In doubt (firstcomet)

I need to take a shower
Then eat some food for the power
I look left, then, I look right
I think of the blue and the bright
The world comes in to my view
ongoing work and next week's interview
waiting for the devil to respond
His replies are often very profound
His reasons are even more recondite
He doesn't rely on any second thought
So, here I go again in doubt
Didn't I many such wars fight?

Our whole reward is seeing (firstcomet):

Once again: "our whole reward is seeing," Saint Augustine.
And seeing you have always been accompanied by
the rhythmic melody of my heart's beating.
And your face, so innocent and bright, reminds me
of the early birds of the nautical dawn;
Inspiring me to take upon my self another
day of unbearable anticipation.
An your smile, so refreshing and exhilarating,
resembles the vastness of the Garden of Eden;
Makes me yearn to return to my most primordial forms.
I have once again lost my self in your pulchritude
and fearful that I might never be
cognizant of your true essence and inner beauty. Alas!
I have commissioned the morning breeze
to take notes of your most intimate dreams.
To know you better, I will commit them to my heart
and will recite them with every beating of my heart.

My body capitulated to its growing lassitude and I fainted during the last 30 minutes of the GRE exam. And 'content' remains to be a nostalgic existential state.

In about 12 hours I'll be taking the GRE exam. My average (based on sample tests) is around 780 MATH and 600 VERBAL. But, when it comes to a single trial then average doesn't mean much! So, I've decided that I'm content regardless of my grade. Remember that content is a nostalgic existentialist state, and one can get to this state either through dullness or existential weariness. I think I'm tired! Good night. 

Day after days, months after months, the same perfunctory attempts, the same banal remarks, the same trite expressions, and then comes a person who pushes it all one step further, and then months after months, years after years, the same perfunctory attempts, the same banal remarks, the same trite expressions, and then suddenly comes another person who pushes it all another step forward ... INPROGRESS
 

TMS 

Neuroeconomics
 

 

demo 

Basically .... 

The Fanatic Cook! 

I have been observing this curious quirk that has been creeping into the minds of the computer savvy generation encountered with a new project! I am talking about making folders and hopping from website to website and downloading documents with seemingly related contents into this magical repository. We name it 'nsf_fellowship_application' and for the next 4 month or so we stair at it. As of the faith of this folder, it is to be determined by the next crash of the Windows operating system. In some sense computers have facilitated procrastination and loitering. So, cheers and happy folderfication!
 

A Eulogy to an Effulgent cumulus (firstcomet):

Once again he was feeling like an isolated cumulus floating in the boundless sky. He only could see the endless blue and he was feeling only blue! In his nostalgic and weary existential state, while trying hard to protect his bucket of dews from the hands of the plunderer sun, once again he looked down at people and their mundane lives. However, there was something different this time. The old mantra seemed to had lost its effectiveness, the familiar lullaby didn't rhyme the same, and the heros of his bedtime stories were long gone! But, he couldn't possibly give up; since the good tidings of the arrival of the bearer of the most limpid dew had already reached the denizens of the nautical dawn. So, he decided to carry on!

BMI 

PORTRAITS-R-US 

Danced dirty till 5:00am and bought 20 shares of Time Warner- thinking that the escalating middle east conflict will push the news networks stock prices higher. Could it be wrong? 

Learned a new lesson and made a new decision after watching the Pirates of the Caribbean- Dead Man's Chest. The lesson is a personal one. The decision is to take advantage of the public sentiments towards certain movies and actors/actresses by exercising option trading surrounding the time of the movie’s first debut. In this case Disney’s stock did fantastically during the premiere of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

This is similar to the work we are doing in the Symbiotic Computing Laboratory
 

Beshno az nay chon hekayat mikonad ... 

Academic Activism: something that we need more these days. 

Emergence of a new humanist ... 

