I’ve been thinking more about Istanbul and the changes it underwent. When I was little, we had one TV channel and one radio channel. Both of which were government regulated. I remember the time the second channel started, it was a huge deal. Now we have over a hundred channels and many European ones. We even have cable TV now. Same on the radio, hundreds of choices. I also remember when the first McDonalds opened here. Everyone was so excited. We all queued to get some. We used to have to call an operator to make international calls. We’d give them the number and they’d call us back when the connection was made. As of a few months ago, we even have a subway.
The fast is over. Another year has passed.
My mom and I watched a wonderful movie today called Hasards ou coïncidences by the famous Claude Lelouch. I had seen Les Uns et Les Autres by him many years ago and loved it. That movie is responsible for making me a huge fan of Ravel’s Bolero. It’s been a really long time since I watched an entire movie in French with no subtitles. I must say I suffered quite a bit but I did understand enough to make it all the way to the end. Gotta brush up on my French more. That’s another advantage to being home. I get to hear tons of it.
If you do speak or understand French, I highly recommend the above two movies. Or many others by the same director.
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Goody Links
Checkout PlanetProject. It sounds like a neat idea but I am not sure how it will turn out.
Thoughts
After a fourteen-hour sleep, I feel much better. The most interesting part about visiting a country like Turkey is that it looks totally different each time you come. Even for me, especially for me. The perpetual construction causes the skyline to change dramatically and constantly. People adhere to the strict rules of fashion. A new American-sounding restaurant or cafe opens weekly. When I grew up, we never had most foreign foods. No such thing as cereal or bagels or M&Ms. Now, everything is here. When I first moved to the United States, eight years ago, one dollar was six thousand Turkish Lira and now it’s over six hundred thousand Lira. These are just a few of the changes. For me it’s fascinating each time. It’s also sort of sad cause some of my favorite childhood places have disappeared.
My sister and her husband just bought a house. Besides the fact that there is no such thing as a mortgage here, it’s also weird that they bought the house while it’s being constructed. I mean so much so that it doesn’t even have the toilets installed yet. It leaves most of the work to imagination.
It’s wonderful to be near family. Even though I miss Jake a lot, I love getting to see my parents and my sister and the smiles on the tiny, sweet faces of my nephews. Kids are truly amazing. They are the definition of the word ‘joy’.
Happy Yom Kippur to you. My fast has officially started. May it end quickly and well. Lots of sleeping, reading, and movie watching to do tomorrow.
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Thoughts
Well I made it! I am all safe and sound in my parent’s living room. As the plane landed in Turkey, I kept trying to figure out which one was more ‘home’ to me: Istanbul or New York. I really don’t know the answer at this point. They both are in different ways.
Other than being quite seriously jetlagged, and being thoroughly thrilled that I got to see my twin nephews, I can’t think of anything to say. I promise to make pithy comments tomorrow.
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Have I mentioned I’m going home? I did? Really? Cause it’s TODAY! A few hours from now, I will be on a plane taking me to my land. I can’t wait to see the smiles on my nephew’s faces and I can’t wait to hug my parents and my sister and brother in law and all my friends.
I also can’t wait to settle in the plane and have several hours to catch up on my reading and my homework and think about my novel. I hope they show decent movies. As much as I hate being cramped up in that small seat for so long, I love the sensation of being in the air. One of my dreams is to get to fly a plane. One day.
I thought last night’s debate was a lot more civil and mature and I’m amazed that the candidates even answered most of the questions. I’m not sure why I got so involved at this year’s elections since I can’t vote and I used to hate politics. I still hate it, I think, but I find it fascinating lately. Especially with how close this year’s race will end up.
The fall season is about to start and I still haven’t received my TiVo. As someone who can’t function without the TV set on, I am hoping and praying that it will arrive soon.
Well, my next post will be from Istanbul, hopefully. I will try to update daily there, too.
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I fly TOMORROW! Have I mentioned how excited I am? I am! Really REALLY excited!
Tonight’s the vice-presidential debate. No matter what the outcome, I’m sure this one’s bound to be more interesting. Make sure to watch it.
Just finished seeing Me Myself I, a British independent movie. I think. The movie is about a woman who gets to find out how her life would have turned out if she had accepted the marriage proposal of her ex-boyfriend. It’s neat little movie and it has a feel-good ending. What I got out of it was that things end up just fine regardless of which road you pick. Life is what you make it. If you decide to be happy, you will be. It’s all about the attitude, baby! Make your life what you’ve always wanted it to be.
We just got phone spam. I’ve had many hangups and telemarketer calls before but I’ve never ever had anyone call me about a web site. Today’s message told us to hurry up and grab names in the “.ws” domain before they’re all gone. Weirdos.
Before?
Goody Links
As an animal lover, I urge you to visit paws for a cause.
Thoughts
Only ONE day before I fly home; two till I get there. It’s so weird. I only start missing home when I know I’m about to go there. I mean, I miss my family and my friends all the time, but right before I am about to fly home, everything increases by several orders of magnitude. Suddenly, I can’t get home soon enough. I want to be there now. I start calling my friends and telling them that I’m coming and the excitement in their voices makes me ache to be there immediately. Since my sister had her amazing twins, I have started going home about ever four months and it’s never enough. I can and do spend every waking moment of my vacation with them. Oh, I’m homesick all over again. Only 48 hours to my plane.
