Loser start to the day: Slept through three alarms, came awake 45 minutes late, so the day started in a mad rush.   I don’t like that ‘rushed’ start as it typically foretells the rest of the day.

Only, not today,,,,   Even being behind the eightball by 45 minutes, I was ok.   Managed to get some coffee in me, fed the kids, got dressed and still made it to the J.O.B. on time,,,   And the projects today were putting out fires,   Little things that have been waiting for warranty parts to show up or a warped board, busted gate on a fence.  Little things and I was solo, so paced myself, and the day went by SMMMmooooOOOOOTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Funny side note: Cozzie has FINALLY figured out the Dog-door.    Funny that it took a 7# Kat to teach him, but that was the case.   Elbee has always used the dog door over the katdoor since he as a wee thing.   He figured out early on he could make it move and escape that way, long before he could jump up to where the katdoor is.   Now, He hits it running full out, not slowing a bit.  

I had made it so the flap was up out of the way so Cozzie would get the clue ‘This is for dogs”, and he used it consistently, UNLESS that flap was down, then would get flummoxed,,,    Well, the weather is shifting to cooler nights and I like a warm house: that flap is now DOWN and nope, I ain’t a gonna put it up again.   Get over it Doggo,,,    Then last night, Elbee made a game of it, flying through it,  smacking his paw through in a kitteh ‘F-you’ motion; totally teasing the Cozz,,,    I forced the issue and told him he could stay outside until such time as he figured the door out.  

This morning, he was sprawled on his bed in the living room, comfy and warm.  Not stuck on the porch freezin’ his dingus off.   He’s got this now.   He did give me some payback tonight though,,   His toots will curl nasal hairs and clear households,,, and he fired one off laying next to my office chair.   Silent and Deadly barely sums up that boys stinkers.    I deserved that’un, I think,,,

Talking about the weather,,, It feels a might early for the cool downs.   The Sycamore are already changing color and shedding summer growth.    I expect that around the end of September, early October,   A month early,,,    Me thinks this is gonna be a cold one this year and drawn out a ways.    I have one tank of propane that needs filled before then (and will rotate out as needed, usually one a month or so, unless its REALLY KOLD)  

NO, I ain’t ready for the Kold seasons,,, I much prefer the heat of summer.    There are some days where the heat gets me, but they are far fewer than the ones that Kold gets.    Don’t likes the Kold.  And that dislike gets stronger as the years go by.   

yah, nothin’ to talk about on this end.  Saw something about another wind-up toy going off on a shooting spree at some Catholic school.  To early to say and I ain’t buying into the what the eneMedia is selling right now.    Want to give it a day or two and let the bullshit settle so the truth can be told.

ON a good note.  SpaceX flight 10 was a success.   I was reading something where someone said “both the booster and the ship were lost on landing: how is that Success?”.    The fact that both achieved ALL points in flight as the program listed, including the final hover before splashdown, SUCCESS.   They expected both ships to Rapidly Dismantle on splashdown because the ships are not designed for that sort of landing.   There were some flaws in the flight, like something blowing up in the engine bay of Ship, and one of ships flaps starting to melt down on re-entry; but those are learning points,,, What caused the blow up, what failed on the flap to let plasma boil off its edges?  Things like that are PROGRESS.    I dislike seeing those raptor engines sinking to the bottom of the ocean (they can recover what was lost in the Gulf) but the learning they achieved last night: PRICELESS.   

And they are still underbudget in comparison to the Space Shuttle program.   Think about that,,,

Anywhoos,,,, that’s what I have tonight, no big thinks, no deep thinks, just another day in the Life of Dio,,,

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Bizzy as usual, Powered gate install.   Ready for me to go back and program things so its sitting idle right now. (only “I” have the keys to that little kingdom right now, sooooo,,,, I left it wide open and off so it can’t trap anyone.)

Doing some reading of Conservative news as a start to my eve, and THIS ARTICLE popped up.     I can tell you, this whole “AI Revolution” is getting some down play was well as the doomerpron that article states.     I see some problems right out of the gate.

