Happy 10th Birthday Facebook! Taking Social Media To A New Level

It was 8 years ago that I joined this social media website to stay in touch with family, friends, people in relative to me and people I have met through my travels and beyond. Little did I know, that the circle would get bigger. I met some incredible, beautiful, lovely people from this social media website that I began to meet some of them in person a few years later, which made the world a smaller place. I have yet to meet a few people who I so badly want to meet that I met from other friends on Facebook by merely commenting on a picture or status message and we automatically grew fond of each other, so we added each other and our friendships have blossomed since then.We have become like a family and its an amazing feeling to know that you can take time away from life’s busy schedule and converse and keep updated with your Facebook Family online.

Facebook unites many people around the world. Its incredible on how things fall into place, and see how many people are interested in the same things you are by just joining groups, pages and fan pages of a famous personality, idol, or other miscellaneous things.

Facebook definitely makes the world smaller and in seconds a lot of photos, videos, links, news, sending wishes for birthdays, baby, wedding, engagement, graduation, university announcements, invitations to events and parties, status messages, comments, messages, likes, groups, pages, businesses, food, restaurants, menus, recipes, radio stations, entertainment, movies and other things gets transmitted throughout the world. Sometimes all you need is Facebook to get all your news and information with the help of Links of course. I love Facebook because it’s a website that I am so grateful for and for Mark Zuckerberg who created this so that our communication becomes easier with the world and encountering many people on all walks of life.

Thank you Facebook for Connecting me to the world and to people I would never have met if it wasn’t for you. I am so blessed to have you all on my list and I love you all very much! Mind you, I am very careful with my selections on who I choose to add-on my friends list. I have been around on the Internet since 1997 and I am very well-educated when it comes to social media moguls and everything else.

If anybody has anything bad to say about Facebook, it’s because of the way you use it, Some use it carelessly, some use it to do bad things, some use it to do stupid things. As long as you use Facebook wisely and know what you are doing, and what you are sharing, posting and who you have on your Facebook account, that is good, but do not post every single aspect of your life as it can be misinterpreted. So the bottom line is, if you do not want your personal business on a social media site, do not post it at all because somebody can see it within the second you post it. Some things have to remain private and don’t use Facebook to bully others, hurt or offend other people, Photoshopping in a bad way and making insensitive posts. Post wisely, because each thing you post does not go away, even after deleted. Especially on a Social Media website, that can be accessed by billions of people around the world. So be careful, exercise caution and use it to inspire, to be kind, to do great things with it like communicating, and enjoying it.

Do you use Facebook in a great way? Do you have an account? If so, what are your thoughts about the social media website? What do you like or not like about it? I would love to hear your opinions on it. How can you spread the awareness to use Facebook in a good manner and not use it in the wrong way?

Most about Facebook is good, incredible, and awesome and I believe that Facebook has changed the interface of communications forever. I wish FB Continued success throughout the years. Heres to strengthening communication of people from a distance, and cheers to everlasting friendships through Facebook across the many miles around the world. Happy Birthday Facebook! Heres to another 10 years and beyond!

Facebook Made The World Smaller – So Thankful

Hi everyone, In the past few days I have been thinking a lot about this subject on how Facebook changed my life and in great and positive ways which I will never forget in my life. In the last 4-5 years that I have been actively on Facebook, I started by actively joining groups and pages of which my circle of friends grew bigger especially in the Armenian Community when I joined RADIO AGA which is now Armenian Voice. AGA Stands for Armenian Greek Arabic, and including other pages but with great people of course. I could automatically feel how nice and great those people are by just the way they write, respond and the way they portray themselves on Facebook. I have that sense to know who is real and who is fake.

In the last 3-4 years I have met many of my Facebook friends in many places, events, and Just one on one as well. Its been a great journey with them and its so special to me when we get together. Minutes, seconds and hours count when you are with people you meet from so many places and when you come together its something so incredible. I am ever so grateful for those times spent, although they are short, but they leave an everlasting great impression. It felt great, their voice, their touch, their facial expressions, it is almost identical to what and how they are online, but nothing compares to real togetherness offline and in person. That is how I felt every time. This past weekend I met many people from Facebook for the first time and a few of them I met before in the last few years and it feels incredible. Probably one of the best feelings ever. Facebook has become a special social network for me. I connected with great people whom I can relate to, whom I can easily converse with, whom I can share who I am and not be afraid of anything.

