Assyrian Chatters Interviews
By the Assyrian Voice Network

 

 

Name: assyrian_dude
Date: November 7th, 2006


 

Personal Questions:

 

-Thank you for your time, please start by introducing yourself, your name, background etc.
Hello Hello….My name is Rommel Shamoun (aka Assyrian_dude) and I am an AVN’er. hahaha...I was born on August 25th 1984 (22yrs old) in Baghdad Iraq. I have a brother that’s older then me by a year and a sister that’s two years younger. So basically I’m the spoiled middle child lol not really but yea. I’ve spent most of my life in good old Hamilton Ontario, but now I moved to beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia for school purposes. But let me tell you a little secret…..I really don’t want to leave Vancouver. I really love living here, its more laid back here and you seriously enjoy your days. Everybody is not just rushing threw everything just to get to A to point B.

-Tell us about what you are studying in school more in depth.
I currently study at Vancouver Film School and I am taking a Visual Effects course. This field is broad, but I’ll be concentrating on compositing and dynamic systems. The funny thing is, the better I get at doing my job, the less you (the viewer) will notice it. So it’s a little hard to explain, but I’ll try anyways. Compositing is basically taking different elements and merging them in one plate, so they’ll look like they were all shot at the same time. Dynamics are simulations that you control to mimic real life. For example, you can turn geometry into rigid bodies and have them move like real objects with a lot of tweaking, or create particles that look like dust, snow, etc…. It’s a straight 12 month course, with little breaks in between the six terms we have. We all spend most of our time in front of our computers (yes, that includes most of our weekends as well). It’s been by far the best experience I’ve had in my life. The best part is, most of my peers are international students. So everyone has different ideas and different ways to look at things, witch is awesome to have when someone is critiquing your work.
 

"I do most of my serious thinking just before I sleep or when I’m working on my projects…so most of the day, I’m just a happy go-lucky kind of guy I guess"
 

-How different has your personality changed since moving to B.C and living on your own, away from the family?
I think I’ve grown more mature and more dependent on myself. I always remind myself why I’m here and try to keep at a certain mind state so I don’t get distracted easily by “shiny” things. It’s really easy to venture off and waste precious time on stupid things, trust me. But I still manage to have fun and try to do normal things every now and then. Not having a mother around was a little hard at first too lol. I mean come on, if you want to eat or have clean cloths, guess who has to do them. It was really tough at the beginning, but now I’m use it. This was also my first time being so far away from my family for so long. My mom called me everyday when I first moved here hahaha, it drove me crazy. Now she’s good, she only call’s on the weekends. 

-What are the advantages and disadvantages of living on your own, away from the family?
Hmmm the advantages are not really that great. I mean I had the same privacy back home as I do here. But I guess I’m more free in a way. I can have my friends come over anytime I want and not worry if someone is sleeping or what not. There aren’t that many disadvantages as well. I mean it’s not like I’m living the free single life and partying every night. I’m here for one reason and that’s to get a good kick start on life. But when I went back home for my birthday, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I won’t have the chance to see my parents and brother and sister grow up in front of my eyes. I was only gone for seven months, and everything looked a bit different. That seriously scared me.

-Contrast and compare your life in Vancouver and your life in Hamilton.
Well I walk way more in Vancouver then I did in Hamilton hahahaha and I actually don’t mind it, I feel much healthier. I’m not as tired in the mornings as I use to be too. I use to hate mornings, and now I’m up at 6:30am and my class’s don’t usually start until 9am.

 -A lot of the people who know you (online and in real life) say that you have always been a person with a very good behavior, positive attitude, and a smile that never departs your face.  Is this an accurate description of who you really are?
You can say that. I try to stay as positive as I can (well most of the time haha). I do most of my serious thinking just before I sleep or when I’m working on my projects…so most of the day, I’m just a happy go-lucky kind of guy I guess. I hate to see someone down or sad as well, so I try to help them out in anyway I can. I also love to see a smile on people’s faces, and I don’t care how stupid I look to get that smile. So that might explain why I’m the way I am.

-What is the one thing that you want to work and improve on?
My English and the way I speak. I know I mumble a lot, but I’m working on it. Now I have to speak a little slower and clearer because the people in my class learned English back where they came from and don’t understand most of my slang.

