Quick Facts:
Date of Birth:	June 7th, 1983
Nationality:	Turkish / Austrian
Place of Living:	Istanbul / Turkey
Gender:	Male
Languages:	Turkish / English / German

   Turkish from the father's side, Austrian from the mother's, having lived most of his life between Istanbul and Vienna, having been to college in the United States, living four years of my life in Baltimore, I'm a prime candidate for an identity disorder you might think. Being among so many different cultures as I grew up provided me with a lot of material to compare and contrast.

   I could probably be categorized as an "international citizen", but I've never given up on my strong Turkish heritage. My identity has been shaped mostly by the Turk in me, but I believe that I can easily sympathize myself with an individual from another culture, without slipping out of my own character.

   I have earned my BA in International Relations, minoring in Economics and Anthropology, at the Johns Hopkins University. Political Science has always been my strong side, having been so interested in historical and contemporary world events since I was a child. Economics was just a "necessity" to be honest, and more of a mistake on my side when it came to choosing courses. Yet again I'm glad that I've taken more Economics courses compared to most of my peers.

   I started out as a pre-med student, hoping to get into Johns Hopkins Medical Institute later on, thanks to my late teenage ambition to become a genetic engineer or some sort of doctor. Biology has also been my strong side, but the main reason was my early dedication to be the first on earth to find a cure for psoriasis, a condition that I have. The extreme weight of the courses had its toll and my adventure that started with a childish and desperate ambition to become a "healer" of some sort, ended at the end of my freshman year in college.

   When it comes to Anthropology, though, it's a whole other story. I was lured into the field by a friend of mine, Berrak Karahoda, and started to enjoy the whole deal in an instant. Starting out with a plain interest towards linguistics, history and sociology, the further I started to explore, the more interesting the whole concept started to become. Thanks to the endless encouragement of my instructor, Prof. Niloofar Haeri, I got lured even deeper into the subject. Not only did I become her assistant later on, the enjoyment I got from the field grew beyond anything else...

   ...except for one thing: SCUBA Diving. I started getting interested in the hobby after countless trips to the southern beaches of Turkey. It's impossible for me to forget the first time I dived; although it was a mere 9 meters (about 30 feet), it felt much better than anything I've ever experienced up until then. It was the summer of 1998 when I received my first license.

   I have a NAUI Advanced Open Water Diver degree with additional trainings in Search & Recovery, plus preliminary training in Rescue Diving and First Aid in general. I actually got certified for CPR by the American Red Cross during my stay in the USA. I have also just earned my PADI Advanced Open Water SCUBA Diver, as my wallet with my NAUI license was stolen in 2002 and I had some trouble sending out the necessary papers required to claim my ID back. Instead, I got certified from PADI, but I'm still certified under NAUI.

   Much of my free time is wasted in front of this addictive junk called a *enter spooky music* computer. However, I'm not just blankly surfing the net, I'm into a great variety of things; Computer Gaming, Computer Graphics (2D and 3D), coding/scripting to a certain extent, etc.

   Other than that, I'm quite interested in photography nowadays, especially underwater photography, but the equipment for underwater photography is a bit expensive. I currently own a Sony DSC H1 Digital Camera with 12X Optical Zoom. Quite decent camera, although it's 5.5 Megapixels. Might upgrade.

   Just like any other child, I was "forced" to take piano lessons. Thanks to one of my teachers, I made absolutely no progress for two years straight, as I simply did not want to play whatever I was told to. Nowadays I sit in front of the piano and play to the extent that I'm amazed at how easy it all comes back. I took lessons for seven-eight years, but it's just recently that I started to play rock and jazz (all from my head, no notes). I used to play the violin back in the day, although I took lessons for a short while due to increasing school pressure back when I was in the 8th grade or something. Besides, my teacher got a greencard and she left for the US for good, and I never got the chance to get another instructor. Oh, "why the violin" you might ask, well here's the reason: everyone in highschool was playing the guitar, the bass or the drums, and I got sick of the whole trend and decided to learn to play something *perhaps* more sophisticated.

   I'm aware of the fact that calling one's self an "atheist" is the easiest way to lose respect in the eyes of people, but to be honest, if I had to be labelled as something considering my religious standpoint, I'd say that I am one. Some people call me agnostic, which is true to a certain extent, but let's just say that I don't believe in God as we know it, but I don't dismiss the whole deal so easily. I'm a "cultural Muslim", meaning that my behavior and values are mostly shaped by the Turco-Islamic culture and I sympathise easily with the rest of the Muslim community, but I'm not religious. I will get into much more detail about this in a blog entry, and I will link to the entry from this spot in a future date.

   My view on life is never to be on the extremes. When I was a teenager, I used to have quite extreme standpoints, mostly politically and socially, but it all changed when I've been to college. I used to consider myself homophobic, but I've grown out of it, for example. I used to hate this and hate that, I used to snap at people, etc. It just all changed. A big support came from my sister, brother-in-law, and my good friend back in college, Jianyi Liu.

General Interests
Interests:	SCUBA Diving, Aquariums, Pets, Paintball, Video Games, Computer Graphics, Fishing, Nargile, History, Politics, Anthropology
Favorite Music Genres:	Jazz, Rock (mostly 60s, 70s and 80s), Classical, Chill-out, Heavy Metal (mostly 80s and early 90s), Alternative
Favorite Bands and Artists:
- Rock:	Pink Floyd, The Who, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, The Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Joy Division
- Jazz:	Brad Mehldau, Dave Brubeck, Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Zoot Sims, Keith Jarrett
- Heavy Metal:	Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne
- Alternative:	Sigur Ros, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Portishead, Mogwai, Radiohead, UNKLE, The Prodigy, The Rapture, Gorillaz, The Flaming Lips, Tortoise, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Aphex Twin, Replikas (Turkish band), Stereolab
Favorite TV Shows:	Battlestar Galactica (2003), Lost, House M.D., Rome, Family Guy, The Office, Weeds, Seinfeld
Favorite Anime:	Full Metal Alchemist, Bleach, Full Metal Panic, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Berserk, Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Last Exile
Favorite Movies:	Star Wars (I'm a fanboy), Dead Poets Society, Scarface... well it's countless actually.
Favorite Computer Games:	Civilization (the whole series), Half-Life (the whole series), Counter-Strike (used to be a favorite), Command and Conquer (the whole series except Red Alert 2), The Sims (you've got a problem with that?), Simcity 3000 & 4000, Theme Hospital (ah, the nostalgia)