acknowledgements.tex (12825B)
1 \chapter{Acknowledgements} 2 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 3 %%% The world %%% 4 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 5 I'm not sure how to write these acknowledgements who to thank how to thank them there are so many people who contributed to the completion of this thesis 6 maybe I should thank my optician who enabled me to read so many papers 7 but why stop there I'm sure my glasses were made using some kind of polishing machine with bolts made by a worker supported through their childhood by a sweetheart now long forgotten 8 I'm however deeply thankful to the boltmaker's childhood sweetheart for bringing them a bit of warmth that might not have been strictly necessary to the conception of the metal fasteners indirectly ensuring my optical prowesses but that I want to celebrate anyway 9 it might be easier to list people I don't want to thank 10 no that would be ill-disposed 11 I won't go into woollen coats 12 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 13 %%% The jury %%% 14 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 15 I'll focus on people more closely related to my doctoral endeavors 16 first of which are my supervisors 17 thank you Benjamin Piwowarski for providing key insight on the information extraction field the gentle encouragements and for the guidance through the years 18 thank you Vincent Guigue for your vast knowledge of how things are done and how they are not I hope you do not disapprove too much of the otters in my defense's slides 19 I'm also grateful to other members of the jury for examining my thesis in particular I would like to thank the reviewers for thoroughly reading my dissertation I hope it was as pleasant to read as it was to write I should elucidate that this is not a curse I quite enjoyed taking the time to put in writing what I learned over the last few years 20 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 21 %%% Carl Marletti disgression %%% 22 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 23 I shall also thank Carl Marletti creator of the Lily Valley with its indecently delicious or maybe deliciously indecent association of sugar fat and violets into a mean of reaching my goal of contracting diabetes on my deathbed 24 note however that since it was contracted through the ingestion of violets it can surely be analyzed as poetical diabetes although still classified as type~2 by medical professionals 25 Carl Your glory in what was an undeniable and mouthwatering emotional support shall not be forgotten 26 I was furthermore corrupted into the sin of gluttony by Sadaharu Aoki Toque Cuivrée and Merveilleux de chez Fred 27 I also enjoy Baillardran despite its overpricing and overtly bourgeois styling I should therefore not be too vocal about it in case liberation precedes alopecia 28 I feel like I'm digressing about boltmakers again 29 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 30 %%% Angelic beings %%% 31 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 32 no if I have to thank someone for emotional support first and foremost that would be Raphaëlle Labarrière Syrielle Montariol and Billur Sezgin 33 thank you for the numerous evenings and nights spent rebuilding the world and ourselves with an excessive amount of wine 34 thank you for making me discover things that I enjoy about life 35 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 36 %%% Litterature %%% 37 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 38 in particular thank you for sharing a copious amount of literary works 39 I particularly enjoy reading classical authors whose remains are in various states of decomposition between the retirement home and the Panthéon I had the pleasure of snatching several volumes from their skeletal hands thank you Raphaëlle for providing flawless directions in grave robbery 40 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 41 %%% Informal Reviewers %%% 42 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 43 I further thank Jill-Jênn Vie and once again Syrielle Montariol and Arij Riabi for proofreading my dissertation 44 you did a great job correcting me and oh boy did I need it thankfully the first version was not witnessed by the official reviewers 45 that's what's called taking one for the team 46 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 47 %%% Digressions %%% 48 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 49 % Tomatoes 50 next in order I would like to thank tomatoes in all their shapes and forms 51 thank you for helping me keep a semblance of health 52 for giving a bit more of a culinary personality beyond that of a sugar-addict even though I still have a kind of obsessive relationship with you 53 I'm not ready to deconstruct it yet 54 I wrote you a