 -Is there a specific time when someone gave you ‘constructive criticism’ which you didn’t like, because you thought it was more of a personal attack?
When I first started, I thought every critique I got was a personal attack, but that’s normal for any art student. I rarely showed my work to anyone back then. Now I don’t even hesitate to show my work, even if it’s only 10% done. They really pushed us to show our dailies (what you worked on that day) here at VFS. It makes a huge difference when you have fresh eyes looking at your work in progress and pick up things that you miss out on because you’ll be so into it. So yeaaaa, back to your question lol My grade 11 art teacher questioned every part of my final project that year. I really didn’t enjoy it one bit, but I understand what he was doing now. 

-Do you think education is what makes the difference between a good personality and a poor one? 
In a way, yes. But you never know with kids these days hahaha

 -What does art mean to you? Is it just a future career? a mere interest? or a whole passion and life?
I’m really passionate about my work and art in general. I can’t even imagine waking up every morning and doing something else. And in a really weird way, I communicate with myself better by just sketching out my thoughts on paper that might seem like meaningless doodles to other people.

 -When people do something bad to you, do you get back at them, and take your revenge?
Unless they do something really really bad, I usually let it slide by, but I always make a simple note in my brain.

 -How often do you attend church or read the bible? Do you think these two activities are a must for Christians? Or can we go by without them?
I try to attend church as much as I can. Sadly, I only find myself there during holidays. And this will sound worse, but I’ve never read the Bible. I’m sure the right time will come. Then I’ll be able to read and understand it more clearly once I reach a certain point in my life. These two activates are a very healthy way of practicing and expanding your beliefs.

-What is that one thing in your life, which you have done or accomplished, and are really proud of?
I’ve done and worked on a lot of little things which I’m really proud of because they made me the person I am today. But now I’m trying to concentrate on one thing and excel in it.

 -What makes you angry easily?
Narrow minded people gggrrrrr

 -What do you like to do in your time off, away from people?
I loved to drive and just let the road take me where ever and just clear my mind. Since I don’t have a car now, and the fact that I really don’t have that much down time. I mostly go for long walks or watch as my movies as I can with the little free time I have.

-Do you like school? Or is just a way to get to a better future?
I hated school with a passion. High school was one of the worst experiences I’ve had so far. But now things changed and I’m studying something I really love. I’m their all day and still have a huge smile on my face. I wish it was longer then 12 months, but again, I want to get out and start working.

 -You have always stated that you like to drive.  What is the longest you have driven? What is the farthest place you want to go to driving?
Well Chicago takes the longest (8hrs), Montréal and New York (about 7hrs) are about the same distance from Toronto so those are in close second. But with my family, we all went to California when I was 14 years old. For my first visit to Vancouver, I wanted to drive down, but my parents protested and threatened me out of fear, but now I’m old enough so that trip will be made very soon. And when I’m done in March, I’m thinking of going out east to St. John with couple of AVN’ers.

-What is the one thing you really want to be, but you know you can’t, because of a lack of resources, time or other constraints?
I’d love to be a JungleMan hahahahaha nature is calling, I need to answer soon 

-What aspects in a girl’s personality do you look for the most?
Kindness

 -What is the one thing about you that you wished people didn’t know?
Someone found out about my secret identity, so now I have to track them down and …well you know the rest hahaha I’m good at keeping things to myself that I wouldn’t want others to know, so I can’t really think of anything that I want people to not know.

-If you have an argument with someone, and you know you are wrong, what do you do?
Just smile and admit that I’m wrong and move on

-What was your favorite toy when you were a child? Did you learn anything from it, that you have taken with you to your teen and adult life?I have this small bear that I’ve always had with me everywhere I went, it actually made its way to Vancouver as well haha. But it’s more of a symbol then anything else

 

 

Assyrian Voice and Internet Related Questions:

 

 

-When did you first use the internet? What computer was it?
In grade seven I think…my teacher was showing me how to use yahoo

 -When did you first use Assyrian Voice?
I used to go on the text chat way back when, then I disappeared and now the forums are my third home away from home

-Has your life changed since then?
Big time


 

-You, more than anyone else, has exploited your use of AVN for good use, making a lot of friends off it. Tell us a bit about this.
I’ve met a lot of wonderful people on this site, and I have you to thank mister :P so thank you Ashoor. In my opinion, this site is by far the best place for meeting Assyrians from all over the world. So if I ever traveled anywhere, I’m sure I can find one or two friendly faces that live in or around that city.

