The other night I was chatting with Shooshig and being the straight shooter she is, she came out and said that my logs have been very negative these last few weeks and there is a good chance that I'm giving people the wrong impression of life here.

She added that knowing me, life is not all that bad here as my logs seem to reflect, or else I would not be living here.

Well Shooshig, your right, life here is not all that bad when comparing it with life in America.

So to help illustrate for you how good things are here, I've come up with a comparison chart if things that are important to me so you can see how good things really are here.

1. Pollution:
Los Angeles: Very bad
Martuni: None
2. Safe drinking water:
Los Angeles: Bottled and expensive
Martuni: Spring water from the faucet
3. Security
Los Angeles: Keep your doors locked at all times and keep a loaded gun under your poillow
Martuni: Door locks, what's that?
4. Time for friends and family:
Los Angeles: Whenever your not working or sleeping (which is very rare)
Martuni: Whenever you feel like it and even when you don't feel like it
5. Food:
Los Angeles: Tainted with preservatives.
Martuni: All natural (since we can't afford preservatives)
6. Life expectancy:
Los Angeles: If you survive drive-by shootings, muggings and terrorist attacks, 20 years less than what you could expect to live if you were living in Martuni.
Martuni: Old.

In short, life is really good here for all the right reasons and once we get over the minor issue that we face today, life here will be great!!!