December 25, 2008
"Merry Christmas From Heaven"
My mother received this yesterday from the funeral home in memory of my father.
December 17, 2008
Turkish Intellectuals Apologize For Armenian Genocide
Turkish intellectuals and academics apologized for the Armenian Genocide that took place in 1915. Now this doesn’t mean that the Turkish nationalists agree and they will recognize it as a genocide tomorrow. In fact, the Turkish nationalists are furious with the group for apologizing to Armenians around the world. However, this is the start of a chain reaction that will hopefully soon turn into a full blown genocide recognition. Many aspects of this issue has changed in the last couple of months.
In April 2008, Serzh Sargsyan took office as the newly elected President of Armenia. In September 2008, Abdullah Gül (President of Turkey) created a serious debate in Turkey because he visited the new President of Armenia during a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries. He was the first Turkish leader to visit bordering Armenia and hoped that it could be the beginning diplomatic normalization. The Turkish border has been closed from Armenia since 1993 and now with the ever changing world, we might see that border open soon.
In October 2007, George Bush (current US President) vetoed the bill that would have recognized the Armenian genocide in the United States because he wanted the Turkish airspace for the Iraq war. Now that Barack Obama is our 44th President, he has openly stated that he will be the President that will recognize the Armenian Genocide.
I believe that many Turkish intellectuals are now realizing that if the US recognizes it on the federal level, there is nothing stopping other countries from following. The Turkish people would deny it as long as the US doesn’t recognize the genocide, but since everything in the world will be changing, they will have to adapt.
Finally, the 1.5 million Armenian-Americans can receive recognition for their family member who were murdered by the Ottoman “Young” Turks in 1915. In my family tree, there are 17 family members who were killed by the Turks in 1915 and only 5 of the survived which included both my great-grandparents.
December 13, 2008
Red Sox Meet With Mark Teixeira In Las Vegas
With time running out on making deals with Mark Teixeira, the Red Sox traveled to the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas to try and come to an agreement for 2009. The Angels have just offered the top offensive first baseman an 8 year, at least $160 million contract and the Red Sox don’t want to let him go. He would be an excellent addition to the team and Theo will do everything he can to “get his man”….again. Not only will he help with defense, but he is a highly trained offensive weapon that will fill the empty 3-4 slot that opened up when Manny left. I mean, Lowell is amazing and so is Youk, but I think that they could rewrite the lineup and make a solid 7-8 players.
Teixeira, 28, has hit at least 30 homers and driven in at least 105 runs in each of the past five seasons. After being acquired from the Braves before the trading deadline this past season, Teixeira hit .358 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs in 54 games with the Angels.
In my opinion, the only way that the Sox will have a chance at winning the division and the World Series is with Mark Teixeira in the lineup. I know the Sox can do it without him, but I think it will be so much easier with him.
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December 11, 2008
NESN’s Comedy All Stars: Live Taping Review
Last night I went to go see “NESN Comedy All Stars” with my best friend Kristin. This show is dedicated to sports comedy in the Boston area that is sponsored by NESN (New England Sports Network). They were free tickets from Ticketmaster since I just bought other tickets and I figured that it would be something different for us to do instead of getting dinner or just hanging out. I saw the show last season and it was alright, but not extremely funny. However, this live performance was absolutely amazing. When we arrived, we went up to the Mezzanine seats and were pretty far back, but one of the ushers escorted us to the box seats to the right of the stage overlooking it. They were amazing seats and I was extremely impressed.
Tommy Davidson, from “In Living Color”, was the host for the night. He not only made the crowd including Kristin and I laugh, but he made himself laugh a couple of times. He kept interrupting the stage manager when he was trying to countdown to taping and each time it was even funnier.
Iliza Shlesinger was one of the comedians that performed last night and she was awesome. In case you were wondering, she was the “Last Comic Standing” winner of season 6. She has two major qualities, she’s extremely hot and VERY funny.
The live taping of the show was really interesting. In one night, they taped three shows and made it seem like they were actually three different nights. Tommy Davidson was wearing different shirts and they closed out every third comic with saying goodnight and then they introduced him again two minutes later. There is one section of the show where they play something that is pre-recorded and they asked us not to clap after Tommy introduced it.
