| The Once and Future King-by T.H. White |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|05:37 pm] |
"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn." |
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| Emma by Jane Austen |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|12:58 pm] |
"I cannot make speeches, Emma:"-he soon resumed, and in a tone of such sincere, decided, intelligible tenderness as was tolerably convincing. " If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it. Bear with the truths I would tell you now, dearest Emma, as well as you have borne with them. The manner, perhaps, may have as little to recommend them. God knows, I have been a very indifferent lover. But you understand me. You, you see, you understand my feelings- and will return them if you can. At present, I ask only to hear, once to hear your voice. " Mr. Knightly
" I always deserve the best treatment, because I never put up with any other." -Emma
And my favorite:
" He had ridden home through the rain; and had walked up directly after dinner, to see how this sweetest and best of creatures, faultless in spite of all her faults, bore the discovery." |
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| e.e. cummings, if |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|10:39 am] |
If freckles were lovely, and day was night,
And measles were nice and a lie warn't a lie,
Life would be delight,--
But things couldn't go right
For in such a sad plight
I wouldn't be I.
If earth was heaven and now was hence,
And past was present, and false was true,
There might be some sense
But I'd be in suspense
For on such a pretense
You wouldn't be you.
If fear was plucky, and globes were square,
And dirt was cleanly and tears were glee
Things would seem fair,--
Yet they'd all despair,
For if here was there
We wouldn't be we.
* all my posted quotes can be found here. |
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| e.e. cummings, if i believe |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|10:37 am] |
"if i believe
in death be sure
of this
it is
because you have loved me,
moon and sunset
stars and flowers
gold creshendo and silver muting
of seatides
i trusted not,
one night
when in my fingers
drooped your shining body
when my heart
sang between your perfect
breasts
darkness and beauty of stars
was on my mouth petals danced
against my eyes
and down
the singing reaches of
my soul
spoke
the green-- "
* all my posted quotes can be found here. |
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| sylvia plath, firesong |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|10:32 am] |
brave love, dream
not of staunching such strict flame, but come,
lean to my wound; burn on, burn on.
* all my posted quotes can be found here. |
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| "Wide Sargasso Sea" - Jean Rhys |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|12:30 pm] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | "Woman King" - Iron & Wine | ] |
"Get up, girl, and dress yourself. Woman must have spunks to live in this wicked world" |
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| kurt vonnegut, a man without a country |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|10:16 am] |
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"The biggest truth to face now–what is probably making me unfunny now for the remainder of my life–is that I don't think people give a damn whether the planet goes on or not. It seems to me as if everyone is living as members of Alcoholics Anonymous do, day by day. And a few more days will be enough. I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren." |
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| ray bradbury, fahrenheit 451 |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|10:14 am] |
"There must be something in books, things we can't imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house, there must be something there. You don't stay for nothing."
"Perhaps he had expected their faces to burn with the knowledge they carried, to glow as lanterns glow, with the light in them."
"'I don't talk things, sir,' said Faber. 'I talk the meaning of things. I sit here and know I'm alive'"
"She didn't want to know how a thing was done, but why. Luckily, queer ones like her don't happen often."
* p.s. i've been organizing all my posted quotes by author here. i know some of you said you like my posts and i was bored so why not. |
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| Haruki Murakami - South of the Border, West of the Sun |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|09:06 am] |
Wordlessly we walked over to a shaded part of the building and held each other and kissed, a shell-less snail and a webless frog. I held her close against me. Our tongues met lightly. I felt her breasts through her blouse. She didn't resist. She just closed her eyes and sighed. Her breasts were small and fit comfortably in the palm of my hand, as if designed solely for that purpose. She placed her palm above my heart, and the feel of her hand and the beat of my heart became one. She's not Shimamoto, I told myself. She can't give me what Shimamoto gave. But here she is, all mine, trying her best to give me all she can. How could I ever hurt her?
But I didn't understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair. |
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| CS Grad School Advice -- What to choose as a field of interest? |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|11:19 pm] |
I couldn't find an active Computer Science LJ and figured there were some CS students here =), so here goes:
I'm applying to computer science graduate schools, but I'm not sure what subfield (e.g., AI, Theory, Computer Architecture) to talk about in my research interests. Does anyone know how much it matters?
