Green Scissors

I have been studying the Google search engine a bit lately in hopes of improving the website’s traffic. So I learned all about Page Rank and the Google Dance (no snickering, someone else coined the phrase). But I learned a lot of other interesting things as well and I am here to tell you, Google will soon be one of the most powerful forces in the developed world.

Almost anyone who uses the Internet is familiar with Google. When it was introduced it revolutionized the way Internet searches were performed. And now, less than five years after it was conceptualized, Google handles over 75% of all searches on the Internet.

So what makes Google different, and why will it become such a driving force? Good questions. The thing that set Google apart from previous search engines is what I will call an organicly driven ranking system. This is in oposition to the technology driven systems of the past. Previous search engines relied on finding web pages that most closely matched the words you entered. They would search not only the text included in the body of a web page but also would check out meta tags in the header information. Meta tags are blocks of descriptive text entered by web designers which are not displayed but could be viewed by search engines.

What all this meant was that a search performed through Alta Vista or Yahoo was simply looking for specific words or phrases and then listing everything it found. Google changed all that. Google’s system virtually ignores meta tags. Instead, Google looks at the text on the web page and then decides how important the page is based on how many other pages are linked to it. The change in results is dramatic. Now when you type in American Airlines, you are much more likely to get the official company website at the top of your list rather than someone’s travel diary about a flight they took.

So Google is a great advancement in the way we look for things on the Internet. And that is good because the Internet is one very confusing place most of the time. But back to the earlier question. Why will Google become so powerful? there are two reasons to keep an eye on things. First, Google feeds on a "rich get richer" model. If a site has many inbound links (other sites linking to it) then it will rank highly on Google. This means that every time someone searches for that product/person/idea they are more likely to see that site and therefore more likely to link to it. Webmasters hoping to move up in Google rankings will have to find their own network of sites to link to them before Google will place them highly. Being on the short end of this right now, I feel that pain.

The second, and even more profound, consequence of Google’s revolution is something I had not considered until I found this article on how Google transformed a phrase within a month and a half. To summarize the article, when a relatively small but tightly knit community exists and is extremely active on the Internet, they have the power to shape culture by swaying Google’s search results. The article highlights a particular case in which the phrase Second Superpower was coined in one context and then used in a different context on a popular weblog. Because the weblog had so many other pages linked to it, the next cycle of Google rankings showed most results to a search for Second Superpower leading to the blog entry. This is good for the blogger, but it has completely removed the original intended meaning of the phrase.

This is, in reality, all based on one noted incident and there are plenty of disenting opinions out there but I think it is worth watching in the next few years to see how Google’s technology affects the free flow of information.

Relationships, once ended, are always bittersweet. When they’re in the process of ending, though, it’s difficult to find the sweetness at all. It seems like your friends are more intrigued by what’s happening in your life when something is ending or beginning, and why not? It’s more interesting to see what happens when life is in flux than when it’s business as usual. This piece of…whatever this is came from one of those times in my life.

They used to have silly arguments about silly things, like what kind of towels to use during the week. When they got married, they got some nice towels to replace the threadbare ones that followed college students from one apartment to the next like the sunrise. He thought they should throw away the old ones, relegate them to dishrags at least. With a long-suffering sigh, she explained that the new towels could go in the guest bathroom, but for “normal days” the old ones would be hanging on the rack in the master bath. The others, apparently, were show towels. Who they were supposed to be shown to was unclear, and while he never had any real problem with the old towels, he figured what the hell – she was fun to argue with when the topic wasn’t important.

It became a joke between them, eventually. He was a heathen who stole nice towels from their guests, she wasn’t grateful for the nice gifts from their relatives and friends. Another thing to throw good-natured arrows at each other about when they were in that mood, and they were often in that mood.

It became a small kindness they could bestow on one another. When she’d had a particularly rough day at work, the next morning he would sneak in during her shower and replace the tattered towel with one of the new ones. If she had snapped at him without cause or criticized his cooking too many nights in a row, he would often find a thick, almost-new show towel waiting on the rack when he opened the shower curtain dripping wet. They still called them show towels, but they were showing something new now. That was typical of them, he showing her he wanted to take care of her and she showing him she was sorry.

When she left, she tried to leave all the show towels, but the last night she was in their apartment he snuck half of them into one of her boxes after she’d gone to sleep. He was sure she’d noticed when she unpacked, but they never talked about it.

Now he’s in a new place of his own, and he still has his share of the show towels. He got rid of a few of his ragged ones, but he uses old towels most days. When he’s had a bad day at work and soaks in the tub during the evening, he’ll drag one of the show towels out of the linen closet. But they’re never there unexpectedly anymore, and he’s slowly getting in the habit of just calling them his nice towels because they don’t show him the same things they used to.

11 January 2002

More about those transitions. See ‘Show Towels’ for the closest thing to an explanation I can give for this…

He used to joke that she gave great conversation, but it wasn’t a joke, not really. It was, from him, just about as good a compliment as there was. He freely admitted that he loved to talk, to tell stories real and fictional, and anyone who made him want to shut up and listen for a while was a member of a pretty exclusive club indeed. A good conversation was, in some ways, the most intimate thing he could think of. When they slowly stopped talking and telling each other stories, it made him think that they’d run out of things to say.

