Leo-Paul has finally arrived!

2 more weeks, but we are ready NOW...

A great lunch at Benoit and Andre. As usual!

We are all waiting for you !

My Aram Family!

My dad, my auntie Sanam, Grand'pa and Grand'ma and my uncle Pedram.

Auntie Sanam, Grand'ma and my aunt Janet.


Auntie Sanam, Grand'pa and Grand'ma and Mommy.

I am 7 months old, and I look really good already! J'ai 7 mois !

Here We Are At 6 months! Nous voila a 6 mois !

I am still in black and white... But soon I'll be full of colors!

This is me!

C'est moi !

My Parents! - Mes parents ! (and me...)

Look Alike? - Un air de ressemblance?

Now We Know! - On sait a qui on a a faire !

Yes, I am a boy!

La preuve par l'image !

The Belly - Le ventre

At 17 weeks already, this is what we looked like!


A 17 semaines ! Nous voici deja avec un gros bidon.

We Established Contact!

We did establish contact last night at about 2am. While both of us could not sleep, little one decided to give his daddy a high five. To which daddy answer "I felt it moving!".

Nous avons etabli le contact vers 2 heures du matin la nuit derniere, alors que nous ne pouvions pas dormir ni l'un ni l'autre. Notre petit miracle a donne un coup de pied/poing juste sous la main de son papa. C'etait bien sur la grande surprise.

Our little miracle!

There is the little miracle! We have to wait some more to find out if it's a boy or a girl, but either way, we are super excited.

Voici notre petit miracle! Il faudra attendre encore un peu pour savoir si c'est un bilou ou une biloute. Peu importe, on est tres heureux.

1.54 Dollar = 1 Euro - Its still going up!!

Just an update on the state of the Dollar versus the Euro.
It is slowing down, but still going up...

The Podcast Experiment

Click on "The Pod Cast Experiment" to listen to my podcast

I think to create an effective Podcast you have to be pretty skilled at understanding how sounds are perceived, doing too much can quickly override whatever is said and doing too little makes a long Podcast sound pretty boring.
All together I enjoyed learning about Podcasting and I found it was relatively easy, even though I couldn't figure out the Subscribe feed part... I have posted a question on our forum if anyone wants to try to help me out... Thanks in advance.
Not too many Podcasts have been posted so far, but the one I really liked is Solveig's. She added 2 sound effects that were perfect with her text, the wave for San Diego and the ticking clock for her excitement over the visit of her friend.

As far as the blogs I have read, I have to be honest and say that most are interesting for someone who knows the author, but otherwise I found most blogs to be dull. On the other hand, Iliked Amanda's, she wrote about an article she read and that has triggered some serious comments and frictions... which I think is good.

I can definitely see the use of a Blog in my life: my family is in France and writing 3 different emails that pretty much say the same things could be replaced by a blog update... that would be great. On the other hand because it is posted for the whole world to see I might not speak as freely as I would in an email.
I can see why a certain organization or society would use a Blog, it is a good way to keep people involved and exchanging ideas, while not being together, but that is a little scary too. I like to have conversations with my friends and more than what they say their body language tells me a lot. I am concerned with physical isolation in this society, we are social creature and I don't think that online social life can do enough for me. But it might for others maybe, I don't know.

Also, writing anonymously might make some people feel they can say whatever without any consideration for others because they do not face them directly.
That's an interesting subject, how people will express themselves on a blog rather than in 'real life'. There must be some studies on that somewhere...

"Get Lost Asshole!" or "Piss Off Poor Idiot!" ?

Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has been caught on video during his visit to the yearly agricultural trade show in Paris insulting a visitor who refused to shake his hand.

Shocking!
Yes, but since Sarkozy has been elected president in May of 2007, he has been on the front page of every French people magazine and his life has been commented as if he was a celebrity.
So, in France, people are getting used to his controversial ways:
He announced his divorce from Cecilia a few month after the election, but remarried Carla Bruni only 2 months after his divorce (who gets married after 2 months? ...). He already lost it while visiting striking fishermen, and dared one of the man to come and explain himslef face to face. Got drunk with Putin and then gave a press conference, and so on...

