Alternate Vision

I have an addictive personality. If I like something, I can keep doing it over and over. It happens in phases. Music is the best example. I can listen to the same song twenty times over. But then, I get bored with it by which time there is a new fixation. Its the same for everything. TV, sports, women, food and so on. Its genetic. My dad can listen to the same song over and over. I get it from him. My latest musical addiction - Manu Chao.

Solo voy con mi pena
Sola va mi condena
Correr es mi destino
Para burlar la ley
Perdido en el corazn
De la grande Babylon
Me dicen el clandestino
Por no llevar papel

Argelino, Clandestino!
Nigeriano, Clandestino!
Boliviano, Clandestino!
Mano Negra, Ilegal!

GUNNERS

If only English commentating was this exciting.

It doesn't feel like 1.5 years ago that I was in Adana. More like yesterday. Juan and I would come from work in the sweltering 100+F heat and go straight to the lady downstairs "birtane portakal suyu lutfen" (one glass orange juice please) . The day would start that way too, with a glass of portakal suyu. Come sundown, the regular diet was some adana kebap washed down with Efes. I don't miss Adana so much as I miss the food, and the rest of the country. And the random trips to Istanbul or where have you, the familia, the beaches, the trainee gossip, visitors, Mustafa Sandal (but it had to be heard in Ayhan's car speakers after midnight speeding by Lake Seyhan or you weren't doing justice to the music) . Turkey you gem you...

Now - Wednesday, Jan 10th. 6:!3pm. Throwing current research proposal out of window that took me a few weeks to write .
Goal - have new proposal done by Sunday night. I could go for a brewski first...and I just might

There goes my weekend.

"You see, any user can change any entry, and if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true. ... If only the entire body of human knowledge worked this way. And it can, thanks to tonight's word: Wikiality. Now, folks, I'm no fan of reality, and I'm no fan of encyclopedias. I've said it before. Who is Britannica to tell me that George Washington had slaves? If I want to say he didn't, that's my right. And now, thanks to Wikipedia, it's also a fact. We should apply these principles to all information. All we need to do is convince a majority of people that some factoid is true. ... What we're doing is bringing democracy to knowledge." Colbert on wikiality.

Face it, we live in times were truth is now driven by consensus as opposed to fact :)

In other news, the Didler is in town so I lookforward to a C&D session soon...

The human race is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery, not over nature but of ourselves.
-Rachel Carson


Somewhere amidst this tumultlous pattern of daily activity we call life, there is a need to stop and reflect, to remind ourselves of why we do what we do. Of late, sitting under this never ending laundry list of things to do, I find myself constantly asking the above question. Philosphical jargon aside, the rare moments I get to indulge in such succulent thought are always cherished. As I approach another imminent milestone in my life, I only ask for more of the same. I leave you with some very unique sounds (thanks Didier) of the Thai Elephant Orchestra ( related video), as a reminder to focus on the wonders of the universe about us, as Rachel Carson would have wanted.