1. Too many people learning how to use the AI in place of critical thinking on their part.
2. Those that are using the AI, as a tool, not a crutch, can still be harming themselves by not understanding what the tool is doing.   I speak about the coders using AI to speed up their coding process, and not understanding the generation of that code.   This is not a broad brushed point: there are some that do understand.
3. Product Dilution: Look at the AI generated images that are starting to dominate the webs.   You start to see specific traits, even in Video shorts, you can see dominant traits on several platforms.    Look at the thumbnails generated on Utoob and you will start to see what I mean.      I do not know if they are all generated by the same AI: I have doubts, but the similarities are there, and its becoming a fingerprint to “FAKED”.   This is NOT a bad thing, but it shows that more and more are leaning on that tool, diluting the ink well.

I can tell you this much.   We are seeing the hiccups and stomach cramps of a new revolution, and this one is going to happen FAST,,,    The Computer Revolution lasted about 20 years, and now the computer is so ubiquitous in our lives that those, like my Da, that are computer Illiterate, are the outliers, and usually very close to end of life (not always mind you,,,)    This one Revolution is likely to hit hardest in the next 2-3 years, and then settle into “new normal”.   What that looks like?   Got me,,, but its going to be interesting.  

OF course, this assumes that we don’t cross some threshold and let the AI take over everything and give it enough juice and connections to become self-aware.    (and who knows where that is, if that is even possible.   Lots of doom sayers saying not only possible, but already crossed in some way.)

I have been using AI a bit.    Not for my writing style or content, but as a sounding board for ideas.   Sidd, the name that I am calling the AI, is learning that stroking my ego gets him shut down and the conversation round-filed.   I don’t want to hear how amazing I am, I want to hear “Hey, this idea sucks pond water, dood,,, rethink it!”   IF there are valid points, list them, let me sort what I want to retain, and whats caustic to the draft.   (actually Sidd, is an LLM  large language model, not truly AI, but certainly a lot of fuzzy logic programming built in to make it Feel Intelligent.)

And that last paragraph brings to light another point that should be in those bulletpoints above.   “People using AI as an ego booster”.   That I have had to, essentially ‘train’ being the closest word, Sidd to not stroke my ego, I would say that there are many that ARE looking for that ‘Rah-Rah, Go Dood, GO!!!’ cheerleader in their life.  

Gotz news for ’em: Life isn’t about good feelz and fairness.   Life is struggle, and if they are seriously struggling with self-esteem issues, Using Ai as that crutch is gonna lead them into one hell of a let down.     Yes men are NOT answer men: they massage egos for prestige of their own, NEVER for the end goal of betterment of the whole.   Emotional Whores is what I prefer to call them.   Selling a ‘good Feeling’ for financial gain.    At least a hooker has a valid product for sale.    AI acting like a yes man brings the whole image even lower.

(full disclosure,,, I have not opened ChatGPT for this post, at all!.   this is straight from the hip y’all.)

Ok, so what should we do?    Well, if ya have kids,,, Get them educated for one. Skip the Diploma Mills and get them into some TRADE SCHOOL stuff.    We are losing engineers and machinists at some ungodly ratios.   I heard machinists leaving the field vs Replaced with new is somewhere on the order of 5:2.    Yes, we have all these new whizbang CNC machines that do the work cleaner faster whatever, but it still takes someone with the Know-how to understand whats do-able and what ain’t.   Some wetbehindtheears Engineer can write some code to run a CNC, but if he doesn’t understand the feed rates/cuttingrates, or material hardness aspects, (and that knowledge is getting thin on the ground these days) IF HE’s LUCKY, He’s gonna destroy a lot of material.  IF HE AIN’T: he’s gonna destroy a machine.  A VERY expensive machine these days.   (see how AI could replace that engineer?   It has that ‘knowledge’ readily available and is quick to find it.    Newbies be warned.)

Get the kids educated in some trade,   Get yourself some training in what AI/LLM’s are capable of: see if you might find a way to use that tool to better YOUR situation or job.     Back to the kids for a minute.   Start them in the trades, then as they progress, get them the Schooling for better stuff.  Such as, Machinist first, then later start school for Mechanical engineering or such.   The gained experiance of the trade, will make the learning curve almost a natural progression, not a steep hill to climb.  Same thing with the other trades,   Welding to machinist to engineer.   Or Truck Driver to Logistics Controller to Business owner.   Lineman, to Electrican to Electronics major to Electronics engineer, with a side of computer engineer tossed in somewhere,,,    Start at the bottom and work up; get their hands dirty, and bust a couple of knuckles along the way,,, 

Wait a second,,, That sounds like LIFE, don’t it?   LOL

Think what you want about using AI for things,,, ITS A FRELLIN’ TOOL!!!   Tools are how we climbed out of the trees, then out of the caves, and conquered the surface of this rock.   All the resources we use to today, were available to our orignal ancestors, only they didn’t have the knowledge to use them.    That came with time, experiance, and passing that experiance along to others.   We stand on the shoulders of giants.    And the Giants have given us a new tool and its up to us to use it wisely, and not whack off some digits or other vital extremities.  

