old hat

This posting has been moved from armenia07.blogspot.com because of a disgruntled reader

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 17:24:25 GMT

copied from armenia07.blogspot.com
Note - This Blog post was updated on 6/3/7 - additions are at the bottom
So I came on this Armenia trip for a few reasons:
1) To go to Armenia
2) To go to London
3) To observe the large amounts of social work and philanthropy being done in Armenia.

There are projects such as the Children of Armenia Fund's Model Cluster Project which has been hailed as "the first integrated rural development program implemented in Armenia and recognized by international aid agencies as an exemplary template of sustainable development" and make Armenia an exciting place to be in terms of social entrepreneurship.

I have committed my last week toward educating myself to all the different projects here in Armenia, their effectiveness, and introducing the contacts I know here with each other in order that they might be even more effective. The following is a journal of this journey. (This stuff might eventually need its own blog but at the risk of overwhelming you - Erik, Here is my post):

ARDA - Lazarian World Home Insulated Concrete Form Pilot Project

This project is a pilot program to test the viability of creating hundreds of small homes ~64 sq meters for $5000-$15000 USD apiece. You can view the World Home building plans here: Point Loma Armenian Center Projects. This is the core project I was helping with on this trip (and what the majority of this entire blog is about). The website will be updated when George Fermanian and a couple other people get together back in the US and discuss what improvements to the building manual and process should be made.

Habitat for Humanities Armenia - ARDA Cooperative
I came to Armenia in 2005 with Bel Air Presbyterian's Habitat for Humanity team. That time I met Gohar Palyan from habitat and I have kept in contact with her since. Steve Lazarian was interested in cooperating with Habitat so I arranged a meeting with Ashot - the Habitat Engineer, Meri - Another friend who works at habitat, Robert Galey - Armenia Center Director at Point Loma, Dr. Walter Bradley - Engineering Professor at Baylor University, Steve Lazarian, and myself. It was very educational and promising as far as cooperation for ARDA and Habitat. Here are the notes from that meeting:

1) Steve was able to clear 24 containers in 1-2 weeks and the ones to gumri were cleared in 3 days because of his non-profit status.
2)Habitat gives their homes extra room in the roof so that the owner can expand in the future. They are building 80-100 sq meter houses.
3) The Millennium fund is to create jobs and enliven the work place. It may be possible to use these funds to build 10,000,000 dram houses (30,000 USD) and make a window & door factory.
4) Steve has sites in Gumri for a factory
5) The organizations giving free shipping to ARDA won't ship them unless the value inside the container is of enough value
6) The labor for insulated cement forms (icf) would be 20% of the labor for toof/cement/toof (tct) buildings
7) R-values for tct are 5 while R-values for icf are upwards of 20
8)Projected Materials costs for icf are $21 USD (7350 AMD) per square meter while materials cost for tct are $16 USD (5600 AMD)
9) Construction takes 5-6 months for the fastest tct and under 2 weeks for icf
10) We can get 20 foot containers from the east coast for $3000 USD
11) The state department who has donated shipping for 9 containers for Arda will only ship them if the contents are valued at $50,000 USD or more
12) Armenia Fund gives 20 containers to ARDA but they want to know the contents
13) There is enough demand in Armenia to start a whole company just for pvc extrusion (topic brought up because of the costs of materials in Armenia are more than three times the cost in the states)
14) It would be best for ARDA and Habitat to have their own icf factory here and import the equipment needed to run it
15) Habitat was interested in starting their own production of doors, windows, and cement stuffs in order to lower costs and possibly make profit to supplement donors
16) Pre-hung inner wood doors are 46,000 dram ($131 USD) at cost and 64,000 dram ($182 USD) at market
17) Habitat uses iron doors for the outside door with glass and a lock it costs 100,000 dram ($285 USD) or 130,000 dram ($371 USD) at market
18) The doors and windows workshop that currently provides habitat with doors and windows at cost is located in Talin
19) A double-pane wood window costs 55,000 dram ($157 USD) at cost and 80,000 dram ($228 USD) if it were sold at market - but no one other than luxury window makers create wood windows
20) ARDA has 7 people working on customs at their warehouse
21) It would cost habitat about 10,000,000 dram ($30,000 USD) today to build a 80-100 sq meter house for their beneficiaries today.
22) Walls on Habitat's tct houses are two sets of 18 centimeter toof walls with 4 centimeters of concrete poured in between them for a total of 40 centimeter thick walls
23) It costs only 1200 dram ($3.50 USD) per sq meter for tct building materials
24) Habitat would start building new homes if they cost $9000 USD (3,000,000 AMD) because with that same amount they are currently charging to finish the roof and inside of incomplete houses around Armenia
25) The speed of the icf building process would allow Habitat to do blitz builds which were previously impossible with the tct building technique
26) Habitat bases their target of $9000 USD (3,000,000 AMD) off of the amount of income a family could generate growing and selling fruit and vegetables from their land to make the mortgage payment each month over 20 years
27) Each roof and inside finish actually costs Habitat 4,000,000 dram ($11,500 USD) to do but they only charge the beneficiaries $9000 USD (3,000,000 dram).
28) The Republic of Armenia gives tax exemption to NGO's and also offers subsidies in strategically important areas such as near borders where people might be tempted to emigrate.
29) 20-30% of Habitat for Humanity Armenia's budget comes from the National Habitat for Humanity organization and the rest is fund raising
30) There are people who could afford the $30,000 USD (10,000,000 AMD) cost that it currently costs Habitat to build a new house if they are donor recipients but Habitat would rather use that same amount of money to fix half built homes because they can do three of those for the same cost of one new house and there are thousands of half-built houses still in Armenia.
31) Habitat gets $1000 USD (350,000 AMD) per family in Vadnazar from the Mayor to help with their houses
32) Habitat has a 20 year max repayment period on the half built homes
33) The money that is repaid is put back into Habitat projects and is currently enough to cover 1 house per month
34) It is now about $50,000 USD for apartments in Yerevan that used to go for $5,000 because of inflation and the weakening of the US dollar here
35) 1 hectare to build 10 houses would cost $40-50 us dollars (14,000-17,500 AMD) per sq meter at market rates and $10-12 US Dollars (3,500 4,200 AMD) per square meter if bought directly from the government at cost in Yerevan
36) Outside of Yerevan the land is mostly owned by the people themselves and other land is often donated if an organization wants to develop it.
37) Habitat repayment is 97%
38) Habitat administrative overhead is 4%
39) Habitat gets roof tile that can handle 100 kilos and costs $1,500 USD (525,000 dram) for an 80 sq meter roof
40) Pergo costs $10 US dollars per square foot but Steve gets a lot of it for free
41) Ashot of Habitat said that he would like to try building one house together with Arda
42) Steve said that he has to use this icf technology because he has already raised money for specifically icf houses
43) If we were able to secure a factory and equipment, production of the icf block might start as early as in 9 months.

