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Monday, March 8, 2010

Random quotes and tweets

More interesting than building a lie detector would be to make a self-lie detecting device.

Widespread fake belief: Each person is it's own puppeteer.

Language is the main currency of WWW (expanding at an incredible rate).I am afraid humans end up believing life consists just of it (language).

The media is a mirror of our culture which is a byproduct of our minds.

People should try to be whatever the situation calls for. The problem is in perceiving what the situation is.

The key is in finding that balance where each persons production is valued by the use of what is produced.

We need to be headed, towards a day worth remembering and a history worth repeating.

Authenticity is invaluable originality is non-existent.Wit is not where you take things from is where you take them to.

Life is always a work in progress.

77 comments:

Elisabeth said...

'We need to be headed, towards a day worth remembering and a history worth repeating.'

This quote resonates for me, Marina. Do you know who said it?

It's powerful, as are all the other quotes here, especially the injunction to 'listen'.

Thanks.

JM Estoque said...

very true!

human being said...

.

poetry
like dreams
is a self-lie detector
also it is
a life protector

my mind is my puppeteer
and now
she is standing by me here

life consists of languages
but sadly
they are always kept in political cages

the media is a tool to shape the the thoughts of me and you
a magic mirror that deflects the real me and you

try to understand (but not to be) what the situation calls for
what if it realizes that it's not bad to be a whore?

no one pays me for what i produce
since it can not be eaten or worn
but people pay a lot of money for whatever is porn

nothing is worth repeating
as life is always a work in progress

originality comes through pain
pain-killers don't let your mind rain

i take things from me
and take them back to me
crows are not witty, as you can see...


.

:D

Anonymous said...

More interesting than building a lie detector would be to make a self-lie detecting device. - i could barely continue to read after this one.. so true..

JanetK said...

"Language is the main currency of WWW". I am not sure this is that true unless we expand what we mean by language. I find a lot of music and graphics and mathematics on the web - more than I find in most books or everyday situations. The web is all communication and attempts at expression (and some would say that all communication and expression is language but that just makes the word meaningless). The web is great as far as I'm concerned.

~otto~ said...

All great, but I especially like this one (for reasons which I'm sure are obvious to you): "Language is the main currency of WWW (expanding at an incredible rate).I am afraid humans end up believing life consists just of it (language)."

Joe Bloggs said...

Good one, Mariana - ashore thing
Simply a great haiku?koan?

questobservat!on
----------------
in this swollen sea of me,me,me

~of course I justmust put my oar in

splishsplashsplooshpiddlepuddlepaddle

Now Eye Yum full of empty
Surfs me righteous

Tape said...

Language is a virus.
Laurie Anderson dixit.
Life is a journey too.
Keep walking.
=)

darkfoam said...

this morning i stepped outside and listened to the tweets of the birds :)
..that was the situation i found myself in. no doubt i plan to repeat this personal history of mine. i love the language of the birds.

tipota said...

self-lie detecting devices, should come with the model, i think. as well as "situation perception devices"

great piece. it made me wonder about things like value, and balance, and productivity, and also why those things would be important. days worth remembering, too, and questioned whether those memories could be a category of a history worth repeating, or if there is any history worth repeating, and then about worth itself, what is it, how is it determined, etc.

the puppeteer quote makes me laugh, because it starts with "Widespread fake belief". that just seems so funny! but we talked about it before at twitter, i remember it well.

I have a difficulty with the authenticity quote because it seems to fulfill itself by emphasizing authenticity (stating it as the first word and giving it the label of invaluable) while annihilating originality, and then goes forward to prove the point by stating that wit itself is about 'the taking' from and to, rather than 'the creating' (a different from and to) which it would not have agreed with because it wants to say originality, that is, 'the creating' is non-existent. or something like that, while i enjoyed reading it and considering the perspective and looking at my own perspective.

more pictures, i say, if language is the main currency, to balance it a bit. good time for a youtube field trip.
and very nice illustration too!

Rick said...

Mariana, I wonder if a self-lie detecting device would be civilization as we know it to a screeching halt?

Mariana Soffer said...

It is part of a poem Uncle Tree wrote here http://me2watson.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/free-the-golden-calf/
With a small change from the original writing.
It is great, isn't it? Excellent poetry.

