My response to you, Mr. X

Peter Ustinov at a book signing session at the ABC Shop at The Myer Centre in Brisbane, Queensland, AustraliaImage via WikipediaEarlier today I asked myself: Can you be too sentimental about sentiment?
The answer is NO, Mr. X.

And yes, I WILL do this sentiment-analysis-thingy! :)

Something four you, Mr. X, to think about:

“1500 years ago, people KNEW the Earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, they KNEW that the Earth was flat - and yesterday, you KNEW that human beings were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow”. (Kay, MEN IN BLACK)

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done. (Peter Ustinov)

Men in Black II
Men in Black II

Can you be too sentimental about sentiment?

The Sentimental AgentImage via Wikipedia

Today was a weird day. Everything was alright until a co-worker (from other lab) came by to see whether we, lab rats, are planning to plan to go home any time soon. Of course he asked me about the progress of my PhD thesis proposal (btw. it still in under construction :) ).

Well, and then it happened. When I explained to him what I'm planning to do, where the place is I see myself situated in (sitting on the throne of the Sentiment Kingdom, of course), he started ranting.

Mr. X: You can't do this, you can't do that, everyone else in your lab analysed medical datasets using 101 combinations of machine learning techniques…

Me: I'm different. I'm woman.

Mr. X: P… (my ex co-worker and friend) is a woman too (she used medical datasets).

Me: I'm different. I want to do something different.

Mr. X: What texts are you going to use? They're not representative, your sample won't be representative, your ideas suck (or something like that), and this is not real science – analyzing sentiment in text? Are you a woman, woman? (These are not his exact words, but what I heard deep down…) This stuff - analyzing sentiment?! – is not hard-core computer science, it's not scientific enough. And you want to do this for your PhD?!?!!


At that point I almost blacked out. I was pissed, I was speechless (although I thought I heard someone screaming :) ) and I wanted to go home, because at that point I just felt too sentimental about sentiment to sentimentally discuss it with a definitely a-sentimental Mr. X.

Today is a Big day

Piled Higher and DeeperImage via WikipediaHow can an ordinary day grow into a Big day?

Simple, by getting up very early in the morning (4:50 AM), eating breakfast, finishing an article that is lying on your desk for five days, writing your PhD thesis proposal (yes, again), reading some blogs, admiring people brave enough to spit life in the face, hoping to find strength to prevent yourself from fleeing the country you don't like that much anymore... yes, and writing PhD thesis proposal. And writing. And writing :) And maybe reading some of the PhD comics you like so much, because there is a lot of truth in them :)

Did I mention writing your PhD thesis proposal? :)

Sentimenting about sentiment or Mining the whining

Few months ago I was not so excited about sentiment. I'm not a sentiment(al) person. Who am I joking? I'm always excited I just don't show this to people so often :)

In last month I read so many papers about opinion mining and sentiment analysis (among other flashy terms for mining the whining :) ) that I don't have to read for the rest of my life.

I've been writing my phd thesis proposal for a week now, where Mining the Whining is the main Protagonist in the play "How to effectivelly use machine-thingy for Mining the Whining" and I'm the evil antagonist. Let the struggle for life begin!

The problem is so many people done so many things and I have to find something new about this struggle... Well, in my version of the play I don't die :) So... enjoy the play while it lasts.

Next time I'll post some of the dialogs (or monologs) in the play :mrgreen: