N.P. Thompson 🍁

Instead of pouring money into AI, I would very much prefer that Canada pour money into vaccine research, development, and production. It would help us and the world a hell of a lot more than invasive surveillance and plagiarism tech that is already ramping up global broiling and guzzling our water.

There's some big action scenes and some cool new magic happening... AND a new character gets introduced who will play a big role in the next book (and turn someone's life upside down), and Jackson joins the team for this adventure, which adds a whole new dimension to the group dynamic!

So, this is the "how do we save Sasha" book. It's also the consequences book, where everyone is dealing with the fallout from book 3's cliffhanger ending. Some of them are doing better with that than others...
#BookSky #ReaderSky

We had half the rain we normally get in July this year in Ottawa, and my raspberries have all been really small (I'm guessing because of the drought conditions). Still got 4 and a half small freezer bags plus whatever we ate fresh, though!

Pulled the spent bean plants today and replanted new beans in one box and carrots and rutabaga in the other. The soil was bone dry in both, so I guess I wasn't watering enough. Watered the new seeds thoroughly and covered with straw mulch (new experiment, hope it helps). Now I wait. 🌱

Well, that was bleak. "There will be creators who create for AI."

The cover for Chalice of Caladriai. It's done in dark tones of purple, gray, and blue. The scene is framed by two stone pillars that meet at the top in an arch. On the floor, there is a circle composed of stones with strange symbol carved into them. In the centre of the circle is a triquetra, and light is pouring out of the centre of that. In the beam of light, the ghostly image of a white bird is soaring upwards. Two children stand on either side of the triquetra, staring up at the bird with expression of shock. The title of the book is at the top in gold letters and at the bottom, "N.P. Thompson and Book Four of The Arcanium" is in written in white.

Today's the day! The title of book 4 of The Arcanium is CHALICE OF CALADRIAI, and here is the gorgeous cover the fine folks over at miblArt created for it! #CoverReveal #KidLit #BookSky #MiddleGrade

➡️ Pre-order: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL7Y7F8R

Just blocked a British MP for excitedly announcing he's replaced himself with an AI his constituents can contact 24/7.

A blurry photo of a small, dark hippopotamus-like creature grazing on a dimly lit indoor floor near green buckets labeled "JAM," with a spotlight casting shadows.

When the House Hippo first appeared on Canadian televisions, it seemed that everyone wanted one to appear in their homes.
This commercial became a part of the Canadian cultural landscape and even today, the House Hippo is beloved by Canadians.

🧵 1/10

Yes, we do need servers that are physically located here in Canada. But I fundamentally disagree with this relentless push for AI in every part of our lives. Tech should be developed to solve problems. This has been created, does not solve any problems, but rather creates a whole lot of new ones.

The cover for Chalice of Caladriai. It's done in dark tones of purple, gray, and blue. The scene is framed by two stone pillars that meet at the top in an arch. On the floor, there is a circle composed of stones with strange symbol carved into them. In the centre of the circle is a triquetra, and light is pouring out of the centre of that. In the beam of light, the ghostly image of a white bird is soaring upwards. Two children stand on either side of the triquetra, staring up at the bird with expression of shock. The title of the book is at the top in gold letters and at the bottom, "N.P. Thompson and Book Four of The Arcanium" is in written in white.

Today's the day! The title of book 4 of The Arcanium is CHALICE OF CALADRIAI, and here is the gorgeous cover the fine folks over at miblArt created for it! #CoverReveal #KidLit #BookSky #MiddleGrade

➡️ Pre-order: www.amazon.com/dp/B0FL7Y7F8R

We will be paying for this asinine push to AI everything in so many ways. 😑

I honestly thought this was a screenshot of a satire site... but it is not. It is a real article.

Kids will "learn" whatever the megacorp that owns the particular school decides they will learn, whether it's accurate or even marginally reflecting of reality. Only very wealthy people's kids will be given a real education.

How do people not see that this is where we are obviously headed with AI?

