74 - customize the random 3

A lot earlier...

Within the mass-consumption system, the number of available options will be limited to those are selected by the service providers. Even though combinations of options will increase the degree of customization, it will not be that many. Bringing up the question...

If the products and services you buy reflect who you are, would it mean that the person with the same choices is you? Do you see the dilemma of identity in this?

The following is sort of an elaboration by a creative ad-agency for an outstanding car company. Of course it's within the manipulative context of the system.

73 - customize the random 2

Later...

As sometimes people mumble songs that don't exist, I was doing so taradarada... Then I started the iTunes and hit play, came the next three songs in shuffle.


Then I went out...

72 - customize the random

Google.com is the homepage for my pretty Mozilla Firefox browser. When I opened the browser today, there was a message from google itself asking if I'd like to give the artist themes of iGoogle a try. Having tried the iGoogle before (and got bored of it easily switching back to the simple interface) I wasn't expecting much but out of no reason I clicked.. A click is almost like a victory for almost everything online and even most bloggers secretly follow who's reading their blogs (at least that's my conviction). Anyway, there was a nice theme, that of a photographer from Lisbon, Antonio Gamuti...

That's the beginning of the story. Then since I liked the theme served by Google, I googled the artist. The first results are from a photography newsletter from Portugal. Then there comes some blogs. I went through all. Very interesting as Stavros (an online acquaintance who has a very nice blog) compares to "windows to others lives". I am not that interested in anything in particular and don't want to swept away from neither the randomness of my search or the main objective (to find out more about the photographer). Then a cool blog came across, with a post from yesterday talking about iGoogle and Antonio Gamuti... Where is that lamp of brilliant idea? This post about how I find out about this blog.



I will say more later...

71 - days

When I wake up almost first thing I do is checking e-mails. Then I take a look at the online newspapers, although I prefer papers... News, events, scandals and all the regular interesting stuff.. I skip them shortly to read my favourite columnists. Since they write in various papers, it is exciting moving from one to the other...

Then every morning I check my own blog as if there is an autor for it other than me. Even though that's not the case -thus it is not likely for me to encounter a new posting- I continue doing so. What can I say, I love looking at the latest post. Maybe the name of the blog should have been 'Daily Tribune of the never-existing lands' revealing news and things from an imaginary place constrained neither with geography nor history. Basically that's what it is. And sorry for the capacity, at the DTONEL (daily tribune of the never-existing lands), we cannot provide news as much in depth or variety compared to a paper. Most of the time it is useless as well, you cannot wrap glasses to save when moving your home, or place over the spills to cover, or to put under tomatoes - I don't know what you want to do actually.

Then again it's here, trying to bring a new scent to the day. Between you and me, mostly I like those sort of posts here, maybe I should sack those who are reluctant to take flowers when they are invited to somewhere.

Last night, I dreamed of the sunset in my hometown, by the sea.. There was a girl sitting on the table in front of me looking at the scenery, a shadow silhouette for me only. The breeze brought the iodine smell, have you ever thought about it?

69 - seriousity

Do I sound like I'm ordering a pizza?

It's a square world. At least for so many people out there. Rules are searched for and asked for so much so that social regulations are more strictly accepted then those of natural ones. Not many people care whether the world looks more like a circle than a square when imagined in two dimensions. That's why we come across boundaries in minds more than often, in a regular basis.

From time to time every one, I believe, try to bend the rules to be practical. It is also called being flexible. On the other hand rules are absolute and should apply to everyone for the sake of equality and justice. Thus there are the two norms invading other's territory.

From time to time in these posts, I sound like I'm ordering a pizza if not just joking. And on the other times, it gets too dense for someone to stick to it. Hence as typical readers switch instantly as they cannot determine 'what all this is about'. Well, between you and me, I don't care. And between me and my fav reflection, I do...

Expectations don't go anywhere. They live with people and intervene with other people's expectations. And most of the time, they do not go out of the ordinary. Do I still sound the same? You want to hear something more frightening, there are people out there who expect what you're going to expect before you actually do. And sometimes they are right, sometimes not..


Tony
You're not going to hurt me.

McClane
Oh, yeah? Why not?

Tony
There are rules for policemen.

McClane
Yeah, that's what my captain keeps telling me.

63 - gestate

I learned my lesson years and years ago. If it's not you who is writing about the thing in your mind, someone else will do. I have no idea how this phenomenon happens but I am sure that it exists.

That's why maybe I am writing, to get cited about the things that I think. Wouldn't that be a glory?

Here and then I have been writing, basically not purposefully but as a revelation, divine in its very nature.
And that is what I am trying to do. Leaving marks on a stone in an island so that one stranger, like I was once, finds it and relieves from the soreness that comes with the feeling of being all alone.

Habitants of the Easter Island lived and prospered in their civilization. The island was large and resourceful. Is that the reason why, I don't know, but the population of people grew steadily until the island was no longer beautiful. Then out of boredom within ugliness, people grew angry and blamed each other in fury. As you know, fires sparkle from hatred. And so did in the remaining forests. Birds flew and some islanders fled to the ocean in their small boats. There was no joy in destruction and pain. They once built a civilization, carving statues to welcome their fishermen in their return from the ocean. Then it was put out by the wind and the rain. Only leaving the carved stones still facing the ocean.

Then someone explored the oceans and named the island after a common religion's holiday (which probably was derived from some pagan traditions).

Then in our metaphysic world ruled by the physics, it was just another story left behind. And our ambitions to conquer and self illusions to rule remained intact, waving joyfully to our earthlings of the island.

60 - words of wisdom..

It's a marvel to listen to or read what -those who do what they do with love- say about their occupation. There in between their lines you can feel their love. Even more, there is incredible insights in what they tell you.

Jerry Uelsmann is a master and a professor of photography and we are in the fellowship of being Floridians as for the moment. Anyway, as you can tell, I am not a very serious writer. So I will leave you with an excerpt from an interview with him. He is explaining how he found himself doing what he's been doing for many years and apparently is famous for.

"... there are all kinds of little clues that may prompt you to investigate areas that will yield fruitful results. This was a case where my initial motive was to try to do something better than another photographer had done. When I was a student of Henry's (Henry Holmes Smith), there was this exhibit, Photographer's Choice, that had in it an Arthur Segal photograph of a nude (superimposed) on a highway. She fell in with the horizon line, but she'd been photographed standing against a dark doorway and you could still see the hinges. When I saw this, I thought it was just poorly done. I said: "I can do it better." Henry, who was an explosive teacher, was very critical of me being critical of Arthur Segal's photograph. My initial motive to try some of these manipulative things came from trying to do this thing better. Within two or three days, I forgot what I was trying to do better and I got all excited about the process. Now I believe that any motive that can get you working is essentially a good one. Once in the process of doing the work you may lose the sense of what the initial thrust is and you get involved in the process itself. When things are right, you're relaxed and trying things and you're open to the moment. You're not hanging on to what the initial agenda was. I guess this has a little to do with previsualization and postvisualization. If you go into the darkroom with the agenda that you want a specific thing to happen, then anything that happens different from that becomes a mistake. The point would be that if you're open to accidental or spontaneous events, and you can give up your total fixation with the expected result, you may have all kinds of results that might be equally satisfying or even more satisfying.
...."

If you would like to experience, his photographs are in the permanent collections of Metropolitan, MOMA, Int. Museum of Photography at the G. Eastman House, Bibliotheque National in Paris, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and many other museums around the world. They also appear in his book, Jerry Uelsmann: Other Realities (Bulfinch Press, New York, 2005).

Photograph displayed is a work by the artist.. The technique is not photoshop...

www.uelsmann.net

59 - more?

The fourth addition...
I realized that I have forgotten the "the"s in previous additions to this post. Yet this addition is rather a guideline, for it's not that straightforward to figure out the best way to read this piece. Start with the first one, at the very end. Move to the second and then the third. And you already read the fourth.

....

Third addition...

It's the fundamental asset of a being; creativity for observing the world and perceiving things uniquely... It's surrounded by the world of others, or better to say the world as a product iterated through the history of mankind... Then again there is a feeling revealing itself when we are not busy with things other than living. Beauty is the manifestation of existence. Not the routines, not the learned genuinenesses, not the primitive sincerities, not the functions, not the status, not the paradigms within societies - I mean neither the Amazons nor the Kibele, not anything we dream of other than who we are.

In the schools of thought, in the libraries, in the universities or in the barracks, in the military headquarters, or in the assemblies, in the media, in the companies, factories or farms, in nowhere basically the roles we take reveals what we are capable of. And what I mean with 'we', is everybody - so for so long transformed into other beings to comply with the iterated structures, as frameworks for our lives are imposed hastily in our lives from day one. Some good some bad but altogether very inefficient so that half of the humans on the planet is quite hungry, quite insecure, fighting to live without the time to think about what living is.

And for the people with time, what is written is to be read and forgotten...

....

Second addition...

Stuck in doing things less then what you can to comply with the necessities of living transforms that very living into something else. There are many things fragile in our existence take life basically, or the coincidences so continuously shaping our destinies/futures - like cold tolerance of flower buds, or the preciseness in chemistry of things - from baking powder in a cake to creation of love...

But there are mechanisms within the system. The clock ringing before sunrise, the bus taking you to 'your' work, the hierarchical sword - took a long time to sharpen - of a Greek philosopher swinging promptly over you from ages, and the happiness bestowed upon you as a dividend for taking part in it. But hold on, was it not your choice?

Were you ever capable of risking it altogether to follow the Carthaginian warlord's path, opening a road where roads are already set famously intersecting at one point in the city...

Powder in your fingers is not brought to you from some other factory, it's yours and yours alone. There is a feeling which makes you wake up at night and remains deep inside after some medication or meditation to sleep. Giving the bliss to people, was it supposed to make you happy? By the way, why do you wake up?

He never liked the feeling of entrapment either in a place or in some mindset. But he had his own ideals, humane so much so that they rarely exist in the face of this planet. The roads and the mechanisms were already set. The turn is to set your clock and adjust... Then wake up.

....

First addition...

Are you happy? No no it's not me who's asking you this question. It's yourself.

I wonder if it is possible to induce happiness?

Lost as a package of good on a supermarket shelf or like an ore waiting in piles for the heat and the human touch, there is sadness in the eyes of the wise as much as happiness. But it's no good, I mean the state of being vulnerable and weak, hurt by the agonies of oneself. Over and over again about the same mistakes that are likely to haunt in the future, there we are, thinking my friend. Analysis always fail at some point as we did. Such an hypnotizing sound is the pain afterwards, that you know you should leave behind, and hopefully you can. Why couldn't I ever learn how to play piano?

Remorse is a cliff, better we just avoid. Where is it? The happiness... And the next question is how do I get it? Such mistakenly you ask, when you can only get things that could be gotten.

Maybe there aren't any useful products that would bring elation.

An artist looks through his heart and puts in whatever he does, unlike machines or machine-like humans in their gray-scale worlds... But it's spreads over colors until becoming mandatory for your heart to remain solely in your body.

Then everybody, even you (and me), know deeply and yearn for it, the true happiness. It's not sold, not hidden, not waiting to be found, not owed, not earned, nothing related to the worldly matters we find ourselves in, rocks, soil, water, fire or endless tools.

Is it a bliss to see the world in a way it is not?

Is it really because of bliss that you say 'no the world is not gray'?

Questions and questions... I miss, you my friend, happiness...

....

Sundance Film Festival - Special Jury Prize for Short Films
South by SouthWest - Best Animated Short
Academy Award (1999) - Nominee - Best Animated Short
ResFest – Audience Award for Best Film, Grand Audience Prize for Best Film
Aspen Shorts Fest - Special Jury prize
World Fest Houston - Gold / Special Jury Prize for Shorts
USA Film Festival - Dallas - Grand Jury Prize for Shorts
Toronto International Short Film Fest - Best Animated Short, Best Short Overall
Stony Brook Film Fest - Best Short Film
Message to Man International Film Festival - Russia – Best International Debut Film
PhilaFilm - Philadelphia – Best Animated Short
Annie Awards – Nominee for Best Animated Short Subject
St. Louis International Film Festival - Best Short Film
Upsalla International Short Film Festival/Sweden - Audience Award for Best Film
San Francisco Indie Fest – Audience Award

As far as awards, they go in the list above... Is the short film More dates before Matrix or after? Actually I am not sure if this question is any good. Matrix in the end is a movie with books written about it. Probably the same monotone scheme reflected over the lives of people depicted in both made me ask it. In this short movie you can find the following elements;

-color as a symbol
-depressing routines
-ironic contrasts
-(humans as) estranged creatures

Happiness as a product is a well framed story underground in this short-film. Main themes (as
far as I understand there are more than one) are the reproduction of artistic content, effect of mass production and mass consumption on human nature, dilemma of creative cycles, being content with less... Maybe I should stop before it turns into a movie critique.

I liked this short-film and believe that you will do so.

57 - universal aspect of art

'Non nella pena, nel delitto e la infamia' says Vittorio Alfieri in his play Antigone. Phrase translates as 'Disgrace does not consist in the punishment, but in the crime'.

Wonderful explanation of justice in a sentence. It's obvious, isn't it? Not always. When the wrong-doing is disguised like a wolf under a sheep skin, the shepherd has to be awake. If the shepherd catches the play, it would be no surprise for the wolf's attempt to revolt the sheep against the shepherd. I observe the current political atmosphere of Turkey as such. Just replace the metaphors with the real actors; government as the wolf, people as the sheep and judicial system as the shepherd. Of course I am not suggesting a one-to-one comparison for each characteristics. Sheep neither formulate their rights nor practice democracy.

Absurdly, the governing party which received 47% of the votes (as much as the Nazi party of 30s) in the election is being taken to the constitutional court for playing with the fire for sometime by now. Everyone is familiar with the misconducts of the party in fact. But hold on, would sheep distinguish a lie if the sheep-looking wolf is taking them to the pact while talking about green fields?

Apparently shepherd noticed this weird animal. State Prosecutor brought the case against the party and demanded from the Constitutional Court a close-down. And the sheep-looking wolf starts talking. 'How can you close a party which is so popular? It's a disgrace to the democracy'. The governing party is pushing for tricky legislations so as to make it impossible for a court rule to close their party (and abide the existing laws which were OK before their shares are at stake). So cheap! The question is for how long the wolf in sheep disguise will keep itself acting like a sheep cause it is obvious that not until then the sheep will realize what lies beneath the sheep skin.

Ironically the name of the governing party promotes 'justice and development'.

"A giurar presti i mentitor son sempre" says Alfieri in another play of his, Virginia.
"Liars are always most disposed to swear"...

Grazie Alfieri! For revealing what wolves do in humans' world.
By the way, for those who tolerates totalitarian aggression in the name of democracy: Humans cannot survive in wolves' world.

52 - liquid water path

Do you agree that there is a right to be earned about what you like to say? I mean something like proving first -or walking your talk before it ever existed. A mechanism might there be, say a causality effect. You first do then make a statement or first make a statement than do, whichever comes more logical to you.

I question myself about why people do write; to strengthen their beliefs or to share their gains from experiences. Obviously both. Acclaiming this answer leads to a question that is kind of weird but promising interesting foreign lands to the discussion. Does it hurt the author if his/her drive is one not the other. Likewise does it come any useful?

I have tried lately when I knew trying is nothing worthy. Failed by the imaginary attributes I assigned, I found out that there really is a path of occurrence and happening for people and events, mainstream and stereotypical. Chimes that I hear... Now I feel like it's just a stupid play. I felt like this many times before. Once in high school, I found myself in a theatrical play but it was bad in quality without a stage and no gongs in before the tab opened. Most people I guess doesn't care on how life should be in essence. Should it imitate a third class theatrical play or be as genuine as an American drama? I hear you smiling. You never heard of smiles that could be heard?

I have been mistaken endlessly. That's the conclusion.

49 - human quality

My personal values are based on many assumptions, beliefs and expectations. Yet among what I value, one phenomena appears to be like the moon in the dark night. It is the quality of humans...
And if you ask me whether the concept of quality applies to humans or not, I am most persuaded that it does. It's not a unique encounter to meet a person for the most people. However sometimes it is. If not exactly that is very close to what I mean.

In the bus you hop on, in the restaurant that you get served or you serve, in the school or in the national assembly, among the jury or in the grocery store... We come across people, not necessarily great. And many times we are not necessarily great ourselves. Or we are? The question is hidden in this question, I believe...

For many of us, there is no enough time to be non-egocentric to consider how much quality that we possess. It is related to our expectation, in fact; what we expect from others...

For instance today I talked to the head of a law office on the phone. Asking questions and receiving answers not even close to my concerns. Not that I don't know how to make a question clear, the person on the line was giving the answers of the questions that she expected from me.

Unfortunately this was not the first case. Many years before in the high school, I tend to notice that the answers are mistaken because of the questions that are mistakenly taken. And always, not many times - always, the answers belonged to the easy questions which made me realize how likely the people are to stock ready made answers to serve when the day comes.

Thus not much thought process available in the road to convenience. And convenience and peace are two concepts that is sought most by the common men. That's why and how, we created the societies filled with nonsense rules and regulations. Thoughtful people are few. And thoughtfulness is the very second quality in my book for any human being. Just after the aspiration to the good and the beautiful.

There are many more qualities as well, which could be found in any person on the earth without any significant signal of who bears them... (Of course everyone probably possess a certain amount of the qualities I speak of, but the depth varies invariably)

And as someone once said, writers have either readers or commentators. Obviously there are many reasons behind this separation...

45 - one quote

I know, it's been a while, we didn't have him on these pages. Leaving it short, here is a quote. Valid from here to wherever you happen to read these lines...

'I am so proud, the fans still sing my name, but I fear tomorrow they will stop. I fear it because I love it. And everything you love, you fear you will lose.'

It's brave to admit fear and Cantona has all the reputation to bear it. In most societies, fear in general is regarded to be a negative drive. I think it is natural. What really would hurt in the end is inertia...



As my posts are getting shorter one by one, I guess I will quit soon..

44 - useless things of our times

hi there again.

among tirelessly awesome blogs, I have no idea why you are reading this one. Sometimes I think about how blunt I get when I try to make sense. It's like getting in a swamp or loose sand. As much as you try, you go deeper.

I read this on a friend's msn status; 'waves don't wonder when you're drowning'. A captivating observation. What would Galileo say about it? World doesn't revolve around the man, maybe (and it doesn't stop either when you stop). Here comes the dilemma. There is no perfect world. Cause perfect is a subjective statement. I mean we are part of those waves... And between hope and despair there remains a great body of water still...

whatever

43 - rehab

Just out of rehab. My friend Ogulcan left with his girlfriend tonight.

A couple of hours ago, they took off. When I was driving back home, I felt like a person leaving rehab after spending in a while. Amazing how things change and the way you find yourself in situations hard to imagine.

Have your good old roommate as your guest! Might be priceless.

Today we were in one of the infamous beaches on the East Coast. It was a lot warmer than the West Coast (!) making us wonder about why. Group decision on the issue was the Gulf Stream. It somehow invoked my imagination with a totally unrelated story... Geppetto's inside a whale stomach. He works on some useless work on his desk even in there...

The beach was a national park in fact. Sometime after, I spotted this man when I was in the water. He was wearing a white shirt and a gray hat holding a stick with a net in its end. He was standing next to where the waves reach the sand line, like trying to find something.

Isn't that what we all do?

Then I walked to him. We started talking about what he was doing. The net was for catching small crabs. He was using them as baits. I was told that they were the best. That made me question him about how good was fishing in the beach. 'This place gets very crowded' he said. 'You should have seen yesterday, all the beach was full of amateur fisherman', added in a second. His pale blue eyes were lively, even though his age must be close to 80. He was spending the winter in here and the summer back home. Then I listened to the mountains in the north of Syracuse and how fruitful the great lakes are over there. We talked about fish for a few minutes more. As always when I talk to interesting strangers, I told him where I came from and proudly spoke of my country. I like the idea of shaking the stereotypes that live with people. Interesting enough, people that I find interesting happen to be unshaken and enjoying some sort wisdom about it. Then I got bored and went back to swimming.

Ed, as he asked me to call him so, then put a small creature in my hand.



There it was... The tiny crab from the white waves on the shore.

Playing with it for a few minutes, I noticed Ed leaving. I walked after him and gave the crab back. He said, 'Thanks for 10 cents' and we laughed.



And I thought about myself, Ed and the little 10 cent crab. Does the accustomed habit of pricing everything -innate to capitalism, transform the way how people think? Is this the right question to ask? If so, does it make any sense to ask it? And the thrilling question about ourselves haunting unconsciously in this any given beach on a random date with a stranger; do we have prices as well? Ask the question to a crab and watch, as it acts like 'no'.

