A dream coming true

I'm jealous, because I want to earn money with my hobbies, too. Unfortunately, nobody pays me for reading...
But these folks are lucky. Not only that, but they're creative, too! And that causes them to build Lego houses with 15 Millionen Lego pieces... wow! Pretty crazy, but wow!

As you can see, it's not a random Lego house that everyone of us used to build as a kid.
These are detailed reconstructions of famous skyscrapers from all over the world.
And the size of each one is pretty amazing too. Would be kind of hard to play with them though...

[Via Dvice]

In not so loving Memory...

I'm kind of shocked... I mean, why would you talk something down that you used to love? In this particular car, I'm talking about books. The headline "What Books Make You Cringe To Remember?" is pretty harsh, too. I mean, probably everybody gets their point, but that doesn't justify this, I think. I would not run around and tell about my back-then-favorite book either (just four you to know, it's Star Wars: Republic Commando, Order 66). But still, I like top hold it in loving memory. [Via BoingBoing]

Our minds on complex ideas

Tolstoy's Words on difficulty are truely timeless.

The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.

Leon Tolstoy – 1897

And it's true: prejudices make nearly everything impossible and this holds for intellectuals and academics as well. Too bad, that people do not even realize how blind they are at times...

Tagged

I seriously love graffiti! I consider it one of the most elemental aspects of urban living. I know that it does not belong everywhere, but that's no reason to try banning it in general. Just imagine the Berlin Wall without any graffiti at all...
I took this picture on my way to college and I was surprised to see something like this on a not-abandoned car (I mean we live in Germany, they normally avoid putting this to the public).

Forget Photoshop

It's Mother Nature who blesses us with the most beautiful and breathtaking impressions. Not that I dislike digital art, but sometimes I just have the impression that people forget how to appreciate our surrounding nature.
This new found form of clouds is called Undulatus Asperatus and just have a look at this amazing view:

7 Billion!

It just took us 12 years to go from 6 to 7 billion people.
This is just insane, considering that our known resources and current technology only allow for about 10 billion, which is expected around the year 2050, according to this infographic: "Population of the Dead"

Breaking Habits

About two weeks ago, I bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Not the newest one, which I cannot afford that easily but also because I like the original much better.
So, I know for myself that I did not bought this particular gadget because of a hype or a trend or something. But I would have bought some gadget for sure, even if I may not necessarily need it... and that's the worst part!
Our habits, especially concerning comsumption and convenience, are what will drive this world to an early end... and I'm part of reason, so is everyone of us.
The consumer's responsibility is obvious. But on the other hand, many gagdets and computer or all other electronics just won't last too long. That for itself generates enough demand for new products which the industry hopes for in order to increase the profit and all that stuff that comes with the money. And that's the main point: it's not about making money anymore...  it's about making even more money while employees of independent contracters hardly gain enough money to feed a family.
And I'm saying all this being fully aware of how fast technology gets obsolete these days. But then again: if we're all would be honest about it, we hardly need most of the stuff we buy so frequently, at least not with such little time in between.
Let's just try a bit harder and break a few habit for good!

Communicating (with a Handicap)

I was helping out in my parents' bakery the other day when a customer came in and pointed to a certain type of bread role and raised three fingers with the other hand. I then asked "Three pieces of this one?"
But then I realized that I would not get an answer... this particular customer was deaf-mute. I suddenly felt so guilty not being able to grasp her handicap, even worse: I would continue to talk to her even though I was fully aware of it by now... that just shows me how stupid normal  people actually can be, not being able to adapt to individual needs and even being overstrained with the situation.
I just think that this could teach all of us how lucky we are and that we should appreciate the simple things in life.

What's actually worse is when people without such a handicap are just not able to communicate with each other... be it due to a lack of interest or just the lack of social skills. This might be the cause for most of our problems concerning our extended family, our circle of friends and our coworkers as well, and maybe even  greater society.
Maybe I'm not even making sense...

