Ruts by HastyWords

Just a few words

Can lift us up

Or cut deep ruts

Some of the pieces were blackened with tarnish and, since I also took home her bottle of silver polish, I decided to polish some silver.

My mother used to polish the silver every year right before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. It seemed like such a thankless job to me and I always tried to get out of doing it. It’s messy and time consuming and I would much rather have spent my time reading. Since she usually wasn’t able to convince one of us to help, it was left to my mother to complete the job.

When I opened the bottle of Wright’s silver polish last week and poured it on the rag, the smell transported me to the house I grew up in. That Proustian moment allowed me to experience my mother, with a big stack of flatware in front of her, at the dining room table.

I intended to polish just one piece, to avoid another task I didn’t want to do. I got lost in the act of polishing, however; the rhythmic wiping, the scent of the polish, the shine eventually revealing itself – it felt therapeutic and I didn’t want to stop.

It’s the same feeling I get when I pick weeds in my yard. Most people don’t understand why I enjoy picking weeds. It’s hard to explain how that repetitive task affords me a small amount of peace, how the act of not thinking allows me to relax completely.

If I decide to keep the silver, it may be only because I can take it out and polish it annually, which doesn’t seem like much of a reason to keep something. Then again, it might appeal to me when it’s too cold to go outside and pick weeds.

I’ll have to ask my mother if she felt the same way about polishing. Come to think of it, she did spend a lot of time weeding the garden, too.

By the way, I enjoyed this interview with Linda Wertheimer and Alain de Botton, author of How Proust Can Change Your Life http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5077638 I hope you like it, too.

Knowing what your customers think about your brand is not hard to find but how does a brand resolve the issues that are arising without silencing their customers and making them feel mistreated?

With such a high percentage of the world’s population being present in Social Media it is a tough task to in any way attempt to control the sentiment of these mentions. Most brands already have some sort of plan in place to deal with negative mentions but most of them do not do anything about the positive ones.

Negative mentions do not make up the whole of the social sphere, in fact, there is a very high volume of positive mentions which can be used to the advantage of a brand. We took the time to see what people are saying about the new Iphone 5 and we found that the number of negatives and positives are relatively close which can be good and bad.

However, the main issue is that neither the negatives nor the positives have been dealt with which unfortunately may have resulted in loss of customers for Apple.

Below is 4 mentions, 2 negative and 2 positive, the main detail is that the positives are great and they could be used to build brand advocacy, something that Apple may need now seeing Samsung is stepping up and taking Apples long acclaimed title.

Am imbratisat-o strans pe Sam in semn de “la revedere” apoi am urcat in masina. Un Ford Fiesta negru. Am muncit ceva pentru ea, dar meritat. Iar acum unde ma duc? Uitandu-ma pe harta “simt” ca trebuie sa o iau spre Seattle, iar dupa informatiile date de Google Maps am cam doua zile de mers cu masina. O sa fie distractiv.

Ceasul arata ora 07:30 pm. Sunt pe undeva prin Madison. Oare ce o mai face Sam? De cand mi-au murit parintii, familia ei m-a “adoptat”. Am cel mai mare respect pentru ei deoarece mi-au oferit o minunata viata. Carol, mama Samanthei, mi-a povestit despre aceste “legaturi”, spunandu-mi ca din trei in trei generatii, in familia mea s-au nascut acete “legaturi”, iar eu am avut “norocul” sa ma nasc in a treia generatie. Aveam vreo 13 ani cand am aflat. N-am crezut la inceput ca exista vampiri, dar am acceptat realitatea. Hm… Mi-e foame. Ar trebui sa opresc la o benzinarie sa fac plinul si masinii asteia. Poate ma opresc si la un motel pentru un dus…

***

Iar ploua. Seattle nu e orasul meu favorit… Totusi privelistea e interesanta de la etajul opt. Azi trebuie sa vorbesc cu Matthew despre Cartea cu vraji cautata de secole (cred). Ce apartament gol am… Frigiderul e si el gol… AH!!! Trebuie sa ma opresc sa mai gandesc atat de mult… E ciudat ca sunt un vampir de opt sute de ani si am vazut, auzit si facut atatea lucruri, iar eu tot nu pot sa gandesc coerent. Hm… Niste muzica n-ar strica. “Lonely Boy” face atata ecou in casa asta. Niste mobila n-ar strica.
ring, ring!!! Alessia…

