February 24, 2007

Lent: Day 6 - Prayer & Scripture

Posted at: 11:53 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Armenia

Today’s Prayer

Lord of compassion, fount of mercies,
bounty of goodness,
Son of the one on high, Lord Jesus Christ,
have mercy, save us, and love us humans.
Look upon my peril. Gaze upon my broken heart.
Attend to my misery.
See the confusion of my unending anxiety.
Come to my aid in my time of mortal torment.
Touch me, curing my most wretched infirmities.
Lend a kind ear to my pitiful sighs.
Listen to the silent cries from the depths of
the abysmal grave.
May the voice of my failing body in prayer reach your all-hearing ears
and since the pledge for my life?s redemption
is imperishable,
so too let your love be also constant.
Gently help me, enfeebled with infirmity as I am.

Today’s Scripture (Reading)

Isaiah 62:6-9

Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,
and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.
The LORD has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm “I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored;
but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.”

Daily Prayer and Scripture taken from the Armenian Church website

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February 23, 2007

Lent: Day 5 - Prayer & Scripture

Posted at: 9:27 am by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Armenia

Today’s Prayer

Now, whoever believes in the healing prayers
in this humble book, praying sincerely
even if he be one of the sinful,
I too join him with my words.
For if he is among the just,
may we find mercy together through these prayers.
And if he finds happiness,
leaving misery to me alone,
I shall nevertheless bear witness for him.
But may he remember Solomon and his inspired words:
Who can say, I have a pure heart,
or boast of being clean of sin?
For no man born on earth is free of sin.
And not one of us is special because of our swiftness,
not even if wings carry us to the heights.
Therefore, we should be careful, think twice,
for if we are on a pedestal, as Paul taught,
we may fall to the ground,
like the just judge who formulated this rule.

But let the righteous take this warning as a crown,
so as not to fall from the unreachable heights.
And may the condemned see this as hope of salvation.
by which to rise from the perdition of spiritual death,
and live in hope.
As for me may this message be like words
engraved on a monument never to be effaced
a token of my wretched mortal soul
crying out forever, unsilenced,
with the echoes of uninterrupted sighing.

May my bones, undone
in the earthen cloak of the tomb,
confess this with a soundless voice,
and my body turned to dust
deliver these prayers to you
with an indiscernible cry, seer of secrets.

Today’s Scripture (Reading)

Isaiah 40:1-8

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people is grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever.

Daily Prayer and Scripture taken from the Armenian Church website

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February 22, 2007

This Day In History: “Do You Believe In Miracles?”

Posted at: 5:18 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: History and Mythology, Sports and Leisure

This day in history 27 years ago, the US Olympic Team beat the Soviets in one of the biggest upsets in sports history. The movie Miracle, starring Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks, was released in 2004. This victory was voted the greatest sports moment of the twentieth century by Sports Illustrated

U.S. vs. USSR (Game review)

United States Team Roster

* Starters

1980, hockey, lake placid, miracle, miracle on ice, Olympics, soviet, united states, us, us hockey

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February 22, 2007

Lent: Day 4 - Prayer & Scripture

Posted at: 1:37 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Armenia

Today’s Prayer

Now, when your will is upon me, darkness becomes
light for me.
When your lamp of hope is there, night is like the dawn.
When your body is taken during communion, I live down my shame.
But I do not consider my soul living,
for death is inevitable.
Nor do I consider it dead,
for renewal is not doubted.
And though I see the path to life closed before me
because of my unpardonable sins
still paradise is open before me
because of the good news of salvation.
For the discouragement of bad news makes me
less anxious than the encouragement of your hand
extending salvation.
Therefore, grant mercy, O Lord,
for all those who raise voices in thanks,
Lord blessed forever.
Amen.

Today’s Scripture (Reading)

Romans 6:3-14

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
For he who has died is freed from sin.
But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Daily Prayer and Scripture taken from the Armenian Church website

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February 21, 2007

Fixing a dull laptop LCD screen

Posted at: 10:53 am by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Professional, Tech and Web

My friend Keith gave me his old laptop because the screen no longer worked and it was useless to him. I was not going to let a possibly good laptop go to waste because of a dull screen. I had never fixed a laptop with this problem before and I figured it was worth a shot. This will be a basic rundown on how to fix a dull LCD screen on a (gateway) laptop.

