A Family of Killers

It’s been a while since I posted about BryceGPT. That’s not because I haven’t been working on it. Appendicitis and the ensuing yuck certainly derailed me some, but I’m back at it now. For the past week or two, my big focus has been on using it as a tool to write a short story sequel to Vodnik. I had some friends help make a more refined version of BryceGPT that’s focused on just recreating…

I came across a video this morning about a librarian with a hypothetical problem: 1,280 books arrived out of nowhere, and it’s the day before school starts, and so they have to alphabetize all of them as fast as possible. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/WaNLJf8xzC4?si=H0AtkpnUvG4Y9WkB Now, a few comments by yours truly. First of all, if a librarian got 1,280 books all at once, there’s no way in Hades they’re going to have them ready to…

So last week I posted about how I had decided it was time to look for an actual web developer to take over the design and upkeep of my website. (Still interested in any information people have about that, by the way.) I posted the blog to Facebook and didn’t really think much more about it. Just another regular blog post. Minutes later, I had a random person chime in on the post with a…

Okay. The time has come for me to admit it to myself: I am not up to keeping up with my website in addition to everything else I’ve got going on. I’ve been trying to find time to make a store page for the site, and the newsletter function broke due to spam, so I’ve been wanting to fix that, and it just keeps getting pushed further down the priority list, because I’ve got too…

Once we roll around to autumn again each year, I am just naturally more inclined to be upbeat and positive. Why? Because it means that summer is gone, and that’s my least favorite time of year. It’s hot, and there are bugs. Also, there are chores like mowing the lawn, though thankfully Daniela and Denisa have taken on the lion’s share of that this year. But even with just the heat and the bugs, that’s…

Over in my Maine Cat Lab life, we’re working on conducting a new study, this one focused on pets and politics. We’re hoping to get as wide a research sample as possible, from across the political and pet spectrum. Dog owners, cat owners, Democrats, Republicans, with children, without children: we want everyone! Here’s a link to the survey. Please take it, and share it with everyone and anyone. Here’s the official announcement we posted: You,…

I went back to the Farmington Fair last night with the fam. It was our 18th time going, more or less. (There have been some years not everyone has gone, but I think at least someone from the family has gone every single year we’ve been here.) Lots different going the 18th time vs the 1st time, mainly in that now it’s not nearly as big of a deal to spend money on rides and…

This semester, I’m helping to teach a seminar on Stranger Things. Yes, I get to do cool things like this and get paid for it. Yes, I am very grateful for that opportunity. I get to watch a show I’ve really enjoyed, this time with a critical eye to see what’s happening, how it all fits together, and why. As I’ve rewatched the episodes for the third, fourth, and sometimes fifth times, I’ve been very…

I lived in former East Germany for two years, less than a decade after the Wall fell. (1997-1999) At the time (as a 19 year old), the Wall felt like a very long time ago. 8 years? That’s forever! These days, I realize that 8 years is much less time. (I mean, we’re talking about stuff that would have happened in 2016. That’s like yesterday.) So while I thought at the time the experience I…

I don’t want much out of politics these days. My bar for “things are going okay” has gotten much lower since Trump’s presidency. Yes, that’s a sad state of affairs, but I’m just saying how it is. And so when it comes to the debate this evening, I really just want a couple of things. First and foremost, I would for someone–anyone–to call Trump out when he flat out lies, and to do it in…