Casual Conversation

Absolute genius. I saw the syllabus about a year ago and was howling laughing at it.

And yeah I am one of the people that speaks about DFW in a hushed voice. He was the great genius of our age.

 

contentment, calm, stillness and...Mogwai - Take me somewhere nice -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2DHFLfDhWk&feature=related

 

I like it!

 

Those strawberry days...

“There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs and runs and the tigers are getting closer and closer. When she comes to the edge of a cliff, she sees some vines there, so she climbs down and holds on to the vines. Looking down, she sees that there are tigers below her as well. She then notices that a mouse is gnawing away at the vine to which she is clinging.

She also sees a beautiful little bunch of strawberries close to her, growing out of a clump of grass. She looks up and she looks down. She looks at the mouse. Then she just takes a strawberry, puts it in her mouth, and enjoys it thoroughly. Tigers above, tigers below. This is actually the predicament that we are always in, in terms of our birth and death. Each moment is just what it is. It might be the only moment of our life; it might be the only strawberry we’ll ever eat. We could get depressed about it, or we could finally appreciate it and delight in the preciousness of every single moment of our life.”

 

I love this, Intrepid. It really resonates with me. Tigers above and below I can usually manage, but it's that flippin' mouse gnawing on the vine that can put me over the edge. I'm off to find my "strawberry". Thanks, Intrepid.

 

". Where was this "quoted" from??

You didn't give the credit due the author"

I'd like to add it to my journal for future reflective purposes.

 

This Zen story is one of my favorites because it is rather challenging:

Two monks were returning to the monastery in the evening. It had rained and there were puddles of water on the road sides. At one place a beautiful young woman was standing unable to walk accross because of a puddle of water. The elder of the two monks went up to a her lifted her and left her on the other side of the road, and continued his way to the monastery.

In the evening the younger monk came to the elder monk and said, "Sir, as monks, we cannot touch a woman ?"

The elder monk answered "yes, brother".

Then the younger monk asks again, "but then Sir, how is that you lifted that woman on the roadside ?"

The elder monk smiled at him and told him " I left her on the other side of the road, but you are still carrying her."

 

That's another good one, Intrepid. Makes me think the younger monk was carrying her in his thoughts. I am ok at not being attached to things, but people is more difficult.

To me, the best things in life aren't things. Among the best things in my life are relationships with people and I have a hard time leaving them on the other side of the road.

Thanks for these, they are thought provoking in a really good way for me.

 

Rose - I took it to mean the thoughts we choose to carry around with us and mull over even after the event is long gone. Sometimes we do it for a day, sometimes we do it for years. What a heavy load...

I am like you insofar as things are concerned. I appreciate stuff if it has functional value. I don't care much for glitter. In that sense, my life is very simple - a small car to take me from A to B. A plate, a cup, a bed etc.

 

I never have been that good koans. Although that really isn't a koan per se. If it had been the older monks response would been something like "lift a bag of stones and see how you feel then"

 

I am not able to disconnect to that extent.

 

Yeah, I'm not either. that's why koans are so tough - there's no way for the intellect get through them. There's just a couple that I have been able to get somewhere with but for the most part they are too out there. They are sort of likes traps that laid and waiting to be undone by your own experience.

 

Very cool!

 

Love this stuff!!


Your Use of Pronouns Reveals Your Personality
by James W. Pennebaker (Harvard Business Review, December 2011)

The finding: A person’s use of function words—the pronouns, articles, prepositions, conjunctions, and auxiliary verbs that are the connective tissue of language—offers deep insights into his or her honesty, stability, and sense of self.

The research: In the 1990s, James Pennebaker helped develop a computer program that counted and categorized words in texts, differentiating content words, which convey meaning, from function words. After analyzing 400,000 texts—including essays by college students, instant messages between lovers, chat room discussions, and press conference transcripts—he concluded that function words are important keys to someone’s psychological state and reveal much more than content words do.

The challenge: Can insignificant words really provide a “window to the soul”? Professor Pennebaker, defend your research.

