I think you perfectly know websites that require registration even worse email verification just for download an unimportant file or something like that. As always happens, today I came across such situation. I would register and fill out with my imaginary information. But my friend offered a website that let me off the hook. The site, BugMeNot, provides usernames and passwords to let users bypass mandatory free registrations on websites. By this service I bypassed the compulsary registration and completed my task without losing time. Of course , besides saving time it prevents annoying spam. Speaking of spam, erenow I have discovered GuerrillaMail that provides users with disposable email addresses that expire after 15 minutes and within this time frame mails can be read and sent. read more…
I watched “The Truman Show” yesterday, nearly a decade after its release date. The movie obviously has some crucial messages. On the surface, it is really funny movie and deals with issues of life and the media.
Truman (Jim Carrey), the hero, lives with actors, people around him including his parents, wife and best friend, in an artificial world unaware of this mechanism. He is monitored by 5000 cameras and broadcast live 24 hours a day to, so to speak, peeper and curious audience. Truman was born and raised under cameras (“He was born in front of a live audience” as Christof says).
Truman is cheated and deprived of his ability to make choices by the “serial” director, Christof. The director manipulates and controls Truman as the God of him and the movie. Everybody including members of Christof’s team responsible for technical issues obey him blindly. His actions peculiar to God are depicted in the movie successfully in response to the protest of Sylvia: “I have given Truman the chance to lead a normal life. The world, the place you live in, is the sick place.” But he gets out of tight corner in a familiar method by saying “If he (Truman) was more than just a vague ambition, if he was absolutely determined to discover the truth, there’s no way we could prevent him”. There emerges a dilemma that Dr. Sam Vaknin perfectly explains:
“It all boils down to the question of free choice and free will versus the benevolent determinism imposed by an omniscient and omnipotent being. What is better: to have the choice and be damned (almost inevitably) – or to succumb to the superior wisdom of a supreme being? This choice always involves a dilemma. It is the conflict between two equivalent states, two weighty decisions whose outcomes are equally desirable and two identically-preferable courses of action. Where there is no such equivalence – there is no choice, merely the pre-ordained (given full knowledge) exercise of a preference or inclination.”
Bees do not choose to make honey. A student does not choose to study. He may be a hardworking or a lazy one. To be more precise, he is motivated by a clear inequity between the choices that he faces. He can study or go to the cinema. His decision is clear and predetermined by his preference; and by the inevitable and invariable implementation. There is profoundly no choice here. However Truman did not ask or choose to be put in his position. There was no consent or act of choice involved…
Network Executive:[hunging up a phone call] The sponsors are threatening to rip up their contracts!
Christof: [pointing at the "Technical fault... Please stand by... ” graphic] Why? We’re getting higher ratings for this graphic than we’ve ever had on this show. (IMDB)
And, of course, the criticism on capitalism by showing monstrosity of billionaires and clashing media that exploit Truman’s life is another issue.
Yesterday I watched “Monsters vs. Aliens” actually because of its production technique by the master of animation, Pixar. Moreover I had read from Wikipedia, that the movie was the first computer animated movie to be directly produced in a stereoscopic 3D format instead of being converted into 3D after completion.
The cinema was full of children but I do not think that there are any characters that a child would love. Besides, sure, the movie is sweet and harmless, and has some healthy messages. However I think they were there by the magic of 3D technology too.
The Annual International Sports Festival has been a long-standing traditional feature of the life and culture at Boğazici University. This festival offers a competitive sports meeting and also an amazing opportunity to meet sportsmen from all countries and all social backgrounds. Under the watchful eye of professional referees invited from respective federations, matches in various branches of sports – American football, aikido, soccer, rowing, outdoor volley, handball, waterpolo, sailing, tennis, taekwondo, track & field, volleyball, wrestling, badminton, basketball, step, swimming, table tennis, softball, baseball, ultimate frisbee and etc. – take place on the school grounds and sports fields.
Besides these various matches, there are social occasions, parties, live concerts and trips which are organised by Sports Committee. There is the schedule of this year’s festival:
May 14, Thursday:
11:00 – 16:00 : Boat trip around Bosphorus (Also trips to Grand Bazaar, Hagia Sophia Museum, Topkapi Palaca and special historical places in Istanbul)
19:00-21:00: Opening Ceremony (Formal parade, the firing of the festival flambeau, dance performances and other performances)
May 15, Friday:
09:00-18:00: Start of the tournaments in 21 sports branches.
