A McSweeney's article for people who love angels. It's quite funny.

Mel C of the Spice Girls says she wants men, not women. I know you wanted to know.

Here's the link to the fire I mentioned last night.

In case you didn't already know, coffee is bad and chocolate is good. I'm glad everyone agrees.

On that note, we are, of course, traveling this weekend. :-)

There was an article in yesterday's New York Times about Venice sinking. I can't find it in their web page or I would link it for you. The article talked about how the government is about to approve a multi-million dollar project to save Venice while some professor from Colgate proved that the proposal will not work. The professor is trying to make his findings public so that the project will get dropped, and so they can start searching for a feasible alternative. If you've never been to Venice, I think you should try to go soon cause I'm not sure how much longer this wonderful city will be around.

Oh and let's not forget about Whipped, opening this weekend.

Quite a selection we've got.

I have the same problem with people who treat their dogs that way. Or people who kick pigeons. Why must you enjoy someone else's pain? Just let everyone be! Especially the animals and children. Ok, done lecturing.

Actually one more thing. As a dog person, I feel like all dog people should be nice and approachable humans. That's what differentiates the dog people from the cat people. (Tho I admit to being both, I lean slightly more towards being a dog-person.) When I see an owner walking his puppy on the street and she gives me this don't-you-dare-come-near-my-pet look, I feel peeved.

This time, I'm really done, I promise.

Today, I go back to the New York Society for the Deaf. Check back later for more details.

The article also mentions that the building has a policy of not honoring commercial products, corporate events or private occasions. An exception was when in March 1995, the building went blue to celebrate the announcement of the blue M&Ms.

We also watched BASEketball which I don't really think should qualify as a movie.

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

There are many excellent point made in the book that made me think. As a person who grew up in Istanbul, computers didn't enter into my life until I was in fifth grade. My Commodore 64, floppy drive and dot matrix printer from those days is still sitting in storage in my parent's house. The interesting thing is, I never had the community that David had at school. In my high school there were no computer classes until after I graduated. Maybe this was because I went to an all-girls school or maybe the whole country was behind, I'm not exactly sure. Either way, I never saw a Macintosh, let alone a UNIX machine, till I stepped into the clusters of Carnegie Mellon. Filled with kids who'd had a computer since they could walk and ones who had already programmed in several languages before they made it to college, it was no wonder that I felt intimidated in my computer science classes. I was thinking, as I read this book, that it's amazing how much I've learned in the almost eight years I've been in this country. Then again, in some ways I'll probably never catch up to those kids who, like David, grew up hacking with 1,200 baud modems.

While reading the part about Zork and how he and his roommate stayed up until late hours, playing the game for several weeks straight, I was reminded of my college years when sleep wasn't really an issue. I remember when my friends and I spent endless hours playing the LucasArts game Full Throttle. College is a time when you do fun things just cause they're fun. You listen to the same song over and over again or you yell out an inside joke ("I'll never find that secret passage") and laugh till you pee. You stay up all night, making the most of your T-3 line. I'm not sure what happens once you graduate; maybe because you have to get up and go to work in the morning, or because you no longer live in a building where the average age is 19, you just don't pull all-nighters anymore. You don't spend several weeks playing Doom across the network, boding with strangers as you try to sneak up on them and blow their brains out. I really think college is magical and unfortunately, as it is with all good things, you never appreciate it till it's over.

I laughed as I read Harvard's lack of foresight on computers and what they represented for our future. Then again, Harvard has never been famous for their innovative technology. The interviews with Microsoft also made me chuckle out loud. As I read that he was excited about Microsoft, I felt terrified cause I'm a firm hater of the company, the further I read, the more I enjoyed what happened. Microsoft has never been and will never be about innovation.

