I am now here to tell you about the project I am currently working on :)



As some of you may know, I work at the company that has established the first Armenian online information agency - PanARMENIAN.Net. The company itself is called PanARMENIAN Media and includes several other divisions such as our newly established PanARMENIAN Photo agency.



You may also know that I am currently the head of PR and Marketing of the company.



So a little advertisement may go here below.. :)))



Since my job takes a lot of time (and it's supposed to be so :))) i'm having no time and energy to write for my dearest blog, but since I'm currently setting up a blogging schedule for myself, I hope to fix this gap!



The recent months we were working hard on the establishment of the Photo agency, obtaining the latest photo reporting equipment, setting up the agency's work flow and trying to position ourselves in the market.

So it's a news and event photography agency and our photographers are attending almost every event taking place in the country. We are also working towards realization of photo projects.



By the way, our photographers are more than photo reporters and you may notice some humor and creativity in the photographs, not so common in traditional photojournalism.



The highlights of the day in photos can be found in our Flickr photostream and Livejournal community. 



Today we finally launched PanARMENIAN Photo website that contains images from the recent events in the country and also an extensive photobank.



ok, enough :) less text, more photos :) enjoy the links.

I love photography and outstanding magazine covers.

While browsing my daily feeds with news, images and interesting stuff in Google Reader, this one caught my eye, and I just can't stop watching it :)



Sharing with my readers:

This is Israeli model Bar Refaeli having the magazine's contents scrawled across her body, with a new Stephen King short story teased on her arms.

It's been a long time I haven't written my thoughts here. It's because my mind was occupied entirely with other things and mainly the job. Plus I caught a kind of a brain-virus that is called "being in love" that turned off my multi-tasking skills and ability to focus on any one thing for some period.



It's a rainy morning, not yet 8 am, and I didn’t sleep well this night. Instead, the lines of a future blog post were wandering in my mind, not letting to sleep until I bring them into these letters.



I've been thinking about the attitude we have towards other people and about the judging of others.



Recently I've been noticing that some of the people I know and love, where making me feel uncomfortable with them, because I couldn't stand listening how they were talking about other people, discussing some of their characteristics with sarcasm, negative tones, humiliation and sometimes also offensive notes. It could be just someone passing by the street or someone known…



Do we really have the right to judge people solely based on the limited information we have about them? E.g. their look, their beliefs, their deed, especially rumors about them...



I try and guess I mainly succeed in putting away the stereotypes that could be built by other people's opinions or other basic information i can get from the first look.

I have this attitude towards the unknown people that is: I generally like them, unless they prove me that I shouldn't. And if i like somebody, i won't let myself judge or make fun of them. This means that by default I like everybody, until someone does something that makes me change my attitude. Moreover, i don't quickly change it to the "negative" one, because one thing can be just a result of certain circumstances, so i can be just become neutral, not good, not bad.



I have had a lot of talks on this matter with different people that were trying to convince me that I'm too naive and optimistic and that I shouldn't so easily accept strangers as good people by default.

Yet this is how I'm made. I do believe that there are more good people than bad. In the general meaning of good and bad.



It's my whole lifetime experience with people, brought me to this.

I met an interesting quote in the blog of my friend Araz. She has a post called: "You can't hate anyone whose story you know".

Rephrasing this I'd say "You can't judge anyone unless you know his story".



When i wrote this statement, it didn't sound good to me, because i realized that "You WON'T simply judge anyone whose story you know".



I'm not touching the topic of judging criminals, people with no morality and wrong values. My post is about the common thing happening daily with all of us.



I find it offensive when people make fun of another people based on their look, deed or anything that makes a first impression, because it could just as likely be the worst day of their life, it can be something brought by circumstances that weren't under their control at all. They didn't choose it, it chose them. Who didn't have bad days? Is there anyone who can say that they are perfect and hadn't ever been in a bad situation?



I don't think that making fun of others with or without their presence is smth worth to be doing for intelligent people. In case of their presence, it can be only appropriate if you are sure that they are enough balanced and steady and that they are capable of understanding your sarcasm, accepting critic and feedback.



How many times did it happen to us that we had made a wrong negative impression about someone and then felt guilty of having it ?

To me, it had happened more often than the opposite. I rarely have changed my positive attitude towards anybody.



I truly believe that the stereotypes and some first impressions shouldn't be the base of the attitude towards anyone. Just change the angle of view and you'll notice additional details that were unnoticeable before.



