Igor

Can's Birthday Mix 2005

2005-01-25T06:05:17Z

Push It 2003 - Salt 'n' Pepa
City Life (WL) - Crystal Waters
Jump (for my Love) - Girls Aloud
One More Chance - The Space Brothers
The Sun Always Shines on TV - A-ha!
Yes - Amber
I Should Know (Alex Neri Club Mix) - Dirty Vegas
Silent Words - Jan Johnston
Satisfaction (Sex Drive) - Benny Benassi & Eurythmics
Damaged - Plummet
Put The Needle On It - Danii Minogue

Bridge with billionaires

2004-12-06T05:28:21Z

Today in the Tacoma Sectional tournament I played 8 hands of bridge against Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Warren B. was at my table and Bill G. was at my teammates'. They were playing with some hired guns and beat us quite soundly. A very memorable experience nonetheless.

Greetings from Turkiye!

2004-09-01T10:13:49Z

Hello Friends and Family!

As many of you know, I am in the glorious land of sun and heat, otherwise known as Turkey (Turkiye to most of us here, and supposedly to y'all as well, if the Turkish Ministry of Tourism and External Promotions is to be believed). The internet connection at my parents' sucks, but it is servicable and hopefully this will arrive in your inboxes in one piece.

I have arrived here last Thursday and things have been pretty low key so far. I was separated from my one and only bag for about two hours in Ankara as I arrived somewhat late at Ataturk International Airport for my last connection due to the runway delays at O'Hare and had to collect it from a later flight. While I would recommend Turkish Airlines to one and all, I would suggest that you stay away from O'Hare; I was late in both taking off from SEA and landing and taking off from ORD due to the excessive number of planes waiting for clearance. I was seated behind the Olympic gold-winning Turkish weightlifting team on the plane from IST to ESB, it was quite an experience as the pilot came on the P.A. and thanked the team for their efforts and everyone in the plane clapped and hollered. One of the members of the team was busy taking out and rearranging all the duty-free booze he had purchased in Greece throughtout the flight; when we landed he went straight to the duty-free shop at the Ankara airport and proceeded to buy more. It must be a tough training regimen.

So far, I have walked quite a bit around Ankara, where I am originally from and took random pictures, some of which are enclosed for your gawking pleasure. Ankara is the capital of Turkey and has an official population of about 4 million people. However, in reality it seems a bit more than that, in the last two years it seems to have grown by leaps and bounds. Parts of Ankara that I used to fly kites in when I was about 6-7 years old are now full of condos and houses. When we were landing at ESB, the outer perimeters of the city started from about 15 minutes from the airport. Where my parents now live, which used to be considered "a bit out of town" is now securely in town, most of my college friends now live 20-30 minutes away by car. The suburban lifestyle, complete with its malls, is now starting to dominate Ankara. Not surprisingly most of my friends are now married and some even have kids, so this kind of lifestyle must suit them well.

Ankara itself is somewhat uninteresting for the tourist from Seattle, not much greenery, a lot of new, ugly condo buildings and some sights here and there. However, I happened to arrive on the eve of one of the four major Turkish national holidays, the Victory Holiday. It commemorates the victory of the Turkish armies against the invading Allies (British, French, Italian and Greek) during the Independence War between 1918 and 1922, soon after which the Republic of Turkey was founded. The celebrations always involve a lot of firepower, both in terms of the tanks and the panzers and the planes that are paraded and big fireworks. My parents' condo is directly in front of the staging area for most of these festivities, and you can see pretty much everything from their balcony. It is quite interesting and admittedly a bit strange.

As for the sights, I have enclosed pictures of some of them, the major missing one is Ataturk's Mauseleum but Kocatepe Mosque (the largest mosque in Ankara, possibly Turkey, completed in 24 years in the 1990's), Atakule (Ankara's answer to the Space Needle, with rotating restaurant complete) and many government buildings are in the pictures. Let me know if you would like more info about them. For a picture of Ataturk's Mauseleum (for those of you who were under a rock during Turkish History 101 in college, Ataturk is the founder of the Republic of Turkey and is a very revered figure in Turkey, his face is everywhere), check out:

http://www.tourismturkey.org/regions/central/central2.html

Next up for me will be a visit to Istanbul, a possible visit to Antalya (a tourism center down south by the Mediterrenean) and to Bodrum (another touristic spot by the Aegean) for some R&R. I will most certainly keep y'all updated.

