First reflection: My Beloved METU

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Reflection:Most Efficient Five Ways to Sleep

Most Efficient Five Ways to Sleep

                                                                           

There are a lot of people around the world who complain about not being able to get a good sleep. But getting a good night sleep is an important key for especially students. Because it improves learning capacity of our brains. If you are one of them, sit back, relax and start reading this guide. Here we go!

Firstly, you should know that we have a body clock. That means actually we don’t need alarming clock or a cock which makes us get up on the mornings. Body clock can set itself up by observing your sleeping and getting up times. When your getting up time come, this clock start alarming in our brains and we get up. But if you don’t have a stabilized schedule, body clock can’t do its job. For this reason set a bedtime schedule for yourself. For example, go to bed at the same time every night. Be regular. The most important mistake we do is oversleeping to make up sleeping after a poor night’s sleep. At the night whose morning you oversleep on, you will be sleepy later, therefore, you will get up late on the next morning. Doing this resets your body clock.  Get up at the same time every day especially on that morning.

Secondly, light help you set your body clock. After getting up, go out to get some light. Or turn on all lights in the room. Walk around for a minutes. This get your blood circulating faster to carry more oxygen to your brain to help you be ready for day. Water also help you be ready. If you have enough time –when you set up body clock, you will have- take a shower. But hot water makes your muscles loose and be you sleepy again.

Thirdly, when you sleep less, keep physical activity of your body during the day. When you are inactive, your blood will slow and carry less oxygen to brain, which causes you feel tired and sleepy. In order to avoid that, you can do strenuous exercises as swimming, jogging, squash at in late afternoon . These ensure blood circulating permanency. After a tiring day, take a bath and sleep like a top till morning.

Although you do this exercises all day, if you feel sleepy, taking a nap can seem a making up way for lost sleep. But this is another mistake people do. It doesn’t make up last night sleep, steals some part of this night sleep. At night, when you go your bed, you feel vigilant and can sleep at the time when you can sleep at last night. Whenever you feel sleepy at daytime, just walk around or do something which have your brain worked and been alert.

Finally, foods or drinks which we eat have effect on our sleeps, too. Schedule your dinner time at least four hours before your going to bed time. Because digestive system should finish its job when you are ready to sleep. After late afternoon, avoid caffeine and tyrosine-rich foods which cause wakefulness and hyperactivity. Drinking a little alcohol may help you sleep. But it can result with disturbed and shallow sleep. Instead of alcohol, a glass of warm milk will be of help.

As mentioned above, being regular about sleeping schedule, setting up body clock, doing exercises, avoiding oversleep and taking a nap and paying attention what and when to eat are ways to get a good sleep. I hope it will be benefical for you. Sleep well!

Reflection: Effects of Removing Yellow Lamps Fom Traffic

                              Effects Of Removing Yellow Lamps From Traffic

    Yellow lamps in traffic mean that ‘’ Be ready for going on’’. They are very eye-catching for drivers. They also mean to a signal for stopping to waiting. Contrary to their functions on traffic, yellow lamps are known with their different and surprising meaning by some drivers. Then they may cause to disagreements among drivers because of meaning differences of them in drivers’ mind. So, yellow lamps are generally unneccassary for traffic in terms of their negative effects.

    Nowadays, removing of yellow lamps from traffic is mentioned. This practice is really truth decison due to some negative effects of them. Almost everyıne witnessed that when yellow lamp lights, the drivers starts to go on without waiting green lamp. If they are removed from traffic, the traffic will be much more flowing. At least, there won’t be rule violation as much as before. On the other hand, there will be also the negative effects of removing yellow lamps. Even there are rule vialation because of them, they are at least a signal to drivers for when red or green lamp will light. So the driver who drives fast can slow down and prevent possible accident.

    Yellow lamps also have different meanings among drivers. Drivers die to go on instead of waiting the green lamp when yellow lamp lights after red lamp. But some councious drivers keep to wait despite all the horn noises coming from back. So it means ‘’ go’’ for some drives although it doesn’t really. Namely ıf there are removed the disagreements among drivers may be solved. But then, there may be another conflict for drivers. For example, fast drivers cannot easily stop because of their speed  and may cause to a serious accident. Yellow lamp tells us when the other lamps light. Without them the traffic will not be secure for people.

    In west countries, there is almost nowhere which uses yellow lamps. It means that Turkey hasn’t civilized yet in the mind of Europeans. So it is a discouraging matter about our country. Simply, even European Union ruled us to remover yellow lamps. If it is neccassary to removing them to be EU country,  yellow lamps obviously have negative effects to us. Furthermore, there is always dispute among not only drivers but also governments about removing them. On the other hand, it is always a question for us why EU wants us to removing yellow lamps. Do they try to change our proper or do they want to make us like them in terms of living rules. Even more, yellow lamps’ not being in west countries doesn’t mean that there is no traffic accidents or disagreements on traffic.

    In short, removing yellow lamps from traffic in Turkey is a controversial issue. Thinking about its advantages and disadvantages, I suppose it is much more sensible to remove them. Because I think, the more there are rules, the more there are rule violations.