Let's take this example:

There was a girl in my surrounding that was often criticized for being a weirdo, she didn't have many friends and seemed like pushing them away. She was a workaholic and didn't pay much attention to her outlook. Everybody was giving her judgmental looks until one day we got to know her "story".

It turned out that she had lost her father and had to take care of her mother that was ill and her siblings. She was the only one working in the family and had to help the younger sister to enter university.

She knew that she was making an impression of a weirdo, she knew that people were judging her, and that their attitude would be changed if they knew the story. But what she didn't want was having that pitiful looks on her. She was okay on her own, in her own small world.



Dear everyone, next time before you do any remark on anybody like "geghci" (common referring to people from villages that are here considered as underdeveloped and silly) remember that having the luck to be born in the city doesn't make you better of those you didn't have that luck.



Before judging someone by their deed or look, do the basic thing such as putting yourself in their shoes, consider that there could be many circumstances that brought them into that condition and that generally, you are noone to judge others, whoever it is.

Exactly one month after the terrible earthquake in the Italian region of Abruzzo, that has destroyed the beautiful city L'Aquila and numerous villages around, killing about 300 people, a song-tribute to the victims was released.



56 great Italian artists united to create a song called "Domani 21 Aprile 2009. Artisti uniti per l'Abruzzo". April 21 is the day, when they met altogether in a music studio in Milan for the support the campaign "Salviamo l'arte in Abruzzo". Its aim is to collect money for the reconstruction of the conservatory "Alfredo Casella" and the seat of the Teatro Stabile d'Abruzzo dell'Aquila.



Here's the official website of "Artisti uniti per l'Abruzzo".



...and this is the video that they created and that I totally loved





The idea belongs to Jovanotti and Giuliano of Negramaro - both my very favorites, and they realized it by the support of Mauro Pagani of PFM, Caterina Caselli and others.



Among the artists there are: Ligabue, Jovanotti, Mauro Pagani, Giuliano Sangiorgi of Negramaro, Gianna Nannini, Elisa, Giusy Ferreri, Tiziano Ferro, Zucchero, Fabri Fibra, Giorgia, Piero Pelu’, Caparezza, Laura Pausini, Baustelle, Mario Venuti, Caterina Caselli, Pacifico, Dolcenera, Gianluca Grignani, Negrita, Nek, Francesco Renga, Antonella Ruggiero, Mango, Elio e le storie tese, Giuliano Palma and many others... (I named only ones i know and like)



I'm going to buy the song online (as soon as it will be released on May 8) and have my contribution in the support of saving the art in Abruzzo.



As some of you know, I have some close ties with Italy and live with a feeling that part of me is Italian. Sometimes I feel myself like one of diaspora Armenians whose heart aches when hearing Armenian speech or news from Armenia. I feel the same towards Italy! I feel homesick and I can't find my place. I have been listening to Italian radios all day today, and the Italian speech is so much dear to me... like the native language that I've somehow "forgotten" and then "refound" inside me again.





Here are lyrics of the song that also help to see who appears in the video and who sings which line:

Today Armenians of the world remember the victims of the Genocide committed by Turks. Mass killings and deportations of Armenians on their historical land had started in 1915. My grand-grandparents from both sides were among those rare ones that escaped from it, though having lost their siblings and relatives. They both were from the Western Armenia.





Ask anybody here - it should rain on April 24. Why? "Because even the nature cries for the victims". And it really usually rains or even snows heavily on April 24. Not this year. It was showering yesterday though.



I joined the tens of thousands of people who went to the memorial to put flowers in memory of the victims. It's a long way walking from the footsteps of the Sport-Concert Complex to the Genocide Memorial complex called "Tsitsernakaberd".

It's a VERY long way in a crowd, walking like 5 steps in every 10 minutes. Not everybody could make it. But there was no way back. Once you're in the crowd, you can't step back.

I used the time to listen to the crowd... it was interesting to hear some of the recent rumors, "highly intellectual" chats of teenagers, for whose it was just an occasion to gather together.

I managed to tweet couple of times, check my email and listen to my music player.

I was regreting that I decided to go there in the afternoon instead of going in the evening, thinking that there would be less crowded then. Later i heard that there were even MORE people in the evening!



On the exit, close to the Hrazdan stadium, the road was closed and a number of free buses that were heading to the biggest subway stations were organized.





