Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend Shopping

I tried to resist but I couldn't so I shopped during this weekend :(. There were very good deals that I just couldn't resist. I made myself believe that I needed the things I bought. However, in total I didn't spend more than $45, so yay for that! By the way I was at home and did all my shopping online :).

I try to find sites that offer free shipping then I feel comfortable about shopping online. I don't know why but if I pay for shipping I feel very bad. Especially if I want to buy something for $30 and the shipping cost is $10, I will either not buy it or buy more so the shipping cost doesn't seem that much to me :).

I posted pics of the items that I got this weekend. Hoping they will arrive next week, we'll see :).
(Note that the prices listed under the items do not include tax and I got the belted trouser in navy not khaki.)

By the way you can still buy the t-shirt and the pants online (at pacsun) and get free shipping. Unfortunately, white and red june bug's are sold out and they only have sizes 5 and 11 left for the stone/slate june bug.

Sanuk - White June Bug, $12.75

Courtship & Suitors
Needles & Pins Boxy Tee, $6.80


Sound & Matter
Belted Trouser, $22.95

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Sanuk - June Bug's on Sale!

I just got a tip from my friend! She sent me a link. If you're looking for cheap Sanuk June Bug shoes you should definitely check the website out. They're on sale and also if you apply the code CPOLOGY15 you get an additional 15% off which makes the price for the shoes only $13.60!
My friend got a white one and I also just bought a white one. However, there is also a red and a stone/slate on sale. They're so comfortable and to find a website that sells them for only $13.60 is great! And before I forget they also ship for free if you choose standard shipping.
Thanks for the tip! You know who you are :).

Friday, May 27, 2011

Perfumania

A couple of months ago I came across one of Perfumania's stores in a mall. They sell discount beauty products. More specifically, the price they give you is at least $5-$10 (or much more depending on your choice) lower than the retail price you will find at department stores. They originally have two types of prices for each product, retail price and our price. Additionally if an item is on sale it has a sale price.

HOT for me
I was in need for a new perfume that I could use daily. I didn't want to buy an expensive one. I already have one that I use when I go out (not for school of course :) ). Therefore, I remembered Perfumania and checked out their website. They usually have many items on sale but if you're after an expensive brand such as Christian Dior, Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana etc. you only save about $5-$10 which isn't much but still a saving. I've been monitoring their prices for the past couple of weeks and expensive brands rarely go on sale. I remember some of them went on sale during Mother's Day. The sale was buy one get 50% off second. Anyway since I was after a cheaper retail priced perfume I went with HOT For Women and Men by BENETTON. I had previously used HOT and enjoyed it. The retail price is $35 and Perfumania's price is $24.99. However, there was a sale so I got it for $12.49. There is also COLD which we got for my husband. Although both of the fragrances are categorized as uni-sex I think HOT is more for women and COLD is more for men. We bought both of the fragrances online and the shipping was perfect :). I was afraid they might break during shipping but they were fine.

Perfumania also sent us 3 perfume samples and a coupon for an extra 15% off that we can use for our next online purchase.  
COLD for my husband

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Protein Bars

I know I've been doing lots of food related posts lately but my diet has made me a food geek :). I have to know exactly how much calories I consume each day and how healthy these calories are. I will be doing a 1000 cal/day diet for a week and then I will increase it to 1200 cal/day because eating 1000 cal/day for longer is not healthy. It has been 5 days since I started my diet plan.

Pure Protein Bar

I decided to include more protein in my diet.  Today I ate 2 hard boiled eggs and a banana for breakfast then during the day I tried out a protein bar. It was very tasty just like a normal chocolate bar. However, it was also 200 calories. I thought 200 calories was a lot for a small piece of bar but I noticed that I barely started to get hungry even after 3 hours. I guess 20g of protein was enough to keep me satisfied for 3 hours so I will continue to eat these bars during the last weeks of school. I have lots of work to do and while running around the campus I'll just grab one of these protein bars.

