Uncategorized – Page 4 – onvural.net – melih

This week in review

Ok, I’m going to get back in the swing of the family weekly update. That means many things have to happen. (1) I need to take photos. (2) I need to start recording these kids more because honestly unless you hear it from their mouths, then you won’t believe it. (3) I need to not fall asleep Sunday night with the babies after an insane weekend.

And we’re off.

This week was always going to be crazy because it was Homecoming week at TokBox. For those who don’t know, homecoming is an event that colleges and high schools across America celebrate as a way to bring alumna back on campus. It’s usually centered around a major sporting event. In our case, it’s just centered around the calendar. And it’s just a cluster fuck of humanity. Which is good because all of this is an outcome of the great work we’ve done. But holy smokes that was a lot of people.

Monday was also a pretty special day. Micky turned 40 for the 2nd year in a row 🙂

We went to Central Kitchen, and had an AMAZING dinner. Really, really awesome.

Tuesday, I took my turn at being a speaker about the OpenTok platform. It’s nice because I feel as if I haven’t had as much of a chance to talk about the product publicly as we all thought would happen. Lots of reasons why, and so when the chance came, Ellie and I practiced a ton, and then really nailed it. The demo worked (and about 2 people later, the Internet went down). I hit the talking points. It was a good 3.5 minutes. I had to fly back up to the City though (from Santa Clara) because I had to coach soccer.

Oh yeah baby, I’m helping to coach the Swooping Eagles! We’ve got a Tuesday practice run by a pro, and then Saturday it’s me and the other parents. So far, only dads, but I can see a few mom’sÂ itching to make it happen.

We had another conference Wednesday (where I was a booth babe!), and then on the way to the dinner (which is the BEST part of homecoming) Micky got sick. Like up all night, throwing up sick 🙁 So I headed home, and the babies and I spent Thursday not being at home so that Micky could get better. Which meant…

WE WENT ROCK CLIMBING

I finally passed my damn belay test. I’ve got a red Planet Granite card to prove it. The first time the guy was like, “I’ve never failed anyone, but I’m going to fail you.” That was bad :-/

The kids though hung out with Liz and Jose Carlos, and got both their top rope and bouldering on. It was really lovely. They’re so good at bonding with people, and I think that they’ve really learned to trust people as well. They look for clues from Micky and I (which makes sense), and then on that assumption they dive in.

Micky got better after a day full of rest (thankfully), and the week ended with seeing Praveen (who is leading in the weight contest right now).

The weekend was its usually mad self with a visit to the pumpkin patch after a Saturday morning soccer game. Today we did ballet, brunch with Betsy & Cody, and a daddy/daughter date for dinner.

Oh shit, I almost forgot… Saturday was our 5th wedding anniversary. And we went to see a movie. And it was AWESOME!!! Definitely go see the Martian. It’s a wonderful movie. We laughed. We cried. We peed our pants. It had it all. I’ll write another post tomorrow about how I think it’s the first science movie I’ve seen that made minorities and women look like heroes. And then we had a quick bite of sushi, and then passed out. Oh what a life!

I’ll add pictures when I download them (not tonight), and I’ll start writing again. But until then, what a week!

Life Updates, Uncategorized 0

Happy Birthday to my dad

She said, “You don’t look very handsome. You should wear a white shirt”

He said, “You know what? I have a white shirt with me.”

She watched as he buttoned up each button. When the one in the middle wouldn’t stay in place because the shirt only fit him 10 pounds ago he said, “You know there’s no one else in the world I would change into this shirt for.”

I said, “That’s the power of a woman”

But in this case it was just a little girl. A special girl. The granddaughter of the birthday boy. Who wore her special dress, flew to see Dede in his favorite place, and with her brother made the day even more special than it already was.

That’s the power of unfiltered, honest love. That’s the connection a birthday brings whether you’re 4 or 56. And that’s why having these moments, recording them, and sharing them is so special.

Happy birthday babacigim.

Becoming a PM, Uncategorized 0

Starting with questions

It’s very easy to see when there is trust in a culture/community/unit – people start with questions.

The opposite is true as well. When there is no trust – people start with solutions.

The reason that questions signify trust is that asking questions brings both parties into the topic without the need for defense. These questions often start with why did we assume, or why didn’t we assume.

Solutions assume that there is some clear and present gap in the current status that requires immediate correction. They also don’t allow the questionee to share the framework they’ve built with the questioner.
Usually though, those that start with solutions also come in with unaligned assumptions. And that’s where the true breakdown is. Because when assumptions, objectives, and agendas aren’t aligned and the conversation centers around how to fill specific gaps and holes, you don’t build trust, you debate execution.

So I say lets get better at starting with questions.

New Year Resolutions, Uncategorized 0

Mid-year review

I posted my resolutions for 2015 in January, and since we’re at the halfway point I thought I’d give an update.

Lose 30 pounds

Well pictures don’t lie:

I’m very solidly in the 180s now thanks to Ramadan. If I get back into the habit of exetcising after work everyday, and commit to just salad at lunch, I’m going to nail this.

That’s a big if though…

Read 12 books

So far, so good. I’ve added a Goodreads widget on the blog if you want to see what I’m reading, and I’ve come up with some blog post ideas as well, and I’ll get to writing them soon 🙂

Food-related resolutions

~~Sugar/honey in my tea only once per day (this resolution is suspended when in the South, and drinking sweet tea)~~

Totally failing at this, and I won’t worry about it for this year.

Increase my list of things I can cook beyond kofte, rice, and salad

I’m down with a scrambled egg like never before. We’ve also nailed a chicken cooking technique that I love. This one is a nice check.