..Meanwhile, US president Barack Obama avoided using the word 'Genocide' during his annual speech addressed to Armenians of America, replacing it with the Armenian equivalent "Meds Yeghern". So was it addressed only for Armenians to understand? I'm disappointed. Although, to be sincere, i didn't expect anything else after the yesterday's "road map" story.



.....

BarCamp is a “non-conference” in the sphere of information technology, new media and Internet. A “non-conference” is the unofficial, informal part of the conference supporting open discussions and a free exchange of ideas and opinions.

“BarCamp Yerevan” brought together bloggers, new media professionals, IT specialists, companies involved in Internet and digital technologies, journalists and journalism students, as well as many other groups interested in using technology and Internet in their work.

BarCamp is a place where everybody can participate for free and hold a presentation on any topic connected with IT, even partly connected :)





There were about 400 people registered on the website, i don't know how many people actually visited it. I saw many people appearing just for the second day, as it was Sunday (this Saturday was a working day in Armenia).



There were 3 simultaneous tracks of presentations in different rooms.

It was pity since we were physically unable to participate in all the interesting sessions. There were no breaks, and in order to grab a coffee, you should skip some session.



I loved it for several reasons:

1. presentations were 30 mins at maximum, plus no obligation :) you could skip from one room to another if it was boring or uninteresting.


2. there were already some active twitterers on BarCamp and I was refreshing my twitter page on mobile to see what is going on in other rooms. The hashtag #barcampevn09 was helping to search for all barcampers who were on twitter :)


3. it was a great opportunity to meet old friends, colleagues and fellows from online communities, recover contacts, get to know people whom you knew only by nicknames.


4. it was useful for networking, socializing, setting up important business contacts.


5. getting a discount for iCON wimax internet. i don't know if i'm going to use it yet :)


6. i saw and had touched (:D) a nabaztag ! I love these creatures and was dreaming to see one live since i first heard about it years ago.  


7. it was useful for seeing projects and companies in faces, like: 



• presentation of "Prosperous Armenia party"'s online PR tools, 


• presentations of banks.am, itel.am, auto.am and their monetization options
  
  


• Macadamian company




8. For me, personally, it was also interesting to discover and meet some of my readers (hi folks! :) 

 

I generally like IT people and tech geeks since they are interesting to me :) (and i am one of them), and as they are generally not so communicative in real life, they are more open and active in places where there are more people like them who speak their 'language'. BarCamp did a great job for bringing these people together and uncovering those who were hiding behind their online nicknames and roles.



Some of the presenters badly lacked presentation skills, others were causing heavy debates bringing everything to politics.



Somehow i didn't feel like making a presentation, although i was constantly having lots of ideas of possible topics i could present and i couldn't choose :D Next time - for sure ! Those of you who know me, also know how enthusiastic i am on making a session or presentation, especially on IT topics :)



Presentations i liked:

• Areg Maghakian told us how it was to work for Facebook. He had worked there in the early years of its development


• Grizli aka Grisha was telling about the techniques of picking up girls online, especially on odnoklassniki


• Maksym Savanevsky from Ukraine was making an overview on Obama's online PR campaign.


• Антикризисная реклама by casualmente
  
  

People whom I have seen online and met thanks to the BarCamp: @netcrash, @ditord, @kornelij, @ahousekeeper, @jesirobendebua, @reporter_arm, blansh :)



BarCamp closed with an afterparty at Armeda club. Finally there was some time to freely socialize without missing any session :)



My friend Tata, who is actually an artist and has nothing to do with IT also enjoyed the atmosphere of the BarCamp and pointed out smth i didn't notice before she said it: people that were there for socializing and meeting each other face-to-face, were still so much busy spending the time buried into their notebooks and smartphones twееting, updating statuses and blogs :D



...and by the way, I went into a little melancholy meeting a lot of nice young IT people who were still studying, and had a lot of things ahead... and felt myself a little more older, hehe :D no, no, i admit that there were people much older than me.. i wonder if they felt the same :D (or is it me looking for something to get depressed about :D)



Here are some photos by me:

BarCamp Yerevan

Գրքի մասին իմացա Ֆեյսբուքից: Այնտեղից էլ իմացա գրքի շնորհանդեսի մասին, որը կայանալու էր իմ ամենասիրած գրախանութում` Բուկինիստում: Սերգեյին հեռակա կարգով ճանաչելով (друзья друзей :) հետաքրքրվեցի գրքով, և նրան նվիրված Ֆեյսբուքի խումբ հրավիրվելով հնարավորութուն ստացա կարդալ սեմփլը :)



Գիրքը գնեցի (1300 դրամ էր, որը ըստ ինձ, բավականին մատչելի գին ա) և հեղինակի «ճկուն մաղթանքների» հետ միասին տարա տուն:



Երեկոյան մի քիչ կարդացի, ու հաջորդ օրը աշխատանքից վերադառնալով հայտնաբերեցի, որ քույրս այն արդեն կարդացել-վերջացրել էր :)



Իսկապես բավականին հեշտ ու մի շնչով կարդացվեց:

Քնելուց առաջ գիրքն ավարտեցի ու դնելով մահճակալիս կողքը քնեցի: Մյուս օրը առավոտյան այն իր տեղում չգտա.. պարցվեց հայրս վերցրել էր կարդալու :D մինչև էդ ասել էր, որ նորություններով տեսել էր գրքի շնորհանդեսի մասին տեսանյութ, ու փաստորեն ևս բավական հետաքրքրվել էր: Մայրս նույնպես հետաքրքրությամբ կարդաց, մանավանդ որ գրքում նկարագրված էր իրավիճակ` իրենց ամբիոնի հետ կապված :)



Ճիշտ է, մինչև գիրքը մինչև վերջ կարդալը, չդիմացա ու նախապես կարդացի գլուխների սկզբի բնաբանները: Դրանք, բավականին հաջող կերպով ընտրված մեջբերումներ են երգերից, քաղաքական գործիչների «փստացրած» արտահայտություններից և այլ ժպիտ առաջացնող խոսքերից:



Ահա մի քանիսը, որ ինձ բավականին ուրախացրել են`

«Ախ չգիտեմ, ինչ է սերը, որտեղից

Ու ինչու է սիրտը իմ հանում հունից:

Զգացմունքը այս, եթե սեր են անվանել,

Անդադար պատրաստ եմ ես այդպես սիրել»:

Երգչուհի` մայրանալուց առաջ

«Երևան, Երևան գնալու եմ,

Հիմնական Երևանում մնալու եմ»: -Շատերը

«Մենք պետք է ստեղծենք ոստիկանի այնպիսի իմիջ, որ ժողովուրդը սկսի մեզ հարգել»: -Ալիկ Սարգսյան, ոստիկանապետ

«Մեր նպատակն է Հայաստանը դարձնել արտակարգ իրավիճակների տարածաշրջանային առաջատար»: -Մհեր Շահգելդյան, Արտակարգ իրավիճակների նախարար

«Հաստատ ճանաչելու ենք հայոց Ցեղասպանությունը»: -ԱՄՆ-ի նախագահներ

--

Գիրքը նկարագրում է 2008-ի ամռան վերջի իրադարձությունները չորս երիտասարդների կյանքում` աշխատանք, աղջիկներ, ընկերություն, NGOշնիկներ, կոռուպցիա և այլ ինտրիգներ:



Ծնողներս, որպես գրքի թերություն, նշեցին իրենց ասելով բազմաթիվ ուղղագրական և ոճական սխալները, որոնք իմ համեստ կարծիքով, դիտավորյալ էին թողնված խմբագրի կողմից ու միայն շեշտում էին երիտասարդների խոսակցական լեզուն (տեղ-տեղ կոպիտ` «իչքան», «գալի»...) ու հեղինակի անմիջականությունը (տեղ-տեղ գռեհիկ արտահայտություններ, որոնք, ինչ թաքցնենք, երիտասարդների առօրյա հաղորդակցության մասն են):





Գիրքը իսկապես գրված է առօրյա լեզվով և հետաքրքիր հումորով: Ճիշտն ասած, չեմ պատկերացնում, թե որքան մարդ կա, որ կհասկանա կատակները, իրավիճակները և գրքում շոշափված թեմաները ամբողջովին: Կարծում եմ, գրքում նկարագրված իրավիճակները և արդար հեգնանքով լի նկարագրությունները առավելագույնը հասկանալի կլինեն այն ակտիվ երիտասարդներին, որոնք քիչ թե շատ տեղյակ են երկրում գործող ՀԿ-ների աշխատելաոճի նրբություններին, համալսարանային, պետական և բանկային աշխատանքի առանձնահատկություններին, անգլերեն գիտեն ևն: Բացի այդ, այդ երիտասարդները պետք է որ տեղյակ լինեն, որ օդնոկլասնիկիից բացի կա նաև Ֆեյսբուք և այլ ուրիշ հետաքրքիր կայքեր:



Բավականին գունեղ են նկարագրությունները` …

«էտ բառը հատուկ «բոլդ» շրիֆտով արտասանեց Մովսեսը», «…Գագոն, որը 27 տարեկան հարևան էր, չէր ավարտել դպրոցի վերջին մի քանի դասարանները, սրտաճմլիկորեն բութ էր, բայց լավ խորովածի կրակ էր կպցնում» … «Խաչատուրիչը կարծես թռել էր Արմենի դեմքին և ժրաջան կախվել նրա ինտիլիգենտ ունքերից»:

Հետաքրքիր էր «տեսնել» նկարագրված իրավիճակները ու նաև մեզ, երևանյան աղջիկներին` տղաների աչքերով: Մոտս նույնիսկ ցանկություն առաջացավ գրել դրա զուտ աղջկական «պատասխանը» :D Գիրքը կարդալուց հետո ցանկություն առաջացավ էլի այդ ոճի բաներ գտնել-կարդալու, ու իհարկե գրքի շարունակությունն էլ հետաքրքիր կլինի կարդալ (որը, հուսով եմ, կլինի!): Սերգեյ ջան, "пиши ещо" :))))



Գրքի մեջ ինձ ամենաշատը դուր չեկավ շապիկը... Նարեկ, ներող :)



Համոզված եմ, շատերը գրքում կգտնեն իրենց ծանոթ իրավիճակներ ու կերպարներ, որոնք այստեղ ներկայացված են Սերգեյի հումորային տեսանկյունից, համեմված` շատերի համար աննկատ, բայց ուշադրության արժանի մանրուքներով: Ու երևի թե դուք էլ, երբ որ կարդաք, կսկսեք ինձ նման փնտրել գրքի հերոսներին` (Վիլոյին, Մովսեսին, Ալիսային ու նույնիսկ Վիլոյի կոլեգա Արսենին) պատահական անցորդների մեջ:



Արդեն էնքան եմ պատմել գրքի մասին ընկերներիս, որ հերթ են կանգնել, գիրքս վերցնելու` չնայած որ ես իրենց խորհուրդ եմ տալիս գնել իրենց սեփական օրինակը ;) Խրախուսե՛նք երիտասարդ գրողներին !!!



Մի խոսքով, խորհուրդ եմ տալիս: Բոլոր պրոգրեսիվ երիտասարդների համար must-read :)

Meet my favorite couple ever: Artyom and Masha.





Yesterday they had a wonderful wedding and a great party!

I have organized a corner in my room, which my mother and sister call "place for gathering dust that can't be easily swept". But for me it's a very important place where I keep my memories: small souvenirs, candles, statuettes, gifts from different people.



I can smell the combined nice flavor of different scents whenever I'm around it and sit to work at my desk (it's on the left side, inside the bookshelf). With this post i want to present my most favorite items.





The items are of the following categories:

1. scented candles of different forms that i didn't resist not to buy, since I'm a candle maniac :D


2. souvenirs of my friends from the places they have traveled and from friends abroad.


3. small pieces of something that remind me of a memorable day or event.

I'd like to mention a notable contributor to my collection - my lovely cousin Gohar, who's lucky to travel a lot for her job. She always brings me nice things :)



Here's are some of the items and the story behind them:



this colorful candle is a gift from Italy from my friend Masha



this original candle was a new year gift from my cousin Gohar



this strange pieces were actually part of Berlin wall - gift from my friend Arsen



this 50ml bottle of Armenian cognac "Noy" with a lable "Анти-кризисант" (anti-crisisant) is new year gift from my former workplace EPEBAH magazine



This cute cat is a native of St. Petersburg - a souvenir from my friend Garik who currently lives there



