A little about everything

Tour of Ireland Part 1

2006-07-30T13:39:00.000-07:00

Upodate:
I gathered the names of places we have been to.. Here it goes:
Cave: Ailwee Cave in BallyVaughan
Phys Ed: Burren Cod
Lunch: Doolin
Saturday we decided to take a little tour around Cliffs of Moher.. It was a relatively short drive from Limerick but time-wise it took longer than expected.. The roads here are pretty narrow, what we would call a 1 lane road is a 2 lane cross traffic road.. I am talking about big busses coming at you without really slowing down and the only thing you can do is duck and sit as close to the edge of the road as possible, even with that the bus passes you about a foot apart.. Pretty crazy driving.. Other than that it was spectacular.. Cliff's were amazing.. It was raining quite a bit so we did not get a chance to walk to the end of the cliffs to really enjoy the view but even with the limited trip it was great. I took a lot of pics but they are hidden in my camera until I find an SD card reader..
From the cliffs we went to have breakfast at a small town, after enjoying our lunch we started heading down to the caves around there (forgot the name now, I'll try to dig it up).. On the way to the caves we thoroughly enjoyed the ocean and the green and the hills, view was just great.. We found a good place to stop on the way to take pics but it turned out to be better than that.. It was all big rocks that are eaten up by waves hitting them for the hundreds of years.. coming closer to the edge you would find the rocks being shaped like a spunge (a razor sharp spunge) again because of the erosion.. We went about a quarter of a mile through these rock to the edge where the waves of the ocean would splash over us.. It was just great.. We climbed up and down the rocks.. We could have done it for a few more hours.. On the way back to the road we tried some rock climbing (I have scars to prove it too :))..
Went to the caves afterwards.. It was a relatively small cave after having seen the Mammoth caves in Kentucky.. It was pretty good little tour though..
After all that action we decided to come back to the hotel.. We were all quite tired and enjoyed the sleep on the way back to the hotel (including our driver :))..
This is the part of Ireland that I wanted to see and I am glad to have caught a glimpse of it..
I'll post the pics as soon as I can..

First Walk around the city

2006-07-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

Today one of the other guys from my team (Bill) came to Limerick.. We went for a walk in the city.. It is pretty nice. It reminds me of the outside walking environment that is similar to Istanbul. On a smaller scale of course but still nice to be walking around and see people, walk into stores check out stuff. It is relly not important what you are looking at but it is something..
Encountered the changing "regular" Irish weather.. It kept raining intermittently, sometimes pouring for a few mins and then back to normal.. Now it is good and cloudy, ~ 65-70 degrees Fahrenheight..
I am still sitting in the lobby/ cafe of the hotel, drinking ice-water.. Over in Europe you have to ask ice with drink, otherwise you wont get ice..
While walking around found a McDonalds, Burger King.. Even though it is good to know they exists, I am not ready to go to a fast food joint yet.. Went to an Italian restaurant, wasn't too bad, not great either. Deserts were pretty good..
Overall things are still going good.. We'll probably go and visit some of the castles and continue seeing around town.. Hopefully take some pictures (if it doesn't rain too much)..

I am not over my jet lag yet.. normally I am not effected by time difference this much, we'll see how long it will take to adapt.. Maybe I am getting old, that must be a sign of not adjusting as quickly.. Whatever :)

Some Dilbert links..

2006-07-21T12:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060713.html
http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20060721.html

Sitting at the Clarion

2006-07-21T11:43:00.000-07:00

I just had a pretty long day at work, came back to the hotel trying to relax.. Starving to death almost with the smaller portions here in Ireland.. Of course the jet-lag and lack of sleep as a result doesn't help things..
Ok, just ate a portion of black bean and chicken with extra fried rice and I am almost full. Portions here are quite small.. probably close to half of what is in US.. I guess I can fill the void with a desert..
Overall though, I like it here so far. Pretty interesting.. Good break from the ordinary that is in US. It seems like everybody gets used to certain things.. Even though you dont have a certain routine, anything and everything that you get used to and think would not qualify for a routine is part of your routine.. It is the small things; driving on the left side, narrow roads, roundabouts, road signs, different accent, a few different words, a little different food, different ways of looking at life, more environmentally concious way of life, people on the streets walking to get to work or from point A to B, small things in general. To be honest I did not really get the chance to blend into the regular crowd yet.
Overall people seem to be pretty warm and welcoming..
Anyways my half-sized portion chocolate pyramid is here and staring at me..

Back in blogger

2006-07-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

I have been away from blog world for months now..
I am back..
I started travelling for work and part of my travel I will try to keep my friends updated on what I am doing..
I came to Limerick, Ireland today.. Nice and comfy flight.. It is pretty interesting here..
I got used to driving on the left side of the road pretty quickly and got used to the round abouts..
But I got lost while going to work.. Was pretty funny.. lots of roundabouts ..
Anyways, I'll keep u guys updated as frequently as I can..
Cheers,

PERSONAL - Moving to Austin, Take 2

2006-04-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

My brother Tunc has decided to move to Austin so I went to Nashville to help him with the move.. It was dejavu (the third time) when we were cruising down I-40, I-30, I-35.. This is the 3rd time in the last 6 months that I drove from Nashville to Austin..
Thanks to my friends Mahmud, Arban, and Ahmet we took care of unloading with ease.. Honestly, I was at a point where I really did not want to see any box anymore..
After taking care of moving, we bought my brother a car as well and he is well underway to get settled in to Austin..
I think next step for me is to get my Trucker license, in case I ever decide to move away from IT :)

COMMENT - Not so new thing, MySpace

2006-04-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have been hearing about MySpace for a while, mainly for the bad stuff. I heard it so much that I decided to give it a shot.. I just opened up my account and am trying to upload some photos and info.. We'll see what it let's you do more than other sites..
I'll keep you posted on that..
Here is my MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/74056292

Whassssuuupppp!!!!

2006-04-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends..
I have been away for a loooong time. Just wanted to give update on what I have been upto lately..

