Good morning. Hello. How are you? #1052.
Overcoming Mondays, Jane's coat refusal, Secret Santa fear, Taylor disses Acid Rock, AIG not that one, Dr Who's memory, AI damage denialists, the mystery of 2-screen login screens, Bing boosterism
Hello there, chappies and chappettes. How’s it shakin. Good I hope. I am well. I think I’m over my Monday doldrums, they really were a mess. I struggled through the tasks I absolutely had to do but no more. It was not pretty. I was feeling pretty down on myself for being such a lazy bastard, but then in the evening when I was taking out the trash, I literally walked to the mailbox and tried to put a trash bag in the mailbox, so I realized that, in fact, it was eminently wise to not endeavor to do anything too major yesterday, it would have just turned out like mush. But I am better today. I am ready.
Just back from dropping Jane off at school, where she was the only student not wearing a coat in 30 degree weather, so I don’t know if I should be embarrassed as a parent or proud as an Alaskan. Then I went to the store to try and find more of these brownies that she loves as her treat in her lunch, and they aren’t anywhere, it is just insane. One time, just once, they had them at the grocery store and now they’re gone again, not available at any of the three grocery stores. It’s like I imagined them. Except I didn’t because Jane asks about them.
Just admitted to my coworker, three minutes ago, and my best friends, last night, that I have a pathological fear of Secret Santas, so there is something I should probably unpack. Also what does one do about the capitalization of “Secret Santa.” I hate terms that have a single capital, like “secret Santa,” even though that is probably correct, because non-branded game names are not capitalized, correct? It’s solitaire, not Solitaire, n’est-ce pas?
“Well okay then,” she answered simply. We’ll take it. One more thing to not be stressed about. Normalize saying no to everything. Be more like your daughter.
Some housekeeping items:
Reminder to fill out this form if you want a holiday card from us or have moved. I am looking at a draft of Emma’s design right in front of me. It is swell.
And if you are interested in leaving a (positive) review of our pool company on Google maps, let me know. I will make it worth your while. Somehow. Probably by writing more words. GMHHAY Platinum.
I am listening to the Dead Can Dance live box set this morning. I recently found a copy for a not too monstrous price. It is fantastic. It does not have their greatest ever live track “Hymn for the Fallen,” however, which is sad. That seems to only be on the Madrid, Chicago, and The Hague 2005 live albums, this box set contains selections from the 2012 Anastassis world tour, which I saw in NYC at Town Hall with my friend Alyssa and it ruled.
Jane is in some new gifted program at school, well, the program’s not new, but her entry into it is, her and a classmate go to some other classroom once a day/week/not sure and do some more complicated stuff, which is nice. When I was a kid this was called GT and I don’t think it started till first or second, but I’m not sure. Hers is called AIG, which I think is just perfect. Name it after one of the most spectacular corporate failures in the history of America, a company so filled with talented people and hubris that it nearly took down the entire American economy. Gifted people right there. Insert photo of that meme about a halloween costume of a former gifted child who was supposed to be a lot of things.
I would say something but, you know, most of these parents and teachers were, like, 13 when the 2008 financial meltdown happened lol.
I shouldn’t say all that my giftedness got me here out of Alaska and into this awesome house with this awesome family and cats and pond and computer and listening to this awesome Dead Can Dance album and I am so much happi— wait a minute.
Finally got around to listening to (one of) my vinyl copies of Taylor’s Version of 1989 and on one of the vault tracks — the really-not-bad “Now That We Don’t Talk” Taylor disses Acid Rock because apparently she’s dating some older guy (in the song, not now, ‘ole Travis was also born in ‘89), like she does, and doesn’t like his older guy music and I mean sure I’m not the biggest fan of Hendrix or The Charlatans (US) but I am into their post-Altamont, 90’s and oughts progeny like Acid Mothers Temple and whatnot so I am choosing to take this personally. Also if I have to see the “Karma” video one more time I am gonna lose it. The way she just throws the lasso off the cliff and then in the next scene it’s in her hand, Taylor, you got your start as a country singer, don’t treat the lasso like it’s Jake here. You gotta hold on to one end. Or hear that line about the guy on the screen coming home to me. But finally the Eras tour is coming to my living room on December 13th so please please let that be the closing bars of this Taylor suite, and let us take a break for a while.
