Steven Harper

Just now, I gave TWO cats a pill each. Successfully. By myself.
I should be working at the UN.

The peck of peaches was getting overripe, so I improvised.

New blog entry: Ghosts and Cookies stevenpiziks.dreamwidth.org/765696.html

Right?

This is how many dishes it takes to make peach ice cream.

The coffee Darwin buys was $9 a can when we got married, and it stayed at that level for years. A few months ago, after Trump took office, it jumped to $15. A few days ago, it hit $20, more than double what it was.

But Trump is going to bring prices down.

Amazon Ring Cashes in on Techno-Authoritarianism and Mass Surveillance Ring founder Jamie Siminoff is back at the helm of the surveillance doorbell company, and with him is the surveillance-first-privacy-last approach that made Ring one of the most maligned tech devices....

The Ring doorbell camera has backtracked on its commitment to privacy. Not only will it again allow police to access people's door cams, it will also allow police to access INDOOR cams.

www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

In the space of five minutes, two different people on the street stopped to tell me how much they like my shoes.

I think I need to do some grocery shopping.

I applied for my Latvian passport today. It's official!

YouTube video by OV Photography & More! 🚨 Flash Flood Wall Slams Center Point, TX – Missing Person Caught on Camera? - 4K🚨

This video of the Texas flood is riveting.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rir1...
The filmer is standing on a highway bridge. The riverbed is almost dry and you can see it far below. You can see the flood cascade in. The house arrives at about 35:00.

The problem with shorts weather is that the cats don't understand why they can't leap into your lap with claws extended.

Impressive!!

Thousands of poor Alabama residence received a notice in the mail recently saying that their electric bill would go up by $100 per month. Why? Donald Trump ended a federal program that subsidized utility bills for poor people in Alabama.

FAFO!

Just make something simple for breakfast, he said. How about scrambled eggs? he said.

This article about "quiet cracking" very much explains why I retired from a career I mostly enjoy:

www.msn.com/en-us/news/w...

BREAKING: In a unanimous decision, a federal court of appeals has ruled that Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms is unconstitutional.

We’ll keep saying it: Public schools are not Sunday schools.

Look what my dear husband gave to me to celebrate my retirement!

I've left work for the last time. I'm now officially retired!

Every year, the first thing I put on the board is the daily schedule. I leave it up until the last day of instruction, which means the dry erase marker won't come off unless I use a chemical solvent designed for white boards. Today I sprayed away the daily schedule for the last time.

Ever.

In my first year of teaching, I bought a ceramic jar labeled "Ashes of Problem Students," pictured below, and put it on my desk. On the very first day it was there, one of my freshmen accidentally knocked it onto the floor. It shattered. I looked (more...) stevenpiziks.dreamwidth.org/761470.html

Maybe I'm betraying my anglophilism, but how the hell do you pronounce "Maroš Šefčovič"?

Ukraine for the win!

It's Pride Month!

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My thoughts on the latest MISSION IMPOSSIBLE movie:

stevenpiziks.dreamwidth.org/760383.html

My shopping find
of the day.

Newly released AI model turned to blackmail to avoid being shut off The testing found the AI was capable of "extreme actions" if it thought its "self-preservation" was threatened.

An AI that can:

--lie
--blackmail its programmers
--create unauthorized backups of itself
--leave hidden notes for future versions of itself detailing what the programmers did to the current version
--make money
--ask not to be shut down

www.wzzm13.com/article/news...