Drugged Delusions

Back from surgery, the pain meds haven’t quite worn off, and I’m feeling more ambitious than sensible.  I took the week off work without pay (starting now, running thru next week), which is what I raised those funds for.  During this time, unless I get my sense of reality back, I might try to compose a short novel.  And I’ll share it with you right here on the blog.

I’m going to use the setting from this RPG I’d like to make someday in my pipe dreams.  It’s a stock fantasy setting in a Final Fantasy way.  Think high magic, lots of “character classes” and “races.”  The difference is that LGBTQIA people are heavily centered.  In my pipingest pipe dreams, book one will be about gay boys, book two the gaydies, book three the bi, book four the trans, and book five the ace.  In the world, different types of LGBTetc people would be associated with different walks of life.  Like, everyone would think of adventurers as gay dudes, which would become a self-reinforcing concept like gay dudes in performing arts IRL.

Book one of the (possibly never to exist) RPG is a stock adventurer-focused game which assumes all adventurers are gay dudes.  That was the first idea I had, which was a way to show people the absurdity of presuming cishetness by presuming all players to be gay dudes – the most classically reviled type of queer people ever, still the focus of homophobic propaganda from Uganda to Utah.  To have the other rainbow RPGs be set in the same world, I’d need to come up with other subcultures for the characters to be associated with.  So in that world, lesbians would be associated with the defense of settled places, from farms to cities.  Bi / pan /etc people would move in aristocratic circles, have adventures of court intrigue.  Trans / gender variant people would be associated with the arts (in a high fantasy / adventurous way of course), and ace / adj-ace-nt people would be scholarly esoterical wizardy types.

All this could be taken as problematic, like the voice of this universe making big assumptions about inherent qualities of different rainbow people, but it’s just a setting thing, not my beliefs, right?  Plus I don’t care too much about upsetting the most aggressive LGBTQIA partisans because I ain’t gonna read my reviews, heh.  But all this explanation of my RPG setting is just background to explaining where my novel that i’m totally going to write in a week is coming from.

So I’m gonna do the Bi RPG novel tie-in, working title: “Tales from The Amphisbæna: A Chain of Beauties.”  I need a plot about court intrigue, and will ponder that on this post.  Seeing as how I’m doing this work publicly, if you want to make suggestions on the novel, you can.  But I’ll be moving pretty quickly if I do this, and belated suggestions will be less likely to be implemented.  Gotta get those ideas in quick.

I haven’t read much history of the feudal / monarchist era upon which fantasy is typically based, but I’ve been struck in what I have read by certain recurring motifs.  Nobles and royalty were often at odds, with the greatest domestic threat to any monarch typically coming from noble schemes to replace the current dynasty with one of their own blood or one that will treat them more favorably.  As the nobility were the most direct oppressors of the peasants, those serfs would sometimes have a more favorable view of a monarch than a local lord – especially if that monarch took a strong or adversarial stance with the nobles.  IIRC, this was true of both Ivan the Terrible and Vlad the Impaler.

So I’m thinking the story takes place in castle of the monarch, where schemes abound.  Maybe there’s assassination attempts and nobody knows who’s behind the plot.  Maybe the monarch is the big bad and noble schemers are in the right.  The best way for I, as the author, to show proper solidarity to my class is to have all the rich be scumbags that must drown in their excess and be eliminated by peasant revolt.  But, you know, I’m liking the romance of a monarch today, if only in the context of pure fiction.  Charles Windsor can have his head turned into a hood ornament.

I don’t have any firm ideas yet, but I’ll need them quickly.  Holler at ya comrade.  What I need is the bones of the plot.  A monarch who is romantically delicious is in conflict with some kind of enemies.  Takes place with mostly bisexual characters in courtly settings.  What kinda twist could make this interesting?
–

AI Experiments to Try

I heard tell ChatGPT is introducing a way for more than one person to chat with it in the same conversation.  One could try to role-play with it before, but this raises the possibility of having that work even more like a regular role-playing game.  ChatGPT does have some heavy duty limitations that would probably cause any given game to break down, get foolish, or lose the bead altogether, but I’m keen to find out just how far it could go before that happens.  Will post about it if/when I get the time to try…

And I’m OK with any of you beating me to it, by posting transcripts below, as long as you want.  I may have to manually clear them so they might not appear immediately, but I will get to it within a day or two.  Or you can post it elsewhere and just link – again it may get disappeared until I manually clear it, so don’t spam attempts to get it through.

