my temporary blog
Just another WordPress.com webloggoop
have you heard about goop? it’s gwyneth paltrow’s new project where there’s a website and a mailing list, but i’m not sure what to make of it. the design is surely elegant and simplistic, like ms. paltrow herself. the material seemed somewhat long to sit down and read and digest all at once, and i tried to break it down to pieces, but i couldn’t get back to it once the initial ‘you’ve got mail’ glow around it is gone. so i don’t know. it would have been better if she just came up with a website that one can visit and go around in one’s own time. but maybe she didn’t want to get all the material ready all at once (but that’s why we have blogs, isn’t it?), or she wanted to appear once a week and make people’s days. again, i’m not sure. i’ll observe it a little longer and will be able to post healthier comments.
hiding in my corner
yes, sometimes i do that. but that’s a part of my personality. sometimes time seems just too precious and the world out there along with the people in it seem too exhausting and i visualize myself out there, so alone in a crowd. then i hide in my corner and do my things . . . my thing these days is chasing new opportunities. i’ll be out of the office that was half my home for two+ years, and i’m full of excitement. my time will be mine but i will have to be aware every day of the fact that there is no guaranteed money and i should always be on the lookout. but that’s also good in so many ways. already, it seems like things are falling into place, and i’m being my entrepreneurial self once again. that’s when i don’t hide in my corner.
birakip gitmek uzerine
bu kadar cok yagmur yaginca aklima superdorm’daki gunlerim geldi. doner sandalyeme oturur, ayaklarimi kalorifere koyar, elimde turk kahvesiyle damlalarin camdaki goruntusune ve pencereden gorunen sonbaharin sari agirlikli renklerine bakardim. ucaksavar sitesinin sessizligi ve sakinligi bana da huzur verirdi. butun bunlari ders calismak adi altinda yapardim -su anda da is yapiyor gorunmeme ragmen bunlari yazdigim gibi-. o zamanlar o pencereyi, o pozisyonumu, o goruntuyu hic birakamayacagimi zannederdim.
ama biraktim, onun uzerine daha birsuru yerleri benimsedigime kendimi inandirdim. ama sanirim o baskaydi. evet evet, superdorm her seyden baskaydi. simdi cok sevdigim evimi de birakmak zorundayim, ama hep birgun birakmak zorunda kalmayacagim ve her yerden cok sevecegim bir yer bulma ve oraya yerlesme umidiyle yapilan seyler bunlar.
good luck to me.
why i am here
well . . . it’s a long story. my country likes to keep an eye on things. like at school, middle and high school, teachers would really keep an eye on you so you don’t do your hair the ‘banned’ way, or you don’t wear the wrong colored sweater. it is kind of a military way of looking at life. there is a format. make sure you fit it. i never liked it even though i wasn’t openly rebellious. even though i’m outta that school (seven years of rules), it still makes me angry when i am treated like i can’t think for myself. like at work, when they try to tell me what kind of shoes to wear. or when i try to log on to my blog last night and all that pops up in the screen is this in big red letters:
“Access to this web site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2008/2761 of T.R. Diyarbakır 1st Criminal Court of Peace”
ha! i can’t see my own blog. the first thing i did was check if blogger itself was accessible or not – just made sure MY blog wasn’t the culprit. but of course, no. who cares about my blabs about my life and how i felt in the morning, etc.? i don’t know the reason, but some court in eastern Turkey decided blogger is harmful. like the wrong color of sweaters. like styling your hair in a half pony tail. there is a format to look like and to think like. fit it.
so, to sum up, i will be publishing at wordpress for a while. you may want to adjust your bookmarks, as we don’t know for how long the power cutout is going to last (that is also usually the story).
Why Turks don’t walk on sidewalk
October 29, 2008 at 2:12 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: comment, Turkey
My friend Suzanne brought the issue to my attention years ago when we were out on my street and Suz suddenly headed towards the narrow sidewalk. I suddenly realized I never even really stepped on that sidewalk except when a fast car was driving by. Then after seeing my husband insist so many times that I walk on the not-exactly-existent sidewalk -and myself getting irritated many times- made me wonder why Turks don’t like sidewalks. Except when there is a serious road and serious cars whizzing by, on the little backstreets and alleys all around Turkey, we refuse to walk on the sidewalk. We walk on the part of the road that’s (supposedly) designated for cars. Cab drivers will have to honk at people sometimes, as these ordinary pedestrians are in the way with grocery bags in their hands, occupying the guy’s speed track (now that’s another issue).
And I realized that we don’t like to walk on the sidewalk because the sidewalk either
a- is non-existent
b- gets interrupted all the time, with constructions, small sandhills, piled coal in front of an apartment building as preparation for winter, parked cars, trucks unloading goods to grocery stores, friends who bump into each other, street vendors and whatnot.
c- i think cars parking on the road deserve another mention.
d- is too high and begins and ends too frequently where streets cross, so you have to go up and down too much.
Believe me i could find more of these reasons. But I think it gives an idea of why Turks have developed a negative response to sidewalks, or even why Turks never got used to sidewalks anyway. So don’t give me the why-do-you-walk-on-the-road look, foreigner friend, because now you know that we don’t have it as good as you do . . .
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