Tennis

I have been playing tennis since early childhood.

Music

I like classical music, boogie-woogie and folk music. Some instruments I play:

• Horizontal piano (aka piano) - since 2014
• Vertical piano (aka accordion) - since 2019
• Flute - since 2019 (not anymore)

Sample pieces:

• Sonata in F Minor K. 466, Domenico Scarlatti
• Säkkijärven Polkka

Vexillology

Vexillology is, in a sense, the art of information compression. I made my own coat of arms for fun.

Design rationale: I happen to be a grapheme-color synesthete, so I associate/see numbers with colors. 1 is white or red, 2 is blue, 3 is green, 4 is yellow, and it goes on. I wanted to place these colors sequentially, and decided to place yellow on the top left corner, as yellow is my favorite color. I once read that the top left corner of a picture is the first part that people look at. The rest of the colors were placed counterclockwise, with 1 being on the bottom left. The other option was a clockwise placement but the counterclockwise version just looked better. I decided to include both red and white for 1 and picked the checkers pattern due to its simplicity (also, I like chess). At this point, the right side of the coat of arms was very dull: two halves, with blue on the bottom and green on top. Blue and green reminded me of maps as they are frequently used to depict land and seas. As a nod to Istanbul, where I was born and raised, I decided to depict the Bosphorus on the right side. If you check an actual map, you’ll see that the orientation of the Bosphorus on my coat of arms matches that of the real one. Finally, I included a green parrot because 1) lots of green parrots live in the forest near my home in Istanbul, 2) I enjoy imitating/impersonating people.