Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

Colby, Kansas.

Today I drove from Los Lunas, New Mexico to Colby, Kansas. At about 475 miles on Interstate 25 I was ready for a change of pace and turned northeast at Trinidad, Colorado. This mixed up the view a little bit and gave me a chance to enjoy the beauty of the older U.S. highways. It was a lovely day for a drive.

I wasn’t really expecting today to be a chase day; the plan was always to get into position for chases Sunday through the end of the my chase-cation. I have achieved that objective.

I stopped by “Twisters Bar and Grill” here in Colby for a beer and some supper. The bartender was very kind and we had a good conversation about storms and what it’s like to live in Colby, Kansas. I feel very comfortable in this city, though I have no idea why. Perhaps it’s familiarity; I believe I’ve been here for the past three chase trips.

After Twisters I stopped at Walmart and bought some Rain-X to apply to the windshield. Having the rain whisked away by Rain-X is super helpful when you’re chasing a storm.

I’m headed to bed. There’s a line of thunderstorms passing through tonight but they’re mostly disorganized and don’t really carry a severe threat. Tomorrow looks very promising to the southeast of here, and I want to save my strength for that chase. It may be intense.

Here’s some shots from my drive today.

18 May 2024 by J.P. Storm Chasing. 0

Caturday.

Truman and I had some bonding moments this past week. Here he is looking at me wondering when I was going to dispense a treat.

#caturday

18 May 2024 by J.P. He's A Feline. 0

Los Lunas, New Mexico.

It is day zero of this year’s Storm Chasing Trip. I have targeted Central Kansas for Sunday’s activities (and a little bit of Saturday night’s).

I left after a good day at work; I’m in Los Lunas, New Mexico, just south of Albuquerque. The drive has been pleasant thus far. I thought I heard gun shots at this hotel but it was happening with a regular basis so I figured it was fireworks or something. No one else was getting hysterical so I didn’t either.

Roads in New Mexico are mostly very rough and in need of repair. However, the Highway 26 between Deming and Hutch, a shortcut between Interstates 10 and 25, isn’t too bad.

17 May 2024 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Thursday.

I’m sitting on the gazebo with my husband. He is watching what sounds like baseball on his iPhone while I sit at the table, overlooking the back yard, and writing this blog entry. I’m starting to get in the habit of writing blog entries at lunch time. This is something I used to do back in the day before folks tended to shy away from narratives containing more than 280 characters. It’s a good feeling to be able to sit down and write, even if the content is a bit thin.

We’ve been watching “Tracker” on Paramount Plus. A new series as of this year, “Tracker” is about a guy who roams the country looking for missing people. He lives on the monetary rewards of his efforts. Since the beginning of the series I’ve remarked to my husband that the storylines seem a bit “thin” but we still find the show enjoyable. Plus, Justin Hartley isn’t bad to look at.

He has a super-sleuth hacker type as part of his “team” and this hacker can do amazing things in incredibly little time. I always find these things in television shows amusing. Some of the feats seem just a few moments away from waving to KellyAnne Conway through her microwave.

I just needed a reason to put a photo of the handsome Justin Hartley on my blog. I wish I could find a photo of him shirtless while shaving or something, but he doesn’t seem like the type that shaves very often.

The winds are picking up here at home; it could be indicative of some dry thunderstorms passing through the area again tonight. The forecast has finally been adjusted to admit to this possibility. As mentioned in the previous entry, last night’s convective activity took us by surprise. It was a delightful surprise.

With my storm chasing trip looming on the horizon, it has been consuming much of my thoughts and has brought the pacing of the work week down to a very slow level. I’m being productive at work and I feel like I’m getting things aligned so the team continues to do their thing while I’m away, but I’m ready for the storm chasing trip to commence tomorrow afternoon. As we get closer to the weekend, the forecast is shaping up nicely and showing promise. I just watched a recap from Ryan Hall Y’all and it looks like the target area will have some zesty weather right through the end of the month.

I’m hoping it’ll be a hoot and a half.

16 May 2024 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Pre-Game.

I don’t leave for my storm chasing trip until Friday afternoon, but Mother Nature decided I needed some teasing action this afternoon and evening.

There has been no mention of any rain or storms in the Tucson forecast for the past month. I was surprised to receive lightning alerts from the home weather station right before supper. We haven’t had any rain, but the lightning show continues this evening, right up until I’m writing this a little after 9:00 PM/2100 MST. Photos taken with my iPhone 13 Pro, no tripod, from the roof of the house.

15 May 2024 by J.P. Storm Chasing. 0

Managing Energy.

