Money and Friends

You loan your friends money in the time of need and then after a period of time it is expected that you will get that money back unless there are some serious circumstances under which your friend cannot pay you back. That’s just how things work in this world we live in

And after a while of asking for your own money back when you, the loaner, is in need of those reallocated funds now come off as begging for your own money. What makes it even more frustrating is that your friend is now accusing you of putting money before friends.

Those accusations are disturbing and disappointing especially if you were just trying to help in the first place and have significant history with that person. It’s unfortunate, but you learn from people and just continue trucking.

A letter from the president

I wish to share with you our response to a disturbing event. Some hand-written graffiti was found in a restroom stall in Main Classroom yesterday afternoon which threatens a repeat of the Virginia Tech event for May 12 - our commencement day.

I view this with grave concern and am taking every precaution to insure that our campus and commencement exercises are safe and secure and that commencement is the joyous occasion that all of us expect. To that end, the University Police have been in touch with the City of Cleveland's Police Department and I have asked Governor Strickland for assistance from the Ohio Highway Patrol. The Governor has assured me of that help and I already have spoken to the Director of Public Safety and officials at the Highway Patrol. In addition, I have ordered that there be metal detectors at all entrances to the Wolstein Center on commencement day.

You can be of special help to the University by keeping us informed of any suspicious activity and suspect behavior that you note or that may be related to this issue. You can call the University Police at 687-2020. We are determined to make our campus as safe and secure as it can be.

I appreciate your concern and, needless to say, I share it. As events warrant, I will keep you informed.

Michael Schwartz
President

I will miss my Wolf P.A.A.K.

I am definitely going to miss this dream team. By far the sickest and craziest motherfuckers I have ever worked with. I was part of the most unbelievable team chemistry out of all the departments across Progressive. We made history together and left a legacy that will never be surpassed by others.

These three dear friends mean a lot to me and as I move on with my career it breaks my heart that I will not be working with them, but only the future holds the answer and maybe we will once again re-unite and make more history like the 95-96 Bulls.

God Dammit

So today I found that another close friend of mine is leaving me. That makes 3 that are leaving the state of Ohio within the next several months and 1 who just did not find the friendship worth wile to work out the issues. So all together that’s a loss of 4 friends in one year. Did I forget to mention that my grandfather left me a week ago.

So all together 5 people that I care about have or are in the process of abandoning me.

Of course this goes back to my typical life cycle where when good shit happens there is plenty of bad shit that offsets the good. So obviously I got the condo, new job, and made one new friend which is all the good shit offset by people moving away.

Which is why I am going to go by a jet ski, the new XBOX, some guns, BMW M3, 70” TV, pool table, and a sick ass A/V system all to go along with my new mountain bike and skis. And I am going to occupy myself with all these awesome toys and say FUCK interacting with people and letting them into my life because at the end they all leave you anyway.

It’s a selfish fucking world we live in and so who the fuck cares anyways.

My old friend used to say whatever is whatever and I am just going to focus on me and if that pisses people off then I really DO NOT CARE.

Yes I am a single child and these are words of frustration and agony so FUCK THIS AND EVERYONE, cut the fucking check so I can buy the toys

I will always be there for them no matter where they live. It's just been way too much shit to handle in the past month or so between family, friends, courts, work, school, VA Tech shootings, and my new home. I am just really emotionally drained from all this crap, which brings out all the aggravation.

Goodbye

Today my family went through their second saddest event in United States. We sent away our second grandfather to his new life. He lived a life that made him happy, a life full of friends, family, his undeniable love for food, his long and detailed toasts during family dinners and his relentless pursuit of learning new things by asking a million questions. He could not live a moment without occupying himself with various tasks like gardening, working on cars, building things, or remodeling stuff at the house. After his first stroke his only worries were on how fast he could recover to go back to work. Unfortunately, cancer got to him sooner than we wanted to and after several weeks of agony he was finally taken from us on 04/13/2007.

He was my hero, a hero who fought in World War II. A hero who came back to his country of Azerbaijan and started a family filled with dreams. After being forced out of his country he relocated for another chance to continue his legacy. Eventually he came to United States to spend the last part of his life with his family.

Today my tears were filled with sorrow and contentment. It was hard for me to let go of him, but I knew that his suffering was now over and he will finally rest in peace and live through our memories forever. He left us as a happy man surrounded with friends and family.

I will miss you grandpa

Virginia Tech Shootings

My deepest condolences go out to all the victims and their families of the brutal shooting that took place on the Virginia Tech campus earlier this morning. My heart felt the pain when I heard the news this morning. In 2003 my school, Case, was also a victim of a hostage situation which involved shootings and fatalities. I recall the atmosphere on campus and the danger that some of my classmates were put in and it just breaks my heart hearing that it occurred again only a lot more severe.

You know as much as we want to protect ourselves with fancy security on campuses, airports, federal buildings, and other places that we commonly attend, it is almost impossible to account for the psycho maniacs who just loose their minds and go around killing innocent people. If every destination that we often visit would have stringent security protocols it will put a hindrance on our life of freedom and promotion of social interaction.

