A month's worth of my facebook status

You can find me at www.facebook.com/syrmo but here has been my statuses over the past month, since in a way that has become a bit of a journal for me and I wanted to see if I could revive my blog...

Aaron Syrmopoulos 希 言 自 然 。故 飘 风 不 终 朝 ， 骤 雨 不 终 日 。孰 为 此 者 。天 地 。 天 地 尚 不 能 久 ， 而 况 于 人 乎 。
September 11 at 10:59am

Aaron Syrmopoulos Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end.
September 11 at 9:43pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.
September 13 at 8:52am

Aaron Syrmopoulos To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
September 14 at 3:34pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
September 15 at 7:04am

Aaron Syrmopoulos If you haven't found what you are looking for, you can either lower your standards and settle for less than what you deserve or you can keep looking and enjoy the hunt.
September 15 at 4:04pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos If you can't laugh at yourself, everyone else will.
September 16 at 12:25pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos 知 人 者 智, 自 知 者 明。胜 人 者 有 力, 自 胜 者 强。
September 17 at 1:50am

Aaron Syrmopoulos I was nearly brought to tears this evening by a message from an old friend. This reinforces my determination to live life in such a way that I will look back on today with the same feelings I have about those times so many years ago.
September 18 at 1:07am

Aaron Syrmopoulos Just watched my 6 year old nephew Big Nate get on the school bus for the first time today...
...very cool.
September 21 at 7:19am

Aaron Syrmopoulos This too will pass...
September 23 at 4:56pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move.
September 25 at 1:24pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos is gonna kick Monday's A$$
September 26 at 9:52pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos is looking for work in the Winona, MN area
September 27 at 9:33pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos I can count my closest friends in this life on 1 hand, and no mater how far they may be they are always with me, whether they know it or not...

...today one of them is having a BIRTHDAY!!!
October 1 at 10:19am

Aaron Syrmopoulos finally got myself a jobby-job...
19 hours ago

From Belgium to AZ to MN

I've been struggling to find work for a few years. So after some thought I decided that if I am going to struggle I might as well do it somewhere I can watch my nephews and niece grow up. They are all between the ages 2-8 and in that time I've only seen them twice. So as not to become just a face in a photo album I decided to move to Winona, MN...

Aaron Syrmopoulos I'm baaaaaaack!!!
August 19 at 12:54am

Aaron Syrmopoulos time to pack the computer...
August 24 at 2:18pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos on the road again...
August 25 at 10:17am

Aaron Syrmopoulos Tucumcari, NM
August 26 at 12:50am

Aaron Syrmopoulos Kansas City, MO
August 26 at 11:14pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos Winona, MN
August 27 at 9:13pm

Birthday wishes from facebook

I don't know if this will revive the blog or not, but here is from my facebook wall on my 35th birthday July 29th, 2010