Pennebaker: When we began analyzing people’s writing and speech, we didn’t expect results like this. For instance, when we analyzed poems by writers who committed suicide versus poems by those who didn’t, we thought we’d find more dark and negative content words in the suicides’ poetry. We didn’t—but we did discover significant differences in the frequency of words like “I.” In study after study, we kept finding the same thing. When we analyzed military transcripts, we could tell people’s relative ranks based on their speech patterns—and again, it was the pronouns, articles, conjunctions, and other function words that made a difference, not the content words.

HBR: Why are function words so important?

In English there are about 500 function words, and about 150 are really common. Content words—nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs—convey the guts of communication. They’re how we express ideas. Function words help shape and shortcut language. People require social skills to use and understand function words, and they’re processed in the brain differently. They are the key to understanding relationships between speakers, objects, and other people. When we analyze people’s use of function words, we can get a sense of their emotional state and personality, and their age and social class.

Here’s a simple, pronoun-heavy sentence: I don’t think I buy it.

Ooh. You just revealed something about yourself in that statement. Why did you say “I don’t think I buy it” instead of “I don’t buy it” or even “That’s ridiculous”? Pronouns tell us where people focus their attention. If someone uses the pronoun “I,” it’s a sign of self-focus. Say someone asks “What’s the weather outside?” You could answer “It’s hot” or “I think it’s hot.” The “I think” may seem insignificant, but it’s quite meaningful. It shows you’re more focused on yourself. Depressed people use the word “I” much more often than emotionally stable people. People who are lower in status use “I” much more frequently.

Can you tell if someone’s lying by their use of function words?

Yes. A person who’s lying tends to use “we” more or use sentences without a first-person pronoun at all. Instead of saying “I didn’t take your book,” a liar might say “That’s not the kind of thing that anyone with integrity would do.” People who are lying also use exclusive words like “but” and “without” and negations such as “no,” “none,” and “never” much more frequently. We’ve analyzed transcripts of court testimony, and the differences in speech patterns are really clear.

Function words sound like two-by-fours: They’re important but not meaningful in creating the overall architecture.

You might even think of function words as the nails. It seems natural to pay them little regard. If you type a sentence into Google, its algorithms disregard function words, because it’s interested in content. But these words convey important subtleties—“a ring” versus “that ring.” In foreign languages, function words often convey people’s status relative to one another.

Key Numbers

Out of 100,000 words in the average English speaker’s vocabulary, function words account for only about 500, or 0.5%.

55% of what we speak, hear, and read in typical speech, however, is made up of these function words.


If you listened to a job interview, what would the use of function words tell you?

It’s almost impossible to hear the differences naturally, which is why we use transcripts and computer analysis. Take a person who’s depressed. “I” might make up 6.5% of his words, versus 4% for a nondepressed person. That’s a huge difference statistically, but our ears can’t pick it up. But hypothetically, if I were to listen to an interview, I might consider how the candidate talks about their coworkers at their last job. Do they refer to them as “we” or “they”? That gives you a sense of their relationship to the group. And if you want someone who’s really decisive in a position, a person who says “It’s hot” rather than “I think it’s hot” may be a better fit.

 

Based on this very informative information,

Would they determine that I'm depressed?

Would they hire me?

Would they find my postings, eloquent??

Hmmmmmmm, soooo many questions..........

Would everybody please take the time.....
To analyze my speech patterns, .......based on posts.
If you read this and don't,..... Should I assume you don't want to hurt my feelings?
Or, would I think you're a coward,.....or just don't care about ME?
OMG, What does That say about me???

S, thanx for the post, compelling

p.s. I can't promise not to be offended, I'll try to stick to the spirit from which it came. I did ask, after all.

¥£GBF

 

My favorite:

One day a young Buddhist on his journey home came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river"?

The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, "My son, you are on the other side".

 

These are really cool, Intrepid. They are not my forte so I am going with my first thought. Then I'll think about it all day.

This one reminds me of a blonde joke (I hate blonde jokes). My first thought was about perspective.

I have several things to do today so this will keep me occupied as I think on it. While I am running in the hamster wheel that is today, I am going to the library to find a book of koans. Thanks, Intrepid.

 

LMAO! Luv you faded!!

 

It's all relative, isn't it?