Somebody please just hit the lights

china_shop linked to Gardening in the Rubble by Lisa Dickson, which contains the following:

"The news tells us that the world is inherently dangerous, but our daily existence tells us that we are overwhelmingly peaceful and decent."

♥♥♥

Happy birthday marcicat!!!!!!!! You are my favorite person in the world and I hope you have the best and sparkliest year yet ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I was trying to think of a fic rec I don't know for sure you've already read, and it was not easy! I have likely not succeeded, but I thought the excerpt was funny enough to be worth it regardless.

♥ Pre-Existing Condition, by Helenish

“Isn’t this fraud?” Matt says. He’s inspecting the card again, who knows what’s so interesting about it, just John’s name at the top next to SUBSCRIBER NAME: and then a neat row of lines at the bottom under DEPENDENTS: SPOUSE Farrell M; CHILD McLane L; CHILD McLane J.

“Oh, right, I forgot what a law-abiding citizen you were,“ John begins, “You can do whatever you want because you’re a fucking anarchist—“

“—Democrat, but okay—“

“but god forbid I should ever—“ the argument clicking along down the old familiar track—except Matt laughs.

“Fine, man, you got me. I only have one leg. What do you want for dinner?”

Our work computers periodically become outdated and are replaced, which is greatly appreciated and less disruptive with every iteration, as cloud backups and connectivity proliferate. In the spring of 2020, I went home with two six-year-old laptops.

(In defense of my department, they had been encouraging me to upgrade for at least a year, and I resisted because the technology worked fine. I didn't see a need for new if old was doing the job.)

By fall one computer was no longer compatible with company security, and IT sent me a new one that combined everything I needed from both old computers. But we were in the process of moving from one campus to another (a process hugely extended by the pandemic) so the old computers went nowhere.

My point is that when IT upgraded my computer again this week, and they invited me (now a remote worker) to campus to pick up the new one, I brought them three old ones in trade and a whole lot of memories.

Even after my previous department became remote in 2020, we were required to attend a variety of in-person events from client meetings to company all-staffs. In the depths of my three laptop bags I found parking receipts, boarding passes, Chinese readers and snacks, along with masks - so many masks - hand sanitizer, and a note from a deceased coworker about the name of one of my laptops.

It's hard to believe it's been six years. It's also strange to me personally that the time between going home and starting my current job - four entire years - has largely disappeared from daily recall. I remember working with my previous department, on-site, for 18 years. And I remember working with my current department, remotely, for the last two.

Everything in between: the years between 2020 to 2024, from going remote to moving house to saying goodbye to Mimi, all still exists in my memory, but it's largely unmoored from the rest of the timeline. It's neither "now" nor "then," but some secret third option that my brain initially skips over when looking back, somehow assigning those years to a parallel life track rather than a sequential one.

I wonder if it will settle into place as life goes on, if life goes on (thanks body, I appreciate you), or if it will remain disconnected, like the semester I spent teaching at a residential school during the fall of 2001.

Memory is so interesting. I try to let experiences change me in the moment as much as possible and desirable, so I get more out of them than thinking of (or forgetting) them later.

And being kind, of course. The most important connection to any experience.

“I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being; let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

~Etienne de Grellet,
Quaker missionary

LLM as AI is everywhere in the language-learning space, from chatbot "tutors" to my favorite prompt: "Tell me about this story in another language." So I'm learning, as they say, through immersion.

Here's what NotebookLM produced when I asked for its basic "deep dive" on "The Untamed," using only the episode transcripts as a source. It makes mistakes, but I was particularly interested in what it identified as important and why.

Also, it was unexpectedly funny.

(This is actually a Turboscribe transcript of the podcast NotebookLM produced; I've labeled the speakers "Host 1" and "Host 2.")

( notebooklm analyzes the Untamed scripts: reputation vs reality )