The Big 25

The second most significant event in 2006 was the celebration of my 25^th birthday. Typically, I am not really a big fan of my birthdays. I usually stay low key and have a small get together with my family just out of the courtesy. I mean let’s face it, you are just one year closer to your demise, how can that possibly be a celebrated and happy event, but you do feel special on this day and all the attention is on you so I can understand why people love it.

25 is a big one, quarter of a century! I had to do something. I put the word out that I will be celebrating up in Niagara Falls for the entire weekend, hotel, liquor, and all the other fun stuff. It so happened that my birthday fell on Easter weekend, so a lot of people could not make it, which I understood. My birthday and the holiday of Jesus on the same night! There was no way I was going to reschedule, it was monumental, and it was a sign that this year was going to be a turnaround year for me. Out of the people that could make it, a very close circle of friends from Cleveland and my very close friend from Chicago came up to Canada to share the special moment with me. I was disappointed about one other person who was supposed to show up, a close friend from high school, but he didn’t really care much for it so I had to get over it and enjoy myself regardless.

We ended up driving up there in separate cars and stayed at the Embassy which is the best hotel out there because of the amazing views of the falls. I got a bottle of Crisy and for the first time tasted the delicious bubbles that every rapper speaks off in their songs. I remember we were advertising the shit out of it by taking pictures like we had stock in that bitch. You know we just chilled all weekend, went out to eat, played some golf, hit up the bars, checked out the falls, hung out at the suite drinking and chopping shit up, walked around on Clifton Hill.

On Saturday my friends arranged a very nice surprise for me by getting reservations in the restaurant and turns on top of the tower that overlooks the falls. I can’t remember the name of it, but it was a pretty awesome experience. I can actually say that there was no major drama that weekend as we all handled ourselves like civilized adults, compared to some of the other hotel parties that I have been part of, it was a definite delight.

On the way back home we watched family guy which made the time go by really fast. I got home and had to drop my friend off back at the airport and then come home for the continuation of my birthday celebration with my family which was actually on Sunday the 16th.

Overall, it was a memorable experience because it was an intimate and modest celebration that included the best of the best out of my life’s relationships. I was happy that weekend, happy to be alive and thriving at age 25 with full support of my family and friends by my side.

Stuff

I am really overwhelmed with life right now, and just trying to find ways on how to deal with all the shit that's on my plate.

2006 Major Event #1 - Carnival Cruise

I haven’t dedicated much time to the blog in the past couple of weeks because I have been tied up with remodeling my new place, but as promised I wanted to recap 2006, so here is the first significant event that happened in 2006. My first official Carnival cruise, there is so much to write about it, but I am going to try to keep it short and sweet just like the way I like my girls, hahaha :)

In the summer of 2006 one my friends from work invited me to go on a cruise with his wife and her family. I have never been on a cruise before so it definitely sounded like a fun adventure and yet another thing to check off from my huge “Life’s To Do List”. We needed to have a group of four people, so a recklessly entertaining group of 4 cool people was automatically formed, Andrey, Katy, Paul and Calin. Living in a small cabin and trying to get along for a week in itself was an interesting challenge and experience ahead of us. We were set to sail on January 1, 2006.

Sometime in December there was some minor drama that took place in the tight friendship triangle that we run, and honestly I was up in the air about going and dealing with the shit for a week. However, I wasn’t going to let some minor static come in between a great possibility to bond and have fun together, so us being the mature adults that we are, we worked it out. We took off to Ft. Lauderdale on New Year’s weekend. We were down there the whole weekend hanging out at the beach and the hot tubs, bike riding, going to bars and restaurants. To cap it off we had an awesome New Year’s celebration in several of the night clubs right after a delicious Cajun dinner

On Sunday we boarded the ship. And when we got close to it, the ship was just ridiculously immense. It was like a city on water. I was like how the hell did they build this thing?! The first couple of days were confusing and getting lost was not a hard task to accomplish. Once I picked out my popular spots and studied the map, things got easier. While at sea, I pretty much just chilled to my maximum capacity, by eating scrumptious and various breakfast, lunch and dinner dishes, laying out in the sun, gambling, getting massages, hitting up the gym, the sauna, the hot tubs, the steam room, drinking, watching Texas beat USC in the middle of the Atlantic ocean while sipping on a strawberry daiquiri, enjoying the gorgeous sunset and ocean views. There was no limit to the relaxation and the food we ate. At night it was a bit creepy looking out in the ocean in the pitch dark, at times wondering what would happen if I jumped overboard.

