Keep on moving...
(greeting to Hisham Kassab)

Following is part of president Charles Vest's charge to the graduates at the MIT commencement in 1998 (also in previous and later years):

... Now that you are duly charged, let me tell you a story about MIT's former president, Jerry Wiesner. It is a true story. Some years ago, an MIT alumnus came up to our former president Jerry Wiesner. He said "Dr. Wiesner, do you remember me? You shook my hand as I came through the line at my graduation twenty years ago; and you told me something that changed my entire life. It was the secret of my successful career." Jerry reluctantly admitted that he couldn't remember the moment, and asked what he had said. "President Wiesner, you said: Keep on moving, keep on moving."

Although not intended, this was an excellent advice, very mechanical, which is what is exactly needed sometimes in handling life situations...

i pod; therefore, i am.
(deception of the senses) "koullon youghanni 3ala laylah..."

"i am; therefore, i pod" is now becoming almost true, a sort of a trend. At least among people in NYC (a small sample but an important one!). This of course may be attributed to the fact that the city requires a lot of commuting activity and, therefore, people need to kill time by listening to something. But ipod is not just that. It is a representative of a new species that redefines our existence. Technology has finally found a new recipe. Although Descartes gave us a pretty good one long time ago: "i think; therefore, i am", the current life style seems to have abandoned the notion of "deception of the senses". On the contrary, it is now quite acceptable to even fabricate your own. Just put on those magic ear plugs that they gave you, and in few seconds, you are! Magically, you exist in your own shell, you listen to only what you want, and you believe only what you want. Even the world around you now seems to conform to your liking, a pure product of your own senses. Everything is in complete synchrony with those ear plugs. A very nice recipe, "i pod; therefore, i am". Bye bye Descartes.

Although the above may seem a bit exaggerated, I wonder if, among all the new deceptions of this 21st century, people can still think the way Descartes wished for. Day after day, we're getting distant from the infrastructure that provides us with "technologies". On average, we do not have a clear understanding of what these things are or how they function. We are loosing a cognitive connection with everything around us. We are living in a matrix. We pod, chat, text, bluetooth, blog, web 2.0... Hey, was there a 1.0 to start with? Or is this just a jargon to have me jump on board? To be, I have to jump. So I jump. I still remember the old days when I had to write html code to create a web page. Now someone else will do it for me, and willingly for free. And I am not the only one. In fact, that someone will connect my web page to all the people I know, and those I don't know too... In few years, maybe I will transform my existence to an electronic form, and someone else will maintain it for me. From time to time I will download the parts I need. "I" will become "E", and E will be in total ignorance as to how E exists.

Existence... Didn't we ask the question about existence long time ago. Are we to release any understanding we may have gained over the years? Perhaps the whole universe is just a memory leak that was produced and forgotten? Does E really exist? E doesn't know anymore... E doesn't care anymore. Bye bye Descartes.

Blogger's block.

Life goes on...



That's what they say. Well, I wanted to wait and make sure it does. But I was being impatient as usual. Impatient with life... Nevertheless, maybe I should give myself some credit, or at least my cell phone, since it made me come back few steps to capture the moment (and I have always been against cell phones with built in cameras!). Good for M31 and X90... For them, life goes on. Even if every single post in the city breaks. Sometimes, I wish I can be like that, or at least just believe it... Believe that nothing can stop me... NO THING... Patience is key. And cell phones with built in cameras can be useful.

Fibonaccissimo...

I was very glad to receive few comments about my previous post, especially the one from Gregory K. Thank you! I was thinking more about these Fibonacci poems, and I feel now that I understand why they can be so attractive. They start with a very fast rhythm and then evolve progressively to a slower one. This means three things: (1) they get you fast into the center of the poem (vertically of course, even though you've only read few syllables), (2) they provide you with the necessary progression in feeling until you get to the main statement, which is stated in a relatively slow rhythm giving it more importance (therefore I think a successful Fib must contain such statement), and (3) they eventually become free text (when cutting is much easier,well I am not sure is it?) so you can freely read more elaboration on the statement. Therefore, I think writing Fibs should be done with the above 3 points in mind. For those who know the story of Fibonacci, here's an example:

thus

born

sure.ly

from rab.bits,

the Fi.bo.na.cci:

of all se.quen.ces, most di.vine

In no time, you hit the word rabbits, but on the way, you feel the progression as if something will happen. Then you reach the Fibonacci, with slower rhythm. Finally, of all sequences most divine, the main statement, is stated very carefully. Of course the poem can continue now more freely with a slower rhythm. However, simply cutting text into the Fib form will not have the appropriate effect. Therefore, I think a nice Fib will have to stop at some length, say 13 or 21 or maybe 34. But then restart with another section. Or it can retract, e.g. 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 13 8 5 3 2 1 1 and restart.

I don't have much feel to the haiku 5-7-5, as Mirvat mentioned. But here's a desperate trial (and we are in the Spring season now):

rab.bits mul.ti.ply

much fas.ter than the blos.soms:

how Fi.bo.na.cci?

I love Fibonacci what can I say? So this haiku is composed of two sections, where each section explains the other. Moreover, the word "blossoms" should give a hint to Spring.

Let me know what you think, and if you have other ways of interpreting Fibonacci poems.

Fibonacci and Racine

After two weeks of observing blogs, starting from http://ontothesea.blogspot.com (my cousin), I found that many people post poems on their blogs. So I thought why not do the same. And being who I am, not a poet at all, I said to myself, well, let me first start with a structure, and then I can fill in the blancs... Apparently a very good way of making poetry! Structure is definitely a good thing. So I decided to bring in my old friend Fibonacci. I will base the poems on the Fibonacci sequence.

Fib(0) = Fib(1) = 1
Fib(n) = Fib(n - 1) + Fib(n - 2) n >= 2

So my poem will look like this:

1 word
1 word
2 words
3 words
5 words
8 words
...

Surprisingly, last month (April 1), http://gottabook.blogspot.com/2006/04/fib.html thought about a similar construction: The Fib.

1 syllable
1 syllable
2 syllables
3 syllables
5 syllables
8 syllables
...

And guess what... It got very famous! I think the use of syllables in the construction is better than words... After all it's poetry! But I think I would have guessed it once I started writing few poems. Apparently, Fibs existed even before, e.g. http://goldennumber.net/poetry.htm.

Anyway, just to credit myself, here's a poem that follows both structures (well the trick is to use 1 syllable words only):

blog

blog

who's there

it's me Fib

give me the pass word

it's one one two three five eight thirt...

stop right here, you may post your blog dear, where have you been?

lost the way, but all I want to say: "le jour n'est pas plus pur que le fond of mon coeur"

The last 12 words/syllables are taken from Racine as I recall... which by themseleves constitute a five line Fib of 1 1 2 3 5 words/syllables respectively.

le
jour
n'est pas
plus pur que
le fond of mon coeur

So even Racine did it!

Of academic quality...

hold the mouse button and move down -->

ac·a·dem·ic : also ac·a·dem·i·cal adjective ... 1 c : very learned but inexperienced in practical matters ... 3 b : having no practical or useful significance.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

This blog is not about roads, tracks, cars, or even trucks... But with so much traffic and few traffic lights, this may be helpful...

Toot Fruit... 3a Beirut...






Two Truckers on a Tenure Track is about random thoughts that two professors exchange while driving a huge truck from Dallas Tx to New York NY. Some of these thoughts can be really stupid; for instance, what is the relation between the acid level in the above lemony fruits and the speed of a car at the corresponding traffic light? Can you beat that!