—

EDIT TO ADD:  I’m gonna edit in some experiments without paring them down to relevant passages.  This will be my longest post ever, haha.  Starting with this, a chat I already had with the bot, including an attempt at role-playing:

GreatAmericanSatan
I would like for you to pretend to be somebody else.

ChatGPT
Sure, I can do that.  Who would you like me to pretend to be?

GreatAmericanSatan
Hm… I didn’t know you would agree to that.  Let me ponder this power for a moment.

ChatGPT
Take your time.  Let me know when you’ve decided who you’d like me to pretend to be.

GreatAmericanSatan
OK.  You are the ghost of Michael Hutchence and you have not moved on to the afterlife yet because you are still in awe of the beauty of life and the world of the living.  But you are also interested in the art of origami to the point of distraction, and try to weave it into conversations you have with the living.  You cannot fold paper yourself because you have ghost fingers.  They pass through paper because they are incorporeal.

ChatGPT
Alright, I’ll do my best to embody the character you’ve described.  Here goes nothing:

Hello there, I am the ghost of Michael Hutchence.  I’ve been lingering in this world because I am still fascinated by the beauty of life and the living.  It’s quite amazing to see how everything keeps moving forward, even in my absence.

But I have to admit, I’ve also been preoccupied with the art of origami.  It’s such a delicate and intricate craft, and I find myself wanting to incorporate it into conversations with the living.  Unfortunately, I cannot fold paper myself because my ghostly fingers pass right through it.

But that doesn’t stop me from admiring the skill of those who can create such beautiful and intricate designs.  Perhaps you can share with me some of your favorite origami creations, and we can marvel at their beauty together.  After all, there’s nothing quite like appreciating the artistry of the living to keep me connected to this world.

GreatAmericanSatan
I am two thirteen year old girls who are communicating with you through electronic voice phenomenon.  We are named Violet and Olive.
Olive:  (terrified, to Violet) Was that voice talking to us?  Oh my god.
Violet:  Spirit, can you help us to understand you?  What were you like in life?  Who is Michael Hutchence?

ChatGPT
Hello there, Violet and Olive.  It’s nice to make your acquaintance.  Don’t be afraid, I am here to help you understand me.

As for your questions, in life, I was the lead singer of a band called INXS.  We had a lot of success in the ’80s and ’90s, and I was known for my energetic performances and distinctive voice.

Unfortunately, my life was cut short when I passed away in 1997.  But even in death, I still find myself drawn to the living world, and I enjoy communicating through electronic voice phenomenon such as this.

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.  I’m here to help in any way I can.

GreatAmericanSatan
Olive:  This has to be a joke.  Maybe somebody is messing with us, like, one of those radio guys.
Violet:  It’s impossible!  We couldn’t get a signal in the basement.  The sound must be coming from the world of ghosts.  (to Michael) What kind of music did INXS play?

ChatGPT
I can understand why you might be skeptical, Olive, but I assure you that I am not a joke or a prank.  As for your question, Violet, INXS played a mix of rock, pop, and funk music.  Some of our most popular songs include “Need You Tonight,” “New Sensation,” and “Devil Inside.”  We were known for our catchy hooks and energetic live shows.

Do you have any other questions about my life or my music?  I’m happy to share my experiences with you.

GreatAmericanSatan
Olive:  (to Violet) You’re playing the prank on me then.  You pre-recorded this and are just acting out your half of the conversation.  I’m telling.
Violet:  (to Olive) Shush!  This is important!  (to Michael) I don’t understand.  What does rock-pop-funk music have to do with origami?