Next up is some commentary for people with certain interests, if you don't care about that particular topic, feel free to skip it!

With warmest regards,

Görkem

Comments for the photos: Most of the photos are self explanatory, only three require a few comments. The one titled "Anisko ve Babisko" is one of my parents, "Cubuk Kopus 2" is a picture of the doggies that my uncle's dog just gave birth to a month ago and is of a special breed only indigenous to Turkey. "Gorkem at Turunc" is a picture of me in one of these now ubitiquous cafes that are peppered all over Ankara, I am enclosing it just in case you forgot what I look like.

PERSONAL

Things are going very well so far for all concerned, I have been eating like I came out of a drought as everyone wants me to go and have dinner at their homes and cook me "the foods that you love" as they say. I have gained about 1 kilo (2 pounds and change) but will soon lose it if this little intestinal difficulty I am having continues (cha cha cha!).

POLITICS

Turkish politics have always been quite volatile and there always seems to be some scandal or another. When I arrived, the biggest talk of the day was the "scandal triangle" between the judiciary, the intelligence agency and the mafia. It turns out that the intelligence agency had used a Turkish don in its intelligence gathering and other activities pretty extensively, and the same don was also used by the Chief Judicial of Turkey to contract for and build a summer house for himself, and these conversations were taped clandestinely by the intelligence people. Lots of intrigue and fun. These days the big deal is the approval of the new Turkish Penal Code, and the most heated point of contention is whether adultery should be recodified as a crime, it was in before but was taken out in the interests of accession to the European Union (EU). The right wing moralists want it in, the moderate left wing opposition doesn't, and guess who will win?

CULTURE

There seems to be quite a glut of first run American movies here, in one of the many multiplexes here in Ankara they were showing Spiderman 2 and Catwoman in adjoining theaters. Shrek 2 is also very popular, I may actually go and see it in a bit, reading is getting a bit boring, I have become a "a book a day" kind of guy again. There are also a lot of new Turkish pop and folk music artists, I am having great difficulty in telling them apart, there are so many of them. Even my friends, who are supposed to be into this stuff are at a loss. Tarkan is still around from what I hear.
Starbucks is now in Turkey! They have opened up three stores in Istanbul and two in Ankara. I have actually gone to the newest one in Ankara, and no surprise, it has the same interior, same drinks and the same average quality. The baristi even yell each other the drinks in English (well, Turklish is a better word for it, I heard something like "dikef, sekerli, grande moka, vipped kremasiz" i.e. "decaf, grande mocha with sugar (?) but no whipped cream"). Ankara has undergone a cafe transformation, almost every local coffeehouse has become a trendy cafe or "simit palace" or "nargile house." (Simit is a torus shaped dough, cooked, has the taste of a bagel, nargile is an instrument through which one smokes tobacco, also known as a hookah) The interesting transformation here is that the old coffeehouses used to be places where only men went (usually the retired and the unemployed) and now they have become co-ed and hip. They also cost a bit.
The biggest media stories are always about models here for some reason, everyone and anyone seems to be a model and seems to sing. I don't know why they bothered to hold auditions for "Turkish Idol", everyone seems to get their 15 mins. of fame and then some here without much difficulty. The "Turkish Idol" here was a slavish copy of the American one from what I understand, they even had a Turkish "Simon" on hand to pass scathing commentary.

Pet Shop Boys in action / Gmail

2004-07-07T00:35:15Z

I was quite amazed to read that the Pet Shop Boys will:

1) be performing in Trafalgar Square on Sept. 12 for free. They have composed a new soundtrack to the silent film "Battleship Potemkin" and they will perform it live with Dresdener Sinfoniker while the film plays in the background.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3847629.stm

2) have remixed the new Rammstein song "Mein Teil" by now and it should be coming out by the end of August. The song is about the German cannibal who was convicted about 6 months ago. Rammstein and PSB sounds like a bizarre combo.

http://www.rammstein.de

In other news, I just got a gmail account and have been shooting a lot of archival stuff over there for safe(?)keeping and for the datamining pleasure of the folks at google. It is nice to have a 1GB bit bucket.

Valentine's Day CD 2004 is ready!

2004-02-01T08:58:42Z

Yippeee! This year, I somehow managed to get my butt into gear early and finished my Valentine's Day CD. My antipathy to Commercial Love Day (TM) is alive and well, and I hope to spread some love and joy to my single and coupled friends' lives through one of the 20 limited edition copies of this year's mix.