I have been working like crazy.. Averaging over 70 hours a week.. So that covers half of the week :)
I have been busy talking to Dell about going full-time.. That happened recently (all the paperwork)..
My brother Tunc is moving to Austin.. He is moving in town this weekend or next Monday..

We just did a 2 full day testing on one of the relatively big projects that we have been working on for the last couple of months..

And I am tired.. Really, tired.. The weather is getting to me (107 one day, 60 the other day, allergies are increasing daily.. ).
Overall though I cannot complain about anything..
I am finally getting used to Austin and I am happy overall.. It is more satisfying here so far..

I'll give you guys a better run down of what is going on soon..

Burning the Midnight Oil..

2006-01-26T21:14:00.000-08:00

I know I have been neglecting my precious blog for the month.. I really am sorry for my friends that are following my updates.
I have been pretty busy lately.. I knew that I was going to be busy when I started my new job but it turned out that I am whole lot busier once I got fully engaged.. For the last few weeks I am averaging ~10hrs a day (7 days) at work.. Don't get me wrong. I am doing things that I really wanted to do for a long time but did not get a chance to do..
Also I am NOT ignoring my presonal life either.. I am hanging out with friends. Not as much as when I was in Nashville. There I was seeing someone everyday.. But here it is still about 3-4 times a week that I get together with friends.. I think it is the balance thing right.. I am more organized, I watch less TV, don't have a long commute..
One thing that I am missing is my exercise..
I still have not got back to it yet.. I had a couple of attempts but none successful so far..
We'll see..
For those of you that know Ibrahim Tatlises, I really am not his fan but I was just listening to iTunes and one of his songs poped up (Keskin Bicak).. Maybe I am under the influence of being tired but I listened to it 5-10 times and in fact I am still listening to it right now.. It is so emotional.. I do not consider myself emotional but it even got to me.. Anyways, thought I'd share that with you guys..

PERSONAL - Time to Run

2005-12-22T18:40:00.000-08:00

I signed up for this years Country Music Marathon in Nashville (April 29 2006). After gaining a few pounds I thought it was necessary to have motivating factor to get back into shape. I hope I can..
Stay tuned..

PERSONAL - Leaving friends and family

2005-12-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

I know that I have talked about this a few times before but as certain things trigger emotions I feel like I need to revisit.
Now I am in a hotel in North Carolina, all by myself browsing internet. My dear friend Safak signed in to Messenger and we chatted a little bit. Sometimes it is pretty hard to leave your ties behind..
As much as I did not care for Nashville as a city, I really had some strong relationships there. First of all I still have my brother Tunc. Then I have my real close friends Safak (Ilknur, little Mert), Umut, Mert, Varol Family (Filiz, Yasin, Elif, Ceyda), Canan, Levent family, and others that I cannot remember right away at this hour. Then my other close friends and friends that has left Nashville before me (such as Bugra).. It is always a bad idea to name friends in case you miss one but please try to stick with the concept here..
I know that I have and will have a lot of friends in Austin but as a fruit of strong friendship I will add more friends instead of replacing the ones that I have in Nashville (and in other cities that I have lived so far)..
I have come to realize this in the past few years that no matter how much money you have, what kind of car you drive, what kind house you live in, they are all empty if you don't have anybody so share them with.. I wish everybody someone(s) to share their happines in this life and there after..
Have a happy holidays everybody!!!!

PERSONAL - Eternal frienship

2005-12-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

Speaking of friends, I visited my ex-roommate Osman and his wife Nilufer from college last Tuesday.. I was reassured that this is the kind of long lasting friendship that I am looking for. I thank God that I have these friends that we have shared so much, and still can connect even though we cannot see each other all the time. One real good example is my middle school buddy Ozcan. I saw him and his family about a month ago in PA. Spent the night there and we chatted for hours like we were never away from each other.. So many years passed and we had so little interaction, yet our friendship was so deep that (again thank God) we did not loose our bond..
I wish everybody at least one friend like the friends that I have right now!!!

COMMENT - On the road again...

2005-12-11T21:30:00.000-08:00

OK. This is getting old. I have been driving so many miles lately, I think I will give it a rest for a little while.. I drove ~4000 miles in the last 3 weeks!
Normally I like driving, you get to think. A lot! It doesn't have to be serious stuff all the time but things that you normally don't get enough time to sit down and concentrate. Well, when you have 10-15 hours to spare, best thing is to start using the little engine...
On a totally different note, this time around I noticed that Arkansas was "The Natural State". Again this time I noticed that somehow the rivers and the lakes in Arkansas are really beautiful blue, I wanted to take some pics but did not have camera or time so maybe next time around I would get a chance to take some pics of the "The Natural State"..

COMMENT - TRUCKER

2005-12-02T21:09:00.000-08:00

The Trucking world has always been a different one for me. I have never really driven a truck for a long distance (just in city moving and stuff). I am not talking about a Ford or Chevy pickup truck. I am talking about a U-Haul 14,17,26 footer. It is a different feeling to be that high from everybody else and have that much momentum.. It requires more responsibility and care.. I can even project that handling that kind of a load would help build character. You're going to say "No Way" or argue the relationship but it is true.. You have to be very patient, plan ahead for your every move, be respectful with other people on the road, and learn to be forgiving to ignorant people.. If your personality is suitable to learn, you can learn all these good behaviors and some more.. Of course I did not drive that long to develop any new behavior but was able to catch a glimpse.. I also felt like I should start listening to country music. I did not give into that either :) I continued to listen to rock and pop..