I think overly processed foods such as protein bars are not healthy in general but I'm going to try them for a couple of days. They are very convenient when you're on a diet and have little time to eat due to a hectic schedule.

I ate pure protein's chocolate peanut butter flavored protein bar today. Here is a link. By the way while I was at the store there were many different brands of protein bars but pure protein had the highest amount of protein. This is what you should expect from a brand named "pure protein" I guess :).

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Jalapeno Burn

Lately we've been doing some of our grocery shopping at North Market. They have a wide variety of merchants and farmers inside the market that offer delicious foods and drinks. You can check out all the unique contributors of the market at its website.

Jalapenos
We buy our fruits and vegetables at The Greener Grocer in the market. As a family we love hot and spicy foods so today we decided to try out raw jalapenos that we got from The Greener Grocer. We planned on adding the jalapenos to our gigantic salad that we almost always make for dinner. However, something went terribly wrong when my husband was preparing the salad. He accidentally touched his face after he had just cut some jalapenos and his face started to burn. I hadn't seen him like that before, he was all red so I went online and did some quick research and found out that jalapeno skin burn is a bigger deal than we may have thought.

Here is what you have to do if you get a jalapeno skin burn. (By the way, your hands can get jalapeno skin burn so before cutting any raw jalapenos I suggest you wear protective gloves).

1) Wash the burned area with soap and water. Rinse thoroughly.
2) Apply first aid ointment that is used for minor cuts, scrapes and burns

Additionally, I have read that dairy products also help decrease the burning feel. You can use milk or yogurt to relieve your burning by applying them to your skin.

I hope no one will need to use this information. Be careful while handling jalapenos and to be on the safe side always wear latex or protective gloves.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Blueberry Obsession

In the last couple of days I've been obsessed with blueberries. Actually I've been obsessed with food. I have been trying to make healthy and tasty recipes since I started my diet.

I've started making myself blueberry smoothies and today I made blueberry cake. I found a blueberry cake recipe online and changed it a bit so it would be lower in calories. I am not sure if everyone will enjoy it because it is certainly not a sweet cake. It is more like a dessert for people on a diet. However, I really enjoyed eating it especially with a glass of milk.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
1) 1/4 cup of sugar (you can certainly double this amount for a sweeter cake)
2) 1 egg
3) 1 cup of skim milk
4) 2 cups of all-purpose flour (I am going to get a healthier flour next time)
5) About 1/8 cups of baking powder
6) 1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar (You can skip this if you don't have any)
7) 3/2 cups of blueberry (I used frozen blueberries but fresh ones will be much better)
8) 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Ingredients

First preheat the oven to 350 F and grease the container you will use for your cake.

Afterwards whisk the egg and the sugar together until the mixture becomes white. Then add in the milk, flour, vanilla sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Beat until all the ingredients are well combined. Finally add the blueberries and stir gently (try not to break up the blueberries). Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Total calories in this recipe is 1400 and calories per serving is 200. (This is assuming there are 7 servings)


Ready to go in the oven
Out of the oven

A piece of blueberry cake. Yummy!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Zucchini in the oven

Lots of zucchinis
The summer is here! However there is no need to panic, we still have time to lose a couple of pounds before we show more skin with various shorts, dresses, tank tops and etc. :). I have just started watching what I eat. I am thinking that a one-month long diet will be great for me. Therefore, I started to cook much healthier meals. Yesterday I made lentil soup and today I made zucchini in the oven.

1 pound of zucchini has 73 calories so we can cook low calorie meals with it. Additionally, it is an excellent source of calcium. Zucchini baked in the oven can be a side to a main dish that includes meat or you can just serve it by itself. I prefer to eat it as the main dish with 1 cup of non-fat plain yogurt. By this way I eat less calories but also include protein in my meal with yogurt so I don't get hungry for another 2-3 hours.