Life has been quite busy lately, and I am running very low on sleep which is making me giddy and hyper at odd moments and occasions. That has not stopped me from going out quite a bit, though, maybe I should commune with my bed instead of the bartenders in the Pike/Pine corridor.

The Insanity Continues

2003-11-20T17:40:57Z

November 20, 2003
At Least 26 Killed, 400 Hurt as Bank and Consulate Are Bombed
By SEBNEM ARSU and CHRISTINE HAUSER

ISTANBUL, Nov. 20 — Two explosions rocked Istanbul today, one at the British consulate and the other at the British international bank HSBC, killing 26 people and wounding more than 400, the Turkish foreign ministry said.

The foreign minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said two of those killed were policemen. "In today's attacks, there were again trucks loaded with explosives and it's highly likely that both were suicide attacks," he said.

International news agencies and the Turkish private television station NTV reported that the British Consul General, Roger Short, was among those killed in the attack. The reports quoted the religious affairs official of the consulate, Ian Sherwood.

The attacks came less than a week after suicide bomb blasts at two Jewish synagogues in the city; 25 people were killed in those attacks, including the bombers.

Windows were shattered in buildings in the vicinity of the bank, located near shops, restaurants, and a metro station on the busiest street of the upper middle class Levent neighborhood. Shocked victims rushed from the scene, their hands clamped on their wounds in an attempt to staunch the flow of blood.

"There was a massive explosion, I couldn't tell what was happening,"said a banker, Cigdem Dicle, who was coated with dust. Her suit was spattered with blood. "I was in shock. We immediately went down, everything happened in seconds."

The explosion at the consulate was so powerful that it blew off the outer wall, eyewitnesses said, and the force of the blast smashed windows and rocked houses nearby.

The selection of British targets coincided with the visit to Britain this week by President Bush. At a joint news conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair this morning in London, Mr. Bush said that terrorists hoped to intimidate and demoralize free nations, but "they are not going to succeed." He said Britain, the United States and other allies were "united in our determination to fight and defeat this evil wherever it is found."

Mr. Blair, a steadfast ally of the United States in the war in Iraq and the fight against terrorism, said: "Once again, we're reminded of the evil these terrorists pose to innocent people everywhere and to our way of life. "Once again, we must affirm that in the face of this terrorism there must be no holding back, no compromise, no hesitation in confronting this menace, in attacking it wherever and whenever we can, and in defeating it utterly."

Calling today's attacks a "terrorist outrage," Mr. Blair said an "unshakeable unity of purpose" was required to confront terrorism side by side with the United States.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts, but the British foreign minister, Jack Straw, said "I'm afraid to say it has all the hallmarks of international terrorism practiced by Al Qaeda."

"At this stage we can't say for certain who is responsible," he said in remarks broadcast on television.

Mr. Straw said that three or four consulate employees did not show up for roll call after the blasts in Istanbul, which he called an "appalling act of terrorism." He did not give the nationalities of the employees.

The television station NTV reported that HSBC bank closed its branches in Turkey for security reasons, and that security was tightened at American institutions.

Uxval Gochez, a photographer and film-maker working in Istanbul for the Web site of The New York Times, said he heard an explosion this morning and headed in the direction of the blast. When he got to the British Consulate, he said, he saw a big cloud of ash and dust rising into the air.

"I approached the building and people started coming out, covered in blood, debris and glass," he said in a telephone interview. "There was confusion. Cars were flipped over."

He said he entered the consulate's compound. The outer wall had been blown out onto the street by the force of the blast, crushing cars. Windows of the building were shattered. A large crater and what looked like wreckage from a car bomb were directly in front of the security station, just inside the compound walls, he said.

"Many people with different levels of injuries were coming out of the building and making their way, assisted by other people," Mr. Gochez said.

The injured were also receiving first aid in the consulate garden.

CNN Turk, a local affiliate of CNN in Istanbul, quoted a witness, Mehmet Celik, as saying he saw a brown van with an open back driving toward the British consulate just before the blast.

A Turkish man, Gunduz Akyurek, and his friend were unloading their car across from the consulate when the explosion shook the Taksim neighborhood.

"The car hit the wall of the building," he said in an interview. "We were just about to rush to help whoever was inside, thinking that it was a traffic accident but we were thrown back by a huge explosion. I was in shock. I walked through people who were lying unconscious on the ground, and the car was upside down, partly destroyed."

