Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I don't get it

I don't understand why here in America people put month/day/year for date instead of day/month/year. it just messes with my mind! it's so illogical! it's like russian dolls - day contained in month contained in year. if you don't like that comparison think of databases where for some interesting reason is how it's stored. i wonder why. Also, notice how you put the year at the end? it's because people tend to know what year it is now. also people tend to know what month it is, just are not sure on the exact day. ugh i just rest my case.

well i guess i won't get it as much as i don't understand why america holds on to hmmm what's it's called? their system of measurement? does it have a name even? instead of using such simple metric system. you don't have to memorize anything in metric system everything is a degree of 10. that's it! that simple! and names are intuitive - decimeter - 0.1 of meter, kilometer = 1000 meter etc. what's even funnier is that in American system the smallest measurement is an inch (=2.54cm or 25.4mm) however when you buy cigarettes they ask which ones? 100s? 100s means 100mm long cigarette. how funny that for such a simple thing people use metric here. well i guess they couldn't say 3.937007874015748 inch long cigarettes :)))

Well and here's a map of countries who don't use metric system:


i'm complaining because i so don't want to deal with.. what's it's name.. american measurement system. every time i have to use my phone converter or google converter to find out what's going on. it's really annoying especially for me who is horrible with memorizing stuff. I bet historians will love the american system of measurement - no logical algorithm - just learn by heart.

i should correct myself though it's the Brits' fault. but they apparently switched to metric :)) it's just so wrong to measure something in some diseased king's foot size. let me get this straight - every time a new king was elected (not elected but you know what i mean) did the measurement change? or they still used the One king's foot size? Also people's feet tend to grow.. so when they agreed on measurement did they specify king's age when his foot was measured or changed the measurement slightly in say every 10 years?

wow i guess i reached the boiling point with this issue. i was just posting a photo on facebook and when i put date on it i added (dd/mm/yyyy) not to make it too confusing for Americans. adding that little remark made me mad i guess lol.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

one fun night...

It's kind of funny. I was going to post today because I had something to say and Somebody asked me about this blog just today. this blog has undergone many changes and not only design-wise. it served me for different purposes and the contents kept changing. Right now it was turning into a too much family-oriented so that instead of telling people the same story over and over they would just go to my blog illustrated with some photos and find out for themselves. that by the way doesn't really work as people want to find out from you not from a web-page...

anyways. we went to the Irish pub tonight. I had very good reminiscences and memories from the last time so I tried getting all the people that were there last time together again and at the same place hoping it will be just like that time... Of course like Woland said "it will never happen like it happened before" which is true - this time was different but not less fun!

At first there were 7 of us - me, Michael, 3 of my childhood friends, 2 friends from work. Then more and more people kept showing up to see us... even people I never met before :))) just somebody would come with a friend of theirs or who would know somebody else in the company. The waitress had to join a second table to fit all of our company... that was quite an international company should i tell you. an american, armenians, an english-man, italian girl, we even managed to talk to some belgians... it was one big mix of people some of who barely knew each other but exchanged contact information very soon after exchanging some words. What only didn't we talk about - from flights to soccer, from politics to music, stories from people's lives and so much more. And of course add to that a lot of jokes and some alcohol. Michael said later was it in america a lot of people would be wasted which didn't happen there at all.

Now imagine this:

you walk into a bar you don't like but you are with your best friends. You complain about the bar but decide to stay. by the end of the night ask yourself "did you have fun" the answer will be yes. did you like the bar? no. did it matter? no.

During many things said it was discussed where it's better to live and be happier or more satisfied with things. To that i have a very definite answer - you can be happy anywhere in the world! It does not matter where you live because all countries have different problems of different scale and the grass is always greener on the neighbor's side of the fence. it's not about "where" it's about "with who". the moral of that little story is you can BE happy anywhere. Happiness comes from within, it depends greatly on how self-sufficient you are. even if you live in a country you don't like you can find little things that make you happy throughout the day, spend time with people you like hanging out with, and find joy in simple things. of course, the stress will always be there. sometimes things will happen and completely piss you off but that's a good thing for you feel very strongly about something, you are not indifferent, you care and that's good.

When people want to live Armenia thinking they will have a better life somewhere else it's very sad because they won't. They will find things about the new country that they don't like, start complaining about those, and then start crying about how great everything was in Armenia and how much they miss it. and well if they miss it so much they can always go back right? i was happy in armenia. very happy. yes i wanted to leave for europe or america to do my master's there but i think that's not the same as when people just think that America or Europe is some kind of heaven where people are waiting for them with open arms. and i'm happy in America as well. yes i miss home - my friends, my life here, the city, and a lot of other things but i'm not unhappy in america. i think people kind of purposely look for the bad things to have something to complain about and are unhappy. well they will be unhappy anywhere in the world no matter where they'll go. it's good to notice the bad stuff - not only to notice but also to try to do something about it, but one should also see what's good about a country and appreciate it.

the post deviated from the original idea but oh well. a lot of immigrants or immigrant-wanna-bes are that way no matter from what country. then they act like they have no choice and can do nothing about it. well if they really wanted to i think they'd find a way out and change their lives. i do realize it gets harder and harder with age and probably this whole post sounds a little bit silly and the reader will think "ah you are young, the life hasn't beaten you up yet". well that may be. maybe i'll change my mind in 50 years but maybe i won't. time will show :)