poem it goes like this 55 Oh tomato Ô tomato {\japaneseFont 御}tomato 56 % Dr Bouteille 57 speaking of health thank you Dr Bouteille for taking care of me and having a funny name 58 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 59 %%% Too nice for this world %%% 60 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 61 and now speaking of bottle I would like to thank sweet-tooth Syrielle Montariol and mixologist Kenza Jernite for being among the most admirable people I know 62 the world is kinder with you in it 63 I enjoyed sharing liquorous wine and cocktails with you 64 and I have faith we will be getting diabetes together 65 with moderation 66 % Just bitchy enough for this world 67 because on the other side Billur is accompanying me beyond moderation on cathartic disdain 68 I can only hope we'll be getting to hell together 69 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 70 %%% Clinophilia %%% 71 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 72 but for now waiting for this unavoidable and deserved end I would like to thank my bed for being the nicest place on earth and not only my bed all the beds that sheltered me in the past and all those that will accommodate me in the future 73 I shall even include couches or any surfaces appropriate for napping 74 I yearn the days we were forced to sleep in kindergarten 75 and I can only hope this will be generalized to latter stages of life 76 as I'm sleep-deprivedly writing these acknowledgements the night before my defense 77 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 78 %%% Plushies %%% 79 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 80 you might think this clinophilia is revealing of an underlying pathology but fear not as I enjoy all soft things made from fabric 81 I take the opportunity to thank the kind overseeing of my work by communist \textsc{bert} and the transitional support of Waza Brick Oishii et al 82 despite your stoic airs I know how you feel deep inside 83 %%%%%%%%%%%% 84 %%% Cats %%% 85 %%%%%%%%%%%% 86 I should also thank several members of the Felidae family for providing purring 87 especially Ozwin you're a coward but you're cute you're a cute coward 88 you're worth your weight of catnip 89 when you get the chance of meeting her in a courageous disposition you can hold her little furry paws in your hand feel the softness of this unique specimen 90 how nice yes 91 at times though her dark side overwhelms her and wounds you while you're in the most playful mood she nonchalantly write a Greek tragedy in the thunderous strength of her claws yes yes but cutely though 92 %%%%%%%%%%%%%% 93 %%% Family %%% 94 %%%%%%%%%%%%%% 95 speaking of family I should thank mine which is boringly Hominidae the end of the genealogy tree looks like 96 \begin{tikzpicture}[person/.style={circle, fill=black, minimum width=0.5mm, inner sep=0}] 97 \node[person] (root) at ( 0mm, 0mm) {}; 98 \node[person] (l) at (-2mm, 1mm) {}; 99 \node[person] (r) at ( 2mm, 1mm) {}; 100 \node[person] (ll) at (-3mm, 2mm) {}; 101 \node[person] (lr) at (-1mm, 2mm) {}; 102 \node[person] (rl) at ( 1mm, 2mm) {}; 103 \node[person] (rr) at ( 3mm, 2mm) {}; 104 \draw (root) -- (l); 105 \draw (root) -- (r); 106 \draw (l) -- (ll); 107 \draw (l) -- (lr); 108 \draw (r) -- (rl); 109 \draw (r) -- (rr); 110 \end{tikzpicture} 111 yes at depth 2 it's still a tree that was an intelligent decision by my ancestors 112 and though I don't remember everything I am thankful for your support early in life 113 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 114 %%% Action de groupe %%% 115 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 116 I would also like to thank the action de groupe and its {\japaneseFont 群作用} extension 117 in particular thank you Jill-Jênn for jill-jênning all along 118 thank you Shloub for laughing at my poorly crafted puns or at anything really you're too good of a public 119 thank you Tito for indirectly teaching me more about machine learning than what you yourself know 120 thank you Alex for teaching me more about machine learning than what you wish you knew 121 thank you Link Mauve for showing me you can sluggishly not care about unimportant things 122 thank you Ryan for the gentle squabble 123 and thank you again Tito Alex and Link Mauve for your substantiated subversion 124 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 125 %%% Open source %%% 126 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 127 speaking of subversion I would like to thank the whole open source community 128 and more broadly organizations encouraging the sharing of information with as many people as possible such as Wikipedia and Sci-Hub 129 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 130 %%% Laboratory %%% 131 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 132 but I