I just need to get my head cleared and so I am going to post some random thoughts on here. You can skip this post if you don't want to hear any of my stupid crazy thoughts.
So I was just watching the movie 'August Rush' and it made me bawl. I loved how the child didn't stop at anything to follow his music. He had no outside distractions to pull him away from the thing he loved and caused him extreme joy. And I am not talking about temporary moments of fleeting joy that is brought about by new and interesting things. I am talking about a passion so deep the thought of not being able to do it upsets you. You would rather die than not do it. You would choose it over food.
This concept was also shown to me in 'So you think you can dance' where a couple of girls lived their whole lives around dance. Everything they did would in some way help them in their pursuit for their passion.
And of course this helped me with my ideas on how I should pursue my life. I need to stop getting off track with my life. I need to decide which things in my life bring me absolute passion and follow them with all of my heart. I can no longer allow others to influence what I do. I can't let the latest trend stop me from doing the things I love.
The question then popped up, what is the passion that I should pursue. Time and time again the answer has been in front of my face, but I never noticed it. My absolute love in life is dance. I love to dance with all of my heart and body. Even to this day I don't know how I will survive a life in which I am not able to dance. I dread the day that I cannot dance anymore. Whenever I have visions of injury, I always wonder how I will continue to dance. So my first love is dance.
My second love is for maths. I will not stop my passion for maths in order to continue dance, and naturally I can do both at one time. It may hinder my life a little, but again I don't know what my life will be if I don't continue to learn about math and to help develop the subject further. And so I must continue to learn.
So with this new passion, I am unfortunately going to drift away from technology and the internet. I am moving away from web designing and logging every aspect of my life on the internet. I am going to stop worrying about continuing my education for teaching (even though I will continue school). I am going to stop everything and pursue the things that I love the most. And hopefully nothing will stop me.
With motivation,
Aram the Garmo
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
New Look!
So I am in London right now and I won't be updating this almost at all. In fact the updates here will be at an all time low until around August time. Until then enjoy my brand new layout to my blog, and also take the time to vote on my poll on the right. Once I get back in track in August I will take your suggestions and begin to publish things as is wanted by my audience.
With much love,
-Aram the Garmo
With much love,
-Aram the Garmo
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Chinese Grocery Bags
I always hear around me that China is bad. It seems there is always someone saying something bad about the policies that China employs. People look at China and only look at the bad policies and don't look at China when it actually does something beneficial and better than most of the world. People see the way China handles child labour, they way they handle global economy, the way it handles security, and the internet, and all of that stuff, but people turn a blind eye to the good things China does.
This was prompted by an article I read a couple of days ago from Reuters about something that I feel China is doing good on. In essence, the article is saying that China is trying to stop the selling of plastic bags. The article can be found [here]. Apparently, in order to help protect the environment China is trying to stop people from buying plastic bags. They started a law that basically makes it illegal to produce thin plastic bags, which is what is most commonly used in China, and that if a store does use plastic bags they must charge for it. They are hoping this will cause people to start using reusable bags and to maybe switch to paper bags.
I find this amazing. This is one of the first countries that I have heard to do this at this scale. I have heard of hundreds of cities that employ this, but not a country. I think it's funny how America points their fingers at China and says that they won't decrease their Carbon Emissions until China does. America is basically saying they aren't going to be environmentally friendly until China does. Well guess what America, China has started. When is America going to follow suit and actually take global warming seriously and start to issue laws in order to help protect the environment? When is America going to realise that the future of the world is green and not massive oil consumption? When is America going to change? Hopefully, in 2009.
Hopefully,
-Aram the Garmo
This was prompted by an article I read a couple of days ago from Reuters about something that I feel China is doing good on. In essence, the article is saying that China is trying to stop the selling of plastic bags. The article can be found [here]. Apparently, in order to help protect the environment China is trying to stop people from buying plastic bags. They started a law that basically makes it illegal to produce thin plastic bags, which is what is most commonly used in China, and that if a store does use plastic bags they must charge for it. They are hoping this will cause people to start using reusable bags and to maybe switch to paper bags.