Rescue workers said more victims could still be buried under rubble. They said today's attacks were similar to the ones at the synagogues, and that the same strong scent lingered, apparently from the explosions. Citizens crowded into hospitals to donate blood and search for relatives and friends.

At Taksim Hospital, Kadir Cetinkaya sobbed over the news that his niece and her husband were killed. "They worked at the consulate as the cleaning personnel," he said. "This is not fair!"

On Wednesday, Turkish authorities named two Turkish citizens as the suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on the synagogues last Saturday.

The Istanbul governor, Muammer Guler, said at a news conference on Wednesday that there were parallels with attacks by Al Qaeda. The bombings last Saturday were the worst terrorist attack in the republic's 80-year history.

At their news conference today, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair put the attacks in the context of their efforts in Iraq.

"We will finish the job we have begun," Mr. Bush said, referring to Iraq. Mr. Blair, linking the response to the attacks in Turkey to strikes in Iraq and elsewhere, said: "Our response is not to flinch, give way or concede one inch."

Sebnem Arsu reported for this article from Istanbul and Christine Hauser from New York.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company |

Halloween Party / Birthday

2003-11-02T19:05:53Z

After a month of prep and much redecorating, we finally had our Halloween party this last Friday. The party itself was a zoo, unofficial estimates (and there will be no official estimates, so do not hold your breath) are putting the attendance around 250 individuals who chose to either come by for an hour or make a night of it. The last of the guests left at about 3:30. Now the house is a mess of course, we now have to undo all the decorating and transform the abode back from Vegas into a livable space.

Thank you to all for coming, and those of you who couldn't: There will be another one in 6 months' time. Keep your antennae peeled.

Halloween happened to coincide with my birthday as always, a great coincidence that seems to happen every year like clockwork. This year I had some great cards, gifts and company, with family, Don all the way from NYC, housemates and oh yeah, 200+ of my best friends :) Maybe I will take next year a bit easier.

More hotelling

2003-10-13T19:29:45Z

I seem to be obsessed with boutique hotels recently for some reason. Here's an article I read on the way to STL about Hotel Unique in São Paulo, Brazil. It is in the shape of a watermelon and has curving wooden floors in the rooms!

http://www.americanwaymag.com/travel/feature.asp?archive_date=10/1/2003

St. Louis

2003-10-12T20:16:40Z

I am in St. Louis again. In what has become an annual vacation for me, I end up coming to STL on graduate student leadership conferences, party, eat, drink, schmooze and also get some work done. I could see myself doing this for a goodish while, only if they included sleep in the conference program.

I arrived Friday afternoon after an hour's "equipment malfunction" delay. The hotel they put us up in is the Westin at Cupples Station, a early 20th century train station depot / warehouse converted to a really nice, almost boutique hotel. I had a cool roommate from UMich and an awesome bathroom. The bathroom was actually half of the hotel room itself, with an awesome sunken tub and a shower separate from it. Westin is trying really hard to outdo W for the swankiest hotel title, it is funny that they are owned by the same group.

This group of grad. students was actually of a somewhat weird composition, many science and engineering types (which is unusual, the expected departments are English and Poli Sci) and many married with children. You would think that they would just turn in for the night at about 9 PM, especially given that the morning's first session which I was chairing was at 8:30 AM with shuttles leaving at 7:30. But, contrary to expectations, there was quite a bit of bar hopping one night, one group making their way to the Landing and not coming back until 3 AM.

Now I am almost falling asleep writing this on the slowest wireless connection this side of the Mississippi. I would recommend the coffee at St. Louis Bread Co (6th and Pine in Downtown STL) but not their wireless connection. They also have killer brownies.

For some reason, this picture made me laugh:

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2003/10/12/business/12GILL583.jpg

A handy guide to Nordic politics

2003-09-10T23:30:00Z

Do not like what is going on? Assassinate. There has to be some kind of explanation of why there have been quite a few political assassinations in these seemingly rich and peaceful countries lately.

http://www.dw-world.de/german/0,3367,1454_A_967798_1_A,00.html

In other news, it finally started to rain which enabled me to focus on work (i.e. mixing songs for an upcoming party, catching up on political history books my parents sent etc., nothing serious). I have also been out and about more so than usual, saw two of my housemates play soccer on Monday night, they managed to beat a much stronger team by one goal (go Dave!). I might play with them on Wednesday nights on the co-rec league of theirs, they seem to need more men on their team. Igor: Your last resort for a warm body on the soccer field.

