Steve Jobs is ruining my Life, pasta, and peace offerings

As the title suggests, Steve Jobs is ruining my life. More specifically, my Mac has completely destroyed my PC tolerance. As I’m working with a PC at work for 9+ hours a day, I can’t help but let my mind float off from time to time imagining the scene from Office Space when they take the fax machine out to the middle of a field and beat the ever loving crap out of it. I can picture the entire thing in my mind while waiting for my email client to open up – what joy. Every 2 or three minutes or so, I long for my Mac, grieving lightly for it sitting at home all alone. It’s a very sad situation.

In other news, I have learned another peculiarity of Turkish – the word “Pasta.” It does not, as we North Americans may believe, refer to delicious Italian noodles smothered in tasty sauce. No, it means cake – like a birthday cake with the frosting and decoration. I learned this at an office function (note this is the 4th or 5th time I’ve had cake in Turkey, all of the with my office). Interestingly, I found out that cake is something more along the lines of a bunt cake; yes, they have them here. Apparently it’s only in neighboring Greece that they think a Bundt cake is broken and in need of a geranium in the middle… That or My Big Fat Greek Wedding lied to me – but of course, that couldn’t be the case. Movies are always right…. Right?

Anyway, it is now time to discuss today and my fiasco with Istanbul public transit. I’m not sure if it’s actually the system, my idiocy, or a combination thereof that was the culprit behind today; however, I spent over 6 hours on transit systems today, had to reload my transit card at least 3 times, and ended up missing work. The moral of that story is under no attempts attempt to pilgrimage out to the boonies where work is located on the outskirts of the city without speaking fluent Turkish, a cell phone that is fully charged, and … well, basically, just don’t plan to do anything during work ours other than take the company-run shuttles. I have now purchased a peace offering/token of apology to bring with me to work tomorrow. Based on the company-wide affinity for cake, I’m hoping the coconut wafers things I just bought go over well. If not, I know I love them and can, with little provocation, demolish them all completely on my own. The highlight of my day however, was my discovery (about 45 minutes ago) of a Starbucks not far from my house that not only has free wifi, but also stocks the Starbucks mug that I have been searching for since arriving in Istanbul!

As a final side note, I think I may have found a new hobby. That is, joining the surprisingly substantial number of people who critically post their sometimes-scathing commentary and heavily opinionated analyses on Wall Street Journal articles (at least in the “China” subheading). I recently read an article about “The 5 Myths about Business in China,” and decided to toss in my 2… no, more like 20 cents worth about my thoughts on the accuracy and legitimacy of the material discussed. I was highly inspired after some of the commentators said things that I know, having read far too much for my honors thesis, are completely untrue. I think it may be the beginnings of a new pastime….

At that, I’ll leave you for the time being. As I’ve said before, let me know what you want to know about, and I’ll try to oblige you. (I think my next post may be completely dedicated to the phenomenon of Turkish cakes…. They are half way between Chinese and American ones – It is kind of blowing my mind).

p.s. Above is Turkish Delight - aka, heaven in my mouth.