This afternoon Orhan (‘Demir’), Levent and I escaped the newly-arrived summer heat for a few hours at the Rollhouse ten pin bowling centre.

Some days are diamonds and others are stones. Today was a big fat diamond. It all started with my first frame of the first game – I knocked down 8 pins but the system recorded it as a strike! That game I bowled 163, a new personal best (PB).

For 4 of the first 5 frames of the second game I scored strikes. My run went downhill from then on until the final frame, frame 10. Strike, strike, strike! My first ever turkey and a new PB score of 166. It may be a while before I hit 7 strikes in a single frame again. For scoring the turkey the bowling centre rewarded me with a free beer.

my final game was not as good as the previous two although I did make a strike in the first frame, making it 4 strikes in a row. I still scored 138, giving me a 3 game total of 467 and an average score of 155&2/3, higher than my old single game PB

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A very clever example of political protest by a computer programmer who doesn’t agree with the current Turkish government: link.

First, the website looks a somewhat normal photo of Abdullah Gul and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Move your mouse around and the picture changes dramatically.

Thanks Aylin for the link!

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Mersin University’s 13th Culture and Sport Festival (Kultur ve Spor Senligi) began on Monday and will continue until Friday. The festival consists of exhibitions, seminars, workshops and other events. On the Ciftlikkoy campus field there are food stalls, rides, a beer garden and other attractions.

The focal point of each festival day is always a concert in the evening on the athletics field. At last year’s festival I saw Kirac in concert on Natraj’s last night in Mersin. This year, Ozlem Tekin, Yasar, Hande Yener, Emre Aydin and Funda Arar, all big names in Turkish pop/rock, were performing. Concert entry this year is 4 YTL for students and a massive 7 YTL for non-students.

Monday night Orhan and I caught a bus to Mersin University’s Ciflikkoy Campus to see Ozlem Tekin live in concert. Ozlem Tekin is a American-born Turkish rock singer. Prior to the concert I didn’t recall hearing any of her music although I’m sure I had.

Beforehand there was the usual festival opening and fireworks display. Once that was over, Ozlem and her backing band, including string section, took to the stage.

Ozlem put on a great concert and looked a natural performer. The music rocked and the crowd got into it like a bunch of Turkish students can. Overall, the night was fun and Ozlem is a great live artist.

The following video is of the second song she performed. Can anyone help me with the title?

In the distance, guarding over the concert scene from a university building, were the following flags. I do not know if they were there because of the ‘situation‘ or for the festival in general as I didn’t see them last year.

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