-If there is one thing special and unique about AVNers, what would it be?
We love to have a good time

-Do you think AVNers who use the forum are in a class of their own, different from AVNers who use other sections of the website?
I’m not too familiar with the other members, so I can’t really give you an honest answer

-What three attributes or values come to mind when thinking of a typical AVN Forum user?
venting, spamming and bonding/sharing experiences

-For each situation, give us an appropriate name from AVN:
You would take him/her with you in a trip to Hawaii: Seggie
Would love to have as your class or work mate: Renee
Take your frustration at when you are really mad or angry (even if they have nothing to do with the situation): I dunno…..Vivooo I guess
Watch a scary movie together: the horror queen herself, Vivooo

 -Which member has the best English?
Shamirum

-Which member from a non-English speaking country, has the best English?
 ummm

-What signature has stuck in your mind, one that really interested you?
 AVN bunch and the other one with all of our faces in it lol good times

-The level of maturity and civilized debate on AVN: is going up or down?
 It’s going up for sure.

-What comes to your mind when you first read these three nicknames:

-What do you think of the invention, marketing and the popularization of the Assyros? Are they over hyped?
Ohh I’ve had so much fun with them back in the old forums with Alinaaa lol. We made up the best games, but no one knew of course. I don’t think it hurts the forums to have them, until some people get too much into them and start replying to every post they can find.

 -What is the one section that you want Assyrian Voice to have?
A good gallery section that has Assyrian Related Pictures from all over the world, and of course, all the old pictures as well. Just so we can have one place to go to when ever we need a good picture of the Winged Bull or anything else that’ll help our project or just build a personal virtual album.

-What is the one feature that you want Assyrian Voice Forum to have?
You can still pack more into it??? hahaha I like it the way it is to be honest

-If you were a moderator on the forum, what three actions or rules would you implement immediately?
First, I would take away everyone’s assyro’s just to see what would happen lol. Then I would take away BeLLaMaFIa’s moderator privileges and make her a new member. Finally, I would play mind games with couple of the members (you know who you are haha)

-Out of the following, which one do you think is the biggest problem for the forums, why, and how to tackle it.
>Inconsistent or unfair moderating
>Spam
>Quality of topics
>Something else
I would say spam, especially when it gets a little out of hand and you can’t even find one decent topic to read.

-Assyrian Voice will soon introduce a new “Podcasting” service, whereby people can watch and listen to Assyrian audio and video clips of an Assyrian genre and content.  Do you think such a service will be popular for Assyrians? What can be done to make it a success?
I’m not too familiar with the whole Podcasting thingy, but I’m really interested to see where you take it.

-Which company would you compare Assyrian Voice to from the following and why: Yahoo, MSN, Google, AOL
Hmmmm, I’d say MSN because you both bring people together……..loool don’t ask

-Which AVNer would fit best in the following positions?
UN Secretary General – Alchemist
Pubic Relations spokesperson for IBM - Ashoor
Iraq’s prime Minster - Nore
Assyria’s future president - GodismyJudge
Assyrian Voice CEO in 2020 - Tashi
Pope’s spokesperson - Shami

-Where do you see Assyrian Voice in 20 years from now, when and where the majority of the current generation will have been married, and with kids.
Well it all depends on how important the internet is at that time, but I still see our kids coming here and spamming but still having a blast just like their old folks hahah

-Assyrian Voice gets a lot of traffic every day, reaching the hundreds of thousands every month, and an all time high of some 3.5 million hits.  What does all this traffic mean to us? What can we do with it for the future? Are these just traffic hits gone in history, or do you see a potential asset in them?
More traffic means more Assyrians can come together in one place and network with each other. Plus, this site becomes more valuable with every hit you get.

 -Do you really believe that Assygal has gotten over her spamming addiction?
NEVER!!!!! We still do it from time to time, but ishhh don’t tell Ashoor hahaha. We had the best games with posts and spamming lol good old day’s… no one can recreate what we did and have the amount of fun we had.

 -You and AssyrianPrince21 have created two of the most popular poses in Assyrian Voice Gatherings pictures: you with your tongue out and AssyrianPrince21 with his ‘rude and mean looking pose  How did you guys come up with these weird and funny poses?
hahaha he sure took that attitude pose to a new level la. I dunno, that was the first thing that poped into our heads I guess, and it stuck around

 -If Assyrian Voice was to market Assyros even more aggressively, which member would be best fit to take on this task?
Atourina of course, I don’t think she’ll let you down Ashoor

 -You now have the chance to reveal to people something that you have done on Assyrian Voice (amongst yourself or with someone else) which you have kept a secret for some time. This could be something normal, or something extremely controversial.
ummmmm I think I should skip this question before madness breaks loose

-You have attended many Assyrian Voice gatherings all over the place.  Which one has been the best and most memorable one.
The first one in Toronto will stay with me forever. It was the first time I saw the faces behind the names (well except vivooo, I saw her once before in Chicago). And all the other times didn’t really feel like gatherings at all. It was more like a bunch of friends hanging out casually.