don't need to go this far for finding people sharing ideas 133 I would like to thank all members of the \textsc{mlia} team 134 in particular a huge thank to the people who participated in our reading groups that was legitimately the best work-related moments during my time in the lab 135 if we go into non-work-related we might end up in some incongruous raclette--karaoke night 136 I would also like to thank the people in the bestest office ever 26--00/534 thank you Marie for your strong laughter Agnès for your strong chill Tristan for your strong flow and Jean-Yves for your strong temporal consistency I'm sure the time at which you leave for your afternoon collation could have been used to calibrate atomic clocks thus providing an unyielding beacon of stability in research's messy life 137 finally thank you Christophe Bouder for dealing with deep learning ludicrous computational requirements and for providing a serious challenge in foosball 138 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 139 %%% Hot water %%% 140 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 141 this reminds me that I should also thank my sport mates 142 Syrielle and 26--00/534 for bouldering and Arij for swimming 143 a deep thanks to the municipal employees who decided on the nearly 30 degrees Celsius temperature for the swimming pool 144 I wonder whether you might have been doing more for my physical health than a bottle lost in a municipal health center 145 I take the opportunity to thank the love of my life with whom I share every day 146 hot water I sing your praise daily 147 a big thank you to Billur Sezgin for lending me her bathtub and thank you to Lush for achieving the feat of making it more enjoyable 148 thank you also to Manon Dumas Morès for accepting the same bathtub-lending deal 149 I might become a bathtub tycoon in the future 150 I partly grew up in a thermal city maybe that explains why I like hot water so much I'm not sure but just in case thank you to my thermal city Bagnères-de-Luchon 151 to hell with it thank you to all thermal cities they deserve it well 152 maybe one instance of enjoyable cold water was a night bath in Kyoto for Gozan no Okuribi thank you to the protagonist of this otherworldly night for making it so memorable 153 the cold water appeared first in the Takasegawa channel near Pontocho then in the duck's river Kamogawa 154 which despite its name was void of ducks which might have hidden following their awareness of a cooking intent originating in a native of southwestern France 155 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 156 %%% Cooking %%% 157 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 158 thank you to Syrielle Kenza and Manon for participating in singular culinary experiments 159 this is what inspired the OuCuiPo illustration in my introduction 160 sorry Manon though for getting you sick with some weird black pepper 161 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 162 %%% Rapid Fire %%% 163 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% 164 ok it's getting late 165 thank you Arthur Suspene for getting old as fast as I do but slightly earlier 166 thank you to Sappho's friend who shall sadly remain unnamed 167 welcome to Jill-Jênn's firework I'm sure it's going to turn out better than the movie 168 and long life to Anne Émone and all her children I want to leave her offspring in 26--00/534 so that we can share something beyond our PhD 169 but I fear most of them will starve to death by the end of the month 170 finally thank you to all the excellent teachers who accompanied me until the end of my formal studies I aspire to be half as good as you were. 171 172 \newpage 173 \null 174 \vfill 175 \textcolor{black!30}{\bonum\fontsize{36pt}{36pt}\selectfont\raisebox{-16pt}[8pt][0pt]{``}}% 176 {\itshape\,\begin{tabular}[t]{@{}l@{: }l} 177 Michael & Yes---it wasn't logical. \\ 178 George & You were a tomato! A tomato doesn't have logic. A tomato can't move. 179 \end{tabular}}\\ 180 \null\hfill---``Tootsie'' (1982) 181 182 \bigskip 183 184 \textcolor{black!30}{\bonum\fontsize{36pt}{36pt}\selectfont\raisebox{-16pt}[8pt][0pt]{``}}% 185 {\itshape\,This disaster of the Cherokees, brought to me by a sad friend to blacken my days and nights! I can do nothing; why shriek? why strike ineffectual blows? I stir in it for the sad reason that no other mortal will move, and if I do not, why, it is left undone. The amount of it, to be sure, is merely a scream; but sometimes a scream is better than a thesis.}\\ 186 \null\hfill---Ralph Waldo Emerson ``Letter to President van Buren'' (1838) 187 188 \bigskip 189 190 \textcolor{black!30}{\bonum\fontsize{36pt}{36pt}\selectfont\raisebox{-16pt}[8pt][0pt]{``}}% 191 {\itshape\,Aaaaaaaaaaaah}\\ 192 \null\hfill---Alain Chabat in ``Reality'' by Quentin Dupieux (2014)