I find this amazing. This is one of the first countries that I have heard to do this at this scale. I have heard of hundreds of cities that employ this, but not a country. I think it's funny how America points their fingers at China and says that they won't decrease their Carbon Emissions until China does. America is basically saying they aren't going to be environmentally friendly until China does. Well guess what America, China has started. When is America going to follow suit and actually take global warming seriously and start to issue laws in order to help protect the environment? When is America going to realise that the future of the world is green and not massive oil consumption? When is America going to change? Hopefully, in 2009.
Hopefully,
-Aram the Garmo
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Farewell
The countdown has begun to my final farewell to England. In less than 9 days I will be flying out of Heathrow on my way back to the U.S. I am seriously going to miss everyone here. I have yet to pack my stuff and that will be done in the next two days. Today I will visit people, and I will be going to London on Wednesday, which is also the day my grades come out. *nervous*.
My arrival in California is going to be a little weird I expect. In order to understand, I must describe a whole story. So I am having my dad make the track jackets for my fraternity again. This is around the third time that I have asked him to do it, so I didn't think anything of it. My brother though overheard from somewhere that my dad actually looked up the details to my fraternity. Which means that he knows that I am in a gay fraternity. Of course my brother only overheard it, so I don't know what my father knows exactly, but he could easily find out that I am gay. This may turn into a very awkward trip to LA especially if he asks anything. I'm prepared for any questions, and I am not coming out of the closet to him yet. The reason is because he currently has all of my stuff, and I know he doesn't like homosexuality and so I don't want all of my stuff getting stuck at his place. So I will wait until all of my stuff are at mine and then tell him, or maybe just never tell him. He isn't very worth it anyway.
So that is what is waiting for me in LA and I hope it all goes good. I have backups just in case something happens, but still nervous.
That is all for today, I will update some tomorrow (hopefully).
Nervously,
-Aram the Garmo
My arrival in California is going to be a little weird I expect. In order to understand, I must describe a whole story. So I am having my dad make the track jackets for my fraternity again. This is around the third time that I have asked him to do it, so I didn't think anything of it. My brother though overheard from somewhere that my dad actually looked up the details to my fraternity. Which means that he knows that I am in a gay fraternity. Of course my brother only overheard it, so I don't know what my father knows exactly, but he could easily find out that I am gay. This may turn into a very awkward trip to LA especially if he asks anything. I'm prepared for any questions, and I am not coming out of the closet to him yet. The reason is because he currently has all of my stuff, and I know he doesn't like homosexuality and so I don't want all of my stuff getting stuck at his place. So I will wait until all of my stuff are at mine and then tell him, or maybe just never tell him. He isn't very worth it anyway.
So that is what is waiting for me in LA and I hope it all goes good. I have backups just in case something happens, but still nervous.
That is all for today, I will update some tomorrow (hopefully).
Nervously,
-Aram the Garmo
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Sorry
Sorry for not posting in FOREVER ... again! I was doing a lot of random stuff and visiting places such as Alton towers and Manchester. I will be putting up some posts in the coming days. I will hopefully have enough to cover my time while in London. If not then I may miss out on more posts. Sorry.
Sadly,
-Aram the Garmo
Sadly,
-Aram the Garmo
Monday, June 2, 2008
Dunkin Donuts vs. Terrorists?
So I was looking through Google reader and noticed this article which made me disappointed in Dunkin Donuts. I found this story [here] and was put on by CNN.
Story Summary:
So basically this whole thing starts off with Dunkin Donuts creating an advertising campaign in order to sell their new drink, an iced coffee. The online ad had Rachel Ray, from 30-minute meals on the food channel, posing with the iced coffee and a fringed black and white scarf. [The picture is provided on the left. I took it from CNN, which apparently copied it from AP. So please don't sue!] Apparently Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin took the scarf to represent a kaffiyeh which is more commonly worn by Arabs. In his syndicated column, Malkin wrote "The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad." At this point Dunkin Donuts decided to pull the advertising campaign because it did not want to look like it was supporting terrorism. Dunkin donuts even said that "absolutely no symbolism was intended." It had merely been a costuming choice.
