About dreams, reminders, in short - dreaminder!

Dreaminder is a free tool that helps people remember what we want from our lives. Reflect on your life, your dreams, your vision for yourself and write it into the box on the website. Then set the date when you want to be reminded.

Here's how Dreaminder helps you remember your dream:

1. Write down what you want out of your life
2. Send it to yourself in the future
3. Start working towards your dream

On the day in the future when you receive your dream, you can see how far you've come. You can congratulate yourself, or revive your dream and continue on the path that is right for you.

www.dreaminder.com

I did so exactly one year ago, and today in the morning I received what I wrote then. It was a strange feeling :)

I've written some goals I'd like to reach in a year and now I'll copy them here almost the way i received... just a bit translated from my language.

• I have traveled a lot, I have lived sometime abroad!
• I developed many soft skills.. I'm much more fluent and confident in Italian and English...
• I have a high self-esteem !
• I have many opportunities....
• I am needed.
• I have a person whom i trust my life..
• I have a clear picture of my future...

I found out that i've completed most of the goals by the first quarter of the year...
So in general I've completed about 89% (raw calculation :D) of my goals ;) which is COOL!

This time, together with my friend Tata, we decided to write down our goals and dreams for 1 year and read them together meeting in our favorite cafe :)

See you on this page in a year ;)))

About discrimination, blonde or not girls in IT, and other gender issues

I've never been a feminist. Never even thought about taking any of men's traditional functions upon myself :)) Nevertheless, I've always dreamt of becoming a strong woman and have been always trying to strive for excellence - be smart, manage both career and family, bring a positive change into the society.
One of the most annoying things since my teenage years was when my guy-mates were telling me "you're a girl, you cannot do that", "there are no any outstanding women in IT industry", "Women are made for raising children and not for career", "woman's brain is blablabla", "women programmers are a myth" and stuff like that. Being well determined and serious about getting into the IT, and specifically, the programming sphere, it was irritating me much and I was always disputing with them. I was trying to convince that they are mistaken, and I was really getting offended. Now I understand how silly it was then... and how thankful I am to that guys :)
They actually made me to become one, they were convincing me that i couldn't, and made me prove them wrong. ...and i now think, maybe I had a motivation to do it to spite them :)
I wouldn't be the way I am now *, if it wasn't them and if i didn't have other people believe in me. These people weren't trying to convince me anything, they just believed and didn't put obstacles in my way, they they simply knew I could. and I knew it too :)

* I never mean that I'm a super professional now, but I've had certain achievements :) Probably my most valuable achievement is that now I'm sufficiently confident in myself - own skills and strength. I consider it to be very important :) And concerning my profession in IT sphere, I dare to claim, I've exceeded my own expectations.
A bit into my experience: I've worked in a web development field and was doing well in PHP & MySQL programming, but code-writing annoyed me in a while and my further deepening in programming was pointless, so i quickly started exploring new fields e.g. management, e-marketing, social media, SEO, etc... and now i hold a managerial position in my company, leading a team of programmers and designers (some guys didn't have anything else to do, but to express an opinion that i wasn't just competitive as a developer, which is, of course, not true :)
And by the way, i'm self-taught (never took any IT or programming classes, except the ones in the university, that had nothing to do with web development).


Of course I still sometimes face discrimination towards myself and encounter injustice just because of my gender, but I try to enjoy the challenge and I just become stronger ;)
I encounter it at work (where some of my colleagues weren't taking me enough seriously at first) or when my salary didn't increase by the same amount as my male colleague's, that was hired at the same time as me and did the same job. I encounter it in personal life too - some guys have confessed that they'd prefer less smart girls, so that they'd feel themselves superior. (no comments)

Here's when one of my favorite self-created quotes was born:

"Trust me, sometimes I'd also prefer to be one of those stupid and careless blondes..."

Well, you know, i also laugh at blonde jokes... and i have had times when i was feeling myself blonde (when it was taking me long to get into some simple things), but I explode, when people treat me like a blonde, being confused by my non-geek look, especially at work :) (our IT admin had hard times recently... :-D)

I started writing this post after reading Amata Alieva's posting in the Forgotten Diaries blog where she was describing the discrimination she faced in her country.

