GQ Arthur

So I kind of got tired of looking at Mr. Chaparyan's boring blog. (sorry but I did) N E WHO... I'm really annoyed right now bc someone made me mad... Arthur you know the story. movin on.. Hi everyone, my name is Dory and I don't think ive ever eaten a fish... hehe... The name is Talin and I'm Arthurs number one FAN! Yes I keep him cool... So lets talk about Arthur... Mr. GQ. I'm calling him Mr. GQ but if u look at him, doesnt he look like he just came out of the pages of GQ??? Hes also a wonderful guy. His lovely lady is... well... one luck lady =) I don't really know what else to say because im still very much upset at this whole situation thingy shmigy... I wanted to say SO MUCH MORE... but thats not going to happen tonight... If I'm lucky, he'll let me post again... peace.

From Anahid

LOOK WHAT I DO FROM MY BROTHER!!! - Art I must luv ya!

Be good to the Arthur - he'll own you one day. =)

New Number

I finally decided to post what my new phone number is. I will no longer have my old 974 number. If people who I don't like call, I will just tell them what I think of them. Not a bad idea, huh? The new number is

818-644-5674

Some Business News

I just wanted to post a few recent developments in the business world. First and foremost, Proctor & Gamble is buying Gillette in a $57 billion deal. What a perfect merger! Inflation is going up, economic growth is sluggish but moving forward, and Microsoft earnings were better than expected. Condoleezza Rice is now Secretary of State, so we are all screwed.

I had other things to say but I got sidetracked. Anyways, here's a hot guy I saw in the office:

Guest Bloggers!

Since I don't have much time to write entries anymore (and since everyone and their mother has been bitching at me for not updating) I am inviting a select few individuals to be guest bloggers. Let's see how that plays out. If you would like to be a guest blogger, IM me.

Great Insight On Israel

I found this great article by Philip Greenspun (great guy, met him a few years ago) on Israel and the multiple controversies surrounding that region. The article focuses on answering these questions:

• Why does the United States support the State of Israel?
• Why do Arabs reject the State of Israel? (sub-question: "Are Arab Leaders Crazy?")
• Why do Muslims hate Jews?
• Why do Muslims hate the United States?
• Why are the governments of the Middle East so unstable?
• Why are the Palestinians so violent?
• How have the Israelis survived for so long?
• Is there really a crisis?
• What can we, as average American citizens, do?

You're Gonna Take HOW Much?

1 pint. It was fun. Everyone should donate blood. No, really. I plan on doing it once a year.

Next order of business: My T-Mobile. Yes, yes: The switch is done. The phone has been ordered (The HP iPAQ h6315), the earpiece has been ordered (The Bluetrek G2 Bluetooth Wireless Headset), and the phone plan has been upgrade.

Now I just have to be able to memorize my new number. 644 something. My 974 number, the Nextel, will soon be obsolete. Bye.

AFF Jump #5

Sunday January 16, 2005. Jump #6, AFF Jump #5.

8am Sevan and I head out to Lake Elsinore. We get there at 9am. Sevan is his usual Sevany self. Anyways, since he's doing a tandem, he goes before I do. I wait for the next load. Check my gear, check the straps, check the lines. Everything good. Up we go. Higher. Higher. 12,500 feet. Hang outside the plane, count to 3, let go. Arch like hell! (I'm sure Sevan won't forget that line). This jump's goal was to do 90 degree turns in opposite directions. Didn't really go as planned. I did my first turn to the right. Perfect. I did my second turn to the left. Overshot it by 20 degrees, but I stopped. Next right turn was overshot by 360 degrees! Oops. Next left turn was barely 60 degrees. I was having trouble maintaining balance. By then, I was at 5,000 feet and had to pull my parachute. Landing was PERFECT! Never had a better landing. I landed on my feet without moving.

Reason for my turn issues? I had to keep my head up, I had to turn only my chest, not my whole body, and my right leg is stronger than my left (so that when I'm pushing against the wind, I tend to start turning to the right).

I still passed to level 6 (which are 360 degrees, which I already did accidently). Level 7 is going to be hard with the barrel rolls and flips. Can't wait!!

Irene Cara - Fame

I'm gonna live forever
I'm gonna learn how to fly
I feel it coming together
People will see me and cry

I'm gonna make it to heaven
Light up the sky like a flame
I'm gonna live forever
Baby remember my name


Get it, legally or otherwise. It's a cute 80's song. A handful of my friends have said these kinds of statements (most notably Sevan). Let's see who reaches those goals. Note that I did not say who gets to the goals FIRST. It isn't a race. Otherwise I'd be selling blow instead.

Comments

Post comments for my previous entry here. For reasons I am not at liberty to discuss, comments on my previous entry were disabled.

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

After letting my last entry linger for 4 days as responses were submitted, I decided it's time to end it. Sadly, it turned more into a fight than a discussion. I'm not happy about that at all. As for the answers, none were what I was looking for. I would highly recommend everyone get a copy of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and read it twice. The question I had posted was derived from the book. The answer I was looking forward to was more related to what to do with the money you earn rather than how to earn that money.

