Ponderings and Musings

I took a photo during the workday. Wow I look like my father.

With the Writers’ and Actors’ strike going on in Hollywood, I’ve been hearing rumblings of folks considering using AI, and I use that term loosely, to write television series for the masses.

Now, I’m not going to go into my long winded explanation of why AI, like ChatGPT and such, is not really Artificial Intelligence but rather Language Model processing, or better yet, just a “smart regurgitator”. Think of it like a dim-witted politician that takes talking points, modifies the words a bit, and then spits out the talking points the best they can, hitting accuracy around 70%.

Anyway, those that believe computers are magic think they can type an idea into ChatGPT and pop up 10 episodes for a brand new television sensation that will sweep the airwaves with very little work. We can’t be eating into conglomerate profits! Do as much as you can with as little as possible.

The thing is, something similar to this was tried in 1969. The TV show “Turn-On” was ABC’s answer to “Laugh In”, and in some parts of the country, was cancelled before the first episode even finished airing. Some stations pulled it off the air at the first commercial break.

It’s unlike anything on TV at the time, the humor was way ahead of its time, and to watch it is a very bizarre experience. It’s been buried for decades, but the first and second episodes have found their way onto Youtube. (Let’s hope the link sticks).

If you ever wanted to see what a TV show produced by “AI” looks like, this is it. Even though “AI” as we know it today wasn’t used, there is no doubt in my mind that we’re going to end up with something like this in the near future.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since this photo was taken. We were at my favorite state park in the United States, Southwick Beach State Park in Upstate New York.

This photo was taken with a real camera, I believe before the days of smartphones. It’s one of my favorite photos of us.

Last night we sat down and watched the musical episode of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”. Entitled “Subspace Rhapsody”, I wasn’t sure how I’d enjoy a musical Star Trek episode. I think I enjoyed it more than the rest of the family; the plot seemed a little convenient but the music and the performances were amazing.

Spoiler ahead.

Sometimes I think of my grandparents at my age, which was 50 years or so ago, and I wonder what things were on their mind on a regular basis. One side of the family wasn’t really big on sharing their emotions all that much, the other side of the family was a little more forthcoming but if they were in my shoes today I couldn’t see any of them actually musing about these things in a public forum like this.

A friend from my radio days, who is now a guidance counselor, shared her frustrations with “helicopter” parents. Not only were they doing their child a disservice during their high school years with their parenting, but apparently they’re also an amazing site to see on forums for parents of children off to college. My friend was musing about how society is bound to collapse because when the current college bound generation is the generation in charge of things, many of them are not going to be able to function because their parents are gone and they have no critical thinking skills.

My husband and I were musing the other day about climate change and how it feels like this year it has accelerated and feels more present, especially with the run of excessive heat warning days we’ve experienced here in the Sonoran Desert. We both wondered if we would outlive the habitable period (for humans) here on Earth. So many want to make changes to help deter climate change, but too many think it’s a hoax and that we’ll be just fine because of their religious beliefs.

I wonder what my grandparents would think of that.

I didn’t start drinking coffee until I was in my late 40s. Back in the day I didn’t like the taste of it; and it didn’t make sense to me to add a whole bunch of stuff to a beverage to make it taste differently than it tasted without the additions, so I didn’t bother.

But then I rewatched “Star Trek: Voyager” and when Captain Janeway exclaimed, “There’s coffee in that nebula”, I decided to give it another try. Plus, the man cleaning our condo at the time enjoyed coffee and since it was there, I figured it was a good opportunity.

I have since enjoyed a cup or two of black coffee every day. No cream. No sugar. I like black coffee and I regularly employee a Keurig Coffee Maker for the task. I know, it’s not the best way to make coffee, but it works for me and I recycle the pods.

I’ve tried lots of different flavored coffee variations over the years but lately I’ve been focused on just plain black coffee of various strengths. Tomorrow I’m going to try the two pods shown above for the first time. I’m excited to see how much of a kick it gives my Monday.

My very first blog entry was written 22 years ago today. I didn’t know the word “blog” at the time; instead I was just writing an online journal. I originally wrote the entry using Microsoft Frontpage; it was be a year or two before I adopted the word “blog” and moved to a blogging platform. My first officially blogging platform was Blogger. In 2005 I moved to Movable Type and then a year or two later I moved to WordPress, where the blog continues to live today.

My first blog entry talks about flying with my Dad in his newly built AcroSport II bi-plane for the first time and mentions that “someday I’ll be a private pilot”. It’s good to know I achieved at least one goal in those 22 years.

In the earlier years of this blog and before social media really took hold I tended to share opinions and thoughts on a somewhat regular basis. That content moved to social media once the chaos relocated to those parts, especially after the 2016 election season was underway, though I did do a fair share of griping about George W Bush’s presidency at the time. To this day I still wish we had a better choices on all sides of the aisle. I want to vote for someone, not against someone else. I’ll leave it at that.

Every once in a while I’ll go back and read a smattering of entries to get a feel for my attitude and feelings at a certain stage of my life, and that’s a good thing to do from time to time. In many ways I have changed and in many other ways I am who I have always been.

That’s a good balance.

As a little bit of a hoot, here’s my first image posted to the site. It was taken with a webcam that was state of the art at the time. I was growing a beard and wanted to share a progress photo.

I find it comical that it’s a gif and not a jpg.