Truth

Tests

It's a Sin by Don Gibson

It's a sin, my darling, how I love you
Because I know our love can never be
It's a sin to keep this memory of you
When silence proves that you've forgotten me

The dream I bult for us has tumbled
Each promise broken like my heart
It's a sin, my darling, how I love you
So much in love and yet so far apart

It's a sin to hide behind this heartache
To make believe that I've found someone new
It's a sin to say that I don't miss you
When people know I'm still in love with you

I'm sure you're happy with another
Who shares the love I could not win
Why pretend that I can't live without you
When deep inside I know that it's a sin

The Power of Music

This is a beautiful story. Music is real and powerful.

http://www.maniacworld.com/taming-a-nazi-sniper-with-a-trumpet.html

Dreams.

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their
dreams." - Eleanor Roosevelt

It's good to know.

It's good to know that I can talk to my mom about things that I didn't
think I used to be able to, and to know that she feels for me and
cares for me.

Bunny.

[More videos from bentsea]

Feel Good Video of the Day

Sleepy Bear: http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Entertainment/Feel-Good-Video-of-The-Week-Sleepy-Bear.html

Competitive Language and Dismal Analysts

http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/27/technology/microsoft_pdc/index.htm?cnn=yes&hpt=T2

I am frequently subjected to analytical reports that PC gaming is
dying, Microsoft is dying, or is Apple, or Nintendo, or Sony losing
their dominance on the marketplace. I suppose analysts thrive on
predicting change, and I am starting to really see that this is
because without major shifting change, analysts aren't really
necessary. It is my experience that analysts are either making wildly
inaccurate claims or just as frequently, only loudly repeating
blatantly obvious trends, to the extent that they make accurate and
insightful predictions as often as a phone psychic.

Do they truly benefit from simple attention? Or do they not benefit at
all except from notice, gaining their financial benefits from
elsewhere? I think one staple of news reporting on analytical
predictions that supports these attention grabbing bids is a lack of
accountability, rarely sourcing the analysts responsible for claims,
or their credentials. Is this the consumer cultures lack of passion
for the subject? Possibly, but how can they care at all, there will
always be opinion leaders who are capable of understanding the
information. If the general public doesn't care, they'll still stop
reading after the headline, or after the first paragraph, but why
leave out the important details that promote accountability all
together?

Is it partly because negative accountability would too adversely
affect a business model that is based on making predictions? If this
is the actual reason, then the model is fundamentally flawed at its
most basic levels. THe idea is that by analyzing real data, and paying
attention to trends, etc., analysts should be able to be more reliable
than the work of a good haruspex. But is it? If it isn't, why isn't
it? If it is, why isn't accountability being used to make the valuable
predictions of changing markets available to the public?

I think this issue gets a lot more complex when you start to ask
questions like whether or not these predictions should affect users
and consumers. In a healthy competitive marketplace, a user should
base their purchase on product specifications rather than marketshare
of the competitors. Why is it that more passionate consumers get tied
into questions of whether or not they are on the "winning" side? It's
only in instances where a consumer can make major investments, such as
HD-DVD vs Bluray, or Betamax vs VHS that consumers can stand to lose a
lot of money by being on the wrong side, but if they're worried about
the value of their investment, why invest at all until after a winner
is already clearly declared?

I think ultimately the examination of the practices of reporting on
analyst predictions to the public raises more questions than it
answers. It's hard to deny the human nature to desire to know the
future, or to side in competition, or seek publicity. I feel these
issues with the media will never be resolved. I just am disappointed
to see CNN predicting doomsday for a Microsoft, a business that has
done too much in its time and has its fingers in too many pots to
crumble, especially in a marketplace with so much flourishing
competition that a diminishing market share is not equivalent with
diminishing sales because of the continued growth. A more sound
prediction would have been changing strategies, or evolving branding,
or even just the note of the strengthening competition. Even apple
survived its down period through entrenchment, any corporate
technology solution has strong lasting power even after it has long
outlived its public usefulness, and has the power to change
dynamically.

Teachers

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/best_teacher.html

I used to have a teacher like this, but she didn't do it on purpose. I
remember she would give me bad grades for doing what she told her and
afterward would say she liked the way I was doing it myself before I
listened to her. Then say I should never have listened to her. It was
an incredibly enlightening experience. This story just made me smile
and remember the best teachers I ever had.

*sigh*

You know what's amazing? Everything. And when you are depressed it is
so easy to forget that and feel like nothing is.

Cats

Cats are just awesome, and I love them. Enjoy this comic:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/kitty_pet

Walt Disney, Genius

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. -
Walt Disney

Poetry and Scrolls

Peace of Mind

I don't indulge in achieving fame
Since the glory and infamy cohere

I don't crave wealth and rank so
Much, leading to a risky career

Forsaking all, I'm at great peace
With nothing else to fear

-Kim Samhyon

Bunnies at Lunch

This little guy was a friendly little bunny that kept hopping through
the restaurant in a tent at the bottom of the mountain where we ate
lunch after exploring caves.

American Tale was one of my favorite movies as a kid

Fv: Somewhere out there,
beneath the pale moonlight,
someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight.

Ty: Somewhere out there,
someone's saying a prayer,
that we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there.

(*)Ty: And even though I know how very far apart we are,
it helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star.

Fv: And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby,
it helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky.

Together: Somewhere out there,
if love can see us through,
then we'll be together, somewhere out there,
out where dreams come true.

...

Neruda

'Carnal apple, Woman filled, Burning moon'

Carnal apple, Woman filled, burning moon,
dark smell of seaweed, crush of mud and light,
what secret knowledge is clasped between your pillars?
What primal night does Man touch with his senses?
Ay, Love is a journey through waters and stars,
through suffocating air, sharp tempests of grain:
Love is a war of lightning,
and two bodies ruined by a single sweetness.
Kiss by kiss I cover your tiny infinity,
your margins, your rivers, your diminutive villages,
and a genital fire, transformed by delight,
slips through the narrow channels of blood
to precipitate a nocturnal carnation,
to be, and be nothing but light in the dark.