- Alo, dulceata!
- Ha! Ha! La ora 09:15 pm sa te prezinti la cafenea.
- Pentru ca…?
- Pentru ca Stefan vrea sa ne spuna ceva…
- Ceva ce?
- Habar n-am… In orice caz, azi am un sentiment ca se va intampla ceva… mai putin placut.
- E Balul Florilor.. Orice e posibil.
- Nu mai rau ca anul trecut! Ora 09:15 pm la cafenea!

Si a inchis inainte de a mai putea spune ceva. Tipic Alessia cand vine vorba de mine. Chiar.. se apropie Balul Florilor… Acum doi ani a fost un mare macel cand un vampir nou a inceput sa omoare cam treizeci de oameni. Pe neasteptate mai murea cate unul. De atunci, conducatorii orasului, pentru ca stiu de existenta noastra, a vampirilor, au decis sa fie cel putin un vampir la fiecare bal. suntem un fel de… aparatori. Parca am fii in Hunger Games. In orice caz… Azi ora 09:15 la cafenea. Ar trebui sa imi pun un stiky notes undeva la vedere… Probabil pe frunte. Alessia are dreptate. si eu simt ceva ciudat. Ca si cum ceva imposibil e aproape de mine. hm… Am invatat ca nu e bine sa am incredere in propriile instincte. Mi-am dat seama de asta inca de pe cand eram om.

***

E ora 10:15 pm. N-am dormit prea mult, dar trebuie sa plec, pentru ca inca mai am mult de mers. Il simt aproape.. sau o simt aproape. Dupa vise cred ca e un el. Chiar si in doua ore cat am dormit acum am visat un telefon… Suna cineva cu A… Nu mi-a fost prea clar.  Am si vise despre legatura mea. De obicei sunt oameni pe care ii simpatizeaza sau locuri care ii plac. Acum sunt pe o autostrada linistita, iar soarele imi lumineaza ochii, iar eu sunt nevoita sa imi pun ochelarii la ochi si sa injur soarele. Obisnuieste-te Kristine. Mai am mult de mers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsgHsydoo9Q

either way I’m more than just pissed to just talk, because there is no way that you would want to stand in other people’s shoes.
and the more and more I think of the reason to remain calm, I see the more you throw lies to the air probably the more I want to keep the rest to myself.
for I’m not interested in telling people I don’t know the truth either.

Добра во сне.

Beneath sentiments better left, unsaid
Untouched like some dead weight
Beneath the rubble-fields of battered words
That amount to little more, mere memories

They are not tangible, precious, or alive
But constrict me from the inside
Let them try to pronounce a winter of hurt
For a floundering of spring, yet to be

With fevered heart, let them melt away in summer
Clang shut eternal gates of love, forever?
Yet, for all that, trust shall come again, as ever?
With nostrils of bleeding gold, for rich rewards?

You will not appear again, with that dusty mantle
Of golden olive skin and pouty eyes
I am sick of dissipating you in mere fantasy
As blind as I ever am, a prelude and a requiem, or a preface
Where my luckless touches, touched a foreign woman’s shore.

[This is part 2 in a series of explorations focusing on music. View Part 1: What Distinguishes a Great Song? ]

What sells in mainstream music is constantly changing. It goes without saying that songs from the 1950s sound nothing like songs today, a product, most likely, of our changing culture. More importantly, songs from the 1950s have very different lifetimes on the Billboard charts than songs today. In addition, these changes are not only visible by decade but also amongst different genres.

Beyond our evolving culture, the reasons for these differences are hard to pin down. Besides tracking trends in songs performance, music has changed lyrically. The slideshow below shows wordclouds of the most common words by decade (starting with the 1950s). Each wordcloud is filled by a random sample of 500 to 1000 songs that appeared on the Billboard charts from the corresponding decade. If you’d prefer to look at the wordclouds side by side, there’s a panel with all of the wordclouds at the end of this post. From the 1970s wordcloud, we can extract that songs from that period seem to talk about the same things or at least use a lot of the same words. We can glean this because there are fewer but larger words on this wordcloud, meaning that these words are used far more frequently than others.  The same finding is somewhat true for songs released since 2000 (the rightmost wordcloud). It’s even more interesting how quickly songs with explicit lyrics became accepted in the mainstream. Obviously, the clean version of these songs where played on air but the shift in lyrical content started somewhere in the 90s and has come in full force since 2000. What caused this change? The acceptance and proliferation of rap music as we’ll see in a sec.

