YoYo-ING
I am currently on a yoyo blog reading schedule. There’s a week where things go really well and I catch up on my Feedly (and I am all stoked and vow to stay on top of it), and then the next week is crazy and I get helplessly behind on reading (and posting). Anyone else? Do you have a blog reading schedule? Do you just catch up when you can?
more thoughts on A.I.
I came across an Instagram post, linking to an article in the New York times by Bret Stephens, titled “I am begging you: never write with A.I.”
While I have mixed feeling about employing A.I.’s help to assist with certain tasks (I do see some benefits), I firmly agree with the statement that we should NOT let A.I. do our writing. Bret Stephens put it this way: “The problem with writing with A.I. is that it’s mentally enfeebling – an escalator toward a result when you really need to make a daily habit of taking the stairs”. And another writer, Dave Eggers, said in an interview that it’s a crime against yourself to let a machine speak for you, that it equates to the silencing of your own voice. That’s a powerful statement.
I mean, ask yourself this: why should someone take the time to read something that you didn’t take the time to write?
Book: YESTERYEAR
I know that many of you have recently read Yesteryear and I was intrigued and requested it from the library. Luckily, it was available (I expected to be on the waitlist) and I was able to borrow it right away. I read it in a few days. I want to say I enjoyed it based on the speed that I go through it, but it was also one of the weirdest books I’ve read in a while. I kinda had a hunch towards the end about how the “two storylines” were going to come together, but there were also some “loose ends” (of which I am not a fan in books).
HAPPY HOUR
I met up with my old coworkers for Happy Hour this week. It’s been a while (8 months?!) since we last saw each other. It still feels very normal to be around them, after all, we worked together for 20 years, even though we don’t really keep up in between meet-ups. We had a great time catching up. One of them has taken a new job at the state, the other is in early retirement (and loving it). Of course, they inquired about how things are at our office. I don’t think they regret to have left last year when they did, but I am sure it’s also still a bit strange to not be part of that environment anymore.
ANOTHER UPDATE ON MY Niece’s HEALTH
My niece had her follow-up appointment with the new doctor and her recent test results have uncovered a slew of compounding issues. I cannot even begin to summarize the findings, but let’s just say that it’s a combination of many things (bacteria, virus, allergy, histamines in overdrive, etc.). The doctor called it something like ‘the perfect storm’. Why no other doctor before had bothered to look at certain things is a mystery to me, but I am also not surprised. From my own experience, it seems like doctor’s do some standard tests and if they don’t reveal a simple, textbook diagnosis, they seem to shrug their shoulders. I feel like very few doctors look for the rootcause of symtpoms holistically – or in unexpected places (like, in my niece’s case, there was also a problem with a leaky retainer that she got after getting her braces off).
Anyway, this doctor seems to have clues on how my niece’s problems started and, more importantly, a plan for treatment. It’ll be a long road because they’ll have to address issues one by one, but at least, there seems to be a plan, which makes me a lot more hopeful.
TGIF, friends. Hope you have a great weekend!
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