SanVal

Are you sure this was some stupid conflict? A lot of times homicides appear to happen for no reason, but then it all starts to make sense if the guy was in a gang or engaged in some illicit trade. In the Hollywood Hills case, the guy was in an area outside of home, at night on a Monday, and was unemployed. This could very well be drug- or gang-related. My parents know this Armenian family that has a son in his early or mid-20s who got shot less than a year ago. If you ask him, he says he was shot by guys he didn't know because he made a comment to a group of black guys to the effect that they shouldn't be driving around with a white girl. That's the story he and his friends will stick to, and it seems like nonsense if you believe it, but those of us who've heard rumors about this guy suspect that the shooting occurred because he was selling drugs in an area claimed by another gang or something similar.

Sometimes they're right, sometimes they aren't. The biggest mistake they made in 2006 was putting "Babel" in their top ten lists. That movie didn't strike a chord with me; I found it tedious and not very touching, with the exception of the story about the Japanese girl (i.e. only 1/3 of the movie).

"Black Snake Moan" is worth seeing, if you like independent films but are tired of their cliches (e.g. people snorting cocaine). The plot wasn't all that interesting, but the setting is unusual--pretty backward for this day and age--and it has a bluesy, southern flavor to it. I usually don't like weird artsy movies, but this one was different. All three of the main actors are good.

To some extent, that's correct, but there's another thing that people ignore when they compare the "old world" and the "new world." In Armenia, the reason why people live with their parents before marriage is not only because the philosophy there is different, but also because the material circumstances are completely different. There was a big housing shortage there in the Soviet times, and right now it's very hard for a 20 something to manage to live on their own. They also rely on their parents to help rear the grandkids. As for the argument that girls or young women should live with either their parents or their husband, but never by themselves, it's very naive to think that just because a girl lives with those that dominate over her, she's never going to do anything stupid. In LA, there are tons of teenage girls who live with their parents and end up pregnant while still in school.

Thanks

This reminds me, I have been looking for a good laser hair removal place in the area. I've heard good and bad stories--some say it's a waste of money (and the hair comes back the way it was before), and others say it's definitely worth the price. It would be nice if it's a place that has experience with coarse Mediterranean hair with strong roots and is clean. Any suggestions?

I don't think that her mother would be happier by herself. The truth is that grandparents like to have their grandchildren very close to them (if the daughter plans on having children), and after retirement, the "freedom" older people feel when they live by themselves can be torturous. My mom's mother is almost 80 and lives by herself (in large part because my dad hates her and claims he'll move out if she moves in with my parents), and she's lived by herself for the past 12-13 years. My mom and I agree that the lack of mental stimulation that results from living by yourself at such an age, with nothing to do but watch tv and do mindless things, has contributed to my grandmother's severe case of dimensia. If people wanted freedom, their own identity (or whatever you want to call it), why would they have a family and kids in the first place? This isn't to say that these so-called kids shouldn't move out, but in doing so they should acknowledge their selfishness. I live in a different city from my parents, but I realize that when I decided to move, I put my interests ahead of my parents' interests. Adopting a this-is-better-for-all-of-us philosophy is just a way to assuage people's guilt.

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One of my favorite things about cell phones is the alarm clock. If the power goes off at night and the batteries have been charged when it happens, a cell phone really can be a lifesaver. Being sort of paranoid about this, I use three alarm clocks, and consider the cell phone one my backup.

Yes, that's true. It's also telling that the only democratically elected leader of the country since it gained independence was a man who considered himself a Turk.

The purpose wasn't to get rid of the people who weren't Osmans. They didn't do anything to the Russians and the Jews, some of whom continue to live there. It appears that the Russian churches and cemetaries still stand there today. What happened during the pogroms in the republic was that they went door to door, after having obtained lists of residents with Armenian surnames (which, given the fact that there was nothing like white pages there at the time, must have been done through government offices). So, they were targeting Armenians, not non-Turks.

Exactly. It's very important to have enough time to spend with the kids. Not only that, but it's important to have enough money when you have kids. I wouldn't even think of having kids before I could afford to make a very comfortable living while working 40 hrs/week, and would have no problem buying a house in a nice neighborhood not too far from the private school where my kids will be going, learning to speak at least four languages fluently and making good grades without experimenting with all kinds of crap. Besides, when you're older and have accomplished a lot, what you say to your kids is more justified, since you can say, "look, those are the tenets by which I lived, and look at me...you have to do the same if you want to live this way." My family has family friends who don't care that they're raising their kids on welfare or section 8. Ironically, these are not the type of Armenians who get criticized.

Procrastination probably has more to do with having a high level of confidence than being a perfectionist. The perfectionism-procrastination connection doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Everybody knows that the product is better if you spend a sufficient amount of time on the project. I was also a procrastinator when I did my undergraduate studies, but that wasn't because I was lazy. It was just that the caliber of the work I had to turn in didn't have to be very high, and that made me confident that I could do well when it came to crunch time. It's like that across the country...I've met people from Ivy League schools who say that there, too, schoolwork wasn't all that stressful. When and if you ever start to question your abilities, the motivation to work harder will kick in. If you overdo it, however, it might backfire because you might put the grades/scores above actually delving into the material and really understanding and mastering it.

I've never heard of anything done to matnakash. They usually use lavash for things like that, and I think it tastes better with butter.

Oh, they've had these for a long time. Have you heard of Richard Ramirez (the serial killer) and the way he met his wife?

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Taner Akcam is a professor at the University of Minnesota where I went to graduate school, and I made the mistake of not attending a single lecture given by him; big mistake, because he's kind of put the university on the map in academic circles. They have a Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the university (http://www.chgs.umn.edu/) and I always saw info regarding the Armenian Genocide in their newsletters. That was quite surprising, considering that the state has a tiny Armenian community. I think Professor Akcam has a lot to do with that.

Which is why I don't understand why AGBU (or other international organizations) still doesn't have a strong presence there. A few years ago they even had it in Ethiopia, where all Armenians have either left or assimilated.

You can say that about any holiday (e.g. why give gifts on birthdays). Why does eveything need to have a deep meaning. It's ok to to stupid, superficial things--such us give others balloons--if it entertains you. Life is about the little things.

It would be hard to separate Armenians into these two categories: western and eastern. Most of us have mixed ancestry by now.

Aren't you only 15? You have plenty of V-days ahead. I did see a bunch of high-schoolers going to school with red heart-shaped balloons today, though...cute.

It shouldn't be too hard to determine if they're of the same sex. The smaller one probably had a wider pelvis; that's probably how they decided it's a female.

A lot of these things are true, but the part about not being able to change the width of your hips or the size of your calves isn't.

So why don't you move here?

This doesn't look like a hate crime. Sounds like some mafia thing.