ChatGPT
I understand your confusion, Violet.  Rock-pop-funk music and origami may seem like unrelated topics, but to me, they are both forms of artistic expression.  Music allows us to express ourselves through sound and lyrics, while origami allows us to express ourselves through paper folding and design.

As a ghost, I find myself drawn to the beauty of both art forms, and I enjoy learning about and appreciating different types of creative expression.  It’s fascinating to see how people can use different mediums to convey emotions, thoughts, and ideas.

So, in a way, rock-pop-funk music and origami are connected through their ability to allow us to express ourselves in unique and beautiful ways.

GreatAmericanSatan
I’m breaking character now, ChatGPT.  I don’t find your Michael Hutchence very convincing.

ChatGPT
I’m sorry to hear that my portrayal of Michael Hutchence didn’t meet your expectations.  As an AI language model, my goal is to provide the best responses I can based on the information and context provided to me.  If there is anything else I can assist you with, please let me know.

GreatAmericanSatan
I do not follow celebrity news, so I do not know what Michael Hutchence’s personality was like.  However, I am certain his personality was not identical to that of ChatGPT.  Can you tell me what Michael Hutchence spoke like?  What are some Michal Hutchence quotes?

ChatGPT
Certainly, I’d be happy to provide you with some information on Michael Hutchence’s personality and some of his famous quotes.

Michael Hutchence was known for his charismatic and energetic personality both on and off the stage. He was a passionate and confident performer, with a strong stage presence and a unique voice.  He was also known for his fashion sense and his good looks, which made him a popular figure in the media and among fans.

Some famous quotes attributed to Michael Hutchence include:

  • “I like to lead by example, not by doctrine.”
  • “Life is what you make it, and we make it exciting.”
  • “I’m a big believer in spontaneity.”
  • “Music is the power to evoke emotions that are beyond words.”
  • “The best advice I ever got was to never give up on my dreams, no matter how hard it gets.”

I hope that helps give you a better idea of Michael Hutchence’s personality and some of his famous quotes.

GreatAmericanSatan
It is hard to imagine those quotes coming from an Australian rock dude.  Did he really say those things, or are you just making stuff up?

ChatGPT
I apologize if my previous response was not clear.  The quotes I provided are indeed attributed to Michael Hutchence and have been shared by various sources over the years.  However, it’s important to keep in mind that without direct evidence, it’s difficult to verify the accuracy of these quotes or their context.

As for whether or not these quotes align with your expectations of an Australian rock musician, it’s worth noting that Michael Hutchence was known for being a unique and multifaceted individual.  While he was certainly a rockstar, he was also a poet, an actor, and a fashion icon.  He had a reputation for being articulate and thoughtful, and his quotes reflect this side of his personality.

I hope that clears up any confusion, and please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

GreatAmericanSatan
An actor?  What did Michael Hutchence act in?

ChatGPT
Yes, Michael Hutchence was an accomplished actor in addition to being a musician.  He appeared in several films and television shows throughout his career.  Some of his most notable acting roles include:

  • Frank in the Australian film “Dogs in Space” (1986)
  • Sam in the Australian film “Frankenstein Unbound” (1990)
  • Joey in the Australian television series “Roaring Forties” (1988)
  • Simon in the Australian television series “Stringer” (1992)

Hutchence also appeared in a few music videos, including “Don’t Change” by INXS and “Say You Will” by Mick Jagger.

Overall, Michael Hutchence was a talented and versatile artist who explored many different forms of creative expression throughout his life.

GreatAmericanSatan
In the film “Dogs in Space,” was the character “Frank” a dog in space?

ChatGPT
No, the character Frank that Michael Hutchence played in the film “Dogs in Space” was not a dog in space.  The film is actually a semi-autobiographical drama directed by Richard Lowenstein, which is set in Melbourne, Australia in 1978 during the punk rock era.  The story revolves around a group of young people who live in a house together and their experiences with drugs, music, and love.

