Heroes returns

6th letter from Sophie

Dear Sontho,


How have you been? I am sorry if my last letter left a nasty taste on your tongue... we shall talk about it later... I am please to hear that you are back at the pool hall and was quite amused by the sotry you told me involving Tom, Ernesto and that pre-freshman... quite amusing...
I find myself worried about you situation and am somewhat please that you are trying to resolve it... but the subject of this letter is in regards to your conversation with Jason Smalley:

He is right... you suffer of a case of "spurrious efficiency"... One have to be amazed by your total obedience to economic rules... whither it is an part of your personality or a consequence of your studies is upto you to analize. However, find it quite (with no pun intended) inefficient, that is for the reasons as followed:

• First, you often now what you want to do but let yourself be drag into poorly constrive formulæ where you just adjust the results to suit your own preference... time wasted, your life --and neither mine --could be simplified to suit such conctions.
• Second, you are a free thinker... there is nothing more to say on that matter... you claims to atheistic "penchants" coupled with your excesif obedience to (what may seem as religious) "ordonances" (while standing as a contradiction in itself) may be proof to the matter.
• Lastly, you don't need it... clear and simple... let it float... everything will be at an equilibrium...

Life is a risk and you are aware of the right choice... take them...

Your Sincere Freind:
Sophie D'Auréole.

Rice and vegetable sauce

Okay this one was hard to come up with and even harder to swallow... but if you are good with rice it will come out a little better for you...

1. Warm some oil in a pot large enough to cook the rice at medium heat... when it is hot enough add wax beans and let them fry for 3 fourths of a minute with salt and lime season, then add 1 and 1/2 cup of tied water and let the mix boil...
2. Wash 2 and 3/4 cups of rice with cold tap water... when the water starts to boil add the drained out rice, stir (again, don't... actually: never shake) it up, and let it cook at a halfway-from-medium fire... remove or add some water as needed... it should take about ten to fifteen minutes to be well cooked...

That was the hard part... the rest is a piece of cake...

• Warm some oil in a pot then let fry three sausage cut up to your liking...
  
• When they are fried, add 1 can of French-style-green beans and 1 can of diced carrots... let them fry altogether...
• Then finally --still using Yamilée François formula --we'll make some sauce (in the same pot as the vegetables and sausages): "have 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can of diced tomatoes, a little bit of your fav wine , add some oregano and/or onions, bring these to a boil ( to let the alcohol burn out)..."

And if you are like me... you would want some toast bread and diced apple on a side plate a glass of you favorite wine...

Note: These are original receipes and should always be credited to me... also (as always): I am an economist, not a cook!!

Rice and Sweet corn chicken

Since sometime now I have made it a habit to cook; here is my latest concoction:

1. Season some white chicken breast strips, with whichever season your prefer. I would go for some cinnemon and lime season, a tad-bit of salt with pepper and garlic season. Let it sit with a little vinegar juice... I used apple cider vinnegar... on the side let your frypan warm up with some oil...
   
2. Warm some oil in a pot large enough to cook the rice at medium heat... when it is hot enough add sweet corn and green peas and let them fry for 3 fourths of a minute with salt and lime season, then add 1 and 1/2 cup of tied water and let the mix boil...
3. Wash 2 and 3/4 cups of rice with cold tap water... when the water starts to boil add the drained out rice, stir (don't shake) it up, and let it cook at a halfway-from-medium fire... remove or add some water as needed... it should take about ten to fifteen minutes to be well cooked...
4. By then your frypan should be hot enough, cut your breast strips at your whim and let it fry to the level of your choice at a halfway-from-medium fire... flip over as needed...

Okay this is the part of the meal that we (french speakers) call: "la crême de la crême":

• On the side... we should create some tomato sauce: "have 1 can of tomato paste, 1 can of diced tomatoes, a little bit of your fav wine , add some oregano and/or onions, bring these to a boil ( to let the alcohol burn out)..." (this part is due at a great thanks to Yamilée François)
• Lastly (if you please) let some corn on cobb boil to a point...

And... Voilà!

Disclaimer: Again... I am not a Cook... just an economist!

5th letter from Sophie

Dear Sontho,


I am unhappy with your behavior today.... and that is the least I have to say. You have no excuse and cannot correct your actions; learn from them and... for the least, try not to repeat such manner.

Good night and good luck....

Your Sincere Freind:
Sophie D'Auréole.