Finally, the issues of sharing code and not keeping secrets intrigued me. It's interesting that, in the beginning, people shared code and promoted the idea of building on top of their programs to make it more custom to your wants or to perfect it further. As companies like Microsoft and others emerged, the programs became close boxes that didn't dare share the details or 'secrets' of how they functioned. With the Open Source Movement we're returning back to the time when programmers can see the magic behind a program and tweak it and learn from it. I think that's the true power of computing. The idea of sharing and learning through the wisdom of others is what will bring programming to another level.

Here's more of David's work. If you couldn't figure it out from my long passages above, I highly recommend this book.

The same scenario repeated itself today as I sat downstairs at Light Delights. Another woman, walking her dog, approached the Chase ATMs, hollering at the top of her voice. She spoke so loudly that another girl and I looked up from our books and caught each other's eye. As this woman kept yelling, I got more and more agitated and almost felt like screaming at her to quiet down. I felt like saying, "You know what? I couldn't give two fucks about your personal life and please shut up!" Being the calm and collected person that I am, I gritted my teeth and felt thankful that the machines responded quickly so that she could get her damn cash and leave. Just cause you have a phone doesn't mean you own the streets and can speak loudly calling attention to yourself and disturbing all of us in the process.

I won't even mention the rudeness of a cell phone ringing at a movie or theater cause I'm sure you've all had the pleasure of experiencing that before and if you have, you don't need any explanation from me.

In other, really bad, news, Zapata corp decided to focus away from word.com. As a fan of word, I find this news quite terrible.

Care about the world we live in? Check out oneworld.net. Their mission is: "OneWorld is dedicated to harnessing the democratic potential of the internet to promote human rights and sustainable development." Here's some press about them.

For some online activism, try out VoxCap. They have everything from Economy to Education.

Wanna read about psychology instead? Try out PsycPort or brain.com.

Hate it all? Just like to take tests, you say? Have fun with Kingdomality or use this iVillage allHealth test to figure out what career is for you. Still not satified? Here's another one that measures your charisma. Know some fun tests? Mail me.

Checkout this Shot Glass Chess Set and the Slam Man both proudly brought to you by Firebox's Bachelor Pad.

One is how, even when we grow up, we're put through tests and situation that make us fell like children. Like, in their case, they had to take this psychological exam as part of their application and then they had to take classes and exams while employed there. Also, she mentions the mystery shoppers and how the managers praise people in public and how no one wants to not have done well cause everyone will know about it. It’s funny how we always want people to think well of us and how desperate we are to please.

While it's possible that Kinko’s does more of this than other firms, most large companies do treat their employees like children. They make you take tests or go through training about the company's culture. I find it quite interesting that when you're a kid, you look forward to a time when your words will not be overridden by adults and then you grow up and, in some ways, act even more childish than you ever did before. For example, the reason we have subjects like 'Is he approachable?' in our yearly feedback forms is because as they grow up, people become more judgmental and start segregating people. Whereas a kid who's never been told that someone is less important than he is would never know to make such a differentiation. Which then becomes the reason to treat these so-called adults like children. Therein lies the irony of the entire thing.

Another interesting point she makes is about how her job has resolutions as opposed to everything else in life. She mentions teaching and marriage as examples. I think this is one of the reasons I like programming so much. When my code works, I feel a huge sense of accomplishment. The same goes for the 3-D graphics I do. Immediate feedback and a sense of completion. (Tho both in art and programming, you can always tweak things to be more perfect.) I get the same feeling when I finish a book. While I'm sad it's over, I feel fulfilled. In a world where we have no way of fixing or changing many things, it feels good to have something completed.

Go read the word article, I think you might find it interesting, too. Let me know what you thought of it.

Btw, I remember when word had that three-eyed smiley and I used to love it. I wish they brought it back. Even though they have some really neat layouts and effects, I miss the little smiley dude.

When I switched from a full-time job to a part-time one, giving up quite a sum of money, to spend a bit more time volunteering and learning, people looked at me like I was insane. There are two kinds of people in the world, it seems; those who want to help the world and those who wish to climb the corporate ladder. These two don't mix. Except in my case, where they do. I wish more people did both because sometimes the connections in the corporate world have the monetary power to make things happen.

