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Got up at 9a.m. Cloudy at first but sunshine in the afternoon. Nell got a new carpet cleaner off Mrs Harris. Took Jane to see the animals at work. Dot took us and brought us back in the car.
Investors underwrite scaling laws because the alternative (having an Einstein discover better algorithms) is high variance What would it take to make progress towards general intelligence, where general stands for any problem that might arise in our world? Since our world is big and open-ended, the quest for general intelligence becomes a quest for solving more and more problems, including even the long tail and arcane ones. In fact, many people see AGI as the point when...
We are in a culture of optimization, which means we are in a culture of slop.The core paradox: as soon as something is identified as “good,” it becomes optimizable. As soon as something is optimizable, it is scaled and mass-produced. Eventually, unavoidably, the concept is devalued and we get slop.“Taste” was never the solution, because “taste” is identifiable. Shortly after the internet latched onto Pierre Bourdieu, every influencer immediately began replicating the same...
YouTube now adds a query parameter that discloses who shared a video. This is annoying, but thankfully there's a userscript that sanitizes and strips the tracking info from the URL.
Book review for Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio. I rated it 4.5 stars Empire of Silence is a sci-fi / space opera set in the distant future, where humans have colonised the galaxy and are now fighting a war with an alien race known as the Cielcin. At the book’s opening we get a pretty strong hook - the protagonist Hadrian Marlowe is set to do terrible things in the future, killing a star and gaining the infamous moniker “The Sun Eater”. Quite amazingly this book...
It has been nearly 8 years since I last read a book by this author. Between 2016 and 2018 I read Offord’s The Nine Dark Hours (1941), Skeleton Key (1943), and My True Love Lies (1947), all of which I enjoyed. Of the three I would say The Nine Dark Hours is the best. Today’s read is a sequel to Offord’s 1943 novel, and The Saturday Review of Literature described it as an ‘admirable blend of mystery and family-history novel.’ They further added that it had ‘enough action,...
There’s something wonderfully comforting about a good breakfast sandwich, especially one that feels hearty enough to enjoy at dinner as well. These Breakfast Ciabatta Sandwiches are exactly that kind of recipe — simple, satisfying, and built on flavours we all know and love. Crisp fresh ciabatta rolls, rich pan fried eggs seasoned with smoked paprika, melty cheddar cheese, and sweet fresh tomatoes come together in a way that feels both indulgent and completely doable on...
At the center of a once-vibrant valley stood a garden unlike any other. It had been known for its colors. Bright lilies that bent with the wind. Wild roses that grew in every direction. Tall sunflowers that turned freely toward the sky. Every plant was different. Every corner alive. At its heart wor…
Friday is my last working day before a four week vacation. Since this is my first year as a full-time employee, rather than on a hourly basis, I don't have any vacation days saved, so I'll take a shorter vacation this year. I'd like to keep a rainy day fund of vacation-days. Being an adult however, it feels like vacation is more about working at home instead. I placed an order for a new fence yesterday, to even dream of getting it done I bought premade fence elements,...
I've learned recently that there is a type of wasp called an ensign wasp. they can get pretty large and weird-looking. I'll just say that someone in my life recently found one indoors and told me about it after a day of feeling a little terrorized by it. I obtained a picture, immediately looked these wasps up, and learned that many of these wasps lay their eggs inside cockroach egg cases! We don't know what species this is specifically, but the genus is believed to focus...
she still has some items that belong to me—at least, I think she does. they could be in a landfill or a secondhand shop by now. more likely they are in a box at the back of her closet. a swimsuit, a shirt, a favorite bra, a leather jacket. last wednesday I finally worked up the guts to make it known via email that I would like them back soon. I mean, I want to swim in something that isn't biker shorts! it's summer! it felt good to be honest about my needs, regardless of...
It’s surprising to me how I haven’t spent a great deal of time exploring Italian coffee culture, especially given my proclivity for consuming said beverage. I’ve been reliably informed that Australia’s coffee snobbery was derived in large part by waves of Italian and Greek immigration (and German, which included my dad). It’s regularly cited as the reason why chains like Starbucks have struggled to get as much of a foothold in the country, though I’ve argued that’s but one...