I love the taste of zucchini when it is baked in the oven and the recipe is so easy.

Ingredients
1) 5 or 6 zucchinis that are 4-6 inches long
2) 2 tablespoons of olive oil (if you're not on a diet you can double the amount)
3) A pinch of salt (if you're on a diet I suggest you skip the salt)

First wash the zucchinis thoroughly. Then cut 1/2 inch off the bottom and 1/2 inch off the top of the zucchini with a sharp knife. Peel the length of the zucchini such that you peel 1/2 an inch and leave half an inch until you have gone around the zucchini. By this way you have a patterned zucchini :). You don't have to peel the skin if the zucchini is very fresh and has a very thin skin. Then slice the zucchini width-wise. The slices should be less than 1/2 inch. Turn the oven up to 450 F degrees. Put all the sliced zucchinis into a large enough pyrex container that has been sprayed with olive oil. Add the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the salt, mix it with a spoon then place it in the preheated oven. Cook for 40-45 minutes. After 20-25 minutes mix the zucchini again with a spoon without taking it out of the oven. I have to do this because I usually make too much zucchinis for my pyrex container and some of the zucchinis will not bake properly if I don't change the places of the zucchinis :).  I posted a pic of my overstuffed container. I recommend you don't do this :).

Total calories in this recipe is only 350!

Zucchini raw
Zucchini cooked

Friday, May 20, 2011

Couldn't Resist Vans :)

Vans Yo Gabba Gabba

I was unable to wear my darling Vans' this year because I left them back home in Turkey. I didn't bring them with me because they were getting old and there were actually small holes in them :(. I tried to find an identical pair but the company is not producing them anymore. They were white with green clovers on them. I googled to see if I could find an image but the only clover themed Vans I found was nothing like mine, it was disturbingly green and eye tiring.

Vans Lacey, Black
I just love slip-on shoes and Vans' classic ones are great. Therefore, I couldn't resist and found myself looking at Vans' website for a pair of new ones. I can't decide though. I want to buy a classic pair (as classic as a Vans can be of course :) ) that I can wear with many outfits but there are also a couple that are just too fun to not consider :). Especially the Yo Gabba Gabba's that I posted a pic of. Yo Gabba Gabba's are $47 and Lacey's are $42.

Vans Lacey, Peacoat Blue


Thursday, May 19, 2011

Viva Las Vegas!

Las Vegas Strip
During the Spring break this year we went to Las Vegas for about 5 days. The trip was great! We had so much fun :). We stayed at Bill's Gamblin Hall which is one of the oldest hotels on the Strip. For those of you who haven't been to Vegas yet but planning to go I recommend you stay at a hotel on the Strip.
Flamingo's: breakfast hotel :)
Bill's Gamblin Hall: room
Las Vegas Strip is an approximately 4.2-mile (6.8 km) stretch of the Las Vegas Boulevard South. It is basically a very long boulevard that houses all the famous casinos and hotels in the city. The most breath-taking hotels are The Bellagio, Caesars Palace and Venetian. If we get to go again I will definitely choose to stay at one of these hotels. Bill's was a small but a pretty clean hotel. It was the kind of hotel that you would definitely see in an older movie. The rooms had older furniture but you don't go to Vegas to sit in your room :). They were very spacious though with two queen sized beds. In contrast to all the other hotels you could walk through the lobby in about 5 minutes at Bill's. For example, you have to walk about 15 minutes to find the lobby in other hotels, they are so big you usually get lost.