Overall the night was great and we had a lot of fun. Watch for season 2 of “NESN’s Comedy All Stars” which airs I believe Friday nights after Red Sox games (next season obviously).
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December 05, 2008
OJ Simpson Sentenced To Maximum 33 Years In Prison
When you hear the name OJ Simpson, what do you think of? Some people would say a great football player…up until June 12, 1994 when he was accused of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. From that point on, he was only considered by most, including me, a murderer. So he becomes involved in the “trial of the century” which ended in October 1995 where he was found not guilty. He is then brought up on civil charges where he was found guilty and has to pay $33.5 million in damages.
After the trial, he was hated by most Americans and lost “a lot” of his money. Let’s jump forward about 10 years. Let’s recap! OJ Simpson gets away with 2 counts of murder and then he thinks everything will be fine when he and a group of men rob someone at gun point over some sports memorabilia. Really OJ? You didn’t think to yourself that you might get caught.
Today he was sentenced to 33 years in prison with eligibility for parole in 9 years. First of all, he should not be allowed parole and be in jail for the rest of his life. I was talking to a friend of mine and I told him: “All his life, he was told don’t drop the football. Now it’s going to be don’t drop the soap.”
Have fun OJ!!!
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December 04, 2008
Scammers On Craigslist Are Fun To Mess With
Don’t be fooled by scammers on Craigslist. I was selling my 1987 Jeep Wrangler hard top on Craigslist and got a reply back from someone interested. When I sent him a reply, this is what I got.
Hello,
Thanks for your mail and i will like to affirm that i am really interested in your items and will like to inform you that my only mode of paying you is by mailing you certified bank check and if you are ok with that… you can get back to me with your home address.. Payee name that will be on check and a valid phone number ( no voice mail number) … and as soon as you receive the check and it goes through then i will now send my shipper for the pickup of the item asap….
thanks
First of all, he said “items” and I was only talking about one thing. Second, if his only way to pay you is a certified check, there is something wrong. I may be mean to telemarketers and scammers, but it is fun sometimes. This is my exact response to his reply.
My response
No. Cash or no deal. Don’t even get me started on how this is fraud. If you send me anything, I will send it right back. If I get spam from you, let me inform you that I am a technology freak and will use it to my advantage. Nice try, but you didn’t get me. So if you are paying me in cash, is it going to be $300 in pounds or US dollars considering I tracked this back to an IP address in the UK. Just wondering how you would pick it up and mail it. Seems like it would be easier just to give me $5000 in cash and I can punch you in the face for being an idiot.
December 03, 2008
Post-Commit Hooks With Subversion On Dreamhost
When I was working at my old job, we started using Subversion (SVN) as our versioning software which I really enjoyed. Now that I am working on my own web application, I am using SVN as well. Currently I am using Dreamhost for my hosting and they have SVN pre-installed on their servers, all you need to do is activate it. The installation is very easy through the web panel, however, if you want to get more advanced, you will need to know basic command line.
I wanted to setup SVN so that when I commit to the server, it automatically updates the site with the newest content. Normally you have to manually go in and update the site to the latest revision. After reading through the Dreamhost Wiki, I found out how to accomplish this in only about 5-6 quick steps. I say quick in the fact that if you do it right it is quick. I had a few issues based on false information in the wiki, but I finally got it working and they updated the article.
Once I got it working, I tested it out and it worked wonders. It made my life a lot easier because not only was it one less step, but I didn’t have to go into command line after every save and commit. If you are using SVN, I would highly recommend establishing a post-commit hook so that you can save time and energy.
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December 01, 2008
Today Marks Two Consecutive Year Of Blogging
I have been blogging consistently for the last two years and it has been great, but I have a feeling that some of my content has been fading a little bit. I am going to try to cut back on blogging just to blog and try to focus on my content. I am three posts away from my 1,000th post and when I started this consecutive streak, I was at 190 posts. I have put out around 800 posts in the last two years. I will still try to blog frequently, but not as much.
Thank you to everyone who reads this blog!
