Stigmas

Someone recently showed me this movie trailer.

I took one look at the title and decided it was a ridiculous concept, and there is no way it could possibly work.  Then I watched the trailer and… well my opinion is largely unchanged, actually except now I’m intrigued to see it.  I still think it’s a ridiculous concept, but in looking at the list of big names who are acting in the movie, they must see a value in it.  Either that or they’re all needing to fulfill a contract with Universal, which I suppose is possible too.  But I digress.

“Cowboys & Aliens”.  Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?  The name says b-movie pretty loudly to me.  Now before judging too harshly about that, think of Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones.  That title also screams B-movie to me and yet because of the Star Wars name, I had no doubt I would see it in theaters.  I mean, yes I have heard and made complaints about the name, but it was never a big enough issue to really consider missing the movie as I did with Cowboys & Aliens.

There also just seems to be some sort of stigma against our interstellar neighbours, in semi-historical contexts.  I give you the example of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Sorry for the upcoming spoiler alert, but it turns out that the crystal skull actually belongs to the skeleton of an extradimensional being.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people complain that it makes no sense, or that it makes the movie a joke.  My question is why is that any harder to believe than any of his other adventures?  In his first film, Indy finds the lost ark of the covenant and everyone dies a horrible death after opening it.  In his second adventure on film, he sees someone get their beating heart pulled out through their chest, life through it and then finds and returns a magic rock to bring prosperity back to a little village in India after being magically brainwashed.  And finally in my favourite movie of the trilogy, he finds the freakin’ Holy Grail.  It’s guarded by a knight who is centuries old and then uses the grail to literally wash away the gunshot wound from his father.  You accept all of these at face value, but you have a problem with aliens?  Really?

What really troubles me about stigmas though, is not the opinions people have of certain movies, but rather the fact that stigmas can affect our opinions of people without us even realizing it.  For example, while I’ve been planning out this entry, I heard a contestant on Jeopardy with a southern accent.  My first thought was, and I’m ashamed to admit it, “how did she make it onto Jeoparday?”  Yup, that’s right.  I’m apparently biased against the intelligence of people from the southern United States.  For anyone who reads this from that area, I do sincerely apologize and I’m taking steps to correct my way of thinking.  It does scare me though to think of what other assumptions, or stigmas are just lurking in my mind waiting to see the light of day.  To quote G.I. Joe, “Knowing is half the battle.”  If you know what the assumptions you make are, you can start changing them for the better.

I don’t really know who reads this, or if these words have any effect on you, but I do hope that it at least gives you pause to consider what some of the negative assumptions you make about people are.

Until my next coherent thought,

Mike

New Beginnings, and Re-acquaintances

Hey guys,

It’s been a really long time since I’ve updated.  I’m not going to give any excuses or now seemingly empty promises to update more frequently.  I do feel bad about not updating when I said I would, but I’m working on it.

So, for those of you who don’t know yet, I am now the president of a youth run organization called Presbyterian Young Peoples Society, or PYPS for short.  I’m actually very excited to be the president of this organization because of how much it’s meant to me over the years.  PYPS was one of the big things that really got me thinking about God and the place faith has in my life.  It’s also one of the places where I’ve created some amazing friendships, and me some very awesome people.  To be given the chance to really contribute and give back to the organization that’s given so much to me is really a huge honour.

I mention this now because today we had our first PYPS Executive meeting, and it went quite well.  Actually no, it was awesome!  I had a little too much planned to cover today, and we had to save a bit for the next meeting so we wouldn’t go over the two hour time limit I set for myself.  But that’s alright, I’m still super excited to be running the show, and I can’t wait for the next meeting!

The other thing that I wanted to mention quickly today was that my birthday was last Friday, and as would happen, I got a call from my best friend back in Calgary!  I haven’t spoken to him in years, but he called me up and we talked for a good half hour just catching up a bit, then he had to head out, but just hearing from him, and the fact that he remembered my birthday after all these years was a pretty awesome birthday gift from him.  His birthday is just a few days away now, actually so I had better not forget his birthday this year!

