Emir Aydin » Personal http://www.emiraydin.com/blog Personal Webpage | Blog Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:50:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Remembrance Day at McGill http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/remembrance-day-at-mcgill/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/remembrance-day-at-mcgill/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 17:06:21 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/remembrance-day-at-mcgill/ 20111111-120638.jpg

Title says it all.

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/remembrance-day-at-mcgill/feed/ 0 First post from my iPhone 4S http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/first-post-from-my-iphone-4s/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/first-post-from-my-iphone-4s/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 21:40:29 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/first-post-from-my-iphone-4s/ Now there is a reason to blog more often! Say hi to my iPhone 4S!

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/first-post-from-my-iphone-4s/feed/ 0 Moved to a New Host & .net to .com http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/moved-to-a-new-host-and-net-to-com/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/moved-to-a-new-host-and-net-to-com/#comments Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:42:05 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/?p=300 Recently, I have changed my host which brought about lots of other things to do. Since I started publishing my website in 2006, I was using emiraydin.net as my primary domain because someone got .com before me in 2005. I acquired .com domain in late 2007 and redirected it to .net. So, .com was redirecting to .net for past 3 years. However, I instantly decided to use .com as my primary and left my worries about PageRank, SEO, etc. behind. I am now using .htaccess 301 redirect from .net domain to .com domain which relieved  my SEO concerns. From now on, emiraydin.com will be my primary domain.

Also, I’ve played with the code of the think bubble on the top of the webpage because the script could not get my Twitter status when Twitter was down and thus was causing a fatal error. I wrote a new script for that which will tell when Twitter is down instead of giving meaningless error messages causing to a mess in whole webpage’s view.

In addition to these recent changes, you will also see me setting up new projects very soon.

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/moved-to-a-new-host-and-net-to-com/feed/ 0 My Best of Beatles Playlist http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/my-best-of-beatles-playlist/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/my-best-of-beatles-playlist/#comments Sat, 25 Sep 2010 03:41:30 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/?p=286 I have created my new the Beatles playlist, and listening to it frequently. Don’t take the rankings in order since I love all of these songs, but I love the ones at the top more : )
Without further ado, here are my top Beatles songs:

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
2. All My Loving
3. All You Need is Love
4. Hey Jude
5. I’ve Just Seen a Face
6. I Me Mine
7. Strawberry Fields Forever
8. Across the Universe
9. Come Together
10. A Day in Life (also listen to Jeff Beck’s solo version, it’s cool)
11. With a Little Help From My Friends
12. I’ve Got a Feeling
13. In My Life
14. And I Love Her
15. I Want to Hold Your Hand
16. Let It Be
17. Free As a Bird
18. Here Comes the Sun
19. Ticket to Ride
20. We Can Work It Out
21. I Want You
22. Yesterday
23. Get Back
24. Help!
25. Revolution
26. One After 909
27. She Loves You
28. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
29. Eleanor Rigby
30. Dig a Pony
31. Something
32. Hey Bulldog
33. Oh! Darling

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/my-best-of-beatles-playlist/feed/ 0 End of the McGill Frosh Week, Classes Begin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/end-of-the-mcgill-frosh-week-classes-begin/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/end-of-the-mcgill-frosh-week-classes-begin/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:05:52 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/?p=282 I arrived at Montreal on August 21st, and I have been experiencing lots of orientation activities for past week. It was an awesome beginning; I met lots of people that I will be dealing for next 4 years. These were the activities I was in:

August 23 – Rez Fest
August 24 – Discover McGill & Street Fest
August 25,26,27 – Science Frosh Mardi Gras
August 28,29 – SSMU Frosh

I just toured around the city with my friends on August 30&31. Signed up for the gym, looked for the buildings where my classes will take place. Tomorrow is the day! Classes begin! After 5 days of laziness of the frosh week!

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/end-of-the-mcgill-frosh-week-classes-begin/feed/ 0 History of Tarsus American College http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/history-of-tarsus-american-college/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/history-of-tarsus-american-college/#comments Thu, 27 May 2010 14:26:41 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/?p=264 I have been recently working on the information about my school in Wikipedia. Even though I have came to an end with my high school life, the journey of Tarsus American College has just begun for me since the taste of its traditions and spirit flourishes with graduation and never ends. I have been reading about school’s history for a long time and now that I am graduating from high school, I believe that this is the time for me to share some authentic facts and unique documents about my school which has a history of 122 years, Tarsus American College in Turkey.

Name and Establishment

Tarsus American College or sometimes referred as Tarsus American School (Tarsus Amerikan Koleji, Ozel Tarsus Amerikan Lisesi in Turkish) is a private coeducational school located in the historic city of Tarsus, province Mersin, Turkey.

The school was established in 1888 under the name St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus and was in close contact with the American Board Foundation. It was regarded as one of the missionary schools in Turkey. The school had to endure difficult times in the World War I and ultimately was entitled to be a high school governed by the Turkish Republic in 1928, under an administration led by Mr. Woolworth. After the school began to be governed by the Turkish Republic, it was named Tarsus American College.