TRAVEL - Northeast US

2005-11-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

Northeast US has always had a different spot in my heart. Last week I was in MA. I then went to Albany, NY, then down south to PA, then to NC, to TN, to finally Austin (my new home).. During this visit I saw that Northern sky is different. For some reason the horizon looks whole lot wider, and bigger. I am not going to try to logically explain this, some things are better left unexplained..When I was crusing down the highway I saw these different cities that are relatively old, they had these small rectangle shaped windows with short roofs and plain colored walls.. Old style homes or apartment buildings. Even though those buildings are fairly old and not really the latest style, I like them. I like them a lot. It has this warm feeling and somehow I can feel a connection. This is pretty weird considering that I have never lived up north. Just visited.. I wished that I had my camera with me so that I could have shared the scenery with you but I guess I will have to do that next time.. One other thing that is great about the north is the trees. They are big and there are lots of them.. The only other place that I have seen that kind of abundance was suprisingly in Arkansas. So far the only thing that I liked about Arkansas is their trees (don't know much about Arkansas yet).From reading this you might ask why I am down in Austin, part of my answer is I don't like COLD!! I can bear upto TN, VA line.. After that it gets too much cold and snow for my taste.. People here call 40-50 F cold where in Northeastern states, people would walk with shorts and T-shirts when it is that 'warm':) Rest of my answer has to do with how nice Austin is, and how my new job is located here in Austin (this is a whole different topic)..

COMMENT - Homelessness (Temp)

2005-11-16T20:59:00.000-08:00

Well, for the last 2 weeks I have been staying with my friends in Austin. They have been great, I have really enjoyed my time here. We are getting along just fine!
I even started thinking about staying with these guys. I will be working a lot for the next foreseeble future, which means I will be out most of the time at my favorite coffee shop anyways. Rest of the time, when I do not have to work, I have these great guys to hang out with.. Just great :) Maybe not so great for them since they have to study most of the time and me coming and disturbing them when they study may get old after a while.. We'll probably never know since I will be moving to my place right after Xgiving.
All in all I believe I am lucky that I already have few good friends in my new Domain..

Moving to Austin, TX

2005-11-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hello my friends,

As most of you already know I am moving to Austin, TX. Technically I already did move to Austin. Just my stuff has not made it here yet..
I really did not have much of a time to feel anything about moving (because of all the hassles of moving and starting a new job).
One thing that I know for sure is how much I will miss my friends and family, soon. I say soon because I cannot miss them yet. I will see them in a couple of weeks.. I expect that the reality of moving will settle in when I sit in an empty apartment by myself and see myself reaching to my cell to call someone from Nashville to go do something..
Tonight my good friends Hande and Turker called me. I felt like I was right there in TN but nope I checked where I was and I was at a "Seattles Best" Coffee shop in Austin (BTW they are much better than Starbucks).
This is going to be the start of my updates on my blog. This would be the best way to update everyone that cares about me..
To all my Friends/ family:
I do appreciate everything that you have done for me, all that you have helped me with, all that you had to endure, and all that we have shared together.. If there is anything that I may have done to hurt you, or anything that I have said/done that may have come accross as anything less than positive I am sincerely sorry about it. Thanks for all the memories you guys have given me, hope to continue our relationship forever..

HELLO to a new beginning,

Enes

REVIEW - Crush

2005-09-24T10:05:00.000-07:00

Crash,
This movie is one of the more depressing movies that I have seen for a long time. We usually watch movies together with my friends and they always complain that I pick action movies, or feel good movies, comedy and not really serious movies. Well I LEARNED in my past experience that if you have more than 2-3 people watching a movie together it is a good idea to pick more neutral movies. Well yesterday I was looking for Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy (I have been waiting for it for a while now) at the movie store and could not find it in 2 stores. Then I heard from someone that Crash was a good movie. Did not know details but looked interesting. Anyways the movie is all about coincidental interactions of a few people that supposedly teaches each one of them (or the audience) a lesson about how bad racial, ethnic, religious, .. discrimination is. Well I am all against it anyways but even for a person like me there were things to gain by watching the movie. The highlight of the movie was the realization of the characters that even though we may look different with our skin color, accent, beliefs, wealth, .. we are all human and have similar building blocks and we are not so much different than each other once we are past the outside appearance.
Well another lesson that I learned is that I would probably want to stay away from LA (Los Angeles that is not Lower Alabama :))

COMMENT - Great Loss

2005-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

It is really hard to relate to someone that has lost a loved one.. I have been blessed in my life about that so far. In the last couple of months some of my friends have lost their loved ones, they have felt the unimaginable pain of not being able to see that person for the rest of their lives.. If you belive in after life this pain is not as bad (takes less time to heal), since you know that you will join them in after life. When compared to eternity that you will spend after life, 50 years of life apart may be more bearable. If you don't believe that there is heaven or hell, then the loss may drive one insane..
After all that I have seen around (including the deaths still continuing on the eastern part of the world) Katrina made things worse. I really don't know the devastation and the death toll but the damage and the loss just reminded me that we only think that we have control over things. Nope, reality is that we can only guide some things in life, bend its flow but I don't believe that we are in control of anything..
I kept saying that the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" seems more real now than ever. If this was not a hurricane but a tornado then what would have happened (no land to stop it..)? At this point it sounds very pesimistic so I will stop.
All these things remind us of how fragile our lives are, how much we should charish the days we have left on this planet, how we should appreciate the people around us, how we should try to prepare ourselves for death, and how everything else seems so little when compared to sickness, death: GREAT LOSS..

REVIEW - Woodway Treadmill

2005-09-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

I went to gym for workout today and decided to give the new treadmills a try. I was planning on running about 5-10 mins but as I started this Woodway brand treadmill captivated my workout.. I felt great, it was very comfortable to run and I felt like I got a better workout with this.. I went upto 8mph and still was very comfortable (except heavy breathing).. My 5 min workout ended up being over 20 mins and ~2.5 miles.. I love running outside and until now could not stand running on a treadmill. This baby has changed my mind. From now on, on very cold and very hot days I will be training on this treadmill..

REVIEW - Ipod Nano

2005-09-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

I just read about Ipod Nano late last week and it could not have been a better time for announcement for me.. I needed an mp3 player for running and working out and I saw Apple introduce Nano . I just read a review on it and it looks like it is all the functionality of the bigger ipods on a smaller frame. If you don't use your mp3 player as your music storage (or if you have small collection of mp3s) this is the right device for you. Mine is delivered today and I have yet to check it out.. I will try to post an update with my first impressions..