Alfredo's Sweet Shrimp Pasta

T'is my first attempt at cooking... here is the receipe if you dare:

1. Boile your shrimp at the same time you are boiling the pasta... not in the same pot please
2. Heat up some oil in a different pot then let the cooked shrimp fry in it
3. Add alfredo sauce

So far there is nothing original... next, though:

• add sweet green peas and corn into the mix and let it boil
• then add the pasta

Prest o you just cooked the most fatening meal ever... enjoy

Disclaimer: I am an economist not a cook...

4th letter from Sophie

Dear Sontho,

I have recently red your short story... to me it was of no litterary value and lack true taste. I am disappointed in your first attempt at writing a concise story. You could have done better... Nonetheless kuddos to you for the attempt.

Yet let us talk of a matter more dear to you than this short story... you are face with a problem and you know the answers. As your mind works, you see your dominant strategy and perhaps you have already chosen it. But listein to meet very carefull:

You don't have to win walking out with a defeat is perhaps a victory in disguise... Let it go: you played and almost won... but you lost.

Some losses are just wins... let be...

Your Sincere Freind:
Sophie D'Auréole.

Question what you know...

Question what you know and you will learn through a new light...

Listein first... then question...


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The Kid, the Hustler and the Deal: A Life Story

The Kid woke up once more feeling the frost on his sheet; it’s actually been a while since he felt any kind of warmth in his life. It all felt like the same to him. Nonetheless, the Kid had to get out of bed… whither he knew it or not he had few choices.

Halfway across town, the Hustler knew, as always, that today was his day. “There was no science to the matter: today is a great day and it’s mine”: he thought, “Life is sweet”. There are those who are naturally good at anything and there was the Hustler. He had a neck for any sort of skill base activity and never –as never get closer to never –put a value to anything in his life. It was all the same to him. In that respect, the Kid and the Hustler had something in common yet they were not to have the same outlook at what one had to offer the other.

The Kid, once, had been the light of his world; he brought to those around him so much hope as a promise of greater things to come. His life yet took a bleak step away from what other would have said to be a very simple choice. “Simple”: he often said to himself, “was never my thing”. Nonetheless, his gift was that which many would have sold more than their soul for. The Kid, as I name him, wasn’t a Kid at all. He had grown more than any had in a so short of a time; his face, that of a mid-lifer suited his life experiences but went against his youth.

He made it a point never to go to a bar with his I.D. as no bartender has since… well no bartender has ever ask him for it. The Kid, though, wanted to find that one soul who would be kind enough to ask him for it.

“Hey Kid…” he heard. A fifth sober, very sleepy and uneasy on the bar seat, he turn his neck very hardly to spot the Hustler before him. “Kid…” he thought, “hey”.

~ Never saw you here before… the Hustler said. What is your name?

~ Mark… I just moved in town…

The Hustler, as always, measured him very well and pondered upon his next question. The Kid reeked of the purest of alcohol; his half emptied glass of Pineapple Cruzan Vanilla Rum was a sure side of what he had all night. The Hustler felt, as it sure was to be, that the Kid was an easy catch.

~ Kush… the Hustler said, you’re not the typical Kid that walk in my bar. Want a light?

~ Don’t smoke… what make you think I’m a Kid?

~ Well… the Hustler snuffed, you don’t look a day over twenty-four. I have a nose for that.

The Kid was impressed. Many have put him at thirty-six; he was confused on whither he should let it be know that he was twenty-two. The Kid, of course, had had some very fast paste life events. A recorded genius, he graduated from college at a young twenty with a degree in mathematics and minor in statistic and logic, joined the Army commissioned by the intelligence signal officer corp.

The Kid was never good at measuring people yet he saw the Hustler for what he was: a man who never bled a day in his life.

~ So am I right or… am I just right, the Hustler asked.

~ Yes… you are but I am not a Kid. There is a great many I could teach you.

The Hustler froze his gaze at the Kid, sat at the bar with him and said: “well that insignia on your shoulder let me know you had some life experiences with the Army corp. of engineers, you surely have a snob smug to your face: you’re one of those Ivy League graduates, Harvard was it? It’s all the same to me… but in the end you’re Kid and a Kid is a Kid until he has earned a different calling.”

The Kid thought it well: he was not from the Army corp. of engineers but with Army intelligence, he didn’t graduate from Harvard but from M.I.T but since it was still the same to him he had few choices outside of agreeing with the Hustler. “You are right”: he whispered.

