Home Theater

Watched 'Le Divorce' on DVD. Disappointed to see no additional material on it. The movie itself was pretty good. A very good cast, original storyline, and original film with very good snapshots of Paris.

Just what you would expect from an Mechant-Ivory movie set in the 21st century. There are some very 'interesting' scenes involving Americans making comments about French people and vice versa. :)

Metacritic score for this movie is 51, I would definitely rate it 80+. [Yeah, I tend exagerate a bit :]

Local Elections in Turkey

Local goverment elections in Turkey were today. AKP did not reached the 'feared' percentage (65%) of the votes, but they votes increased by 10 percentage points to 42%.

CHP lost some ground. Apparently, all the parties on theleft lost some ground; the traditional 40% votes to the left was down to 20%, probably for the first time.

According to early results, 81 mayor positions are distributed as follows: AKP 56, CHP 9, SHP 5, MHP 4, DSP 2, DYP 1, SP 1 and independent 1.

I still cannot believe we have some many political parties in the election: This year's count was 15. Ten of these parties have received less than 3% of the votes.

TRT is running a decent election site.

Cyprus

Southern part of the island is about to join the EU, and Turkish ans Greek sides are being forced to reach a decision on what is going to happen to the Northern (Turkish) part.

All parties (Turkey, Greece, KKTC (North), Cyprus (South)) are in Switzerland to discuss options. It took them two days to start the discussions. Reaching a decision will be very hard, keeping that decision is probably impossible.

UN and EU is pushing hard for a quick resolution, but both Trukish and Greek sides of the island are separated for the last 30 years, and both sides are stubborn, geting hanged up on minor details. I am not sure this is such a good idea. Turks and Greeks are not mature enough to reach common ground, and keep the peace; UN and EU are asking for trouble. We'll see...

Runaway Jury

Saw 'Runaway Jury' on DVD. Was a lot better than we expected. The book should be very good.

The 'bathroom' scene between Hoffman and Hackman is a treat. Extras on DVD include interviews with Hoffman and Hackman about their past and the bathroom scene.

Listening to... while speeding

Now in CD changer:

- Iron Maiden Dance of Death
- Evanescence Fallen
- Evanescence Origin

Last Week's Health Issues

After a fairly fast recovery period, initial results are:

- Nasal Septoplasty, and Turbinate Surgery: Feels like there are two large holes in the middle of my face (some call these 'the nose;' I didn't know).

- Lipoma Excision: Occasional healing pain, and a huge scar (18 stitches long), will probably disappear minus a tiny line.

- Skin Tag Removal: Can't tell where they were...

Headscarf Ban in France

After years of dissing Turkey's efforts to ban headscarfs in public offices and schools, a member of EU decided to do the same. I guess EU is now ready join Turkey in her path to modernism. :)