AIESEC work is still keeping me busy, as is my school work.  I was actually at UOttawa this weekend giving a presentation about my trip to Turkey.  It was lots of fun, and I’ve gotten some good feedback from it.  I’m kinda hoping for some criticism too so I can improve my presentation skills.

Since I’m now doing lots of AIESEC, PYPS and school work, I’ve got very little free time.  Yet for some reason, I’m completely insane and have been trying to find ways to occupy more of my time… one of which is trying to find a good company name, which I don’t really have a product for, so having a company name is kind of pointless at this point but… well… I guess I’m not really into doing things in a logical way. And hey, who knows?  Maybe this name will become really big in the future.  I actually kinda hope it does, but first things first, I need to find a product to make.

I’m now also very tired, and my voice is shot from speaking for about 6 or 7 hours today, so… time to do school work!

Thanks for reading!

Mike

It is time…

Hey y’all!

It is time.  The break is over, and school is starting again.  I’ve picked up most of my responsibilities again, and I’m ready to go.  It’s time to call all the animals back to Pride Rock and it’s time for my life here to start again. (By the way The Lion King is pretty much one of my favourite movies ever.)

Sorry for the long delay in blog updates.  It took a lot longer than I had expected to get settled back in to the Canadian way of life, and trying to get everything settled for getting back into the school year.  Okay, that’s not entirely accurate.  I also spent most of my free time playing StarCraft 2, instead of letting the internet know what I was up to.  I do apologize for that, and hopefully my school schedule will make it easier to do semi-regular updates of this blog.  I would have to say that you shouldn’t expect the updates to be daily anymore, but I will be aiming for around three or four per week, depending on how eventful my week is, or what I have to talk about.

I also have to spend some time organizing all of my previous posts and maybe polishing them up a little.  Though, to be honest, I kind of like it when the author (in this case me) leaves things in their original form.  It makes the writings more… lively, I guess you could say.  But that will be an ongoing project, and I don’t expect it will make much of any difference to the regular viewings of this site, but hopefully (and I flatter myself to think that people will be doing this) it will make it much easier to search through older entries to find one that you’re looking for.

It has been an interesting few weeks since I’ve come back from Turkey.  There is indeed a reverse culture shock happening to me right now, it’s has been difficult to get used to some things again.  Traffic lights, and stop signs were the biggest readjustments that I’ve had to make.  I also really miss the fresh bread that I would get at every meal, and I have given serious thought to getting a bread maker.  Then I realized that I’d have to actually take the time to make the bread, and that after one use I’d be bored and would probably never touch it again.  Still, the temptation is there, if only to have fresh bread that one time.  Another big difference is being able to talk to and understand what everyone is saying.  I had forgotten how much you learn about random strangers by inadvertently eavesdropping (or for some of us I guess it’s purposely eavesdropping) on their conversations in public.  Since I didn’t speak Turkish, I was… I guess insulated, or isolated from what was going on around me.  Knowing everything, understanding everything, is a surprisingly large burden to bear.

Another issue I’m having is the food in general.  I’m not used to Canadian food, and in looking back at what I used to eat before I left for the summer, I’m not sure now how I ever survived on those foods.  I have been making much more of an effort to cook healthier meals, and I’m loving it so far.  Hopefully my enthusiasm for cooking will continue after my courses get into full swing.  I was also told of a great online Turkish Cookbook that I’ve been using a little recently.  It’s actually very good, and it’s in english.  So if any of you are interested in Turkish cuisine, you should probably go and check it out.

Anyway that’s all the time I have to write today.  I have laundry to do, groceries to buy and a long overdue haircut waiting for me.  I hope you’re all well.

You’ll be hearing from me soon,

Mike

Music and Lyrics

Merhaba!

Well once again I fail at remembering to update my blog every day.  I’m trying, I swear!  Sometimes though I guess it just doesn’t cross my mind that I should update my blog.  Teaching today was the same as ever.  Okay, actually it was better than it usually is because, the students I had today were very talkative and they wanted to know about Canada, which is always exciting for me.  It tends to bring out my patriotic side a little bit which I’m sure sounds a little more energetic than I usually do.

