I'm over here feeling hurt, because all my friends in the groupchat are posting about trainwreck exes and office feuds and you're telling me I could have been reading state secrets instead of who loosened the screws on whose chair because she lied to the boss about who did what work?

This walking in faith thing is taking a chunk out of me today.

We don't know why Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa and their dog passed yet, but it reminded me that it's time to replace our CO2/smoke detectors. Even if they passed from something else, it's still a good reminder. May their memories be a blessing.

Both of my work orchids are re-blooming at once!

Don't forget to clean your dishwasher and spend a little time resisting fascism today. Both are important: a clean dishwasher preserves your health short term. Resisting fascism preserves your health long term.

Today I found out that my mail carrier at work is married to a VA nurse. VA nurses I've known are angels and my mail carrier is a solidly wonderful guy. Their love story sounds like a real American dream of partnershi on, love and loyalty. it wouldn't be a romance novel but boy, it's lovely to see.

My question: how do we parent our way through all of this?

I'm not really expecting answers. It's just what's there to ask

This is precisely it. We have to assume all that data is now exposed.

I'm giving this existential crisis one more hour then writing until midnight and calling it done.

I'm struggling too. I hear you.

I've got a nice (probably chaotic) lunch lined up with my brother and nephew, and of course the girlchild, but other than that it's studying, parenting and laundry for me today.

This may be related to the massive amount of ice cream I've consumed this weekend. I need some veggies and a time out

Americans could have legislation and rights this protective. Instead our data is bought and sold until we're not our own anymore. We're fast heading towards unchecked capitalism and my lord it terrifies me.

It is (compared to what we have in the U.S.) so thoughtfully constructed and elegant. Diving deeply into that content on a weekend where an unelected billionaire now has access to very precious data that should be well protected and isn't is heartbreaking.

We went from covering AI to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and it is not enhancing my take on America's prospects right now. GDPR is this human-focused regulation that puts control over personal data in the hands of the people whose data it is about.

My take away from studying AI and and intelligent voice assistants this semester is that the essential risks of AI, besides the usual cybersecurity risks, is that we humans in a capitalist society with few rights aren't going to manage it correctly.

As it turns out, the papers I expected to use aren't usable, the best one is a working paper and the peer reviewed one isn't nearly what the abstract says it is. I'm going to harrumph and make myself half a bagel with cream cheese and get over myself.

The beast of frustration of writing papers about current emerging security issues is that the most relevant research isn't peer reviewed, but working papers that can't be used as a foundational reference.

And so I grumble. Trying to research from my sick bed should go easier. Points for trying?

I used to work at a graduate school for speech pathology. Hard things to say are excellent for keeping our mouth muscles active so we have more motor control in our mouths when we age and things would otherwise degrade.

That's the kind of thing that, once randomly needed for an emergency, you can't seem to remember why you ever didn't think you needed one.

I'm not around a whole lot and posting because I've gotten quite sick and frankly now I seem to be getting different sick instead of better. I'm here with y'all. I'm just not pithy or capable of thought much lately.

So I did too. We were briefly up together, just now, just a couple of glasses of water later, she's back to steady sleep and I'm grateful to follow. We both had a bad day. I'm grateful that sleep is a healthy way to nope out of this kind of day.

I've always thought the best way to handle a bad day was to go to bed ASAP so the day was, in effect, over.

I lay in bed this evening wishing I could do just that when my teen crawled into bed with me,told me she was not actually going to sleep, and then went to sleep at about eight.

I'm pretty much burning up inside myself. I get it.

Seemed appropriate.
At once I remembered a young almost-viking with a head of perfect blonde hair. I was sweet on him then, at fifteen, an age my daughter will be in a few weeks. Today I could barely remember his name.

Woke earlier than early this morning to drag the trash barrels out. I was rewarded for my efforts by a beautiful half moon sharp against a royal blue sky.

I sang, from HMS Pinafore:

Fair moon,to thee I sing
Bright regent of the heavens
Pray, why is everything
Always at sixes or at sevens?

Their information on the history fall of the Assad family really made me want to learn more, and I HATED history because it was all date memorization.

I'm really enjoying the podcast "The Rest Is Classified" produced by Goalhanger. It is hosted by David McCloskey (former CIA analyst, current novelist) and journalist Gordon Corera and it is intriguing and factual and fun.

I spent the days over early Hanukkah/Christmas attending to my brother's two elderly black cats, and learned a few things. 1. If I'm going to get cats, my wardrobe is already conductive to hiding black fur.
2. Elderly cats are even weirder than their more youthful selves.