~ Good…

~ But… he stopped the Hustler, you are wrong: I am not a Kid and… to prove it, let’s play a game of pool.

~ Kid… I’ll let you know three facts about me: one, I am good at any activity that takes place in a bar. Two, I have played pool professionally for sixteen years. And three… which should give you a clue on who I am: I have never bled a day in my life.

But the Kid knew that much about the Hustler… and felt that the rest was all the same to him. To the Kid whither he won or lost made no difference to him… and perhaps that was all the difference he felt he needed. “I see… so it well makes it fairer if the game was handicapped in my advantage.”

The Kid was very gifted with tilting the balance of justice through intricate systems of rules and regulations that could ultimate make natural abilities obsolete. “We will play… on a bet at three to one over a hundred dollars.” They both knew what it meant, if the Kid won he would go home with three hundred of the Hustler’s money yet it the Hustler were to win he would go home only with a hundred of the Kid’s money.

However, to them it was all the same…

The Kid was given the right to start the game… and on his break the Hustler knew he was going to get a run on his money.

~ You HUSTLED me… he shouted.

~ No… the Kid responded, you got hustled.

The truth is the difference in this game was that very same thing that they had in common. It all was the same to them. As the game continued the Hustler saw no means of saving himself from a cost of three hundred dollars; he looked at the Kid’s half weary eyes and thought “there must be some kink in his demeanor”.

~ I have a proposition, said the Kid. Since I have only the eight ball before I can cash in, why don’t we just make it fairer on you?

The Hustler was skeptical as he did not want to get handed a second time but he listened to the Kid’s proposition.

~ You call my shot and: one, if I refused to shoot it you walk away with no loss. Two, I attempt it and miss; you walk away with no loss and double my losses. Finally, I attempt it and succeed; you double my winnings.

The Hustler knew the “Sky Masterson rule” very well yet his eagerness to win made him take it. The shot was a bank, and the Kid got it in walking out with eight hundred dollars well earned.

The shot came as expectedly as he knew would he would have won that bet…

~ Kid… I warned you I never bled a day in my life, said the Hustler with uneasiness to his voice.

The Kid felt the warm wound on his back melt trough the frost on the street and, looking up at the Cambridge sky, he felt his face rejuvenate by the breath of death. It was clear that he won that game because it was al the same to him but not to the Hustler.

He had seen many die and has killed many in his two tours in Iraq. Death was no stranger to him; the Hustler on the other hand had not seen a man weather in the face of death. Furthermore he had never killed a man.

~ Yes… but from now on will bleed as I have for so long…

The Kid die with a young face and a smile as the Hustler lingers on with a frost on his should and a face of mid-lifer aged too soon. This was his day and he lost it to the Kid…

The End…

3rd letter from Sophie

Dear Sontho,

I am happy that you find it of no offense that I addressed my letters to you as such... it creates a certain sense of freindship between us... Here I am wandering whether I should congratuate you on that job offer with the United Nations in Haiti. I, as everyone you have let it be known to, am very happy for you --despite who it is who got you this offer. We know how much your love for Haiti dominates you life, this offer comes at a time where you are very much ready for it...

Take it don't hesite...

Yet, lestein to me on this: perhasp your enthousiasm is misguided and too hesty. Many have been given opportunities that are to be taken and later find themselves worse off than before. Not to say that you would not be in a prime position to put what drives you at work. Yet, I feel it is too much of a prime location that you may lose yourself in all the ambitious ideologies you want to advance.

Remember me well, my dear freind, the road to hell is paved with go intentions...

Your Sincere Freind:
Sophie D'Auréole.

2nd letter from Sophie

Dear Sontho,

I am still awaiting an answer on which is your preferred way on how to be addressed... However as a write this letter I could not cesse to feel somewhat troubled by your religious categorization.

I remembered it well when you were not so quite informed of the worldy matters around you. Actually you were allouf and naive about most issues... but being naturally curious you seek answers to those questions you were afraid to address. Yet here we are now five years later; you have grown most certainly but also you have gained a simplicity that contradict the complexe views you hold on to.

Your answer to that one question you hate the most have not made it easy. Why do you find it necessary to say that you are an Atheist... I find that redeculous for the true atheist does not long to beleive in the existence of a supreme being. For most part, you hold such values and follow such rules that aren't in accordance with what you say of yourself. Thruth be told I find your rational to be quite well thought out and profound while still have that naiveté you refused to admit to yourself.