So the points of my post are: you shouldn't treat anybody by stereotypes (be it a girl in IT or "Legally Blonde"); changing mind in doing something just because somebody said you can't - is stupid; obstacles and challenges just add you a good experience and make you stronger and wiser.

Misheard lyrics (Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós, Disturbia by Rihanna, Believe by Bilan)

Recently I discovered a new sort of fun in YouTube - called misheard lyrics :)

it's the lyrics of a song (usually in other language than English) 'heard' in a funny way and sometimes with a graphic presentation :)

i laughed a lot at Hoppípolla (Sigur Rós) Icelandic song's English interpretation:


another version:



Misheard lyrics of Disturbia by Rihanna:



and this one is for those who know Russian, it's EXTREMELY funny :D

"Что на самом деле пел Билан на Евровидении"


upd: a bonus from Dragostea din tei (O-Zone)

Armenian chess players won Gold at the Chess Olympiad 2008!

We won! Moreover, we defended our chempion status ! (Armenia won Gold the previous Chess Olympiad 2006 in Torino too).

photo from armenianow.com

Here's our team:

• Levon Aronyan
• Vladimir Hakobyan
• Gabriel Sargissian
• Tigran L. Petrosyan (who was my classmate for some short period)
• Artashes Minasian

During the final round, Armenia's only win came on board four where Tigran L. Petrosyan beat Chinese Li Chao.
Thank you Tigran and others!

And here's a nice photo report from the finals.

photo from the Chess Olympiad in Dresden official website

...and if you watch statistics of winners by each year in the wikipedia, you'll notice that USSR and post-soviet countries were almost in no competition for the recent decades.

For the second consecutive Olympiad, top-seed Russia failed to take a medal. From 1952 to 2004, they (and their predecessor the Soviet Union) never finished below second place.  (Guardian)

Armenian Wedding - traditions, customs on a real example :) (part 1)

For the recent months, the main topic of my family's gatherings' discussions was my cousin's long anticipated wedding :)

On this wedding's example, I'll tell you how do we usually celebrate marriages in Armenia.

In Armenia, a wedding ceremony is one of the happiest and traditional occasions for family gatherings, when relatives from all over the country and world come together and celebrate this important day with you :) Sometimes these relatives are just so far that when they come, and finally recognize you, they say that "I remember you when you were thiiiis young, and now you're getting married!" (pointing some very short height :D and with an excited expression - *almost crying*).

The recent years less and less customs are being kept and followed especially in Yerevan, and couples prefer to organize a small and modest wedding only for the closest ones and go to a honeymoon somewhere.. (this year the Egypt was the most popular destination for this). But if the couple can afford, they do both !
My cousin's husband's family decided to have a big wedding for 350 persons !

Preparations
Arranging the hall, scheduling a day and time in a church,... and numerous other things that keep the marrying couple in stress until the day "X".

Speaking on the bride's family's side, the eve before the wedding day is a mess! decorating the table - canapes, candies, fruits; decorations of the house/apartment, including the stairs and the entrance. This time all of these were made with the help of the cousins and other close relatives.

the decorated table at the bride's

Morning - the female part of the guest list is running to and from the hairdressers', then the make-up and getting dressed.
In the afternoon, the close relatives gather at the bride's apartment, waiting for the groom and his family to arrive. The groom arrives with "tashi-tushi" - which is provided by a musical band a.k.a. "dasta" (Armenian live music with "dhol", clarinet, accordion).

a typical "dasta" on a wedding

The female part of the groom's relatives is dancing right in the yard, holding so called "sini" - decorated baskets with 1) fruits and cognac, 2) usually the bride's dress, shoes, bridal vail (in our case it was just the vail and shoes), 3) candies and sweets.

bride's female part looking out of the window when the groom arrives

The bride's female part is going out of the house hearing the music, having "gatas" and small presents in their hands ("Gata" is an Armenian pastry thing). They are joining the women dancing there with sinis and exchanging their presents to sinis. Gatas go to the women who dance (i got to know about it only that same day, when they handed me the gatas and sent downstairs with instructions :D) and presents to the ones with sinis.

me and my cousin with gatas and presents

Then they go upstairs altogether, females go to the bride's room and dress her up (in our case, she was dressed by the time they arrived).