Stanford

2003-08-14T04:18:35Z

I am attending a conference in Stanford, CA for two days. The weather is warm and dry, the campus is beautiful, Palo Alto is "tony" (according to their local rag). The only thing lacking is public transport, there is no way to get to anywhere after 9 PM unless you are a Californian (i.e. you own a few cars here and there).

Tomorrow, I am going to risk it and try and get back to SFO via CalTrain and BART. I have 5 hours to burn anyway, I might as well do it doing something aside from sitting on my butt in the airport (which happened on the way to here, the security check at Sea-Tac took a whopping 3 minutes and I had two hours to kill until my flight. Two hours after that, I was in SFO).

For those of you who never attended a conference, here's my handy guide: A conference is very much like politics, you listen to long speeches, eat and drink for seemingly free, and schmooze. Fun for everyone.

This weekend is going to be hell, with moving, going away party for Don and Jamie's wedding, and my redeye from here back to Seattle Friday morning, I will be as good as dead by the time Sunday rolls around.

Slow updates

2003-07-26T01:20:28Z

Well, I have been somewhat lazy in updating this journal thing. Since the last time I updated the LJ, I moved out of the Cap. Hill apartment, moved in with Kaleb, found a 7 bedroom 5 bathroom house on Cap. Hill and will be moving in there with three other people in mid-August. The house looks like a very sweet deal right now, we'll see how it will all develop.

In other news, I have been teaching my Calculus class for about 5 weeks now, and the class is going pretty well (if I say so myself). I have 9 students, and aside from the eastern aspect of the classroom and the lack of airconditioning, matters are pretty good in the "Sauna".

I have been going out a bit lately, with various individuals. We had quite an interesting evening at Linda's, I should go back there soon (however, patio seating is a must.)

Las Vegas 2003 / Fenix / My brother

2003-06-01T20:07:31Z

A bunch (18 of them to be exact) of my friends will be on their way to the newly debauchery-intensified Las Vegas next weekend to party it up. I cannot go, but instead of sulking around the home, I made a mix CD to go along with them, in case they need something fun to listen to while they are lounging around the new nude beaches at the Hard Rock. Some of these are from the Hedi / Disco Kandi collection, some are from Ministry of Sound. It is not my usual genre of choice, but I actually enjoyed mixing disco house, but could not resist slipping in a trance song or two, and a good oldie.

Latin Lover - Stephanie Mills
We All Love Sax - Tim Deluxe
I'll Be There For You - Sunburst Band
Fascinated (Joey Negro Club mx)- Raven Maize
Gotta Keep Pushing - Z-Factor (MoS)
Pumpin' - DJ Bad Boy Bill
Speak In Sympathy - Solar Stone
Ecuador (trance mx)- Sash!
Garden Of Love - Sunburst Band
Must Be The Music (Club Mix) - Taka Boom
Say Yes - Bini and Martini
Now Or Never - Tom Novy Feat. Lima
Wonderful Person - Dimitri from Paris

Yesterday was a day of great amount of drinking and partying, I think I had about 10 drinks overall within the course of 5 hours, and managed not to get drunk at all. We started off at a hottub - BBQ party for my brother who is visiting from NC. Then we moved to the Studio for more drinks. Afterwards we trekked it down to the Fenix (the newly reopened paean of d&d) and had a great time. The venue is huge, with back corridors, two dance floors, a live music area etc. etc. My brother and I got in for free as I knew one of the bouncers but we spent more than the cover charge on booze anyway. He picked up two girls and went home with one (or maybe both, I will figure that out when he comes home). He goes home tonight, and back to work for me.

Turkey wins Eurovision Song Contest!!! Besiktas wins Premier League!!! The Fenix reopens!!!

2003-05-26T04:42:16Z

My mom called me last night to tell me that Turkey won the Eurovision Song Contest! In the US this is absolutely not a great deal at all, in Turkey it is somewhat big (it would have been huge about ten years ago when Turkey was still aspiring to be accepted into applicant status for the EU, now it is an applicant, a long shot at that). Sertab Erener, a well known Turkish "diva", won the contest with a song that was half Western (it was sung in English, with a lot of synth) and half Turkish (belly dancers and Arabic song motifs all the way). Turkish newspapers, of course, chose to announce this feat with headlines such as "The dream of 25 years comes true!"

In other news, the soccer team that my dad and my bro support (somewhat fanatically I might add) won the Premier League Championship. I hope they enjoy that while they can, Besiktas sucks in European Cups, it is no Galatasaray.