You see, the poor, middle class, and rich have very different cash flow patterns. Here is a simplified diagram:

The Poor:
Income -> Expenses

The Middle Class:
Income -> Liabilities, Expenses

The Rich:
Income -> Income-Generating Assets -> Liabilities, Expenses

Let me explain: The poor take the money they earn and pay off expenses such as rent and bills. The middle class spend their income on liabilities, such as a mortgage, car payment, credit card debt, and on expenses such as bills. The rich, however, take on a different approach. They put the money they earn from their job into income-generating assets, such as apartments, real estate, and stocks. They then use the income that these assets generate to pay their liabilities and expenses. Pretty soon, their income-generating assets pay the bills without them having to generate an income through a job. Hence, they can retire and still receive income from their assets. The assets start growing in size and soon generate more than their jobs do.

This is why the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, and the middle class get deeper in debt.



respect.

The $100 Question

$100 cash (or check, if you prefer) to the person who gives an outstanding answer to the following question:

How do you plan on becoming financially sound and accumulating wealth for you and your family?

The most thought out and detailed answer wins. If no one gives a good answer, no one wins.

Books Books Books

My packages arrived today (all of them at the same time, surprisingly).

From Amazon:

• Successful Large Account Management
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
• Book of Five Rings : The Classic Guide to Strategy

From Barnes & Nobles:

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad (Audiobook)
  
• On Intelligence

So far, I've listened to about an hour of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and it's an amazing book. I'm also reading Successful Large Account Management, which seems to be pretty good so far. I shall post a summary of each as I finish.

Never Give Up

go over,
go under,
go around,
or go through...
but never give up





update: new picture better reflects the topic

Random Web Cams

I would like to be one of the first to mention the beginning of a new internet fad. There are thousands of webcams on the internet, many of them without a password. Google has a nice way of searching these:

Google Search

I'm on page 56 or so. Very addictive. If the page doesn't refresh, refreshing it once should start the process. I'm using Firefox to view them, I'm not sure if it works as well on Internet Explorer.

Have fun. Comment on which webcams you like most.

This Is A Test Of The Emergency Broadcasting System

This is ONLY a test.

What Do We Do Online?

Stanford Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society found 57% of Internet use is devoted to communications (e-mail, instant messaging and chat rooms) and 43% for other activities (Web browsing, shopping and game playing). 8.7% of the Internet time is spent playing online games. 75% of the population in the United States now has access to the Internet either at home or work. As far as online communication, most of the time (37.6%) is spent on colleagues and clients, 30.4% is spent on friends, 16.3% is spent on communicating with the family members, 4.7% in online communities, and 10.9% of the time is spent communicating with others.

There you have it. Of course, most of the people I know share a different statistic:
80% spent chatting on AIM.
10% spent watching porn online.
5% spent playing games on random sites
3% checking out random websites / blogs.
2% doing something useful, like research.

Mine would look like this:
30% research related to programming, real estate, propane, or how things work
20% chatting on AIM
20% reading the news from numerous blogs / news sites.
20% writing blog entries no one is really going to read.
10% finding photos to post with my entries.

Probably a bit biased, but oh well. And here is the picture that took 10 minutes to match:

Movie Review: Phantom of the Opera

Phantom of the Opera (2004)

This move is a horrible remake of the original. Araks and I left about halfway through it because it was so bad. First of all, the acting is horrible. Everything they say comes across as a joke. It just can't be taken seriously. Second, the singing isn't great either. The words are forced into rhyme and passages come off as jagged and incomplete. Butler (who plays as the Phantom) can't hit some of the high notes. I can't say what I thought of their rendition of the storyline since I was not able to bring myself to sitting through the torture. My recommendation: save your money, watch something else.

Rating: D

Gift Certificates

I was never one to be too fond of gift certificates, since I rarely received them. When I did receive them, I wasn't too happy about the fact that I had to make the trip to whatever store the wonderful gift giver decided was optimal for me and find something for myself. However, with the wonderful progress of online stores, I am now very pleased with said items. I recently received gift cards for Nordstrom, Borders, and Barnes & Noble. Since borders.com works off of amazon.com, I was able to buy a few items from my Wish List immediately. Perfect! bn.com wasn't as fun since Barnes & Noble charges a lot more than amazon.com, but I was still able to find a couple of audiobooks I wanted. Nordstrom.com wasn't cheap, but I did manage to order 3 things with my gift card. All in all, it cost me $20 out of my pocket (since my totals always were more than the gift cards) to order 8 items. Not bad huh? The great thing is that I was forced to buy them. I have a hard time purchasing tangible items. I can spend $120 on dinner that I won't eat without flinching, but will debate with myself for hours over buying a $10 item. I value entertainment way more than assets (not a good habit) so it takes gift certificates for me to actually buy something I keep.

Oh, and it is 2005. Nice! This year is going to be full of change. I feel that we will go through a couple of very tragic events, but it will only make us stronger. Live life, love life.