Following are the SMS messages I've saved on my mobile phone for various reasons. Note: I've kept the spelling and formatting exactly as typed in the SMS except for the bolding.
2002-11-04:
YO BROKE MY HEART JOE..WHY DID YOU GIVE UP SENDING E-MAIL ME?WHEN ARE YO GOING TO GOING BACK YOUR COUNTRY?DON'T FORGET THIS:YOU BROLE MY HEART..- from a girl at a Mersin school I visited for work. I must have been one of her first ever secret crushes - I certainly didn't know about it. Ah, the innocence...
2003-11-01:
Hi¿o€!while i was thinking smth ,i thought that u are very kind-hearthed suddenly it occured to my mind when i was tried to sleep,i wanted say it;> - from another girl whose school I visited around the same time as the previous one. Warms the cockles of one's heart...
2004-04-23:
" A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words " i just wanna share it,I lowe this words- from a third former Mersin high school girl and a friend of the previous SMS sender.
2004-09-15:
YES!YES!YES!!!IT'S TRADITIONAL 2 B UNHAPPY ON TURKISH WEDDINGS!! >:-(( (I have 2 find something with australian boys>:-) do u like the oil?- A newly wedded Turkish friend sometime after I had explained to her that, by tradition, a Turkish bride should be sad on her wedding day as she is being taken away from her family to join her husband's.
2006-07-21:
You should be a journalist!- so wrote the Age's Europe correspondent
James Button when he was in Mersin for the Lebanese refugee
crisis.
Is anyone else willing to share their SMS's?
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Labels: personal
Recently I've been reading a
few libertarian-slanted blogs. I'm by no means a libertarian and disagree with much that is written. However, there are several libertarian issues that interest me, such as:
* an end to corporate welfare
* a sunset clause for all government legislation
* a simplified taxation system
* a realistic view of the threat of international terrorism
* an unrestricted internet
* true free trade
Although I live a long way away, I still try to stay in touch with Australian current affairs. From my observations, Australian politics is staid with few new ideas promoted. The
Liberal Democratic Party could make politics more interesting with their
different views. To be noticed they will have to promote their party well.
My first and foremost wish for the next Australian Federal election is to see the back of the current dishonest and disgraceful government. Other than that, I'd like the Independent candidates, Democrats, Greens, LDP and other minor parties to each gain significant votes in order to shake up Australian politics. I doubt this will happen but I can only hope.
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Labels: australia, personal, politics
The above photo (featuring Nesibe) was taken partially reflecting and partially through a glass pane.
A delicious and relatively light cream fruit cake from Denizkizi Pastanesi (Mermaid Cake Shop).
A section of my female boss' desk, featuring 4 telephones (two wireless landline, 2 mobile), a telephone battery, an air conditioning remote control, an escape key and a pen.
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Labels: food, gadgets, personal
*
326 - The old St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.
*
1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land, begins.
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1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son's head.
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1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands.
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1493 - Christopher Columbus first sights what is now Puerto Rico.
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1626 - St. Peter's Basilica is consecrated.
*
1686 - Charles Francois Felix operates on King Louis XIV's anal fistula after practicing the surgery on several peasants.
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1803 - the Battle of Vertières, the last major battle of the Haitian Revolution, is fought, leading to the establishment of the Republic of Haiti, the first black republic in the Western Hemisphere.
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1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
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1903 - The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty is signed by the United States and Panama, giving the Americans exclusive rights over the Panama Canal Zone.
*
1905 - Prince Carl of Denmark becomes King Haakon VII of Norway.
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1916 - World War I: First Battle of the Somme ends - In France, British Expeditionary Force commander Douglas Haig calls off the battle which started on July 1, 1916.
*
1918 - Latvia declares its independence from Russia.
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1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize."
*
1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
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1940 - World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
* 1977 - Mum gave birth to Joseph Kieran, Dad's and her second child and first son, at the Ceduna Memorial Hospital.*
1978 - Jonestown incident: In Guyana, Jim Jones leads his Peoples Temple cult in a mass murder-suicide that claims 918 lives in all, 909 of them at Jonestown itself, including over 270 children.
*
1985 - Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, is first published.
*
1987 - King's Cross fire: In London, 31 people die in a fire at the city's busiest underground station at King's Cross St Pancras.
*
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free.
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1991 - After the 3-month siege, the Croatian city of Vukovar is invaded by Serbians
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1993 - In South Africa, 21 political parties approve a new constitution.
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1997 - Gary Glitter is arrested in the United Kingdom on child pornography charges.
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2004 - Russia officially ratifies the Kyoto Protocol.
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Labels: personal