FLY

Fly, fly little wing Fly beyond imagining
The softest cloud, the whitest dove Upon the wind of heaven's love
Past the planets and the stars Leave this lonely world of ours
Escape the sorrow and the pain And fly again

Fly, fly precious one Your endless journey has begun
Take your gentle happiness Far too beautiful for this
Cross over to the other shore
There is peace forevermore But hold this mem'ry bittersweet
Until we meet

Fly, fly do not fear Don't waste a breath, don't shed a tear
Your heart is pure, your soul is free Be on your way, don't wait for me
Above the universe you'll climb On beyond the hands of time
The moon will rise, the sun will set But I won't forget

Fly, fly little wing Fly where only angels sing
Fly away, the time is right Go now, find the light

--CELINE DION Lyrics

CHOCOLATES
 

Triple Your Ability to Rock Out
 

On Post-Selfism

Post-Selfism Manifesto!
We are living in an era in which the prospect of a Post-Selfist movement is eminent. A Post-Selfist, entangled with new discoveries in cognitive sciences, finds the scientific bases for creating a new grammar of bewilderment:
“Sometimes I sits by I,” says a Post-Selfist, “and I wonders why I exists?”
“Have you ever wondered and then wondered why you wondered?” whispers as he watches the fireworks.
Post-Selfism is the attitude of a new objectivity, a new approach to the very definition of values. So, it is very typical of a Post-Selfist to ask: “Is it intelligible to rely on one’s intelligence?”
Post-Selfists are at the verge of developing a new perceptual faculty. A new faculty that transcends and transforms all internalized perceptual tools. A new faculty that cannot be imagined, explained, or conceived. Ironically, that very fact is the deriving force behind Post-Selfist movement.
As Post-Selfism starts to emerge as a novel movement in the coming years, Post-Selfists always remember that Post-Selfism is an exigency of time not a universally acclaimed truth of any sort.


--from sometime ago

On Birth

I want to pick up the pen and draw a picture. Picture of an earth compartmentalized into dry lands called continents. I’m particularly interested in a little subsection within one of those compartments. That’s my homeland, …. Somewhere in the far north of this land I was born as a result of a biological urge. Maybe a preprogrammed plan to be carried out by an amature group consisting of a couple! As of the etiology of this urge: it has been called the original sin and remains the everlasting curse!


What was she doing there? I think she was giving birth to an art work….
I thought it took two to make things! But, she was alone and it was cold out there.
"It’s a very interesting artwork," I commented.
"You should tell it to the shop owner. He is sometimes too worried about it," she replied.
Deli and beverages…. Cookies and coffees and the rest was abstraction and delicate work of art….
But, what was I doing there? A gas station in Alameda…. That’s true, I had gone to Lake Thunderbird for canoeing and I biked my way back to home. It was nice!
What is life? A series of discrete events that hopefully one day we can make sense of?


-from simetime ago

On Morality and Philosophy

I have a great deal of contempt for morality, intelligence, and any other concept defined in a general sense. What if a maxim does not hold in a particular situation? Should I be intimidated by its grandiose and forced to its observance? What if a different set of etiquettes pay off in a system; shall we not redefine who a gentleman is? One might provoke the subjective happiness as the driving force behind ones action. To whom I shall say: "I can see your generous soul behind your trite expressions!"


Let philosophy make us fly. Let philosophy be a cause of transcendence. Let not to degrade this all mighty product of our rationality. Let it nurture our rationality so that the mighty course of evolution selectively bypasses all other human -all too human- faculties.
Let not to enter human obduracy into this equation. Let them to annihilate in their week-kneed will. Or let philosophy command them to what behooveth them. Let not tone this instrument but by the utmost high melodies of good will.
Maybe after all I was right when I said:
Masses need direction. Directors need philosophy. Philosophers need good music. Musician shall stay away from all masses, all directors, and all philosophers!
Maybe philosophy is condemned to struggle in this quagmire of absurdness and nausea!
So let us go back to our music!
“…
Softly, deftly, music shall caress you,
hear it, feel, it, secretly posess you,
…”



--from simetimes ago

On Stories

I generate stories. People listen to my stories. People like my stories. Those are my stories. Every time I run out of stories I start to think how to make a new story. I don’t want just making any stories. I want to tell something that is sexy, something exotic….
Stories, they don’t just exist; they need to be created! And when they are brought into life they could be told. And depending on how interesting they are they might outlive civilizations. But, how do we generate stories? Well, stories are made of characters. One way is to pick up a character and play the role of that and eventually bring more characters into the story & so on!
I play roles. I’m the roles. Roles play me. Roles are me. I’m not the same as roles, as long as I’m not playing the roles. I am the roles; roles are me. Where is the sweet sovereignty?


