My first Youtube video

 In the last few months, I have been learning on how to edit videos on Adobe Premiere Pro and Imovie. I made this video on Imovie on my old friend Ipad mini2. I can't update the latest version of it since it doesn't support the newest updates. I had fun editting and saw what i can do with camera and editting. Enjoy my mini recipe video.

The Gambler and the Whores

     The pandemic killed all the tourism business maybe everywhere in the  world. Maybe some places kept attracting tourists like they did in the past but it did damaged  the business where i worked. People did not prefer to stay at the hotels or eat at the restaurants. They tended to rent houses, apartments to avoid interaction with other people at the hotels. I heard even there were people who rented the whole of boutique hotels. And the people who stayed, acted with extra care and sometimes they did weird things. We as employees, witnessed behaviours without reasons. But even unlogical manners make sense during the pandemic. They have right to do act unlogical.

 We had to open the hotel late and close early during the season. June and July  we were desparate for the guests, customers. We rarely had check-ins. Last year July was full whole month and June was alright. The story that i am gonna tell happened in June. Right after the virus went viral and so did the restrictions became common. We were barely getting reservations and  checked in only a few guests and this family showed up suddenly and wanted to spent a room. They were two adults, one teenager girl and two little boys. I presented them the family room which is the combination of two rooms and has a transition door in it. The room is pretty alright and has a sea view. They liked the room instantly especially the kids. I don't remember the names of them but one of them told me that he liked the hotel so much. And I even charged them 50 liras more than the actual price. I don't know why i did but i just felt like doing so. I wanted the hotel to earn more money. And they paid by cash without negotiating. This is also weird because most of people try to negotiate even if they are rich. I always find this derogatory. Some say that this is why they are rich. Once a woman negotiated with me and i did not let her win but then she wanted a very small discount only for psychologic advantage. Then i gave 10 liras discount to her.

Pandemic style beach which is parted into small areas for around maximum 4 people

    When I was checking them in, they didn't have the kids' id cards with them. So i asked them if they could write it on a paper. Because they need to be entered in police system in case someone who stays at the hotel is a criminal. When you write the identity number on the system, you can see everything that is on the card. The daughter wrote her and one of the boys' number and the other boy's id number was missing. I didn't make it a problem. What first got my attention is that the woman was Georgian. You can tell it from her last name and actually had a pretty beautiful face on her id but in reality she seemed older than her age. The second thing that caught my eye is that they had different surnames. The man and woman were not married. The teenager girl and one boy had the man's surname and the other kid had a different surname but he was the Georgian woman's son. I know who is whose son/daughter because they came again and this time they had their id cards with them. I will talk about it at part  2 of this post. Anyway, I thought how nice it is that they loved each other, got together and decided to bring the kids up together to be stronger. That was really my first thought. How pure and how stupid... I did not have any doubt or theory about them. They were an ordinary family for me at the moment. After they checked in, they went up and a few hours later the woman and the daughter came down and had some beers with chips. She was 15 years old, not old enough to drink alcohol but we needed money. The boys were in the pool and they asked me if the water was chlorinated. Of course it was! I told  them not to swallow it. But one of them had already swallowed a lot. Later the woman and the daughter came to the lobby to order something to eat. I took the order and the woman said ''no problem'' when i told the prices. At the table, The youngest kid cried all the time because he had nausea due to pool water. Therefore  he couldn't eat. They paid in cash and asked and left for the closest pharmacy. The man didn't show up. He never left the room that day.

I never check the guests' social media. I just don't. Even if a super hot girl comes to accomodate, I don't look up her on instagram. It is like a personal principle.I know and saw people doing that as a first thing after check-ins.  Nosy Nellies. I started to feel that something was weird about this family. And I felt the urge to do look the man up. It wasn't hard to find him on instagram. He had pictures in a gambling hall. Not a flamboyant one but a kind of underground, very plain one. He didn't look like one who went there to play but one who owns the gambling saloon. He really looked like the owner in the pictures. He also had pictures with weird people that don't look auspcious. Kind of people that you can easily, at first glance. What he does for living seemed clear after seeing the pictures. But no one can tell how he met with that woman and where. Actually this is nobody's business anyway but i am just telling the story. Turkey used to do better in terms of economy compared to some post-Soviet countries. Many women and men from those countries came to Turkey for work and it is known that not all of them find what they had in their ideals and some do even prostitution. Once I witnessed  a woman who was from a post Soviet country and she thanked god for having a job and that she doesn't have to do prostitiution. But the thing is when you go abroad, you never know whom you are gonna meet. So it is all about luck you have. Mostly men try to abuse women who are in need of help. The world is full of abusers and the cultures are crooked,  People are crooked. But you never know sometimes. Not all prostitues are being forced for the job as well.

TO BE CONTINUED...

What Kobe Bryant Means to Me

When i think about Kobe Bryant, his name never reminds me the three pointers, lay-ups, dunks or all those awesome perfomance he had. What i remember is that i spent 8 miserable days in the United States in 2015. And i smile now when i remember those times. I spent my first 8 days in the US without anything. No shirts, No shorts, no socks, no underwears... Nothing. My luggage was sent to another airport and then to another place and then to another place... It took 8 days to reach me. Right before getting on the plane, to lighten my backpack, i transfered some stuff to my luggage. My shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrush, towel and everything was in it.  I kept only my phone's charger and hairdryer. I had some amount of money. I had a little ripped jeans on me and i went to the work with that and i was told that i couldn't wear such pants because they are considered as fashion. And also i was given a t-shirt as a uniform. So i went around and bought some stuff to wear. Also I gave half of my money for accomodation for 2 weeks and deposit. 2 days later, a friend of mine came and gave me brand new socks because he had many. I didn't know if i would ever get my luggage. I was calling the airline company's help desk every day but i was getting no help.