HABIARM - My friends in the Habitat for Humanities Armenia Youth Group
Habiarm is a great group of students who I met last time I was here in 2005. At that time none of them could get jobs but now almost everyone has one! I think that is a good sign for the economy. The three sisters: Ani, Anush, and Sona have started a singing group with a couple other girls and they have already gotten on the radio - good for them! I am meeting with them tonight and introducing Erik and Matt to them as well has Harout Nercessian and Manoog Kaprelian who are both interested in meeting them in order to get a good perspective of the college student's view toward the future of Armenia.

I can't wait to see them again!

AMAA - Visiting Belle Ashodian's (my Grandmother) Beneficiary Families
Harout insisted that I visit some of the families that my Grandmother supports from home and I am glad I did. I got to see the conditions of an elderly couple, a family with 9 kids, a widow and her son, and a family who's father has gone abroad in order to get a job. I took pictures and sent them to my Grandmother.

I found out that AMAA (the Armenian Missionary Association of America) has had a hard time reconciling the fact that the US dollar doesn't go as far as it used to about 5 years ago. My Grandmother has been donating $10 USD (3,000 dram) to families once a month for a long time now. That $10 used to be worth 6,000 dram and was a lot more helpful. From what I could gather the organization wasn't sure whether to reduce the amount of families that the money was spread throughout or to ask for more money from the states.

This organization is not a self sustaining one. Their goal is to support those who cannot support themselves. Currently they base their giving on families who's total work and government support total less than 100,000 dram ($300 USD). They only give to one person in the family and they try to check up on families to make sure that there is no abuse of the program.

Unfortunately there are families who:
1) Have a ton of kids (9 kids??!?)
2) The men sit at home and expect government or NGO support
3) Even the people who are sick are still smoking!
4) They heat their houses by burning trash!!!

I respect the AMAA for the work that they do but someone needs to educate these families on birth control, work ethic, health, and common sense.

Harout Nercessian & Manoog Kaprelian Meeting - Anti-Smoking, Women's Rights, Armenia's Future
So I met Manoog because he helped my Grandmother make sure that the money that she donates to the AMAA is actually going there. He is glad he did because now he can tell anyone that as long as you do your due diligence - your money will not be squandered.

Anyway I was speaking with Harout Nercessian because my Grandmother used him as a contact for years until she found someone else to call here in Yerevan and I also met him last time I was here when he gave me a tour of the AMAA offices. When I told Harout about the limited info that Manoog gave me about his anti-smoking and women's rights campaign, he was very interested to meet him.

So I set up a coffee meeting with both of them that we had last night at Jazzve in the Freedom Square. We had a plate of fruit and some coffee and tea.