Ed and I, there's a world between us.

39 - my first day at the radio station

Back in the day...

I opened the door and was about to enter as I saw a girl who was preparing to leave. The faint light and the music was soft. She took a couple of minutes and then we stormed in. It was the first show that we were going to air in the college radio station, which was quite amateur anyway.

How many years ago, I cannot say right away. Means a long time... I have to subtract two 4 digit numbers and there it is, 7 years already. After this many years, I am glad that I still celebrate the friendship of those who were with me in that room, that day.

Murat placed the first CD in the machine, playing the intro for our show. Then it continued with a list of songs that were popular. Musty was there to steal the show with his enthusiasm and jokes. Ogulcan was laughing all the time and I cannot remember what I was doing at all. A very uplifted show that it was, I can only tell that.

We were announcing the songs spontaneously in a way you can expect from college kids. Unsurprisingly there was a serious stream of stupidity. And when it came to the song that I was to announce by myself, just upon persuading them to shut up for a few seconds, I blundered the title name and the group. Disaster! A very funny one for that day though.

It makes me smile when thinking about it today. Those days and the significance of them in the paths of ourselves...

The name of the show was 'Night and Day'
and the first title I announced was
'She's Miss California' by Dante Thomas (or the other way around!)

38 - a little pistachio

Do you like pistachio? I surely do. Not maybe as much as Unver, I remember him living on it back in the college, but still I like it to a certain degree. Unlike many other important topics to reflect on, I'd like to continue with the story of this little pistachio I had a few minutes ago.

First to begin with, I had it in a package with all the other pistachio friends. They flew over the ocean and ended up in a cabinet in the kitchen. The last time I saw a similar package was three years ago in a traditional patisserie, I am borrowing the word from French cause bakery doesn't describe what I mean well enough, in Beyoglu Mado. Unfortunately this one was instead from Baklavaci Hacibaba, a restaurant in Ankara. Very similar packaging though. Well of course when it comes to pistachio, how different can you get? Maybe you can, but let's leave that to marketing specialists and designers.

As everyone else, I like the pistachio cracked in front, so that there wouldn't be a need for cracking it by yourself. Do you want to exert some pressure on the shell? I never had good memories doing that from the first day I tried, when I was very young and my teeth were not strong at all. Rock? Not really! Still not every pistachio has a semi-split shell. Even this particular pistachio had a split. That's why first I thought, it was another pistachio...

When I tried to open the shell, the upper shell fell apart. My options were throwing it away or working on it. I chose working on it. Now my options were cracking the shell with teeth, scraping off the nut or finding a way to lift the broken shell. Upon considering these options, best one seemed to me to return back to the first choice and throw it away. Nonetheless, having it in my hand and playing with it unconsciously, I felt like the broken shell could be further opened. Yet there had to be at least a tiny crack which I could put a split shell into. I looked at it and couldn't see. But still I had the feeling. I got a split shell and sticked into the microscopic crack that I imagined. Surprisingly, there it was...

I found a way to open the little pistachio and got it in my mouth. Then I thought about pistachios, their shells and the cracks that we look for. I found what I imagined. The tiny crack on the shell. And then wrote about my little pistachio and this little pleasure, not smaller than any other.

37 - where did we leave?

As a striker who scored 4 goals twice, I am very glad about it honestly. Well when the ending is happy, I happen to enjoy the story behind as well.

It was seriously cold that day... I was wearing my extra shirt under my jersey trying to keep a little bit warmer. Still, feeling the chill, it was clear to me that I was gonna get either severe cold or bronchitis kinda thing -in fact still I cough. Wondering about how many people we were going to miss on the squad, found out that the core was there.

A remark is necessary here. I always think that people who face the severity of the circumstances form better bonds compared to those who flee. And it is always more fun, as the relationships get stronger.

