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Published: November 26th 2008
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Military museum fun!
Notice how all the lights are out because it's closing! c/o Frank G The last several days have been good. Friday I went to the military museum for...about 15 minutes before it closed. It was only a lira, so I didn't feel gypped so much as confused why the woman at the front desk didn't at least tell us we'd only get to see like an eighth of it at most. That night we also saw the new Bond with Turkish subtitles. It does not touch Casino Royale. I didn't like it for the most part (especially the way the action scenes are shot and edited--that is to say, too quickly, manically, and close-up for you to even tell what is going on, a distressing trend in the recent decade in action films) right up until the end when I realized what they're trying to do with the Bond franchise and this film (make it into a very small episode in a long overarching narrative revolving around the mysterious and dangerous QUANTUM ORGANIZATION.
Saturday I did some stuff. Then on Sunday Kendra and I went to Beşiktaş--one of the big neighborhoods in Istanbul close to our school--for the football match between Beşiktaş (one of the three clubs in Istanbul) and Eskişehir. Beşiktaş's fans--
Çarşı,
A cannon used in the conquest of Constantinople
And another cannon from much later. c/o Frank G sort of meaning "downtown" or "market," referring to Beşiktaş Çarşısı where the fans all hang out regularly--are notorious for their insanity and zeal. We went down to be Çarşı for the night, which we were. Hopefully the videos and photos can give you an idea of what it's like. There was a lot of testosterone in the air to be sure--unfortunately we saw at least two fights go down, one of which included a guy getting a bottle smashed over his face--but besides the violence it was alright. The least exciting part of the whole thing was actually seeing the match--the fans were so busy chanting that it was easy to forget there was a game going on. It must be really hard to play in that stadium.
Uygar moved out already. I was going to have a dance party before he left, which I told him last Thursday or Friday, which is when he told me he was leaving a week earlier than expected. He took off on Sunday morning. So that's been weird. But the exciting thing is that I get his room--which sucks, but if he's going to leave then I'll accept that. This room is
Flares
Before the game. c/o my main bro Kendra amazing. Pls. consult the video for information as to why. I hope to let people sleep and hang out in here, even my room mates if they want to just hang out on my couch, in here as often as possible--there's more space than I need for sure. I also am using his speakers, which has been a blessing--the shitty ones I bought here before have sufficed, but certainly not served me particularly
well. And even the bed is more comfortable. Tonight I tested it out a bit with the long-awaited Starcraft LAN, which was itself pretty amazing. Me and Dan teamed up against Afşın, Frank, and Gürken in two matches that me and Dan both won. I was surprised at that, since I assumed Afşın would be the best player of all of us given how much he was playing about a month ago. But alas, Dan and I owned them. It was really one of the most exhilarating things I've done in a while--a true test of wills. Dan and I work well as a team, and there were a couple amazingly memorable moments, like when my observers caught Frank's imprudent placement of his entire guardian force near
The Carsi section
at Besiktas Inonu Stadium c/o Kendra our entrance without any ground support and Dan slaughtered them completely with his Valkyries. Or when Dan turned the tide of battle by launching the perfect nuke and destroying almost all of Afşın's goliath force--like maybe 20 of them--and opened the way for my carriers to move in and destroy everything. Or when the three of them mounted a concentrated assault on our base in the first match, almost destroyed us except for the fact that Dan and I were focusing on cloaked units and reavers, and he and I, thinking that the match was probably lost, decided to strike back with what few forces we had left and won in a protracted slugfest that pushed the front all the way back through their expansions and into the heart of their base. Yeah, I'm that much of a nerd.
Oh yes, and today my amateur lecture went rather well. I am not the most fluid lecturer, but I think it was rather good for my first time. We even got into some rather interesting discussion!
Anyway, I am going to either Konya or Cyprus for our upcoming 9-day vacation. I would prefer the former but for a lack of anyone to go with and a lack of ease in preparing for the trip now that it's so close to the bayram, it'll probably be the latter. That's not a bad thing--Ali went recently and said it was beautiful. Sweet. Also, Thanksgiving dinner at the Superdorm on Thursday evening and then pie and spiced wine at my apartment afterwards. And I'm having a sleep over tomorrow. Yay.
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