Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Free Reflection
Swimming
Swimming is something like a hobby for me. I cant call it a hobby "directly". The reason is that I actually don't enjoy the sport itself much. I have always found it too difficult. I cant swim fast as my style suffers from a few fundemental errors embedded in it due to learning how to swim on my own at age 20, without any expert coaching. Actually my motivation to start it was an advice of a friend in the university who said that if somebody swims an hour twice a week, he would be in need of no additional exercise to keep fit. Normally I dont give a f.ck to every advice of everybody. But the foresaid advice was an advice of Şamil Baba, who was a fitness champion of great personality with a Chechen origin. We were recruits of him in the fitness saloon of the university. And he was our idol. After graduating, I started swimming and in the last 10 years I have been swimming regularly. Sometimes just once a week, sometimes as much as 3 times a week. And joining the Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race was a dream for me for the last a few years. Last year I prepared hard for it when I was in İstanbul from late march till mid June. I was staying in Beyazıd and going to an olympic pool of the IBB in Aksaray for the first month. After the first month I went on with ITU olympic pool in Maslak campus. I tried hard by going to the pool three times a week during the god damn rush hour of İstanbul. But my best time was 20 minutes and 33 seconds for 800 meters. It was still 3 minutes slower than the required time in the qualifications of the bosphorus race. So I decided not to try anymore to get faster and forget about the race. Now I swim for pleasure, it takes all my electricity and stressJ And to note, I have always been using university pools; Bogazici, Erciyes, Tobb ETU, METU and ITU are the universities whose pools I have enjoyed much. And let’s not forget the IBB pool in Aksaray, old city, Istanbul.
Swimming is something like a hobby for me. I cant call it a hobby "directly". The reason is that I actually don't enjoy the sport itself much. I have always found it too difficult. I cant swim fast as my style suffers from a few fundemental errors embedded in it due to learning how to swim on my own at age 20, without any expert coaching. Actually my motivation to start it was an advice of a friend in the university who said that if somebody swims an hour twice a week, he would be in need of no additional exercise to keep fit. Normally I dont give a f.ck to every advice of everybody. But the foresaid advice was an advice of Şamil Baba, who was a fitness champion of great personality with a Chechen origin. We were recruits of him in the fitness saloon of the university. And he was our idol. After graduating, I started swimming and in the last 10 years I have been swimming regularly. Sometimes just once a week, sometimes as much as 3 times a week. And joining the Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race was a dream for me for the last a few years. Last year I prepared hard for it when I was in İstanbul from late march till mid June. I was staying in Beyazıd and going to an olympic pool of the IBB in Aksaray for the first month. After the first month I went on with ITU olympic pool in Maslak campus. I tried hard by going to the pool three times a week during the god damn rush hour of İstanbul. But my best time was 20 minutes and 33 seconds for 800 meters. It was still 3 minutes slower than the required time in the qualifications of the bosphorus race. So I decided not to try anymore to get faster and forget about the race. Now I swim for pleasure, it takes all my electricity and stressJ And to note, I have always been using university pools; Bogazici, Erciyes, Tobb ETU, METU and ITU are the universities whose pools I have enjoyed much. And let’s not forget the IBB pool in Aksaray, old city, Istanbul.
Reflection Task 3
My Candidate For The Person Of The Year
To be honest, I have been
thinking hard for the last 20 minutes on whom to nominate for the person of the
year and guess what? I have no idea!!! This must be because of the fact that I
actually pay no attention to the artificial reflections of the life out of my
personal sphere and the fictive characters that we can all see on every kind of
screen. So, I can’t think of anybody else other than me for the person of the
year 2015. Yes, you heard right. For me it is me, myselfJ First of all, being
still alive in the year 2015 is a great success of mine, or I might correct it;
it is a great chance of mine or a great gift presented to me. Do you wonder why
it is something great just to be alive, as it is something so ordinary? Let me
explain. I arrived on the verge of death on May 15th, 2014 because
of a tragicomic bike accident on Büyükada. I had to stay in the hospital from
14/05/2014 to 13/06/2014. The least serious of the injuries I had was a left
hand wrist radius distal end fracture. The more serious one was an internal
bleeding of grade 3 in the spleen. Thanks god it wasn’t grade 4 or higher,
because if so, I would have had to have my spleen taken out, and loose an
integral part of my immune system. Nonetheless, I had to be fed with just serum
for a week lying on the bed loosing almost 9 kg in a single week. But still this
wasn’t the most serious of the injuries. At the end of that first week of false
diagnosis of the fuckingly stupid doctors, it was found out that I also had an
internal bleeding of the left lung out of a fracture of the 9th
costa or rib. And I was about to die out of the collected blood between the
pleura and the lung. A woman doctor on the 8th day of the hospital
stay, dug a 1 cm diameter entrance below my left shoulder and inserted a tube
to the close neighborhood of my left lung. With local anesthesia!!! I could
follow her cut me and press that plastic tube hard amid my ribs. It really hurt!!!