We discussed the following:
1) Harout helped a California organization with their program here in Armenia to start health classes in 7th & 8th grade which taught about smoking, drugs, and a healthy lifestyle. Harout is unsure about what state the program is in now but he does still have a copy of the curriculum that Manoog will be interested in seeing.
2) Manoog told us all about his careers in like 5 different fields. To sum it all up he has decided to come to Armenia because he is amazed with how smart Armenians are and he wants to help the world recognize that by doing his work out of here and drawing other Diaspora back here.
3) Manoog told us how the cartoon camel became the mascot for camel cigarettes: There was an article in the newspaper about the genocide featuring some people in Manoog's family. Right in the middle of the article was an advertisement for these cigarettes who at the time had "meet the Turk" as their marketing campaign because they used Turkish tobacco and wanted to portray it as hip and trendy. Well this was outrageous to put a "meet the Turk" advertisement right in-between an article on the Armenian genocide so Manoog's father sent a letter to the company and they since have used the cartoon camel in their marketing campaign.
4) We discussed the incentives in place in the US compared to Armenia on not smoking. Armenia is the highest smoking country in Europe. The US has a large financial incentive to stop smoking because of all the taxes - taxes which do not occur here in Armenia because the tobacco companies bribe the governing officials. The US has a very large social incentive to stop smoking because of the huge anti-smoking and anti-secondhand smoking campaigns which have created laws banning smoking from public areas. Manoog concluded that he seeks to see the same effect here when he is done with his campaign. He also mentioned that they needed to include the children who start smoking in planning this campaign because then we can stop them before they even start. I offered to help introduce him to my Habitat for Humanity friends because I thought that they might be able to help them.
5) Harout wants to start an organization but Manoog wants to do more research first
6) The topic moved to women's rights where Manoog said he wants to somehow teach Armenian boys how to be good men.
7) Both Harout and Manoog agreed that they were extremely impressed with Armenian women who manage to educate themselves, go to work, and then come home and take orders from their unemployed husbands (with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth).
8) As we discussed our perspectives and upbringings that have molded our views towards health and respect of women we then discussed the benefits of outsourcing business here to Armenia
9) Companies that can easily do their work anywhere in the world should choose to do work in the villages of Armenia because they have internet access! They can also get extremely brilliant, college educated kids who live there to sign contracts to stay in those villages which is needed if these villages will continue to grow.
10) I concluded the meeting in asking if either of them could recommend people for me to meet either to discuss business or help Steve Lazarian find reliable contractors. I will call Harout about that today.

Both Harout and Manoog are extremely helpful resources here in Armenia. Harout has been here for ten years and Manoog has been here for three. I am very glad to meet them and glad to help them in any way I can.

Dr. Walter Bradley - The Future of Social Entrepreneurship
The conversations I have had with Walter have been really encouraging. I was under the impression that my dream of Social Entrepreneurship wasn't as far along as I had hoped but he proved me wrong. He is not only participating in this projects but projects more in line with my theme of sustainable programs which was very encouraging. He has plans to complete a project with Cocoanuts where they will be able to use the meat for cocoanut oil and the husk for composite board - both which will raise the income of the villagers (in areas 20 degrees from the equator or less - not in Armenia) tenfold by starting "franchises" of his business model.

He is the guy doing the number crunching for this project and has a ton more numbers than I do (financial and structural). He said he will email me the entire workbook and "business plan" once he and his students are done with them. I can't wait! I helped him with his meeting with Habitat and I will also report to him when I have a meeting with a businessman here in Yerevan named Matt Bartel who will tell me about all of the hoops a foreigner has to go through in order to successfully start a business that won't be take by the government. If we come up with some good numbers it could open up the doors for both non-profit and for-profit low income building here in Armenia.

He told me to look up NCIIA.org and then look at their grants because his team has received one for doing stuff that I would love to do as well.

Walter also encouraged me as to the direction of many other organizations that are seeking to become more socially minded. I was totally unaware of all the support that is out there!

Anyway the conversations I had with Walter were probably the ones that most affirmed my hope that there is a possibility for me to be a "Social Entrepreneur" after all. He asked me to email him and I will as soon as Ryan sends us the list of everyone's contact info

COAF - Seeing the Villages
For those other than Erik and Matt (who got to visit COAF with me): COAF has selected Karakert and the surrounding villages to improve everything there - School, Economy, Buildings, Transportation, Health, Access to Capital, etc. From what I have seen they have done a pretty good job. In fact COAF is an excellent resource for any Entrepreneur who seeks to bring business to the poor because they analyze the area and are ready to help anyone - villager or businessperson to create the needed services in these villages.

Erik, Matt, and I were all given a tour of a few of the villages where COAF is doing there work. From what I saw the repairs and upgrades to the buildings were beautiful - better looking than in Yerevan. COAF claims to have a strict contractor selection process which only works with the best organizations. They have consented to be a resource for others doing business or NGO work here in Armenia to find reliable contractors. A lot of programs are funded by the government such as heath care but the buildings were in such disrepair that their service was horrible. Now that COAF has fixed the clinic they are able to employ better use of the government's funds.

COAF's overall model is to make all the projects self sustaining. They are not yet, but hope to be completed during their exit strategy of Karakert. Some of the products of these campaigns are entrance fees to programs at the school and community center, charge for the van route between villages, upgrades in the farming technology, and other programs - all of which will go back to the community to keep up the schools and other public buildings. Best of luck to them.

UNDP and the Foreign Ministry of Armenia have both elected to copy COAF's model here in Armenia. - I have a meeting later today to discuss UNDP's cooperation with COAF and their assessment of COAF's effectiveness.