Business-related resolutions

I’m pretty close to happy with this one so far. I need to write more, and that will definitely help me accelerate.

In general though, this is much less a part of me than in the past. I don’t know yet how I feel about that, but that’s definitely the case.

Personal-related resolutions

This one I get a zero on. I need to do this better.

With six months to go there is lots to accomplish still. But all in all good progress has been made.

Fatherhood, Uncategorized 0

One week in…

And it already feels so normal to have three. Amelia, Theo, and Luka right to left 🙂

just thinking out loud, Uncategorized 0

Happy 4th Birthday my darling Amelia

Photo gallery of the last few days:

Some key highlights of your life as a 3 year old:

You learned to love swimming when we went up to Russian River for the Sonoma Race weekend
You went to go see Frozen in the theaters
You started at CDS as a Leaping Lizard
We visited Istanbul for the first time
For Halloween, you and your mom were fairies
We went to whale watching, and you saw dolphinsÂ &Â humpback whales
We went to Scotland for the first time, and saw Uncle Dan get married
You love dancing, science, writing letters, drawing, playing family, singing, rock climbing, and playing catch
You’ve become so much more confident in yourself, and that’s been wonderful to watch
You can write your name, and you know a lot of words that start with the letter A
Your favorite songs could be any of:
- Let it go – Frozen
- Tale as old as time – Beauty and the Beast
- Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
- Lullaby – Billy Joel
  but I’m pretty sure it’s Let it go 🙂

It’s been a wonderful year my darling Amelia. Here’s to many more!

just thinking out loud, Uncategorized 1

Congratulations Saket & Chrissy

Congratulations to my dear, dear friend Saket who married an absolutely lovely lady this past weekend.

It took a lot of convincing to get Micky comfortable with me going, and I’m so glad I pulled it off. Â You see, Micky and I lay claim to convincing Saket to ask Chrissy out. There was this one night in August of 2011. Saket was heading to Chicago to go to a music festival with his sister Sapana (who I finally met by the way). We were talking about life, obligation, happiness, collateral damage, and risks worth taking. Our lives parallel in so many ways, and so if there were ever a mirror in which I could talk and hear my reflection give me sound advice it would be in Saket. I hope I do the same thing for him.

And so Saket started his adventure that night. I’ll leave the details between those who know, but that journey led to a cross country red-eye, a great SouthernÂ lunch with my amazing brother, this genuine, honest, and beautiful cross-cultural wedding ceremony, a quietly amazing musical performance, and a tired flight home to my babies (who by the way wanted to know why they weren’t allowed to come to Uncle Saket’s wedding).

Photo gallery here:

Beyond just being present in the ceremony, Saket asked me to give a toast as well. I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but it took me most of the dinner to write it down, practice it in my head, and not screw it up when I was in front of the crowd. Some tears made it out, but they were genuinely tears of joy.

Congratulations Saket. I hope as your journey continues it’s as wonderful as the moments you created for us this lovely weekend past.

Adventures in beekeeping, Uncategorized 0

Beekeeping update – Video of the action

I promised my dad I would make a video of an inspection with all of the action. Here’s the intro video:

Today’s game plan was to fill up the sugar water, and then make sure that the hive is queen right. Queen right is just terminology to mean that there is a Queen who is laying eggs, and that the hive isn’t gearing up to swarm.

Then video number two is a bit more about fixing up the sugar water.

Honestly that’s become super easy to do. I never wear a suit anymore when I’m changing the sugar. I just go up to the hive, make sure the girls are in a decent mood, and then change the water.

On the other hand, when I’m opening up the hive itself, that’s a different story. The gloves don’t let me take good photos, but today I said screw it. My dad’s worth it. Here’s a non-glove inspection… or at least for the most part 🙂

Some cinematography to figure out, but otherwise a good 5 minutes if you ask me 🙂 And then here is a gallery of stills to go along for the ride 🙂

Fatherhood, Uncategorized 0

There was a play about a squirrel with a special plum…

Amelia and her Leaping Lizard’s class did their end of year event today. They’ve been studying squirrels all semester. Micky even went on a field trip with them to Golden Gate Park to find squirrels and draw them.

The end of year event was an adaptation of the classic children’s book, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle into “The Very Hungry Squirrel” by the Leaping Lizards.

Here’s my little plum making her on-stage debut:

Life Updates, Uncategorized 0

My baby brother is a lawyer

It was a good two days with the family in Nashville celebrating Doruk graduating from Vanderbilt. I landed bright and early on Thursday morning, and we headed straight to see Walter Isaacson speak.

He did really well. If you know he’s quoting the amazing lines of the geniuses he studied, then it’s slightly less impressive, but nonetheless he threaded together some of the greatest minds in US history together into a really wonderful graduation speech.

Then we ate some wonderfully delicious food.

: Meat and 3 at Arnold’s in Nashville

We then made our way to downtown Nashville. We got burgers and tater tots for dinner, and then Doruk surprised us with tickets to the Grand Ole Opry!!

The opening acts were really great. The host was funny and a great storyteller. And then out came Charlie Daniels closing out the night with “Devil went down to Georgia”. It was amazing!

The next day was graduation day. We found some shade, and watched the big ceremony. The chancellor’s speech was about passion, and it was awful. The law school talk was about being a great lawyer, and it was fantastic.

Doruk and friends were so happy. The parents and family were so proud. It was really wonderful.

Congratulations Doruk! You’re wonderful, and beginning what will be a wonderful journey. I hope these last three years will be the foundation for another 3+ decades of joy, passion, growth, inspiration, and changing the world.