Listen here: Ariana Grande, “Sweetener” The title track of Ariana Grande’s fourth studio album “sweetener” (stylized in all lowercase) the pivotal nomination in my top-10 Ariana Grande list. This album, Sweetener, won Grande a Grammy. The artist herself has elucidated the essence of the album’s title, suggesting it’s an ode to the act of illuminating one’s existence or circumstances, metaphorically “sweetening” life’s myriad challenges: it’s kind of about bringing light to a situation or to someone’s life or somebody else brings light to your life. Sweetening the situation. ...

One, two three… c’om, girls! Focus is an Ariana Grande single yet it doesn’t belong to any of her studio albums: The song was originally released as the lead single from Grande’s third studio album, titled Moonlight at the time. As the album’s concept changed and its title renamed to become Dangerous Woman, the song was removed from the main track list, including the standard and deluxe versions. In this process, “Dangerous Woman” replaced “Focus” as the lead single. ...

Two songs from Ariana Grande’s debut album Yours Truly hold a special place in my heart, and they’ve earned their spots in my top 10 list. The first is “The Way”, and the other is “Tattooed Heart”. While “The Way” was an immediate hit upon release, “Tattooed Heart” gained recognition more gradually, especially after Grande performed it frequently in her later career, notably during her Sweetener World Tour. The setlist of the Sweetener World Tour was strategically divided into three sections. The first section featured upbeat, fast-tempo hits perfect for stage performances, such as “God Is A Woman” and “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored.” The second section transitioned into a more intimate and emotional chapter, showcasing songs like “needy” and “sweetener,” and culminating with “Tattooed Heart.” During this performance, Grande sang at the center of the venue, beneath an artificial moon, creating a captivating atmosphere. ...

The countdown is on: just ten days until the release of Ariana Grande’s seventh album, Eternal Sunshine. As a tribute to my favorite artist’s new musical chapter and to alleviate the recent turmoil of work, I’m dedicating a ten-day series on my blog to my top ten personal Ariana Grande songs. My musical preferences have subtly evolved over time. Songs that once seemed mundane or whose acclaim puzzled me have, with time, revealed their allure. This transformation echoes a perspective shared by a friend: “If a celebrated work’s acclaim seems unwarranted, it’s likely you were not its intended audience—at least, not yet.” ...

Let’s pause for a minute of reflection today. Here’s the question: In this moment, are the tasks you undertake today born of your heart’s desire, or are they mere obligations you’re bound to fulfill? It’s just a binary question with at most four combination of answer, but it’s not easy to give a simple, definite response or even directly confront the truth for some people. Here’s one answer from Ariana Grande though, in her Vogue 19 cover interview ...

Recently, China’s primary, stable, all-in-one, state-railway-bureau-directly-operated official railway ticketing platform, 12306, announced an expansion into the airline ticket market. This move is not expected to reduce airfare costs directly, yet it signifies a notable shift in the competitive landscape for Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) like CTrip, potentially impacting their market share and profitability. Understanding the mechanics of airline ticket sales is crucial here. Airlines set their flight schedules, seat pricing, and then distribute this information through a Global Distribution System (GDS). OTAs access this data, aggregating flight options for consumers as intermediate information sources without directly influencing ticket supply or pricing. Similarly, railway tickets follow this model, with OTA revenue deriving from commissions, sales bonuses from airlines, and fees for ticket changes and cancellations. They OTAs are notoriously famous for offering overwhelmingly termed insurance contracts for reschedule or refund, and they charge a inflated fee for any uninsured reschedule, not to mention cancellation. ...

There are conflicts happening every now and then. The best way is just to focus on something else. Because if one just gets distracted by all those negative things, he might as well doesn’t have anything more meaningful on his mind to do. It would be pathetic. The attitude expressed by Ariana Grande’s billboard interview (almost 9 years ago) pretty much reflected this pov: Grande’s determined to avoid any kind of controversy. She won’t comment, for example, on Swift’s Twitter scuffle with guest Dangerous Woman rapper Nicki Minaj over the latter’s perceived 2015 MTV Video Music Awards snub: ...

Today is YuanXiao Festival, the first full moon of the year of the Dragon. “I saw the moonlight today. What reason should I make up so as to bring it to you?” It reminded me of Moonlight by Ariana Grande from her third album Dangerous Woman. It’s just an elegant, gorgeous love ballad. According to Ariana Grande’s Wiki: Victoria Monét (Grande’s producer-slash-bestie) said “[‘Moonlight’,] that’s what Ricky [Alvarez, Grande’s boyfriend then] called her one night. I think it was after their first kiss. He waited to kiss her for a long time, and she was really impressed. He’s such a gentleman, and the song is a great little bookmark of the start of their relationship.” ...

The latest episode of Freakonomics podcast titled Is Google Getting Worse? (Update) covered a topic (sponsored search) that I thought I was familiar with, but after listening, found myself to be pondering with new thoughts. To begin with, the guest list of this episode is already unimaginably fantastic: SOURCES Marissa Mayer, co-founder of Sunshine; former C.E.O. of Yahoo! and vice president at Google. Ryan McDevitt; professor of economics at Duke University. Tim Hwang, media researcher and author; former Google employee. Elizabeth Reid, vice president of Search at Google. Aravind Srinivas, C.E.O. and co-founder of Perplexity. Jeremy Stoppelman, C.E.O. and co-founder of Yelp. And it mentioned several interesting new facts. Particularly, the process of how PageRank was integrated as Google Search’s core algorithm. I used to took it as granted, but well, idea don’t just grow on chips: ...

I got my driver’s license today! Yet it still feels strange to pass a test I once failed. I still don’t really like driving; would rather sit in the passenger seat to be in control of the music, snacks, and conversations. The driving academy where I used to practice is next to a garbage dump, so the air smells real bad. My coach had a strong accent and cursed a lot, like all those driving instructors. The worst is that the air conditioner barely worked, making it really hot, stuffy and sweaty in the summer. Overall, it wasn’t the most pleasant place to be learning heavy machinary. ...