Anyway, after work today I called up my now former room mate and went to hang out at his place.  Man, he’s got a nice place and an extra bedroom.  And it’s much much cooler than this cramped little dorm room… and also it’s much cheaper.  If I had a lot longer to stay in Turkey, I would give serious thought to accepting his invitation to move in with him.  I’m actually still tempted to hang out there and sleep there a few nights, that’s how much cooler it is than here.  For now though, I’ll just settle for hanging out at his house most nights. =P

It was really nice to actually visit him though, and the visit felt different than it did when we were actually room mates.  We actually had a really great, really long conversation instead of just intermittent conversation while we were both preoccupied with our computers, or phones, or something else like that.

Anyway today I wanted to talk about songs and music, hence the title of the post.  Yes, I realize that it’s a movie.  Actually it’s a rather cute movie that I secretly enjoy.  If you tell anyone I’ll have to visit some imagined unimaginable horror upon you.

But actual music and  the lyrics of a song are important to me.  Music has a great effect on my mood, and my mood greatly affects my taste in music.  Most of my trip I have been listening to the band Great Big Sea because… well… in my mind they’re pretty much the quintessential Canadian band.  It was nice to have a little taste of home while I’m so far away from it.  Lately though, I’ve been introduced to a band called Planetoid.  They’re quite good, in my opinion.  They classify themselves as sci-fi rock, which is actually pretty awesome.  They may be a little over the top in the description on their website, but gosh darn it if I don’t like them for it.  It’s one of those kinds of music that is pretty good when you first hear it, but somehow it finds it’s way into your brain and makes you want to hear it again, and again, and it gets better every time you hear it.  At least that’s how it is for me.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that their songs lyrics mostly involve taking over the universe.  Which brings me to my next point.  The lyrics of a song can literally make or break the song for me.  I don’t care how catchy the tune is, if I don’t like the lyrics, I can’t enjoy the song.  On the other hand, if the tune is only alright, but the lyrics really speak to me, it easily finds it’s way onto my playlist.  Granted, if the tune and the lyrics are great, then that’s even better.  Sometimes, I can overlook some shoddy lyrics if the tune is decent, but most times I can’t.

The best example of a song that is catchy that I hate, but hear all the time, is (no it’s not “The Final Countdown” despite what some of you who know me might think) it’s this song.  Now, I like to think I’m open minded but I really can’t see how comparing a girl to a hoe, or calling her a sexy b*tch isn’t disrespectful.  If a lady could explain this to me, or doesn’t find it disrespectful please let me know.  It’s a catchy enough song, and a popular enough song (I’ve heard it here in Turkey many times) that I’d like not to cringe every time it comes on.

Of course, I might feel this way because… well… I feel chivalry isn’t dead, or at least it shouldn’t be.  Again, everything is a matter of perspective, and I think mine could use a bit of a shake up regarding this song so if anyone can argue for it, please do. I’d like to get some new opinions to consider.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts from the day.  I’m off to try and sleep in the unbearable heat again!  Cheers!

~ Mike

Trip in 3 parts

Merhaba!

So tonight is the last night that I’ll be sharing a bedroom with my room mate.  It’s interesting how opinions can change over time.  I remember when he was first moved in with me, I wasn’t looking forward to sharing my room with someone I didn’t know.  But, it was nice to have company that I could talk to on a regular basis, and to eat dinner with.  Also, his food recommendations have been spot on thus far, and I will be missing his guidance for the next few weeks.

So I see my time here as being easily divided in to three sections of about 3 weeks each.  The first three weeks, I was overwhelmed and just trying to get my bearings here in Turkey.  I was just getting to know my job, and just beginning to learn the language.  I had my room to come to as a refuge to recover and keep myself from going crazy.  So my first section effectively ended when I got my room mate.

The second stage of my trip I think of as my getting acclamation stage.  I’d gotten used to the culture, and I’d gotten used to my schedule at work.  I was learning the names of foods, and picking up on a few Turkish phrases.  Having my room mate who spoke english helped me immensely in this stage.