An interesting tradition: when they go upstairs altogether, one of the kids from the bride's side has to "steal" a shoe out of the "sini" and give it to the grandmother in exchange of some money from her.

Then the godmother asks a young boy (preferably out of bride's siblings or cousins) to come and put on the shoes on the bride.

Then they take the veil and spin it above the bride's head for three times.

the veil tradition

Then they put it on and the women around say altogether "Shnorhavor lini" (Congratulations) on each of the action. Then the godmother takes out of the sini a perfume, opens it and splashes a bit around (not to mix it with the bride's fragrance which she already had put on herself).

Then it comes a time for the garter and a bride's brother again is called up :)

Then the godmother takes some candies from the sini and splashes on the women around (today's candies are heavy! and it's like a hail!).

Girls take the candies and keep it until the night to put it under the pillow and see their future husband in their dream :)  /this thing never worked for me ;(/

After this small ceremony the groom who was meanwhile waiting for the bride to get ready...

... and drinking couple of "kenats" (cheers) with the men in the other room, comes and sees the bride lifting the veil.

And so they are ready :))))

my beauty cousin

Then the couple drinks couple of cheers...

The bridesmaid (my sister), the bride, groom, the "best man" called "azab" or "azabashi"

...and goes downstairs again with the "dasta" playing the music.

Another interesting tradition: A young boy (brother or cousin) is standing in front of the door, closing the door with a sword. The godfather has to give him some money in order to be able to take the bride from the house!

By an old Armenian tradition, the bride's mother is not participating in any celebration. Instead, she is passing the dowry to the groom, going with her daughter to the door, kissing her goodbye and staying at home crying. What does she have to celebrate when they are taking her daughter away! nowadays this custom is not used, luckily :))

Some women dance again in the yard :))) (some have an excuse not to dance but to take pictures! :D)

Now it's very common to rent limousines for the weddings... some limousines just can get in/out of the yard because of their length :D luckily in this wedding we had a short one )))

So all the people are getting into the cars and following the wedding limousine in a long motorcade. Cars are decorated with ribbons so that they recognize each other and not lose the chain. Some cars even put some sings on the number plates like "Братва жениха" (groom's mates), but it's like showing off :)

During the soviet times it was common to decorate the car of newlyweds with a doll :) now it's maybe preserved in regions but not in Yerevan.

It was also common to go around the circle of the Republic Square in Yerevan for several times with loud signal alarms, getting everybody's attention. Now it's considered old-fashioned :)


To be continued...

Coffee & cigarettes... in the office

I've made an interesting observation about offices... more specifically - about how people socialize on workplaces...
I realized that people who smoke often or at least drink coffee (for example a morning one), socialize more and get to know more people from the office, in the same way, people know more about them.

They are more successful and productive. Though i cannot prove it with any research, but i think it's not needed )

I know better the people whom i chat with in the corridors or staircase, while they smoke or drink coffee, meanwhile I know almost nothing about ones that never spend time in corridors.

In my company there are about 80 employees and in the morning, right when we arrive at work (around 10.00-10.30), the morning coffee trapeze starts :) it's always almost the same company, same people.. we share our personal and work updates, we discuss what's going on in the office etc... it's always very informative and nice (our company has its souls of fun :))).. this way we know more what every department is working on, since there's not so much interaction between our departments.
Sometimes people who didn't smoke or drink coffee, were starting to take some drinks and were joining us, so we were knowing them better also and even changing our opinions about them.

I'm not a smoker (in fact, I'm an active anti-smoking campaigner), but luckily i drink coffee :D Even if i didn't drink coffee, I'd think about smth else to drink, since i wouldn't miss the chance to get to know my co-workers).

Often it's also useful, like when you urgently need a cellphone recharger, or if smb has giveaway tickets to some events... there's always a lot of things to share :)

Sometimes we notice our CEO's not-so-approving looks, and wonder why wouldn't directors and managers approve their employees' socializing. Well, maybe they think that we lose a lot of time on 'useless' chats, but I'm ready to prove, if needed, that this way we are more productive. We work better with colleagues whom we know even a bit out-of-work.

