thanks of the day

if you ever want to feel incredibly blessed, arrange everything so that you have the house to yourself.. it is, of course, if you have roommates or living with a (your) family and if you just miss being alone and spending time by yourself..think about it. you are going to watch TV, write, read, study, drink, play, eat, etc. whatever it is that you feel like doing. but no, keep in mind that this is not to complain about the people and things that occupy my mind, time, and energy. this is all about me or you, for that matter.
how should i put it? it is this great sense of relief where you have zero responsibilities but at the same time know that they will be back shortly. it is a strange addiction...wanting to be by yourself. ..like diving into the numbingly cold water and not entirely feeling your legs. it is that refreshing and awakening feeling that reminds you where you are, who you are, and within all this busy-ness you are alone in the end. and when your loved ones come back, you not only appreciate them more, but feel more at peace with yourself. it is like fixing the scale and keeping the balance..like self-initiated homeostasis...

justification of the day

i recently attended a conference. one of the seminars was on darwinian themes in contemporary psychology. i will spare you the psych lingo and boring details but give you information about darwin's mate selection strategy. while pondering on whether he should marry emma wedgwood, he noted pros and cons of the situation in handwriting. at the top, he marked "this is the question". he then listed a couple of things supporting his mate. actually, not the mate but any mate. "an object to cuddle with" caught my eye. baffled, the speaker directed us to another sentence: "better than a dog anyhow".
nice going mr. darwin!
given his objectivity and possibly extent of information on the other sex, this is not puzzling. it might come across as demeaning to women and an abhorrent thought after all. on the contrary...
he had paulie, his beloved dog, who died only 3 days after he passed away. darwin, in his writings, based some of his views and explanations to dog behavior (e.g., religion). these suggest that charles and paulie had such deep connection and love for one another. in turn, he did not belittle emma wedgwood but exalted her in the best way he knew how. she was the one to choose. in addition to her promising fertility, which was later supported by 10 children she gave birth to, she was better than paulie.
hip hup hurray for mr. charles darwin!
on a different note, there should be universal ethical laws on not to publish people's, whoever they are, very intimate decision processes.

still, all selected mates living in pet-free houses can now take a deep breath...

phrase of the day

today, i realized that one cannot recall a past action unless it is dusted off well and there is negative correlation between dusting-off and the level of expertise/experience on that specific action. let me clarify that.
when a person frequently practices a motor, emotional, or a mind action it becomes an _almost_ automatic task reaching to the level of unconscious execution. we can say one becomes an expert at it. efficiently speaking a language that is not your mother tongue, riding a bike, swimming, chatting with your best friends, thinking about your own research are only a couple of examples. then a certain amount of time passes during which one ceases to practice the (habitual) act. say, you did not talk about your research in a professional setting for the last 4 months. following this dormant phase, if you are required to carry on with the same action as capable as before...you need to dust-off the smut on those files. and the time it takes you to get back to your old self is negatively correlated with your prior expertise on the subject. in other words, the more you had high self-esteem and the more comfortable you were with the research 4 months ago, it will take less time for you to wrap your head around it and emerge from the dust. depending on how efficient you were with X, the dusting-off period will lie on a continuum from trice to eternity.
to sum up my friends, i hereby, coin a phrase for our community..

advice of the day

go to l.a. burdick if you have a sweet tooth and want to get rid of it (at least for the day). drinking a large cup of milk chocolate (dark and white are also available) is going to leave you with mixed feelings.. you will start with an incredibly deep satisfaction like shivering with the first touch. creamy chocolate with the right amount of sugar will overindulge your taste buds. then towards the middle, for a split second you will doubt whether you would be able to finish it. for the first time in your life, you will doubt this. maybe you won't finish your cup or maybe you should not. by this time, your nasal passage is already acridly sweet. but no, you are not a quitter! your mother didn't raise you to be one, especially when it comes to food. and, the last drops will cry after you, that's common knowledge. yess, one sip and it's over. this is overrrr. and i will never...

this blog is under contemplation..

i still haven't figured out what to write here. since it is called min-a-min should it be an ode to my baby or some sort of diary for everyone to see? it is the latter part i am not so comfortable with. i cannot even scribble down notes during a class without thinking that someone might see. so what do i do? if they speak only and only english, my notes would be in turkish and vice versa. if they can speak both, i either throw in a lot of french words, make up words that i won't even remember what they meant, or write in ottoman turkish, from right to left, and don't even bother decoding it later on . i think this is too much information too soon and i gave it away. we'll see what happens. maybe this would turn into one of those notepads full of stories and poems? maybe i will be so productive that i will have millions of followers (ok, got a little carried away, let's say tens and be more realistic) and then i will be the ice skating champion of the world and get the best mom of all times award.