He thought it inevitable, their drawing apart, but when he was unpacking some boxes two months after he moved, he realized that there was a breaking point after all, a discrete moment where a choice was made. It wasn’t any of those memorable events they’d both told their friends about, though those were easier for him to think of. It settled on him like a shroud, the knowledge of how they’d taken this turn.

They’d been out at a bookstore, she browsing the Business section while he tried to justify to himself the new science fiction purchase he was contemplating. It was a good night, one of those times when they were comfortably apart, but not too far, both of them lost in the rhythm of printed words surrounding them. When he was finished wandering, he knew where to find her—either searching for treasure in the bargain bin or picking through the wall of journals. He stepped up behind her and took her hand, squeezing gently to let her know he was ready, but there was no rush. It was an increasingly rare occurrence that they would interpret these touches the way they were intended, but this was a good night, and she gave him a half-smile that said she’d lost track of time. He shook his head slightly, reminding her he was in no rush, and started flipping through the journals himself. He found one of those books for couples, the kind meant to be read together, questions to be answered in print, committed to their personal history. He was intrigued, and thought it might be fun to get. It reminded him of the hours they used to spend with the Book of Questions, talking about whatever came up—family, friends, old love, ethics, stories. So he put his novel back on the shelf and bought his new find for them.

It was a good example of its type, serious enough to be interesting and light-hearted enough to make sure you had fun too. And it was fun, to relive some of the moments they’d shared. They laughed a lot that night, because it was, after all, a good night. It was a few days later when they came across a series of tough questions in the book—“What is the most hurtful thing your partner has said to you?” “Are you more or less in love than you were a year ago?” “Do you more often see your relationship as a joy or an obligation?”

It wasn’t the questions that posed the problem. That was, in fact, one of his rules—never blame the question for an answer you don’t like. Questions are always good, or at least neutral, and he’d always maintained there was no such thing as something people weren’t meant to know. No, the problem wasn’t the questions. And it wasn’t the answers, either, because those questions weren’t ever answered. When he came to that page, he said, “Oh, let’s not talk about that depressing crap!” and flipped ahead to the section on values.

The questions had been out there for a while already, of course, certainly before they’d started looking at the book together. They hadn’t been asked out loud, but they both knew the answers. And knowing those answers served as a substitute for talking about them. It had somehow become a habit, to use knowledge in place of communication.

And for him, it had somehow become a habit to use illusion as a substitute for a harder reality. He knew he was doing it, but they were addictive, those illusions, those good nights, and somewhere along the way he’d misplaced his willingness to sacrifice them for something lasting. And so it was that he asked to skip the depressing crap. Neither of them brought up those questions after, and maybe the temptation to hold onto the good nights was there for both of them.

He was never so naive as to be sure that things might have turned out differently if they’d faced those questions together. It was possible, even likely, that they wouldn’t have gotten past the reality of the answers and what they meant to them. His regret wasn’t that he’d somehow screwed their relationship up single-handedly—even his ego wasn’t big enough to allow that degree of self-absorption. What he regretted as he flipped through the half-completed book, reading their answers to the easy questions, was that he’d allowed himself to become something other than the person he wanted to be, the person who didn’t run from questions just because the answers might be scary. He’d given up that person, for a while, to have a few more good nights.

25 January 2002

Our first offering in Green Scissors Music comes from Stuart Davis. While we could go on and on about Stuart, its probably best to let his website speak for him.

With nine full-length albums to his credit, Stuart Davis has carved out his own unique wavelength in the musical spectrum. Taking the topics of God, sex and death and crafting them into inimitable pop songs with lyrical flair and unforgettable hooks, Stuart continues to be one of the great undiscovered singer/songwriters around.

As an independant artist, Stuart has been touring and putting out albums for more than a decade and shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. His newest release Bell is due out on September 15th. This latest offering marks another step toward mainstream pop. Produced by Alex Gibson who has worked with artists such as Janes Addiction, Live, Fastball, and others the album explores spirituality and the divine in a completely new way.
Available on Green Scissors music are five tracks from various points in his career. They show Stuart’s range of talent from the studio to live acoustic performances.

• Rock Stars and Models: Guitar driven pop aimed at our culture of excess and superficial priorities.
• Transpersonal Cowboy: An older tune performed solo chronicles the struggles of an enlightened buddhist in the old west.
• Savoring Samsara: Stuart explores the irresistable attraction of Samsara.
  • Samsara:
    1 (Hinduism) the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth

    2 (Buddhism) the transmigration or rebirth of a person

    [ETYMOLOGY: Sanskrit, literally: a passing through, from sam altogether + sarati it runs].

• Fault Lines: Another solo performance. The song begs a question we’ve all asked. If I act badly why do people still love me?
• Swim: A lullaby about everyone’s need for human touch and companionship as we face the greatest of life’s struggles.

I would like to encourage you to check out the official website and buy a song through the online store. Unlike the traditional recording business, Stuart retains 95% of the profit from digital sales through his website. Support independant musicians!
Related Links

• Official Website
• Dream Usher: Unofficial fan site