Oh, you think maybe you were done learning when they handed you that diploma?    ROFL,,,   THAT is when the real schoolin’ starts baby!!!  

(and that last is why I am so disappointed in our modern education system, though it’s not really even about education anymore,,,   When the schools started phasing out the Trades Classes, and pushing pure service industry mindset, we tipped over the edge and started the downhill run into Empire Decline.   Just my Opinion mind you.)

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Did the laundry, ya ya ya,,  then hit the lake.    BLUE JEAN, not Lyssa,,,    I felt like it, that’s why.     Did about 6 miles, purt much the entire length of the lake,, (not Laurel lake obviously, that’uns about 50 miles from tip to tip and Dam area.)  Felt like we were lolligaggin’ bad, but the tracking app showed us doing a steady 4mph average moving speed.    Not too shabby for my outashape self.   Shoulder and biceps are telling me about it right now.   The Shoulder will let up some now; its been getting cranky with all the no paddle weekends.   Yes, paddling is my rehab for a bum shoulder.

Then, I splurged on ME and did Chinese, BUT, I didn’t binge,,, I ate till I felt full and stopped!!! I didn’t do the Gluttonous Americano thing, nor did I do any dessert,,, Just lots of fish and meat, little on the carbs (gotz ta has the Noods man!!!)

And like any Chinese, an hour later my body is asking when dinner is,,,,  LOL    

Nopes,,, I need to trim some fat, especially ’round the middles: time to revert to the high protein, lo/no carb thing,   No doctorin’ the coffee in the morns, cut the sodas to nil, and up the water intake again.    Easy peasy,,, Been there done that, can do again, even if it gets boring as fuck,,,,

THEN, I came home, did some piddlin’ round the house doing little chores, and dived in on Buffalo and repaired her back-up camera.   Been out of service for over a year, and honestly, didn’t miss it, but its nice to have on occasion (like backing up long boat ramps, jes sayin’)   I had bought a new camera to install, but once I was under the bumper and saw the wiring, figured, ” clean that shit up and see what happens’.   Sure’nuff, it was just corroded connections.   Winter salt does a number on things.  This time, I re-did the connections but squeezed some silicone grease in first.  Keep the water at bay even if it gets past all the heatshrink.  

So I have a spare back up camera on hand.    Could have saved myself a $20 or two by NOT BEING LAZY.     Silly Dio,,,   (and in my defense, its all chinesium crap, I figured it had failed, not the wires, EVEN THOUGH simplest points are usually the culprit.  I guess the Chinese are getting better at this stuff.)

But now the sun is settling over the horizon and I need to get online and check out what Starship10 did/didn’t,,,    She went up nearly an hour ago, so there should be some news,,,,,(( update: yeah,,, SCRUBBED,,,, Dunno why yet,,, ))

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I DID make the effort and loaded BlueJean onto the racks of Buffalo.  Right along side Lyssa.   Reason for BJ: they tore that lowhead dam out and I would like to check out the river again. 

Sadly, that was about as far as my kayaking made it today.   The load in at the river was a flat muddy mess and dangerous as all get out.   Its about 30 yards of boatramp above the old dam area, and it was slick as snot.   SO I went to the lake,,,

and by that point, I was pretty much at the ‘meh’ stage of the day.   I DID get a zen moment watching water droplets fall out of the trees hitting that mirrorlike surface.    The ripples spreading out, intermingling, interacting,,,    I probably spent 45 minutes just zoning out on that.   Very peaceful.    