Mariana Soffer said...

JM Benaidez! Glad you agree with the things said here. Thanks

Mariana Soffer said...

Human Being: it is great what you wrote regarding each saying. It is not true that crows are not witty, just too humble maybe.
I liked specially when you say that is also a life protector, because that is the original purpose of being self-deceived, to make things easier, but it ends up complicating them always.
I do not think there is anything particularly wrong with being a whore, most people's work do not differ much from it.
Money (and sex) makes the world go round, that is what the song should have said.
Thanks for the free style writing, I like the freedom you have with styles.

Mariana Soffer said...

utopianfragment:
I loved that, the thought came to me when I told a friend that someone proposed me to build a lie detector using natural language processing techniques (I hated the idea of collaborating with something like it, so I did not do it indeed)

ines said...

Amazing quotes, you left me thinking so much that I have you words to say about them.

Mariana Soffer said...

JanetK:
It is completely valid your criticism about being the main currency because there are lots of content that are not in the web. But I was mainly thinking about all the new trends including twitter, buzz and friendfeed, which are mainly text exchange tool, and I think that facebook is like that too, although it has several other applications as well. You can also add the marketing/opinion mining current programs, summaries and all the NLP processing that is being done with the web content.
But you might be right, I can not tell.
Thanks for the reflection, anyway I will keep this in mind cause it is an interesting point you made.

Mariana Soffer said...

otto:
Happy you liked that one, and to see you arround. Check anyway with JanetK says about that.

Mariana Soffer said...

Joe Bloggs:

they are just quotes, at least that is how I see them.

I liked a lot your observation specially the part when it says full of empty, cause that is what content is becoming nowadays.

Mariana Soffer said...

Tape:
You are right about language, actually that was one of my favorite quotes from L Anderson and Mr Burroughs work. And like all virus language is also pervasive, I did not thought of it before.
I liked a lot your ending, it is encouraging. Thanks a lot for visiting, I hope you are doing great, I am happy to see you keep your wisdom in place.

Mariana Soffer said...

foam: nice observation about language. I used to like the idea that music was the first evolutionary language we developed, but it was replaced by words although it is still tightly connected to fillings and great for transmitting them .

Uncle Tree said...

Thank you once again, Mariana!
You, and a couple of others
have highlighted my day!

"originality is nonexistent"

That makes me want to cry.
Somewhere along the time line
of history, it must have been true,
I believe, but then again,
you know that already.

Luvz & Hugz, sweet niece!

Anonymous said...

[LANGUAGE]

      some gems here

      LOL @ foam :)

      <3 to mariana

[/LANGUAGE]

/t.

dragonwithin said...

Very well said! some serious reflections about life that most of us bypass because everything is so mundane already. But I like this one best:"We need to be headed, towards a day worth remembering and a history worth repeating." This is the exact reason why it always pays to give your best shot in everything and to do it in as honest a way as possible.

J said...

People should try to be whatever the situation calls for.

But people can only ever be what the situation dictates.

human being said...

thanks Mariana... a lot!

.

humble?
crows like to jumble
so they may tumble
to the truth

.

everything is complicatedly
simple

.

the.............................x
and
the
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
y

of most people's work is the same

you forgot

....................z
..................z
................z
.............z
..........z
.......z
....z
.z

'what determines your altitude is your attitude'...

.

the world's path needs a
U
turn

.

thanks for feeling the freedom
deep of the sky is my kingdom

;)

.

Mariana Soffer said...

tipota:
Interesting thought about the self lying device, I think that adding the situation perception info, which provides context, will sureley enhance its utility.

Great reflection about the piece. More than wondering what this leads me to think about is certanties. I think that we always know if something is worth is, or woth repeating, we just need to pay a little attention to our guts, feelings and intuition and it would be obvious the answer to that.

Yeah, I slightly changed the puppeter thing, tried to rephrase it, glad you liked it anyway.

I completelly understand how you interpret the authenticity quote. Hope this clarifies my idea to you. What I refer to as no true originality is the fact that all our creations/inventions are made possible not only by our creation, but also by the culture we live in, the context where it was created, preexisting natural things, other people s influences and so on. A network containing the the factors I mentioned before plus the new idea(based on the insspiration) along with their connections makes the creation possible. Wich implies that pure originality does not exists because innovations are always based on previously existing things and concepts.

