Last night I attended a fun gig. It wasn’t quite up there with Everclear destroying Silverchair @ Thebarton Theatre in 1996, all areas access @ Nibe Festival in 1999 or front row Pearl Jam @ the Entertainment Centre in 2003 but it was still good. This is despite my stomach ache gained from eating too much humus and felafel at Lido’s earlier.

Radar are a cover band I had seen several times previously at Bad-Lik Bar (now sadly closed) and Tribu. However, tonight there was something extra in the air (besides the mary jane). The underground concert area was buzzing with moshing, sweating punters and the crowd kept singing even when power failure stopped the music. I wonder what made the difference tonight? 3 lira 1/2 litre beers perhaps…

My Dell D410 Latitude laptop is one of the models involved in the massive battery recall. Luckily my computer’s battery was made in Korea and not Japan or China, so it is not one of the four million-odd batteries to be recalled.

Tonight, close to where I found the dog tag, were up to 15 stray cats feeding on food scraps provided by a local.

Feeding the stray cats is common in Mersin and is probably the main reason thousands of them survive each year. I’m not sure why locals feed the stray cats, but i suspect it is either:
a) as a form of rodent (rat and mouse) control; or
b) out of pity

Last night, not far from work, I found a dog tag on the ground.

As the military base was very close by I asked one of the sailors on guard if the tag belonged to someone there. Although I didn’t understand everything the sailor said, I was pretty sure he mentioned the dog tag was not a Turkish military tag.

I’m guessing Ugur Yardim was born in Mersin in 1989. If it is not a military tag, I’m not sure what purpose it serves.

If you read this Ugur, drop into the local IES office and reclaim your tag.

I received the following email from a previously unknown to myself member of the Amerikanturks Yahoo Group:

(name deleted for privacy)

Rear Ruya, I am < NAME > 26 years old, student, 1.85 largely, 82 weight,
dark-blond I would like gladly you to know to learn, if you have
desire Write down me please. Do not forgive me my English is perfect.
Good night. < NAME >

I guess the person assumes I am female as he addresses me by ‘Ruya’ a Turkish female name and the beginning of my Yahoo! ID.

I could respond by writing him down, praising his perfect English and asking him how he knew about the prominence of my ‘rear’ but I don’t think I’ll bother.

There are many evangelist television channels accessible via Levent’s satellite dish. Watching the evangelists sell their snake oil is both funny and frightening.

Tonight, on a different channel, I discovered my favourite evangelist so far.

Today Eda and I went to see The Break-Up at Metro Sinema.

Starring real-life partners Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, I quite enjoyed The Break-Up, although the end was somewhat tacky. The similarity in attitude and behaviour between Vince’s character, Gary, and the traditional Turkish man was striking.

Yahoo’s games have a chat feature that anyone in that particular game window can use. This feature is often hijacked by chatterbots promoting gambling, porn or other ventures. I find it easy to tell if a chat username is a bot or not by their post frequency and content.

Last night, whilst playing JT’s Blocks, I witnessed a funny conversation between a bot (a_wild_chicky_61i_9368) and a real person (dawn2dust1318). Despite her increasing doubts, dawn2dust1318, kept on with the conversation with the bot. From observing the whole conversation, it seemed she was from a disturbed household, lonely and seeking attention. I guess this is why she continued the conversation.

Unforunately, I did not get the beginning of the conversation. The beginning included gems such as:
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: What are you listening to?
dawn2dust1318: my parents argue in the background

Below is the conversation I did manage to type out. First, some explanations:

– 20/F means a 20 year old female. The purpose of this particular bot is to make people click the link (presumably porn) in her its profile.

– For a short time in the conversation there is a third username, nadia10lyl. Because of its small, non-specific input, I’m not sure if it was a bot or a person.

a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: 20/F webcam and pics
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: so?
dawn2dust1318: 20/F webcam and pics
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: my cat is walking on my keyboard
dawn2dust1318: wat kinda cat?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: where are you?
dawn2dust1318: is this some kind of computer machine asking the same questions over and over.?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: web cam in my profile on my computer profile
dawn2dust1318: do not care
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: *~* 20/F pics in my profile *~*
dawn2dust1318: thats nice
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: you play good
dawn2dust1318: thnx
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: xoxoxoxoxox
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: hows life?
dawn2dust1318: sucks!
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: am I talking to myself?
dawn2dust1318: depends
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: so?
dawn2dust1318: i must be talking to myself or else a computer
nadia10lyl: how are you?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: why?
dawn2dust1318: good u?
nadia10lyl: im good too
nadia10lyl: where are you from
dawn2dust1318: texas
nadia10lyl: how old are you
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: yup
dawn2dust1318: 18
nadia10lyl: you are a little baby
dawn2dust1318: y ur only 20
nadia10lyl: 21
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: do you have a profile
dawn2dust1318: no hav not set it up yet
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: xoxoxoxoxo
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: are you in college?
dawn2dust1318: yeh
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: ummm yessssss
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: 20/F webcam and pics
dawn2dust1318: w/e
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: awww
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: guys press 111 to chat!
dawn2dust1318: ghj
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: 20/F webcam and pics
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: 20/F webcam and pic in my profile
dawn2dust1318: thats nice its still me do not care
dawn2dust1318: plus i thought u said u were 21/
dawn2dust1318: ?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: I’m not a bot… are you? lol
dawn2dust1318: u mean boy no
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: 20 female ~ pics in my profile ~
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: 20/f here guys! web cam and pics in my profile
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: yeah, I’m on cam now
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: isn’t it?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: a/s/l?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: whats that thing doing?
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: pour some sugar on me
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: I’m using my web cam
a_wild_chicky_61i_9368: thats hot
The bot continued on chatting to itself ad nauseum.