Ramadan

Today is the first day of Ramadan, which means that millions of people all over the world will refrain not only from any food or water, but from any worldly pleasure, too. That makes it pretty much like Lent. But it's not only about starving oneself or about any perverted pleasure of torturing oneself like that. It's about raising awareness for how lucky we actually are, for how spoiled we are considering how much time we spend whining. And especially when we think about the endless people worldwide living through a horrible situation just like in east Africa.
I'll be honest: I feel like starving now and I don't like it. I love food and I often eat quite something.
And even though I could eat a whole cow, knowing that I will end up eating in the evening makes so much more bearable.
BUT: What about people who just don't know? What about all the people who do not even have a proper meal to complain about? Muslim or not, Ramadan or Lent or whatever, we all should consider ourselves a bit more lucky. But more importantly: We all should help others feeling lucky, too.
Happy Ramadan.

Donation

I'm a potential organ donor. I carry the card allowing the removal of my organs in the case of my death with me every day. Oddly, I received a lot of criticism for it. The reason for this is mistrust and mostly everyone is mistrusted.
Especially aid organisations. These certain people always claim to be willing to donate in order to help the needy, the victims of natural catastrophes in particular. But that's mostly it, just that. No real donation happens, nothing more than sympathy is the result. And they justify this by questioning how much of their donation actually goes to the needy, which is a totally understandable concern.
BUT: By not donating at all, the needy eventually won't receive any help. So even if only 1% of your donation is actually donated, you will have made a difference!
That's why I beg you to help the people of Africa, living through a horrible famine these days.

Picture taken by Colin Crowley for Ssave the Children

Save the Children - Umi's Recovery

Thanks for reading this. I hope it helped you to do the right thing.

Prejudice

Since I'm part of an ethnic AND religious minority, I'm fully aware of how wrong prejudices are. Often I can understand what causes such thinking and sometimes I won't even blame people thinking that way.
BUT: What on earth causes justifies me, a victim of prejudice myself, to have prejudices against others???
That's just not right, it's plain wrong.
I realized it last week. I was about to buy a second hand tablet-pc and I got in touch with one German engineer (I know that from his automatic e-mail signature) and one rather young Russian with a barely any complete sentence and a rather heavy accent on the phone. Even though the price was the same for both, both objects had some pros and some cons for them (be it accessories or the location where to pick it up), I still refused to call the Russian a second time... only for my damn prejudices!
This is just wrong. And that's why I'll call him now.

Trench Work

Turks are often to be found doing the hard manual labor which is physically exhausting and mostly not too healthy. Reason for this is partly the lag of some major education. But that would apply for many Germans too and you still won't see as many of them doing that kind of work.
It's not that Turks are that dilligent and that Germans are the lazy ones (the degree of education would look much different then), but one thing is for sure: Turks are often not only responsible for themselves but for their family as well. That alone forces them to earn some money somehow. In addition to that they just do whatever needs to be done.
I just think that it's not right to look down on cab drivers, construction workers or on people being self-employed or working for street-cleaning.

Social Status

This is a tough topic.
Because it's not only about hard facts. It's mainly about the individual perception of the social status of different groups of our society. In this case it's about cars.
The current cliché goes like this: Germans do not care much about aesthetics, the engine should run well and it should be safe to drive that car, that's all.
However for Turks applies this: The car should solely represent how rich they are.
Both clichés are obviously absurd. But like any cliché, I guess there is true aspect to it.
What's more important though, is the reason for such an attitude.
My wild guess is this: The Turks, migrating majorly to Germany since 1961, came here for only one reason: money. And money was the only way to measure how successful they were. Because they mostly came from rural regions of Turkey they had similar levels of education (which was pretty low) and similar skills.
And thinking rationally about it: there might be no better way to show off your well-being through something else than a car. Not everybody gets to see your house, even fewer people get to see it from the inside. Not everybody might notice your watch and only very few could appreciate your choice of fashion.
But a car is something you could be seen with every day. Many peope will notice, especially if it's a new and expensive car. And that's why cars are so popular. It's that easy.