Nice advice regarding my actualization with how is the big picture of the web nowadays regarding conntent, maybe I am too focused on linguistics and that is why I thought that, but I might have been inaccurate in my statment.

Thanks a lot for sharing your wonderful insights and thoughts here, I really apreciate it.

Mariana Soffer said...

Rick:
good question, I guess it depends what people choose to do with that device, if they use it to discover their false beliefs and based on that face reality as it is, no doubt that everything will change fiercly. But it might also be used only to detect them but not to face reality to promote change due to the comfort it is to remain in our cages

Mariana Soffer said...

Rick:
good question, I guess it depends what people choose to do with that device, if they use it to discover their false beliefs and based on that face reality as it is, no doubt that everything will change fiercly. But it might also be used only to detect them but not to face reality to promote change due to the comfort it is to remain in our cages

Mariana Soffer said...

Uncle Tree:
Thanks to you dear uncle, actually you make this things possible.

It was misunderstood what I meant with it also by tipota, I guess it was not clear my friend, let me put you here what I meant by that:
What I refer to as no true originality is the fact that all our creations/inventions are made possible not only by our creation, but also by the culture we live in, the context where it was created, preexisting natural things, other people s influences and so on. A network containing the the factors I mentioned before plus the new idea(based on the insspiration) along with their connections makes the creation possible. Wich implies that pure originality does not exists because innovations are always based on previously existing things and concepts.
Really hope you understand/grasp me here, if not let me know and I will try explaining again.
You are so sweet by making you wanna cry that idea, you moved me with that.
You also made my day, and please if you do not mind I would like to know what other things also did, we could share the poetry/texts that are relevant in our lives, I am sure the things you enjoy will make my day too.
Lots of love to you dear uncle!

Mariana Soffer said...

/t
Thanks for the great compliment, and I agree what foam said was great, he wrote and mix with an amazing degree of liberty.
wish you the best llama dali

Mariana Soffer said...

/t
Thanks for the great compliment, and I agree what foam said was great, he wrote and mix with an amazing degree of liberty.
wish you the best llama dali

Mariana Soffer said...

/t
Thanks for the great compliment, and I agree what foam said was great, he wrote and mix with an amazing degree of liberty.
wish you the best llama dali

Mariana Soffer said...

dragonwithin
Well you know that things that are too close most are the time are impossible to see. Your favourite was written by my uncle, who was my first real friend in the blogosphere:
It is part of a poem he wrote here http://me2watson.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/free-the-golden-calf/
With a small change from the original writing.
It is great, isn't it? Excellent poetry. Browse his writtings. And let me tell you you are so right with your reflection regarding it, that fact I been discussing just today with a friend of mind. And now I understood somethings I did wrong by not pointing towards what was the best but towards the convinient for the moment thing. Which is a serious mistake I commited at my young working age. Now I learn that doing the best and being faitfull to your belives is the only way to live life in plenitude.

Mariana Soffer said...

J
Well I am not sure, I think that we can always do the apropiate, we should not do the convinient to keep ourselves comfortable in the situation we are in, wi should be able to risk and belive in what is meant to be.

Mariana Soffer said...

Human being
Always writting pearls of wisdome in all places you left your trace. I found marvelous the x and the y your depiction of the geometry of it, and how we can forget a hole dimension, wich is fundamental, and workes exactley how you described it with just 7 words.

Mariana Soffer said...

Ines:
Glad you felt like that, please feel free to post anytimes your thoughts and reflections dear.

Mariana Soffer said...

Human being:
forgot to say regarding you last words.

Latelly I am thinking that the U turn is possible, that things are moving towards and interesting place, and so are people s spirits

Uncle Tree said...

Hello, Mariana!

I do understand what you mean. I am familiar with that old axiom, which is a scientific philosophy par excellente'. Pardon my Latin.

If it be true, then the Cosmos is not, and never has been an original creation. Neither is love an expression succinctly felt as personal unto one's self. God's work consists of nothing but make-overs. That leaves me with this thought:

Somewhere along the Time-line,
Man became conscious of himself.
His very first thought was original,
but the seed of that thought was not.