The third stage, as far as I can see is the one that I’m just entering now.  It’s where I get to put all I learned to good use and see how I can fare on my own again. I’m hoping it’ll go well, but only time will give that answer.

So now I’m off to relax and try and cool off.  It’s really hot here in Turkey.  You know… if my room mate has some air conditioning at his house, I might be spending a lot of time there.

- Mike

Edit – Why has no one ever told me about Eurovision before?  It’s a pretty awesome display of musical talent.  Check out last year’s winner.  The song is stuck in my head.

Perceptions?

Merhaba!

So my day was… eventful.  I can’t really decide if it was a good day or a bad day though.  It seems that for everything that happened today, the good was balanced with the bad.  I’m not going to go into too much detail about the events of the day right now, rather I’d like to talk about my perception of these events.

For those of you who have been following this blog, or those of you who know me personally, you will know that I’m something of an optimist.  I tend to look at the positives in life, and I like it that way.  However… today I find it very hard to do just that.  The way things have balanced themselves out today is maybe a little uncanny.

Now, I’m left to wonder if the events of today are really a different balance than usual, or if it’s my perception of the events that really makes the difference.  Usually, being the optimist that I am, I tend to notice all of the good things that happen in a day, and gloss over the negatives.  However today was the last day that I’d get to see this particular group of children, and saying goodbye rarely puts me in a good frame of mind.  Perhaps today I was simply taking more notice of the unpleasant events since I started my day in a less optimistic headspace.

Looking at it from a different perspective, perhaps the events of today were really really terrible, but it is my optimistic nature that made me think it’s a balance.  Or, perhaps, the days events were truly balanced between good and bad and I was viewing things from an objective frame of mind.  I don’t think I’ll ever really know the answer, but I’m alright with that.

Personally, I like my optimistic point of view of the world.  It makes my life more enjoyable for me.  Sometimes I do wonder what life would be like to observe from a completely objective point of view, but it’s only a slight curiosity.  As I said, I’m happy being optimistic. =P

- Mike

Unexpected Hiatus

Merhaba!

Sorry for that unexpected delay there in my regular blog updates.  There actually is a very good reason for it, something other than “I was lazy”. =P  The internet at my dormitory was out for almost a week, and to be completely honest… I was going a little crazy without my usual digital information fix.

Originally I had planned to make this the subject of tonight’s post, but then my room mate went and said something semi-profound tonight while we were eating dinner.  He mentioned something about destiny.  Specifically he was talking about how incredible it is that three people, all from different places, can find themselves eating food from another place and having a good time talking together.  And he’s absolutely right.  It is really an amazing thing to think about.

Just imagine all the little things that could have gone slightly differently that would mean that the three of us wouldn’t be there sharing that exact meal.  In my life alone, there are many decisions that I could have made that would have lead to a slightly different experience.  There are also many different choices I could have made that would lead to a drastically different experience.

For example, I could have chosen to go to China for part of the summer, and then this whole experience, and this whole blog wouldn’t even exist.  Or rather, it might exist but the content would be completely different.  On a slightly smaller scale, I could have chosen to stay longer, or to take a nap when I got home and thus I would have missed that particular dinner.  These are just two small examples of what I could have done differently, not to mention the other little twists that life could have thrown at me, or the decisions of the other two people involved.  With so many little decisions affecting what happens to us every day, it’s really amazing to think about.

What gets me even more than that though, is that this is just a small meaningless microcosm of something that happens on a global scale every second of every day.  I know it’s been discussed in film before, specifically “The Butterfly Effect”, and in literature, “The Never War” by D.J. MacHale, but today was definitely a personal epiphany for how true it actually is.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to really wrap my head around how mind blowing it actually is.  And by that I mean, I need to sleep.

Oh internet how I’ve missed you.  I wonder what decisions I made while the internet was gone that will impact my life years down the road.  I wonder what decisions you made last week that will have a similar effect.

See you down the road, wherever that may take us.

- Mike

The times they are a-changin’

Merhaba!