So instead we gamble our lives on daily basis and take our freedom and existence for granted worrying about materialist issues which are not critical for survival, not knowing that one day an innocent freshman who is starting a brand new life will get shot up going to class while attend the school of their dreams. I am a strong believer of Darwinism and I think that we have to take this gamble and play the odds on survival. And when tragic events occur we all have to stay strong and support each other during these deep moments of grief and overcome the evil that haunted the Virginia Tech campus on 04/16/2007.

There were lots angels that got their wings today and they will watch the lives of those who survived today.

Again my heart goes out to all the ones in pain as I toast to them during my 26^th birthday dinner.

L.A. and Vegas

With my two new classes starting at CSU and all the catching up at work on top of working on strategic moves, I finally found the time to sit and write a brief summary of my West Coast trip. I am not going to get into a lot of details because the pictures at the end of the blog will tell some of the story and the things that I have seen.

Overall, I loved L.A. the weather and the atmosphere was awesome. I am definitely planning to move out there sometime in the future, contingent on a well paying job that I plan on getting out there. The whole city is on the move and anywhere you go there is always something going on, unlike Cleveland where you have very limited points of social interaction and anything interesting going on. Anyway, I met up with my friend Chris on Tuesday who flew in from the Windy Chi. The first couple of days we spent the doing some sightseeing, places like West Hollywood, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Malibu, Santa Barbara. Chilling at the pool and just cruising and relaxing. Hit up a couple of gourmet food joints for dinner, lunch and general lounging. I got to visit Little Armenia and buy some Armenian records at the store and visit some of the local shops.

The first day I got there was Chris’s birthday so we went to dinner at Ruth’s Chris, the steaks melted in my mouth at a reasonable price. He lived in L.A. so he was pretty familiar with the area so that worked out nicely in driving around and getting to places. Nevertheless we had a sweet navi system in the 07 Escalade. We went to a couple beaches looking for jet skies and finally at Redodo Beach we rented jet skiis for a couple of hours. I had crazy fun on them because there were some serious waves so I got some good air like 3-4 feet off the water. Granted, I fell off twice going like 50 miles/hour in the middle of the ocean so it was a bit freaky. I definitely did not have any encounters with sharks, but I did see a seal swim by me and Chris saw some dolphins.

On the weekend we drove to Vegas. Of course the amount of money and tourism in that city is pretty absurd, but honestly after a few days I was ready to go back to L.A. because there is only so much stuff you can do on the strip and there were way too many people, which at times made me feel cluster phobic. I do not like to gamble my money because of the limited amounts that I have and plus it doesn’t really do anything for me on the whole excitement level. There are basically three categories of gamblers in my opinion

1. People who are broke or have very little money and think they can get rich by gambling at the casino
2. People who like the thrill and gamble in moderate levels and enjoy the social setting
3. People who are power gamblers and high rollers who do it for fun and the pleasure of having the ability to gamble thousands and even millions of dollars.

I do not fall under any of these categories and personally think that category 1 is a bunch of stupid people who obviously have no clue about odds. Category 2 and 3 I am cool with because they do it for the amusement and self- entertainment purposes.

Maybe one day when I am filthy rich I will hit up the high rollers table and do some Texas Holden and Blackjack, but until then I was just observing. Walked around the strip, checked out the amazing architecture, watched the OSU vs. Georgetown game at the MGM’s big screens surrounded by crazy gamblers. Went to a few car museums where I saw amazing classics and new exotics and also bought some die cast models to expand my collection. We also got to rude on the New York roller coaster which outside of the New York New York hotel. Almost forgot, the first night we went to this ultra lounge Revolutions at the Mirage for a VIP party with a few friends and groupies partying until like 6 am, and well you know the rest, it goes something like this... "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas"

Drove back to L.A. on Monday. That week we hung out with some of Chris’s friends and family. Went to the Getty center which are all the garden and artsy pictures you will see in the pics below. Cruised around the city and went to Rodeo drive and Beverly Hills center to check out the scene and the beautiful L.A. babies. I did not get to see any celebrities because I did not do too much late night partying in L.A. It was a bit of hassle to go clubbing because you had to know the hot spots and with valet parking and cover charges it was not worth the hustle and bustle and after doing stuff all day we were pretty tired. However I did see, the girl from the Hills, MTV show, she sat next to us at the California Pizza Kitchen in West Hollywood. Although, she is not much of a celeb, but it was cool to see her pretty face in real life. We also went to Universal Studios Theme Park which was not too packed because it was still the beginning of the season so we were able to make good time on rides and walking around the park. We went on all the major theme rides and took the tour of the universal studios. We got to see some famous movie from Jaws, War of the Worlds, King Kong. Saw some prop cars from famous movies and go to see how they make special effects. Although the rides can’t compare to Cedar Point, I would still recommend it because they all had unique movie themes and it was interesting to see how they incorporated parts of the movies into the ride.

So after 10 days of beautiful sunny weather I came back to 1.5 feet of snow on my drive way, but I was happy to be home and see my favorite little spoiled brat Lou. The vacation was fulfilling and relaxing and I got to catch with Chris.

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