It is true that, for argument sake, the existence of a supreme Architect (being God) does not answer the fundamental question regarding the creation of the universe: what material was used? You are right if such a being did exist what he should have use an intricate systems of levies and a precise method of coordination. He would have colided some opposing form of powered materia created in essence what your physiscists freind conote as the BIG-BANG. One thing would have lead to another and an action having "an equal and opposing reaction" leading to what we have today...

Again your method may lead to some well defined proposition but I fear in search of answers you simplify the overall matter and come to such simple complexities as the above hypothesis. Sontho... I fear for you; you often reach a poetic answer, is seduced by it, create a dogma of it and then impose upon yourself refusing all others form of explaination as being irrational.

Remember this, my dear freind: God is a matter to irrational to rationalized upon...

Your Sincere Freind:
Sophie D'Auréole.

A Letter from Sophie

Dear Sontho,


Or should I have addressed it to Sonthonax, as you preferred to be called in that manner... I have always been amazed by the level of misperception people testify towards you, nonetheless, what I find more so amazing is the level of indefference you seemed to give to their constant criticism. Not to say that you do not take it into account but you make no effort toward correcting their views or your own attitude...

I am abashed by what you have said to many and how well you go about not thinking that you have done anything wrong or anything that need a certain level of correction. Yet, while I find it commendable even aspiring towards a certain sense of self-assured destiny I find myself needing to help you in correcting your approach:

• First, it is one thing to be patriotic but it is another to think that such sentiment makes you above any sort of criticism from your fellow countrymen. You often put yourself, trough your knowledge of Haiti as an authority on all things Haitian. To love one's country is also to love one's countrymen.

• Second, your need to learn and the ability you have in transmitting information obligate you to do so: Learn and teach. However, in the past five years you have spent here in these United States --and most particularly the last two at Florida State --you have testified of that selfishness your father always accused you off. You were so arrogant in your love for information that at times you were relanctant to share it and refuse it to others. Those who love to learn could not and should not keep to themselves.

• Finally, your snobness and elitism, rightfully earned is not a ticket for what you seek to do. Althought you have true socialistic love for helping others, your education have always made it uneasy for you to do so. Not to say you beleive or perceive yourself better than those you seek to help, yet your help often present a patronizing odor to it as if you should help others because they know not right from wrong. He who seek to change the world should first understand that it is how it is...

I hope that in reading this letter you would find it in yourself to understand as Evan Dimov once told you so long ago: Your willingness to serve, educate and help others must be nothing more but the natural consequence of their willingness to be served, educated and helped...

Your Sincere Freind:
Sophie D'Auréole.

Summer reading list...

Well this summer is going to be interesting... As of now I have received news from NYU, I will not be attending courses there in the fall, but fear not I'll be okay. I am going to Haiti to work for the United Nations. So before I leave for Haiti, I will be reading much of the books that have been recommended to me:

By Dr Beaumont:

1. Thinking Strategically: an everyday introduction to game theory and its application...
2. Lawlessness and Economics: an analysis of economic outcomes in poor governance systems.

Both by the celebrated Game Theorist Avinash K. Dixit. On the other end, my freind advice me a book on evolutionary programming: "An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms", while my professor: Dr. Mason suggest looking at Nobel prize winning economist W. Arthur Lewis.

Not to mentioned the others I am currently reading and the classes I have to take this summer. Gesh this is going to be rough...

Ten lessons in ten minute...

Recently, I have become a fan of A. Dixit and have picked up his book "Thinking Strategically". After reading the first chapter, I have learned ten things that may be very usefull:

1. For every action there is an equal and opposing reaction: I guess kushal would find it amusing that economists are argreeing with physicists...
2. The stuck wheel gets the grease: In negotiation hold your ground; it hurts but it works...
3. Coordonate firsts: and later break the agreement (if profitable)...
4. Personal sacrifice is necessary: but first see if some one else won't do it first and if not don't be quick to stick out your neck...
5. Change it up: mixed things up, do something new everyday and you'll never go insane
6. No deal: if someone offer you a deal there is a catch to it...
7. Look before you leap: need I say more...
8. Don't split hairs: life is not a simultaneous game, you need to be right brain and see the hole picture...
9. Follow the leader: don't be the first at all things, you might actually win by coming out second
10. Think less, act more: this contradicts "7" but if you try to think it out you'll get confused and most people are, after all, acting irrational that your rational plan can't really predict...

I invite you to read Dixit... he's a genius...