” Fairy Tales:
The basis for most children novels and the real reality of our lives. We live most of our lives within ourselves thinking alone or simply watching the world, but always alone. It is also amazing how much of that life is not reality, or to be more specific how all of it is not reality. For if you analyze your own thoughts most of it is based on what you thought you saw or heard and how you interpret it and might or might not have anything to do with truth. As time goes on the more confused and muddled our thoughts become on a specific topic and the details (the realities) become lost in the vastness of our minds and only sometimes re-surface only to haunt us, or in this day and age we see the reality in a personal photo or video.

» Continue reading “Fairy Tales”

“Perhaps according to what the backward intelligentsia and scholars say, “Farsi is is like sugar”, and if the name of this gulf is in Farsi, its waters will be sweetened and if it is Arabic the waters will be soured! The use of nationalism in society is exactly akin to that of religion. The aim of governments in encouraging nationalism and clanism is distracting the minds of the poeple from their real problems. All this commotion is over the use of the name Gulf Of Arabia in parantheses! In the north of Arabia there’s hardly any Farsi spoken, yet there is a large number of Iranian in the south of the country who speak Arabic. In summary, in the ports of islands of this gulf there’s more Arabic spoken. One side of the gulf opens to international waters, two of the other three sides meaning the western and southern sides of it are territories of Arabic countries. For Iranian Intelligetsia, stoning deaths [as a form of punishment], mandatory head covers for women, the problems faced by the youth, etc. are not real issues, but the name of the “Persian Gulf” has brought all of them to a reaction and rallied them all.
» Continue reading “The Gulf”

“A few days ago someone asked me where I see myself in 12 years. Like most people I know I answered that I see myself married with a good career and a few kids. The person asked if that’s all I aspired for myself in 12 years and for the life of me I couldn’t understand why they would ask that and thus I stuck to my original answer not being able to see beyond what the person was mentioning. What else could I possibly want in life? A house, maybe. A dog? I really didn’t know. And then it dawned on me.I recently came back from a month and a half in Egypt and since then I could not tell anyone what I learnt about the people there. Now, I think I might just have found my answer. I went with my best friend and her family, all of whom were extremely well off, and thus I managed to live the high and mighty life in Egypt. But I did meet one girl and now that I think about it, she taught me more about life and she never said a word to me in a language I actually understood.

» Continue reading “Life”

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family, Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life.

- Irvine Welsh

I was reading an Azeri poem, and I realized (again) how beautifully the imagery in eastern poetry is used. Each verse is perfectly set, and I can’t help feeling nostalgic with each line I read.

I apologize to the non-Azeri (Turkish) speaking among the readers. I will try and translate it at a later time.

I have been using GNU/Linux since 2000, and have tried to educate myself on the operating system and the programs usually distributed with it as much as possible. I’ve slowly grown fond of it, and at times have become somewhat of a zealot!

At some points I have had to ask myself whether it made sense to use Linux as a primary operating system. After all, I could just do what most other students do, and keep a dual boot system - with Windows as the first option.

This past month, the motherboard on my computer died and gave me an excuse to reformat my computer while fixing this small problem. My experiences in doing yet another Linux install - this time after almost a year - made me think about some issues I had with this Operating System, that I will try to convery here.

» Continue reading “Linux Installation Story”

…continuing

I didn’t know what to say about his writing. He was bothered by something that I had never experienced in that way. I still didn’t know what was exactly going on. A few more minutes of talking, and I realize that he’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia. He doesn’t think he has a problem himself. And I can understand that. No one wants to give in. Professional medical advice or not. We all like to think we’re perfectly fine. Denial is a good tool for all of us.
He still looks all around the room before he can get a sentence out. And he changes his position on the chair every minute or so. Later on, he admits he’s had a problem with alcohol and drugs. That he’s been through programs to help him with his problems. And I can only make a guess as to whether it’s been long since he got rid of his habits.
After this introduction, we talked about almost everything. He told me about his experiences and his history. How he has travelled all over the US. Sleeping where he can. Just living the nomad life. He seems like a very intelligent person. C has an interesting point of view on a lot of different issues. And having studied to be a journalist, I see that he has the critical view point of a journalist.

His visit was a nice reminder of the real world that exists outside the campus life. That people have to deal with more unbearable truths than me and most other students my age. Here I am completely immersed in something not too unlike a rate maze. I do a certain sequence of (somewhat) inconsequential tasks. I am rewarded for them and given a pellet, or degree. And in my four years I have not made much contribution to the society that welcomed me here. I’ve not made life any easier for people like my own neighbour! I would not have known of his problem had he not approached me. And really, how many “residents” of this city do I know?

C left after two hours. He had mentioned that he read and enjoyed a certain magazine. I happened to read that same publication a while back and had a few copies around the house. I lent him a copy. Not so I could feel better about anything. Just so there is an excuse for more interaction between the two of us.