I can’t believe I only have a month left in Turkey!  There is so much more that I want to do while I’m here and not nearly enough time for me to do it all.  I’m pretty sure that I’m going to have to come back at some point just to travel around and see all the things that I couldn’t see while I was living here.  And hey, maybe I’ll be traveling with friends, and will be able to speak Turkish.  Who knows?

Anyway, I wanted to make an observation about something that was pointed out to me today.  I was speaking to one of my students today and we were talking about different cultural taboos in Canada and Turkey.  Of course, the subject of PDA came up.  And I mean PDA in the Public Display of Affection sense, not the Personal Digital Assistant way.  He mentioned that he was glad to see more of the younger couples holding hands and showing affection to each other in public.

His comment got me to thinking, as many things do, about the fact that it’s the younger generation who are showing these signs of affection.  Why is it that this current generation of young adults is going against what is most likely hundreds of years of tradition about showing affection in public?

The first thing that came to mind is that there is a western influence at work here.  And by western I mean either European or American, I don’t really want to make a distinction between the two at this point.  And of course, this got me to thinking about why it is that western influence is so powerful.  Currently I suppose there are a couple of factors at play in Turkey.  One, Turkey wants to be part of the EU so they’re trying to change things to be able to fit in.  Two, America is the only remaining “superpower” in the world right now, so I guess it make a little bit of sense as to why other countries try to emulate them.

Has this always been the case in history?  Have weaker countries and populations tried to emulate the stronger countries?  Unfortunately history isn’t my strong suit, so I can’t really answer this question right now.  I’m going to go with the hypothesis that weaker countries have in fact tried to emulate stronger countries before but I have no proof or anything even resembling proof.

So, if any of you could help me out with any answers or opinions about this question that would be cool.  Until then I’ll be doing some independent research using the ever so reliable internet.

- Mike

A Digital Pack-rat

Merhaba!

Today you will finally see some new pictures on my Flickr page.  I bought some DVD+R yesterday and spent most of my time trying to clean out my computer enough to be able to upload some new pictures.  I discovered something very interesting about myself.  I can’t bring myself to just up and delete old information even after backing it up to a DVD and testing the DVD for functionality.

I am a digital packrat.  I hate to delete things from my computer, no matter how old the information seems to be.  For example, I have pictures from my very first digital camera still on my computer.  These pictures date from about 5 years ago, and most of them are pretty bad.  I have trouble deleting all but the worst ones.

I can’t bring myself to delete old assignments either.  Even assignments that aren’t mine.  I have maybe a GB of assignments and files that other people (mostly my family) used my computer to work on.  They’re not mine, but I can’t bring myself to delete them either.

Luckily though, being a digital pack-rat is much easier to do, and much cleaner than being a physical pack-rat.  Though… I am a physical packrat too.  I hate throwing away old things.  It’s a huge problem for storage space in my apartment in Ottawa. =P  I have gotten better in recent years about knowing which things are important to keep and which I can throw away.  Notice that I say better.  I am a long way from being able to call myself cured of my pack-rattish ways. =P

Anyway, I’m off to attempt to create more space on my computer again.

Your friendly neighbourhood pack-rat,

- Mike

Cats

Merhaba!

As promised to those of you who stopped reading early yesterday, I’m going to be talking about the cats in Turkey today.

First, let me say that I have a little bit of an fascination with my fickle feline friends.  I don’t really know why, but I’ve always liked cats.  Of course, I’m rather allergic to them, but I like to watch them for some reason I tend to find it relaxing when watching a cat play.  It might be kinda weird, but it is the way it is.

There are cats everywhere in Yalova.  Most of them seem to be strays, but most of them look fairly healthy.  I have actually seen a few people feeding the strays, and there are quite a few clusters of cats that I walk by every day.  I’m also surprised by the variety of different colours I’ve seen.  There is a lovely white cat that lives near my dormitory so I end up seeing him/her almost every day.

Although there are cats everywhere, I have only seen a small handful of dogs.  I wonder how many Turks keep animals as pets…  That’s a question for another day.

Until then,

- Mike