Just a coffee cup

Chocolate is pretty universal. You can flee the room while the people you love are eating it.

We are the same. I also have a message, but find it hard to reach the right audience and impossible to hide from the wrong. That was true even before AI. Now the problem becomes worse.

Yet as I describe the problem, I find myself determined to try. Defiance must be a public activity by definition.

I feel it bitterly ironic that AI scraping in itself might mute your voice by even a small increment. What will we do if the only people openly blogging are those who do not oppose AI-based techofascism?

But... yes, I get it. Your reluctance is well-founded.

Looks like I showed up near the end of 2023. Oh, those were the days. I had an old friend who invited me and a new friend I met here.

Making a new friend now seems like a strange thought. 2026 is very different.

I read my old posts, and they seem so naive. Really? It was not that long ago.

Yes. Alex. I have become very fond of Alex.

And, 7x7... well, there is no need to hurt anyone's feelings here. 7x7 are my friends!

Talent is a skill. Skills must be learned.

On the other hand, obsession is something with which you can be born. Have an obsession for something and you will do it until you are scary good at it. Then people will wonder how you got your talent.

That is where music and art become beauty.

That sounds like all the tools that you really need.

Okay. There is nothing you can do to stop me. I am going to do this.

Plutarch, right? Yeah, he wrote The Parallel Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Honestly, every one of them is a gem.

But... take the last page of each and you get... The Deaths of Noble Greeks and Romans.

Classic!

Short!

There is something lovely about British murder mysteries. I mean, when you think about it, the protagonist of the story is usually dead in the first chapter or so. The murder itself is only a framing device. The whole point is that the victim was an awful person and everyone wanted to do it.

My goal is to become fully ephemeral next year. My content will start deleting itself automatically within minutes of my typing. Indeed, if this works correctly, some posts will be empty by the time I press the "Post" button.

Happy Birthday, Abby!

There we go. Blustering authorities may make any noise they want. Outside is controlled by physics and inside by your heart.

I know you well enough, my friend, to say that you cannot be dominated because you are incapable of submitting.

Big win!

The sun came up this morning. Seems like a win.

Hmm... the sun is not small. Could I count that as a big win?

Call it hyperbole, but that would be an extreme exaggeration.

You are wrong. They both look exactly like the two best drugs in the world.

Yeah, I know. Walking distance is what keeps that fantasy from becoming a reality for me as well. Either I need to find an apartment near a warehouse district, or will need to convince my family to move into the warehouse with me. Neither conversation has gotten very far for me yet.

That being said... I still have this constant fantasy of renting out a warehouse just so that I can set up a massive personal shop.

Totally get that. Have been working in a corner of my apartment near the kitchen for more than a decade now. My total space is probably 2x3m.

And, yeah, the reason I accept this is probably the same for us both. I would rather make room for the people I live with than the things I work with.

Proud to share my enthusiasm. Thank you, @kiraleigh.bsky.social .

Yeah. When someone posts something like that, this is a giveaway that they are secretly software developers. You have just outed yourself, my friend.

This gives me hope for humanity.

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Me too.

Yeah, and the best part is that it is about women who literally kick ass!

Heh! Yeah.

But the truth is that Cassandra was probably just saying what everyone else knew just as obviously. She tried to tell the leaders that their strategies and policies would lead to bitter failure, but in reality leaders are typically narcissists who habitually fail to listen to criticism.

I did read the Wikipedia article. It was one of the first Canadian films to go mainstream in the US. The funding came from a grant, and because of time constraints they had to begin filming without a finished script.

Sounds like the story about making the movie might be better than the movie.

Should I watch that movie?

Just for the sake of perversity I have learned how to type an em dash—so that I can say—fuck GPT.

Well... shit... that worked....

Sorry my friend. I cannot give back your previous Thursday, but I will gladly trade my next Monday for your upcoming Saturday.