the prison of “should”
fear and insecurities
keep holding me back
Just a quick little one before I head off to sleep.
Author: Carl Setzer
A blogger blogging from just north of Seattle.
Mindset morning haiku
on the edge of dreams
garrulous crows chattering
as dawn progresses
I hope your week brings you closer to joy.
Some Wisdom For The Day
Came across this gem on Pinterest:
This is powerful wisdom for me to absorb. One of my well-refined skills entails reviewing all my life’s failures, elaborating on how foolish those choices were. I need to remember that I did my best at the time. The reason why I would make different choices now is that I LEARNED from my mistakes.
The cruel things we do to ourselves are fascinating, and sad. They rarely (if ever) add value to our lives. And yet, we opt for this behavior again and again. No wonder we’re so insecure: we invest incredible amounts of energy tearing ourselves down.
Anyway, I resolve to continue to challenge these destructive thoughts. You in?
This morning’s haiku
quiet morning rain
the tranquility of clouds
this day beginning
It’s a rainy morning in greater Seattle, which I have a certain fondness for. Memories of dark, calm coffee shops with a book, or a new magazine, and time. It sometimes didn’t feel as beautiful as I can now see. Time brings wisdom, I guess.
I’m fascinated by this AI music video
I often listen to these AI-generated tracks. I find them soothing. Many of the videos, though, are wild in their AI mistakes/hallucinations. I’ve seen boats and airplanes zooming backwards, people walking through walls, each other, all kinds of things. At least once, a person launched upwards into the air, up into the sky. Now, this one below is interesting as the subject remains pretty still (he is supposed to be a whirling dervish, though), but this cloud of sand billows out from his stationary feet. Besides that, I find the colors rich and vibrant, the details nice, but the billowing sand is…odd.
Anyway, I hope your Wednesday was fantastic and that your June is off to a good start.
Are we nearing the end of AI’s hype cycle ?
I just watched this video and it got me thinking about the future of tech. One of the key things they point out is how many of the AI prognosticators are now so walking so much of it back. Companies are hiring back some of those laid off. The drive to push everyone into using AI for everything is hitting up against costs, as tokens are no longer free, or subsidized. Anyway, check it out! It’s only about 10 minutes long.
I’ve written about AI before, and about how the current costs are not the true costs. That much of the operational costs of AI have been underwritten by investors. And that’s not tenable. I’ve been seeing more and more articles about these costs being passed long to users. I’m seeing companies burn through yearly token budgets in the first quarter of the year. I’m seeing companies pull back on the requirement to use AI. Yeah, the hype seems to be waning.
So, are you seeing the same signs? Let me know what you’re seeing.
Happy Long Weekend Friday
Happy Friday, everyone! And it’s a long weekend…Monday being Memorial Day and all.
I find this old bit from Ren and Stimpy to be joyfully nerdy and, thus, delightfully obnoxious, in a dad joke sort of way.
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful, refreshing, and joy-inducing weekend.
A Reading Recommendation For You, Dear Readers: Intuition and Instinct by Addy Davies
The writer of the piece below is someone I’ve known a LONG time. I’ve always delighted in Addy’s creativity and thoughtfulness. She wrote this post last year, but I just found out it was published in a print version of Flaunt magazine. I’m quite proud of her!
I don’t want to give too much away, but this post is a personal look at trauma and recovery with a poetic bent.
So, without further ado, please follow my recommendation and give her a read.
Intuition and Instinct by Addy Davies
Justice for late summer, using fish to tell the future, and giving yourself permission to move on. Read on Substack
Entering BIOS Gif
This made me laugh louder than I should admit:
This hits far too close to home.
For those of you who haven’t needed to mess around in a computer’s BIOS, it’s a clunky and awkward…and inconsistent process, where manufacturers’ processes can vary widely. On boot, you hit one of the function keys, often F2, but sometimes F10, F6, or F8. And you generally have to spam the key to get it to take. It’s been a long-standing annoyance of mine.
Anyway, happy Monday, everyone! I hope your week meets, no, exceeds your expectations.
Death By A Thousand Cuts, Er, Text Messages
There’s an adage about “death by a thousand paper cuts”. Well, that’s akin to what I’ve been dealing with for some time now. The GOP (ostensibly) has been burying me in a barrage of texts. Here’s one from today that’s pretty amusing, actually.
I mean, in order to fix the fact YOU are sending me “too many messages”, I NEED to click on a link from a spammer/scammer? Um, no. There is no way in hell I’m clicking on a link from these folks. Jeez!
What might not be clear is that I never signed up for these. They’re often addressed to “friend”, and sometimes reference a zip code that’s in the greater Seattle area, but is not close to mine. This is the last org I want anything to do with. When they first started coming in, I did what the message says and replied “stop”. That only increased the message count. Currently, I’m averaging between 30 (the exact number from yesterday) and 50. To say 900-1,000 text messages a month is disruptive is quite the understatement. I’m glad that I have unlimited texts.
At first, I assumed that it was a mistake. That “friend” had signed up but mistyped their phone number. But, really, would you blast someone you liked like this? Or maybe someone thought this would be funny, someone who knows me. However, this has started to feel more like harassment. It’s surreal to get so many MAGA messages. Even if I were aligned with them, exploding my phone seems counterproductive. If I were pro-Trump, I would imagine getting a spam message every couple of minutes would cause me to rethink that. As it is, it is growing my dislike for the Republican Party.
What’s weirder is that bulk SMS isn’t free. I mark them as spam and block each one, and my spam filter is doing a modest job blocking them. Yet, since each one comes from a different phone number, lots slip through. Ugh!
I’m unsure what I want to do going forward. I guess, in the end, it’s a first-world problem. Though it’s annoying, it’s not like I’m getting direct, threatening messages. It’s annoying and disruptive. I am missing important messages that get buried in the sea of garbage. I am going to explore options, but am not likely to contact an attorney or law enforcement, as I see there’s a high likelihood that it’s NOT the formal GOP establishment. I mean, it’s a dumb way to spend money. But, man, I really hope these people go out of business soon.