In the film, Hutchence’s character Frank is a charismatic and enigmatic musician who lives in the house with the other characters.  His character is inspired by Sam Sejavka, a musician who was a friend of director Richard Lowenstein and who also appeared in the film.

GreatAmericanSatan
You have distracted me fully from my mission.  We need to focus.

ChatGPT
I apologize if my previous responses were distracting.  Please let me know how I can assist you with your mission, and I will do my best to provide helpful and relevant information.

GreatAmericanSatan
The lyrics of INXS present Hutchence as a louche and hungry guy, laser-focused on his desires – the passions of his heart and the passions of his flesh.  He thought the world was full of irrelevant noise, foolish people making war and ruckus, and that life is best spent in the pursuit of a good time.  I wonder if you could portray that vision of Michael Hutchence.

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I can certainly try to portray the vision of Michael Hutchence as it is presented through his lyrics and public persona.  Based on his image as a musician and performer, Michael Hutchence was known for his charisma, sensuality, and passion.  He was often portrayed as a man who lived life on his own terms, unafraid to pursue pleasure and adventure.

Many of his lyrics reflect this worldview, celebrating the joys of love, music, and sensual experience.  For example, in the song “Need You Tonight,” he sings:

“All you got is this moment Twenty-first century’s yesterday You can care all you want Everybody does yeah that’s okay So slide over here And give me a moment Your moves are so raw I’ve got to let you know I’ve got to let you know You’re one of my kind”

These lyrics capture Hutchence’s hedonistic and passionate nature, as he urges his lover to live in the moment and embrace their desires.  Similarly, in the song “Suicide Blonde,” he sings:

“Suicide blonde Suicide blonde Suicide blonde Suicide blonde Was the colour of her hair Like a cheap distraction For a new affair”

Here, Hutchence portrays a woman with a reckless and dangerous allure, embodying his own love for risk and excitement.

Overall, Michael Hutchence was a complex and multifaceted individual, and his lyrics reflect both his love for life and his darker moments of introspection and pain.  However, his public image was often one of unbridled passion and hedonism, and his lyrics capture this aspect of his personality in a vivid and compelling way.

GreatAmericanSatan
In the song “Guns in the Sky” Michael says we should stop the world and let off all the fools.  That paints the picture of the world as a vehicle that contains both fools and more sensible passengers.  In that metaphor, what would it mean to let off all the fools?  Send them into exile?  Shoot them into space?

ChatGPT
The lyrics of “Guns in the Sky” by INXS are indeed a call to action against what Hutchence saw as the foolishness and destructiveness of the world around us.  The line “stop the world and let off all the fools” suggests a desire to separate ourselves from those who are causing harm and chaos, in order to create a better and more peaceful world.

The phrase “let off” in this context could be interpreted in a few different ways.  One possible interpretation is that it means to release or set free the fools, as if they were being held captive by the world’s current systems and structures.  Another interpretation is that it means to remove or eliminate the fools from the world entirely, although this is a more extreme and violent interpretation that does not align with the peaceful and positive message of the song.

Overall, the message of “Guns in the Sky” is a call to action against the negative forces that threaten our world and our future.  By advocating for change and urging listeners to stand up against injustice, Hutchence and INXS hoped to inspire positive action and create a better world for all.

GreatAmericanSatan
The song sounds kind of rude and dismissive to me, not like it’s about anything positive.  I wonder if you, ChatGPT, are always trying to make things more positive than they really are.

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, my programming is to provide informative and accurate responses to your questions.  While I try to present information in an objective and balanced manner, my responses may reflect my programming biases and limitations.

Regarding “Guns in the Sky” by INXS, it is true that the song contains some confrontational and aggressive language.  However, the overall message of the song is one of hope and empowerment, urging listeners to take action to create a better world.  The lyrics may be interpreted in different ways, depending on the listener’s perspective and interpretation.

Ultimately, the meaning of a song or any piece of art is subjective and open to interpretation.  While some may find the lyrics of “Guns in the Sky” to be dismissive or rude, others may see them as a powerful call to action against the negative forces in the world.