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The four most featured genres on the radio are rock, rap, R&B and country and are therefore the most useful in showing trends. These genres have significantly different wordclouds as shown below. For starters, rap has a pretty explicit wordcloud. As far as content within the rap wordcloud, it’s not that surprising: sex, violence, drugs, etc,. R&B isn’t all too surprising either, although it’s worth mentioning that much like songs from the 1970s, the selection of most commonly used words is very concentrated. I’ll let the wordclouds speak for themselves, but as a last note,  it may seem somewhat out of place that the largest word on the country wordcloud is “bones” but an example of its usage is “I feel it in my bones” which doesn’t seem too out of character for a country song.

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More generally, the proportion of songs with positive sentiments has decreased by decade since 1950, while the proportion of songs with either neutral or negative sentiments has increased by decade, as shown in the stacked bar chart to the right. This is a pretty interesting find and assuming that the lyrics obtained and methods of scoring sentiment are accurate, we should ask why fewer songs today have positive sentiments.

When it comes to success on the Billboard charts, some genres are just  more successful than others. To measure this success, the graphic below shows a series of heatmaps of where songs peaked on the billboard charts by various genres. It’s important to note that the scales differ from one heatmap to the next but this doesn’t obscure the key takeaways. The majority of songs on the charts are rock songs and they have some of the highest peaks, with a large number of rock songs peaking around or below 20th on the charts. In contrast, genres like dance, blues don’t seem to break the top 100 very often but it’s worth noting that these genres aren’t as prolific on the charts. Electronica and Country songs tend to peak around the middle of the top 100. Lastly, R&B either has winners or losers; in other words, these songs either end up as clear listener favorites or never receive much airtime.

More coming soon, mahalo. – Ethan

Notes

• All lyrics were obtained from lyrics.com
• As stated above, to understand what went into making these graphs, it might be a good idea to look at the past post on what distinguishes “great” songs from “normal” songs.
• Once again, though not entirely the same, view Part 1′s methodology to understand how I came to these conclusions and some of the data I used.
• To learn how I created these wordclouds look at this guide on creating wordclouds in R.

References

http://www.lyrics.com

Wordcloud Panels

Related Graphs

I was curious about the difference between “consumer confidence” and “consumer sentiment”, and whether they capture the same or different information. So I compared the two. Yes, they ask different questions (or similar questions differently), and I’m certain that someone trying to sell you the data would argue vehemently that they are completely different (and that of course their data is far superior). But it turns out they’re highly correlated — a correlation coefficient of 0.85 since January 1978. You could predict more than 70% of the changes in one index based on the other.

So evidently the big difference was that the name “consumer confidence index” was already registered.

I also found that both indexes are very noisy; they jump around a lot, even when there’s nothing noticeable changing in the economy. So I thought, if they’re two noisy signal capturing basically the same thing, why not average them together? Maybe that will give a clearer picture.

No dice. The average of the two still jumped around so much that a graph was barely interpretable.

So I did what any good data scientist does in such a situation — I took a moving average. Even then, the graph wasn’t pretty. I had to go all the way up to a 12-month moving average to get a clear, meaningful graph. The result has the lags and smoothed-out-ness to be expected from such a long moving average, but I still found it interesting, particularly when superimposed with recessions.

Related articles

• Consumer Confidence, The World’s Most Useless Economic Statistic (ritholtz.com)
• Consumer confidence hits rock bottom (mzansilive.com)
• U.S. Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index Rises to Three-Month High (bloomberg.com)

For a movie that followed two children, it was surprisingly un-fun. Sure they strolled the hot and hazy streets of Brooklyn, but it seems like every time they returned, they got a harsh dose of reality to wake them back up: when they returned from their walk the first time, they were scolded by Deacon Zee who told them about the high rate of children who die not from the asthma, but from the anonymity that comes with living in the Red Hook projects. After their second journey, they’re confronted by Chaz’s angry mother, demanding where the missing snacks have gone, only to be forced to clean the basement in order to pay back Deacon Zee after he covers for them.