The Fenix reopened last week with some fanfare, I wonder how it is getting on. It is ironic that the original vehement opponents of the club's reopening (for example, other bar owners, cops etc.) are now in full support of it, especially after the owner reportedly spent 2.5 million dollars and is going to "clean up" Pioneer Square. I was going to go out tonight to the Fenix Underground, but they are having a concert with SMP and a fetish bazaar, while I like SMP, I am not interested in bazaars or paying more than 5 bucks to get into the Fenix. I guess it will have to wait until the next weekend.

Fidelio

2003-05-10T22:50:38Z

Last night, I went to the final opera of the season, Fidelio. There has been already much (for an opera that is) hoopla about it in the local media about how it was so appropriate for our times, it was set in the modern world, Jane Eaglen was in it blah blah. The opera itself was dismal, especially Marzelline. Her voice is much better suited for low key, romantic stuff, not trying to make herself heard over the belligerent score of Beethoven. The only redeeming part of the whole thing was the chorus at the end (the best known part of the opera) which is similar in vein to the 9th Symphony (a somewhat better known piece). The bass-baritone, who only has about ten minutes on stage at the very end was awesome.

I also saw thirdcoastryan there with his sister. I think they must have left in the intermission, and I can't say I blame them.

Today turned out to be a gorgeous day, I think I will leave the confines of my house pretty soon and go down to the ID. I have spent all day cleaning and music-consulting for Kaleb, I need some form of activity.

Erasure concert at the Paramount

2003-03-24T07:42:45Z

I just got back from the Erasure concert, and I am once again both amazed and also surprised. I am amazed because Andy Bell was still alive and kicking (with some pretty risque costumes) and sang really well (he missed a couple of cues but hey it happens). They had a good balance of the old and the new songs, the crowd went nuts when they played their old favorites. Of the new songs, Solsbury Hill (A Peter Gabriel original) and You've Lost That Loving Feeling (Righteous Brothers) were very well liked.

On the other hand I am surprised at how young Andy looked. The only indication that he is 45+ is around his eyes, the rest of him could have been 30.

The crowd was the usual: Middle age gays, some lesbians, the odd straight couple. Nobody under 25 probably. There was a bar on the main floor (double G&Tanq: $11 + tip!!!). There was this really shitty opening band called Cooler Kids. They are the proud remixers and ululators of the popular C89.5 song "All Around The World." If anyone wants a button with "Cooler Kids" on it, give me a holler. Otherwise I will send it to C89.5, with no postage.

Dinner party

2003-02-25T06:26:36Z

I am becoming quite an expert at throwing dinner parties. This time around I had the pleasure of having 4 people (Kaleb, Jenn, Chris and Jeff) over for a jointly cooked (Jenn and I) meal. Jenn is a professionally trained cook who now works for allrecipes.com and she graciously offered to cook a birthday meal for me (this was back in October). I knew what I wanted but I thought it would be best to share it with other people, as it would be the same expense no matter what. Sooo, Jenn and I spent the better part of Saturday cooking for this dinner and then eating it with the three boys. I made some octopus salad, I had never made any before and it turned out to be very good (other people's comments, not mine :)). Jenn on the other hand made halibut with paprika, plus saffron rice with cashews, grapes and honey. For dessert, she made my favorite pie of all time, the triple coconut pie from Dahlia Lounge (Tom Douglas' cookbook has the recipe in it). After two bottles of wine and all this food, we were all quite full.

Afterwards, Chris and Jeff went to Manray with a Republican Spokanian friends of theirs, and Jenn and I went to the Baltic Room to see Dina Martina. It was quite a short show but fun nonetheless.

I am getting rehooked on Alpha Centauri with its Alien X-fire expansion pack. If anyone would like to, we can play head-to-head over the internet, let me know.

VD

2003-02-11T07:23:22Z

I really have to get my schedule in order for this week to celebrate VD. K-man and I have decided that we are not doing anything special on that day, we both think it is commercial and pointless, it just makes people spend extravagantly, either to get a date if they don't have one (1-900 numbers, mail order bride catalogs, Blu ...) or to go out with their preexisting date if they do have one handy around the house. Hence, my celebration is going to be a little different this year, I am having a dinner/birthday party for Dan and Keith (13th and 20th of Feb. respectively) so I have to cook and clean for that. Plus, I am way behind on my schedule of finishing two limited edition VD's mixes, I have been having a lot of trouble with my MIDI keyboard and the software. Oh well.