What else makes me cry?
My own "Knock On Good".

Or my leprechaun's lack
of an interested and loving Father.

Relevant or reverently spoken,
either way,
it's an original bummer.

Take care, dear one!
Rainbow Eyes, Jr.

J said...

Mariana,
Well, I was simply meaning, detirminism, and all that...

Protervo said...

lindo final.

Mariana Soffer said...

Uncle Tree:
My dear relative, please do not apologize you always express yourself amazingly.

It leaves you with what you call "make over", but I think that is very valuable to have been provided of that. You just need to watch it from a different angle.

Your verses are amazing, the first one moved me a lot.
It also reminded me that Greeks used to think that the ideas and thoughts visited them eventually and left after a while in search of other beings. Which implies that thoughts did not belong to the person that experimented them. You can see where I head with this example regarding the concept of originality.

yours truly
Miss rainy sun

Mariana Soffer said...

J:
I completely understand what went trough your mind, it is so hard to be coherent, for being like that, I guess I would have to remain silent most of the days.

Mariana Soffer said...

Protervo:
Thank you very much, nice to see you here my friend!

Anonymous said...

Nice brief and this fill someone in on helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.

Uncle Tree said...

Relativity is relevant to my contemporary relative.

So, it is true, there is nothing new under the sun. "Love Reign O'er Me" by The Who comes to mind, along with Clapton's "Let It Rain". This is the rainy season, and we're getting more than our fair share this year. I am a soggy sapling, and you are all wet. :)

I am hungry, but my Plato is empty.

Maybe they're not original, but fingerprints are unique.

Happy Friday, yeah! Thank God, paydays repeat themselves. Bye, bye!

Dave King said...

Verging on the gnomic, encompassing the truth, your paragraphs have a lot going for them.

Anonymous said...

I want to rename this post Mariana's Petition.

If life is "a work in progress" then your blog, Mariana, is a canvas, and your comments section a commingled pool of incredibly keen and talented minds, my hat off to you and your keen-minded friends.

human being said...

thanks aGAIN, Mariana...


and they say pearls come to being just because of an act of defence... protection against an inturding grain of sand...

.

re: U-trun... yes... me too believe it is posibble... on different levels...

you may like to read this:


http://dearteachercrow.blogspot.com/2009/05/u-turn-to-return-to-you.html


best wishes

Mariana Soffer said...

Dave king:
Thank you very much, it is an honor to hear such nice words from you.
Take care.

Mariana Soffer said...

theperceptionpoint:
Your words are the most encouraging I hear ... probably ever regarding my writings in internet. I am delighted about the delicate and poetic words you used to express that. Thanks a lot! I am really happy and greatful to have friends like that (including you) that I meet writing here.

Mariana Soffer said...

Human being:
your poem is incredibly beautiful, I left you a comment with a few words I could utter after reading it. Somehow the feeling that it provoked me reminded me of the first poem I wrote here, which the post was called "poem", It talks also using different words about that kind of relationship (which is impossible to describe here for me) and about fear.
Wish you the best too my dear.

Mariana Soffer said...

Uncle tree:
I liked your reply. You words reminds me of the self reference paradox, also called the liar paradox, which says something like "I have not written this sentence" But instead of referring to itself you refer to something which is the opposite of itself indeed and at the same level of the subject, not at the meta-level (what was written referring to itself in the text). Ups, I guess I made a mess with this words, sorry If it was too confusing, math sometimes interfere with the clarity of poetry.
Take care dear uncle

darkfoam said...

oh, but i'm a she.
;)

Mariana Soffer said...

foam:
My apologizes, somehow I never pay attention to the sex of the person I relate trough here, I guess it is not an important distinction to me. But I am happy you clarify that, cause it is different for understanding some of your texts by taking in account who you are and therefore were you are speaking from.

Enchanted Oak said...

The notion that "The media is a mirror of our culture which is a byproduct of our minds" strikes me as simplistic. I think, instead, that the media creates its own culture, with media heads deciding how to spin whatever they consider "news" to create an artificial sense of threat or significance. The media is no longer a force for good but rather is a source of sound bites. It exists to stir up controversy and sell itself to advertisers. It no longer serves the public good.

