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Been a while since my last post, mainly because I have been bummed out as of late. My focus has shifted towards EVE Online, a space-based MMORPG that kicks ass. Anyway, I wanted to shed some light on my upcoming trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, which is this January 24th to the 28th. The flight cost me roughly 180.00$ for both ways, as I used my AeroPlan miles to pay for the trip. What I actually paid for was the airport and flight taxes. All in all, quite cheap, yes? The hotel of course is another 200-300$ (staying at a Best Western) along with a car rental (another 100$ for a Dodge Charger). The reason why I’m going to Vancouver is because a good friend of mine is getting engaged to his girlfriend that lives there. They met about 2 years ago and have been ‘dating’ since. I don’t know how some people manage long distance relationships, but alas, it’s not my cup of tea. Regardless, I wish them the best, and I look forward to the party. Oh, I’ll also check out Whistler while I’m there and do some snowboarding.

This past holiday, I was mainly with family and friends. Since I’m Armenian, we celebrate our true Christmas on the 6th of January (which was two days ago). It consists of families getting together and eating a lot of good food. I must’ve gained quite a few pounds from this holiday season! New Years consisted of the same thing with the same people (just a different house). After the ball dropped, I went to my friends’ house at about 2:30 AM on New Years Day and had a few drinks with the guys. A decent New Years, but wasn’t as crazy as the time I went to the Bell Centre to check out some famous tech DJs.

Oh, I bought some Sennheiser PXC 250 Noise-Canceling headphones for trip to Vancouver. I will be writing a review about them when I get back.

Long time since I did an update, mostly because I had nothing important to say. I should write down a few things today so I can look back once the future rolls out to see what I did at the time back then.

First off, I’m hitting up Denmark, Sweden and Norway for 18 days this month. I’m leaving tomorrow at about 7:00 PM on a KLM flight with my parents and brother. The last time I flew with KLM was when I went to Turkey for a whole 2 months to visit my grandmother. I recall the flying experience with KLM to be pretty damn good (I’d say second best airline, after Swiss in my opinion). The only downside to this flight is that there will be a transfer in Amsterdam for a second flight to Norway (I much rather a direct flight). Hopefully everything goes by smoothly and no delays occur.

One thing I would like to mention is that this travel is a tour organized by Globus. Last time I toured with them (in the United Kingdom) I swore to never use their services again for the sheer fact that your liberty to explore the cities/countries at your own pace is strictly limited. Don’t get me wrong; the whole tour was fantastic but I felt like we were rushing at times and that most of the traveling was done on a bus going around the city with few stops. Why am I going back with Globus again, you may ask? Well, I don’t really want to miss out on this golden opportunity to visit these countries as I may not be able to travel to Europe again for a while (rising prices are discouraging my parents to fly out East…) so I should really enjoy it while I can. Anyway, the food and luxurious hotels really do kick ass.

I am going to miss my friends, however, for the 18 days that I will be gone. I’m heading out for some sushi tonight with the boys before I disappear from Montreal. Another thing I would like to mention is that I wish I didn’t miss out on the camping trip organized by ACYOC Toronto. If they had stuck to the same schedule like they did for the past 4 years of my participation, I wouldn’t be missing out on a wonderful experience (especially since more of my friends are going this year). I even told my mother not to book our trip at the end of August for the sole fact that I can go camping again this year. Damn shame…

The past two months have been pretty slow, both at work and at home. I need to push SPOS on our existing clients and seek new business opportunities. I’d like to have more time to myself to do projects of my own. My strength training workouts stopped last week when I sprained my ankle (first time ever!). Bleh.

The invitation website that I’m working on with Seb and Dave is slowly coming together. There’s still a lot of stuff to code, but Dave and I have an overall plan on what to do first to get the ball rolling. If I have any spare time on my trip, I should be able to code a large portion of the site (I’m thinking those long bus rides between cities might be a good time to do some programming).

Wow, a lot of topics covered in this post. Time to get some sleep for tomorrow’s adventure.

Last week, I came back from Varadero, Cuba. I went with 8 other friends and had a blast. This is the fourth time I visit Cuba and only the second time where I got to experience its nightlife. Now, by all means, Varadero’s nightlive does not compare to Montreal, but it’s still an entertaining scene. I have to admit, I felt mentally and physically refreshed after I came back from the trip. I managed to get some work done and my stress levels have dropped tremendously. I wish I could do this every 6 months!

During the day, my time was spent on the beach. Actually, most of it was spent in the ocean and getting a nice tan on the face. The Cuban beach and ocean do wonders to the body. I notice all my cuticles had disappeared and my nails were super clean. Not that I manicure my nails, but having nice hands like that really do catch the eye.

At night, it was all party (mostly drinking). Some of the clubs we visited included The Pirate’s Cave, The Beach Club/Bar, and International (or Continental) . The first two clubs were fantastic, the first one literally being held in a freshly cooled cave. The second bar was an outdoor (but covered) terrass next to the wonderful Cuban beach. The third club, however, was a flop as there was no air conditioning and the place was packed to the max. The wait times at the bar was also a total disaster: it took me about 15 minutes to purchase a rum and coke! I have to say, I had a lot of fun simply hanging out at the local hotel bar with my buddies and drinking the night away (with some nice Cuban cigars being smoked too). I look forward to those nights everyday now after coming home.

So it’s been a while since my last post. Sarotech recently moved its offices to a bigger place (same building) so for the past month and I haven’t had the time of day to update any of my websites. The new place had to be painted from top to bottom, new flooring had to be installed as the carpet was garbage, and Ethernet had to be passed through every room. Well, after a month of work, it’s finally done. There are a few more things to do of course (need to build shelves!) but since Monday, we have officially moved and kicking business into high gear. The new place totally kicks ass and definitely makes Sarotech look like a software development company.

Last Sunday, Chloe photographed me (professionally!) with a suit on. I always wanted to be in a photo-shoot and my wish came true. I can now say that I have some great pictures of me with a suit on. I will be posting pictures as soon as I get them from her. Thanks Chloe!

If the news hasn’t already been passed around yet, the major announcement is that I am dropping out of school for an indefinite period of time. Well, it’s more like a 1 year off thing from the looks of it, as I may pursue University again next semester, perhaps taking 1 class per semester during the day (I really can’t take night school… makes me want to try Modafinil out). Why did I drop out? I got really bored of the subject matter. I also fall asleep in class because of my long work hours with my dad. Anyway, I much rather concentrate on my dad’s business and work on Holiday Sources instead with my site partner. I can’t wait to see where it will take us.