Bellagio Fountain Pool
We learned a couple of things after our first day in Las Vegas. For starters you need to know where to get cheaper show and open buffet tickets. There are half price tix booth's around the Strip. They had one inside Bill's that would open at 9 am :). I remember the time distinctly because we were early so we had to form a line outside until they opened and it was freezing. We got open buffet tickets for breakfast and they cost us about $10 per person. We went to Flamingo's open buffet for breakfast each day and it was so good that we wouldn't get hungry until dinner time. Normally, if you don't buy open buffet tickets from a half price tix booth it costs about $17 per person. You pay $2 to the half price tix booth per person and get the tickets. Afterwards, you go to the place where you will be using your tickets, in this case Flamingo's and then get your open buffet pass for $8 per person so in total you pay $10.
Venetian Hotel Gondolas
We also went to David Copperfield's magic show! Similarly, we got our tickets from a half price tix booth but still the tickets were very expensive. They cost us about $90 per person. David Copperfield's show was one of the more expensive shows. You can go to a couple of good shows that are about $60.
David Copperfield's show was unfortunately below his standards but we got to see him in person, so yay for that! The theatre where the show took place wasn't that big and during one of his tricks he came to our side. I do not regret going to the show, his tricks were good but just outdated I guess. 
The Forum Shops
Other than that we walked the Strip, we nearly went into all of the hotels. Each hotel on the Strip has some sort of a theme and these themes make the hotel interesting. For example, as one can guess from the name, Caesars Palace offers you the surroundings of old Rome. However, Bill's doesn't have a theme, maybe it's theme is being an old-fashioned Las Vegas Hotel with its colorful carpeted casino :).

I have to admit we did gamble a little at each hotel but it was so we could drink something :).

Paris Las Vegas Hotel
New York New York Hotel

 










M&M's are getting ready to fly
Lovebird M&M's :)

M&M toy pics are from the Las Vegas M&M store. I am a big fan so I had to post these pics!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Some PS3 games and Mortal Kombat...

Latest addition: Mortal Kombat

Since last October we've been playing a lot of PS3 games with my husband and with our friends. We started out with Assassin's Creed 2, went onto Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 then got the newest game from the Assassin's Creed game series: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. These games were mostly played by me and my husband. However, when we got our hands on PS3's move we started singing and dancing with our friends by playing SingStar Dance Party Pack :).
Ezio on the move :)

We traded in Assassin's Creed 2 and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 after a couple of months. We finished Assassin's Creed 2 and we thought Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 lacked many features so we just stopped playing it. In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 you get to be Spider-Man, Iron Man, Wolverine and many other super heroes however, the plot of the game is boring and the graphics are mediocre. I don't think any one should spend their money on this game. On the contrary, I enjoy the Assassin's Creed series very much. It has close to excellent graphics and a very interesting story. I read that Ubisoft will be introducing a new game from the series each year. Additionally, the upcoming game will be set in Istanbul so, that is one of the games we're looking forward to right now. I am sure we will be enjoying the game much more when we get to experience Istanbul as an Assassin :).
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

The latest addition to our game pool is Mortal Kombat. We just got it from Amazon yesterday. It is one of the more expensive games at the moment with a cost of $49.99. I loved watching the Mortal Kombat movies as a child so I made my parents buy the game for me. I had a green game boy at the time and I would play until I couldn't hold the game boy anymore :). I would be Sonya Blade or Raiden. That is why I started out with Sonya and chose to continue playing with Raiden (he has much more interesting tricks) in the latest Mortal Kombat game. Me and my husband have been fighting since last night :). He got to win some games and I got to win some games. 
Sing and dance

This time around the game is quite gruesome but I think I got used to seeing a lot of blood and disgusting stuff since we started watching the TV shows Walking Dead and Spartacus so I guess it doesn't disturb me anymore. If you like a fighting game then, I would definitely recommend it. The game offers a wide set of moves for each character so I don't think any one will get bored in a short time. Additionally, there are many choices of fight modes. For example, you can play with 2 fighters in the same team and switch when necessary.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Journals, Planners, Agendas, To Do Lists etc.

An agenda/planner from Barnes&Noble

I am the type of person that has to have some sort of to do lists at all times. I feel mentally lighter when I write down the tasks I need to complete. And putting a check on the items that populate my lists is the ultimate prize.