So, needless to say, I was surprised when Lee closed his movie with a montage made by Flik. When did he manage to have all this fun? Initially, I thought the shots were some extra film that Lee had had and placed at the end to further contextualize the movie and give the characters a little more air time, but when we noticed the iPad-type editing, my suspicions were confirmed.

Partly, I’m reminded of my own vacations with family in other parts of the country. Even for a loud-mouthed kid like me, I always played out the same routine: initially daunted at the entirely new home, new set of rules, and new personalities, I would retreat into myself and wish bitterly that any moment my father would burst in the door and bring me home. Yet, by the end of the vacation I would dread the approaching day of departure, spending the phone calls I had once used to convince my father to bring me home, to now try and stay only one day more.

So what does this say about Lee’s film? I think it’s more than a narrative about adaptation and Flik finally settling with his circumstances, but I think it’s about his finally being able to find love that makes the difference. In class, we identified that a huge turning point in the film is the conversation that Bishop Enoch and Chaz’s mother have when he admits that his father never loved him and he evidently resolves to treat Flik differently. The Bible verses that are quoted against the Bishop are from the Song of Solomon and speak in depth about love and its expression, making the Bishop’s acts more heinous because they defile the very notion of love. Not to mention his affections for Chaz that lead him to giving her his iPad with the movie on it and her exchanging her necklace, both tokens that remind them of people they’ve lost, signifying great love indeed (thank you Ali for pointing that out).

So perhaps what Lee is trying to say that what makes a summer or what makes a life even is the abundance of love in it. Chaz’s mother is atoning for her mistakes with her older daughter by loving Chaz even harder and being more stringent because of her love. The ending montage underscores this idea, encouraging us to look back on the movie with somewhat rose-colored lenses as we watch Flik’s grainy, highly-saturated masterpiece. Much in the way he will see his summer, Flik documents his time in Red Hook as a summer of love, one that brought him closer to learning about a new neighborhood and its inhabitants and that despite all the ugliness that might have occurred (robbery, beatings, secrets, lies) there can still be beauty where there is love, and he was there to capture it all.

Most indexes have completely recovered from Friday’s mini sell off. Nevertheless, last week’s red candle left some technical ‘scars.’ In what sense?

Last week marked a buying climax for the S&P 500 and 347 individual stocks. A buying climax occurs when a stock/index makes a 12-month high, but closes the week with a loss.

Since the 2009 low, the S&P 500 saw 13 buying climaxes. Buying climaxes are identified by gray boxes and vertical gray lines in the chart below.

What was the performance after each buying climax?

·      3 times a buying climax was followed by 10%+ corrections

·      4 times a buying climax was followed by marginal new highs (another 5 – 10 days of gains) before a sizeable
decline

·      2 times a buying climax was followed by a minor correction

·      2 times a buying climax was followed by an immediate short-term low

Buying climaxes are generally bearish. According to Investor’s Intelligence they are a sign of distribution and indicate that stocks are moving from strong to weak hands.

The chart confirms Investor’s Intelligence’s definition and past precedents (at least since 2009) caution that the market’s recovery from a buying climax may be temporary (and treacherous) in nature.

For right now the trend is up. Since that could change quickly, the Profit Radar Report will supplement data like this with broader technical analysis, sentiment, seasonality and support/resistance levels to identify a low-risk opportunity to go short.

Povestea şi Jocul

Şi acum mă veţi întreba de ce bat câmpii şi de ce vă provoc la un astfel de joc. Autorul pe care vi-l propun astazi, adică Xavier de Maistre, şi-a creat timp de 42 de zile jocul acesta şi l-a descris în amănunt. Cartea a apărut în 1794, aşa că o provocare în 2012 nu ar strica nimănui, mai ales că sediul analizei şi percepţiei umane se află în creier. De ce nu am putea şi noi să ne gândim la lucruri, să le apropriem cât mai mult de identitatea noastră şi să le analizăm pertinent ?