When you make arrangements to meet with Facebook Friends with planning that moment, the anticipation, and being so impatient to look forward to that moment where you first lock eyes, and see each other and know how you both look and that moment is so amazing that you never want to let go of that moment and treasure, cherish and keep it in your heart forever. There have been many times this has happened to me when I met someone from Facebook for the first time. I can’t even put it into words on how precious those moments were for me. I am such a happy person because I love being social, I accept people into my life, but good people though. I automatically feel it. It’s that first gut instinct that puts a great perspective. Another thing is that I do not just add anybody to my Facebook account. I must have been talking to someone for a while to add them.

I am rich beyond compare because I have great and beautiful people in my life. Material things do not do justice to me and my life.

I really dislike the part where you know you have to part again, the time when you are in mixed emotions that make you cry which happens to me, but I know I will meet them and see them again, and until then we can communicate on Facebook all over again. I am ever so grateful and thankful to my Facebook friends whom now I call my brothers and sisters and who are a big part of my family and consider them as part of it. There is just so much to say. Thank you for brightening up my world, thank you for giving me hope when I thought there was none for me, thank you all for giving me that boost, for keeping a smile on my face, for everything. I dedicate a large portion of my life to them. When I was bullied heavily back in the day in school and everything those are the thing of the past, and my Friends now have made me forget those times and those times will never return again. I know it. I am excited for life, happy, and feeling pretty darn well amazing. Blessings to my Friends Brothers/Sisters. I salute, cheers to you all.

The 2013 Armenian Toronto ACC Summerfest Was A Great Success

This year from July 12, until the 14th, 2013 The Armenian Community Center of Toronto held a huge party under the tent for the Armenian community and this year was the 17th season. This year like from the year our Summerfest have begun, they have become a great success from bringing many known Armenian and International Performers from Dancers, to Singers, Comedians, Radio Broadcasters and so many more surprises that occur each year. The Armenian Summerfest is held at the Armenian Community Youth Center Parking lot.

This year many Armenian singers from Los Angeles, Lebanon, Cambridge Ontario, Montreal, and other places attended and sang at our Summerfest and they are Ararad Aharonian, Khoren Mouradian, Onnig Dinkjian our folk Traditional Singer, Kevork Artinian, Armenchik, and Andy Madadian with their bands that graced our stage with their incredible and beautiful talent in our Armenian Culture singing a variety of songs from slow to fast and while the crowd was dancing traditional Armenian Dances as well as just dancing with family, friends and enjoying our time with our Armenian community. Some of the performers also did a duet on stage as well which blew the crowd away and people were dancing like no tomorrow. We were then Broadcasted live from our Radio Station present and that is Setrak Garabedian who traveled from Montreal, and his radio station is called TrikTrak With Setrak and he updated and tuned those people who were unable to join at the Summerfest across the world so they too can enjoy with us.

The purpose of the Armenian Summerfest is to bring the Armenian community together, to strengthen our bonds, to make new friends, to reuniting people who have not seen each other in a while, and nowadays people meet each other on Facebook and make friends on the social networking site and people connect in person together for the first time or many times before and it makes Summerfest to be a smaller world when people reunite together. People of All ages were in attendance at the Summerfest which made us into one big happy family of our Community. a few thousand people were in attendance this year.

There were many vendors and traditional cultural Armenian and Middle Eastern Food and Desserts for people to enjoy while at the summerfest, there was also a Kids area where there was deflatable playing centers, Along with Cotton Candy, Ice Cream, and So many things to do for people of all ages.

I am glad that I attended all 3 nights and I got to reunite with my Friend whom I call a sister from Montreal, I got to see my friend from Boston who I had not seen since last year, and I saw all my facebook friends and some I met for the first time. It was so incredible and It was special time. I had such a great time and My face was always smiling and I was just so happy all around.

I would like to personally thank the Organizing committee of the Annual Summerfest and I appreciate all the hard work, commitment, dedication, nights and days that are put to pull of a huge event with renting of the big tent, organizing and planning the performers, the food, the communications, advertising committees and so many more things that go into planning an event. Thanks again and I am excited for the 18th year in 2014. Thanks for a fun weekend. Until next time.