NOTE - Mind over Matter

2005-09-07T13:22:00.000-07:00

"Mind over Matter..
I Mind, You do NOT Matter"
Deep, I can feel the wisdom that was harvested to come up with this..

DISCUSSION - What's the Point of IT Certifications?

2005-08-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Slashdot has a post about the point of IT Certifications. This is something that I have been thinking heavily about for the last year or so. I am Java certified professional. I really think that Java certification helped me understand the details of Java programming language and gave me some troubleshooting tools as well as lessons learned about what NOT to do. I can't say that it gave me a lot about what a good programmer should do..
Of course there is the MS side to this story. I haven't taken any certification classes, lessons, or tests from Microsoft. I heard that they use to be pretty useless but they are claimed to be more useful right now. It is a gamble though. My company does not pay for the certifications so $150 a pop, and $50 a book for studying, it is not a cheap gamble. A basic certification would run you up about $1500-$2000 and 3-6 months of studying. Well this is not a huge investment compared to taking classes, going for masters, second degree, etc but will I be getting anything out of it?
If any of you out there have anything to say about this subject please do so by adding a comment or sending an email directly to me (listed under my account details)..

TECH - MS SQL 2005

2005-08-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

I thought I would include a little bit of tech in my blog.
As a developer/ programmer I really like the idea that is being introduced with SQL Server 2005: You can write your stored procedures in any .NET language you like/ or comfortable with. That is pretty cool for me because I don't really like T-SQL and I believe a programmer should use whatever language they are comfortable with. I have a couple of concerns though. First of all, why would microsoft list that option as a security risk at the installation. Hmm, I have a couple of ideas but have not read anything about it yet, so I am not going to speculate on that one. Second of all I would feel pretty bad for the DBAs who are mostly from a non-programmer background and are only familiar with T-SQL. They would have a heck of a time to support such variety of coding and as a result if the programmers start to support their code in SQL they would start to support their own DBs which would really be harsh on the DBAs. The latter might be more of a problem in smaller companies but who knows, in 5-10 years the DBA job function as we know it might diminish.. Time will tell.

Horror Movies?

2005-08-21T21:52:00.000-07:00

Okey, Horror movies. Who watches them, why do they watch them, what is the pleasure that is gained by watching the horror movies..
Those are the questions that I don't have an answer to, because since I was 7 I really never understood the purpose of horror movies. I know a lot of girls that really likes horror movies most of which were terrified of them and had hard time sleeping after watching them. So then what's the point? I am guessing that it is the rush, but like I said I am going to leave the explanation of that part to a person that really likes horror movies...
Me on the other hand. I don't like 'em. Okey some of them are good, suspense is fine but not horror movies. I would watch them and I used to watch quite a bit of them but nope, not anymore. I just don't see the point and until someone explains it to me I am on strike..
We just watched "The Saw" few minutes ago with a couple of friends. It was actually a pretty good movie, better than I expected, but I am not sure if I got anything out of it.
Disclaimer: Do not read the next few lines if you do not want to hear about the contents of the movie.
Okey now that the disclaimer is out of the way. The movie is all about a guy who in his dying bed thought he needs to be teaching people a lesson about the value of life. As a result of his lesson, the people who are really willing to live and willing to sacrifice certain things for staying alive stayed alive. They probably would need a lot of hours of therapy but at the end they would appreciate their lives more (which is probably true for the one girl that survived). Okey the concept is original. I'll give 'em that. Sick but original. Still though, I am not sure if that concept was worth the scenes that we had to see like the one where a cop gets his head blown off by a shot gun. I am actually more concerned about my friends who watched the movie and might have hard time sleeping tonight..
In short; I really am not interested in horror movies anymore. I would watch them if there is nothing else available, my friends when you go to blockbuster with me know that my vote will be against picking a horror movie 99% of the time..
Please write me back if you like the horror movies and please include why.. If you do not like it write me back and let me know why you don't like it..

Friendship..

2005-08-11T10:59:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been educational for me. I am not saying that my other weeks, months, years were not educational but I realized more in the last few weeks about the importance of friends and the value of friendship. This may not be true for everyone of course but for people like me, who try to socialize, who enjoys things more when he/ she is sharing it with other people you need friends to enjoy your time.

One of my friends left the city, a few others went to vacation and even though I had some of my close friends here the temporary loss of others effected my mood quite a bit. I would not have thought this could happen to me but it happened. This made me realize that without your family and friends life is less enjoyable..

For all of my friends out there, if you are reading this, I do appreciate your friendship!!!

ENES

I am BACK!!!

2005-08-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

I just noticed today that it has been 5 weeks since I posted anything on my blog.. It is on the verge or being forgotten! I need to change that. Here I am writing about my comeback to the blog world.

I have been pretty busy at work. We are doing a lot of upgrades and stuff. To a non-IT person that would probably sound pretty straightforward and easy but that's why they are the non-IT person and that is why we (IT people) work too hard to make sure the customer does not even notice what we do in the background. I actually take pride in that. When we were done with our work I told one of my customers about what happened just to see if they have noticed anything unusual and when I learned that they would not have known that an upgrade of the scale that we have done happened unless I have told them. Even though it was almost 1 AM in the morning knowing all my hard work helped my customers gave me the comfort and made my efforts worth while.

That's what differenciates the different professionals in every field. Taking pride in the work that you do. I was going to talk about something else but this sounds like a decent discussion so I'll continue.
Taking pride in what you do. This is a really magical concept. This does not mean that you love your job, does not mean that you are the best at what you do, to me it solely represents the effort you put into your work and acknowledge that what you do in turn represent who you are. Isn't that true for everything that we do? How does other people know us. By our good looks? Our wealth? Our origin? or more importantly the things that we do, how we act, how we treat ourselves and others, how we react to certain things... In short what we do is our window to the outside world. Some people would disagree with that. They would think that they only work for the money, they would do as much as they can to get away with the least possible effort. Not me. And I am not trying to say that I am better than other people, or I am smarter or anything. I am just saying that at the end of the day when I design and application, when I maintain a system, whatever I do if I make just a few peoples jobs easier even without them knowing the hours that I had to put in to make it happen, that would be my satisfaction.