So far COAF has spent $1.5 million USD (525,000,000 dram) on their model cluster project since 2004. They are now in their exit phase from the first village of Karakert and are working to complete their other villages as well.

I asked COAF for some idea of the cost for their entire program per capita and they said they had no idea because they collaborated with so many other organizations. So yesterday I sent emails to the following organizations who have cooperated with COAf and hopefully by the end of the summer I will have a tally of all the money and manpower spent on this project:
USAID,
MCC (web@mcc.gov),
AEP ( donate@eyecareproject.com),
worldbank (Rrobinson@worldbank.org ),
fidec,
miseast (miseast@miseast.org),
counterpart (communications@counterpart.org ),
GSK (37 410 569 157),
JMP (stodd@ctr.pcusa.org),
ird (ird@ird-dc.org),
umcor (umcor@gbgm-umc.org),
unicef (yerevan@unicef.org),
HEIFER

As of now only UNDP has replied to my emails but when I am back in the states I will probably start calling the organizations who haven't emailed me back.

If this model proves to be as innovative and excellent as it claims (and I think it is) then I would be extremely interested in introducing this same type of project to every country in the same or similar position as Armenia. And of course we need to know how much it costs right?

COAF is one of the main projects I wanted to see here in Armenia. I am all about self sustaining projects because I think we would all rather to teach a man to fish.

I also brought the COAF representative to Steve Lazarian's project and she was very impressed with what we were doing with the ICF blocks. Later this week she will have a meeting with Steve and send some of her engineers to the site to take a look. (COAF has done all their work to date by just using old buildings in the villages and refurbishing them but there may be a time when a building is condemned due to earthquake damage or they need to build a new building and they might elect to use ICF!)

To recap:
I was able to help:
ARDA connect with Habitat
Manoog connect with Harout
COAF connect with ARDA
Manoog and Harout to connect with HABIARM
HABIARM to connect with Matt and Erik

I hope to:
Figure out the Per-Capita cost of the COAF project
Connect other organizations with COAF
Evaluate COAF
Outsource programming here
Evaluate the possibilities of ICF and ARDA

Well it has been about four hours in compiling this journal now so I think I will stop.

Erik - I hope you read the whole thing!
_________________________
Robert Hudson Ashodian Moore
+1 310-486-6104
+374 094-73-70-12
roberthm@usc.edu

6/3/7
So I had a meeting with UNDP and a guy named Matt:

Matt:
Matt is a Christian who works here in Yerevan. Harout told me to meet him because I had some questions about doing business here in Armenia. In short: Any Business that does importing should be done in Georgia, Get global business experience, Georgia is where Armenia needs to be as far as governmental and business reform.

Here are my notes from the meeting:
1) If we start a for-profit styrofoam block factory we need to watch out for the 2 or three people that control the brick factories who will be out to get us
2) The first thing to do when starting an ethical business here is to have a giant PR campaign and Launch with Embassy, Diaspora, Charity, Environmentalist, Government, Academic, and Business backers present so that if you ever run into trouble you can go to them for help in fending off the trouble.
3) The second thing is to get an Accountant who understands that you want to do everything 100% Ethically and who will warn you if something isn't right. It will take a while but you need to just keep firing people until you get an ethical bunch
4) NEVER accept a bribe or cheat - once you do you cannot go back.
5) Make your business a brank of a US business because it is much bigger news if an American business is forced out of Armenia rather than if just a diaspora's company is forced out who doesn't have ties in America
6) Doing business by the Georgian border would be good because they are booming
7) You should introduce the icf technology to the architectural academy as the next best thing so they all get behind it and use it
8) Taxes are 20% VAT and 12% Customs
9) Customs is not based on your receipt of purchase but by a joe schmoe customs guy who will give you a price based on the bribe you give him
10) You should have a factory in Georgia if you need to import stuff because they have no Import tax and they have a larger market
11) The American Chamber of Commerce is big in Armenia
12) You need the right tax advisor to keep you up to date on all the rules so that you don't mess up. - Matt can introduce you to a good one
13) The financial policy of Armenia is trying to promote a strong dram policy. The Financial Policy is dominated by the central bank and influenced by Parliament. The Head of the central bank is appointed by the president and all of the parliament are importers and would benefit from a stronger Dram as they already have because the retail prices have stayed the same while the cost of buying the goods they sell have gone down. Unfortunately that would be bad for everyone else because other currencies would not be as effective.
14) George did a massive reform 2 years ago by firing tons of government workers and stuff
15) Matt is the only person doing business here that he knows including Christian Ethics Organizations who does everything completely clean
16) We need to establish a view here in Armenia that "my values cost me something"
17) ADA is the government's investor relations office that doesn't do a good job but the Georgian government's organization does a great job
18) Estonia is further down the road then Georgia
19) Singapore is the best example of a changed country - it started 40 years ago
20) Read the book "from third world to first" by Lee Quan Yu talking about this reform
21) Read "plowing the sea" by fairbanks from harvard press which is about microeconomical reform
22) Watch "transformations 2" which is about the transformations of northern canada and uganda
23) He told me to get a job with a globally or large project minded company so that I can get a good idea of what to do when I get in huge situations. Otherwise I will be stuck when I get there.