Reuniting With A Very Special Person in My Life

Hello all, I am filled with excitement tonight as in a couple of hours, I will be reuniting with a great, close, special friend whom I call my sister for so many years now is coming to see me and I am so overwhelmed with happiness as she is getting near to my town to see me. It is the greatest feeling ever. I have not seen her since February 26, 2012 when I last visited Montreal and I am just so overly excited to see her again. I miss her so much and this is going to be a great reunion and we have so much catching up to do, and creating more memories. Those times we used to see each other 2-3 weeks at a time and I remember how much we used to see each other back in the day, but again it will feel great to be together instead of always messaging each other on Facebook, and text messages. Time to finally be physically together which is so much more awesome.

I am jumping for joy. When she told me she is coming this past week, I got so happy, emotional, and joyful at the same time and it was a feeling I will never forget. We may not be sisters in blood, but were sisters at heart, mind and soul, and I consider her part of my family. She is one of the most important people in my life and she has a big place in my heart, my world, my life and everything in my being. I have been awake all night and will pick her up in an hour and 40 minutes from now. I am super duper hyped up about this and so much time we have to make up for all the lost ones in from February, 2012, and up until today. Well, I must go, but time to get ready and time to enjoy. I feel like I am going to cry with happiness when I see her, so I gotta prepare myself :).

The Armenian Youth Getaway in Kingston, Ontario Was A Great Success – June 1-3, 2012

On Friday June 1st, 2012, around 63 or more people From Montreal and Toronto embarked on buses to North of Kingston, at Camp Iawah, in Godfrey Ontario to reunite with friends, to make new friends, to share, to also learn about Armenian Religion and to learn about our faith and community a lot more. Since this year is the 500th anniversary of the printing of Armenian Books and literature, this time we dedicated it all to that. We discussed the importance of Armenian Language, to speak and write Armenian, and why it is important to keep our culture, and heritage alive. On Friday night June 1st, we had arrived at Camp Iawah, and we began with an Orientation, then we all go our room numbers where we are going to sleep, but what sleep? We had little or no sleep at all, all weekend. Who goes to a Youth Getaway and sleeps right? It’s just for a weekend. Then afterwards we all met up in the conference room and we played an ice breaker game called get to know others bingo. So we had to go around the room and find someone similar to what month were born, what type of music we like, where each of us were born, and when it was all done, someone had to call bingo. It was a fun start to the weekend. After that we did our night prayer then we had free time.

On Saturday June 2nd, 2012, we woke up, had our morning prayer, then breakfast. After breakfast we had a few discussions, followed by lunch, after lunch we did a lot of sporting and outdoor activities such as canoeing, soccer, rock climbing, basketball, and among other games. After all that we had dinner and after dinner we had a strong debate on the importance of reading and writing Armenian and it was a heated one to two hours of it, but we sure did learn a lot from it, and how important it is to learn a new language so on and so forth. After that we had some time to spend outdoors again around a bonfire we made and we danced, sang, and just enjoyed each others company with cookies and hot chocolate. After we went back toward the building we were staying in and we had a karaoke night, it was such a great time. After everyone did their own thing and people were awake all hours of the night. including myself. I got like 4 hours sleep all weekend. Now, I am paying for that.

In conclusion, the whole weekend was an incredible experience for me again. This was my 3rd time attending the Youth Weekend getaway and it was nice to see my friends from Montreal. My Montreal circle keeps getting bigger and bigger and Its so awesome to see. Thanks to all the Organizers of this beautiful and great trip we had. It is not an easy task to plan and to organize events. I appreciate all those who worked so hard to make sure that we all are taken care of, we all had a great time and we made memories to last a lifetime. I mean that is what it’s all about right? Making friends, making memories, sharing our lives with others, and just going with the flow in life. All the best and I cannot wait until the next Getaway. It needs to come back fast because I miss everyone already. I am hoping I make a trip to Montreal soon to see my friends and hang out with everyone. All the best to the Armenian Religious Education Council (AREC) and thank you again for a beautiful weekend which I will never forget. God bless everyone.