 -Which male and female AVNers make these gatherings more fun?
Vivooo and Don

 -What is the worst or weirdest dream that you have seen an AVNer posting?
Any dream posted by Lovemoon is weird, so yea she wins hahaha

 

-Assyrian Voice is currently working out the outlines and drafts for some big projects or enhancements to the website.   Beside each project, give us your opinion and what can we do to ensure their success

It would be nice to see a part of this section dedicated to people that want to learn to read and write Assyrian so that we can contribute as well.

Just make sure you have someone helping you with this, or you’ll go mad balancing everything.

We’ll since we LOVE our weddings so much, I think it would be nice to have a little section dedicated for newlyweds to post their wedding pictures and having them on-line for everyone to see.

I like this idea a lot. It’s giving the people a voice on how things should look run and look.

-Ever since you moved to Vancouver, you have managed to somehow apply some gravity, by which more than a few members met with you there, including Jenny, Malka_Shoomana, Miranda and others.  Is Vancouver slowly becoming a new hotbed for AVNholics?
I hope so. It’s really nice to see couple of friendly faces from time to time. Who ever comes here loves it as well, so it’s a win/win situation.

 

 

Assyrians Related Questions:

 

 

-What is your recipe for helping needy Assyrians in the middle east?
My recipe is very simple. Keep myself grounded then run towards my goal in life. Only then I’ll have enough power to help others outside my family. But first I have to help myself get in to a comfortable position that will allow me to help not only my fellow Assyrians, but people in general.

 -What is your intake on the recent church issues?
I try not to get mixed up in all the rumors and be forced to pick a side. I seriously can’t figure out what side is telling the truth. I have enough thoughts running in my mind already. I hope it will all come to an end very soon, so we can put our energy on something else.

 -Is the internet helping Assyrians in doing things they were never able to do before?
I can’t think of new things, but it gave us a big boost in a lot of area’s that were lacking before. It speaks to the masses, and that really helps us Assyrians since we’re all spread out all over the world.

 -Should and can Assyrians have their own and capable army?
It would be nice to have some sort of protection for the people back home. But that would only have young men fight a war that is too big for them and I’m sure now matter how big our army gets, we’ll still be ridiculously out numbered

 -How do you see our language in 50 years from now?
Our language has survived for many many years, so 50 more won’t hurt it. Some words or meanings will change, but we’ll be still speaking Assyrian.

 -Are Assyrians generous enough when it comes to charities and churches?
I think we are, we just have to have good cause to lend a helping hand and strongly believe in what were helping in.

 -How can we turn the new generation, especially the ones who don’t even speak the Assyrian language, into one which we can rely on to take the lead of our nation in the future? 
Well this web site for example has united a lot of us and got us interested in our people and history. So we just need to come up with a new idea to get threw the new generation and get there heads in the right place.

 -Last, one word to our people out there. 
Never forget who you are and were you come from.

 

 

Favorites:

 

 

-favorite school subject: Adv. Computing

-favorite sport: HOCKEY

-favorite international soccer team: Germany

-favorite book: The Hobbit

-favorite season: Winter

-favorite car: Nissan Skyline

-favorite color: Navy Blue

-favorite number: 25

-favorite Assyrian singer: Evin Aggasi

-favorite NHL/NBA players: Darcy Tucker

-favorite TV show: Battlestar Galactica  

 

 

General Questions:


 

-If time-travel was possible, and space-travel wasn’t, how would our life be different from what it is now?  (provided that humans can still move from one place to another, but only in short distances)
Let’s not get too harsh now, most of the SciFi shows and moves that I love wouldn’t be made if space travel wasn’t discovered hahaha yes you can call me a nerd now. I am glad though that no one has come forward to reveal their time travel machine to the world. I mean any little thing that they change in the past could change everything in the present. That’s too much power for anyone man or women to have if you ask me.

 -What do you make of the current mess in the middle east? Who is to blame?
I wish I could say things will get better soon, but I think they’ll get a lot worse. I don’t think we can point a finger at one person or nation, too many people are at fault here.