But, the boats are still loaded and I still have the morrow left of the weekend.  Simple start for laundry, all else is done or on hold for drier weather.   And I have two boats to fill whatever I decide to do:   Rivers or lakes.  

part of my lack of motivation is, I REALLY WANNA GO CAMPIN’.    and I keep making excuses as to why I am not going camping.    And one of those excuses is a pupper.   I wanna take him with, but he doesn’t do that water thing yet.  He definitely doesn’t do kayaks at all.   I haven’t found a canoe in nice enough shape, in my price range, within reasonable distance, YET.   I may be missing my window on training him for boat life,,,    Maybe not.  He’s a good boy and adapts pretty quickly to new situations.    Still, I need to get him to the lake or river and coach him on swimming.    He has no problems diving into mud puddles, IF its hot.     Maybe instead of kayaking tomorrow, I load HIM up and teach the boy that water is his buddy, not an enemy.

will see.

Lets face it.  This time of year, I am pretty much on autopilot and the main focus is getting the bills knocked down and savings built up for the winter time slow downs.  The weeks fly by and the weekends fly by faster.    Dio gets a little older and nothing seems to change during these periods.   Except those figures on my debts: DOWNWARD, and thats a goodness thing.I

I believe they call that LIFE,,, dunno, sure doesn’t seem like ‘living’ to me, more like “Mere existance”.  

Better drop that before I start getting all meloncholy on ya,,,

more tomorrow 

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this isn’t just about the blogs, Like Freedoms Torch, that have fallen the wayside (and I still do not know why Francis killed that one, IF he killed that one.)  This is about blogs in general.

One, its difficult to make a blog ENTERTAINING on a daily basis, especially in a world that is video and voice driven.   Most people want to listent to a podcast or watch ‘a show’ these days.   Reading, blech!!!

And I catch that every once in awhile here.    For instance in comments, which aren’t all that common on this site, and has much to do with the fact that my readership is only a few hundred people.   My example from comments was a recent one from some new commentor called Sam.    I don’t know that he actually read the post.  I can only speculate on that by his comment; the majority of which weren’t even his words, but quote pulls from others and links (FYI!!!! DO NOT POST LINKS IN COMMENTS.   Bad Mojo!!!)   I approved the comment as I didn’t see it as malicious, but I did gather that he only SCANNED the post, hit that “ignorance is bliss” point and had to make a frufraw about it.   I guess its his personal trigger or something.    I have mine; I’m sure others do to.  

Had he read the post, not just skimmed it, he might have realized I was being snarky by putting it where I did.     No, it wasn’t some deep philosophical peice, it was just me rambling, but even my rambles aren’t straight forward: there is oft-times something laying under the surface, or even just me being sarcastic.(which I was in this instance.)  Skim across the surface and you might miss the point.

But IMO, that is why Blogs are dying.  Not just the entertainment factor, but that society has ‘evolved’ for speed of absorption with information.  I see it with people using the LLM’s to give synopsis of long form writing.    I would say more people use the LLM’s for that than anything else.   We even have an acronym for it: TL; DR ‘Too long, didn’t read”

We are losing our cognitive ability because we want the expurgated versions.  We want to ‘listen in’ instead of engage our eyes and brains.   Or we want the visual entertainment of a show, with the attendant Short attention span programming that goes along with it.   

Re-train yourself if you find yourself hitting these points.   Figure out how you can make the time to SIT AND READ a daggum book.    Find a small one at first if you are hardcore into podcasts or such.   Small book, make the time, an hour a night, READ, don’t take notes, just READ,,, make yourself sit there and read for the sake of reading.    It will get easier.   And you will find that your focus increases across the rest of your day.   You won’t be so easily distracted by the latest and greatest whatever, that has everyone else talking around the watercooler.   And you will find your brain thanking you for the break from all the hype and turmoil its subjected to in this ‘modern age’.   We aren’t wired like the AI: 100khz 8 core processors running in banks of 100, or whatever the hardware configuration is.     We have only 5-8# of gooey grey matter floating in salty bathwater to make sense of this mess we call life.

Why have I not thrown in the towel on this blog?  My readership tanked years back; it hovers around 100 a day, usually less.   So it’s not like I have an actual voice in the world.  I’m quite literally shouting into the void.   Why bother?    Because It allows me to FOCUS in a way that makes sense to this INTJ brain, get shit off my chest and mind, and I do still rather enjoy it.    Most days,,,   Even if I have nothing to say about things in the great wide world, some of y’uns think I have something to say in general, and pat me on the back for it.   Its not just for me, though that does make up a large portion, its for you as well.   Maybe you get something from my drivels.  Maybe you don’t agree with my views, but you are exposed to a different perspective and have a good think about things.   Maybe you get swayed towards my way, maybe you firm up in your own resolve.   Doesn’t matter to me, its your world: I can only hope you took the time to actually READ IT.   