This conversation was really encouraging and I have a lot of research to do.

I might even consider working for a large company for a few years.

UNDP:
Notes from my meeting with Vrej @ UNDP:
1) 1 Million dolalrs went to renovate 2 kindergardens, 1 community center, and 1 secondary school
2) UNDP's assesment of villages are usually done in the first quarter of the year
3) Armenia might have a framework or action plan by the end of June
4) I asked if I wanted to come and observe the assessment process sometime and he said it would be fine but he never knows when they will do one.
5) He gave me 20 little booklets each one with information on their assessment of a different village. It was really impressive to see the way they broke things down and I want to see if other organizations have done this as well. (there has speculation as to the ability of these assessments to actually address the needs of all the people or they are just in the interest of a few individuals. False info or not, I think it is a good model to use if we could pull it off in other places.

The reason why this post was censored was because of the following comment:
May be this isn't the appropriate place to publish all that information. Just because one can, does not mean one should. We use technology, not abuse it.
A concerned reader

AMAZING!: part2 of treasures in heaven

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:51:02 GMT

Luke 16:9 "I tell you, use the riches of this world to help others. In that way, you will make friends for yourselves. Then when your riches are gone, you will be welcomed into your eternal home in heaven.

- what this is saying is that you should use the money you have here to buy friends so that when you see them in heaven they will say hi to you.

Proverbs 19:17He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given He will repay to him.

- what this is aying is that if you give money to the poor then God will pay you back.

Now although these are pretty cool revelations all it tells me is 1. you can make friends with your money and 2. God might hand you a pile of dollar bills when you get to heaven to pay me back for all the money I gave to poor people

Ultimately though: both of those seem pretty lame to how awesome God is and heaven will be. I mean if I have the choice to say hi to a bunch of my friends or go rock out worshiping Jesus there is no way anyone will ever get even a handshake. (sorry guys) And honestly, how useful is God paying me back gonna be huh? I mean the freaking streets are gonna be made out of gold. God could just give me some pavement and be like "well done good and faithful servant, here is some road building materials to pay you back".

Ok so these "treasures in heaven" or whatever don't seem all that cool.

So why does Jesus always talk about storing them up? I guess I will have to find out next time...

-Rob

study on treasure

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:12:41 GMT

hey so I was reading proverbs 15:6 - In the house of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is great [priceless] treasure, but with the income of the wicked is trouble and vexation.

So then i searched for treasure in the bible and got:
Luke 12:33 - Sell what you possess and give donations to the poor; provide yourselves with purses and handbags that do not grow old, an unfailing and inexhaustible treasure in the heavens, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Now I'm not sure if you know me or not but I am a really selfish person, but I think backward from most people so it usually works out ok. I am selfish because I want what is best for me. Jesus constantly talks about the last being first and you must be a servant of all. So if you see me like being nice and being a servant - you should just know that my motivation may in fact be selfish. Now some people are surprised when I say stuff like this, but honestly, If I didn't believe in God and what Jesus teaches I would be a completely different person altogether.

The problem I seem to have though is that I often get sidetracked on what is important - kinda spiritual A.D.D. if you will. I find that if I pray more often, like sit down and talk to God for an extended period of time, it helps me stay on track.

Anyway so this idea of treasure in heaven and all this stuff has always intrigued me because as I said before, I am a really selfish person. I will try to find out as much as possible on this topic and I will try and write it down so I remember. If anyone reads this and has any insight please let me know.

Dear God, please let this search be guided by you and allow me to know and come closer to you. Father, if others are reading this, please let this be edifying and let them grow closer to you as well.

Amen.

Here we go.

What is this "inexhaustible treasure in the heavens" that Jesus is talking about? Well in Job 22:25 it says "And [if you] make the Almighty your gold and [the Lord] your precious silver treasure then the light of God's favor will shine on your ways (paraphrasing here)" So here it is talking about Almighty as if he could be your treasure. He certainly is in the heavens, and inexhaustible. hmm. But Jesus simply tells us to "provide ourselves" with this treasure in Luke, while in Job it is basically his friend who is trying to correct Job and kindof telling him to put God first. Well I guess that makes sense. God is the awesomest thing ever so by putting him first I guess that could be "providing myself" with him as my treasure. - Cool, but I still think there is more to this "treasure" thing (yeah I am greedy) so I will continue searching...

Mark 10:21
"And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, and He said to him, You lack one thing; go and sell all you have and give [the money] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come [and] accompany Me [ [Literal translation.] walking the same road that I walk]. "

Do I have to sell all I have to have this treasure in heaven?
Is this "treasure in heaven" helpful to me now?
If I end up going to heaven will that treasure be there?
Is everyone going to have the same treasure in heaven? <-- Big Question
If I use the idea that this treasure is God himself than what is the significance of having treasure (God) in heaven and how is it any different to my relationship with God now?

Proverbs 10:2
"Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness (moral and spiritual rectitude in every area and relation) delivers from death."
-maybe this treasure is salvation itself?

Colossians 3:1
"IF THEN you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. "

-but this sounds like you can still seek these same kind of treasures after you have received salvation. GAH!