Three rants for you today:
Why in god’s name does every single login page now take up two screens, one for your email and one for the password what is up with that it is so slow and I am so tired of it and I’m sure there is some perfectly reasonable security explanation but I don’t know it and… well… if you do know please let me know because maybe if I knew the perfectly reasonable security explanation (PRSE) then I wouldn’t be so frickin annoyed all the time.
How in the heck does Doctor Who remember anything? Like oh hey I totally remember Donna Noble and exactly what happened to her and the exact circumstances of her departure from me. I used to think “well, you just pop in to this and it’s this character’s life so they remember it better” but recently it has occurred to me that this is incorrect because a) we are remembering their highlights, the most important parts. We don’t have to remember all the boring stuff like their shopping lists and large turds so we are actually at an advantage over them. And b) I can’t remember anything about my own life, and it’s only 50 years long. Emma’s always asking me about this or that thing in elementary school and I remember like 12 things from elementary school total I’m not even sure of my Teacher’s names anymore or anything else. And this dude is like a million years old! He cannot possibly remember shit. And sure, I remember exes and old crushes and best friends and flames but I could not tell you why we had a falling out, or parted, unless it was really, really dramatic. And you could argue Donna Noble’s exit from the Doctor’s life was pretty dramatic but…. reeeally? wasss it, though? I ain’t sayin’, I’m just sayin’. Dude’s had a lot of dramatic companion departures in his life. It’s like Wilt Chamberlain trying to remember the 1032nd woman he slept with.
Why do people think “it’s a long way off” or “humans will kill us first” are sufficient arguments against the existential threat of AI? Why do people think “there are more important things to worry about” is somehow more relevant here than literally any other charity on the planet? Why do people get their knickers in a bunch about other people worrying about AI and pooh poohing it? Also why is the OpenAi story entirely a parable on one’s personal opinion about Effective Altruism (EA) and nothing else? I think the EA movement is as dumb as the next guy, and I don’t think rogue AIs are the most likely, right now, to kill us off, and obviously climate change and fascism are bigger threats as the moment, but what is it about worrying about AI that just pisses some people off? It really is something. Hypothesizing that our technological creations could kill us does not seem completely unreasonable in a world where human-created climate change, from our technological creations is killing us. How are any of the “worrying about AI is dumb” arguments any different from someone in, say, 1900, saying “pollution might kill us one day.” People laughed, though it took, oh I don’t know, fifteen seconds of imagination to figure out oh yeah hey they might have a point. And plenty of people did figure this out!
Still using Bing, by the way, it’s great. I barely even think about it anymore. Every once in a while, I get some pretty unsatisfying search results and think “WTF Bing” and then go to Google and do the same search and also get unsatisfying search results, because, in fact, there is nothing on the web related to what I’m searching for. So, you know, it’s not Bing. I mean, is this the most noble, moral action? No, not really. But it’s a small one one can do without any muss or fuss so that is nice. But boy, the fact that no one does sure proves the antitrust argument against Google.
The One Little Indian people are asking for photographic evidence that my Afghan Whigs box is damaged, so I sent it, but I am worried they’re gonna tell me it is not damaged enough. I have LP Box Set Damage Imposter Syndrome. Also they’re making me send the damaged box back to England, which I suppose is fine. N.B. If you ever manufacture a 5+ LP box set, ship the LPs and the box separately. Every single time I’ve gotten one of these they have been damaged. it is depressing.
Last night at bedtime Jane berated me for twenty minutes to play Connect Four with her (all caps, brand name) and finally I consented even though I knew how it was going to go, she was going to scream at me every time I tried to win, which is exactly how it went. She wants to win, she screamed, and no, it does not bother her that it is cheating. So I let her win. And she insisted we play again. This time she said she didn’t care if I won or not, so I made an effort to win.
And she totally beat me, because I was distracted with winning, I forgot to not lose.
There is a lesson in there, I’m sure.
Shoegaze playlist for you today, in honor of today’s WITI about Slowdive and Gen Z. I remember the same thing after seeing Ride at Terminal 5 on the reunion tour. So many kids, getting to see them for the first time. And the Slowdive show at Cat’s Cradle? Half college students. Glorious. Nice turn of events from the loneliness of shoegaze fans in the mid 90’s, lemme tell you.
Until tomorrow, fair friend.
i spy with my little eye some handmade christmas ornaments 😍 more to come, stay tuned...
I was distracted with winning, I forgot to not lose. << same has happened with me playing Connect Four