This makes me not want to eat at Dunkin Donuts anymore even though it was one of my favorite doughnut shops. How can you pull an ad just because one person thinks that a scarf represents terrorism? Let us remember that symbols change and are also used by many people for different purposes. There are tons of people out there who wear this traditional headscarf and don't go around killing people. There are some who wear the headscarf and aren't terrorists. How can you combine a whole group of people and call them terrorists just because they wear a certain type of scarf? What ever happened to the lesson, "don't judge a book by its cover?" We can also see how symbols can have very different meanings. Looking at the swastika, it had been used for years as a symbol for peace, and didn't have such an anti-Semitic ideology behind it until the Nazis incorporated it into their flag. A symbol can have multiple meanings. This is why it pisses me off that Dunkin Donuts pulled the ad. There was nothing wrong with it, and in fact I thought the scarf looked good on Rachel Ray.
All opinions are welcome.
Ideologically yours,
-Aram the Garmo
Story Summary:
So basically this whole thing starts off with Dunkin Donuts creating an advertising campaign in order to sell their new drink, an iced coffee. The online ad had Rachel Ray, from 30-minute meals on the food channel, posing with the iced coffee and a fringed black and white scarf. [The picture is provided on the left. I took it from CNN, which apparently copied it from AP. So please don't sue!] Apparently Conservative commentator Michelle Malkin took the scarf to represent a kaffiyeh which is more commonly worn by Arabs. In his syndicated column, Malkin wrote "The kaffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad." At this point Dunkin Donuts decided to pull the advertising campaign because it did not want to look like it was supporting terrorism. Dunkin donuts even said that "absolutely no symbolism was intended." It had merely been a costuming choice.
This makes me not want to eat at Dunkin Donuts anymore even though it was one of my favorite doughnut shops. How can you pull an ad just because one person thinks that a scarf represents terrorism? Let us remember that symbols change and are also used by many people for different purposes. There are tons of people out there who wear this traditional headscarf and don't go around killing people. There are some who wear the headscarf and aren't terrorists. How can you combine a whole group of people and call them terrorists just because they wear a certain type of scarf? What ever happened to the lesson, "don't judge a book by its cover?" We can also see how symbols can have very different meanings. Looking at the swastika, it had been used for years as a symbol for peace, and didn't have such an anti-Semitic ideology behind it until the Nazis incorporated it into their flag. A symbol can have multiple meanings. This is why it pisses me off that Dunkin Donuts pulled the ad. There was nothing wrong with it, and in fact I thought the scarf looked good on Rachel Ray.
All opinions are welcome.
Ideologically yours,
-Aram the Garmo
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Eurovision
So the Eurovision song contest happened a few days ago on 24 May. The entire show was fantastical and I think most of the countries did extremely well. A lot of people here in the UK believe that other countries mostly vote politically. But they use politically in the sense that the countries are neighbors to each other. Now I think this is partially true, but I don't think it has anything to do with politics. I think its because if you watch a performance and you see 2 really good performances and you have to choose which one you liked better, it is easier to choose the performance that comes from your neighbor or friend. And so I think it's mainly due to the fact that so many of the singers were amazing that it becomes really difficult to choose who you liked the best.
One sad thing that I noticed this year was the way in which Russia won. I do agree that Russia was really good, but I really think they won completely due to votingof neighbors rather than actual talent. The results ended up being:
Now I feel the actual order should have been:
Now why I think this is actually the fun part. I am basing this off of the semifinals which were designed to lower the number of people voting for their neighbors and so 'politics' would not play into it. I'll show some fun statistics from the top 4 countries in order to prove my point:
So as you can see, Russia got very unheavily biased during the finals. Also, Armenia lost many points due to the fact that many countries did not even vote for them. This is because Armenia is a small country that very many people have not heard of. I think this is what caused Armenia to lose in the end. They had the most number 1 votes in both the semi-final and in the final. They also were a very formidable opponent to everyone else even with getting at least 8 less votes than the rest of the top 4. (In comparison, Norway (who got 5th) had 7 more votes than Armenia!). So as you can see being a small country hurt Armenia greatly. Russia on the other hand, being a well-known superpower took that advantage and greatly boosted its chance of winning to the point of getting votes and also stealing almost all of Ukraine's number 1 votes and pushing Ukraine to second due to it. Greece got the most votes though and due to it did fairly well even if the Eastern bloc was against them.