*NOTE: This is not an advanced description on fixing a laptop LCD screen. It is a recreation of a situation that happened to me and how I went about fixing it. Also, I had already fixed the laptop before I wrote this post so some of the pictures already have the fix applied.

1. Remove the screws that are on the bottom of the monitor.

2. Using a sharp object, remove the protective casing around the LCD monitor.

3. Above the power button and a little to the left is the location of the chip that powers the brightness of the LCD. For me, that chip had fallen off and was just sitting there. However, if the chip is either not there at all or is broken, you will need to purchase a chip before you can continue.

4. Once you have the chip ready to be reconnected, you will need to solder it to the circuit board. In my situation, the chip was going to be too hard to solder directly on the board. I took two wires from a CAT-5e network cable, stripped the wire casing and soldered the wires directly onto the board for easier handling.

5. Next I soldered the other end of the wires to the chip. Turn the computer on to make sure the solder worked. After the soldering was complete and it was secure enough, I gave it extra protection by taping the wires around the chip. (I would not recommend doing this if you are trying for a proper fix)

6. Stuff the chip and wires into the area where the circuit board is and reconnect the monitor casing.

7. Finally, screw in all of screws that you took out at the beginning and you are done.
computer, dull screen, fix, laptop, lcd, screen

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February 21, 2007

Lent: Day 3 - Prayer & Scripture

Posted at: 6:57 am by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Armenia

Today’s Prayer

Now again, you who are blessed by all creation,
by the heavenly and the earthly,
and by the denizens of Hades,
you who were banished for me for no reason,
for it was I who strayed and was estranged,
I who was stupid, lost, and found worthless.
I was abandoned, extinguished and destroyed.
I erred, I was caught, I was rejected.
I was alienated, enslaved, and degraded.
I was cursed, I became wretched, drunken and wasted.
I was swallowed up, I was deceived, I rebelled.
I was corrupted, died and destroyed completely.
You had no hand in this evil,
for you are only unchanging good.

Today’s Scripture (Reading)

Exodus 1:1 - 2:10

These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Is’sachar, Zeb’ulun, and Benjamin,
Dan and Naph’tali, Gad and Asher.
All the offspring of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt.
Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong; so that the land was filled with them.
Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.
Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war befall us, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.”
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens; and they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Ra-am’ses.
But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.
So they made the people of Israel serve with rigor,
and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field; in all their work they made them serve with rigor.
Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiph’rah and the other Pu’ah,
“When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, she shall live.”
But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but let the male children live.
So the king of Egypt called the midwives, and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the male children live?”
The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and are delivered before the midwife comes to them.”
So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and grew very strong.
And because the midwives feared God he gave them families.
Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.”
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months.
And when she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river’s brink.
And his sister stood at a distance, to know what would be done to him.
Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked beside the river; she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to fetch it.
When she opened it she saw the child; and lo, the babe was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son; and she named him Moses, for she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.”

Second Reading: Joel 1:14-20

Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God; and cry to the LORD.
Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.
Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
The seed shrivels under the clods, the storehouses are desolate; the granaries are ruined because the grain has failed.
How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep are dismayed.
Unto thee, O LORD, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.
Even the wild beasts cry to thee because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Daily Prayer and Scripture taken from the Armenian Church website

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February 20, 2007

Unix Firewall Rules

Posted at: 10:48 am by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Professional, Tech and Web

While trying to setup an application for work, I needed to install a mysql server. In the process I realized that the server’s firewall was blocking port 3306 which is why I was unable to access it from any other computer. Zach asked me to write up documentation so that when he needed a reminder, he didn’t have to search very far.

Iptables is used to set up, maintain, and inspect the tables of IP packet filter rules in the Linux kernel. Several different tables may be defined. Each table contains a number of built-in chains and may also contain user-defined chains. Each chain is a list of rules which can match a set of packets. Each rule specifies what to do with a packet that matches. This is called a ‘target’, which may be a jump to a user-defined chain in the same table.

The detailed syntax of the iptables command is documented in its man page, which can be displayed by typing the command “man iptables”.

[root@host /]# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables
or the location of your iptables setup

The Rule: -A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 3306 -j ACCEPT

Note: the bold item is the rule that I added for my situation.