In the good news department, Kaleb just got a job, and he has an interview for yet another one tomorrow, my American mom sold her business and got a job in the process, and Sydney is coming up to hang out. Not to forget the three day weekend this week and all is good in Igorland. Now only if I can get this monkey off my back (it knows what it is).

I took some IQ tests today, a friend of mine from Turkey sent me a link with a bunch of them, they have some pretty good questions. If anyone is interested, check them out here .

I have lately been playing System Shock 2 like crazy, I highly recommend it to the fans of Doom. However, it does get quite scary at times, so watch out.

New Erasure Album: Other People's Songs

2003-01-28T05:32:38Z

The new Erasure album is coming out AND they are touring in Seattle at the end of March! I am excited about both developments, especially given that I have never ever seen them live. Their new album does not have any real new material though, it is their cover versions of other people's songs (which is the name of the album, too. If you want more info go to: http://www.mutelibtech.com)

It has been a while since I posted to this thing, and the main reason is that I have been busy with random stuff and I am still trying to figure out if this is a public venting place for me (although many people have a chance of seeing it, so I should keep it anonymous) or just plain old fun.

Someone called me "hyperactive" today, I wonder if she knows that that was me without any caffeine.

I skipped my German class today, as I had had enough of relative clauses and I had practiced my German anyway yesterday with Keith at R-Place. Then, on campus, I saw a classmate and he told me that the instructor had cancelled the class for Tuesday as well! Kein Deutsch fuer mich fuer zwei Tage!

I hate composing nice but mean semi-formal letters to other people that I do not know. I wish there were a better way of breaking the news that they are not getting the $100,000 they have requested for a new plasma screen video conferencing system. Life is tough sometimes.

Bureaucracy and this weekend

2003-01-16T08:42:37Z

I had forgotten how difficult it is to deal with bureaucracy since I have moved away from student gov't circles. Just to get some student oriented program started takes about 15 meetings, 3 different levels of approval and a bunch of bickering. How anything gets done at UW is anyone's guess.

This weekend will be a little different than normal I hope. Although my usual schedule of drinking with ppl from UW will probably continue tomorrow, I am going to the opera on Friday to see Don Pasquale which is not something I do every weekend (not that I could afford it). There is this new tenor who was trained in the Seattle Opera's Young Artists Program and he is supposed to be very very good. Although the acoustics at the Seattle Center Mercer Arts Barn sucks a lot, it seems to distort higher tones less, we will see. I hope Kaleb gets over this cold / flu / whatever is making everybody sick these days by then.

Then on Saturday, there is a secret surprise birthday thing for a friend of mine, while I would loathe to have one for myself, it is fun to spring it upon others.

I had a great time with Jenn tonight, good food (Machiavelli's rules), good dessert (B&O rocks) and good conversation (The previous product placements are complimentary). She is a very well balanced, smart individual and she is a lot of fun. We used to do Neighbors a lot together, but she grew up. Now we just drink, eat and be merry.

Sleepy....

2003-01-13T01:20:14Z

Kaleb is back!!

The techfee meeting on Friday was shorter than I expected, and we grads kicked ass.

Another low key weekend, what joy. I have been hooked on some lameass RPG game, and have been playing it for a bit too much I think. My roommate just got a new car, I have not seen it yet but now we have a mobile vehicle in the house (her old car did not move for about 9 months).

We went out as usual last night, although I was supposed to have hung out with Kaleb's buddies, they had some ID issues and could not go into bars like they were supposed to, so I hung out with Dan, Wes and Brandon (and Kevin later in the evening). Everything was as usual, although Neighbors was very crowded, which was surprising.

I think I need to make some changes to the weekend routine, this (same places, same drinks...) is getting boring.

Getting sick

2003-01-07T05:49:47Z

I hate getting sick!!! I feel like I am coming down with something, and I have just been told by someone today that there is a virus making the rounds, and it has been getting everyone left and right. I usually get sick once a year in fall and it is pretty mild. Maybe I should just drink some hot toddies.

We (Dan and I) went to R-Place last night. Everytime I go out with him a situation that needs handling happens and last night was no exception. Enuff said.

I went to my German 202 class today, the instructor's accent is very interesting, it sounds as if she is talking from somewhere between her tonsils and esophagus. I know most everyone talks from the same region, but she sounds like the tones are trying to break out of prison.

Kaleb comes back on the 9th, he says he already has the whole evening planned out. That boy doesn't have much to do in Detroit, so he concots his evil plans. I wonder what is in store for me.