If I was a boss (when I become one ;) I would never discourage people to socialize, instead, I would join them during the breaks :) and of course I would organize more "legal" corporate parties.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's coffee break in the office :)

Getting ready for the next trip (beginning the lifehacks series)

Traveling is my greatest passion. I haven't traveled a lot (comparing to how i would like to :D) but still I've been to some places, mostly in Europe.

So far I've visited (chronologically):

• Moscow, Russia (6 y.o.) - don't remember the occasion
  
• Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and some other cities in The Netherlands (9 y.o.) - lived one month in a host family in Berkel & Rodenrijs
  
• Odessa, Ukraine (11 y.o.) - summer vacations with family
  
• Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (19 y.o.) - participation in a film making workshop
  
• Amsterdam, The Netherlands (20 y.o.) - participation in an international film festival "TheOneMinutes Jr."
  
• Venice, Padova, Vicenza, Verona, Treviso, Trieste, Roma and other cities in Italy (21 y.o.) - international student camp in Venice
  
• Istanbul, Turkey (22 y.o.) - participation in AIESEC's annual international congress
  
• Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Den Haag, Groningen and other cities in The Netherlands again (23 y.o.) - internship in Rotterdam (AIESEC international) for 2,5 months
  
• Milan, Genova in Italy (23 y.o.) - an extended weekend while I was on internship in Netherlands
  

I like airports, planes... I feel good in the air :))) Since I'm not rich (neither my family is) I cannot afford frequent trips, though I'm sure when i start earning enough, traveling will be my first priority over buying stuff.. even electronics (I'm very much into hi-tech stuff) or anything else :)

One trip give me so much happiness, experience, adventures and excitement, that i won't exchange it with anything "material".

I haven't been anywhere just for vacation.. everywhere i have been to, i was on some event - workshop, festival, conference, internship, work camp, etc... and on each all of these cases i got full or partial expenses covering.

But the obstacles are not only the ticket costs (which is by the way very expensive for the flights to/from Armenia), but it's also the visa restrictions. It's not so easy to get a Schengen visa or especially a US visa.
That's why i'm dreaming about living in Europe for some while... to be able to travel around :)


My next trip is to the Venice of the North - Saint Petersburg for an international youth Festival of Friendship - Dec. 3-7.

Frankly speaking, Russia wasn't in my travel plans, and especially Moscow is among my least favorites.. but i couldn't miss the opportunity to see Piter. I've heard that it's very much Venice-like (you know, i'm addicted to cities on water, especially with water arteries like Venice and Amsterdam), so i will definitely like it.

The aim of my post wasn't telling about my travel experience but to describe you how I am getting ready for my next long-awaited trip (all my trips are very long awaited, i can never get enough!).

Wiki
So, before leaving for some city, I'm checking it's page on Wikitravel, for example Saint Petersburg. There is all the needed information starting from "How to get there" (planes, trains, buses, boats), contacts and websites of hotels, hostels, eating and dining locations according to the budget, travel tips, main tourist attractions and sights.

Maps, getting there and walking around
Then i'm finding the venue and my places on google maps. In this case (for Russia) Яндекс.Карты is better.
I'm looking the routes to the places, subway maps etc... When in Netherlands i was planning my trip to Milan, and I had to change several means of transport - buses, trains, plane (Rotterdam - Eindhoven - Bergamo - Milan),  i had planned the whole route minute-by-minute, and printed out detailed maps. And that trip really went as excellent as i planned!

Depicting what you saw
Google Earth (Photos geo-tagging and panoramio) is great for seeing the photos of places.. and going to the same views for taking good pictures ;) So sometimes I'm going somewhere knowing which scenes i need to shot.
My personal recommendation - take a tripod!!! It's required if you want to have good night shots.
A table one would also do (I have bought one for 10 EUR and it's for not professional cameras, only for compact ones). It's enough to find any flat space you can put it on, and leave it like that (I'm so much thankful to trash cans in Amsterdam :D). Good also if you're traveling alone and there's nobody to take photos of you, tripod can help you here!

Street View
If I go to one of the major cities in Europe or US, i will definitely check the Google Street View. It's an amazing tool for seeing the cities without actually visiting them in person :) There you can take virtual walks; pan, rotate and zoom, view street level photographs, explore cityscapes, landmarks, points
of interest.

