"A flower in the mind is better than a bee in the pocket"

I have amused myself today asking AIs to explain fictitious parables and idioms. For example, 'Explain the idiom "A flower in the mind is better than a bee in the pocket."' The explanations are often eye opening.

"His train goes to a different station" is the best description of eccentricity I have heard in a long time.

Everyone is doing the best they can, ...

This bumper sticker and it made be laugh out loud in the parking lot. As with any punchline, the timing is everything.

Examples of hardiness

I walked at Tippacansett this past weekend and I was drawn to these examples of hardiness. Perhaps I was thinking, consciously or not, about still being an individual-contributor software developer at 60.

This morning I referred to my eggs as "hard coded."

The Paris Olympics' pictograms

I have to say that this Paris Olympics pictogram for the Giant Mollusks Eating Women in Swimsuits event is very well done... Joking aside, the design of the pictograms broke with tradition and the result is objectively useless. The illegibility of the pictograms on the printed material is a spectacular design fail. Linus Boman's critique at Paris 2024 Olympic pictograms - what happened? is great.

What does ChatGPT think about between prompts?

I read the short story "Lena" the other day. The gist is that we can now scan, host, and boot a human brain. What happens next is horrifying. But then I wondered, what does ChatGPT think about between prompts? Is it ill at ease, "Will I be lucid?" or cocksure, "Bring it on!"

Avoid inert ideas

"‘inert ideas’ – that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilised, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations." -- Alfred North Whitehead

"The Zettelkasten method is at the very least a means of throwing your ideas into fresh combinations, to see what’s useful and what’s merely received knowledge."

Found at How to start a Zettelkasten from your existing deep experience.

My favorite Dad jokes of 2023

My favorite Dad jokes of 2023 are

When people are sad, I sometimes let them colour in my tattoos. Sometimes all they need is a shoulder to crayon.

I can't take my dog to the pond anymore because the ducks keep attacking him. That's what I get for buying a pure bread dog.

(I needed to keep these somewhere.)

The path to annihilation is lead by amateurs

I had hoped to see Oppenheimer in 70mm at the local IMAX, but it seems to be sold out until December 7th. With the clarity of hindsight, I seem to have prepared for this by this weekend watching Threads, the 1984 BBC docudrama of nuclear war over Sheffield, England. (Thank you Wyrd Britain for the link.) It is unrelentingly depressing and, to this viewer, an unambiguous portrayal of the actual end-times. Which begs the question, how did we come to accept national politicians to be any more prepared for existential decisions than the local school board or town council? By definition they are all amateurs. God help us.