It's not that I don't know what I want to study -- I do. (Theoretical Computer Science, in particular, complexity theory.)
The problem is, I focused a lot more on machine learning and NLP as an undergrad (most of my undergrad research was in it, and 2 of my recs are from my supervisors), so I think my application looks a lot stronger to a Machine Learning person than to a theory person. (I do have a decent theory background -- I majored in math, took some advanced theory classes, and did research with a combinatorics professor [though it didn't go anywhere] -- but I don't think I'm currently as strong].
So should I say that I want to study Machine Learning (I'm stronger in it, but not really interested anymore) or Complexity Theory (less experienced, but it's what I want to study). How much does it really matter -- is it easy to switch once you're actually admitted? (Not sure how choosing an advisor really works...)
Or should I say I want to study both? (It's a good possibility, but I'm wondering whether it will dilute my research statement and make it sound rather rambly and less focused.)
Thanks! |
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| How to Ignore the Yes-Man in Your Head |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|01:08 am] |
Wall Street Journal
By JASON ZWEIG
A mind is a terrible thing to change.
You decide gold is a good bet to hedge against inflation, and suddenly the news seems to be teeming with signs of a falling dollar and rising prices down the road. Or you believe stocks are going to outperform other assets, and all you can hear are warnings of the bloodbath to come in the bond and commodity markets.
( Read more... ) |
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| Quotes from Burned by Ellen Hopkins |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|12:45 am] |
"I began to view the world at large through borrowed eyes, eyes more like those I wanted to own."
"In my view having babies was supposed to be something beautiful, not a duty. Something incredible, not role-playing. Bringing new life into this dying world, promising hope for a sane tomorrow. As I saw it, any expectation of sanity rested in a woman's womb."
"It wasn't like my life had changed at all, and maybe that was part of the problem. Because something inside me was different. Shifting, like a tide or sand dune. That something was growing, stretching, taking shape beneath my skin. And I wondered if very soon it might blow me apart at the seams." |
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| emmanuel levinas |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|09:13 pm] |
for others, in spite of myself, from myself.
autrement qu 'être. |
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| bukowski |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|08:22 pm] |
drunk on the dark streets of some city,
it's night, you're lost, where's your
room?
you enter a bar to find yourself,
order scotch and water.
damned bar's sloppy wet, it soaks
part of one of your shirt
sleeves.
It's a clip joint-the scotch is weak.
you order a bottle of beer.
Madame Death walks up to you
wearing a dress.
she sits down, you buy her a
beer, she stinks of swamps, presses
a leg against you.
the bar tender sneers.
you've got him worried, he doesn't
know if you're a cop, a killer, a
madman or an
Idiot.
you ask for a vodka.
you pour the vodka into the top of
the beer bottle.
It's one a.m. In a dead cow world.
you ask her how much for head,
drink everything down, it tastes
like machine oil.
you leave Madame Death there,
you leave the sneering bartender
there.
you have remembered where
your room is.
the room with the full bottle of
wine on the dresser.
the room with the dance of the
roaches.
Perfection in the Star Turd
where love died
laughing |
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| Richard Adams, Watership Down |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|08:14 pm] |
All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a thousand enemies.
And when they catch you, they will kill you…
But first, they must catch you. |
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| hermann hesse, gertrude |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|05:50 pm] |
"That life is difficult, I have often bitterly realized. I now had further cause for serious reflection. Right up to the present I have never lost the feeling of contradiction that lies behind all knowledge. My life has been miserable and difficult, and yet to others, and sometimes to myself, it has seemed rich and wonderful. Man's life seems to me like a long, weary night that would be intolerable if there were not occasionally flashes of light, the sudden brightness of which is so comforting and wonderful, that the moments of their appearance cancel out and justify the years of darkness."
"Passion is always a mystery and unaccountable, and unfortunately there is no doubt that life does not spare its purest children and often it is just the most deserving people who cannot help loving those that destroy them." |
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