I strolled in Milan and Rome couple of weeks ago, walked in the familiar streets, saw my favorite sights and also stores :) it gives me goosebumps! so many memories awakened...  I'm not going to view other cities now - I will only do that when i have a realistic plan to visit...
If i visit NY street view, for example, i will become very upset about seeing things that I'm not able to visit, and it will be painful :D

See how the street view works:



Tourist information

I'm also looking at tourist information websites... This time I found something very amazing - Virtual tours ! I can download audio guides, put them into my phone (audio player) and listen while walking in the streets there... also on the way - in plane/transport.
So when i get there, the places seem familiar :) i know what to expect, I'm ready for it!

"Моя твоя нэпанимать or yes, I am a table"
I usually also pick a hard-copy travel book and a phrase-book of the language. This time it's not needed since I speak Russian and the trip is short, so there's not enough free time to enjoy the city on my own.

But for Istanbul, i had a nice travel guide which i read on the plane and i have learned the basic phrases in Turkish. If you are walking in the streets, buying something, it's better to say several phrases in their own language, so that the people is being really friendly and helpful.
If the language is difficult I try to learn at least the pronunciation rules, so if I read, for example, from the phrasebook or signs, they will get me :)

It helped me much in Italy. After living in Netherlands for a while (of course i had to learn some common phrases there, but still the Dutch was very unusual for me), in Italy it was like in heaven :) I could understand and get understood! I was asking for a way in Italian, buying things and thanking the seller in Italian, everybody was happy :)

Zucchero live in Armenia ! the concert review

As you know from here and here, I was very excited about attending my first live show of an Italian singer.
The Zucchero's concert was in the framework of Jivan Gasparyan's 80th anniversary celebrations. He performed on Nov. 11 at the Tribute concert and also on 12th within his own "All The Best" tour.

I was watching the Tribute concert live on TV. It was a looong one including appearances of such stars like Alan Parsons with his Live project, Derek Sherinian with Planet X, Peter Gabriel (though he didn't perform anything), Arthur Abraham (IBF champion), Boris Grebenshchikov, Pedro Eustache, Andreas Vollenweider and also Jivan Gasparyan Jr. (grandson of the maestro). The concert finished around 1am and was followed by fireworks which made me hold my dog very tight and not let him to bark since he could awake the whole our building :) and saw Zucchero's performance which was the last one and after midnight. He was great and i realized that the concert next day will be a good one!

Last time I wrote about the Sport & Concert complex and that I attended the ice skating show in the sport hall, this time, the shows were in the concert hall (with 2000 seats).

The tickets weren't cheap, and we bought the cheapest ones (3000 AMD) :D I thought I have checked our seats on the plan of the hall, but it turned that we got the tickets right on the last row of the amphitheater! :D
Հայերեն ասած «վերջն էինք», նաև մեր ջրիկանալով :D

When we arrived at the SCC, it was still early and we were cold, so we decided to have something hot in the newly opened cafe inside. It turned that out of all the hot beverages in the menu, they did have only tea and espresso. I took an espresso (machine made) but my friends, who took the tea weren't very happy to notice that the water isn't hot and not even boiled and the only choice of the tea were Lipton bags :D

The concert had a one hour delay but luckily it was the only unpleasant moment with the concert. The hall was almost full, especially in the amphitheater there wasn't any vacant seat... The audience was tuned to have fun and Zucchero gave us that fun! He performed all the songs i've expected (i even had the printout the lyrics :D). Here's the song list of Zucchero's concert, almost with the same order:

• Occhi, 
• Tutti i colori della mia vita, 
• Bacco Perbacco, 
• Amen, 
• Cuba Libre, 
• Il Volo, 
• Blue, 
• Diamante, 
• Cosi Celeste, 
• Baila, 
• Bell'Amore Mio, 
• Il mare, 
• Everybody's got to learn sometime, 
• Nel Cosi Blu, 
• Diavolo in me, 
• Un Kilo, 
• Dune Musse, 
• Con le mani, 
• Solo una sana, 
• Miserere,  and more... 

 

The sound was excellent, it went in one breath, without pauses or faults and everybody enjoyed it ! Half of the show we were stood up, dancing and shouting. I couldn't imagine so many people will like Zucchero, and dance on his songs :))))
It was amazing and definitely worth!

