remembering the numbers when you are in a box

Last night i was talking to my father about some important and private issues. And he was sort of trying to find some inconsistencies in what i was saying, so that he would hopefully win the argument. For example when i said something about last Saturday, he told me that "It can't be last Saturday, because..."

Whatever. Finally, i told him that i have a very weak memory and i can't even remember what i did yesterday, so if it is not Saturday then it is not Saturday. Details are not important.

Later on, when our conversation ended, i thought about my weak memory. I guess it is getting worse every year. I remember my childhood, or even my younghood when i had a very sharp memory. If you told me a phone number for once, i would remember it for like forever.

Not anymore. Now, i can't even memorize a phone number even for ten seconds, and i just have to look at it more than once to dial it. Yes, i know it is pathetic. I blame my computer for that.

Interestingly, I watched the movie Buried (II) today. The movie is about a guy buried in a coffin who doesn't have much time before he finds the ransom.  He is only equipped with a cell phone, a lighter, a flashlight, and a pencil. This is actually a very powerful movie with a very powerful ending and you should really watch it if you think you can bear with the extremly claustrohobic atmosphere. But as always, ı am not going to discuss the movie in this blog.

Now, the guy has a pencil to take some quick notes on to the wooden board of the coffin. Well, if it was me in there and if i had no pencil to take notes, that would really be devastating. OK now, the situation is already fucked up with or without a pencil and you will see what i mean when you watch the movie, but this is not what i am talking about. Actually, you know what, i really don't know what i am talking about. I kind of forgot it. 

the most valubale commodity

In fact I should have already left the office instead of posting this one and prove that i just got the message but no: i love killing time even when i know what is relevant and what is not.

in the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, the sequel to the movie guess what,  there is this line Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas says:

  "The most valuable commodity I have known is time."

I even noted it down in order to not forget before i write a blog post about it.

I am not good at controlling time (but hey, who does). So i have to confess that i am pretty much one of those guys who just watch the life passing by. There are really very few moments i really did something in my life to give it a direction. For example, i clearly remember saying to myself "if i don't do it now, it will probably be one of those missed opportunities." before i asked to go out to that marvellous girl who became my wife later on (ok, this is irrelevant, obviously) .

There might be a lot of time between the moment i make a decision and i put it into action. And it becomes even more pathetic when you consider that i have figured the importance of time (at least in theory) when i was a kid.

Today, i am finally starting to go to gym, something which i should have started ages ago. I know it may sound crazy. Perhaps you don't understand why going to gym is supposed to be a big deal. You know what, i don't know either. I don't know why i didn't do it earlier even though i knew that i should do it. I don't know why i had to talk about it for like 5 years before i really did it. So it is a big deal, and given the fact that I am 36 now, this might be my last opportunity for me to get into some shape. I have never been a very fit guy in my life, but i was always as healthy as i could, and i can see that this may change any time if i don't start exercising.

The last time i went to the gym was like 7 years ago and i had to quit because i had no time. Now, i just hope that the whole story will change.

this is not an accident but a murder

Last sunday, while the rest of Turkey was still enjoying a 5 day long holiday, 13 people were killed in a very tragic accident. Yet, i refuse to call this an accident.

Turkish laws suggests that a traffic accident is an accident, and the responsible parties are punsihed due to that. Meaning that, any moron who thinks that he/she is superior than the laws and violates the traffic rules can easily get away with a few years sentence even if he/she kills another human being.

Among all that shitty things i see in the news, such accidents are what drives me crazy the most. I totaly belive in zero tolarence in traffic, and anybody who violates the rules should be punished severely. This is not a joke. 13 people were killed last Sunday because a moron mini-bus driver thought that he could just "ignore" the red light. The truck driver is also guilty as far as i can see from the video, but i think the real responsible guy is the mini-bus driver. He also died in his own slaughter alike accident, and i hope he burns in hell for taking 12 lives with him just because he is an ignorant bastard.

lame dialogues

There is an old lady living upstairs, and we have a nice, friendly dialogue with her. She always talks nicely to us. Or at least, this is what we think, because we can't really understand at least half of the things she says. Because her accent is really very alien to us.

Whenever I watch a movie with characters from different parts of the world, I am sort of irritated when i see that the characters can understand each other so easily. It irritates me, because i know that it is impossible, and it is far from convincing, and i feel angry for the script writers who don't do their job good enough and angry for the director and the rest of the crew who simply don't care.

It is not only the accent thing. A language is not something you can grasp only by literally translating the words. It is more than that. There are always idioms made up of words with a completely different meaning than the combination of those words. And yet, people understand each other so easily. It is just lame.

