Chebucto Regional Softball Club

@AnneOfGreenCables

#teamTabby

@maya

They are running ads for it on TV?

@sal

I can not *prove* that boiling the water outside makes the tea taste better. It should be fine to make it with the kettle inside, and put it in a good thermos for later... but if you will take my word? Trust me it does!

Oh, this is the guy who makes this stove.

etsy.com

(www.etsy.com)

Sneaky park tea on a cold rainy day is the best tea. An alcohol tablet stove is an amazing way to brew. This leaves no soot and makes no smoke. Better than a jet boil. Silent.

#teaculture #kungfutea #tea

@StillIRise1963

Real “austerity” would mean cutting back on needless luxury: like militarily spending or tax cuts for the super rich.

I sometimes share my location with friends when we meet up. I *didn’t* realize that this means they see an icon of an ant that keeps getting closer and closer to their current location on the map

️

@explorewilder

This is such a fun photo— you don’t notice them at first but then there they are and so busy with their projects.

They are shaped like fire.

@aliceonboard

If you mean did I write it? I did.

@zenkat

A computer program can create plausible responses that sound like someone saying these things, and it's tempting to think the machine is somehow objective. And that I've really done it. But, I think it's just a mirage. A very dangerous one.

This can fool very smart creative people.

@zenkat

I care about a lot of things that it feels like no one even notices, things that mean so much to me that are just alien to other people. Writing, making art it's just trying to share a little glimpse of these things to other people.

And when someone says "this is a lot like X, and it's also Y" and they *get it* that's the whole point.

@zenkat

I think it will wear thin eventually. An LLM can't really help you refine your brilliant philosophical idea or complete your novel... but it might be able to make you feel like someone understands and cares about the things you care about for a bit.

But when you take that work and show it to real people? It's not really better. You've just wasted time gazing in a flattering mirror.

@zenkat

But, why do any of us need that outside validation?

Why does it make me so happy when someone understands something I made, or enjoys my drawing, or when a student says "ooooh I get it now!" during one of *my* lessons?

These are the happiest moments in life, how could I let a machine simulate them?

We don't have the history but some people have worked very hard to make these systems drill right into that human need for connection for being understood.

@zenkat

I asked chat GPT to help me with a poem once. The response was flattering and useful and coming from another person it would have been the highlight of my day. It correctly detected the themes of the poem, it understood my references. Reading the response made me feel for a fleeting moment like a good writer.

It was like a taste of heroin.

And instantly I also felt embarrassed and manipulated. I really long to be understood like that, you know? I do need outside validation.

@zenkat

It surprises me when I find out that people I admire, people who are my friends have this blind spot.

I really wonder how there can be such a huge gulf. This poem is written in extremities but it is how I really feel about how this technology is being used.

The technology itself is fascinating and possibly even useful, I can see that, but how it is being used, how it's being integrated into our lives often feels anti-human.

"tell us how you really feel"

You don't stop a social trend by being nice about it...

Am I being a little melodramatic?

I will ask chat GPT
I will boil the last of our drinking water
Salt the soil of the scrub-lands
Tear the pages from books and feed them to my fire

I will ask copilot
I will scramble your library
reanimate and puppet the faces of your dead ancestors
I will bury you in poor copies of your dreams

I will ask grok
I will fall silent and never speak to you
I will talk only to myself lost in a maze of my own fantasies
I will forget all who cannot compliment me
I will decouple my soul from this world.

@GreenSkyOverMe

That is an excellent and accurate rendering of an ant in this art style.