*filter
:INPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:FORWARD ACCEPT [0:0]
:OUTPUT ACCEPT [0:0]
:RH-Firewall-1-INPUT - [0:0]
-A INPUT -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A FORWARD -j RH-Firewall-1-INPUT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p icmp –icmp-type any -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p 50 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p 51 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p udp –dport 5353 -d 224.0.0.251 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -p udp -m udp –dport 631 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 22 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 80 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 8080 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 8887 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state –state NEW -m tcp -p tcp –dport 3306 -j ACCEPT
-A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -j REJECT –reject-with icmp-host-prohibited
COMMIT

Once you add the rules in, you need to restart the firewall by doing the following command:
[root@host /]# service iptables restart

accept, dport, firewall, iptables, linux, mysql, ports, red hat, reject, rules, server, state, system administration, tcp, unix

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February 20, 2007

Lent: Day 2 - Prayer & Scripture

Posted at: 7:42 am by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Armenia

Today’s Prayer

When I depart this life, may holiness not abandon me.
When I am wrapped in shrouds may your honor
not leave me.
May my soul not reject your unwavering salvation.
May your image engraved upon my soul, Giver of life, not be effaced.
May the mark of your blood not be erased from my soul?s altar bearing your seal.
May it dwell with me in my grave.
When my miserable body is worn out may your
anointing grace stay with me,
that I might on the day of renewal meet you,
groom of glory,
that I may be known as one of yours,
that I may be clothed with your accomplishments,
that I may be honored by the assurances of
your greatness,
that I may be adorned with the robe of your baptism and pardoned with mercy.

Give me, O compassionate Lord, your cloak
of incorruptibility,
you who suffer with the sins of my body.
Do not let the Blasphemer gain control over your people.
May the one who wears out my soul waste away.
May the tricks of those who live on the dark side not haunt me.
May the abyss of my final rest be blessed in your name, O merciful Lord.
May the cell of my captivity be filled with your mercy.
May the place of my torture be broken open
through you.
May tranquility reign, my keeper, in my prison of terror.
May that dark womb nourish me toward resurrection.
May your hope preserve me that chamber of anxiety.
May your hand protect me upon the cot of my torment.
May your wings shield me in the house of anguish.
Stay with me, Lord most praised, in my room of peril.
A thousand woes upon me,
for once I was angelic, but now I am in the abyss,
once I was celebrated, but now I am pitiful.

Today’s Scripture (Reading)

Ezekiel 18:20-23

The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
“But if a wicked man turns away from all his sins which he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.
None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness which he has done he shall live.
Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?

Daily Prayer and Scripture taken from the Armenian Church website

armenian church, lent, prayer, readings, scripture

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February 19, 2007

24 Day 6: 3pm - 4pm

Posted at: 10:36 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Entertainment and News

Jack calls Bill to let him know that his team was down and he needed medical attention. Milo tried to create cover for Marilyn to run but she didn’t leave when Milo was shot and the guys who were after them took them as hostages. Jack found them and shot 2 out of 3 of them and took the other one to question. Jack grabbed Marilyn and questioned her about the safe house. She told Jack that his father said he would kill Josh if she didn’t divert them to the other house. Jack called Bill back with the correct location and wanted a tactical kit and when Bill asked why, Jack said it was personal.

Chloe wanted to check on Morris to make sure he was still able to work. Nadia explained the situation to Chloe and Morris but Morris took it the wrong way and verbally attacked Nadia. Morris said he would be fine if he took a walk. Jack talked to Marilyn into finding Phillip but she was hesitant. Marilyn was on the phone with Phillip trying to figure out his location. Phillip told Marilyn that if she didn’t finish the job than Josh would die, but Josh overheard. Josh wanted to leave and go get a soda but Phillip didn’t trust him. As Josh was about to leave, Phillip pulled out his gun and said, “No one’s life is worth the destruction of everything that I have built…Now step away from the door.”

Tom met with Reid in a secure location to give him the President’s agenda. They planned that once a specialist is in the bunker, they were going to kill the President. They are going to blame Assad for the assassination attempt. Tom met with President Palmer to talk about Assad’s speech. Morris went to the corner store to buy a red bull, cigarettes and Whiskey, but as he was walking out, he downed the Whiskey and then threw it back up. Chloe called Morris to ask him where he was and he said he was on the way. Jack set Marilyn up with a bulletproof vest and started up the stairs where Phillip was.