Our stops were in Bahamas, Grand Cayman, and Montego Bay. In Bahamas we laid out on the beach and played volleyball with the locals and tourists. In Grand Cayman I got to pet some sting rays while walking around in the middle of the ocean and hit the waves on a jet ski. In Montego Bay I drank cheap beer, tore up the waves in a sick ass wave runner, and refrained from purchasing the numerous drugs that were offered to me. Montego Bay was a bit dirty, but I still managed to have fun and bring back some fine Jamaican rum. We also did some sight seeing and visited different shops on all of of our stops. At night we committed gluttony to royal dinners with limitless appetizers, entrees, and deserts. Then it was either of to disco, drinking, cigar lounging or just hanging out.

Overall it was probably the most relaxing vacation I have ever had and was the first vacation where I went with my friends. It was definitely an exciting experience living together in a small ass room, bonding on the ship, spending time together, and just enjoying ourselves with as little drama as possible. Next time I will probably bring some walk talkies so it easier to find people. I would definitely recommend a cruise as must for anyone who has never been on one. I am hoping to go for another one in 2008.

Happy New Year !

As you know it is my favorite holiday and celebration time of the year. To me it’s like your final chance of the year where you can really appreciate and reflect on all the good things that happened and commemorate all accomplishments that you and your loved ones had. Of course, don’t forget about the unfortunate things that happened and learn from them and realize that they didn’t kill you and that you will still get another chance in the New Year. I suppose for me 2006 was a mixture of awesome, good, decent, and bad, events, but overall I think it was a very fulfilling, learning, and maturing year filled with personal and business related achievements, situations, and lessons which helped me grow. To give you more insight about them, I will probably dedicate the next several blogs to the most significant events of 2006.

I try to keep my celebrations filled with variety
2004 - Family parties
2005 - Spy Bar Cleveland
2006 - Ft. Lauderdale FL
2007 - A sick party over Paul's new house. We had a damn good time, the whole weekend was just delic

I would say that the second half of 2006 made 2007 probably one of the most long-awaited years that I have had in a while. And no I do not have any bullshit New Year’s resolutions; nevertheless it should be a very interesting year. It will be a year where I finally move out into my new home, a year at the end of which I will almost be done with my second degree, a year in which certain people might not play a major role in my life anymore, a year where new people might become part of my life, a year where more aggressive and strategic career decisions will have to be made, and of course I have to save room for surprises, oh and the new Sopranos, Weeds, 24, Entourage, and NipTuck, can’t forget the shows that keep me going.

You probably received a drunk phone from me wishing you all the best in 2007, and if you didn’t it’s probably because my cell phone battery couldn’t handle any more congratulations, so if I missed you, HAPPY NEW YEAR !

Christmas

It has been a really long time since I experienced a snow free Christmas in Cleveland and for that matter snow free December. We are so used to snow, that it was kind of weird having a Christmas tree, but no snow outside. I was all pumped, I got my new skis, but there is no snow. Overall, Christmas was calm, some good quality time laughter and sharing stories with family over several rich dinners filled with fine gourmet Armenian and Russian cooking, gotta love it! I also got to work on my new place for the past couple of days doing complete remodeling, kind of like what you see on the house make over show on Channel 5. I enjoyed it and looking forward to more of it because I am actually investing time for my own well being.

Well Christmas is almost over and I leave you with a poem that I wrote like in 8^th grade to help us remember what a true winter is…

Magical Winter

When white winter comes, nature falls asleep,

The ground is resting under the snow that is deep.

The trees are like mirrors that give out a sparkling glow,

Falling down are fluffy flakes that are known as snow.

Like a flute, is the whistling of the chilly breeze,

Tiny drops of water begin to freeze.

A like a little baby, a bear is sucking on his thumb,

If I come outside my fingers become numb.

As I touch the sleek and clear surface of the lake,

The water wakes up and it starts to shake.

People say that winter is like a lady who is mean,

I just sit and stare at the most breathtaking seen.

