Vortexes, grid skipping, and cat videos

While we were in Turkey, fall came to Copenhagen. The leaves now cover the yard and blow around while I sit by the window and work. Why does it seem so precious this year? Here’s one of those old school recaps from Oslo and Helsinki. They’re fun to make, even if no one watches or likes them anymore. I never get less self-conscious on camera. I’d argue it only gets worse.

click for nordic countries

I made a number of furry friends in Ankara and Istanbul. What does feral cat culture mean? Is it okay because people vaccinate and feed the dogs and cats, providing ear tags so we’ll know who isn’t “sick”; or does it signal our very real disrespect and contempt for our animal friends, feeling badly but not enough to house, save them from street life?

click to play bilkent catness (in a new window)

click to play mosque catness (in a new window)

I like getting reenergized at conferences, but I do not like 2:1 gender ratios. I dig street cred but hate feeling naked without a PhD after my name. I like meeting new people but wonder if my natural introvert tendencies and traveling with my partner make us seem too insular. I spoke about online video curating, and Andreas made a case for a distributed video commenting system.

I guess most bloggers are unusually honest people. I am not. I overthink what I share online, to the point of posting almost nothing from my real thoughts and existence, just notes and recaps I assume will be innocuous enough. I usually remain vague and inconsequential because I can’t formulate spur of the moment posts and have long ago decided this is for the best. At the times in the past when I did engage in that type of immediacy, I felt literally sick, the consequences even worse than a rumbling tummy. So now, if I said what I really thought, I’d have to wonder if the people I think about would know the truth. That wouldn’t help anyone.

Maybe I’m a cynic, but why do we still need to get so excited that the 90s brought us the Internet? Do academics really not know that YouTube has never been profitable, sale to Google not included? And I do wish the memo would once again go out that all sex is not related to technology.

In Taksim, the police stand around holding machine guns. Turkish independence day is soon. Ataturk flags were everywhere. Are the flags with figures’ faces because of illiteracy? Reminded me of Ayatollah Khomeini, though aside from some publicly displayed posthumous banners, the two couldn’t be more different.

Just for the record, it isn’t that I ever understood those who voluntarily participated in the Cold War. I’m just free to embrace it now.

Did you know Cappadonna took his name from Cappadocia? I guessed I was the only tourist there recently who thought about this while looking at fairy chimneys and crawling through caves.

Does it mean anything that everyone must pass multiple security checks at airports in countries that are part of or border the Arab world, and that Angelina doesn’t have any kids from the region either? Aren’t those really two major litmus tests we can lump together?

Here are five more lumiere videos from around the Turkish countryside. They have no sound and will all open in new windows.

click to play airport relaxation (in a new window)

click to play boys club descent (in a new window)

click to play istanbul terrace (in a new window)

click to play terrace birds (in a new window)

click to play bosphorus (in a new window)