So I started working and in the first week i didn't get many hours. probably i worked less than 20 hours. It didn't go well because i couldn't focus. I was constantly thinking about how i would wash my socks and underwear to wear them next day. One day i went to work for night shift but I was told that i was supposed to come for the morning shift. I lost that day's earnings and every day i was spending money and also i didn't want to spend money for the things that i already had. When i didn't work, i stayed at home and killed the time with friends in the balcony. The house had got two floors. I was staying in the second floor. While staying at home once,  a bald guy called Mike showed up. He said  that he was going to Baltimore and he was selling his clothes to make gas money. He had a bag of clothes and took them all out and showed. The clothes were very ordinary. They were mostly t-shirts and shirts and they hadn't attracted me until i saw the LA Lakers jersey. It was Kobe's. A big player... I could wear the jersey everywhere and it would fit me well i thought. And my friend pushed me to buy it. He reminded me that i had nothing to wear. I asked how much the jersey is. Mike replied ''15.'' I told him that i could give 5 and he lowered the price to 10 and then again i told that i could give only 5.Then i bought it for 5 dollars.  What a bargain!  I was overjoyed. He threw the jersey to us and i dropped the 5 dollar bill to him. And he left. We were checking the jersey if it is original and it feels new and were happy happy that it is alright. Finally i was able to think of trying it on. I tried it and i was not happy anymore. It was way too big for me that it felt like a skirt. And I am a tall guy actually. I was literally lost in it. I checked the tag and saw it was an extra long one. And i have never worn it. It did not feel like a bargain anymore at that point but now it feels like something that i can keep as a memory forever. A good memory indeed...

This guy called Mike showed up again with bags in his hands a week later. In bags there were food this time. He was trying to make his way to Baltimore like the last time. I told him to come up. We sat and he poured out everything. There were many canned things and a pack of burgers. Burgers were the only food among them that attracted me. I didn't know how to cook but i could fry things. I asked how much he wanted and he said ''a couple of dollars.''  What a bargain again! What a nice guy this Mike is... the pack had 4 big burgers and i was thinking that i was doing a nice trade thanks to Mike. I ate those burgers 2 days. I didn't again look at its tag to see expiration date. But hopefully nothing happened. And i didn't mention about the jersey to him. I couldn't blame him.  And I never saw Mike after that good burger trade.

The city was full of churches. Even there were 2 or 3 that were very close to my house. During the summer, on specified days, they serve dinners, lunches for free. There was one which serves breakfast every day. One of them was giving everyone a shower kit which included towels, shampoo, soap in the first visit. It was what i really needed when i discovered that church. Thank you church people... I took it  one day before my luggage arrived. How lucky. Even for one day it made me feel a bit more safer. It made me so happy at that moment but i didn't get to use them much. The next day i got the good news and rushed for the student center. I was coming back joyfully with my luggage. Directly took the desserts that  i brought from home out and shared with people.  Back to the topic, all summer long we went to those churches to eat free food. In one way they were doing something good for the community and in other way,  they were just doing their missionary work to convert people. They were planning sometimes events, raffles.  I even won tickets for mini-golf facility once  yet i didn't have chance to use those tickets.

In the last weeks of my summer, we discovered a church which was a bit away from my place. Like 100 streets away... On Wednesdays, the church was serving lunch. Homeless people, lonely people, old people, students were going there. The food was the best among all the churches i tried. Moreover, they were not just serving food there. There was a table in the middle in the church and you could take donated clothes for free. There was one table and there were so many bags of food. The food was mostly canned food in green bags and they seemed very familiar to me in the first sight. And then i remembered. And then I got it... Damn Mike...

An Indie Game: Ape Out

Just like anyone during the quarantine days, I wanted to entertain myself by finding some time killer. I know i have limited options at home. So i said myself why not play a game. On my epic games account i have plenty of games that i purchased for free and Ape Out was one of the most attracting of them. I liked the name and i liked the icon, picture or whatever but i didn't expect to have a very good time playing it. It is an indie production and reminded me Hotline Miami which is also simple but a good game. And now i am writing these words to recommend it to other people.

I liked plenty of things about the game. The first thing is the gameplay of it. you play the game with only a few buttons and a mouse. you move the ape that is trying to escape with W,A,S,D and hit and hold with mouse buttons. The control is very simple but sometimes it is hard to change the direction of the ape but this is what makes it beautiful. In every chapter, you try to escape from the platforms and you really feel it. Sometimes you hide, rush, or fight your way to the exit and you really feel like the ape is lost because sometimes you lose your way during the fight or rush and you don't know which direction to go. Just like a wild animal that escaped to the city. Every time you fail, you see the route you take and this will make sense when you try and see. And it gets harder and harder in every chapter. One can not easiliy finish it. sometimes you need to try an hour to pass one chapter.

The music and the soundtracts are what really makes this game special. They really help you taste the atmosphere of the game. The chapters are categorized as albums and the extra chapter is a disc record It is enriched by jazz sounds and in the end, I was lucky to discover this awesome song called You've Got to Have Freedom by Pharoah Sanders which really tells it all about this game. The game is a challenging and pure entertainment. I strongly recommend you, the ones who got to read this page. Hope you enjoy it like i did.