Normally my facebook wall is locked so people can't write on it. However, for 1 day only, in about 8 hours, I will open my wall for anyone who wants to say hi...
July 28 at 6:09pm
Joan Diane Brooks, Barry Chiles, Wendy Hicks and 6 others like this.
Timothy Lee Helton Gee thanks, what a guy!! Someone is a little full of themselves!!
July 28 at 6:19pm
Brooke Lindsay Willmarth Hey Buddy. HI
July 28 at 6:20pm
Aaron Syrmopoulos ‎@Brooke HI!!!
@Timothy It's not that I think highly of myself, it's that I am a control freak and don't like people posting links or other nonsense on my wall. I am opening it up tomorrow because it is what many consider a milestone.
July 28 at 6:36pm
Ale Airoldi I want only to wish you a great birthday! (in Italy is already 29!)
July 28 at 6:40pm
Randy Dunn Wait, your wall is locked? I had no idea!!! Lol
July 28 at 6:46pm
Aaron Syrmopoulos ‎@Ale Thank you.
@Randy It's to keep trouble making hoodlums like you from posting hacker links on my wall.
July 28 at 6:48pm
Mario Yap hello Aaron, HAPPY BIRTHDAY !! wish u all the best
July 28 at 7:47pm
Sissy Cook Dorman Can't wait!! {Evil Grin} I know this youtube link a great leader sent me, it should say it all!!! :0)
July 28 at 7:55pm
Adietya Arie happy birthday agent Aaron
July 28 at 9:13pm
Diane Kaste I know your b'day doesn't officially begin for a few more hours.. I wanted to be one of the first to wish you a happy day.
July 28 at 9:18pm
Ronald Jr Masteller Happy Birthday!
July 28 at 11:07pm
KellyLee Eagan Lucas Have a happy birthday boss!
July 28 at 11:19pm
Jim Cooke happy b-day.enjoy and be safe.
July 28 at 11:36pm
Jamshed Kazi Happy Birthday Aaron...have a nice and enjoyable day!!!
July 28 at 11:45pm
Raja Kadri Jamshed- how are you man? where are you these days?
July 29 at 12:56am
Sean P Price Well then let me say hi. I hope your having an incredibly great day. Happy hunting
July 29 at 1:21am
Wendy Hicks Happy birthday from UK
July 29 at 1:32am
Sean P Price Oh, and just so I dont miss out on the chance to say it! Have a Happy Birthday as well. I hope its a great one!!!
July 29 at 1:36am
Poypi Luse happy birthday :)
July 29 at 2:27am
Barry Chiles Aaron, have a good one mate, happy birthday :-D
July 29 at 4:20am
Preman Jakarta happy bdays? wish u all the best in life?...
July 29 at 5:18am
Neal Holland Happy Birthday have a good one!!!
July 29 at 10:17am
Pat Lais HBD Agent Aaron.
July 29 at 11:32am
Patricia Horn Have a very happy birthday!
July 29 at 12:59pm
Laura Elshaw Hi and Happy Birthday xx You stick to your principals hunny and open when and only when you want, just makes saying hello to you all the more special xxxxxxxx
July 29 at 2:37pm
Joan Diane Brooks Ok but HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOSS!!!
July 29 at 3:05pm
Marilyn Sissy McCarley Arnold HAPPY B'DAY BOSS, WE LOVE YOU, YOUR [FBI] FAMILY
July 29 at 4:03pm
Jeff Ellis Aaron, happy belated birthday...I wasn't on when it happened but i always thought highly of u when i was a member of the FBI before i left on my on will...I hope you had a good day and a good year.
September 13 at 7:38pm

Aaron Syrmopoulos Thank you all so much for your kind birthday wishes. As my Godfather used to tell me when I was young, congratulations on another trip around the sun. My facebook wall will once again be restricted to post by me alone...
July 30 at 2:08am
Maria Elitis likes this.
Tigre Staneslow been so busy didn't notice .... Happy late Birthday wishes ... hope all your wishes are coming true.
July 30 at 2:37am
Cheryl Heller Hope u had a good one!! Enjoy!!
July 30 at 6:08am
Thu Nguyen Bummer! But I can still comment to your post...hmmm....maybe more of those cheesy heart/smiley quote.
July 30 at 7:18am
Lucas Lovecchio happy d-day buddy..hope you had a great day..!
July 30 at 7:54am
Victoria Waller What? thats ridiculous I didnt know that you had changed the settings so I could wish you a happy birthday! NOT FAIR!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU!
July 30 at 8:04am
Jin Ueno Happy Birthday Old man!
July 30 at 1:36pm

Theodore S Syrmos

Theodore S. Syrmos, 88, of Portsmouth died Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009.

Born June 5, 1920, in Somersworth and raised in Lowell, Mass., he was the son of the late Stavros Dimitri Syrmopoulos and Antonia (Happas) Syrmopoulos.

Mr. Syrmos graduated from Lowell High School, class of 1939. He attended and graduated from Burdett College and Suffolk University with a bachelor's degree in accounting. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II in the European Theater.

He was predeceased by his wife of 55 years, Alice G. (Scliris) Syrmos, and his brother, Demosthenes S. Syrmopoulos of Cohasset, Mass.

Survivors include his son and daughter-in-law, Steven and Julie Syrmopoulos of Tempe, Az.; his daughter, Toni Syrmopoulos and her partner John Herrmann of Merrimack; two sisters, Georgia Soteropoulos of Athens, Greece, and Fotine Syrmopoulos of Kingston, Mass; six grandchildren, Aaron, Jason, Alisha, Katelyn, Benjamin and Derek; four great-grandchildren, Isaiah, Nathaniel, Damon and Aja; and several nieces and nephews and their children.