For example in the movie Eat Pray Love, there is a barbershop scene in which two Italian guys, one American woman and one Swedish woman have a chat. And one of the Italian guys talks about his theory about Americans. And the American woman says: "It is not far off, acutally". And the Swedish woman nods. Really? So did she get what the American woman says? OK now, if you are already a native English speaker, you might ask "what is the big deal?" But it is a big deal. This idiom is not something they will teach you in basic English courses. You have to live with English speaking people to grasp the meaning at the first instance you hear about it.

You see, this is actually lame. Very lame. And it is far off from the reality.

ice cream at 10 pm

i pretty much complain about how hard  i work. well, i indeed work too much, that's a fact. but i guess, i finally reached that point in my life where i can afford giving small breaks and start to enjoy life. i know that in theory, everybody is supposed to enjoy this life no matter what happens because it is only a one time opportunity, but i think we all know that this is not the case in real world. unless of course you are not Paris Hilton or something.

When i say small breaks, i really mean small, humble breaks such as watching a movie with my wife and eating some ice cream. and i prefer this combination to any wild parties out there which i would have killed to attend 15 years ago. well, what can i say? people change.

But the reason why i am writing this post has nothing to do with me or my little breaks. well, it is somehow related to the little breaks and particulary to the ice cream in them, but the real reason why i am writing this post is the local grocery stores. you see, i went out to buy an ice cream at 10 pm tonight, and all the grocie stores in the neighborhood were open, waiting for the customers who forgot to buy something in their shopping list during their day time shopping from a big market.

so, i always complain that i work too much, and that is true, but it is also very true that these people are working much more haeder than i do. and im sure they dont make much money, especially when you consider that at least half of their customers are on credit. they always buy stuff but pay later, very later. and they are always smiling. they know that if they treat the customer moody, it very possible that he/she will never see that customer again. so i really appreciate them.

headscarves, flowers, and stupid rules

Headscarf is a highly controversial issue in Turkey. No worries, i will not bore you to death with the never ending political issues...  well, at least not now. But just listen to this.

At first there weren't any bans and girls with headscarves could study in the university as freely as anybody else (pun intended: universities are not free in Turkey but this is just another very boring political stuff). Then suddenly, in mid 90s came the ban: and girls with headscarves were not allowed in the universities any more. Internet is full of articles on this ban, trying to convince you whether this is evil or good, depending on who wrote it. Read them all, and maybe you will be as confused as i am on this matter.

Today, there is still supposed to be an headscarf ban even though the prime minister Erdogan had promised to lift the ban entirely before he was elected. He could not lift the ban, at least not officialy, but you can bet that the tolerance pitch against this ban is really very high.

So, in the early days of this ban, when it was applied pretty much strictly, some of the girls had invented a very interesting, a genius solution for themselves: they wore wigs. Yep, wigs. The purpose of headscarf is to hide your hair, because Allah says you so in Koran. But Allah does not say how you will cover your hear. So, what happens if you cover your original hair with a wig? Err, I honestly don't know. But you surely cover your hair and you surely enter from the university gate.

So, from techical point of view it is a great solution. But in reality, it is just ridicolous.

And enter the smoking ban

It has been like 2 years since there is a vert smoking ban in Turkey. Generaly speaking it is a good thing. But, there are also some extremely ridicolous almost impractical aspects of it, too. Just look at the picture below which i captured while watching the movie The Greatest Game Ever Played on TV.

Do you see that interesting blue thing on the face of the guy right handside? That is a flower added later on to the movie to cover the cigarette the guy is smoking, because showing people while smoking on tv is banned by laws.

It is just a very neat solution, but it is also absolutely ridicolous. What does it really matters as long as everybody knows what is under that flower. Then why do you even care?

I am sure there must be some sort of a conclusion, a lesson to be learned from this whole thing but i am not really very sure what it might be. So you are very welcome to enlighten me.

not the food, not water, but i missed my coffee

We are in the holy month of Ramadan, thats for Muslims of course. Muslims don't eat or don't drink anything during the day time. And this is called fasting.

I am not a religious guy, but i am fadting anyway. When people find out that i don't skip even one single day, they are rather surprised. My attitude in the office, or in society in general don't suggest that i am that kind of a guy. But here i am, fasting, with my kind of reasons.

Turkey is experiencing a very hot summer this year, probably just like the rest of the northern semisphere. And Istanbul is a particularly though city because of the extreme humidity. The weather is suffocating for most of the times. Even though today is a rainy and cool day, it is really hot for most of the time.

Most people find it difficult to fight with the thirsts. This is what i hear from most of the people. They can cope with the hunger, but it is much harder to deal with the thirst.

I think i am pretty fine with them both. When you don't drink or eat for long hours, it is totally natural to feel hungry and thirsty, but they are not really something i can't deal with. I do just fine.

With one exception: coffee. I can never completely awake without my daily dose of caffeine. I am always in a semi-trans state, always ready to fall asleep. So it is really not the food, nor the water, but i did miss my daily coffee.