I read this article in Real Simple magazine about a couple who moved from Los Angeles to a farm in Oregon where they grow lavender. He’s an actor and she’s a documentary writer and they talk about how much their life has changed for the better since the move. They talk about the hikes, walks, and rafting. They talk about how they made friends immediately. I often tell myself that I want to leave New York and my friends make fun of me. Someone who can never do fewer than six things at a time could never live anywhere else probably. Still, the idea of living in between lavender or walking by a lake with my dog by my side spawns dreamy images. I hope I can muster the courage to try such a drastic life change. Maybe we can have a trial run in Martha’s Vineyard. Then again, I hear it gets freezing there over the winter…Sigh!
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Make sure to watch the debate tonight. It’s bound to be interesting. I’m not eligible to vote and I’ll be watching.
Last night, I stayed up late and finished Pay it Forward. I started it at 2pm yesterday and was done the same day, which must mean some positive things about the book. The interesting thing is that I didn’t really enjoy the way the book was written and organized. I didn’t like the jumping of viewpoints amongst several characters and I didn’t like that she switched from 1st Person to 3rd and back. But the story was engrossing, at least for me. The idea that you can change the world is always a good topic of discussion for me.
I love the rush of reading a book all day long cause I can’t possibly put it down. Especially when it’s not pure trash. .
3 days till I go home! Yeeeaaaaay!
Lots of thoughts today. I had a long day, starting with a 10am Art History class, moving on to a Japanese class, a chat with a Columbia Deaf Education professor, and ending with a Novel Writing class.
In the morning class, two interesting things came up. One was the use of the word “primitive.” Whatever the initial intentions, the word has evolved to have pejorative meanings. And, in this side of the world, is often used in conjunction with African Art and the likes of such. We were discussing how that’s really a matter of judging and bias and prejudice and a student mentioned that it could also just be a means to categorize and asked what a more appropriate word would be. The teacher suggested primary as an alternative. It’s interesting, to me, how we can easily refer to other culture’s traditions, artwork, products as primitive without noticing that we’re judging them with our word choices.
The other topic of discussion that I noted to mention was about walking through a museum. A student asked the teacher if he knew any tricks about how to view an exhibition. The teacher said that in the cases of a special exhibition (which draws a larger crowd since those are only around for a limited time) it’s a good idea to start from the end. This way you get to avoid the crowds and to look at things in a different perspective. He also advised looking at pieces which weren’t surrounded by crowds. Paying attention to what others avoided. We also talked about whether people like or dislike listening to the audio information (which is available at some museums and it gives you detailed information about the piece, mentioning it’s period and other historical facts). How do you like to visit a museum? Do you like people to tell you what the pieces mean or do you like to not know anything and just feel them?
During my novel writing class, an interesting discussion surrounded the topic of dislikable characters. Would you read a book that had a protagonist you really hated? One that was truly evil? One that was immature? Why? What makes you come back and look for more? Are you only interested in characters you can relate to? All interesting questions for an author.
I also noticed how I think about my novel all the time, unconsciously. As I was explaining my plotline and setting to another student in the class, I noticed that I was saying things that were new to me. It was as if I had figured out the purpose and the tone of the novel without realizing it. It seems I think about it even when I don’t realize it. Why else would all these ideas roll of my tongue on the spur of the moment?
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Oh and before the day ends, Rabbit Rabbit.
I finally finished Driving Mr. Albert. For some reason, the book took me forever to finish, I could never read more than a few pages at a time. The book had some historical facts about Einstein, some interesting travelogue pieces and a few emotional musings. Overall, I think it was a worthwhile read, but I’m glad I took it out from the library.
This glassdog banner is, by far, one of the greatest personal banners I’ve ever seen. It’s the small white one at the bottom of the page. It’s really funnie.
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Last night, we saw The House of Yes. A very weird movie starring the likes of Parker Posey, Tori Spelling and Freddie Prinze Jr. I’ve been thinking about since last night and I still haven’t come to a conclusion on whether I liked it or not. I guess that proves it was interesting at least.
Last March, on a trip from New York to Japan, my ears suddenly started making clicking sounds when I swallowed. After several Japanese and American doctors and six months, we still don’t know the actual cause of the sounds. The big theory is TMJ since I actively grind my teeth in my sleep. Then again, I’ve been grinding since I was 3 so I’m not sure why the injury would pop up after so many years. All I know is that it’s painful and really, really annoying.
If you ever took the SATs and scored low you should read this week’s Slate diary. Brendan Mernin, a tutor with the Princeton Review for the last 11 years, talks about his adventures in tutoring. The fact that the SATs don’t really prove any level of intelligence is no revelation to anyone who has even glimpsed at an exam, but Brendan’s tales are really neat to read. My favorite part is the very end and I quote:
“The story students tell more than any other is the one about the friend who scored a perfect 1600, even though he got drunk the night before. I’m sure you know him. So many people do. Who is he? (It’s always a he.) He’s a genius, they say. I haven’t yet met him, but I can say this: Whoever he is, he’s not necessarily who you want to be.”
Bye Bye More Than Words. Since no one seemed interested in the lyrics and neither was I, I decided to stop doing them. Lemme know if you think otherwise.
Thoughts
Last night, I got spam about voting in the upcoming presidential election. Obviously, these spam people didn’t do their homework correctly. What’s point of sending that email to a foreigner?
On the way home last night, what I’d done wrong with my bio page hit me and I fixed it. It loads much quicker now. Apologies for being so stupid before.
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projects for twenty twenty-six
projects for twenty twenty-five
projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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