When was the last time you volunteered?

I've seen the Monster ad about kids telling they want loser jobs many times before but each time I smile and enjoy it over again. That, to me, is the real power of an ad. Most quirky ads are interesting the first time around but as repeated they get annoying. If it has lasting power, then the company did a good job.

I strongly urge everyone to read this amazing response. Specifically the butterfly analogy of criticism. While Jason talks about how he feels he won't be able to understand how beauty is created unless he analyzes and dissects it, I feel that you can't learn that way. Art, in my opinion, is not something that's constructed, therefore it's impossible for someone else to break it into parts that can then be rebuilt by someone else to produce the same piece. I think you absorb and relate to art. It's an emotional process and not a scientific one. As a huge hater of critics in general, I found Dave's words inspirational.

I love the way he chooses to construct his readings. It shows what a full-of-life person he is and finding an artist who is not full-of-himself is refreshing.

His words relating to how you cannot judge other people and what they do is well put. Here's the part that best sums up that subject-matter: "What kind of small-hearted person wants an artist to adhere to a set of rules, to stay forever within a narrow envelope which we've created for them?" Think about that one for a while.

He addresses the issue I find so fascinating about some people I've met who consider themselves a good judge of art. Just because something is popular doesn't automatically make it 'unreal.' What a twisted way to think!

I love that he talks about not saying no and how he mentions that he doesn't get along with people who say no. I've met many people who think refusal is a form of coolness. Real people are never too busy or too important. They don't worry about the messages they send and the way people might judge what they do or say.

"What matters is that you want to see and make and do, on as grand a scale as you want, regardless of what the tiny voices of tiny people say." If we could all live with this frame of mind, not only would we all be happier, but the world would be such a better place.

Thanks to Jason for pointing me towards this amazing article and I am glad people like Dave exist in this world.

Saturday night Jake and I went to a restaurant by our house to have dinner. The weather was so wonderful that we looked for a place with outside seating. As we sat on the bench outside the restaurant, waiting to get a table, a small, brown mouse scurried by us towards the tables. These tables were outside the restaurant but within a low barricade the restaurant had put to separate itself from the sidewalk. Jake and I looked at each other and waited for the shrieks to come. Ten minutes later, we were seated and forgot all about the mouse, until the woman in the table behind ours cried out a few unintelligible words as we saw the poor mouse run for his life squeezing below the tent barricade. The owner of the restaurant simply shook his head as the animal tried to find freedom. I truly think it's impossible to live in New York City if you're afraid of mice or bugs of any sort. You wouldn't be able to walk down the street or use the subway. As this little mouse made its way across the road, two women walked by and one shrieked while the other said, "Why are you so scared? It's Mickey Mouse." No joke.

At noon, I go back to New York Society for the Deaf. It's really interesting being there and working with deaf people. I'm always amazed at how flexible their fingers are and how quickly they sign. It also fascinates me how they make up signs for certain words. For example, last week, I helped a few women fill out a form for housing aide. One of the items on the form asked if they currently live in substandard housing. Another item asked if their rent is subsidized. I kept wondering if there is a sign for subsidized. The only way I managed to explain it to her was to ask if anyone helped pay her rent, but I bet there is a sign that would have conveyed it better. Sign Language is really amazing. It's the only language where you can say two totally different words at the same exact moment.

When I fist came to the US, I went to a campus Jewish organization that made me fill out an application. A section asked me what kind of Jew I was. Up until that moment, I didn't even know that there were different kinds of Jews. In Turkey, I always knew myself as Jewish. Just Jewish. Isn't that enough of a category? Why do they need to break it down more?

I am only comfortable with a few categories. Human. Female. Turkish. Jewish. That's about it. I'm not willing to go any deeper and I challenge you to give me a sound reason as to why I should.