Well this has been lovely. I still want to keep searching but I only have an hour a day to do this. Soo In conclusion for today but in hopes for more insight tomorrow:

Treasure in heaven could possibly referr to God himself (a pretty good treasure). But it also sounds like this treasure can include or lead to salvation BUT does not end there and (as I have been learning lately) will continue FOREVER since God is EVERYTHING and there is no possible way that we can understand or know or "provide ourselves with" the entirety of God.

There is enough of God for everyone to have seconds :)

-tuna

i don't read your journal anymore.

Mon, 03 Jul 2006 06:52:51 GMT

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 04:29:59 GMT

Hey Everyone.
My pledge class and I are throwing a sweet Pirate Party Bash on Thursday April 6th at 8pm till 1:30am.

Please come because I miss you guys.

You can call me at 310-486-6104 or just email me at roberthm@usc.edu and i'll give you the address and directions:

take the 10 East.
get off on HOOVER
turn right on HOOVER
turn left on 28th street
stop at the stop sign because the cops will give you a ticket if you don't.
after the stop sign look to your right for 668 W. 28th st LA CA 90007
it is the only house on the row with an emergency pole thingie.
It is the Alpha Gamma Omega House.

Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:30:11 GMT

well i haven't posted in a while 'cause USC is a busy place.

It is spring break here and I finally have some time to tell you what i've been doing.

Unfortunately I don't own a camera so I can only show you stuff where there was a photographer or I got pictures from my friends.

One thing I did was go to the viterbi ball.
I didn't have a date because the two people that invited me already had dates:

so I ended up being the 7th wheel:

one of my pledge brothers jordache and I throw up the lambda sign:

I also went to an ADX party with Jeremy:

I've been snowboarding a bunch of times with my roomates and friends here but this pic is from the Campus Crusade Spring retreat at June Mountain:

One night my pledge brothers and I had a pledge event (that I guess I'm not supposed to say much about so I don't spoil it for other people). But we were lined up and questioned by the LAPD:

We also had an emo party:

So thats all the pics I have.

And thats a bit of what I've been doing.

-bumblebeetuna

don't talk to me when i'm sleeping

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 05:53:12 GMT

don't talk to me when i am sleeping.

apparently the other night when i was asleep i made a lunch date over the phone, promised my roomate that i would remind him to move his car in the morning, had a discussion about why a our neighbor borrowed my scissors, and some other thing i can't remember...

it's nice to be able to multitask like that, but according to my roommate after you start talking to me while I am sleeping I don't shutup. He said I was talking for like twenty minutes about nothing and everything and the only way he could get me to be quiet was by slamming his book on the table and I stopped talking. this happened once before when Brendon Emil and I were in vegas and according to them they had asked if I wanted to go out and ride rollercoasters and stuff while i was sleeping and I said "I think I'll pass". When do I ever say "I think I'll pass" to riding rollercoasters at the top of hotels overlooking the vegas strip at night?

so anyway it was kinda wierd knowing I had a lunch appointment and had to remind my roomate to move his car the next morning, but i never did remember that other thing...

-bumblebeetuna

Whats up

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 02:30:33 GMT

I am pledging at the fraternity Alpha Gamma Omega.
My real name is now bumblebeetuna.

Kelly turned 18 on thursday.

EDIT: I FOUND MY CAR

Tue, 10 Jan 2006 06:25:08 GMT

EDIT: I FOUND MY CAR.

Someone stole the car.
Kelly kissed the sign.
Jeremy took the picture.

EDIT: I FOUND MY CAR

awash

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 08:15:53 GMT

E Am
we take a walk down an open highway
you wished we'd talk but i had it my way
we'll never know the things that we didn't say
cry again cry away that last day

C G Am
and it will never be
C G
the last time, the last time
C G Am
and you can't be free
Am G G F
from this memory

E Am
have a drink and open your heart
just don't let it open too far
you are connected, we all can see
E F
screaming from the inside, I will be me

Am C G E5,B5,B5,B5,C5
Hold on forever
to your only memory
Hold on to each other
Am C G
or you'll to late see, see me

Am G F
so when the drowning comes
C G
from the things that are no fun
Am G F
blocking you from what mattered most
C D
keeping you, from keeping me

Chorus in E

long time

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 05:56:27 GMT

hey so i haven't posted in a long time.
I just spent the last three hours soldering (melting wires) my laptop's electrical socket back together after i dropped it with the cord in so it broke it. Thats nice that it is fixed cause it cost $1400 and it went out of warrantee yesterday. I still have like 4 screws and some wierd rubber parts from when i put my laptop back together though... I'm sure they weren't important.

Enough for excuses. I have been having a good time at work. It seems that once they found out I could teach snowboarding and skiing they pulled me out of my coordinator job and put me out on the slopes to teach some of the thousand socal people up for the holidays how to slide on the snow. Today I had eleven adults (quite a few people to teach a lesson to mind you) and then in the afternoon teamed up with my Co-worker Nadav with 6 kids. Everyone I work with is really cool and my boss has been saying how happy she was that she hired me - always a good sign.

