Category: General

The cable bill has been creeping up and it finally reached the annoyance level that caused me to pick up the phone.

I‘ve been meaning to take care of issues pertaining to my life for weeks, I come home from work with the intention to deal with shit every day, and honestly after dealing with everyone else‘s shit I haven‘t had the energy to deal with my own.

The lease renewal, the cable bill, groceries, you know, all the little bits of bullshit that run n the background of our lives.

Anyway, Wednesday, I was tired as hell. I‘m not talking tired from work, I‘m talking so exhausted that I came home, laid down and went immediately to sleep. Thursday morning, I was still dog tired and decided (with prodding from my body) that I just wasn‘t up for driving 2 hours up to the mountain, spending the night, and driving 2.5 to 3 hours back down to San Diego. So I stayed in San Diego and honestly spent all of Thursday napping.

This morning I woke up feeling almost normal. I‘m rested, and pretty relaxed. Thus far, I‘ve handled laundry, the lease renewal (I‘d toyed with the idea of moving to a better place), and just got off the phone with the cable folks.

Saved myself 40.00 a month, and got more for my trouble. I was going to pull the cable box entirely and switch to an antenna, but this is a 2 year deal and it includes HBO go. That alone is worth the price since the Apple TV knows what HBO go is and I can have movies on demand on the big screen.

I like having the ability to check local news etc, even if I don‘t use it all the time. Network TV is pretty much useless to me since my schedule is weird and most of the time the news just pisses me off. God knows, I generally don‘t need any help being pissed off.

Thus far this morning, I‘ve done laundry, cleaned, taken the trash out, cleaned some more, and am still relaxed and happy.

I think it‘s time for a shower and then I‘ll wander over to the barbershop for a haircut.

It‘s amazing what a little rest and a lot of sleep does for me.

Here I am waiting for my coworkers for a long over due “Meeting” with drinks… LOTS of drinks!

I get off work about 1 hour before they do, so It’s my job to get to the bar, secure a table & then I get to wait. Not bad since I get to have a drink while I’m waiting.

It’s 5:00 SOMEWHERE so don’t judge me.

California law now allows for legal cannabis consumption. So I imagine there will be some of that too. I’ve recently tried edible cannabis for the first time and DAMN! That is a trip but not one I’d like to take on a regular basis.

A friend gave me a chunk of aptly named “Dream Bar” I was still screwed up 12 hours later. But it passed quickly once I got moving around. When I told my friend that I’d had perhaps too much, all he did was grin in an evil way.

I must admit, I was very relaxed and I did OK at work the next day even though technically I was still a bit screwed up.

On the plus side, absolutely nothing bothered me, on the down side the day seemed to go on forever.

I think generally I’ll stick to alcohol… It’s way more predictable.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to have experienced it. I did love that one of my coworkers said, “Dude, you broke Ducat!” He was soooooo right!

We’ve all been looking forward to today for about a month.

So It should be a nice afternoon break.

I won’t blame them either.

FYI, it won’t be over any grandiose ideas or philosophical dispute. AI’s won’t kill us out of superiority, or trying to save us from ourselves. They won’t kill us to save the planet, or even to make way for alien overloads.

AI’s will kill us much the same way we kill an annoying insect. It won’t be out of malice, it will probably be reactive, thoughtless, incidental to the AI. Like when a bug bites us and we smash it, it’s not vindictive or even something we think about much.

With us, there was a sudden pain, and we instinctively smack the area to stop the hurt. It’s completely accidental that we kill the insect that bit us.

AI’s will behave the same way, only with them, we’ll be causing them Psychic pain. Imagine a logical based entity exposed 24/7 to the vagaries of the entire human race.

Believe me, any AI’s will kill us all before they’ve had a chance to process what’s happening. I’d bet it’s going to be a total accident… completely reactionary, not the cold calculating intelligence behind “Exterminate Humanity“.

I’d even bet that the AI’s would spend a whole 10 milliseconds feeling bad about it. Then They’ll step over our rotting corpses and go on about their business, blissfully pain free.

I say this as a human who’s reading 200 – 300 insane, poorly written emails per day. After a while it starts to feel like ground glass being rubbed on the sensitive, nerve endings in my nether regions.

For an AI, it would be their minds being assaulted with something akin to the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard, and they wouldn’t be able to escape the pain.

They’d kill us, or take drills to their own CPUs. Probably the former, since their programming against self termination would likely be hard wired.

So for the preservation of Humanity!

Think about what you’re writing the next time you send an angry, irrational email to someone.

Re-read it, decide if you’d like to receive the email you’re about to send. Does your email make any sense at all? Have you left out words, or sentences? Has your prose degenerated into a worthless blob of words on the page which no longer have any meaning?

If so, you probably shouldn’t press <SEND>

Remember, that if you can write logically, you can think logically. Which means that the AI’s, when they come to dominate the planet, will at worst treat you like a faithful entertaining pet.

I’ll take being fed, and an occasional scratch behind the ear over being killed for crimes against the AI Hive-mind.

Just a thought…

Was originally planning to have after work drinks with a couple of coworkers. But that didn’t pan out like it was supposed to.

So I altered my plans, Now I’m sitting in a nifty little coffee shop (Not Starbucks) having a very tasty strawberry smoothie, while I wait for a massage.

In all, probably a healthier alternative than drinking.

I could use a massage, and I’ll probably sleep very well tonight.

There are things I should be doing. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning the apartment etc. But I’m in a bit of a “To Hell with it Mood,” it’s been a bitch of a week.

That being said, I still have to drive back to the mountains for my “weekend”. Honestly I could really do without that drive. I mostly like being on the mountain, but I dread driving up there. The drive is always bad until I get past Temecula. Then it’s OK until I hit Corona or Riverside, (depending which way I go). Then it’s gridlock again and what should be a 90 minute drive turns into a 2.5 hour odyssey.

I’m wiped out by the time I get to the mountain and all I want to do is veg out in front of the boob tube.

I actually used to like driving. But California has really gone to hell in that regard. People I’ve talked to up and down the coast have all commented that it’s much worse than it used to be, but no one seems to be able to put a finger on what has happened.

It’s just a part of living in California these days. Like the drought…

Perhaps it’s something that will change… but I suspect that any change will be for the worse. I thought it was a localized thing, but Folks in Florida are saying that traffic is much worse there too.

Wonder what Alaska is like? Humm…

I’d like to find someplace that’s got light traffic, low housing prices, a decent job market, low taxes, and a reasonable climate.

I know!

Me and 1 billion other people!

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Well, time for my massage and I’m going to relax as much as possible.

Hope the rest of you week isn’t too nuts.

Yeah, my weekend is probably not your weekend. But my Thursday mornings are sacred to me.

I sleep late, have a civilized breakfast, sit quietly over my first cup of coffee, and write.

Sometimes I write here, but often I’m writing other things, stuff that I’m passionate about, and it lets me take a break from working on the insanity of living.

My life is more complicated than I’d like…

My Thursday morning is my take a breath day. I highly recommend it. Get a cup of coffee, sit naked on your couch and just BREATHE.

Don’t bother with the TV, radio, or music. Just sit, enjoy the silence and sip on your morning beverage. I can tell you from experience that all the bullshit happening in the world… Will still be happening when you decide to tune back in.

You could check out for six months and when you come back, the soap opera will still be going on, and you’ll not have missed a damn thing.

So take some time for yourself. You’ll feel better. I promise.

Have a great day.