Too rich for their own good

In light of the latest NBA fight that took place during the Knicks-Denver game, I need to blow some steam off. I mean this is fucking ridiculous! These god damn street thugs are getting paid millions of dollars to pretty much do what they would do for free playing some street basketball, but they still do not know how to act for 1 hour of basketball and cherish this great opportunity that they were given to have the world at their feet. Was the Indiana game not a lesson or what? I understand that it was pretty much a sealed victory for Denver and that their starters did not necessarily have to be in the game, but that absolutely gives no right for Marty Collins to throat grab J.R. Smith as he was going up for a lay-up to start the whole street hustle fight. That is just dirty play and completely unacceptable. Nate Robinson said, “They just wanted to embarrass us”, well Nate it is really not that hard, you have a ridiculously overpaid team full of talented guards who do not know what to do with the ball other than shoot it and your record is 9-17, all that makes it hard not be embarrassing. However, that’s a whole other story that I do no want to get into because the Knicks upper management is a bunch of fucking morons. Hey guys, wake the fuck up it might have worked with the Yankees, doesn’t mean it will work in basketball.
Getting back to the fight, I mean what the fuck, I would love to punch some people at work because they get on my nerves or because they do some shady shit or because they are just plain ignorant and stupid, but you know what would happen if I did that? I would get fired and then get sued by that person or the company, will be forced to pay their bills and end up going to jail for battery and assault. You know what is going to happen to these street thugs, they will get 10-20 games suspension max, a slap on the wrist fine, and boom they are back in the game making millions of dollars like nothing happened. It’s like when they get these assholes in the league they need to put them through a basketball court etiquette 101 class. Here is what you do in a street court game and he is how you act as a professional player in a world wide respected league GET IT MORON???. I mean honestly if I was David Stern I would suspend the main guys who caused all this and players who threw punches for at least half the season without pay and request that several millions of dollars will be donated to charity from each player. THOSE IDIOTS DESERVE IT !
This type if behavior is utterly outrageous and a 0 tolerance policy should be exercised at all times. I am sure most of you would agree with my frustration and how these players just do not deserve to be in this league because they do not know how to act and devalue the image of players like Lebron, Wade and Nash because everyone is in the same league and they have to put up with ignorant and immature street players.

On a side note:
There are plenty of overpaid useless players in the league, but here are the top 5 in my opinion:

Chris Webber Philadelphia 76ers $20,718,750

Michael Finley San Antonio Spurs $19,030,999

Stephon Marbury New York Knicks $17,184,375

Grant Hill Orlando Magic $16,901,500

Eddie Jones Memphis Grizzlies $15,697,500

In case you missed some of the fights in the past, here is a quick recap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orzYlV330Os

25

So I guess the appropriate thing to do for my first official entry is to give you a little introduction about myself and why I am doing this. I am not going to get into a lot details about myself like what are my favorite movies and colors because that is what MySpace is for, which by the way I no longer have. I have nothing against MySpace, the guy is a genius for turning a profit over some lame HTML, it’s just the whole top friends, stupid surveys, and comments, lack of desire for maintenance, played out for me really fast and its more for high schoolers anyway. I suppose that most people who will be reading this already know me, and as for the ones who do not know me, well they will just have to paint a mental picture of who I am.

Why I am doing this? it is something new for me. I feel that a lot of times I have things on my mind and I want to share my thoughts and opinions. I was always better at communicating my thoughts on paper, so I figured this will be a good venue. I am open to constructive criticism and honestly do not really care if anyone even reads this, all I know is that it will be place for me to share my life maybe with someone who I do not get a chance to talk to a lot, a place where I vent and defuse, or a place where you can read some entertaining material on my rants about life. I will try to be diligent about throwing entries out on weekly basis just about anything. For example, one day I might talk about how President Bush is a fucking moron and another day I will talk about how Rap and Hip Hop music has gone down the shit hole or I might talk about how things went down at the VIP lounge at Tiffany’s. My writing style will be more or less informal, almost as if I was carrying a conversation, but at the same time you might see elements of a formal argument or an essay. My favorite word is cool, and even though the douche bag counselors told us not to use it in corporate America... well maybe one day I will stop using it.