--from sometimes ago

On prejudice

Face to face with prejudice and I refuse to see it. I refuse to acknowledge it. I refuse to give it existence. I’ve long decided to blame myself, to improve my social status, and to stay focused. However, sometimes I doubt if my 'just world' ideology has any bases! If hard work and honesty does in fact liberates one from his shortcomings? What else can one do? If the true value of any philosophical disposition is to be determined based on its consequential fruits then I am bound to follow my current maxim. So, let it be!

--from sometimes ago

Conversations with a friend (firstcomet):

The Big Dog wrote:

"To all who posses the earth:
Beyond your borders, you are a homeless kid who cannot find her mother
Beyond your borders, you do not understand anyone and no-one understands you

To all who own a house:
Beyond your house, your privacy will be violated
Beyond your Bathrooms, you are no opera singer
Beyond your bedrooms, you are not a porn star anymore!

To all who own a business
Mind you own business!
Beyond your business, it is not your business!

To all who posses any matters:
Beyond your possessions, you are the beggar!
Beyond your possessions, it is the “Mine!” of others and nothing else matters!

To all who posses a belief:
Beyond your belief, you have nothing to believe
Beyond your belief, you are lost and empty

To all who possess a culture:
Beyond your culture, you have no culture!
Beyond your orient culture, you are uncivilized and disoriented

To all who posses a friend:
Beyond your friends, you are lonely and deserted
Beyond your friends, you are the most stranger of all

To all who posses youth:
Beyond your youth, your back gets as round as a circle!
Beyond your youth, you are an old star with no audience
Beyond your youth, you are an old hero with no follower

To all who posses life:
Beyond life, you are corps of bad odor
Beyond life, no-one cannot live with you for a second

To all who posses a troubled mind:
Beyond your troubled mind, there is a beautiful mind!
Hold on to your troubled minds!
Hold on patiently to the pain of rejection
The Day of Beautiful mind will come!"


firstsignal replied:

"Beyond a glass of water there is a bottle of beer
If you have it you'll have no fear!

Beyond a bottle of beer there is a glass of wine
if you have it you'll stop to whine!

Beyond love there is reason
In reason you will find your own prison!

Beyond darkness there is light
Both being the same for a person with no eyesight!

Beyond your daily routine there is an exciting life
Which you can destroy by getting a wife!

Beyond the priests there are the laymen
The only difference, there acquaintance with the hymen!
Beyond human there is the saint
With no fault he is like a pale paint!

Beyond sitting on your butt there is an adventurous ride
Which one to choose? I let you to decide!

If you can’t afford a car you can ride on mules
The good news: they don’t use no fuels!"

On This

Remember when you were a child and your mom would tell you stories. Remember, it sometimes would make you laugh, occasionally you couldn’t help but cry, and there always was a hero who would make it worthy to listen to that story. Well, this is a story. And you are the hero of this story. And there are always things to learn from a story. And there are always times to laugh. You sometimes dreamt of yourself as being the hero of your bedtime stories. And some other times you never met your hero in your dreams. Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that a bedtime story is not worthy of listening. And we are all near our bedtime. So let the story go on…

--From sometimes ago

A double-headed sword:

An analysis of feminism and reaction of the masculine world.

Women found themselves being neglected and discriminated set to make changes.
In response well established, politically and intellectually oriented masculine world resists.

It adds to the level of frustration and dissatisfaction.

The masculine world, who found itself uncomfortable with the state of affairs, devices the least costly solution:

Creating illusionary concepts:
� Emotional intelligence
� Intuition
� Sensitivity

Women accepted and celebrated the new definition.

The capitalism invested on the new concept.

As a result, women who found enough time and all the freedom to build a new world based on this new concept, grew to the point of finding the masculine world rough, emotionally unsatisfying.

