it?

Lakewood Bay, Lake Oswego

The Siletz Bay

Spring 6th day (March 26): Red Flowers & Mansur Hallaj

Today is the 1086th death anniversity of Mansur Hallaj.

Mansur Hallaj (c. 858 - March 26, 922) was a Persian mystic, writer and teacher of Sufism most famous for his apparent, but disputed, self-proclaimed divinity, his poetry and for his execution for heresy after a long, drawn-out investigation.

He became famous because of his controversial statement: "I am The Truth", which was taken to mean that he was claiming to be God. While many Sufis theorize that Hallaj was a reflection of God's truth in much the same way Christians view Jesus, scholars of the well-established Islamic schools of thought continue to see him as a heretic and a deviant.

Rumi wrote on the claim "I am God" three centuries later:

People imagine that it is a presumptive claim, whereas it is really a presumptive claim to say "I am the slave of God"; and "I am God" is an expression of great humility. The man who says "I am the slave of God" affirms two existences, his own and God's, but he that says "I am God" has made himself non-existent and has given himself up and says "I am God", that is, "I am naught, He is all; there is no being but God's." This is the extreme of humility and self-abasement.

Pacific Ocean, Oregon Coast, Lincoln City

The Grotto

I'm glad that I have the chance to visit amazing places in Portland; thanks to the spring break. It is rainy but I'm decided to go. I checked the google map to find out where it is located and how I should get there. Bus number 12 to Sandy Boulevard is the only bus goes there. It took near half an hour to get there. I looked around my desk to find some changes for the bus, only $2. I made a small sandwich. I also took a bottle of water and put them with my camera and a tripod into my back pack. As light as possible: just something to eat, drink and taking photos. It was 12:30 that I left my place.

Welcome to "The Grotto", a place of solitude, peace and prayer. It was interesting that I visited a Judaism-related place, the Holocaust Memorial, yesterday and a Christianity-related place today. It must be a wonderful visit.

A very white Christ cross was the first thing I saw when I entered the site of the Grotto. It reminded me my red covered bible with its golden edge papers. It also reminded me all the 'Nikos Kazantzakis' books that I've read specially The Greek Passion which is my favorite book.

Carrying the cross? Oh, I used to have small cross, made of Armenian balck stone, hangs on the rear-view mirror of my car. I bought it from the Vank church in Esfahan, Iran, when I visited there in 2004.

A grotto was hewn from the base of the 110-foot basalt cliff where an alter was constructed, above which was placed a full-sized replica of Michelangelo's Pieta. This became the sanctuary for an outdoor church where Sunday Mass has been celebrated during summer months ever since.

Michelangelo's Pieta

Meditation Chapel

The Marilyn Moyer Meditation Chapel's north wall is constructed entirely of glass, offering an unobstructed panoramic view of the Cascade Mountain Range. The Chapel is dedicated to motherhood.

Okay I have to go. Papa is coming to pick me and some other international students up to go to the coast! Hoooooooooray! I haven't been to the Oregon coast yet. See you.

Life was uncertain and still is!

I was so excited that it's not rainy (half-cloudy) and I have some time after a while to go out to enjoy the life: to walk and ride my bike somewhere out of downtown. I chose Washington Park. I haven't been there since I've come to Portland; I just once visited Japanese Garden and Rose Test Garden which are located somewhere in a corner of Washington Park.

I didn't know Washington Park has a memorial. "Life was uncertain." This was the most simple and impressive sentence I've read about this. However, life is still uncertain I believe, not only for them but also for so many other people in the world.

Beneath this rock are interred soil and ash from the six killing-center camps of that:
Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Majdanek, Auschwitz-Birkenau

The wall looks like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. A half circle wall, covered with shiny black stone full of names on one side.

It was the "Oregon Holocaust Memorial".

I visited there as a young man who is from a county whose current president denied holocaust but their people feel sympathy. "We should speak out if even a single Jew is killed. We follow a religion that states that the death of an innocent person is the death of all of humanity.” This is what Khatami, the former president of Iran, said but who reported this worlwide? no one.

We should also remember all the innocent people who have been killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestine, Lebanon, Gaza, New York, Cambodia and any other places. "No one's blood is more colory than any other's" to be valued more or less. Hope not to see any other massacre in the world.

Allow Me