And she said; cough now! After a small cough of mine, there was half liters of
blood in the bottle on the other edge of the tube. Stupid doctors caused me to
live with that pain for a week, being unable to breathe!!! And I had to live in
the hospital for the following 3 weeks. Thanks to god, I recovered to a great
extent just after the second month. So, living a second life, I am the person
of the year for myselfJ thanks to god of course!!!
Reflection Task 2b
Reflection Task 2b
I want to talk a bit about the TV serial “Mad Men”.
I used to watch it heavily in 2010. The serial started to be broadcast in 2007
and the final episode was in May 2015. The serial is about the advertising
sector of 1960s in the US. The 1960s are the times when advertising on TV was
getting more and more important. The serial narrates the life of people in the
Sterling&Cooper Advertising Agency. The starring of the serial is mainly
Don Drapper. Creative director and junior partner of Sterling Cooper
Advertising Agency and, as of the sixth season, a partner of Sterling Cooper
& Partners, he is the series' main character. He is a hard-drinking,
chain-smoking executive with a shadowy past who has achieved success in
advertising. It was gradually disclosed over the seasons that Draper's real
name is Dick Whitman. He stole the identity of Lieutenant Don Draper during the
Korean War, who was killed in front of him when their entire unit was wiped out
in a battle, except for Whitman, who was wounded. Draper was due to be sent
home, so by switching dog tags with him, Dick found a way to escape his family
history with which he was so unhappy. Actually he is a talented, smart and
good-looking guy. He became a partner of the advertising agency where he started
in a humble position. The director of the serial reflects the life of people in
the Sterling&Cooper to be full of harsh competition. Everybody tries to
promote to higher positions. Also there is great deal of stress due the
attitudes of the clients. I totally agree with the way the director depicts difficulties
of professional life. Competition and rivalry is everywhere. Young
professionals can learn much from the story of the serial. The settings and
dressing style of the characters reflect the 1960s perfectly. The serial also
covers important historical events such as Korean and Wietnam Wars, landing on
the moon, the death of Marilyn Monroe and so on. It conveys a nostalgic air
amid the screen. I always found this serial really impressing and enjoyable to
watch.
Reflection Task 2a
Reflection Task 2a
I want to choose the topic as sports. Sports is an
indispensable element in the lives of people in modern times. Sports touches
the lives of ours in two distinct ways; either as a way of mass- entertainment
or some kind of personal hobby. First of all, sports is a huge industry in
modern world. Football and basketball alone have hundreds of millions of spectators
around the world. Some these people watch the games in their homes while some
others enjoy watching the games in the stadiums or saloons. The teams they
support have a great deal of importance and meaning for them. These people
associate their social life with the team they support. They go to the matches,
buy the products their team offers and talk about the matches among friends as
a way of socialization. There are millions of fans of the famous players. Take
Messi as an example, for instance. Football fans get crazy for him. This is the
case in Europe. People in America enjoy basketball more. There is also a
personal aspect of sports. People play different sports games themselves as a
way of spending good time, either alone or with friends. For instance, there
are people who come together every week for a miniature football match. Friends
can have the chance to enjoy a socially sportive event in this way. Also people
make use of personal sports like swimming, running and cycling as a means of
keeping fit. This is also very valuable for health. Regular exercise and sports
helps keeping healthy to a great extent. As for me, I like personal sports more
than the team games. I swim regularly to keep fit and healthy. Also it is very
useful about lowering the stress level. I also like playing tennis and watching
tennis matches very much. On the other hand, I find football excessively
industrialized. And it causes people to spend too much time watching the games.
And the party benefiting the least out of football is the supporters. They are
the party spending money and time, but others are the winners. I thing people have to orient themselves more
to the personal sports that can be done on one’s own. This will be more healthy
and economical for the people.
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