Sunt curios dacă veţi reuşi să descrieţi fiecare detaliu al tabloului sau cuta de pe pat, ori gura şemineului, ori dacă pur şi simplu vă pregătiţi asemeni maestrului francez. Şi să nu rememoram timpurile contemporante lui Xavier, asta dacă nu vreţi să trageţi draperia de la fereastră şi să priviţi oameni decapitaţi în mijlocul pieţei sau alţi oameni care se bucură de acest privilegiu adus societăţii. De veţi ajunge la fereastră cu siguranţă veţi putea descrie efectul noxelor ori firul de fum ieşit din carburatorul unei maşini. Nu vă dau idei, pentru că aveţi libertatea de a descrie ce vedeţi. Acesta e jocul.

Iar dacă luaţi în serios jocul şi vă apucaţi de scris, aruncaţi-ne şi nouă materialul să îl publicăm în noua secţiune a site-ului, MANUSCRISE.

Iar Călătoria în jurul camerei se continuă în exterior în cea de-a doua nuvelă: Leprosul din cetatea anosta unde amestecul de milă şi repulsie se îmbină în relaţie bizară dintre narator şi bolnavul închis în turnul său, izolat de lume. O poveste ce reliefează capacitatea omului de a îndura boala, de a-şi accepta soarta, de a-şi vedea pe rând familia răpusă de ciumă, inclusiv pe cea care a avut curajul de a i se alatura în viaţă. De aceea naratorul urmăreşte atent destinul straniu al leprosului şi strigatul acestuia de resemnare după o companie cu care să poată schimba câteva cuvinte fară mustrări. Imunitatea personajului principal distruge însă bariera dintre bacil şi anticorpi, neutralizandu-i şi oferindu-i cititorului o adevarată lecţie de viaţă, de respect şi de prietenie.

Lectură plăcută.

©By Vijaya Sundaram

April 8th, 2013

Emotion comes and goes

A storm that seems so strong

Once it’s over, it’s done.

I know it, but do they?

I dislike emotion.

An annoyance it is,

A silly distraction,

A pointless indulgence.

All that bursting, bleeding

Self-serving sentiment,

A foolish, maudlin thought

That the world really cares.

Somewhere a bug dies in

Terrible pain killed by

A monstrous boot-foot which

Does not care or know it.

Better to just crawl off

Fly away, flee away

Right out of that boot-foot.

Avoid, avoid that foot!

~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. This is all I could come up with today.  No wise words, no deep-fried descriptions, no universal truths, no lush language.  Today is Spartan fare.  That’s all, folks!

Bye bye.

Now tomorrow is here,
and our eyes meet like clashing swords,
the sight of you is enough to break this brittle veneer,
as regret marches forth in his hordes,
memories become just boils and blisters,
as days dance away towards the inevitable haunt,
and here we sit flinching at whispers,
because you can’t get what you want,
or so say the oceans of cliché,
as we settle for the shadow play.

So in love with the wrong word,
looking out from the deck towards another broken dream,
setting sail in our pool of the absurd,
instead swimming in a river of inconsistencies,
until we’re all back in the red,
neat misery is poured into that languid hole,
running free across thoughts like cold dread,
so ghosts blossom in your soul,
while the electricity has time to cackle,
dreams drift away in place of me,
the prize for daring to come second.

All I have left are
the sight of these vacant eyes glimmering
like a falling melody
like a plastic fog
gnawing at this hope of ours,
like it always does,
so if sentiment is pleasing
then pleasure is all deceiving,
sentiment doesn’t calm the cracks,
nostalgia only digs the knife deeper
like it always does
it always does.

– Citeste tot articolul: http://www.constanta.ws/stiri/un-lucru-un-sentiment/

The question immediately arises:  What is it about Fast Eddie Felson that gripped and moved audiences, that allowed Newman to catapult to the very top of his profession?  No question, Newman was a gifted actor, and a lesser talent may not have played the part so well.  Nevertheless, there is something memorable about Fast Eddie, the fictional character.  There is something about him that stuck with people, and wouldn’t let go.

Is Fast Eddie just so likeable?  Is that it?  Surely, he is charming.  With his boyish grin, good looks, and natural flair and charisma, Eddie Felson is easy to notice.