Anonymous said...

Hello,nice post thanks for sharing?. I just joined and I am going to catch up by reading for a while. I hope I can join in soon.

Anonymous said...

creo en el autoengaño: es la forma en que podemos re-significar las cosas para tratar de estar mas estables. no quiero decir que debemos mentirnos todo el tiempo; pero hay un nivel "discursivo" que nos permite jugar con nuestra autoestima para sentirnos mejor. el lenguaje crea realidad, y de la misma forma, puede "crear" estados en las personas. estados mas tranquilos, con menos carga emocional, para poder realizar un analisis mas profundo de nosotros mismos.

el auto-engaño es lo que nos permite estar vivos. la fe es un auto-engaño. la esperanza. son formas de mantener nuestro entorno en constante homeostasis.

y sí, puede que los "medios" sea y es un reflejo de nuestra cultura, con una inmediatez casi incrteible; no obstante, siempre representa un segmento determinado. Pero son esos juegos de lenguaje lo que crean el consenso social en el cual estamos insertos. quizas debamos utilizar el autoengaño, para aislarnos y poder escuchar el sonido del otro lenguaje: el de nuestro dialogo interno.

la vida es trabajo continuo. algunas veces, la vida nos interrumpe la continuidad.

la vida podria ser un estado constante de supervivencia. pero solo para quienes pueden. los demas, estamos en inercia constante.

saludos

darkfoam said...

mariana, the gender of a blogger is not important to me either. i've been thought a male blogger a few other times by different bloggers. after all, foam and a glass of beer are not gender specific. if i can tell specifically that a blogger thinks i'm male though, i correct it ...
:)

human being said...

.

my poem is old
and yours
is new
but
both
talking
of a fire
only our hearts can value

.

eh?

Mariana Soffer said...

Enchanted Oak:
It is a simplification, it emerges from a limited viewpoint but I thought it was anyway an interesting thought. I think more along the lines that the media takes a life of it's own, generating it's particular new world trough it.
Sadly in many cases the media as you said is not a force of good, I agree, but I think that we should all try to change that. For example we can take advantage of the decentralization new technologies allows by trying to diminish the enormous influence marketers and advertising posses over humanity nowadays.

Mariana Soffer said...

Anonymous:
Please try to post with a reference to yourself, so I can get to know you by following your ideas and recommend some of the stuff to read.

Mariana Soffer said...

Cerdotopia:
Me gusto mucho lo que dijiste en el primer parrafo, es una muy buena propuesta.
De todas formas no estoy segura de que el autoenganio sea necesario, creo que se puede tener una forma mas valiente y mejor que nos permita vivir de forma mas plena.
Acerca del parrafo tres te recomiendo que leas lo que dijo enchanted oak, justo arriba tuyo, y mi respuesta a ella. Me gusta tu propuesta de como aprovechar el autoenganio para escuchar nuestro dialogo interno, aunque no creo que partiendo de auto-mentirse sea especialmente bueno para lograr algo.
Muy buena frase sobre la continuidad, me encanta la propia referencia para explicar el producto de interrumpirla.
No creo hombres que lo tuyo sea una inhercia constante, me parece mas bien que lo constante es tu busqueda, la cual no debe de confundirse con inhercia a pesar de no llegar aun a cosas concretas atravez de la misma.
Sigue buscando, es de las mejores cosas que podemos hacer creo yo.

Carinios a ti

Mariana Soffer said...

foam:
Glad you think like me about the irrelevance of gender in this kind of issues. And I also think is fine to clarify the condition in order to prevent missunderstandings.
Cheers

Mariana Soffer said...

human being:
I think that "The fire our hearts can value" transcends time and in this case also cultural differences. It is a universal among a particular kind of beings.
Lovely text, thanks for it!

Uncle Tree said...

Hello, Mariana!

Just stopped by to wish you a...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Hoping all is well with you, UT

Bryan Borland said...

I could write a thousand poems from the inspiration you've just provided. :)

Mariana Soffer said...