OriginalMacGuy Jim Eager wrote an excellent blog entry about Introverts (hi!) and their need to carefully manage their energy. You can read the blog post here.

An introvert is a person who tends to lose energy from social interaction and external stimulation and regains energy through solitude and quiet environments. In contrast, an extrovert is a person who tends to gain energy from social interactions and external stimulation.

According to Marty Olson Laney in The Introvert Advantage, “The primary difference between introverts and extroverts is how they recharge their batteries.” Extroverts energize by being around people. Introverts, on the other hand, need to be by themselves in a quiet location to recharge.

I am an introvert at heart. After a day of work or being in public all day long or something similar, I know I’m going to need some downtime before I do it again. Jim’s blog post rings exceptionally true for me on the subject.

14 May 2024 by J.P. Ponderings and Musings 0

Her.

OpenAI, the company that brought ChatGPT to the masses, had a big spring event yesterday. It was their opportunity to show the latest technology the company is bringing to the masses. It didn’t have the polish of an Apple presentation but I still found it to be an interesting thing to watch.

In yesterday’s presentation, OpenAI introduced us to their latest advancements in ChatGPT. It has been dubbed “ChatGPT-4o”. While the “o” looks like the zero on a 1970 Sharp Microcompet calculator, it’s actually pronounced “o”. The “o” stands for Omni.

The presenters went on to share all the new things these LLMs, or Large Language Models, can do. This involves being able to interact with users via video and speech, as well as the default voice sounding a lot like Scarlett Johansson in the movie “Her”.

And that’s not where the similarities to Samantha in “Her” end. There were also many demos where two AIs were talking to each other, singing with each other, and exhibiting other activities that has normally been relegated to the likes of Sci-Fi movies.

I have complained for the past decade that it seems like technology advances have been iterative. Apple’s Vision Pro headset, revealed earlier this year, had promise of technology that would take us to the next step, but from what I’m seeing in various tech circles, it hasn’t really taken off.

We all know that some fear “Artificial Intelligence” taking over the world. These AIs, even in their latest incarnations, are still very much Large Language Models, being quite clever in the presentation of human derived knowledge, logic, and thought processes. But hearing them interact with one another immediately made me realize that the phrase, “I’ll have my people talk to your people”, is going to become much more commonplace.

Those humans that work in call centers might have a reason to be concerned about the longevity of their careers. If any space is going to be invaded by this technology, this is going to be it.

14 May 2024 by J.P. Geek 1

Clouds.

I’ve always been fascinated by clouds. I remember taking photos of clouds back in the days of film and an Instamatic and when getting the photos back from processing my mother asking, “Why did you take so many photos of clouds?”

“I like them”.

She wrote on the back, “John’s pretty clouds. July 1981” (or whatever the date was). The photos are probably still in a scrapbook back east.

I wasn’t really engaged in my high school freshman Earth Science class. But that was over 40 years ago and I’ve grown a lot since then. As I ramp up to my storm chasing trip next week I’ve been reviewing various videos the like about storm clouds, specifically Shelf and Wall Clouds.

Here’s one of the videos I’ve watched as part of my studies and preparedness for the trip. As a private pilot I just know to stay away from these clouds in a small airplane. As a storm chaser, I’m looking for the ones that are going to produce the best photographic results. Hat tip to Raychel at TornadoTitans.com for this great explanation.

13 May 2024 by J.P. Storm Chasing. 0

Letters.

Since moving to Tucson I have received a couple of letters a year from neighbors I do not know. Their return address indicates they live in the general area; they’re not just around the block or anything. The letters are always enclosed with a pamphlet leading me to the website of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I’m always amazed at the penmanship used in crafting the letter.

I used to get concerned about this sort of thing. As I get older I just figure someone out there is wishing me well in their own way. The scriptures and the like mentioned in the pamphlet and in the letters are an interesting read. I’m very solid in my own spirituality, so I tend to just accept this sort of thing in the spirit in which it was intended.

They didn’t write about damnation or any cross words at all for that matter. So I shall not wish them anything but positivity in their own spiritual paths. I’ll leave it at that.

12 May 2024 by J.P. Spiritual Stuff. 0

Tanque Verde Ridge Trail Hike.

I’m finding my groove with my hiking videos and the approach I’m taking to video editing and design in general. Not only am I enjoy the hikes, I’m also really enjoying sharing my experiences in this way.

In this age of Constant Chaos, especially in too many areas of the Internet, I feel a positive contribution like this helps keep things at least approach some sort of equilibrium. I hope you enjoy this latest venture with me. Photos follow the video in this post.