Morris walked back into CTU and went to check on Milo and said that Milo did a good job. Tom finished up meeting with President Palmer and headed out. Reid told Tom that the order needed to be complete before the specialist got there. Reid left the room and Tom called an agent and said that he needed to meet with him immediately. Reid overheard and punched out Tom and told him that he can’t be trusted. Reid stole Tom’s access card and then called the agent and that he doesn’t need to meet with him. They checked the location that Jack gave them and it was owned by a Russian. Chloe confronted Morris on drinking alcohol but he denied that he was drunk. He then told Chloe that getting back to work is the best medicine. Chloe told him to go to work and then call his AA sponsor. The teams were ready to attack the house and Bill gave them a go. As they went in the house, they found that no one was there. Jack and Marilyn took the prisoner into the room where Phillip said he would be. When the room was empty, Phillip called the hotel room and told Jack that ever since he was younger, he didn’t trust him. Phillip help Josh hostage with a gun to his head. Jack wanted him to make a deal with the government but Phillip didn’t believe that he would get immunity. Jack said that if he lets Josh go, he would surrender.

Milo confronted Chloe about Morris drinking and Chloe explained the situation. Jack left Marilyn in the stairs to wait for Josh. He headed up to where his father was waiting and walked out with his hands up stating he was unarmed. Jack walked into a room where his father was waiting with Josh. Phillip asked to see Jack’s ankles for a gun and then told Jack to take one step for every one that Josh took. Jack was alone with his father in the room. Phillip stated he never meant for this to happen. Phillip was blackmailed by Gredenko for his role in the assassination of President David Palmer. Gredenko is a radical nationalist who wanted to preserve an arsenal for when the Soviet Union would be reestablished. Phillip didn’t know that Gredenko sold the bombs to Fayed until after it was detonated and he was looking for Gredenko ever since so that he could stop Fayed. Phillip told Jack that he is a patriot and never wanted this to happen. Phillip said that it was Jack’s fault for turning his back on him. Phillip told Jack to get on his knees and held a gun to the back of his head. Jack apologized for what he did but he needed to go his own way, not his father’s. Jack was waiting for his father to shoot him and when Jack turned around his father was gone. On the ledge outside the room was a phone with a number for Jack to call. Jack called the number to find out that it was Charles Logan. (Former President of the United States charged with treason and for his role in the assassination of David Palmer - Day 5) Logan told Jack that he wanted to meet with him to talk about Gredenko since all of his leads were out. Logan told Jack to come alone and that he was looking forward to meeting with him.

Next Week: 4pm - 5pm
24, Bauer, Charles Logan, jack Bauer, palmer, president, twenty four

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February 19, 2007

Lent: Day 1 - Prayer & Scripture

Posted at: 4:31 pm by Timothy Haroutunian
Categories: Armenia

Today’s Prayer

And now, Christ, maker of all creation,
Son of God on high,
I have been blamed with these words,
and struck with these blows,
please do not reproach me again at the Last Judgment,
you, who are our immortal, almighty king, who does good in ways we cannot understand or express.
Do not reproach me with my self-abasement and
self-accusatory humiliation,
by which I of my own volition condemned
myself relentlessly,
and through this book of psalms confront the face of Satan with his shame,
and strengthen the stamp of your cross upon my face, wretch that I am.

Let the glow of your seal add luster to my countenance,
the sign of your steadfastness be stamped upon my face,
the shape of your cross be fixed upon my cheeks,
the glory of your miraculous work be marked
upon my forehead,
the luster of your seal not be taken from me,
the radiance of your blessing not fade from the
sight of my eyes,
the token of your assurance not be removed
from my head,
the glory of your scripture not waver upon the firm threshold of my mouth,
your praiseworthy armor shield the sentiments
of my heart,
your four-winged radiance spread through the four
elements of my being,
the power of your cross of salvation come to the aid of my outstretched hand, and
may the sanctity of your valor realize the goodness
of the offering for which my hands were made.

Today’s Scripture (Reading)

Isaiah 1:16-20

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Daily Prayer and Scripture taken from the Armenian Church website

armenian church, lent, prayer, readings, scripture

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