I am finding the newly revealed capability to code old applet ideas into reality to be very tempting to sink more time into, though I am certainly encountering the common “vibe coding” experience that the process can produce something that superficially resembles a finished product well before a satisfactory level of testing and review has been completed; indeed, it is the review process which is now the most time-consuming, to the point where I think any further advances...
Nico turned two in June. What the hell! Where’s my baby boy, and who’s this sassy little dude running around my house. We threw him a farm-themed birthday (my man loves cows), then took the kids up to see their cousins in Richmond. The next weekend, we went camping with Claire’s family at Carolina Hemlocks Recreation Area. This was awesome – bit of a haul for sure, and the boy couldn’t handle the switchbacks on the way up the mountain, but we were rewarded with a beautiful...
howdy yall!!!! this week is another week that was bad because Life Continues to Happen. like one more person in my family ending up in the ER, and then one more friend deeply going through shit. i am also having extremely bad allergic reactions to bug bites!!!!!!!! its quite painful :) kind of hate talking about all the bad because i hate being a victim and i hate being pitied. also for work i was tasked with working on/repairing something broken, told my boss how bad it...
I love trolling through old magazines, not so much in search of treasure as to gauge the values of our forebears. What did writers and editors, and presumably readers, find interesting and important? Taste is notoriously transient. Most of it is rooted in fashion and peer pressure, what other folks like.The July 14, 1956, issue of The Saturday Review, published seventy years ago, opens with the “Trade Winds” column of Bennett Cerf (1898-1971). As a kid, I knew him as a...
Once upon a commit, someone looked at GitHub’s little green squares and thought: what if writers had that?That someone was me! And the app is called Kerouac.For the last year, I’ve been building a writing studio that takes publishing seriously. If you write online, you already know the pain: your work is everywhere. A Substack from your current era, a Ghost blog from the one before that, a Medium publication, a personal site you keep meaning to revive, maybe even a YouTube...
Mary Dodd, Dorie’s recipe tester and right-hand lady, has brilliantly taken a plate of chocolate chip pancakes with a side of bacon and a river of maple syrup and turned it into a cookie. Her Maple-Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies remind me of being in high school and grabbing a booth at IHOP with my friends. I don’t eat pork, so I used (gasp) turkey bacon for the bacon bits. I had to replace the bacon fat in the dough with extra butter, since turkey bacon doesn’t really...
Tuesday 14th July 2026 Signal boxes are becoming something of an endangered species on the railway, not least on the London Underground, with modern technology enabling trains to be controlled from a computer screen many miles away from the tracks and in-cab displays for drivers rather than what is now regarded as old fashioned track side signals managed by staff from stand-alone signal cabins. Despite the gradual phased roll out of Computer Based Train Control (CBTC) on...
This was back in 2011. I had gone to India for a friend’s wedding and spent time in Japan. Kyoto was so beautiful and unique. Loved it. Kyoto Japan so long ago it seems
Nine barbel found the net - taking my season total up to 21. But the water is starting to warm up - best leave them alone for a while. Probably try and stalk a carp out of The Puddle (nowhere near a pub).
Newish on my workbench, are some AK paint pens. I'm a big fan of the MiG oilbrusher, it's a really handy device to have around for quick touch-ups, and these pens might be even better.First impressions are good. The paint flows well, and seems pretty opaque. Basically, painting with no cleanup at the end. The pointy tip isn't going to work for really fine work, but for a lot of jobs, it's OK. One job I have found them perfect for, is painting moulded on handrails. My only...
Today I learned that my dad lobbied to have my name be Octavio when I was a baby. He was overruled and my name became Raiden… When I heard Octavio something in me unlocked. It’s a powerful name. I kind of want to go by it. I like my name Raiden, but it is a softer name. A softer person. Perhaps when I channel my defiance, my disagreeableness, my fury, I can be Octavio. Use it as a character. A more confident me. A more fiery me. Something about it just feels right. An...
Tags: #moods · *duration:8hI do love a good sunset. It’s the colors, you see. Sunsets have the best colors. Sun go down.We’ve had a couple of days of great sunsets. Unfortunately it came with a side of major humidity and high temperatures. Monsoonal moisture, so says the weather guy. I dunno, some great sunsets might be worth the price. 😁