That is why I've been using planners for a while now. I am calmer when I can visually see in the planner I have enough time to do things. This aspect of me has been made fun of in the last couple of years and I have to admit the jokes were really funny :).

Last summer I presented my Master's thesis, got married and moved to the United States so, my schedule was hectic during the summer. For example, I would run some wedding related errands in the morning and at nights I would write my thesis. Therefore, my planner was running out of space. One day I came to the office (as grad students 6 of us shared an office) and saw something like the following on the board.

To Do List

1)Present Thesis
2)Get married :)

The to do list cracked me and my friends up for a long time. I am even smiling while writing this. And for this summer I have the following list.

New To Do List

1)Pass all your courses
2)Go back to Turkey for your holiday
3)Buy a car
4)Move to a new apartment
5)Pass the qualifier

It seems like I have a longer to do list for this summer.

I am currently using one of OSU's planners and it is great because the planner is based on school weeks and holidays so, I always know which week we are in and how many weeks or days left until classes are over. And currently we have about 3 weeks to go.

Dried Fruits - Healthy Snacks

Dried strawberries
 I find dried fruits to be the healthiest snacks that satisfy a sweet tooth. Especially when you are on a diet and all you want to eat is something sweet just grab a handful of them. However, be careful since dried fruits contain high amounts of sugar that can ruin your diet. The best way to add some dried fruits to your diet is to eat a handful of these when you feel hungry in between meal times but no more than a handful if you are on a strict diet.
Dried pineapples
I mostly enjoy dried pineapples, strawberries, mangoes and cranberries. I try to look at the nutrition information of any packaged dried fruit before buying it because they can add sugar to them. If I don't have a choice, i.e. every brand has included additional sugar in the product then, I choose the dried fruit which has the lowest calorie.
Dried mangoes
I found this website: http://www.nutsonline.com/driedfruit/ that has a wide variety of dried fruits. I haven't ordered anything yet but once we're out of dried fruits at home I'm going to try them. I looked at most of their products and some of them but not all have additional sugar in them.

I also noticed that they have Turkish figs, yay! 

Dried cranberries


Monday, May 16, 2011

Free People

Plaid maxi skirt
I was looking for black ballet flats when I came across free people.They have many me styles of clothing, shoes and accessories :). However, they are an expensive brand so I went through all the items that were on sale. I've posted pics of some of the things I liked. And of course they are all on sale!
Floral vest
Long sleeve lace
Mansford slip on - black/brown
Mansford slip on - tan/khaki

The New York Trilogy - By Paul Auster

I've started reading Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy. The book contains three novels, City of Glass, Ghosts and The Locked Room. The novels were originally published one after the other and after a while they were merged together to form a single book.

Paul Auster when he was young
I am currently reading the first novel, City of Glass. I was going to wait until I finished the whole book before I wrote anything about it but I couldn't wait. The book turned out to be much more interesting than I originally thought.

Book cover
In the first novel we have a detective-fiction writer who has lost his wife and only child. He ends up doing some detective work by impersonating "Paul Auster" the detective. I'm sure you are wandering wasn't Paul Auster the name of the actual writer :). Yes, it is true, Paul Auster mentions his name in the story as a good detective. The novel has disturbing parts. For example, one of the characters is locked up in a dark room as a child. So, if you are looking to spend some happy leisure time while reading a book this trilogy will not give you that. As far as I've read there is a sad and a disturbing story. However, the book presents both a different writing and story structure for me. When I complete this weird and interesting journey I will come back with my new thoughts. I don't think it is fair to judge a book before completely reading it but I just had to share my initial thoughts :).

By the way, the book is about $11 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Trilogy-Contemporary-American/dp/0140131558/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Inegol Meatball

We've been eating meatballs for a week now. Last Sunday I was able to make around 40 of them. I divided the meatballs into 5-6 groups, packed them using aluminum foil and put them in the freezer. They tasted great so we nearly had meatballs everyday for the past 6-7 days :). I got one pack out of the freezer each day and just popped them in the oven.

