Slowswift

I have a problem.

I'm working on a short story and I have a landed on names for both characters that fits them and the theme of the story well.

The only issue is I hate one of them with a passion and every time I skim the story and see the name there it's like getting shot in the face.

I love seeing people quote Maxims 2 & 3 from Schlock Mercenary in the wild. Seen it happen a few times now. 

For reference, those are:

2) A sergeant in motion outranks a lieutenant who doesn’t know what’s going on. 
3) An ordnance technician at a dead run outranks everybody.

Happy birthday!

Ash fell from the sky…

There’s a fire close enough that, even though we’re not at ready to evacuate, it’s prudent to pack a bag just in case. Please pray for us, and especially for those who are closer to the fire as well as the firefighters.

Happy birthday!

Social media is filled with people who need to touch grass to an extent that I'm tempted to airdrop them into Yellowstone National Park. Parachute optional.

“Professor Plum, you were once a professor of psychiatry specializing in helping paranoid and homicidal lunatics suffering from delusions of grandeur.”

“Yes, but now I work for the United Nations.”

“So your work has not changed.”

—one of my favorite bits from Clue

Ignore the provocative title (or don't, I'm not your mother), but I think this is the video that's finally radicalized me against AI. Not to say that I just adopted her opinion wholesale--but rather, she distilled all the various thoughts I've been having into one place.

I've used AI very sparingly. From the outset, I've refused the idea of generating prose with it, or even using it to come up with an outline or generate ideas. Rather, I've used it like a kind of rubber duck that can talk back. I explained my premise, then asked it for questions to prompt development. This worked great, for a little while. But the further the conversation went, once it started editorializing, the problems started appearing. There were hallucinations and straight-up incorrect information, of course, and several times it took a passing idea of mine as gospel. I'm abundantly aware that these things are programmed to largely just tell you what you want to hear. The time I asked it for feedback on a scene was illuminating: maybe one of its suggestions was good? The others were technically valid observations, but I elected to not take its advice on the grounds of creative differences. And don't get me started on the tone of voice; that vapid LinkedIn cadence. (You can alter that a little bit, and I eventually got it to a point where I could tolerate its commentary, but the point still stands.)

I've played around with image generation too, because on a technical level I do find it interesting, but aside from the ethical concerns it's just not very good--and the effort needed to prompt it into making something good vastly outweighed any inclination to try. Old-fashioned mood boards and faceclaims it is, then.

In the end, as useful as I've found it to be, I'll be greatly winding down my use of commercial chatbots. (I'll still keep an eye on the technology, because I do find it fascinating, and at this point the genie's out of the bottle.) Worry for my mental capacity aside, I just don't trust that any of the companies behind them have anything remotely approaching my best interests in mind.

I think I'm going to go read a book, now.

You ever watch a show that makes you want to be a better person?

That was Violet Evergarden.

Every once in a while I think back to that time I had to leave work early because I was operating on maybe 2 hours of sleep and like 750mg of caffeine. Not a fun time, but I suppose I have bragging rights now?

Anyways, have some memes:

All right, last one:

Please let me know if you’ve seen this SU!

"Excuse me, can you mispronounce 'Frome' for me?"

"Portsmouth."

"That'll do."

Okay, little experiment:

Please let me know if you’ve seen this SU. Like it, or comment, or send me a PM if you really want.

I may be in possession of haunted pocket watch.

I picked it up yesterday to wind it, after a month or so of it sitting on my shelf, and noticed the second hand was going. Whatever, I must have jostled it and the spring was letting out the last tiny bit of tension. I wound it and left it without setting it because I had somewhere to be. 

Today I picked it up to set it and noticed that was already set to the correct time, give or take a minute. 

Y’all, either I’ve just encountered the mother of all coincidences or I need to call a priest. 

So it seems one of my favorite artists, Gareth Emery, will be in town later this year, and now I have to balance by desire to see him live vs. the crowds. If it was an arena or amphitheater it would be a no-brainer, but it's in a small box, which makes the people problem so much worse. (I've actually been to this venue before and didn't hate it, but I don't know what to expect from this audience.)

Doesn't help that I'm still smarting from passing up the chance to see Porter Robinson a few years ago, especially since it was during his Nurture tour.

I writ a thing