Everything around us affects us. Our experiences, the experiences of others, and everything that is captured by our senses affects us. Let’s call these the external stimuli. Now, let’s say for reasons known or unknown you’re really sad (market crashing is a good enough reason for me). What can you do about it? I have found one solution that seems to work for me. I use the external stimuli to my advantage. Since I know that I’m affected by everything around me, I change something to affect me in a …

Having experienced the house building process, I have learned a lot and wanted to share a few thoughts here in case you ever face the dilemma of building vs. buying. There is an Armenian saying that every man must “plant a tree, have a child, and build a house.” I think the last one is questionable in the literal sense (though in the saying it’s really about making a home for a family)…

“Father! – to God himself we cannot give a holier name.” ~ William Wordsworth
My father has been helping me fix up a few things at the house over the past few weekends. The ride there is about forty minutes. I’m sure in hindsight these will be some of the most special times of my life. When we get into the car, we are not yet tired and talk about interesting topics, our mother, life in general, world politics, his life, real estate, anything and everything. Yesterday I noticed that I …

Words… amazing words… Some words recently stick in my mind and do not leave me alone as if reminding me of their special and unique meaning. These words are all around us and we use them without fully considering the reasons for their usage. One such word I heard today while talking to a classmate was “ծույլիկ” which literally translated from Armenian means “lazy.” In school we always had kids who did not do well in class. Sometimes these kids would also get into fights or create trouble but often …

As I was driving to work a couple days ago, a strange question came into my mind. Why am I so different from so many men who enjoy working on their cars? They like to keep their vehicles clean, engines bright, and wheels shining. Many men (around the globe) spend hours on their cars while also dreaming of owning better cars. Being fairly mechanically inclined, I am sure I could fix just about any issue in a car but I don’t even have the interest, let alone the tools. I …