Below is the recipe. (You can find the recipe on the back of "Inegol meatball seasoning by Katmer" for the meatballs too)

Meatball Ingredients:
1) 2 lb ground red meat (try to get the most fat free meat)
2) Inegol meatball seasoning by Katmer (can be obtained from here.) 
3) Around 1 cup of water (put the water slowly so you can stop before the mixture becomes soggy)

Mix all the ingredients together. Then, take walnut-size pieces of the mixture and roll into small balls, and press them in between your palms or give them any shape you like as long as they are not too big :).

I added green peppers and onions as sides for the meatballs. 

Additional Ingredients: 
1) half of 1 green pepper
2) 1 onion or half of 1 large onion
3) Black pepper
4) 7-8 meatballs

Put the shaped meatballs inside an aluminum covered pyrex container. Slice the green pepper and the onion as you wish but don't make them too small. Put the sliced green pepper and the onion inside the pyrex container too. You can also put them on the meatballs for more flavor. Sprinkle some black pepper over the meatballs, the sliced green pepper and the onion. Place the pyrex container inside the preheated (you can turn on the oven after you're done with making meatballs) oven and cook at 450 F for about 20-30 minutes.

This recipe is of course not the traditional Inegol meatball however, we enjoyed it so much that I thought I should share it. It is an easy dish once you're done with making the meatballs and it is considerably healthy if you use the most fat free ground red meat you can get.

The traditional dish, Inegol meatball, comes from the city of Inegol located in Bursa, Turkey. I've done some research and found out that the traditional recipe of Inegol only contains salt, onions and baking soda (in addition to ground meat). Although the Inegol seasoning I bought had many spices in it we thought it was delicious. I'm hoping to make the traditional Inegol meatballs in the future and see how they taste when I make them :).
Almost ready to go in the oven


Last update: black peppers, now ready to go in the oven
I learned a couple of things while making meatballs.

First of all, the key ingredient a.k.a. the ground meat has to be good, otherwise your meatballs will not be tasty.

Secondly, you cannot put ground meat in the freezer first then take it out, make the meatballs and put them back in the freezer. This is not healthy! You can put the meat in the freezer only once. Either you place the meat in the freezer first then, make the meatballs and cook all of them or you get the meat from the supermarket, come home, let it sit in the fridge (not the freezer) until the "best before" date if you don't want to make them right away and make the meatballs then, put them in the freezer.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Sanuk - June Bug

Blue June Bug
Couple of months ago I got myself a pair of brown Sanuk-Junebug shoes. They are referred to as "sidewalk surfers" on their website. I think they are very comfortable and much cuter than Vans. They mostly resemble TOMS in terms of texture. I've worn my Sanuk's a couple of times and I'm very satisfied with them. They are much more feminine compared to Vans and much lighter. They are like casual ballet flats that don't butcher your feet if you accidentally walk too much in them :).


Amanda Seyfried wearing Sanuk June Bug
I bought them for about $30 on Amazon when they had a sale going on. However, their price is between $40-$50 on both Amazon and their own website right now. You can wait to see if the prices go down or if you want some comfortable and cute shoes for the summer right away I think these shoes will do the trick.

K.I.L.U.S. Foundation

Coin pouch standing up :)

Coin pouch lying down
As part of a birthday gift to one of my friends I got her a handcrafted and recycled coin pouch made from juice boxes. I got it from Barnes & Noble but the original maker is the K.I.L.U.S. Foundation. I've searched online for a website however, their website has closed down. The website is supposed to be http://www.kilus.org/. The foundation has pencil cases, accessories bags, coin pouches and shopping bags at Barnes & Noble but I've read that they produce a wide variety of things like dresses sandals and hats.
On the tags of each item the purpose of the foundation is written. The tag reads, "The K.I.L.U.S. Foundation is a Fair Trade women's cooperative in the Philippines that recycles and handcrafts non-biodegradable items, like juice boxes, into fun and fashionable accessories".