I have been in U.S. since 1992, grew up in Cleveland Ohio. I came here as a political refugee seeking survival grounds from the heartless beasts a.k.a. Muslims that forced my family out of my own country by committing genocide to all the Armenians in Azerbaijan. Life was tough for me and my family for the several years after arrival. We were poor and strangers to the lifestyle of this new country. Through the rough times, we all stayed strong and supported each other and built a circle of friends in the Armenian community.

One love to my dad and my mom for giving up everything they had back home to give me a chance to make it here.

Today, some people might see me as an outlandish, spoiled, and flamboyant spender, but that is because I came here with 2 things, one in my hand and one in my mind, a suitcase and a dream. The hard work made the taste of early success that much sweeter. I will always be grateful for the opportunity U.S. has given me.

I fell in love with hip hop primarily with the beats and the style as soon as I got here and grew up listening to Dre, Snoop, 2Pac, and other major players in the game. I have seen people’s careers rise and fall. Back then West Coast rap was the Beatles of Hip Hop. I appreciated the lyrics because at the time I related to them on some levels. However, production is what really just stimulated my mind, because no matter how good the lyrics were the song was not right with a crappy melody. One way to describe me back in high school and maybe even in college is that I was a hip nerd, you know I got my shit done, but I also knew how to allocate time to party. Junior year of high school at 17, I hit the club scene and recently stepped away from it on a hard core level this summer at 25, reaching the climax at the ages of 21-22. I met a lot of interesting people and shared many stories from numerous crazy fun nights. I cannot even remember all of them, but it was a wild ride, and I would relive it any day.

I ended up going to Case for four years majoring in Computer Science. People might say that it is a party school and you are right it was not a party school compared to OSU or OU, but that was okay with me because I did not go there to party. Nevertheless, I had a fair share of fun and wild nights while maintaining a straight head and getting a few good friends out of the deal. I knew that my true party would start when I would see a nice direct deposit in my account from the code I would write for a company one day in four years. I was on a mission and nothing would stop me. At the time Computer Science was a hot item and I was pretty good at it and was always messing around with computers since sixth grade, so I figured I will give it a shot and see where it takes me. Ironically, I just got off dial up about a year ago, haha. To my surprise after a couple of years I found it a bit boring. I had no problem with the challenges, but I really just did not care about code that much in order to motivate myself to create really cool and outlandish programs or stay competitive with the uber nerds to land a job at Microsoft. Nevertheless, I did the assignments and aimed for an A or B to maintain competitive status and my scholarship. In the process I started to enjoy having leadership roles, doing designs, requirements, and vision documents for our projects, rather than the monkey code stuff. I felt that I wasted several years and that when I graduate I will be doing nothing but coding and eventually would get tired of it. I was at the crossroads of my early young adulthood and wanted to switch majors, but I am not a quitter so I stuck with it and figured that it is a good start to my professional career. Since IT was the future, I felt that I can always leverage it to help me find my true passion or hidden talent.

So here I am 3.5 years after college still involved with IT. I have been working at an insurance company for a bit over 3 years now. And yes, I still code, but there have been some many other things I have been exposed to over the past 3 years that I am pretty happy with the success and experience that I have had. Quite frankly, the first two years at this job I partied harder than I did in college. Professional grade money changes your party style and habits. Technically I have only worked on one team, but was fortunate enough to witness 3 different stages of this team as it changed its personnel and dynamic over the years. I worked with very smart, cool, diverse, and even some incompetent people. I was put in an environment which helped me develop on different levels, but at the same time nourish the qualities which I did not want to change like being a very outgoing and fun person to be around. You know I joke around a lot at work, and actually I used to be a lot sillier, but matured a bit. And there are still some people who might not take me seriously, all I have to say to those people is that the bottom line is that I am very persistent and meticulous on all of my responsibilities and that is one thing that no one will ever be able to challenge me on. It is another life in that office and you have to make sure you enjoy it otherwise you will be miserable and angry all the time. In summary, coming out of college I would not take back any of the experiences that I had at this company. Right now I am studying for my Master in Business and hoping to have most of the program completed by the end of 2008. I take it easy on the classes for two reasons, limited tuition funding and maintaining a healthy balance of other important elements of my life. Looking forward to 2008 on where it takes me.

Well, I suppose this is a bit more than I wanted to write, but in reality this was nothing, I left out so many details which I am sure I will use as references to my future entries. I do not want to spill all the excitement in the life of an application developer, but you’ll be surprised…