I just wish that more and more people take pride in what they do. Approach every issue with "I care" attitude... For my wish to come true, I will start with myself and try to see what I can do..

LINK - Dilbert 06/25/05 and 06/27/05

2005-06-27T10:39:00.000-07:00

SlashDot - Another Star Wars Prequel?

2005-06-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

Another Star Wars Prequel?: "boarder8925 writes 'George Lucas said he was finished with the Star Wars movies, but it seems George Lucas has an idea for another add-on to the Star Wars movie series: a prequel to The Phantom Menace. The story would follow the Jedi regaining control of the universe from the many Dark Lords some 88 years before Anakin Skywalker ever graced the universe. Yoda, who, according to Lucas, was instrumental in the
effort, would apparently have a headlining role. However, Lucas, now age 60, says he won't be captaining such a ship if it ever happens.'"

LINK - Indianapolis Picture Gallery

2005-06-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

Click on the LINK to see the rest of the Indianapolis pics.

Tour de Cure cool slideshow

2005-06-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

Check out this LINK for my friend Jim's journey in Tour De Cure...

The Canal in Indianapolis (me and mom)

2005-06-06T20:15:00.000-07:00

The Canal2 (me and mom)
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Downtown Indianapolis4 (Mom and Brother Cem)

2005-06-06T20:14:00.000-07:00

Downtown Indianapolis4
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Big Gap for this tiny red spider

2005-06-06T20:13:00.001-07:00

Big Gap for this tiny red spider
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Mom near lake

2005-06-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Mom near lake
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Comic - dilbert2073245050524.gif

2005-05-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

Flickr: Zeitgeist

2005-05-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

Flickr: Zeitgeist: "Get your Daily Zeitgeist here!"
If you are using Flickr for storing your photos online, use Zeitgeist to show the preview of your latest pics on your blog or web site..
Check it out..

Wired 13.06: Time's Up, Einstein

2005-05-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

Wired 13.06: Time's Up, Einstein: "Time's Up, Einstein"
Interesting thought process..
Here is a part of it:
"One of the bright spots in his life was that he'd recently fallen in love - with Einstein. Raiding the Wellington library, he pored over biographies like Denis Brian's Einstein: A Life and devoured explanations of the great theorist's work. One night he was watching the movie I.Q., with Walter Matthau as Einstein, Meg Ryan as his ditzy-yet-brainy niece, and Tim Robbins as a lovesick mechanic. When Robbins moves in on Ryan for a kiss, she attempts to fend him off with a 2,500-year-old paradox known as Zeno's dichotomy: Moving from point A to point B requires that you first cover half the distance, then half of the remaining distance, and so on - an insurmountable infinity of almost-theres that keeps you from point B. Robbins crashes through Zeno's logic by kissing Ryan anyway.

It was just the thing to get Lynds off the couch: What if Zeno's real lesson isn't that movement from point A to point B is impossible (obviously it isn't), but rather that there is no such thing as a discrete slice of time? "

Mom and Ilknur

2005-05-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

Mom and Ilknur
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Slashdot | Publishers Protest Google Library Project

2005-05-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

Slashdot | Publishers Protest Google Library Project: "Publishers Protest Google Library Project"
Posted by Zonk on Tuesday May 24, @01:55PM
from the not-the-books! dept.
gollum123 writes "A group of academic publishers is challenging Google Inc.'s plan to scan millions of library books into its Internet search engine index, highlighting fears that the ambitious project will violate copyrights and stifle future sales. In a letter scheduled to be delivered to Google Monday, the Association of American University Presses described the online search engine's library project as a troubling financial threat to its membership -- 125 nonprofit publishers of academic journals and scholarly books. The university presses depend on books sales and other licensing agreements for most of their revenue, making copyright protections essential to their survival."

Test to see if hyperlinking works

2005-05-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Enes's Blog...

Firefox extensions.. Quite a lot of them..

2005-05-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

I am trying one of the Firefox extensions, JustBlogIt. I found it by browsing the Blog related extensions for Firefox. There are quite a bit of other extensions for Firefox. If you are using it go ahead and check it out. I especially liked the one that shows you weather down on the status bar.. It is pretty flexible..

Tour De Cure

2005-05-20T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here is a quote from my friend Jim.. He will be racing Tour De Cure (75 mile biking on the Mountains of Tennessee)..

"Dear Friends,

This is the last week to support me in the Tour de Cure fund raiser for the American Diabetes Association. I am close to doubling my goal so please help. Being a diabetic for the last 33 years, I have seen how devastating a disease it is. I have also seen the good things that the ADA does to help improve the lives of diabetics.

I have accepted the challenge of cycling in the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure fundraising event. The Tour de Cure is a series of cycling events held in over 80 cities nationwide. The Tour is a ride, not a race; it will start in Murfreesboro, TN and finish after a demanding 75 mile journey to the top of Monteagle. I have joined thousands of others to pedal in support of the Association's mission: to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes.

I am asking you to help by supporting my fundraising efforts with a donation. Your tax-deductible gift will make a difference in the lives of the 18 million Americans who suffer from diabetes and the 20 million people in the United States with pre-diabetes. It is faster and easier than ever to support this great cause - you can make your donation online by simply clicking on the link at the bottom of this message. If you would prefer, you can also send your tax-deductible contribution to the address listed below. More information on the American Diabetes Association, its programs and diabetes in general can be found at the Association's web site: www.diabetes.org

Any amount, great or small, helps in the fight against this deadly disease. I greatly appreciate your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Jim

Click here to Sponsor Me
If the text above does not appear as a clickable link, you can visit the web address:
http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?px=2282249&fl=en_US&s_tafId=27280&pg=personal&fr_id=2306 "

LINK - Harpeth River Cruise Pics

2005-05-16T12:16:00.000-07:00

Here is the LINK for the Harpeth River Cruise Pics..

