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Reading

As I have told a few friends, I’ve been spending time reading every day that I suppose was previously devoted to farting around aimlessly on the internet. I started this in April, and since then I’ve read 11 science fiction novels.

If you read 5% of a novel every day you will finish that novel in 20 days. I know that books vary in page counts (obviously) but that means for a 300 page novel, 15 pages a day will get you through that novel in 20 days. That’s pretty good.

So even if I only have 20 or 30 minutes to read it is worth the effort. Usually I get started and end up reading 10 or 15 percent, at least. Having the Kindle charged and ready and in my backpack during the workday is key.

Anyway I’m making a project of this, with the very modest goal of reading 20 SF novels this year. Tracking them on my Goodreads account.

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Riley & Grogu

This little monster is now 9 months old. To say the least he has change my life – our lives.

We brought him home when he was 9 weeks old. We did this because we wanted him with us during the window of time when he’d bond most strongly with us. The first 3 months were rough. We’d never had a dog before, either of us. So here we were with a puppy that needed ALL the training, no experience, and a backyard that turned into a mud pit when it rained.

My wife enrolled him in the Great Puppy Day School at the What a Great Dog training center here in town. They were amazing. He is very smart, and requires very little instruction. It helped a lot. Potty training was all on us, and it was tough.

Now, months later, he is indeed becoming a great dog. Sweet, good natured, quiet (an anomaly apparently with shelties).

Tonight he picked up his Grogu toy and hopped up on this air bed with it.

We love him.

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AI

I have not delved into the AI stuff much at all. A few months ago I played with an AI art generator until my free tries ran out. I have not used any of the others. When I was doing the art thing I very much wonder what online resources had been evaluated and remixed to create the images produced. I have to think they came from somewhere. Or maybe “everywhere”?

The slurping-in of people’s creative output by these systems is kind of troubling. Even being as ignorant of this stuff as I am, I have to say my immediate reaction is to hate it.

I have stopped posting video to Youtube. I am considering making all my Vimeo videos “unlisted” or “private” from here on out. I’m even thinking about making all my stuff here on CL require a log-in to view, or something like that. I realize this is a meaningless gesture given the nature of this issue, but really it is only a “gesture.” I just really don’t want to feed this beast even my own little collection of thoughts, images, and sounds.