Karen Bischer

We kinda knew this, but this proves how completely out of touch Cuomo is if he thinks $2300 a month is "affordable" for a single mom with multiple kids. I am single and *childless* and I would NOT be able to afford that.

Furthest I've been:

N: Edinburgh
E: Prague
S: Puetro Vallarta
W: San Francisco

More Meta stealing copyrighted material? This is my shocked face. (This company's downfall truly cannot happen soon enough.)

Turned the sound bar off and it helped, thank god. That heavy rhythmic hum might've sent me over the edge faster than the Yanks' current state of play, which is saying something.

Is there a car with a million super-subwoofer speakers parked outside this stadium blasting music right now? Or a secret discotheque? Because all I'm hearing is some kind of bassline right now and it's...not great.

The ornaments just HAD to reflect what was happening IRL at the time 😆

A photo from Aug. 5 2013 showing the Derek Jeter Hallmark Christmas ornament "sprinting" away after having knocked the Alex Rodriguez ornament facedown into a cup of water, leaving A-Rod's legs dangling over the side. The text with the post reads: "Having had enough of A-Rod's shenanigans, Derek Jeter flees the scene (hurt right calf and all) after taking his revenge on his former friend. The captain does what he can."

This is still one of my finest posts (the day A-Rod got suspended for 211 games because of the Biogenesis scandal - I'd been one of his staunchest defenders and just could *not* after this), courtesy of the Yankee Hallmark ornaments I kept in my cubicle.

Why are we erasing people of a, uh, certain age who will be up all night digesting said dinner if it's after 7 and therefore make reservations earlier? (I learned this the hard way when a friend had a bday dinner at 8 a few years back. Dinner is at 6-6:30 for me now and if that's too early OH WELL.)

I wouldn't trust MLB, who forced the ghost-runner on us, to take the right lessons here. (The Bananas work for me because they are lighthearted satire of the semi-serious sport I love. The jabronis in charge of MLB would never be able to wrap their heads around that.)

A good "did this person grow up in the NYC metro area (and watch a lot of TV) in the 80s" test is to say "and in the center of it all..." and see how they respond. (Responses to saying things like "Rides and attractions!" "All you have to bring is..." and "Cats! At the..." also work here.)

Brandy, a tan floppy-earred mutt with a black snout and purple collar sits in front of a record player with Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 spinning on it, the album cover prominently displayed on the floor.

I just watched a TikTok where a man asked a bunch of his coworkers if they knew Miss You Much and only like two did, so I'm ensuring Brandy will absolutely know it if she ever finds herself in a similar situation.

Waves from the Atlantic Ocean crashing on a beach

You can find me here today (until the crowds get annoying, anyway).

Oh, that is perfect!

(Now I'm getting emotional thinking of the first time I saw Reading Rainbow and Anne, thinking in awe "wait, this is for kids my age?" Because this was the 80s, we didn't have cable and programming for older kids was mostly cartoons. It was so nice to felt "seen" at ages 6-10 by TV creators.)

Obvi Pinball, the Reading Rainbow and old Masterpiece Theatre themes, but less obvi:

- The Lonely N
- Milk MIIIIILK
- Hagood Hardy's Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea score, because that aired on WonderWorks when I was a kid (and yes, PBS, I will *always* adore you for introducing me to Anne)

Brandy and Clarence have proven pretty useless in quake detection as they didn't sense anything amiss with the one in 2024, nor tonight. (In 2011, my late cat, Sweetpea, was clinging to our swaying kitchen floor with huge eyes like "WTF?!?!" however. It's how I knew I wasn't imagining things.)

Gotta make it social media official that I did not feel that quake, but I also didn't feel a 5.1 while visiting LA or a 4.5 that hit right off the coast of Mexico when I was there 🤷‍♀️. (Definitely felt the ones here in 2011 and 2024, though. Those were trippy as hell.)

Will I need these glasses to recognize all the illegally downloaded copyrighted material Meta stole from to train its AI because they were too cheap to pay for it?

(No, I am never shutting up about this.)

YES. So much of what I know about story structure, plot, character development comes from watching so many old TV show reruns/soap operas after school and on summer vacation as a kid. It impacted me as a young writer just as much as reading!

(I was hooking up our Intellivision adapter to our tube TV with a screwdriver at the age of SEVEN. Do NOT assume I can't handle today's tech because I'm a li'l fearful lady or whatever this narrative is.)

(Spending years writing a novel/having it pub'd/finding out it may have been illegally fed into a multibillion-dollar company's AI training system AND having your day job directly impacted by AI puts you in a unique position to NOT want to use it, I guess, but it's NOT bc I'm a luddite, I promise.)

This whole thread is great, but especially this. None of these stories seem to call out ethical (or environmental) reasons for not "adapting". It's just "oh, women are intimidated by the machines" 🙄 I also think the linked story only talking to a "tech educator" is part of the problem.)

A text message showing a screen shot of a post from Jack Curry reading: "Judge is dealing with an elbow issue and had trouble throwing the ball from the outfield last night, Boone said. He's not in the starting lineup. Yankees awaiting imaging results." Followed by my friends' horrified reactions and me writing "If this ends up being a Tommy John thing for him I may walk into the sea"

A text message showing a screen shot of a post from Joel Sherman reading: "Boone announced that Judge has a flexor strain. No tear to the UCL. Will need IL and to DH initially when he returns." Followed by my response of "*steps slowly back from the sea*"

How it started/How it's going

Clarence, an orange striped cat, stares dolefully at the camera through the metal backing of a kitchen stool in a "Is there food involved? No? Then why are you telling me this?" sort of way.

"She's shooting her shot. People did this via Casey quite a bit. I think she's better off in Texas, tho."

- today in Explaining Old School American Top 40* to My Cat

*Cheryl confesses her love to Gene in LA by Long Distance Dedicating Lionel Richie's Stuck On You to him, this wk in 1987

#caturday

It's really important to realize that a lot of the things that used to matter deeply to people were not destroyed by "changing times" or "new technology" but by greedy bastards

Of course, I hope he's home soon!

Lost dog, "Frank," black and white beagle/border collie mix.

Urgent to anyone in the Hillsborough, NC area: lost dog, small black and white beagle/border collie mix. Will answer to Frank, but is slightly deaf. He is chipped, with owner's name on collar. If you see him, please respond here or call Orange County Animal Shelter at 919-942-7387. Thank you.

A screen shot of two paragraphs from the linked Author's Guild story: Internal company documents showed this went to the highest levels. “At Meta, company documents show that Mark Zuckerberg himself made the call,” Pritt testified. At Anthropic, documents revealed “a blatant disregard for our copyright laws,” with company leadership “preferring to pirate books to avoid or delay the ‘legal/practice/business slog,’ as Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei put it.” Subcommittee chair Senator Josh Hawley was blunt about the deception: “AI companies are training their models on stolen material, period.” (Josh Hawley's name is highlighted in the screen shot because he is actually talking sense here but who knows what he'll do now that Tr*mp is claiming AI should be above copyright law)

I mean...he's gonna swing back from this and fall in line with his boss' latest commands like a good lapdog, right?

Just thinking about this story from last week right now, no reason.