Here's what i was able to shoot there :) you can guess that my camera's zoom was very poor but luckily i had my smart tripod with me :))

  

  

  

  

 

An important detail :) on this kind of concerts the seats doesn't really matter. You don't see the face of performers anyways (even from parter seats), the sound is almost the same everywhere, so why pay more? :D

Did you know that Alvin and the Chipmunks have an Armenian "father"?

Today, while browsing the October issue of the Yerevan Magazine, i found an interesting article about "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and their father of Armenian origin Ross Bagdasarian. I've seen the movie months ago but that time didn't have any clue that it has such an interesting story behind.

The characters of the singing chipmunks Alvin, Simon and Theodor were created by Ross Bagdasarian, also known as David Seville.

Ross Bagdasarian (Rostom Sipan Bagdasarian) was an American pianist, singer, songwriter, actor and record producer. He was William Saroyan's cousin and together they wrote the "Come On-a My House" song (released in 1951). It was sung by Rosemary Clooney (George Clooney's aunt) and covered by Ella Fitzgerald, Della Reese and others, and by the way it's Della Reese's version that Madonna mimes in "Swept Away". A bit out of the topic, however, i found it interesting to write about the song too:

"The song touches upon traditional Armenian customs of inviting over relatives and friends and providing them with a generously overflowing table of fruits, nuts, seeds, and other foods."

According to his son, Ross Bagdasarian, Jr., they were down to their last $200. Bagdasarian spent $190 on a tape recorder that would allow him to change tape speeds. As David Seville, Bagdasarian had another number-one record with his song, "Witch Doctor," which was also his first experiment with speeding an audio track to get the distinctive, comical, squeaky, high-pitched voices. That success led to him to record "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" with The Chipmunks, for which he won two Grammy Awards in 1959: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children. 

The recent movie "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (2007) was produced by his son - Ross Bagdasarian Jr. who continues father's job  - releasing chipmunks' recordings.

wedding preparations :)

A dress, shoes, accessories (purse, bijoux /earrings, necklace, bracelet/, belt, tights), nail color, hair style, make-up, outerwear, ... and all of this multiplied by 2 -- This is my preparation list for my cousin's wedding.

Nobody wanted it to happen this time of the year, but it happened as it happened :) and we have to wear something warmer during the first part (including the church ceremony) and then change it to something restaurant-friendly :)

I just came from their apartment, where they were getting ready - preparing the table, decorating rooms, the entrance etc :) and i saw my Gohar on her last eve of the unmarried life and at her current home.

The groom and his family will come and pick her up around 1pm and we'll head to the church. After the ceremony, the family goes to the groom's house and then at 5pm it's time for the great celebration in the restaurant :)

I guess this wedding will be according to Armenian traditions and you can expect colorful descriptions with photos from me soon. :)

here's the church "Surb Gayane" in Echmiadzin where the ceremony will take place tomorrow :)



This is the first wedding of such a close person to me and I'm very excited!

*Gone for nails, tomorrow I will be OFFLINE!!! :D

a Monday in November

8 cups of different teas, 2 cups of coffees, some warm water to drink. This is my today's liquid consumption statistics :D 2 days ago I got flu and today was my first day with a free nose but with hard coughing.

My day was successful also because of Sinead's voice today - loud and in a good quality, at my favorite and the most coziest department of our office with the most creative people - our Designers! ...  I just love watching the creative flow there - it's when they draw, brainstorm, joke and fool around :)

If you will be reading this, I must confess my workdays would be too boring without you, guys. I enjoy your company very much :)

So here are they:

(cookies by me :)

Zucchero concert on November 12

Got the tickets !!! we're going to have fun :) 5 girls - mostly italo-holic :)

Researching his website trying to find a possible song-list for the "All the best" tour, i found the following: (i supposed we're in the Eastern Europe region)

01. Wonderful Life
02. I Won’t Let You Down
03. Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman)
04. Baila (Sexy Thing)
05. Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime
06. Nel Così Blu
07. Il Volo
08. Bacco Perbacco
09. Occhi
10. Così Celeste
11. Blue
12. Diavolo In Me
13. Dune Mosse
14. Diamante
15. Va, Pensiero
16. Amen
17. Miserere

*Gone to learn all lyrics by heart by the concert day! :D