20:00-02:00: Concert in South Campus Parking Lot
May 16, Saturday:
09:00-18:00: Tournaments’ 2nd tours continue.
22:00-02:00: Ferry Party
May 17, Sunday:
09:00-18:00: Quarters, semi-finals and final games
19:00-21:00: Closing and Award Ceremony in South Campus
22:00-04:00: Now or Never Party
Dear instructor, it was my homework (el emeyi göz nuru) and I have done it despite the fact that I have had three exams on the same day. It must be confessed that some sentences might be considered as a plagiarism but the rest is my elbow grease. I sweated blood over the essay and tried to increase the complexity of the sentences by which you knew that this article had to be stolen. Anyway…
After a back breaking day; watching the dance performance, having a Bud =)
(Bryan Watson & Carmen, Chacha at BUDANS, 2007)
At Bogazici University every year proffesional dancers from more than 20 universities and dance schools from all over the country perform art of dance. For last two days I have been attending the 10th dance festival of BUDANS (Bogazici University Ballroom Dancing Society) as a visitor. I have experienced two days of high energy at BUDANS dance festival. Dances had mainly composed of Latin Dances namely Cha cha, Rumba, Paso Doble and Jive.
This amazing dance festival also included specialised workshops, cocktail party, latin party, excursion and paintball tournament.
I have enjoyed the elegant night of dance. Great thanks, Denise =)
While googling I found out this picture, a screen shot of the game, river raid. This is one of first games that I played and was in the memory of a strange clumsy machine which we (and my brothers) called a Turkey Computer. It was so called because my father had brought it for us from Turkey. After a search I found its original name: Atari. Anyway
This machine looks like ours =)
Yeah, it is a game console from Turkey (released in USA) but we used to live in a new emerged country after the collapse of the Soviet Union: of course, there is no AC/DC of the TV. Instead we chipped the cables and connected them successfully (by the help of the engineer, my father). We used to play a lot and enjoy it.
Playing ice hockey game especially against my father delighted me.
This was my mother’s favourite game:
Spiderman! However today I realized that the thing that comes out of him is a web (actually the web is as thick as the man) and I rightfully thought it as his tongue =)
There are some list of other games which I remember:
71 percent turnout; 92 percent of them approved abandoning the limit of two consecutive presidential terms and all other craps; …
Yesterday a friend of mine asked me to go vote for referendum and I started thinking about whole process although I knew it like the back of my hand and questioning weather to go or not.
And now I am wondering if I had supported the amendments.
Tom did like he always does, kissing his wife, crawling into bed and falling to sleep. All of a sudden, he wakes up with an elderly man dressed in a white robe standing in front of his bed.
“What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?…and who are you?” he asked.
“This is not your bedroom,” the man replied, “I am St. Peter, and you are in heaven.”
“WHAT! Are you saying I’m dead? I don’t want to die! I’m too young,” said Tom. “I want you to send me back immediately.”
“It’s not that easy”, said St.Peter. “You can only return as a dog or a hen. The choice is your own.”
Tom thought about it for a while, and figured out that being a dog is too tiring, but a hen probably has a nice and relaxed life. Running around with a rooster can’t be that bad.
“I want to return as a hen,” Tom replied.
And in the next second, he found himself in a chicken run, really nicely feathered. But now he felt like his rear end was gonna blow. Then along came the rooster.
“Hey, you must be the new hen St. Peter told me about,” he said. “How do you like being a hen?”
“Well, OK I guess, but it feels like my ass is about to explode.”
“Oh that!” said the rooster. “That’s only the ovulation going on. You need to lay an egg.”
“How do I do that?” Tom asked.
“Cluck twice, and then you push all you can.”
Tom clucked twice and pushed more than he was good for, and then ‘plop’ an egg was on the ground.
“Wow” Tom said. “That felt really good!” So he clucked again and squeezed. And you better believe that there was yet another egg on the ground. The third time he clucked, he heard his wife shout:
“Tom, for Christ’s sake! Wake up! You’re shittin’ all over the bed!”