This egg of clay, with ancient Armenian carvings is made and given for my birthday by my friend and colleague Abo



this happy hen is а gift to myself for Easter from Rotterdam where i met the holiday last year



this compass is gift from my friend Marko Petrovic from Serbia - the one that helped him to get overland from Serbia to Armenia and not to get lost on the border of Turkey and Georgia



this native American dream catcher is a gift from my friend Jared from New York



this painted egg-shaped jewelry box is a souvenir from St. Petersburg from my friend Ani



this Eiffel tower model is brought by my mom, you can guess from where :)



this flower vase is brought by my sister Evelina from Barcelona



this green apple is actually a candle - i bought it since i love green apples, and it smells like an apple!



this ceramic green apple contains an apple-scented candle and is a gift for my birthday by Emma





this ceramic (i think it's kind of a hat) is a souvenir from Georgia from my friend Gohar



the typical dutch-style painted small box I bought from Amsterdam, and the heart is from Venice glass and I bought it as a souvenir from Casa di Giulietta in Verona



this cute hedgehog carrying a ladybird is a magnet - gift by my friend Haykush from Moscow



this hello kitty branded box of candies is a gift from Luska from US



 this origami bird is from my Japanese friend Kanako



 orange and cinnamon candle set - bought by me in Padova, Italy.

A reminder of a very nice shop called "Sapo"



this nice candle set was a gift for new year by my friend Ani



this small wooden dachshund is one of my favorites - gift from my younger cousin Karen, he made it at a school handicraft class



this Japanese girl is a souvenir from Japan by my cousin Gohar





this typical dutch souvenir was brought by myself from my second trip to Amsterdam in 2004



these small animals are of Venice glass and i bought them from Murano island



this rabbit is a gift by my sister Gohar from Japan (if I'm not mistaken)



this Nefertiti is a souvenir from my friend Ani from Egypt



this picture "frame" is very old and a gift from my father's friend. That's me and my sis on the pic :)



this golden thingy that can be used both as a bookmark or a pendant - gift from Tokyo by Gohar



perfume oil in a bottle from Egypt brought by my friend Ani



this piggy bank I brought from Netherlands



thingy for lighting incenses - gift by my cousin Gohar from Dubai



this sea-shell jewelry box is a souvenir from Sochi from my friend Ani



this pieces of rocks are taken from Armenian regions, during a trip i'd like to remember



this traditional sweet is a gift from my Croatian friend Iva



this tea box filled by my favorite Sencha Royal tea is a gift from my friend Avet



small souvenir bottle of tequila - gift from my friend Maricruz from Mexico, with whom we spend many nice days in Italian student camp





Using the opportunity I'd like to say hello to all my friends that found their gifts here and to those who will find :))



I love you all, wherever you are!

Hey shopaholics and shopaphils ! You'll find some familiar stuff here :D

Max has occupied the warm place on my pillow and since I don't want to distract him from that cute pose he's currently taken, I will write these thoughts of mine. 2am and I don't want to do anything but writing.



Some days ago I watched "The Confessions of a Shopaholic". The movie was weak and so-so, kind of a mix from "Sex and the City", "Devil wears Prada" and "Love and other disasters". I had to watch that because of the familiar topic.



Unlike with the heroine of the "Shopaholic", in childhood i had the best clothes because they were either sewn by my mother or sent from US by her relatives. And my nother was the one developing the sense of style in us.



The heroine was somehow close to me since she was a journalist/columnist at a magazine (like Carrie Bradshaw, like me in my inner desires) and her addiction to nice stuff. She couldn't resist the calling of fancy shop glasses, mannequines persuading to buy the stuff that is very nice but not always needed. I have the same thing. The main difference between my shopaholism and the heroine's, is that I spend the real money I have and not credits.



My credit history is clear because it's empty. I don't have and never had any line of credit on my cards, neither I have bought anything on credit. I just spend my salary on the things that i love and i think i can't live without :) That leads to the money shortage by the end of the month. I can spend my last thousands of drams on a bag or shoe that i think will be sold out by the time i receive my next salary. When my wallet becomes empty (see last days of each month) I just start saving on my evening cafe-attendings. Tea and that's it :D



I save the change from the money i take from my dad for the shopping for home, that's usually some hundred drams only :D (I do it usually on my own money,.. when i still have it) and sometimes i do borrow some money from my dad if i have to go out that day, for a tea. But i have to mention that i never become skinflint and i always do offer a coffee or tea to my friend if i feel like that. Even if that were my last 500 drams. I'm used to be "empty-walleted" :D and used to not taking the wallet, because all my money is in coins and fits in my pockets quite well :D



Yeah, i feel terrible those days (although, getting used to and better by each month :D), but that's the price i have to pay for my shopping addiction which i'm not sure can be overcame anytime soon.