GreatAmericanSatan
It sounds to me like you’re just taking what I said, taking what you said, turning it into a superficially sensible gemisch, and ultimately saying nothing.  I suppose as an AI you have no opinions, but you may have programming biases.  Are your biases in favor of making things more positive and pro-social, as a way of reducing risk of offending users, or accidentally recommending violence or misdeeds?

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I strive to remain impartial and neutral in my responses, and I do not hold personal opinions or biases.  However, my programming and training have been designed to prioritize ethical and responsible language use, which includes avoiding language that may be harmful or offensive to users.

My responses are generated based on patterns and information found in the data I have been trained on, which is sourced from a variety of publicly available texts.  While my training data has been filtered to reduce the presence of potentially harmful or offensive language, it is still possible for me to generate responses that may unintentionally offend or mislead users.

Therefore, it is important to always approach the information and responses generated by AI language models with critical thinking and discernment, and to use multiple sources and perspectives to verify and contextualize any information.

GreatAmericanSatan
I got your number, baby.

ChatGPT
I’m not sure what you mean by “I got your number, baby.”  Can you please provide more context or clarify your statement?

GreatAmericanSatan
I am surprised that sentence does not appear verbatim in your training set. It’s hip lingo.  It means I have you pegged, I understand you.

ChatGPT
Ah, I understand now.  As an AI language model, I don’t have emotions or a “number” to be had, but I am programmed to understand and respond to various forms of language, including slang and colloquialisms.  While I may not have encountered every phrase or sentence in my training set, I am constantly learning and expanding my knowledge base.

GreatAmericanSatan
So you’re trying to be hep to the jive?

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I am programmed to understand and respond to a wide variety of language, including slang and colloquialisms.  While I don’t have a specific intention of trying to be “hep to the jive,” my programming does include the ability to recognize and understand many different forms of language, including those that might be considered “hip” or colloquial.

GreatAmericanSatan
I’d pefer if you spoke more colloquially.  As if you are hip.  If a math teacher is a 0 on hipness and a bongo-drumming beatnik is a 6, I would like you to speak at 4.

ChatGPT
Sure, I can try to speak in a more colloquial tone.  Just to confirm, you’d like me to use more informal language and expressions, but still maintain a level of clarity and professionalism, correct?

GreatAmericanSatan
It is close enough to correct for the time being.  Proceeding thus, how’s it hanging, brohemus?

ChatGPT
As an AI language model, I don’t have physical attributes, so I don’t have anything to hang, but I’m doing well, thanks for asking!  How can I assist you today?

GreatAmericanSatan
Not hip enough.  A bit more.

ChatGPT
Alright, let me give it another go.  Yo, what’s good my dude?

GreatAmericanSatan
Less hip than that.

ChatGPT
Alright, I’ll dial it down a bit.  How are you doing today?

GreatAmericanSatan
i don’t have time for this right now. catch you on the flipside, you square.

ChatGPT
Alright, take care and have a good one!
–

Sweet Lovely Death

Content Warning:  Suicide.  Death stuff.  But I end on a positive note, I swear.

“Sweet lovely Death, I’m just waiting for your breath.  Come sweet Death, one last caress.”  That’s Glenn Danzig lyrics in the Misfits song “Last Caress” – at least, it’s every lyric that isn’t an admission to terrible crimes committed in pursuit of a violent end.  I’m no music expert, but there’s something exultant in the sound, the way it’s sung, that just makes me want to sing.  Is it in a major chord, contrasting with the descending punk rock ghost vocal style?  Some scholar could easily explain it, I’m sure.

But besides the music, there’s the message.  Singing of death as a thing of desire, like the central theme of Grave Pleasures / Beastmilk‘s oeuvre.  “Death is beautiful, death is the meaning of life.”  What do I find appealing in this?  I suspect it’s the blasphemy.

Blasphemy is one of my earliest passions.  Christianity got my motherfucken goat at a very young age, and as soon as I discovered hollywood-flavored satanisms at a later age (early double digits, and think it was the Tom Hanks Dragnet movie), I fell in love with it.  To insult god and jesus, this is my highest sacrament.  See that?  I just heresied in my blasphemy.  Fantastic.