Look at the rock formations...

2005-05-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Scene1
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Nice view..

2005-05-16T11:33:00.001-07:00

Scene7
Originally uploaded by nslite.

The Education Gang

2005-05-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

TheEducationGang
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Me And Mom Cruisin'

2005-05-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

MeAndMom
Originally uploaded by nslite.

SafakAndMert

2005-05-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

SafakAndMert
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Here is the picture that I promised I would blog..:)

Tech - Blogger issue/ problem/ bug/ feature

2005-05-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

I am using (trying to use) gmail to update my blog. When I use RTF format the posts have tags in them.. The tags are not even like it has "gt", "lt" for the ">", "<" signs.. It pretty much takes my ability to post a decent blog with references and forces me to either use plain text or use Bloggers editor online both of which defeats the purpose!!
I contacted the support service, they had a decent turnaround time considering this is a free service but the answer I got was pretty generic (it almost looked like an answer from a computer).. I sent another email to get further help with it but we'll see what happens.
I just can't believe that I am the only gmail user that is facing this issue... Time will tell.

Package Tracking with Bloglines

2005-05-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

I recently started monitoring different blogs with Bloglines.com . It is actually pretty good, the way that you can subscribe to a lot of different sites and get feeds from them instead of visiting bunch of web sites..<br> I added edmunds.com, techbargains.com, etc. One really good feature that I tried today is package tracking. You can subscribe to Fedex, UPS, or USPS to track your packages and comes to you as RSS feed. For me it is not whole lot of help but for someone that is ordering a lot of stuff, it is a really good way of tracking their oder.

LINK - For further Chattanooga Aquarium pics follow the link below

2005-05-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Click HERE for other really cool
Chattanooga Aquarium Pics..

Ultimate Secure Digital Card (ATP)

2005-05-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Today I was looking around (again) to find a good Secure Digital Card. It is usually quite hard to find decent review online.. I finally found it. http://www.auphanonline.com/articles/view.php?article_id=1498
According to that review ATP seems to be the better brand for your high-capacity Secure Digital Purchase.. I think I'll get a reasonable sized one to take many more cool pics..

Experience - Car Service (453 words)

2005-05-11T08:03:00.000-07:00

OK. Most everybody has a car, good, bad, whatever. A form of transportation.
What does it take to keep our form of transportation in good condition?
- Change oil every 5-10K miles,
- Rotate tires every oil change,
- Regular maintenance (belts, fluid checks, filter changes, wiper blades, etc)
- Unexpected issues (once in a while if you have a car that is not in really bad shape)
- Misc Maint (to cover things that I couldn't think about right now)

Usually you have to change oil and rotate tires once in 3 months, other maintenance once a year..

Even though it may not seem like there is a lot of maintenance needed on the vehicle why do many people dread the time they spend at the maintenance shop?
I will tell you a little bit about my experience yesterday..

I made an appointment with this shop for the afternoon.
I left work early to get there, I rushed to make sure I don't miss my appointment.
All this to get the answer "Sir, we will get to your vehicle in an hour or so and it will take about 2 hours total to get your tires rotated, brakes checked..
I felt my blood rushing into my veins, adrenaline pumping, pretty much shocked and partially angry.
Why do we make appointments? MMmmm, I think we do NOT want to wait.
If I have to wait an hour to get my car serviced, wait another hour for the service that is just not acceptable..
OK, 2 hrs every 3 months, big deal.. YES big deal.
You are pretty much stuck in a shop with heavy rubber smell (from new tires) and nothing much to do except to read whatever material they have and sit in their uncomfortable chair..
Hope that you get the service you deserve in a timely manner (uncertainty, the big killer).. (There is a whole other issue of getting good/ reliable service that I am not going to get into now).
While I was sitting there, I actually realized that this is my opportunity to do NOTHING. Yes NOTHING..
A very good excuse to sit around and relax.. Not too bad haigh.. Well not the most comfortable environment but nevertheless an opportunity..
After all I could even say that I enjoyed it.
But for many other unfortunate people it is a torture..
So for all those of you, enjoy your time-off while waiting..
If you cannot wait then bring in a decent book and read it, bring your laptop and get some work done, whatever..
Just accept it that you will spend 2-4 hrs in a room and make the most out of it..
Or just do what I did, RELAX!!!

This kid knows how to get his pic taken..

2005-05-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

ButterflyOnHand2
Originally uploaded by nslite.

I can't find words to describe this beauty..

2005-05-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

ButterflyOnFlower
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Mom with the FishTank

2005-05-10T09:51:00.000-07:00

Mom with the FishTank
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Ooops too soon... Don't Get Mad..

2005-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

Ooops too soon... Don't Get Mad..
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Cool Jelly Fish

2005-05-10T09:47:00.000-07:00

Cool Jelly Fish
Originally uploaded by nslite.

For further Smyrna Air Show Pics Follow the link in the message

2005-05-09T11:00:00.000-07:00

Smyrna Air Show Pics by Enes

Hanging out with the big boys (F-15)

2005-05-09T10:59:00.001-07:00

Hanging out with the big boys (F-15)
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Head On Shot

2005-05-09T10:59:00.000-07:00

Head On Shot
Originally uploaded by nslite.

The symmetry in this shot looks pretty cool to me..

Mom with the F-15

2005-05-09T10:58:00.000-07:00

Mom with the F-15
Originally uploaded by nslite.

Mother's day gift

2005-05-09T10:57:00.000-07:00

Mother's day gift
Originally uploaded by nslite.