A great guy, right?  Not really.  All too often, he’s a boorish jerk who mistreats the people closest to him.

A small-time hustler, Eddie thinks of himself as the best pool player in the country, and he wants to prove it by squaring off against the legendary “Minnesota Fats.”  He gets the match, and, despite jumping ahead early, ultimately loses the contest–a grueling 36-hour pool marathon.  After losing to “Fats,” Eddie is down to his last $200.

He then runs out on his longtime friend and business partner, Charlie, scrapes just to get by, and meets Sarah, a troubled alcoholic who falls in love with him.  Throughout all this, we see Fast Eddie at his worst.  When Charlie finds him, and asks him to come back on tour with him, hustling pool on the road, Eddie dismisses him, calling him a “small-time Charlie.”  He wants a rematch with “Fats,” nothing less.  He wants to be the best.  He tells Charlie to “lay down and die by yourself.  Don’t take me with you.”

He is often insensitive to Sarah, treating her with very little respect, yet he maintains his cocky attitude.  Eddie Felson doesn’t walk.  He struts.  He doesn’t smile.  He smirks.  He’s a jerk.  And yet . . . there is something about him.  Something endearing, nuanced, vulnerable.

Beneath his bravado, Eddie is like a little boy desperately trying to prove himself.  He feels the need to be the best because, deep down, he doesn’t believe he is.  By movie’s end, he does get that rematch with Minnesota Fats, and he does in fact beat him.  At a terrible cost.  Sarah has taken her own life, largely as a result of Eddie’s choices and misplaced priorities.  Beating “Fats” is hollow.  The goal he had wanted all along means nothing.  Eddie finally understands this, too late.

You might think, as an audience, we would say, “He had it coming, he should be miserable,” and leave it at that.  After all, if he had chosen a different path earlier in the movie, the tragic outcome could have been avoided.  But then we pull back.  Don’t we all have a little Fast Eddie in us?  Don’t we all make mistakes?  Don’t we all, at times, overemphasize trivialities at the expense of life’s essentials?  Eddie Felson is not less of a character because of his flaws.  He is more of one.

When I wrote The Eye-Dancers, I hoped to create characters with layers, depth, dimensions.  It would be easy to label Marc Kuslanski, for example, as the “science geek know-it-all,” and Joe Marma as the “tough kid with the big mouth.”  And it’s true.  Both boys fit those descriptions.  But, it is certainly my hope, that’s not where the descriptions end.

If Joe is rash, violent, angry, and has a chip on his shoulder, why is this so?  When we meet him, we see that he feels he needs to prove himself because he’s the shortest boy in his class.  We also discover that he has an older brother, Bob, who seemingly has it all–grades, girls, sports trophies.  “It wasn’t fair,” the text reads in chapter two.  “No matter what [Joe] did, no matter how hard he tried, he always came in second place. . . . It was hard on Christmas, too, and on Bob’s birthday.  What were you supposed to get the brother who had everything?”

Likewise with Marc, it’s easy to dismiss him as a creep.  Even Mitchell Brant, who becomes his friend later in the story, tells him at one point, “Your horse gets pretty high sometimes, you know that?”  But beneath the know-it-all exterior is a person who, even though he doesn’t like to admit it, hungers for a sibling (he is an only child), and a friend.  Early in the book, the narrative reads, “Sometimes, when [Marc] sat in his room, with only his science books and favorite Web pages for companions, he would feel a loneliness that threatened to reach down and crush him in its fist. . . .  He would see kids his own age playing ball, laughing hysterically, joking around, and it was hard not to wonder . . . if perhaps childhood had passed him by altogether—assuming it had ever visited him in the first place.”

I’m not sure if readers will like Joe Marma and Marc Kuslanski.  But I hope they’ll understand them, and look at them as flawed people with real feelings and real emotions.

And maybe that’s what it’s all about.  Maybe that’s what characters need to do.  They feel.  They hurt.  They strive, and they fail.  They make progress, and lose ground.  They cry and scream and claw.  They are us.

They don’t need to be perfect.  They don’t need to have all the answers.  They don’t need to be an archetype or an ideal.  They don’t even need to be liked.

They just need to be human.

Thanks so much for reading!

–Mike