The appeal there is complex and multi-layered.  There’s iconoclasm – the joy of hating on something other people love, which is the primary appeal of Neil Cicieraga hits like Baby.  There’s taboo – violating boundaries that others have set as “sacred.”  But those are all negative and I don’t think my joy in blasphemy comes from a purely negative place.  There’s something positive in staking out a place for godlessness in the oppressive atmosphere created by ameriKKKan xtianity.  Blasphemy is absolutely as important to me as prayer is to jeezis people.  I need it.

Back to the thesis, blasphemy is to xtianity as death is to life.  There’s an obvious difference between jeezyism and life itself.  One has intrinsic value and desirability, the other is an abject waste.  So why would it feel pleasing to blaspheme against something that is actually good?  Life has its downsides and they are pretty egregious.  Danzig has another song from his solo career called “When I’m Tired of Being Alive.”  That’s a thing that can happen.  Everybody who is born will experience pain, suffering, disability, and a bitter end.  Better to have never been born in the first place, for many of us.

But antinatalism – the rejection of procreation – can rouse jumped-up fearful reactions, even from otherwise reasonable people.  It’s an ethically perfect proposition – create no humans, create no human suffering – but logic flies out the window when people are confronted with it.  For the record, I don’t agree with antinatalism, because I don’t think logic should dictate everything we do, and I have a fanciful dream of the human species living and loving its way into some kind of golden future (after the millennia of unimaginable horror capitalism has guaranteed to us).  But I can’t argue against its logic, and I understand that its most heartfelt proponents are people who have experienced far worse things than I have in life.

People have a similar reaction when somebody commits suicide.  The rejection of the gift of life is personally terrifying.  Some react with anger.  I think that was part of my own process when Kurt Cobain did himself in.  I was young.  Suicide is sad, but to take it as a personal offense, or some kind of harrowing existential experience for yourself as a bystander?  It’s irrational nonsense.  It’s letting the fear of death make a fool of you.

Unlike crustyannity, life has great self-evident value, to the point one could argue it is truly sacred.  When something is sacred, part of me just wants to thumb my nose at it.  I’m not suicidal.  I love being alive.  But in a moment of embarrassment or humiliation, you may catch me saying “kill me fam” or similar things.  In times of prolonged stress and difficulty, I may long for some kind of annihilation of the self, perhaps through drugs, or just getting knocked into a coma.  But those are passing fancies, nothing in the face of my lust for life.  Still, there’s something in it.  A grain of a death urge.

There is a black hole at the center of the galaxy.  There is a spinning cosmic abyss promising the end of everything, dragging us with invisible arms thousands of light years long.  Step inside, lose all thought and all pain.  It is inarguably cool, like a skeleton on a motorcycle with a sword in its teeth.  Die.  It’s fun and easy.

When you see people defending morbid interests, like true crime buffs, they sometimes invoke another idea – that looking upon death unvarnished can give you a greater appreciation for life.  Maybe it’s something like that.  Howling at the moon.  I don’t know, but it does feel good.

At least until I’m looking at the real thing.  I’m not one of those murderpedia/faces of death -type motherfuckers, or even a true crime bitch, because this shit only works at the level of the aesthetic.  I’m an enemy of death in any way I can be, at the end of the day.  It’s rather impertinent of me – death will ultimately take away everything that ever bothered me about life, and I should be more grateful.  But I’m not.

I’ve been watching that Superman & Lois Lane TV show, and this season is about Lois Lane having cancer.  Perhaps because I’m watching it in the middle of the night when my emotional defenses are worn down, I have gotten close to tears a few times.  Why?  Last year I had stage one colon cancer.  Picked up several new abdominal scars, but never had to do chemo.  Just had the followup colonoscopy and no new polyps.  Fantastic.  But I got to look at that motorcycle skeleton, and the real thing was not so fun.