What's going to happen is that expensive private schools will have real teachers & a real curriculum and will outlaw AI. Normal people's kids will be shunted into a public system of full AI with a human babysitter or two. It will be a full-surveillance thing with cameras and key loggers on all day.

Canadian teachers want lessons on how to ethically incorporate AI into classrooms | CBC News Canadian teachers say they lack instruction on how to use AI educationally and ethically in the classroom. The complaint comes as three major tech companies are teaming up with teacher unions in the U...

I don't even have the words to express how much I loathe this technology. I want it gone. I wish it had never been developed. I wish people had enough sense to see how evil it is and not get seduced by yet another "expertise is BS" scam.

www.cbc.ca/news/educati...

The cosmic cat distribution system is clearly at work. And, omg, he looks like such a sweet boy! 😻

All four of my rain barrels (got them all free from someone getting rid of theirs!) have been drained. And there is still no rain in the forecast, so they won't get refilled anytime soon. Sigh. 🌱😕

Well, I learned something today. I always thought the 4th dimension was time.

A white, office-paper-textured rectangle with the words "Book 4 Cover Reveal Tomorrow!" on the right. A vertical strip of paper looks like it has been torn on the left, under which you can see part of a book cover. There is a stone pillar of some sort, you can just see part of someone's head, and at the top, two golden letters, one of which might be a "C" or an "O" and the second of which is a "C".

ONE. MORE. DAY!
Title and cover reveal for book 4 of The Arcanium Saga drops TOMORROW!!! Aaaagghhhh! I'm so excited for everyone to finally be able to see this gorgeous thing! #BookCover #BookSky #Reading

More wildfire smoke today. Headache and sore eyes from it yesterday. Moon was a weird orange colour last night. Hazy today again.

But we're (Canada) going to fund new oil pipelines and stuff because reasons so that should fix it. /sarcasm/

That's the worst part of pie-making, for me, and probably why I don't do them very often. Next time I do pie crusts, I think I'm going to make several batches and then freeze them so that when I want to make a pie, the dough is already ready. :)

I do a butter crust instead of one with Crisco (whatever that is... lard or shortening, I guess?) No idea whether that makes it easier or harder, but I did have much better luck when I made the dough in a food processor instead of trying to cut the butter in by hand.

PIE!!!!

Damn it, now I want pie.

This looks amazing! Been meaning to try making a peach pie. Made my first pies last year -- pumpkin with pumpkins from my garden! And then I did a mixed berry and apple one. They all turned out reasonably well (pie crust was bit tough, but tasted good).

Omg... I love this so much. 🥰

A brown paper-textured rectangle with the words "Book 4 Cover Reveal in 3 more days!". The words "cover reveal" are a cut out, through which you can see part of the actual book cover. Through the word "cover", you can just see the bottoms of some gold letters, but can't really tell what the letters are. There's a sort of glowing purple/blue area in the middle under the letters. Under that word, is the word "reveal", through which you can see the more of the glow, a couple of areas that look like they might be stone, and the wings of what could be a white bird.

Three. More. Days. ✨📘
(But newsletter subscribers and Ko-Fi members get the full reveal TODAY!) #books #BookSky #ReaderSky

Today in weird thing that pop into my head:

Before Walmart came along, we had Woolco and Zellers and Biway and K-Mart. Now there is only Walmart.

Big monopolies bad.

I mean... the post is being published, but I don't actually *have* any Ko-Fi subscribers yet. I do have newsletter subscribers, though, and they will get the email in about an 2 hours. :-)

A brown paper-textured rectangle with the words "Book 4 Cover Reveal in 3 more days!". The words "cover reveal" are a cut out, through which you can see part of the actual book cover. Through the word "cover", you can just see the bottoms of some gold letters, but can't really tell what the letters are. There's a sort of glowing purple/blue area in the middle under the letters. Under that word, is the word "reveal", through which you can see the more of the glow, a couple of areas that look like they might be stone, and the wings of what could be a white bird.

Three. More. Days. ✨📘
(But newsletter subscribers and Ko-Fi members get the full reveal TODAY!) #books #BookSky #ReaderSky