character sketch: harriot cooper

she's a confident and independent 23 year old with a razor wit. which, in 1955 terms, means she's a socially awkward outsider. so despite her rubenesque figure, which she makes very little effort to hide, no one really dares to brave her acerbic tongue. women are uncomfortable around her and men would rather be elsewhere.

she performs her duties as a nurse with diligence and pride. everyone she talks with has a nickname for her (including harry, hattie, babe, doll, etc.), even though she constantly insists on being called harriot. Despite her lack of grace, her boss seems to be intensely attracted to her (ass).

still, she's happy with the way her life has turned out. well, sort of. actually, she's rather bored with her life. she lives alone. she spends most of here free time with her extensive collection of jazz and blues records. she's a fan of escapist fantasy novels, like the works of hg wells and jules verne. she also devours riddles just about as soon as she's heard them.

one day, a mysterious stranger suggests that she may be destined for greatness. though initially doubtful, the prospect of adventure stews in her mind until she eventually gives in and takes her first steps onto an incredible journey.

an application of the 5 minute rule...

hmmm... three weeks since my last post. i need to work on that.

today is just a list of things i'm thinking about doing. can't say i'll get to 'em all. can't say they're all the same scope, either.

ultimately, i want to do research in creative ai. just gotta find a starting place.

i came up with a technique for analyzing feature models for application product lines for a project last semester. i should do a more formal treatment for it.

i think i can jump onto some natural language processing research. maybe.

there's this writing project with rodd. for a start i might throw some character sketches here.

i want babies. 3 of them. girls. Alice, Megan, and Sarah. it'd be nice if i can get married, but if i have to buy some surrogates, then i will.

i'ma goan gradumate and get me a job. sumday.

making some dinner sounds pretty good right now.

random thoughts

my sister made a comment a while back that there was no such thing as random. with my cs background, this almost sent me into apoplexy. but i think i knew what she meant: any event follows from it's context, so it can't be called random. i posit that an event's randomness requires recognition by an observer, who may or may not be aware of it's context. she says (i'm paraphrasing) an event's randomness is independent of observation, and so is it's context. thus it can't be random.

the argument looks to me like the question of the difference between fact and truth. however, in this case the point in contention is whether an event may be classified as random in the absence of observation. i suspect this parallels any kind of classification of events.

some dialogue

i wrote this a while back. it's my first attempt at writing dialogue. yes, my first. and forgive the formatting.

Woman, on top of Man in bed (both clothed), with hair disheveled from tussle. Man, with arms pinned above his head by Woman, with his head turned to the side, tongue slightly appearing out of the side of his mouth, has his eyes closed and is trying to hold his breathe.
Woman: “what are you doing?”
Man: “playing dead.”
With that, Woman releases his arms, a little dejected. Man quickly rises up and envelopes Woman in his arms, turns and throws her down and pins her arms. Woman is shocked, but the look of disappointment remains.
Man: “oh, how the tables have turned.”
Woman: “get off of me.”
Man: “it seems you are at my mercy now.”
Surprise has left her face, and is replace with a mix of anger and annoyance.
Woman: “get off me now.”
Woman’s tone makes Man a little annoyed.
Man: “seriously?”
Woman: “yes.”
Man sighs as he releases Woman’s arms. Woman quickly rises up and envelopes Man in her arms, turns and throws him down and pins his arms again. Woman laughs triumphantly. Man exclaims.
Man: “damn you and damn my sense of fair play”
Woman: “you’ll never get the best of me.”
Man: “so true. name your terms.”
Woman: “will you surrender so easily?”
Man’s and Woman’s tone soften, breathes deepen.
Man: “if the terms are agreeable.”
Woman: “so you’re hoping for a benevolent queen?”
Man: “maybe not too benevolent.”
Woman looks down with a moan, then back at Man’s face with a smirk.
Woman: “well, one of my terms has been met.”
Man: “you know how wit turns me—“
Neither Man nor Woman say any more, as Woman quickly and deeply kisses Man.

Welcome

hmmmm, i've never been the journal keeping type. and i prolly never will. however, internal dialogue no longer satisfies. plus a blog is a more persistent medium than my mind nowadays.

i'll be posting my writings, rants, and whatever thoughts i feel the need to expunge. i'll not be following any real format, so expectations should be nil.

as fun as i'm sure it is to have millions (and millions) of fans reading my stuff, i'll survive regardless.

so read it or don't. comment or don't. it's time to pay the price.