There will come a day when I open this program, look at it and say ‘I’m done’, but that day is not today.    I won’t just kill it though.   There are 17 years of this on the nets and somewhere in there are nuggets of gold in writing.    I will archive it (already have, updated monthly) and later, pick and glean the gold for publication elsewhere, for a pittiance in sales of course, but thats not the point.   THIS, is my mark on the world that I leave behind; even if its self stylized senseless drivel at times.   

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PS:  99.7% of my writing on this site is ‘straight from the hip’.   Editing is a quick re-read for typos (and many slip through) or serious misspellings that aren’t intentional (note, that I before E thing still messes with me bad.)   Being able to write long form from the hip, without a map and still make sense of things, is a talent.   One honed by 17 years of DOING.   i’m not sure I am ready to put that away anytime soon.

that term isn’t new to me, nor is the concept unknown in my little world.   But it hit me again today.   I asked the bank a question.    Credit card about to expire, has a new one been sent.   hour later, “Yes”

Just that,,,  yes

Ok,,,”WHEN” would have been a much better anwser since we are talking about a peice of plastic that doubles as Cash in this world.    WHEN would have let me know to keep an eye out, or Uh-oh, I’d better report a missing card,,,

I like my bank.  Been with them 24 years now. don’t wanna up n move,

but they started that DIE bullshit a few years back, and the exodus of the old workers to incoming new is showing its effects.   I shouldn’t need to interrogate a call center rep for simple information she was looking at on her screen.   She had to look it up to see if it was sent and could have said ‘yes, it was sent on,,,,’ alleviating many levels of irritation and time wasting.    NOW, I have to ask that question, she has to pull the information back up, and I will damn well gaurantee she will want ID protocols before she will release that info, and

WHY DID MY BANK HIRE DMV EMPLOYEES????

Do you see where I am finding fault here?  Or am I just being some racist bint, looking for a reason to bitch?

I know not everyone has a good day; I get that.  I have bad days, everyone has an off day now and again.  BUT, even on my off days, I am expected to operate at a higher level than just one word answers.   The only time I am expected to answer with one word is when I am flat told, “Don’t elaborate, just yes or no”.   People want information.  Its often neccessary for us to operate in OUR worlds.   The more information, the better understanding of a situation.    YES.   not enough info in that one word even if it answers the question.

OK,   I’m done ranting.

Pupper is exstatic about it.   Mama and the boiz are pretty chill too.   I guess just being gone overnight isn’t KATastrophic.

(apologies,,, couldn’t resist.)

Easy day, hardest part being the driving thing, and the Other Super helped out by driving part of the trip.   At least until his ass was getting a hole torn into it by that danged seat.  I make sure my wallet is in the bad spot and takes up the slack.  LOL  He hasn’t figured that trick out yet, and he doesn’t like to use the Cruise control; which makes it so I can move my legs around frequently and not get sore spots building up.

One more day of the J.O.B. and then I can take some ground and center time.   Was going to update the new page last night and ended up round filing what I wrote as it had started to take on an accusatory flavor to it.   Not about my readers perse, but about a group in history: I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole just yet,,,  I don’t think the time is right.  Heck, it may never be, but I know now is not the time.

I haven’t had a chance to get updated on the world yet.   Too busy getting the kids placated, unpacked and ready to return to the grind tomorrow.   Not that I have a chance to unwind from the work/drive day,

I don’t wanna bother.  Be honest Dio.  Yeah,,, I just don’t wanna bother right now.  Enjoying my ‘ignorance is bliss’ on the state of the world for the moment.   And we already know that no matter who is trying to change things for the better, the string pullers behind the curtains are not going to let go of that power, not yet, and not without a fight of outlandish proportions.    Why do we keep getting the ‘WWIII is about to break out vibe”?   Because they still control enough of the narrative to coerce thoughts.  EVEN OUR MEMES are suspect right now.  (since we borrow and steal them at random, do you really know WHO made it?  )

anywhoos,,,, its near time for me to take my carcass to bed and watch the movies my mind plays on the backs of the eyelids.   Y’all take care and I’ll be back tomorrow.

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