I'm over here feeling hurt, because all my friends in the groupchat are posting about trainwreck exes and office feuds and you're telling me I could have been reading state secrets instead of who loosened the screws on whose chair because she lied to the boss about who did what work?

This walking in faith thing is taking a chunk out of me today.

We don't know why Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa and their dog passed yet, but it reminded me that it's time to replace our CO2/smoke detectors. Even if they passed from something else, it's still a good reminder. May their memories be a blessing.

Both of my work orchids are re-blooming at once!

Don't forget to clean your dishwasher and spend a little time resisting fascism today. Both are important: a clean dishwasher preserves your health short term. Resisting fascism preserves your health long term.

Today I found out that my mail carrier at work is married to a VA nurse. VA nurses I've known are angels and my mail carrier is a solidly wonderful guy. Their love story sounds like a real American dream of partnershi on, love and loyalty. it wouldn't be a romance novel but boy, it's lovely to see.

My question: how do we parent our way through all of this?

I'm not really expecting answers. It's just what's there to ask

I'm giving this existential crisis one more hour then writing until midnight and calling it done.

My take away from studying AI and and intelligent voice assistants this semester is that the essential risks of AI, besides the usual cybersecurity risks, is that we humans in a capitalist society with few rights aren't going to manage it correctly.

As it turns out, the papers I expected to use aren't usable, the best one is a working paper and the peer reviewed one isn't nearly what the abstract says it is. I'm going to harrumph and make myself half a bagel with cream cheese and get over myself.

The beast of frustration of writing papers about current emerging security issues is that the most relevant research isn't peer reviewed, but working papers that can't be used as a foundational reference.

And so I grumble. Trying to research from my sick bed should go easier. Points for trying?

I'm not around a whole lot and posting because I've gotten quite sick and frankly now I seem to be getting different sick instead of better. I'm here with y'all. I'm just not pithy or capable of thought much lately.

I've always thought the best way to handle a bad day was to go to bed ASAP so the day was, in effect, over.

I lay in bed this evening wishing I could do just that when my teen crawled into bed with me,told me she was not actually going to sleep, and then went to sleep at about eight.

Woke earlier than early this morning to drag the trash barrels out. I was rewarded for my efforts by a beautiful half moon sharp against a royal blue sky.

I sang, from HMS Pinafore:

Fair moon,to thee I sing
Bright regent of the heavens
Pray, why is everything
Always at sixes or at sevens?

I'm really enjoying the podcast "The Rest Is Classified" produced by Goalhanger. It is hosted by David McCloskey (former CIA analyst, current novelist) and journalist Gordon Corera and it is intriguing and factual and fun.

I spent the days over early Hanukkah/Christmas attending to my brother's two elderly black cats, and learned a few things. 1. If I'm going to get cats, my wardrobe is already conductive to hiding black fur.
2. Elderly cats are even weirder than their more youthful selves.