Buildings

The symbolic building of the school, Stickler Hall (click here for the picture), was finished construction in 1911. It has been the tallest building of old Tarsus, 21 meters height. After new buildings were constructed in Tarsus in 2000s, Stickler Hall lost this title. Stickler Hall stands out with its high roof reflecting a triangle on every side. Stickler Hall now hosts many classrooms, the Social Sciences and Literature Departments, and an auditorium. Stickler was restored between 1997 and 1999.

As the time went by, Unity Hall, Friendship Hall, Sports Hall, Sadik Pasha Mansion, Centennial Hall, Maynard Hall and lots of accommodation halls were added to the school campus.

Graduation and Diplomas

TAC graduated its first alumni in 1930. I have found the very first diploma given by TAC, this was an old document located in the Administration Building. As you can see in the picture above, this diploma is quite old and those were the times when TAC was regarded as St. Paul’s Institute at Tarsus. The old school motto caught my eye on this diploma: ” And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ ” I searched this sentence, and it seems to be quoted from Bible which reflects that the diploma was given at the times when TAC was a missionary school.

Academics

- TAC started co-ed education in 1979. Alongside 506 boys, there were 35 girls in the student body.
- Once been a part of school life, the boarding section for boys opened in 2002.
- The boarding section for girls was opened in 2008 for the first time.
- TAC began to offer International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme in November 2004.

The Tradition: “the Abi-Abla System”

TAC is one of the two schools which apply this system in Turkey. It is called the Abi-Abla System and the other school that has this tradition in Turkey is Galatasaray High School in Istanbul. This system is not administered by the school administration, it has become a part of school life and is administered by the student body. In this system, there is an enormous respect between the higher classes and the lower classes. For instance, a 9th grader calls a senior as “Abi” (male-brother) or “Abla” (female-sister). Each year, senior classes  become the leaders of this system and they listen to the concerns of students and organize many activities outside school. These activities include dinner meetings (yemek) and other meetings known as çay, çardak and hangar. Each year, a group of senior students is assigned to the lower classes as Abis and Ablas to continue this spirit and organize meetings when needed. Unlike many other schools, TAC students may protest the administration if they really believe that something wrong was done. This is not a typical quality of high school students, but TAC students are mostly loud which make them regarded leaders in their community. For the freedom and free thought it gives, TAC serves the quality of a university life.

This system has been long discussed by the new teachers and administrators; however, as the alumni notice, this system is the main reason behind TAC being a leader school with the motto “Leaders for Turkey, leadership for the world.” Today, many TAC graduates are regarded in their community as leaders and they continued to lead in their future life with what they learned from TAC. Among these graduates, Muhtar Kent is the Global CEO of the Coca-Cola Company, Mehmet Emin Karamehmet is the founder of Turkcell (the biggest mobile company in Turkey), Cengiz Candar, Oral Calislar, Mete Akyol  and Ayse Arman are famous journalists, Istemihan Talay is a former minister and Member of the Parliament and Necati Güler is the former captain of the Turkish National Basketball Team. There are lots of musicians, academicians, researchers and businessmen among TAC alumni. Most of them are the leaders in their industry and they say that they are thankful to TAC for the leadership and community qualities it has earned to them.

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/history-of-tarsus-american-college/feed/ 0 Back to School http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/back-to-school/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/back-to-school/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:44:00 +0000 admin http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/back-to-school/ The last year of my high school education started this week on Monday. As the followers of the school tradition, we came into school with t-shirts, flag and poster that I have designed. Additionally, I received the Guner Baykal Award which is given for the first time to the student with the highest honor points. That was me last year; therefore, I won a ticket to New York as a prize. In short, everything went fine this week; I hope it will also on following days.

]]> http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/back-to-school/feed/ 0 Community Service & Learning Conference http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/community-service-learning-conference/ http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/community-service-learning-conference/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:36:04 +0000 emir http://www.emiraydin.com/blog/?p=154 From March 4 to March 8, I attended the Community Service & Learning Conference which was held in Lisbon, Portugal. It was an awesome organization; moreover, I visited a mental hospital for the first time in my life. The people in there were not different than an ordinary people by their actions. “They are just like one of us… They are learning maths and creating new things which are being sold later.” as I mentioned in my speech group presentation. The most impressive things that I saw in there were the couples. Some of the patients were living as couples; furthermore, these couples cared about each other. For instance, one was giving the crayons while the other was painting. These people were amazing; my predictions were extremely false about these people because they were not different than ordinary people.

After visiting the mental hospital, our team leaders led us to take a city tour in Lisbon. Buildings were amazing, people were respectful, meals were good, so what could you expect more? In addition, nights of Cascais were wonderful too. By the way, Portuguese culture gives their teenagers more freedom comparing to many other countries. You can go into every night club that you wish to if you are over 16.

My Portuguese friends, thank you all for your hospitality and wish to see you in Turkey soon.

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