-What is the biggest mystery in life?
Women!!!!!! hahahaha just kidding, Life after death is the biggest I think. No one really knows exactly what happens.

 -What is the biggest threat to our world at this time?
WWIII

 -Is Canada the ‘greatest country in the world’ as some Canadians claim?
Sure it is, and if your from USA or Australia and you think that’s the greatest country in the world, you’re right too. We all get so much out of life living in these countries that we can’t help but love and talk about it. I would be impossible to do half of the things I do her if I was still living in Iraq. Sadly, you still see people complaining about how hard it is to make a decent living here.

 -What is the ‘Canadian Dream’ and how different is it from the ‘American Dream’?
To me, the Canadian dream is to live a comfortable life and pitching in to make this country a better place to live for everyone.

 -Speaking of Americans, what do you think of them?
Most of them that I have met are very nice and easy going people. I have a lot of American friends that aren’t Assyrian, and I get a long with them just fine. The country on the other hand, hahaha we’ll leave that for another day.

 -Some Canadians like to identify themselves as being ‘anti-American’ or ‘un-American’ first, before saying ‘I am Canadian.’   Is this anti-Americanism at its best, or just a way of separating your Canadian identity from your neighbors to the south?
It’s an identity thing for sure. No one like’s to be mistaken by someone else. Like when ever you meet a Spanish person, first thing that pops in your mind is, he’s Mexican for sure. And no buddy wants to be mistaken for a Mexican or an American!!!!
lol I’m kidding people, no hate mail please 

 -What did you think of the recent world cup? What did you like and dislike about it?
World Cup was fun this year. I wish Germany won it at home, but we’ll get it next time around. I had a blast with my new friends from school, everyone is from a different country, so each day we’d go to a pub and watch re-run’s and make fun of each other. We tried to avoid anyone who knew the score, it was so funny.

 -Canadians have always had a hard time marketing their game of Hockey to the US and other parts of the world.  How would you go about doing this?
By having more teams IN Canada would help, and I don’t really understand your question. Canadian hockey is world events is very strong and well known, well I think so.

 -From these three companies, which one has contributed the most to popularizing the internet and providing the best benefit for humanity (and why):  Google, Ebay, Amazon
This is a hard one, but I have to go with Google.

 -Which one of these are you most likely to believe in: Mermaids, Aliens, Big Foot?
Aliens of course, I made my demo reel about them. Plus, It would be such a waste if we were the only living creatures in the entire galaxy.

 -How can people see the beauty of art and appreciate it more?
I guess just by keeping an open mind to new idea’s and just let the piece move you

 -Who is your favorite artist of all time?
Leonardo Da Vinci is one of my favorites because of the realism in his work. I’m a big fan of realism, its much much harder to pull off. That’s why I like my field. I take 3D elements and merge them seamlessly with real footage. 

-What three websites do you visit on a daily basis?
http://www.assyrianvoice.net                 https://mail.vfs.com/login.html and http://www.myspace.com  thanks to Miranda lol

 

Final Thoughts:

 

-What did you like the most about this interview?
Just writing it, it got me thinking a lot about my past and my “life story” even though most of my thoughts didn’t make it in the interview.

 -One question you are glad we didn't ask?
When are you getting married hahahaha

 -One question you really wanted us to ask but didn't?
Where do you see yourself in ten years.

 -Your best quote in life?
“Let the world change you, and you can change the world” by Che Guevara

 -Who else should help us in setting up these questions?
Someone that knows a lot about us AVNers, and then I can come in and throw in couple of casual questions that will leave a smile on people’s faces.

 -One question I should ask the next person we interview.
How much time do you spend infront of the computer and how often do you go out and see the sun.

 -Who should we interview next?
Well its been long overdue……….but BeLLaMaFIa should be next in line for sure

 -How can all the hundreds of people reading this interview, keep in touch with you?
Through the forum Private Messages and I’m getting a web site up very soon, so people can get a hold of me there.

 -Now you have a chance to ask us any question you like.
How do you do it???? keeping this web site up and running like you guys do and having jobs and a semi normal lives and all

-Final word about this interview and about the Assyrian Voice community as a whole.
I just want to thank all of you who made this site my home away from home, you really mean a lot to me. and I’m sorry I couldn’t be their for the get “get-togethers” but i should be back soon (for a little while) sooo I say we all head out east for another road trip!!!

 We thank you for taking the time to do this interview and wish you the best of luck in everything you do in your life.
Thank you Ashoor for putting up with me and giving me this honor

 

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