2005-05-06T22:34:00.001-07:00

Giving the thumbs up (again ~11th mile)

2005-05-06T22:34:00.000-07:00

Crossing the Finish Line

2005-05-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

This is the start of the race (18,000 people on West End Ave)

2005-05-06T22:32:00.000-07:00

Crossing the 11th mile

New Challenge Accepted (Almost). The Music City Triathlon!!!

2005-05-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

I have read about the Music City Triathlon and I am leaning towards accepting the challenge. There is only one possible road block: Swimming 1500 meters. For some it may not be a lot but for me it is pretty challenging. I can swim without a problem for a while but I currently do not have the endurance to swim 1.5 km (~1mile) and then bike 40 km(~25mile) and then run 10 km(6.2mile). I will keep everyone updated on where I stand in training. First I will try a pool for tri swimming training. If it seems promising I will accept the challenge.
To Be Continued...

Turker's Birthday

2005-05-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

Birthday 017
Originally uploaded by hamlet_.

We celebrated our friend Turker's birthday.
(Standing, Left to Right: Emre, Utku, Duygun, Mert
Sitting, Left to Right Hande, Turker, Me, My Mom)

Cem Rowing

2005-05-02T14:22:00.000-07:00

Cem Rowing
Originally uploaded by nslite.

My brother Cem (the guy in the middle)is doing a row practice.. I am the RUNNER he is the ROWER in the family.

Official Results are in!!!

2005-04-30T19:28:00.000-07:00

10K: 53:15
1/2 Marathon: 01:52:31
Pace: 8:35 min mile
Ranking: 1692 out of 12,923 people

Action Packed MOVIE (.avi)

2005-04-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest movie starring Enes..!
Enes_CMM.AVI

01:53:00 - (avg. 7 mph) Quite an Experience

2005-04-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

As some of you know I signed up to run on the Music City Half Marathon.
I am proud to say that "I Completed it". I am also proud so say that I have ran faster than I thought I could. Here is how it happened:
On Friday I was starting to feel the excitement of the event. I went to get my tag and my "ChampionChip" timing device (which is nothing more than a well designed small RFID tag that they use to link your individual race number to) and other stuff such as T-Shirt, Race Number (to put on your shirt), some advertisement, etc. It was well organized and the volunteer did a great job to guide the crowds in and out relatively smooth. After getting all my stuff I started wondering around. There were a lot of running stuff but they were all expensive so I did not even bother looking at it. Then I saw a stand where they were selling the previous years' shirts for 2 for $5. I could not resist and bought 2. I mean you can't get a decent shirt at Walmart for that price. That was pretty much it for that event. At night I felt more and more excited and then went to bed relatively early. In the morning I went to the event start and many people were just runing or walking from their apartments. When I came close to the start line I saw thousands of people that filled up the 4-5 lane street. I was amazed by the size of the crowd. Then I found my pace setter guy. Poor guy had to hold a sign saying that he is going to try to set a steady pace of 2 hours. I positioned myself pretty close to him and waited for the start time. They sent us in corals and we were in coral 7 so after the race start it took us a few minutes before we started. Start was pretty rough. So many people, so little space. I can't really complain because that was the good portion of my warm-up.. Then I hooked up with a guy from South Carolina whom was also trying to set a 2hr race pace (~9 min mile). We started chatting and race actually seemed more comfortable that way. We were already at 3 mile marker (~ 28 minutes) and I didn't even feel it. That continued for 3 more miles and I started feeling a little fatigue around 6 mile marker. I wasn't really tired but I did not feel as strong as I was feeling when I started. A little after that my running partner had to take a bathroom break. Told me that he would catch up with me. I continued, then we started hitting some hills and I started passing people. I have to admit it felt pretty good. Then I must have picked up my pace because I started passing a lot more people.. My time at 10K (6.2 miles) mark was around 55 minutes (I will update times when I get the official results). I finished the first 10 miles at 87 minutes. Then I had to reset my watch because my watch only count up to 100 minutes and then stops (stupid design). For my last 3.1 miles (5K) I was running faster and faster and balancing my energy accordingly. I wasn't really tired at this point but I was breating heavily. I spent the next 2 miles that way and than for my last mile I sped up even more but my diaphram started hurting. I did some arm swinging and it went away. I guess it needed some streching. Then the moment that I have been waiting for, the Collesium was in sight!! That was a great motivation. I kept my pace until the last .1 mile and for that .1 mile I sprinted (I was the only one). My unofficial total time is around 1 hour 53 minutes (8:37 minute mile). They had a lot of food and water at the finish line. they even gave us a medal, which was pretty good. They took our picture and then I started looking for my ride. For some reason I could not find the "Family Reunion" area. Nobody seemed to know where it was either. I did find it and found my ride after 20 minutes. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The cheering crowd was a great help. A partner seems like a pretty good idea too. I think I am going to join more events, whether it may be another 1/2 Marathon or a Marathon (?), or a more challenging but less impact event, Triathlon.. I first need to get some rest and plan it well but I definitely enjoyed this one and would recommend it to anyone even if you only walk the distance..
One other note that I cannot pass without mentioning is that your family is always there for you. Even when they are deprived of sleep, tired, sick they share your important moments. Sometimes it is ONLY your family that does that (maybe that's why they call the pick up area "Family Reuinion"...

2005-04-30T14:17:00.001-07:00

Here I am with my Mom..

2005-04-30T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here I am with my Mom and my brother Tunc

2005-04-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

I am the one with the yellow shirt, black bandana in the middle of the picture

It's a Jungle Out There

2005-04-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

It was a usual morning. I woke up, got ready, had my breakfast, headed out to the world...
As I was driving, a thought of accident crossed my mind. I started thinking about what I would actually do if the vehicle in front of me got into an accident and I had to stop real fast. I thought that if I could not stop than I would steer to one side and stop sideways (to the right of course). OK then what if, like in the movies, an 18-wheeler comes along and cannot stop. Than what would I do. Best thing would be to get out of the car (if I have a few seconds) and run for MY LIFE. Otherwise just pull my legs and arms together and form a cacoon. As I was thinink about these, the truck in front of me started decelerating at a rate that I was not comfortable with. My "Psychic" abilities have warned me about this so I slammed the brakes. Luckily it wasn't as bad as I imagined. It was just an accident that has already been pulled to the side of the road. I sped up and again traffic slows down. Second accident. Both had just happened and cops were trying to figure out what has happened. This tells me that when I was thinking about how to stop in case of an accident, those two accidents were happening. Weird coincidence? I dunno. All I know is I thanked God that I wasn't involved in either..