In the end this shows that the eastern bloc is destined to win almost every Eurovision from here on out, but only the big countries that most people have heard of. Another key point is that non-eastern bloc countries will only get top 10 if they receive over 30 votes. So as it stands prediction of winners is very easy. My prediction for next year is that Ukraine wins. They are a well-known country with good singers, and also part of the Eastern Bloc.
Due to this weird system of voting, I have decided to not look at Eurovision as a song contest anymore. Instead I view it more as a concert of gay people. It a location where tons of gays hang out and watch as the campest singer from each country gets on stage and sings their heart out in as camp of a fashion as possible. So I personally can't wait for next year's Eurovision to see how camp it gets, and also to see the competition to Armenia. (I believe Armenia should have one this year but whatever :-p, that's just my Armenian bias).
So I will leave you with Armenia's performance at Eurovision.
Decidedly yours,
-Aram the Garmo
PS. I really wish I could have been one of those dancers! They are so dancing my style of dance, and I can do almost all of the moves except for 2 of them! I am so signing up to be a Eurovision dancer in a year or two!
One sad thing that I noticed this year was the way in which Russia won. I do agree that Russia was really good, but I really think they won completely due to votingof neighbors rather than actual talent. The results ended up being:
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Greece
- Armenia
- Norway
Now I feel the actual order should have been:
- Ukraine
- Armenia
- Greece
- Russia
- Portugal
Now why I think this is actually the fun part. I am basing this off of the semifinals which were designed to lower the number of people voting for their neighbors and so 'politics' would not play into it. I'll show some fun statistics from the top 4 countries in order to prove my point:
Russia:
| Ukraine:
| Greece:
| Armenia:
|
So as you can see, Russia got very unheavily biased during the finals. Also, Armenia lost many points due to the fact that many countries did not even vote for them. This is because Armenia is a small country that very many people have not heard of. I think this is what caused Armenia to lose in the end. They had the most number 1 votes in both the semi-final and in the final. They also were a very formidable opponent to everyone else even with getting at least 8 less votes than the rest of the top 4. (In comparison, Norway (who got 5th) had 7 more votes than Armenia!). So as you can see being a small country hurt Armenia greatly. Russia on the other hand, being a well-known superpower took that advantage and greatly boosted its chance of winning to the point of getting votes and also stealing almost all of Ukraine's number 1 votes and pushing Ukraine to second due to it. Greece got the most votes though and due to it did fairly well even if the Eastern bloc was against them.
In the end this shows that the eastern bloc is destined to win almost every Eurovision from here on out, but only the big countries that most people have heard of. Another key point is that non-eastern bloc countries will only get top 10 if they receive over 30 votes. So as it stands prediction of winners is very easy. My prediction for next year is that Ukraine wins. They are a well-known country with good singers, and also part of the Eastern Bloc.
Due to this weird system of voting, I have decided to not look at Eurovision as a song contest anymore. Instead I view it more as a concert of gay people. It a location where tons of gays hang out and watch as the campest singer from each country gets on stage and sings their heart out in as camp of a fashion as possible. So I personally can't wait for next year's Eurovision to see how camp it gets, and also to see the competition to Armenia. (I believe Armenia should have one this year but whatever :-p, that's just my Armenian bias).
So I will leave you with Armenia's performance at Eurovision.
Decidedly yours,
-Aram the Garmo
PS. I really wish I could have been one of those dancers! They are so dancing my style of dance, and I can do almost all of the moves except for 2 of them! I am so signing up to be a Eurovision dancer in a year or two!
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