I think they have very pretty stuff. For example, I loved one of their pencil cases which was made from recycled newspaper, I should have taken a picture :(. Maybe I'll get it for myself in the near future and share its picture then :).

Friday, May 13, 2011

Best Turkish Food and Chicago Turkish Festival

I just received an email and had to share this news. First of all we've been buying Turkish food online from http://www.bestturkishfood.com/ for the last 6 months. They have a large selection of items and you can usually find anything you need. I found this site when I was searching for a website that I could buy Turkish food from. I actually came across two websites; Best Turkish Food and Tulumba. Best Turkish Food is located at Illinois and Tulumba is located at New York so I guess that is why Tulumba is much more expensive compared to Best Turkish Food.

Anyway, we've been successfully doing some of our grocery shopping online and are very satisfied with Best Turkish Food's service. They offer free shipping if you buy $100 worth of items however, they have weight restrictions for different states. For example, for Ohio residents there is a limit of 30 pounds. Recently they started offering some discounts and I wasn't able to find these discounts on their website so I'm assuming they're sending discount offers to their previous customers. If anyone is interested in any discount offers they can contact me. Currently they have an offer that says "Save $10 for the orders $50 or more" and this will expire on May 16th so there isn't much time left.

Also I've learned that the Chicago Turkish Festival this year will take place between May 22 and May 25. They are looking for volunteers and I wish I could go but unfortunately I can't due to school work. So, if you have the time I suggest you look at their website because they provide the costs for transportation and they will give lunch tickets to volunteers.

WIE: Women In Engineering

Today I attended a lunch organized by WIE at OSU. This was my second time at one of these events. I enjoyed this one much more because I realized how women in the United States take matters to their own hands in dealing with sex discrimination. They still believe that some man are afraid of educated women or especially woman who are engineers and yet they are living in one of the most civilized countries in the world.

This is how we spent our 90 minutes,

First we enjoyed a nice lunch and we got to introduce ourselves to other graduate students in the room. Then the speaker for the event presented some information about how to get young girls interested in engineering and what we should do at a workplace mostly dominated by men.

One of the things I found interesting was that there was a study that said girls somehow chose to study engineering before 7th grade which roughly corresponds to 13 years of age. After that age it was hard to get a girl interested in engineering sciences.

Another thing I found interesting was the attitude of the speaker. She revealed that she didn't have successful relationships with men because she was carrier oriented. This is probably true because most men prefer to be ahead of their spouses career wise and this maybe due to hormones :). I don't know, but I still believe a relationship will get past these issues if there is a real connection between the souls.

Anyway, I thought that I made use of my time by attending this lunch and learned that women are women everywhere in the world. We still all have to fight for our rights from time to time even if we live in a very much civilized country compared to many other countries.

The Social Network and Facebook

We (me and my husband) recently watched The Social Network. We were a tad late compared to our other friends. Not to brag but we were too busy watching some documentaries such as The Cove and The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos :). It is unusual to watch documentaries on movie nights however, I think The Cove was one of the best, we were not bored for a second. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same thing about The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos. I'm not sure maybe I was tired while watching The Crimson Wing or because The Cove is an Oscar Award Winning documentary. The Cove is mainly about dolphins and how they are abused at a cove near Taijii, Japan. The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, as it can be understood from its title, is about the life cycle of flamingos in Lake Natron in Northern Tanzania.