Mercedes-Benz by bihabik.deviantart.com

I would love to own a car like this myself, but I can already say this for sure: it would be such a waste to spend money on something like this. Because even a minor scratch would be horrible! I would not be able to enjoy driving a car like this because I would be just too cautious...

Perception of Art

Talking art is difficult enough, especially for someone who's not too knowledgeable in this area.
But it's interesting enough that some folks consider even video games as art. Why not though?
Video games were never made exclusively for kids (I actually think that only a rather small part of them were designed for kids, but well).
But either way, with video games maturing over time (Pong is going to celebrate it's 40th anniversary next year) it's only natural to see a few games with more depth from time to time (form my perspective, recent games like that are Heavy Rain, Flower and maybe even L.A. Noire).
What's most important though is to stay open-minded and at least try not to approach such things with biases. It's not that I can fully comprehend someone's view on any given thing, but that does not mean that it's nonsense, so I'll just keep my mouth shut. We all should try that at some point.

Languages

I speak four languages: 2 of them fluently of which I consider one my native language, one fairly and one rudimentarily. I'm trying to make sure that I'm able to speak all four fluently, especially Turkish which I only speak mediocre.
The reason why I especially want to improve my Turkish skills is because I consider myself Turkish, even though I was born in Berlin, Germany and speak German fluently. In addition to that, I consider Germany my homeland.
I just wonder if and to what extend my native language determins my identity.

Self-Education

This is what it looks like:

Autodidact by BiHabik

Amazing how people invent methods in order to educate themselves. Seen here is the tradtional Turkish guitar. It belongs to my cousin's son, whom he encouraged to learn this instrument, step by step. He did not even hire a teacher yet, because he first wanted his son to develop a certain interest on his own before getting serious about it. And that's a great way to do so.
Of course, he'll have to be persistent and most importantly creative in encouraging him not to lose his interest. But that's exactly the challenge about it all. That's why self-education can go so wrong, causing frustration and a total loss of interest in whatever one was interest at first.
Everyone knows this struggle. Be it about school, about sports, about a hobby or even about a friendship. But we will never succeed, in anything, if we avoid those challenges, if we are just too comfortable to put in some effort.
I hear a few of my friends and relatives say "Oh no, I can't deal with her now" when they see someone calling them... I mean, are you serious? A friend shouldn't act like that. It's just natural to think it at times, but who said it's going be easy?
All I can say is that it's going to be worth it!

Addiction!

I hate that word... it's just overused! My mom, my whole family and even some of my former classmates used that word to describe my hobby: being online. On my birthday, this was what I received.
And yes, sometimes all I do is being online watching some tv-shows, killing time on Facebook or MSN and just do some non-productive stuff, even on sunny days.
But that's not all I'm doing. There are now more than 20 blogs that follow regularly, including some partially scientific work about technological developments, experts sharing their ideas and thoughts through recorded speech and also socio-political news covering the controversy about homosexuality and the suffering of many Japanese and Libyans these days. That's why I consider myself not addicted, just really interested.
But it's true, my hobby didn't allow much activity outdoors. But that changed thanks to smartphones and tablet-pcs and yet parents are complaining that we bring our gadgets along. So what? For many young people just being outside without anything to do is just a waste of time, so why not combine it?
To analyze if we are addicted or not the "the world UNPLUGGED" project surveyed 1000 youngsters from 10 different countries what they experienced after just 1 day without any electronics.
"It was a difficult day… a horrible day" a Chilean participant answered. And yes, everyone would agree to that, because it was the first of a major change in one's life. And yet it is interpreted as some sign of addiction... which is just wrong.
I am not going to explain my further thoughts on this survey, that's why I ask you to do that instead? How would you feel if you took part? And do you consider yourself addicted?