Sony is still the ONE (PC)

2005-04-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

Update 04/29/05 10:00:
One of the comments were about IBM ThinkPads. As much as I like the IBMs in terms of quality and performance, and battery life. I believe they lack the style factor. So IMHO they lack the complete package that Sony IMHO delivers.. If sytle (subjective) is not going to be one of the major decision making factors than I would opt for a much cheaper DELL.
In short; If I am payinf for a laptop I would go for the complete package, but if someone else were to give me an IBM as a Part of my work, I would gladly take it and surely would enjoy using it.
------------------------------
The new T Series:

Estimated Battery Life: 3.5-9.0 hours with standard battery

Weight:3.04 lbs. with standard battery

That is what I like about Sony.

They make practical, beautiful, good quality laptops that have excellent screens, livable battery life.

It must be pretty hard thing to do because there is nobody else in the PC world that can do it.

On the other side however there is APPLE. They actually are the best in terms of anything and everything.

If I didn't need to use Windows as my OS I would have bought an Apple long time ago.

It is hard NOT to be amazed with their "MINI", don't you think??

I cannot end this message without mentioning DELL. It may not be as reliable, may not be as good looking or practical, BUT they are the most affordable and for most consumers bottom line is the most important of all..

Details for Music City Marathon

2005-04-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

For everyone that is interested here is the official site for Music City Marathon

Template editing gives Blogger an edge

2005-04-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

I was playing with the blogger template and found a way to change the table properties so that it covers the whole page (95% to be exact) instead of 660 pixels that they have first set it out to be..
This kind of template modification (more advanced mods are possible) gives Blogger the edge in personalization of the blog..
I will play with it some more and see how else I can make it fit me better.
For those of you that would like to make similar changes go to your blog administration and select Template tab. Scroll down in the HTML code to the section called "/* Content".
Following code makes my page look the way that it is right now (flexible table borders)
/* Content
----------------------------------------------- */
#content {
width:95%;
margin:0 auto;
padding:0;
text-align:left;
}
#main {
width:73%;
float:left;
}
#sidebar {
width:25%;
float:right;
}

Post comments for any questions..

Hard to find Pictures

2005-04-28T08:14:00.000-07:00

Nowadays with the rival search engines working real hard, it is pretty easy to find what you are looking for. One thing that I am having real hard time finding is pictures that have "ME" in them. Of course I am not looking for it on the net but even on my own picture library I have more picture of other people that are close to me than myself.. I realized this one more time when I tried to find good pictures to post on my blog. I was lucky to find a few to post so I am satisfied for now..

I think the mainreason why someone wouldn't have a lot of pictures of themselves is because usually they are the ones taking the picture. They get so used to it that when somebody offers them to take a picture it surprises them. One thing that I am planning to do is find my friends that are in that category and exchange pictures to enrich my library. We'll see how that'll work...

2005-04-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

I can still taste the shish kebobs.. (Me and my good friend Safak)

2005-04-27T21:25:00.001-07:00

Just outside Mammoth Cave, KY. It is the longest cave in the world ~360 miles..

2005-04-27T21:25:00.000-07:00

Filiz's Birthday. I am holding Filiz's older daugter Elif Ceren

2005-04-27T21:24:00.001-07:00

Enes and Ceyda in Mammoth Cave

2005-04-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

It is a beautiful morning in Smokeys.. From Left to Right: Enes, Ulker (my mom), Cenk (My Brother), Bekir T. (Dear Friend), and his Mom

2005-04-27T21:18:00.000-07:00

Down in Nasville Downtown with my brother Cenk

2005-04-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

4th of July in Nashville Tennessee (2002)

2005-04-27T21:16:00.001-07:00

A great morning for rowing in Austin, Texas

2005-04-27T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, everyone needs to eat..

2005-04-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

A beautiful sunset in Georgia..

2005-04-27T21:14:00.001-07:00

Famous Ortakoy Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey

2005-04-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

Peaceful spot in Dallas, TX

Run for your "Life"

2005-04-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well it seems like I should talk a little about running since I have signed up for the 1/2 Marathon this weekend 4/30/05 @ the Music City Marathon.
1/2 Marathon sounds like you are not up to the "Full" marathon challenge so you are taking the "lite" version of the challenge. When you look at the numbers though 13.1 miles is not really a walk in the park. Anyways, all my running for the last 2 months should pay off this weekend and then I will give my legs a rest from the long runs.
For the beginner runners out there, listen to the more experienced runners and do NOT increase your mileage too fast, only increase it by ~10% a week.. Otherwise you will end up like me and injure yourself. Also do strength training which would help you avoid injuries..

Another aspect of these events is to help charities and disease research. Artists and singers volunteer their time, citizens volunteer their money and I just wonder how much of that really goes to helping people. Usually when we buy things we are more careful about how much we spend and we question the value that we get out of it but do we really think about the value that the needy gets when we spend our good deed money?

Back to running. My 2cents on running as a form of exercise is unless you like running you do not have to run for fitness and weight loss. Fast pace walking is as effective as running and much easier on your joints (this is especially true if you need to loose weight). Just keep your walks to 30-60 mins 4 times a week and if you mix that with jogging few minutes towards the end of your work out that is all you need for exercise (don't forget to stretch). Then you can concentrate on your diet.

Getting Started

2005-04-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hello to everyone..
Blogging has been around for a while but has not caught my attention until now.
Don't have a definite content for this blog yet so I will just write whatever I have in mind when I write the blog..