I think I have to write a post about these two documentaries too but now let's get back to the title of the post: The Social Network and Facebook.
For starters I have to admit I didn't know the name of the person who founded facebook until I came to live in Columbus, Ohio. I new that he was very young and still at a university when he found facebook but I had no idea what he looked like and didn't have a clue about his name. I learned his name and his "face" when TIME magazine chose him as the person of the year 2010 and I read the article in the magazine.
I also learned that although the movie got many weird details correct the reason behind creating facebook was far from the truth. I am not going to discuss the movie here since there may be people that haven't watched it yet (note that you would want to watch Jesse Eisenberg who plays Mark Zuckerberg because he is quite brilliant) but here is a list of the things that I learned from the movie or mostly from Mark Zuckerberg (founder of facebook: to people who still don't know his name :) ).

1. You need to be passionate about your dreams. You need to be obssesive and a hard worker. You should even leave school if you have to. You have to be a risk taker if you believe in your dream. (By the way, I don't think I would be able to give up my university education to go after something. I'm not that much of a risk taker yet)

2. You have to be in the center of technology or at least be in the United States. In the movie Sean Parker, founder of Napster and an entrepenuer, says that if you want to be serious about your IT business then you have to go to California where all the tech giants are.

And my personal opinion is that before you start taking any risks you have to have an idea that appeals to university students or celebrities so that you can become a phenomenon :).

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

At the library

As usual I got up at 7:15 am today and I've been doing my homework since 9 am. I'm at the library alone and waiting for my class which will start at 2 pm and I'm tired of looking at the homework questions so here I am :).

By the way, I realized that I've been doing homeworks since 1994 which corresponds to my first year in elementary school. So, that is 17 years of doing homeworks and I have at least 1 more year to go.

Never mind, talking about homeworks won't make them go away :). I was going to talk about how people are very comfortable in libraries in the United States. I'm sure it's not just our library here at OSU. People take off their shoes, eat, drink, put their feet on tables, sleep on the couches and so on. Libraries are places where you can relax and work at the same time.
It is nice to finally be able to enjoy working at a library.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

About Sorbitol

I just read in an article that high intake of sorbitol in gum and sweets may cause extreme weight loss. It seems like good news for dieters but you lose weight because you become extremely sick. There were two patients, a man and a woman who were suffering from abdominal pains and diarrhea. The man had lost 48 pounds (around 21 kg) and the woman had lost 24 pounds (around 11 kg) over the period of 1 year. Here is the link to the article http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93769.php


Plans for Friday

Another work day has passed. I feel tired but happy because I got to tick off most of the jobs on my to do list :). If I find the strength to vacuum the house as an exercise then I will be done with all my chores. There are many great opportunities here in the United States but having to clean your own house isn't one of them. If we were still in Turkey, we would be able to afford a cleaning lady and I wouldn't be cleaning the house. I have to say my husband does help me but we ladies are most certainly more thorough about the cleaning procedure :).
It does seem weird that I am trying to clean or at least vacuum the house on a weekday but it is because we've invited one of our friends to a sleepover on Friday.


It was her birthday on Monday and we're planning on doing something on Friday. I've been thinking of going to the movies but with this nice weather I don't think we should spend our time indoors. The greatest activity will be to grab some ice-cream from Jeni's and walk on High Street. Jeni's is one of the most loved places in Columbus. They have two shops located near our apartment and the one on High Street always has a line in front of it on weekends. The big deal about this ice-cream shop is that they have very different flavors. For example, their number 1 most sold ice-cream flavor is "salty caramel". I actually enjoy that very much too. They have signature and seasonal flavors and"salty caramel" is a signature flavor. A sample seasonal flavor is "goat cheese with cognac fig sauce" and I haven't tried it yet, it seems a little weird but the best thing about Jeni's is that you can try all the different flavors before you buy anything. My husband's favorite is "queen city cayenne". I don't like this flavor very much because it is hot, you feel like you've been eating very spicy and cold Indian food :). I started to crave Jeni's while writing this so I'm going to stop now :). I've posted a couple of pics from Jeni's, enjoy! 


Have to try it!  



Yummy:)
More flavors