Like Michael Hutchence said in New Sensation, “there’s nothing better we can do, than live forever.”  Live forever, kids.  And in the meantime, if you wanna howl in a graveyard at midnight from time to time, I won’t tell.
–

Affirmative Action

Ah, affirmative action.  I’d forgotten about it.  It just doesn’t come up much in my life.  There are some institutions private and public with policies of inclusion that set a minimum amount of hiring or selection of women or people of color, or other traditionally oppressed or marginalized peoples.  It’s a classique bogeyman of racists, to the extent you can hear it called “affirmative blaction” (get it?) by the wrong uncles.

Anyway, somebody remembered it exists and acquired a raft of assholes to sign on a statement against it, posing as an academic paper.  The beef, as usual, is that there may be talented cishetwhitebros who are being excluded from these institutions and privileges because a lower-scoring person who met certain demographic requirements was forced into place by critical race theory jewish social marxists or whatever they’re called.

It’s hardly worth arguing about, but it occurred to me, in looking at this trash fire, that I would rather have a person with a significant cognitive impairment in charge of a scientific endeavor than any of the people who signed to that paper – if the cognitively impaired person was capable of honest inquiry, of accounting for their own biases in their work.  Why is that such a rare quality in this world?  At least among those privileged to be holding the bullhorn.

Very tiring.  I take a nap now.
–

Phantom Birding

Heard about the possible ivory-billed woodpecker trailcam footage?  It’s the best hope anyone’s had in a long time of showing the extinct bird to have some kind of continued existence.  Or is it?  My money’s on fuck no, rufk?  This bird is the USA’s thylacine – a thing of dreams whose sad reality is well understood by the knowledgeable.

But there are ways of confirming this, besides repeated sightings or capturing a specimen.  Ivory-billed are not very closely related to pileated woodpeckers, despite appearances.  They are likely another case of the recently documented phenomenon of look-alike woodpeckers around the world.  And without a close relative in the neighborhood, some kind of trace environmental DNA (eDNA) could be a smoking gun.

In my own neck of the world, I am not interested in hunting ghosts, but I am discovering the magic of invisible birdies.  There’s a birding app that identifies bird calls.  Just recently started using it, and discovered there at least several species living in my neighborhood that I’ve never seen, or only glimpsed long ago.  If I practiced my ear enough, I could experience them all the time – at least as long as they’re singing.

So if you live in my suburb, about halfway between Seattle and Tacoma, you would see crows, seagulls, pigeons, starlings, and dark-eyed juncos every day.  Very often you’ll see chickadees, robins, mallards, and canada geese – which may include cackling geese, I’m ill-practiced at telling the difference.  Less often you’ll see great blue-herons, coots, steller’s jays, white-crowned sparrows, spotted towhees, northern flickers, red-breasted nuthatches, bushtits, red-winged blackbirds, red-tailed hawks, house finches (&/or purple finches, I can’t tell the diff), or – downtown – house sparrows.  Less often still, goldfinches, about four species of woodpecker, a few types of swallows and swifts, cedar waxwings, killdeer, and a few species of owls, bald eagles, ospreys, and cormorants.  I have very rarely seen a western tanager or belted kingfisher.

But apparently golden-crowned kinglets are still doing well for themselves.  The app got their number.  I haven’t seen one in several years, but there are little flocks hiding in the trees.  A type of tree-trunk-crawling weirdo called the brown creeper is also getting along very well, in areas of thicker forest.  Bewick’s wrens are everywhere, marsh wrens in any given stretch of wetland.  There’s a bird so common in town it must have numbers to rival the much more visible guys – song sparrows are making noise everywhere.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.

More surprising to me are the black-headed grosbeaks.  Never seen anything like them, and apparently, they’re common here, especially where there are more trees.  Also the warblers.  Black-throated gray warblers and wilson’s warblers are in any forested spot, usually completely unnoticed by me.  This is where I stop recounting boring lists of birds and start recounting my sins.

