I may have found a way to put my street photos to some use. Not in terms of creativity, or design. I still have no ambitions or confidence in that regard. But there is something else that has been bugging me for ages, and there I may be able to do something with them. Which is trying (against all odds) to change the perception that people have of my city by starting a Facebook page (awful design, but nothing to be done about that, it is the thing that has the reach) where I s

I am back from my travels. Porto first, then Greece, where I spent a few lovely days down in Kalamata where Katerina and Fotis have a village house up in the mountains above the city. Just gorgeous! And Porto also lived up to all expectations, a very nice city indeed. But who cares if the city is nice or not when you have friends living there who would make it worthwhile to travel to the armpit of the universe, much less a lovely old town like Porto. And I do! I did meet Cap

I am going to Porto in a few days to make a presentation at the Consciousness Reframed 2019 conference. It is a trip that I am looking forward to especially since I will also be getting together with CapCat Ragu (Catarina Carneiro de Sousa in RL – and we have met before). But this time I will also be meeting with her mother SL artist extraordinaire Meilo Minotaur (Sameiro Sousa in RL) – and that will be a first time encounter which I am anticipating with a lot of pleasure. I

During my last trip I bought very little, which is not really usual behavior for me, normally I go crazy shopping whenever I travel (or when I am at home, for that matter…). A lighter is one of the few things which I brought back with me. Because of the contradiction that it represents. I found it at the airport in San Francisco as I was leaving for New York. I am not sure if they still have this thing where you can not take lighters with you on board planes in the US, but ob

I was away for two weeks, went to San Francisco and New York. I lived in New York for seven years during the 1980s. I had initially gone as a Fulbright scholar, so after going through many legal hoops to obtain permanent residency I was finally told that I had to fulfill my J1 visa obligations; in other words return to my country of origin for 2 years, after which point I could then come back. Thus, I returned to Turkey in late 1986, completely brokenhearted since I was leav

I do not know how many people read this blog. To judge by what the wordpress stats give me, not too many at all. 12 today. 5 yesterday, none the few days before that, then 4 and so on. But recently I found out that I do not see all the viewings. And not only the ones via RSS but even regular page viewings. Some of those seem to slip the radar as well. So, really I have no idea. I also do not know why I keep this blog. It is not really a diary. I have a separate one for that

I am really in over my head! Doing too much all at once, for one thing. I am doing Burning Life. I am writing a book chapter for an academic publication which I am supposed to submit for review by the 12th. But, the one that totally terrifies me is this next one coming right up: Solbedoz Janus is a senior designer at Bell Labs as well as being a hardcore SL resident. He contacted me a while ago and asked me to participate in an event, to which back then I merrily said yes!?!

I must say that I seem to have been remarkably reasonable in what I ended up accumulating on this trip: One reason for that is, of course, the fact that fitting into Chinese clothes would entail a lifetime of starvation and even then would probably not really work – the women here are absolutely tiny! Well yes, of course there are plenty of things for western monsters such as myself as well, but who needs those klutzy things? The outfits that I did like were diminutive… Two b

I am sure every idiot takes this photo from their hotel window, but no matter. Who says I am no idiot anyway? I love the place! This despite my having the mother of all jetlags. God knows I travel enough long distances and I should know better. Melatonin makes me queasy so I decided not to take any on this trip and see if I could get to sleep by myself. Result: 2 nights of complete sleep deprivation. Last night I did finally manage to sleep, but woke up this morning with a so

ISEA 2008. I am one of the presenters. Of course I am terribly happy, not to mention proud to be here. But… There was this art opening, artists-in-labs, this evening. Why do I have this feeling of not belonging? I do belong! I submitted a paper, which underwent a juried and competitive process, at the end of which I was accepted to be here. All fair and square. Furthermore, there are plenty of people here that I know already: Some colleagues from my PhD program, also colleagu