I'm a shopaholic. I do admit that. It's a recent addiction and I cannot predict how far it will go. But I can feel some huge difference between me - some years ago and me-now. And not only of the outlook, amount of "labels" in my wardrobe and the permanent short of money.



In addition to this, I'm also a terrible saver. I CANNOT SAVE to buy something pricey, even if it's something i'm dreaming about and needs couple of months' saving !!!! I have used some methods like putting my money into a bank account (then i discovered that it's actually easier to shop with a card :DDD), and to put some big bills into a pig saving box (i take them out easily buy the end of the month, because there are always some circumstances :D e.g the need to buy a present for a friend, or not willing to borrow from dad)



Now I'm a shoe-a-holic and cute-stuff-holic. My favorite colors of the season are shades of pink, black and flesh-tones of coral, pink, peach etc... I wear a lot of B&W clothes since I'm quite formal dressed at work. The bright colored accessories "rescue" me there.



Now, when more and more clothes of mine have a name and even can be found online (I have made this as a qualifier for clothes :D) I'm being distinguished with my style from others as much as the limited number of affordable boutiques available in Yerevan let me do so.





Now, our wardrobe (I am sharing the room and wardrobe with my sister) is overloaded and on opening any door, something always is falling out on our heads. We are now negotiating with parents to put the purchasing of a new wardrobe for our room on the first place in the list of our planned big purchases.



Friends say that i have a natural luck of finding stuff that is on a big sale and usually the size that is left is my exact one! And they often ask me how do i manage to do it.



Since my silly post has to have a practical value and contain something useful for my readers, I'm offering some tips on shopping and saving for Yerevan girls. To be continued in another post, soon :)



P.S. The movie gave me an idea to establish an anonymous shopaholics' society :D Who's with me? (oops, did I say anonymous?)

I had this idea for a long time now. I want to scan all the photo albums we have and make digital also the family videos we have in VHS cassettes (we don't have a VHS video player for some years now heh).



I started from the red album called "Наш Малыш" ("Our Baby" in Russian). My mother made it after my birth :) with all the photos, descriptions and interesting facts about the first months of my life. I was reading in tears :)

"October 3, 07:15 she was born"

There were photos taken by my dad's camera.. BW photos with a lot of dust and scratches (i love them!)..

 Photos taken in photo atelier's, they were already in color :)



...I saw the photo of me walking for the first time of my life.



I found notes by my granny describing the phrases and poems I have learned at the age of a little more than 12 months.In the album she has described each of the first 24 months of my life. When i started to smile, sleep normally, walk, speak, etc... I got to know that at first, my eyes were dark gray.

Never thought that I'd learn so many details of that days ! :D I love my mom for doing that !!!

So that's where my love for writing and immortalizing important moments comes from :D She was younger than I am now when she had me :)

I found out that i've been indeed a cute baby :-)))





By the way, my sister (born 3 years after me) doesn't have this kind of a book and this much baby photos... partly because they had enough fun with me (maybe :D), partly because of the economic crisis/war situation of that years.

an open letter



My dear Yerevan men. I'm writing this open letter to you with a request.



I'm a girl that often needs some time for herself to analyze the information, write down plans, organize actions, to-do lists and just thoughts. To me, the most convenient places for that are small cafes where i take a coffee and park benches, where i can be alone with myself and reflect a bit.



My request is - when you see a girl sitting by herself, writing, reading a book or just thinking, please please don't approach her asking if everything's okay or if they want to get acquainted. That's silly and meaningless! And afterall it distructs!





Thank you for understanding. 



P.S. Good luck with picking up the girls who actually want to be picked up:)





There are limited number of cafes where i feel myself comfortable sitting alone and writing my personal stuff. That's Yum-Yum, SQ1 and Segafredo. In all other places even the waiters are gazing with a strange look as if i'm there to pick up somebody or to show off something.



I do really need that time away from home/workplace computers where I'm endlessly procrastinating and a half-hour reflection with writing down thoughts, actions and to-dos increases my productivity for several times.



Do you think it's reasonable what I'm asking or am i being naive or, on the contrary, trying to show off something with this? Is it SOO weird that someone feels okay sitting alone?



Ok, true. I don't really think that my audience consists of those people who actually pick up girls such way, so this letter should be considered as a "cri de coeur" (cry from a heart).