Video reflection: Critic Revolution Of Egypt

Critic Revolution Of Egypt

    Egypt, as an Arab country, has an important geography and authority on Middle East. While everyone is focusing on the war at Libya nowadays, the revolution is still playing out in Egypt. They are on the first phase to have a real democratic future. It is said thay the chance of success are greatly increased if the United States and the other major democratic nations stand by ready to help.

     On March 19, Egypt held its first free and fair election. In NY times the topic ‘’ Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution’’ mentions about taht issue unobjectively. The objectiveless of the topic is obvious. It says that Egypt will not be successfull in its revolution without United States’ help. Today everyone knows the dominance of United States on world. I accept United States’ overwhelmin superiority to other governments, but it never means that every country on the world is in need of United States.

    The story tells that a recently announced multimillion dollar  American economic aid package is a goog start.  The Obama administration also promised to sustain its longstanding aid to Egypt, which runs about 1,5 millipn dollar a year, mostly for the military. So the offer of United States may look appropriate to Egypt. Contrary to the offer’s conformity, I am opposed to accepting it. Because Egypt is the most important Arab country and touchstone of change in Arab world.

A “FF” Means “a Fatal Fear” For You ?

            How would you feel if you wore a t-shirt on which there is a word “Loser”. A lot of you answer this question as of horrible, debased or debauched. A college student who is not succesful in a course is made to put on this t-shirt unconsciously. Getting FF makes a student feel like wearing that t-shirt. Although there are some people claim that grading system has positive effects on students, it has more negative effects than positives. In a world, being only goal, grades are detrimental to a student’s education.

Those people claiming that grading system has positive effects say that a student who get FF or sub-A grades see his situation in a course and study harder for getting it better, which is true. But  thinking mechanism can’t skip the sorrowing period. In this period, student may not be able to think steadly. He feel grounded. This is because, a hierarchical grading system marks some students above others. Students think that the way to be successful isn’t getting high score, is getting higher scores than others or we can say that it becomes a competition.

Despite the fact that competition helps student improve individual achievement, important for personal development, the goal of education is to learn together as a group. Competition usually discourages students from working together and finally learning. Working in a group is so important that they need it throughout their lifes.

Although there are positive results of education like peer working, students still see themselves unsuccessful when they get sub-A grades. “A” grade seems a mark of success for both students and parents. They don’t classify any grade below it as praiseworthy, howsoever they make their grade, for example, from CC to BB. Sometimes, student do everything he can do, but he can’t get hoped grade. In this case, parents should comfort student and motivate him to study harder to get better grade. This should be done by teacher, too.

In addition to motivate student, teachers also help his students by giving specific assignments of which grades show a student’s academic ability. Teacher should do constructive criticism on student’s work. A lot of teachers do it. But the key is student, again. Students often ignore their teacher’s comments and only focus on their grades. Actually, by ignoring this comments, students ignore the opportunities for developing his work. A graded work seems a finished assignment that can’t be developed for students. Feedbacking period is benefical if student play his role at this period.

It appears that grades have sembolic meanings for students and the proportion of sembolic grades showing success is limited to “A”. Before letting this letters harm student’s education, educators should consider whether these letters really show students performance. When a student see a “FF”, the first thing which comes to his brain should be “non Flourished Feat” instead of “Fatal Fear”.

Reflection 5: Internet Addiction

The internet provides a constant, ever-changing source of information and entertainment, and can be accessed from most smart phones as well as tablets, laptops, and computers. Email, blogs, social networks, and message boards allow for communication about any topic. But how much is too much internet usage?We can conclude from the cartoon that spending a lot of time online only becomes a problem when it absorbs too much of your time, causing you to neglect your relationships, your children, school, or other important things in your life.It is mentioned ironically.From the cartoon,we can understand that people don’t accept their situation. In my opinion this cartoon is very meaningful .Because a lot of people in almost every country have this problem. I agree with the artist because internet-addicted people lose themselves in the internet world.They feel more comfortable with their online friends than their real ones, or they can’t stop themselves from playing games, gambling, or compulsively surfing, even when it has negative consequences in their life, then they may be using the internet too much.As a result they forget their family. Many people use internet  in order to come up with  unpleasant feelings such as stress, loneliness, depression.But,it’s important to remember that there are healthier (and more effective) ways to keep difficult feelings in check. These may include exercising, meditating,and practicing simple breathing exercises.People can also pass their time doing some activities with their family,so they can remember their children J After all, if people  keep repeating compulsive internet behavior despite the negative consequences in their real life, then it’s time to strike a new balance.I completely agree with the cartoon’s message.We shouldn’t neglect our family because of the internet world.

Video reflection: The Pianist

The Pianist is a 2002 biographical war film directed by Roman Polanski, starring Adrien Brody. It is an adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Jewish-Polish musician Władysław Szpilman. The film is a co-production between Poland, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Władysław Szpilman (Adrien Brody), a famous Polish Jewish pianist working for Warsaw Radio, sees his whole world collapse with the Invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and the subsequent outbreak of World War II. After the radio station is rocked by explosions from German bombing, Szpilman goes home and learns that Britain and France have declared war on Nazi Germany. He and his family rejoice, believing the war will end quickly.