Of course this new incident has been reported for days in France and comments have varied. Some said it was a shame the president couldn't control himself, some said it showed a macho exchange between two 'real' men, some said it was just one more mistake by our president, and some don't really care.

Whatever it is, it has started a craze, the "Casses toi pauvre con" move.
Now the problem is to translate the comments correctly in English and other languages so that everyone can be amazed at our president.
The original altercation goes:
- Ah non ne me touche pas tu me salis!
(Don't touch me, you're making me dirty!)
- Casse toi alors, pauvre con!
('Get Lost Asshole!' or 'Piss Off Poor Idiot!' or 'Then get lost, you poor jerk!' or 'Get lost, you stupid bastard!' in English.
In Italian: 'Ai via, vai via, allora, povero coglione!".
In Spanich: 'Rajá, pobre pelotudo!'
In German: 'Dann hau doch ab, Du armseliger Dummkopf!' or 'Dann hau doch ab, du Blödmann!'.
In Polish: 'Spieprzaj dziadu!'.)

Is this that big of a deal? I don't think so.
As the president we expect him to be flawless, but let's be realistic, everyone know he was a feisty little thing before he became the president. I don't think there is any surprise here, the man is not going to change, but his approval rate has sinked from 67% in July of 2007 to a tiny 37% today. Not good!!

1 in 100 American Adult is in Prison

There are 1.6 millions adults in American prisons, plus 723,000 in local jails says the latest Pew Report. (http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/uploadedFiles/One%20in%20100.pdf).

The report points out that ethnicity and gender seem to play a role with 1 in 36 Hispanic male is behind barres, while 1 in 15 African American male is in that same situation, and a choking 1 in 9 black men between the ages of 20 and 34. As for women: 1 in 355 white women between the ages of 35 and 39 is behind bars, compared with 1 in 100 black women.

We could hope that with that many people incarcerated the country's public safety would be better? But it is not, according to Susan Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center, instead she says "We tend to be a country in which incarceration is an easy response to crime".
The problem is that it is the only answer, and that it should discriminate between the type of offenses, there should not be " 5,500 D.W.I offenders in prison" and other non violent offenders should be on parole doing community work for example. Something productive or educational, isn't it a correctional facility after all.

"The United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world. China is second, with 1.5 million people behind bars."

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/us/29prison.html?ref=todayspaper)

1.52 Dollar = 1 Euro

on February 27, 2008

The Euro has reached new height on Wednesday, for the first time in its history has a value of 1.5225 dollars.

The Euro is not particularly strong, the dollar is weak because of the economic situation of the country. In a way, it will be beneficial for business as US might export a lot more than usual; on the other hand everything that needs to be bought abroad will be particularly expensive.
Europe is also concerned with the strength of the Euro because it reduces its competitiveness on the world market.

Some companies have decided to stipulate an exchange rate at the signature of contract, this is backed by banks who act as 'insurance companies', because by the time the delivery arrives the exchange rate might have fluctuate so much that the benefices are lost.

Some more of that delicious cloned meat?

The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of meat from cloned animals on Jan. 18, 2008.

"The federal Food and Drug Administration has concluded that meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats, and the offspring of clones from any species traditionally consumed as food, are as safe to eat as food from conventionally bred animals, the agency announced.

The FDA says an animal clone is a genetic copy of a donor animal, "similar to an identical twin, but born at a different time."

Due to their cost and rarity, clones are intended to be used as elite breeding animals to introduce desirable traits into herds more rapidly than would be possible using conventional breeding."

Let's also remember that the meat will not be labeled as coloned meat, so there won't be any way for consumers to know that they actually are eating offsprings of cloned animals.

So many ethical questions come to mind:
1. Do I want to eat cloned meat?
2. Do I not want to know when I eat cloned meat?
3. Am I contemplating becoming a vegetarian?
4. Is it OK to eat cloned meat because the FDA says so?
5. ...

(thanks to: www.ens-newswire.com)

Here comes my first blog!!

Welcome to my blog!

Wow, who would have thought I'd ever have a blog? Not me.

I'll try to make it interesting.
Let's see...