Research, travel, procrastination-busting.

I’m feeling a little under the weather, but I’m still planning to catch my flight to Izmir tomorrow AM. I haven’t been there for a sermon meeting since October because the hajj season interrupted their regular schedule, so I’m glad to be getting back in touch. My last visit was great.

From Izmir I’ll take a bus to Bursa and spend the night there, which means I’ll be in place for their weekly sermon meeting on Wednesday. After that it’s back to Istanbul.

Last week there was snow and freezing temps across much of Turkey; this week the temp should be in the 60s.

I entered a supermarket In Bursa and immediately noticed that Michael Jackson’s Thriller was playing on the sound system in all its glory. Wow, I thought, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that.

On the ferry back to Istanbul I bought a magazine because the cover headline read “Faith 2.0″ and had features on cross-cultural marriages and a controversial new Turkish film about religion. I noticed after I bought the magazine that it was packaged with its teen magazine counterpart, which had the classic pull-out posters of various pop stars. And who occupied the centerfold?

Michael Jackson.

But not scary Michael Jackson. It was the cover image from his 1982 album.* An album you may have heard of. It was called Thriller .

Yet another weird coincidence approaching slot-car proportions.

(I was also surprised to come across the name of my advisor, Robert Wuthnow, in an article, though it wasn’t in the teen mag and he didn’t have a poster. If there had been a poster, do you think that would’ve gotten special mention in Footnotes ? That’s the kinda public sociology I’m talkin’ about.)

So what’s up with Michael Jackson? I remember that he was still quite popular among youth in Jordan and Egypt, at least 7-8 years ago, but I never thought he was so hot in Turkey. Then again, he seems to be rising again in several markets. As of last week Thriller was #5 on the Irish charts.

*On closer inspection, I don’t think the images are identical. But definitely the same photo shoot.

I’m in Bursa for my weekly observation of the sermon selection meeting at the offices of the mufti. The ferryboat from Istanbul arrives early so I always have about three hours to kill. I’ve found that the most comfortable place to hang out is the Starbucks at a mall near the mufti building. This is also one of the only places where I can charge my laptop and sit for hours without being engulfed in cigarette smoke.

Thanks for the electricity, Starbucks.*

After a few hours there I catch lunch upstairs at a restaurant with healthy homestyle food, out of place among the McDonald’s, Burger King, and other fast food joints in the food court.

After lunch I hang out in the middle of the slightly smoky food court and connect to a really strong wi-fi connection provided free of charge, perhaps unknowingly, by Burger King.

Thanks for the wireless, Burger King.

*I caught a grammatical error on a Starbucks napkin. It made me wonder if they have the same napkins in the U.S. and if anyone would complain.

Just 54 people voted in the Democratic primary in Turkey last Saturday, but thousands more voted around the world. Tonight I learned the Turkish results:

Obama: 60%

Clinton: 33%

I thought we’d learn the results for the global primary, but the election in London was held at a pub and I think they’re still trying to count the votes right.

I also learned that my picture made it onto a couple Turkish news sites and I was quoted in a story on the online version of Zaman.

On January 1 I said I was going to use the Seinfeld method to help me meet my goals, and so far I’ve been successful. My primary goal was to write at least 850 words each day, and I also wanted to wake up at 6 AM every day in January, including Saturdays and Sundays.

Done and done.

I built both of these goals into a morning routine (just add shower and meditation) which has really helped keep me going. Now well into February I’ve taken just four days off from the 6 AM rule, and I’m still trucking with writing at least 850 words daily, mostly for my dissertation.

How to

Last month I mentioned the online web-app Don’t Break the Chain and how it might be helpful, but honestly I didn’t return to the site after signing up. Instead I drew a full-year calendar on construction paper and hung it above my desk. I mark off all my successful days with a big fat red marker.

So far it’s provided great motivation and I have yet to break the chain. I also like how this calendar gives me a compact view of the year and a better sense of how much time I have left to complete my projects.

Most importantly, it’s out in the open so every one else can see it too.

Turkey’s Parliament Votes to Lift Head Scarf Ban [NY Times]

Turkey’s parliament took a major step toward lifting a ban against women’s head scarves in universities on Saturday, setting the stage for a final showdown with the country’s secular elite over where Islam fits in the building of an open society.

You should read the rest of the article to see how passionate people are about this issue. I especially liked the ridiculous claim by one deputy about the consequences of lifting the ban:

“It will ultimately bring us Hezbollah terror, Al Qaeda terror, and fundamentalism.”

Right…and the Liberty City 7 were on the verge of blowing up the Sears Tower.

Today’s vote on the ban rightly preempted my small political gesture from making the nightly news.

I woke up early, read the paper, and learned that I had one last chance to participate in the U.S. primaries.

This is the first year that Democrats Abroad has arranged for an online global primary, meaning that U.S. citizens living abroad can vote via Internet, fax, mail, and in person in 34 countries. I heard about this back in December but didn’t take it seriously until I read this morning that Democrats Abroad has state-status and sends 22 delegates to the convention.

I missed the cut-off for voting online, but the polls opened at 9 this morning in a hotel near our apartment and I walked there in time to be the very first voter.

The media was waiting

There were four people from Anadolu Agency, Turkey’s biggest news agency, waiting for someone to show up, and since that was me, I suddenly had a cameraman and several photographers shooting me filling out the ballot. When I was ready to submit the ballot they had me pose at the box for about a minute while they snapped shots. After this a reporter did a brief interview with me in Turkish about why I was in Turkey and who I voted for. I told her Obama and she asked why. If they put any of the interview on the news tonight I bet they’ll use this part because I mentioned Obama’s stance on Iraq, which should be popular in Turkey (but has been overshadowed here by his position on the Armenian issue). Anyway, this agency sells their stories to all sorts of news outlets so I’m going to keep my eye out for the story.

Election results will be announced next Tuesday, though CNN is expected to call it incorrectly on Monday.