WE REMEMBER: Ted was a member of the American Legion and received an Auxiliary for Americanism in Action recognition award from VFW Post #168. He was active in the Alpha Epsilon Phi fraternity, a scholastic society of college graduates of Hellenic-American ancestry. He was a member of the American Hellenic Educational Association since 1952 and served as president of the Portsmouth Chapter 215. He also served as president of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church parish council. Ted joined the Portsmouth Lions Club in 1956 and was an active member for many years. He was the first Lions Club member ever to be elected president for two consecutive terms from 1964 through 1966. He was recipient of the Melvin Jones Fellow Award for dedicated humanitarian services from Lions Clubs International Foundation, awarded in recognition of his ongoing commitment to the global community, and in 1988 Ted received the Lion of the Year Award for outstanding service, loyalty and devotion to Lionism. Ted served with distinction in the Grand People Project in the Portsmouth school system beginning in 1984, working on the Advisory Council for Retired Senior Volunteers Program. In this capacity he assisted in teaching math to fourth-graders at the New Franklin School in Portsmouth for 16 years.

As a former businessman, he owned and operated Ted's Coffee Shop on Congress Street for nine years until 1961. He then joined the Prudential Insurance Company of America in July of 1961 and served as the division manager of Prudential's Dover Ordinary Agency. He was the proud recipient of the Prudential Academy of Honor Award and was also a member of the National Academy of Life Underwriters. Ted retired from Prudential in 1982 after 21 years of service.

Charles P Gaffney Jr

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Corporal Charles P. Gaffney Jr., 42, of Phoenix, Arizona, died December 24, 2008, in Paktika, Afghanistan, when his combat outpost received enemy rocket fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Before Corporal Charles P. Gaffney Jr. was a soldier bravely holding the line in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was a Tucsonan who loved riding his motorcycle up and down the Catalina Highway.

He was a mechanic at several Midtown auto shops.

He was a doting father to twin 4-year-old girls.

And he was a man who believed in fighting the good fight, making the world a safer place and helping the oppressed.

It's why the highly decorated soldier signed up again a few years ago, after an earlier tour in Iraq. He was then sent to Afghanistan, where enemy fire took his life on Christmas Eve.

The 42-year-old infantryman was in Paktika, Afghanistan, when his combat outpost came under enemy rocket fire, according to the Department of Defense press release on the attack.

Gaffney was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

He is the 38th service member with ties to Tucson and Southern Arizona to be claimed by the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gaffney was the seventh service member to be killed in 2008.

Gaffney and his family moved to Tucson in the late '70s, his father said Wednesday. Gaffney joined the Army in the mid-'80s. He served about six years, spending most of that time in Germany, and then returned to Tucson. He worked at several auto shops along Speedway that have since closed, his father said, and he moved to Las Vegas after a while and worked for a Porsche dealership there.

Meanwhile, his parents moved to Phoenix and Gaffney moved there, too, several years ago. That's when he decided he needed to serve his country again, Charles P. Gaffney Sr. said.

"I won't say I was upset he was going back, but I didn't want him to," his father said. "He told me it was for people's rights around the world, for them to say what they want to say without other people beating them down. And he said he never wanted anyone to come here to the United States and tell his daughters that they had to do things a certain way.
"And then I couldn't argue with him."

Gaffney went to Iraq in 2006-07 and was part of security forces outside Baghdad, his father said. He joined up again and was sent to Afghanistan in October.

"He said, 'I'm going back again.' He said, 'It has to be taken care of.'"

Hank Savko, a family friend, also remembers the younger man talking about his resolve.

"He had said, 'I'm not doing it for myself. I'm doing it for the women of Afghanistan.' We kind of looked at him and said, 'Why?' He said the women of Afghanistan are so mistreated, they're not really people like we are in this country. He said, 'I'm doing it for them.'"

Gaffney earned numerous accolades for his service, including the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal and two Global War on Terrorism Service Medals. He also was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, his father said, for his recent service.