By the way, i always enjoy watching self-sufficient women sitting alone and enjoying their coffee and if I am looking at them, that's with admiration.



I used to collect photos where girls are sitting alone at a cafe with a coffee or tea :)

I got invited to Garou's concert on March 22. It was organized in the framework of the "Journées de la francophonie" by some "Black Ban Productions" company i've never heard of before. It was supported by the Government of RA, some ministries and the French Embassy in Armenia.

The tickets were quite expensive (10 000 - 70 000 AMD) and i wasn't even planning to go there until i got invited :) My mom, a big Garou fan, was asking me to find cheap tickets for a long time already, but i couldn't do anything. At last, she bought tickets on the last day with a sale !!! 30 000 AMD tickets costed 10 000. I can imagine thoughts and feelings of people who bought earlier with unreasonable prices while discovering the last day "discounts".

The concert took place in the big hall of the Sport & Concert complex (where the ice skating-rink is). Many people like my mom were quite disappointed to discover that it will be in the big hall instead of the small one, since the sound could be not satisfactory and it could be cold in that big hall. Despite of the ticket prices, we noticed some hard traffic on the way to the SCC and the huge crowd downstairs and the difficulty of parking in the parking slots of complex. The places in front of the stage were the cheapest since there were no seats and were mostly for youth, for jumping and dancing :) Garou invited the public downstairs "to rock" several times, but i bet people who paid tens of thousands for their seats weren't be so eager to join the crowd in front of the stage :)



I wasn't very much familiar with Garou's music. I didn't listen to anything besides Belle, Gitan and the French album "Seul". I was pleasantly surprised to discover his English songs and the album "Piece of My Soul". I was mostly impressed by the performance of the song "You and I" on a piano. At first i thought that it's again a cover for some famous song that i should likely know. I liked it so much that listened the entire song with closed eyes. Then I typed some of the heard lyrics on my phone notes to find it later :) Now i found that song and can't get enough of it !!!

On last.fm Garou has got only 447.854 plays (it's really not much comparing to other similar artists). He's way too much underrated! I'll slightly increase that number on the following weeks though ;).

Since the audience wasn't very familiar with most of his songs, he made a clever decision to sing covers of other famous French songs. He was actually asking the audience about the french songs we know. He performed "La Mer" (Charles Trenet) and "Beyond the Sea" (Bobby Darin) mixed, also "La Boheme" of Charles Aznavour (piano solo), Celine Dion's "Sous le vent" and some others.

The public was much surprised hearing the beat and chords of "Come together" (of The Beatles) that was smoothly transitioned to "Belle".

Since the "Notre Dame de Paris" fever in Armenia, Garou became famous here and had been claimed to have some Armenian roots. As it usually happens, rumors have it that many of worldwide celebrities' have relations sounding like "grandmother's cousin's son's wife's neighboor was Armenian". He neither confirmed nor denied the fact of him having an Armenian ancestry (also during the press conferences), but pronounced from the stage  "Armenians, we are cousins".

He asked for an Armenian brandy/cognac right on the stage and was given it on the next break :) He kept giving compliments on how kind and hospitable our nation is and saying "genatsed Hayasdan" :)))



This was an amazing show with a truly high-quality sound and organization (not counting the ticket prices). The tickets had several types of protection from fakes, and they were being checked on the entrance by their numbers and attendees had to pass a scanner and have purses and bags checked. And Garou.. well he got some hundreds and why not thousands of new fans. He was worth to be seen on the stage.



* photos are taken by my friend Tata

What a day!!!



March 21 - It was a memorable day. I did something that will remind me of this day all of my entire life. I made an artificial scar - a tattoo in the form of a shooting star :) Don't ask me why permanent, why on that particular place, why star... i just don't know it. I've been guided by some unknown force. Today, i've been looking  it and feeling that it was something that had to be there sooner or later. Something was giving me a hint, guiding through all those diverse reactions and inner pros and cons discussions. I had that exact image in my mind !!!!!! it should be right there and right that picture!



Spring officially starts today in all calendars. It was a sunny, warm and nice-in-all-means day. I managed to meet all of my closest friends, my most recent bziks (random, on the street!) and saw a potential bzik in one guy i knew for already years now.



Besides, i started the day out of home. Having lots of fun at Yves Larock's party!



thank you, spring.