the window of seers

the window of seers, originally uploaded by ozataman.

it was a very nice day today and so I went out and shot some photos around the neighborhood. Click on the photo here to see some other similar shots.

good vs. bad bus drivers

good bus driver: "oh there is a little puddle over there.. I better steer out of that way or I'll wake up everyone sleeping in the back..." ...2 mins later... "oh shoot, I missed that one!"...thinks to herself..."I'm sorry!!!"

bad bus driver: "I'm paid to drive and not to compensate for holes on the road. It's NONE of my business. They want a smooth ride? They better fix the damn road."

one latter makes me want to puke every morning.

coffee in Ankara

CoffeeWithSamican 2, originally uploaded by ozataman.

Great photo, less the stupid cell phone sticking out in the bottom right. It's a good thing you can't see it here, thanks to the flickr auto-crop when blogging. Another hard earned lesson: always be ready for a good shot. Forget the widespread economic and socio-structural struggle and it's a great atmosphere to be in.

my ever growing list of cool mac programs

Yes, I know everyone has one. Here is my take at it - and it is not in order of fave, hence the lack of numbering:

• Senuti - Download songs from your iPod.
• SuperDuper - Create duplicate copies of your hard drive or user folder on external drives.
• VLC - Universal media player.
• The Unarchiver - Much better unpacker than Stuffit or the OS X included.
• Calq - Handy calculator utility with cool mac-like feel.
• Adium - Free IM client with support for EVERYTHING that you can think of. Nice features but no VoIP.
  
• Cyberduck - OK free FTP utility.
• Transmit - Pretty good shareware FTP utility.
• Journler - Free note-taking/journal program with TONS of capabilities. Insert media, blog, e-mail, encrypt.
• 1001 - Nice browser program for Flickr junkies.
• Shrook - OK RSS feedreader program. Free.
• NetNewsWire - Good RSS feedreader program. Shareware.
• Quicksilver - Awesome universal EVERYTHING (not just programs) launcher.

Note: I might add the links later but simple googling should work.

Technorati Tags: mac

red vines and purple oranges: how I can't write.

Alright now, for a long while I’ve been wanting to write a blog. Blogs are cool: pretty, stylish, personal, easily accessible - heck if you are confident enough - even publicly publishable. In fact, I have tried setting up several such sites in the past year. All have failed. Not because I wasn’t able to figure out the technicalities but because of my sad inability to write.

It is that natural ability to have one’s own style and creative initiative that results in good writing. Those who can honestly and carelessly say “I don’t see anything wrong with this and this is how it is supposed to be” that make good writers. If you start asking too many questions and if you conform to too many rules, you’ve got your cue that you probably already unfortunately miserably shamefully and yours respectfully suck.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try one more time.

Technorati Tags: writing