I was in the dark team. In fact I like the dark team more cause it's where I started back in the day. They are the opponents, the alternatives... I remember how hard it was to beat white team. Fast forwarding to three days ago, a satisfying challenge now, one which promises at least a potential to win. Of course thanks to talented players like myself, right ;)

How about my goals? I was really lucky, yes. Missed some positions when I should have hit the net clearly. They didn't work out. Because of my capacity? Maybe... Yet I scored the third goal right after missing one in a far less likely position. The last one was the last goal of the game and there were two players in front of the goal covering my angle. As I got the feeling, it still did happen though. Still the second goal was the one I liked most. Clearly I saw the net and was fast enough to shoot, with a decent power put in it, shaking the net eventually.

Throughout the game, before I scored the first, as I scored the last and all in between, I was enjoying myself, those who were playing with me that day over there and was passionate about it, truly. What a pleasure, you know!

There is a Portuguese phrase coming from Brazil which might describe a lot now.
Joga bonito! Play beautiful...

35 - My birthday, tomorrow or today

1982! The year that I was born. A human being. The common concept that we all share.
No differences, no religion, no race, no achievements, no social status, nothing that separates us.
No culture other than being.

Babies don't speak a language but manage to understand each other no matter what their language will be. But none will remain the same.

Once a professor, for who I wish peace in Heaven, found my writing as rhetoric but not critical. Unlike the one right now you are reading which lacks them altogether. He was right and made me think about how I write...

Humans think at the margins, said once an Economics professor... As the number of borders, yet to be explored decreases, there is an understanding revealed to a human. Yet you can always avoid learning.

And you can always choose to create your fake reality. Just you need to persuade yourself.

In high school once, I caught one of the girls that I liked most, looking at me as I passed by. What then? All the same story... Decisions and courage both require some kicks.

Demonstrating what I meant with chaotic order, without any intent but awareness of it, as today Andres made me tell him the principle; 'first you do, then you understand why'... We both agree that's true for the microseconds of football but I believe it governs the universe.

When I was preparing for the university entrance exam, in fact I wasn't. I was experiencing the situation and how it feels like to be in it. No matter what, one day, a math teacher asked a question that I answered in ten seconds. He looked at me wondering and confused, he knew only how easily I can lose track. The answer was correct with no methods behind.

And years after, Barlas wrote about the psychologically erratic problem of finding a method... Maybe I expressed my pearly bright ideas on it. Was there a method to find?

American way, the linear writing, I learned about it, even though Shelley had a hard time believing in the way I improved so fast. Always similar, people tend to think of on their own terms. Not just on everything, on you as well. Was I threatened for 'trying to fool them' then? Not just once.

Then I was taking pictures and this pose came to my attention. I thought about it as if it was a representation of ourselves and our existence in this planet.

That's all, learned in 25 years.

35 - Great Expectations

The famous novel by Charles Dickens depicts how expectations change the lives of people. And the rest... I have no idea. I am to presumptively ask your understanding for my ignorance,
cause I never read it. Even though I made it so clear to myself through a promise in the 2nd year of college. Well let's see... That was back in 2001 or 2002. Cool it's been not more than 6-7 years...

But I assure you, I viewed the movie... So there is enough that I know, that I can justify my speaking abruptly not to offense the devoted Dickens readers.

Expectations cause irreversible changes in our lives. Not directly but through forming our assumptions about future. And what we think about our futures changes our today. Financial people buying futures and options should know what I am talking about best. Dickens readers comes second...

After so much (or so little) of hassling literature lovers, let's go back to our one and awesome blog...

How would it feel to be in a state that of no expectations whatsoever. Would it be a freedom? A freedom for poor maybe. Isn't being poor somehow related to expectations and self perception. I am not saying being poor is a state of mind. But doesn't poverty pull off something? Unfortunately, I do think it does. It rips off more... Dangerous it is, yes indeed.

If the mind expects and cannot make the individual to act on it, that's defeat. If the individual acts and still expectations are not achieved, that's loss. If there is no action available, that's disaster.

I haven't read the book and yet ignorance is not always bliss.

33 - to hold on

It's been almost 8 months since I graduated and still there is no job to pursue, seems like the time for me to pause the blogging and put all my efforts in getting employed.

For the beloved readers of this blog, stay cool by then.

Sincerely...

Well, the picture is just for aesthetic reasons and has nothing to do with the people looking at the display of a friendly snow man and a flying train. It's just a reminder for you to come back soon.

Having said that,

Greetings!

-Aras