Now, I have to get MixMeister (TM) into high gear and start planning for my Valentine's Day limited edition (of 20) double CD. It was D-Monster's idea that I should make a double CD, one slow and one fast. That means 160 mins of music I have to pick, clean and (re)mix. Then I have to distribute the CDs to 20 select individuals. That is the fun part. Last year's (re)mix was a great success, I gotta see if I can top that this year.

Belltown

2003-01-04T10:59:26Z

Tonight was an adventure unto itself. First I went to Peking Palace in north Greenwood (143rd and Greenwood to be exact) to see a bunch of married couples wearing matching Harley vests sing C&W songs. A palace this place ain't. My own group sang everything from "Private Dancer" to "Cheek to Cheek" with varying degrees of success.

Then, Don and I went to Noiselab. In great contract to NYE, the place was i)empty, ii) charged 10$ cover, iii)played R&B and hip-hop. That did not suit our collective tastes too much, so we headed down to Belltown. Our first stop, Down Under, was down and under, it sucked like nobody's business. Weak drinks, a bunch of boys trying to look cool but falling over themselves the moment one of the underclad girls (most of whom looked 18 at most, I swear) glanced at them. This random guy from "Cali" decided to hang out with us and tell us about his style of "picking up chicks." I learnt that the best place for that activity is either Las Vegas or Florida (although no specific places were mentioned). He told us in earnest that his greatest success to date was to have two working ladies eat each other out (he and his buddies paid them to do it in their hotel room). Having actually seen that without paying for it, neither Don nor I were very impressed with this impressive achievement. The music was Shakira in one room, random hip-hop in the other. We ran for our lives basically.

Next up in our tour of debauchery was Medusa. After paying too much for cover ($15 / person) and OK for strong drinks we were set to party. The music was passable for a goodish bit, some good house stuff, then they went into "Let's Stay Together" and the lights came on. They took away all the drinks, and turned the lights off again and started playing random music for a while. That place looks nothing like it did on opening night, on opening night and for about three months thereafter one could not walk on to the dance floor, now you can have a picnic on the dance floor and noone would bug you. They have fully clad but seductively dancing (or so they think) go-go girls though, not a bad sight.

Where are all the unwashed masses yearning to dance to Top 40 these days? They were not at their usual temples, they must be either too old, at some new club in Bellevue, or recovering from New Year's Eve. My guess is the latter.

Now gotta hit the sack and be ready to face the new day.

Back to school

2003-01-03T21:50:49Z

Well, soon WQ 03 will be starting up, this Winter Break has really flown by. At least I managed not to gain much weight, although I drank and ate more than my share of goodies and certainly led the good old sedantary lifestyle.

I made stuffed bellpeppers yesterday (it is a turkish dish, carve out bellpeppers, fill with rice and ground meat, cook, eat) and it was quite a hit with the people at my house. I even convinced Wes to come over and have one. Afterwards we went to Rosebud to drink soft beverages and then came along the trio of toodamnloud, Kevin and Walter with a friend of Walter's from California in tow. They convinced us to go to R-Place to see a strip show of sorts, the winner and the runner-up were both girls, which was pretty surprising to the drag queen in charge. The winner could actually move, the runner-up was chosen pretty much by default, the third place getter was a total disaster. If the "dance well = good in bed" relation holds, he must be a pretty awful lay.

Then, it was off to the dirty haven of 80's. The music was OK, we saw jjbond there and there might or might not have been some other people. Dan and Keith did not grace us with their presence, Keith has to work on Friday very early and Dan said "I feel like I was at Neighbors last night, oh just a sec, I was."

Going to Karaoke tonight at the Peking Palace or something to meet up with a family friend who came back from LA for the holidays. He was the host of a stupid show on MTV this past fall, he is a pretty good stand up comic but he needs another vehicle to shine (IMHO).

Now, back to Techfee proposal reviews.

Gangs of NY

2002-12-30T07:33:30Z

I just saw Gangs of New York. This is a prime example of a good premise wrapped up in awful clichés and put in a movie designed to show off one person in the best light possible (that would be the awful actor, DiCaprio). D.D. Lewis was quite good, Cameron Diaz is not even worthy of mention.

My verdict: Don't bother unless someone else is paying.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Regal Cinemas at Bellevue Galleria. Nice seats, big screen and passable popcorn. Free parking, too. It was very crowded however, and I even saw a BMW M5!