Being a "Good Man"

Omegle is a website I occasionally visit, especially when I'm bored. You'll soon realize what is about: pure conversation with a total stranger. Just try it out if you want to know more about it, because this all is not about Omegle, at least not primarly.
During one of my conversations are teenage girl from Korea asked me what I did today. The first thing she said was "what a good man!" after I told her that I had been cleaning the kitchen. I was really proud for sure, but seriously sad right after. My both parents are working, from time to time me and my sister help out in their shops and we do some of the house work too, because my sister (she is 5 years older than me) made sure at some point that it's just not fair that I'm free to do anything while she is expected to do the cleaning and cooking. And she was right (and still is, of course). But this girl's reaction expresses a total discrepancy bewteen the situations of each of us.
And not olny hers. I know of many friends (both German AND Turkish, despite the common cliché that Turkish boys/men are the worst concerning this) who hardly do anything at home. And I wonder why. Mothers and sisters are complaining all over the world, but they still do not manage to change anything as long as they stay passive and let the stigma control their families and with that the whole society. So what if my friends consider housework as not suitable for men? I'm not ashamed of what I do, especially not of the reason I do it: it's because I love my Mom and my Sister just as I love my Dad, so why not help them out? Most importantly, my Dad encouraged me to do that.
A sociology studying friend of mine once told me that there studies indicate that women in Germany do less housework than before but that German men do not do any more housework. How does that work? The amount of housework stays more or less the same. Therefore it has to be shared among the people living in the same place. It is not shared at all though and the study is still true. The explanation: since people here in Germany got more and more wealthy, many women decided to let women from eastern Europe do the housework instead.
And this is why we lose, all of us. Why we won't get rid of those sweatshops and awful working conditions all over the world. Just think about it.

Coming of Age

As I mentioned in my previous entry, in many Turkish families being adult hardly makes a difference as long as you live with your parents. In this case, it's about my plans to buy a motorcycle or rather my plans to get the motorcycle driving license.
It's definitely not a matter of money, it never really is. It's more about the permission to do it. I just won't be able to move my parents to approve of my plans since they consider it to be way too dangerous (and they have a point of course). But this fear of risks is so typical for so many Turkish parents and grand-parents and aunts and uncles and so on and so on... I certainly feel honored that they care about my well-being and my health, but in some cases life just feels like a golden cage, in which I should not have any reason to complain but which is not fulfilling either.
Of course, I just could do whatever I want to, I mean, who's going to stop me? But it just does not work that way. My parents' approval is very important to me. If I choosed to have it my own way it would make my relation to my parents really weird. I definitely do not want to have that, but let's be honest: No one will always be able to be OK with their parents. Sooner or later it has to happen that one disagrees, no matter who that is.
And I think that one should not allow anyone to interfere in one's life-shaping choices. That'll be a bit different for married people or for parents themselves of course, but you know what I mean.
All this might sound like living through hell, but in most cases I can count on the support of my family and their advice and most importantly their patience regarding my mistakes.
So I guess I can live without riding a motorcycle. Maybe a motor scooter will do... which my parents still consider too dangerous...


Tell me about the topics you disagree with your parents. What does cause some tension in your family?

Babysitting at a Concert

The title actually says it all: Yesterday I was babysitting my cousins at a concert of Bruno Mars (you might know him, if you have any female teen relatives). The reason why I did that was because their parents only allowed it if an older relative was taking care of them. That's so incredibly typical for the Turkish culture and menatlity! Really! You could be 40 years old (I'm overdoing it of course) and your parents still would remind you to be careful and take care repeatedly. I was told the same yesterday, to drive careful and to maintain a slow speed (I was not only the babysitter but also the driver... I feel used).
So we arrived at 4 pm and waited for 3 hours to finally enter the hall and wait for another 2 hours only to listen his music for about 1 and a half hours... Seriously, that's bold! And I did all this only for my cousins. I had absolutely no interest in Bruno Mars' Music (which wasn't that bad after all). Of course, my cousins loved it.
What I want to say is, that the Turkish way of family is a medal with lots of joyful and big get-togethers and favors to ask on the one side, but on the other side plenty of duties and work as well.
I would never trade this in for anything else, even though it might get annoying from time to time. But that might just be my attitude towards this.


How about you? How does your family work? I guess it gets annoying in every family but in the end we manage to make it work out somehow.