I am COMING HOME MONDAY. So I'll see you guys soon. I will be staying in Santa Monica at my Grandma's back-house the night of the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th, and I'll be moving into my USC apartment on the 5th. I am excited to go back to LA and can't wait to start school (it may sound weird but i have had much too long a summer vacation so far.

Oh yeah i'm on a diet to lose 15 pounds and gain a nice set of abs like I had last year this time. So far I've lost 7 pounds and one more month of dieting should do the trick. An awesome site is www.dietbites.com because it gives you whole meal plans for the day that are filling but under 1400 calories.

I had a bunch of people over on Christmas Eve. I cooked (more heated a pre-cooked ham with glase) and baked some Datenut bread to rave reviews, and my friend Renata (the r is an h) cooked chicken, rice, mash-ed potatoes, and an awesome desert that i don't know the name but can't stop eating. We both invited our friends and I had a great time getting to know my co-workers better and meeting new people.

Well its been a short time here and snowboarding is awesome but I do miss LA and will be there soon!

Till later,
-Rob Moore

USC HOUSING

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 23:49:08 GMT

Check out my USC Apartment!

USC CLASSES!

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 19:07:48 GMT

Hey I just registered for USC and here is my schedule for spring semester (including work).
WRIT-340 66803 Advanced Writing TH 09:30 10:50am GFS228 L 4.0
MATH-218 39515 Probability for Busi TH 08:00 08:50am KAP137 L 0.0
MATH-218 39514 Probability for Busi MWF 10:00 10:50am ZHS252 L 4.0
LING-115g 38813 Language, Society, a F 09:00 09:50am THH108 L 0.0
LING-115g 38812 Language, Society, a TH 11:00 12:20pm THH210 L 4.0
BUAD-307 14830 Marketing Fundamenta MW 08:00 09:45am HOH EDI L 4.0
BUAD-307 14834 Marketing Fundamenta F 08:00 08:50am HOH304 L 0.0
WORK Teach Guitar/Piano MWF 04:00pm 06:00pm EPIC ? 6.0

So that is 16 units at USC and 6 hrs of work per week across the street at Epic Rec Center.

It isn't the exact schedule that I wanted because some of the classes were already filled but it is pretty good.

You guys rock.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

-Rob

P.S.
I will be in LA from Weds or Thursday through at least Monday morning and maybe longer. Let me know if you wanna hang out.

-Rob

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 16:30:41 GMT

i still read your journal.

Moving to Mammoth

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 19:43:11 GMT

Hey I'm off to mammoth again for the rest of the year.

School orientation is January 3rd so I will be snowboarding every day until then.

Feel free to come visit and crash at my place (that I still have to get).

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 07:34:12 GMT

The only living boy in new york on LP while sitting in bed in a thunderstorm is great.

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 16:40:53 GMT

Hey. Alabama was good. I met cool people, helped a lot of people, went to a tait/newsong concert, and got to know ron and matt from oasis pretty well.

This week I hung out with Dan and Ben, driving them around while their parents are in Madrid. That was cool.

I saw "Good Nigh and Good Luck" or whatever it's called with Brendon, Kurt, and Jeremy - good times.

Now I'm off to Fresno for some meeting of some sort. I hope it isn't too hot there.

Well i g2g - ttfn, ta ta for now.

Now i'm going to alabama!

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 03:45:20 GMT

Ok so Armenia was great but now i'm bored again so I'm gonna go to Mobile, Alabama to help with Katrina relief.

Alabama is here: And Mobile is in that bottom left corner thingie there.

Please pray that I don't come back half dead as my mother fears could happen.

Anyway on other good knews: Congradulations to Patrick, Kelly, Peter, & David for getting "Curly", "that snobby girl", "some guy with a solo", and "jed" (respectively but not accurately) in this year's kids musical "OKLAHOMA" at the Morgan Wixon.

Well until my next adventure,
Rob

the rundown

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 15:17:08 GMT

Trip to Armenia

Ok so my trip was awesome. God made it all work out and we got a lot done.

This is a huge post so if you have slow internet I have put a link to just the pictures with people in them Here For the rest of the pictures you will just have to go through the whole post to see them

Slideshow of Armenia (with music):

Large (11.8mb)
Med (4.68mb)
Small (1.22mb)

We left saturday the 3rd had a Layover in London:

and arrived around 5pm and arrived in Yerevan, Armenia around midnight monday the 5th morning.

Starting on Monday we had sight seeing which involved going to a bunch of Churches:

The "Vatican" of the Armenian church is called Etchmiadzin:

On our trip to Lake Sevan there were two churches on a hill:

In most of the churches of Armenia they have an area where you can light candles:

To a lot of people in Armenia their only relationship with God is going to the church to light candles or attend a few minutes of a church service on Sundays.