Uncle tree:
you are so kind, thank you very much, wish you the same for you.I wanted to tell you that I saw your last amazing post, I loved it, but I did not have enough time to elaborate a proper comment about that, at least I am going to tell you that I love the images and the poetry.
You are such a kind man.

Mariana Soffer said...

Bryan Borland:
You are such a gentelman Bryan, you payed me an amazing compliment, thanks.
I guess people like me have the hability of abstraction while the ones like you of expression, I think both make a great convination intertwined.

Stu said...

Some very interesting quotes and thoughts there.

"originality is non-existent"

This is true in so far as any new work has to be derived from available materials and previously attempted methods. All creative work is derivative. But I think this is more or less self-evident.

"Originality" for me consists in new configurations of the available materials and methods. So I think it's a matter of definition as much as anything else.

Of course we can't create something entirely new out of nothing, but novel and unique creations (or ideas) are possible because the permutations are (at least potentially) infinite.

I think perhaps a degree of cynicism has come about due to the extent of imitation (in art, music, etc) in recent times, and the sheer visibility of such imitation through TV, radio, the internet, etc.

Also, the markets for popular music, film and novels tend to perpetuate a "more of the same" scenario. Major movie studios, music labels or book publishers are these days less likely to take a risk with something that doesn't fit their pre-existing criteria for success (i.e. profitability). I'd argue that this has also contributed to the "death of originality". But on the other hand I'd say originality (as I define it) is not dead - just that original work tends to be produced by smaller, independent, "underground" producers. But this is a generalisation. For what it's worth, I think "Avatar" was original on a visual level.

Mariana Soffer said...

stu:
thank you very much for the compliment.

I agree with what you say about originality, but I am afraid that many people are unable to se some of the evident things.
And I completelly agree that is a matter of definition and that the degree of cynicism might have increased.
But from another point of view, even the same artwork placed at a different time and in a different culture can be considered original, cause it is indeed something completelly different than the other one. I talked a little about this subject in one of my first and worst posts:http://singyourownlullaby.blogspot.com/2009/03/originality.html
And you last paragraph is very interesting too, I always think about the cinema industry too, and how nowadays it is more a business than a passion. I talked about it in an ancient post too.
Thanks for sharing your thought provoking words with us.

Harlequin said...

the tweets were ... sweet!! and the ears are a nice touch :))

Mariana Soffer said...

Harlequin:
Thanks a lot, I am really happy you noticed the ears, I liked that picture too, it is cool sometimes to pay atention to details.

Terrace Crawford said...

... and I just thought they were good quotes.

--Terrace Crawford
www.terracecrawford.com
www.twitter.com/terracecrawford

andrea guiu said...

Excelentes reflexiones. Cada frase es para rumiar un rato, la primera por caso "More interesting than building a lie detector would be to make a self-lie detecting device.", en un tiempo donde hay demasiada moral y poca ética, hacerse cargo de las propias mentiras. También me interesó en particular esta: "The media is a mirror of our culture which is a byproduct of our minds."
Lástima que mi inglés no sea tan fluido como para involucrarme en las respuestas colectivas...
Me interesa ahondar en tu concepto sobre "cultura", si tenés alguna definición propia. Siempre es motivador pasar por aquí. Te dejo un abrazo.

Mariana Soffer said...

Terrace Crawford:
Thank you very much

Mariana Soffer said...

Andrea Guiu:
Andrea que agradable gusto verte por aqui, me alegro de que te interesen algunas de las cosas que pongo. Te cuento que la primer frase que mencionas surgio de una charla con amiga sobre posible trabajo para hacer usando metodos de analisis linguisticos automaticos para detectar mentiras y a ella se le ocurrio que seria mucho mas interesante lo de auto-mentiras, el relacionarse con gente interesante suele resultar enriquecedor como en este caso. La segunda me recuerda a el famoso marshal MC L. aunque tiene una filosofia con la cual no creo estaria de acuerdo.
Tu ingles debe ser fluido, solo es cuestion de largarse a escribir y no tener miedo ya que todos nos equivocamos. Ha la cultura todo un tema, tengo que pensarlo un poco porque asi de una no me sale, pero tratare de contestar a la brevedad algo que me resulte relativamente coherente.
Que estes muy bien
M