And that in termed paved the road towards more intimate relationship with other woman. As being advertised by MTV, the Hours�. 

On Loneliness

To be alone is to be all one. That is to be whole. So you can see yourself as you are in the mirror of your solitude. You can reflect on your past and ponder about your future.
As we are all carried away in the turbulent river of life, we seek a moment of respite by grasping on a hanging branch of the tree of solitude. While in seclusion we might feel the pressure of the river. Nevertheless, we are determined to stay firm and steadfast. Because, we know to be carried away is to lose that essence that we call the spirit of man!
"Life lived as an event is a drama. Life reduced to process becomes vegetation."--Abraham J. Heschel

--from sometimes ago

Just need another glass of wine (firstcomet)

Tonight is one of those nights when the goddess of art comes down the incomprehensible to give us mortals company:
So, Welcome! And I press thee to relieve us from all distress.
Because, tonight this mistress of mine is drinking somebody else's wine!
And stress is the share of this -so pretending- fortress heart of mine!
But, never mind and leave the tragedy behind.
Because, the music is on and when the goddess of art sings her divine rhyme,
The 'beautiful' and the 'bright as the moon' all come to me!
I guess life is fine;
I just need another glass of wine!
And improvise another line:
"ein' feste Burg ist unser gott"1
--SH.N
11/23/2004


1)A mighty fortress is our god, by Martin Luther.
This song has been called "the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the greatest period of German history" and the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation." See: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/i/mightyfo.htm

Where our highest faculties stop to grasp, there starts a mystical process that bewilders us with its grandiose!
 

A project for life: amysterianism!

 

Be yourself!

to be nobody but yourself
in a world which is doing
its best night and day
to make you like everybody else
means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight
and never stop fighting.
--E.E.Cummings

How can one explain this persistent tendency for convergence to mean?
What happened to us? Being sucked into the absurd rituals of our societies. Ideals that are long forgotten! Dreams that are long being caffeinated! Heroes who are long being defeated! And legends that are eternally afflicted by the pestilent disease of herd mentality!
Now, wake up and look yourself in the mirror! Ponder upon what the mirror reflects and reflect upon what your inner being commands!

You are trapped forever if you are not honest to yourself today!

a woman from inside out

Rhinoplasty

If one can show significant correlation between an individual’s ‘nose-topology’, ‘resistance to common cold’ and ‘success in the mating process’ then a triangular cause-and-effect relationship between the abovementioned factors can be established.
The proposition is that certain subsets of the population, either due to environmental factors or their genetic makeup are less resistant to common cold and thus the rate of their mortality due to the associated virus is higher. In particular, the Homo- sapiens nose is remorselessly attacked by the common cold virus, and as a result deformation of the nose over an extended period of time is unavoidable. Thus, a correlation between the noise topology and the resistance to common cold could be established if one can quantify the simultaneous presence of genes that lead to an abnormal nose topology and those that severely impair organism’s immunity towards common cold.
Given that the proposition holds, the next step is to conduct a subjective experiment where the degrees of attractiveness of a male/female subject by a random population of females/males is assessed and correlated with the subject’s nose topology.
Here one can expect that the sexes within the population have developed the skill to detect the resistant strains and sieve out the vulnerable ones. Such ability could have definite evolutionary advantages and thus accumulated in the surviving populations.
Even though due to advances in medical sciences the common cold is not considered a serious health threat, the evolutionary acquired repugnance towards abnormal nose topology hinders the normal process of the afflicted individual’s life. Thus, Rhinoplasty as a feasible solution champions the cause of human liberation from the rubbles of time where the rabbles’ intellect fail!

"Our whole reward is seeing!" --Saint Augustine

Predicting hand movement from cortical activities!
Input: neural activity of 80 neurons over a period of one second.
Output: Predicted hand position, velocity, and acceleration.
Method: Support Vector Regression (SVR).

>> log.evaluate.validation

ans =

pvaf1: 0.7351
pvaf2: 0.7334
rsqrd1: 0.8656
rsqrd2: 0.8723
coefdet1: 0.7493
coefdet2: 0.7609
pvaf_cmbnd: []
net_node: [2x2889 double]

What keeps you going?