This is one of the oldest churches in Yerevan:

This is one of the newest churches in Yerevan:

Outside of Yerevan is a Church where the sword that pierced Jesus' side used to be held

the rags on the trees and bushes are near almost every holy site and are put there to ward off evil spirits

Before Christianity Armenia had temples to different gods - here is a temple to Atlas the sun god:

and Museums including the Genocide Museum:

Although we did a lot of sight seeing, most of our time was spent working in the Villages outside of Yerevan Building Houses:

After work we would usually go out to dinner and I took a bunch of pics of the City Streets:

and the People we hung out with:

To conclude our trip we went to the opera house and saw some armenian dance:

i'm back

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 04:53:33 GMT

hey i'm back from armenia.
good trip
i'll update with a slideshow and some pics later.

-rob

here you go

Fri, 09 Sep 2005 13:16:49 GMT

1. Go here.
2. Pass it on.

1.~How did you meet kid_in_back? chris
2.~What would you do if you had never met allwehad? i would have been really bored and never heard of the matches
3.~What do you honestly think of jumpy643? crazy
4.~Would or did allwehad and deedeeking5202 go out? no, because allwehad first thought that deedeeking5202 was a girl
5.~Have you ever liked poptart__? she is cool
6.~If ___livejournal died tomorrow, what is one thing that you would need him/her to know? that we didn't get to hang out enough
7.~Would wormywill and lc0n make a good couple? bah, no
8.~Describe einker in 3 words: eanie meanie miney
9.~Do you think witherxaway is hot? brendon has good taste
10.~Would ___livejournal and bleedxtomorrow make a lovely couple? well they are about the same height...
11.~What do you think of when you see deedeeking5202? good times & rock n roll
12.~Tell me something humiliating about lc0n: he works with his sister at coffee bean
13.~Do you know any of novakayne's family members? yes lots of them
14.~What's allwehad's favorite color? blue
15.~On a scale of 1-10 how cute is spaz_dancer? awesome
16.~What would you do if clayismyhusband just professed their undying love for you? i would call clay and tell him
17.~What language does allwehad speak? texan
18.~Who is steph_and_bren going out with? steph and bren
19.~Is pattrick_more a boy or a girl? yes
20.~Would ih8side_burns and clayismyhusband make a good couple? no
21.~Who do you think prophetofdoom would be great with from this list? what list?
22.~When was the last time you talked to witherxaway? yesterday/today depending on what time zone you are in
23.~What is poptart__'s favorite band? emo
24.~Does wormywill have any siblings? i believe so
25.~Would you ever date novakayne? possibly
26.~Would you ever date einker? that is complicated
27.~Is prophetofdoom single? yeah
28.~What is allwehad's last name? donsky
29.~What is ih8side_burns's middle name? bird
30~What is jumpy643's fantasy? broadway
31.~Where does pattrick_more live? venice
32.~Would you make out with kid_in_back? no
33.~Are allwehad and novakayne best friends? no
34.~Does einker like allwehad? no
35.~How did you meet ih8side_burns? morgan wixon menagere
36.~Is witherxaway older than you? yes
37.~Is bleedxtomorrow the sexiest person alive? could be

rolex and rayban

Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:23:47 GMT

hey emil i forgot your email so I'll ask you this here:

I got a bunch of rolex watches and some raybans and I wondered which ones you wanted or if you wanted me to get something else. Anyway they also have gucci watches and sunglasses and different rolex watches and stuff.

Anyway here they are:

Rolex 1

Rolex 2

Rolex 3

Raybans

So if anyone wants to buy any of these I'm charging $10 a pop.

for steph

Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:56:25 GMT

here is the first couple days of my trip:

London Airport:

Leaving London Airport:

ARMENIA!
My hotel Room:

Republic Square:

Dinner at Lebanis:

The promenade on an empty day:

Lighting Candles at Church:

The new Church in Yerevan

Memorial Park:

Mother Armenia:

A City Square:

The "Cascades":

The only original church in Armenia that did not get destroyed by the USSR

A garden at the house we were finishing:

The Youth Group Members that volunteered with us for the day:

The living room of the house that we were finishing (we only had time to do half today)

The street we worked on as we were leaving:

Armenia Here I Come!

Sat, 03 Sep 2005 00:49:50 GMT

Well I am off to armenia tomorrow at 2.

Wish me Luck and lots of Prayers!
Anyway, I will be going for 2 weeks to the Capital city of Yerevan where my group (6 other people and I) will be working on finishing half built houses of Citizens of Armenia with "Habitat for Humanity Armenia".

this is the flag

and this is where armenia is.

I think God has really planned this out for me because I was able to get my passport in 2 days and my visa in 2 days and normally that process takes over a month!

You guys can call me in armenia for FREE! my number there will be (310) 933-5912 but I have to use a headset on my computer for that to work so it will only work in my hotel room or internet cafes. You can leave me a message and I will call you back though! Remember that Armenia is the exact opposite of this time so you probably won't get me at 4pm pacific time because it will be 4am there.

When I get back I might go help in the hurricane disaster area but one missions trip at a time...

until whenever,
rob

Houseboats pics

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 22:14:38 GMT

Here are the pics from my camera on the houseboats trip.

SWEETHEARTS!!! (the name of our boat):

from top left going clockwise: group leader matt, driver tim, dan, brandon, alex, eric, alex, enoch, trainee ryan, group leader/worship leader nate, me, michael, patrick, andrew.