When the German Army enters Warsaw, living conditions for the Jewish population gradually deteriorate as their rights are slowly eroded: first they are allowed only a limited amount of money per family, then they must wear armbands imprinted with the blue Star of David to identify themselves, and eventually, in November 1940, they are all forced into the squalid Warsaw Ghetto. There, they face hunger, persecution and humiliation from the SS and the ever-present fear of death, torture and starvation. The Nazis become increasingly sadistic and the family witnesses many horrors inflicted on other Jews. In one scene, a group of Einsatzgruppen, led by an NCO, go into the apartment across from the Szpilmans. They order the family on the top floor to stand, then when an elderly man in a wheelchair is unable to comply, the SS throw him off the balcony. The rest of the family are then taken out into the street and shot, and the SS drive off, running over the bodies along the way.

Before long, the family, along with thousands of others, are rounded up as part of Operation Reinhard for deportation to the extermination facility at Treblinka. As the Jews are being forced onto rail cars, Szpilman is saved at the last moment by one of the Jewish Ghetto Police, who happens to be a family friend. Separated from his family and loved ones, Szpilman manages to survive. At first he is pressed into a German reconstruction unit inside the ghetto as a slave labourer. During this period, another Jewish labourer confides to Szpilman two critical pieces of information: one, that many Jews who still survive know of the German plans to exterminate them, and two, that a Jewish uprising against the Germans is being actively prepared for. Szpilman volunteers his help for the plan. He is enlisted to help smuggle weapons into the ghetto, almost being caught at one point.

Later, before the uprising starts, Szpilman decides to go into hiding outside the ghetto, relying on the help of non-Jews who still remember him such as Andrzej Bogucki and his wife Janina Bogucki. While living in hiding, he witnesses many horrors committed by the SS, such as widespread killing, beating and burning of Jews and others (the burning is mostly shown during the two Warsaw uprisings). In 1943, Szpilman also finally witnesses the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising he helped to bring about, and its aftermath as the SS forcibly enters the ghetto and kills nearly all the remaining insurgents. A year goes by and life in Warsaw further deteriorates. Szpilman is forced to flee his first hiding place after a German neighbor discovers he is hiding there. In his second hiding place, near a German military hospital, he is shown into a room with a piano and then told to be as quiet as possible. Here, he nearly dies from jaundice and malnutrition.

In August 1944, the Polish resistance mounts the Warsaw Uprising against the German occupation. Szpilman witnesses the Polish insurgents fighting the Germans outside his window. Again, Szpilman narrowly escapes death when a German tank shells the apartment he is hiding in. Warsaw is virtually razed and depopulated as a result of the fighting (see Aftermath of the Warsaw Uprising). After the surviving Warsaw population is deported from the ruins and the German SS escape from the approaching Soviet Army, Szpilman is left entirely alone. In buildings still standing, he searches desperately for food. While trying to open a can of Polish pickles, Szpilman is discovered by a captain of the Wehrmacht, Wilm Hosenfeld (Thomas Kretschmann). Upon questioning Szpilman and discovering that he is a pianist, Hosenfeld asks Szpilman to play something for him on the grand piano that happens to be in the building. The decrepit Szpilman, still a musical genius, plays "Ballade in G-Minor, Op. 23" by Frederic Chopin, moving Hosenfeld to spare Szpilman.

Hosenfeld lets Szpilman continue hiding in the attic of the building and even brings him food regularly, thus saving his life. Another few weeks go by, and the German troops are forced to withdraw from Warsaw due to the advance of Red Army troops. Before leaving the area, Hosenfeld asks Szpilman what his name is, and, upon hearing it, remarks that it is apt for a pianist (Szpilman being the Polish rendering of the German Spielmann, meaning "man who plays"). Hosenfeld also promises to listen for Szpilman on Polish Radio. He gives Szpilman his Wehrmacht uniform greatcoat and leaves. Later, that coat is almost fatal for Szpilman when Polish troops, liberating the ruins of Warsaw, take him for a German officer and shoot at him. He is eventually able to convince them that he is Polish, and they stop shooting. One soldier asks him why he is wearing a Wehrmacht coat, to which Szpilman replies simply, "I'm cold."

As newly freed prisoners of a concentration camp pass a fenced-in enclosure of German prisoners of war sitting on the ground and guarded by Soviet soldiers, they start collectively verbally abusing the prisoners, with one angry pol that he used to be a violinist, now without his precious violin. A visibly beaten Hosenfeld, a shadow of his former once proud demeanor, comes up to the fence and asks the violinist if he is familiar with Szpilman, a Polish radio pianist, which the violinist confirms. Hosenfeld states that he helped him in hiding and asks if Szpilmann can return the favor. Szpilman, now playing live on Warsaw Radio, is visited by the violinist in the studio, who takes him to the site with all the prisoners having been removed along with any trace of the stockade. In the film's final scene, Szpilman triumphantly performs Chopin's Grand Polonaise brillante in E flat major to a large audience. Notes at the end of the film indicate that Hosenfeld died in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp in 1952 and Chopin's music plays on through the credits.