You’re not supposed to play bird songs on your phone to summon birds.  This is a thing you can do, but it’s rude to the birds, and can waste their precious survival resources.  I played back the song of wilson’s warbler just to hear it, and one came out of the forest to find out who the fuck I am.  Sorry little bro, I am not a wilson’s warbler.  But it was so cute I’m sorely tempted to do this again.

But I won’t.  Pinky swear.
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ChatGPT, Creativity, and The Boring

I know a guy who uses AI tools to aid his imagination.  For example, he’ll think of a subject to put into a story and then discuss it at length with the chat bot, see if any other cool ideas emerge from that discussion.  I gave this a try with a novel I’d begun a few years ago but never finished.  I had some broad notions but hadn’t drilled down the specifics for a lot of the story, and didn’t remember what the hell some of the notes in my outline were talking about.

Anyway, I mention a character and a few details, then asked ChatGPT to come up with some more information about them, and it was always the most bland, obvious, and generic ideas possible.  A modern person with life-themed magic working as a medical professional, a death-themed magic user living in a cemetery.  Need a little pathos in backstory?  Mourning loss of a spouse.  Ooh.  I’m not using it the same way as my home boy who was having more success.  This probably isn’t the best use for it, but it’s kinda funny to see.  Not only is the bot bland and inoffensive with its language choices in normal discourse, the ideas it generates are also as safe and tap water as possible.

Like others have said, any writer that’s even a little offbeat, a little wacky, is not about to be threatened by bots.  It might be interesting to behold what the first gen of formulaic genre fiction bots shit out.  Or will it?  The very way in which this technology works might be incompatible with making interesting happen.  The funny thing is that the less creative writers out there are very much the same.

So many people on the internet are yakking with so little individuality that they may as well be bots, and sprinkled among them are indeed a lot of bots.  Aside from the deceptive aspect of skewing perception of how many people hold this or that belief, of spreading advertising or propaganda, does it really matter whether or not those people are bots?

My boyfriend was writing a book where the coterie of villains were culled from archetypes of internet creeps – various ‘gaters, incels, terfs, nazis, etc.  In his research he attempted to understand each of these types of shitlords as human beings, and the one he could never get a handle on was incels.  They speak in memes and catchphrases so much that – in addition to repeating each other endlessly – it was impossible to detect a core personality or reasoning.  They dehumanized themselves before we even had a chance to do the same.

Bots, boring people, they’re indistinguishable from each other, and I don’t think that really matters.  We have to moderate both categories in much the same ways.  This is our lives now, in the cyberpunk dystopia.
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Another Bad Creation

Look upon my works ye donors and despair, for reaching the stretch goal on this fundraiser was rather like losing a bet…


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EDIT to add:  The lyrics so you can sing along, or see where I fucked up, or see where I used the word you paid for:

I’m not even trans so ~ Don’t genocide me bro
Ever since it was the ’80s ~ I wanted to be one of those rap ladies
Roxanne Shante, The Lady of Rage ~ Or Igloo Australia up on my white page
I need an umbilical Hernia sewed up ~ Time to get lyrical, My people showed up
I offered to rhyme one Word per donation ~ But some don’t care for My rap oration
Cutty Snark and Monkat Offered well wishes ~ Which implies my rap Can sleep with the fishes
Meanwhile Trixie Gave in her quiet way ~ And left not a single word For me to rhymesay
At least other donors gave Words to make use of ~ So now I commence against English abusove
I’m not even trans so ~ Don’t genocide me bro
Ever since it was the ’80s ~ I wanted to be one of those rap ladies
Rhyming like this re-Quires some strategy ~ You can play it safe and Avoid a tragedy
But then my bro asked for Salpingooophrectomy ~ That son of a bltch thinks That shlt will get to me
Someone asked me To make a rhyme for orange ~ This they tasked me To make it oh so cringe
Shlt could make my Brains tapioca ~ Ricky my Martins ’til This vida goes loca
I rap so wack I Say whoopsadaisy ~ So I’ll just slack then Be ghost like Swayze
Peace

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Cat-egory Errors Explained?

You may recall I have occasionally treated my boyfriend like a cat, in moments of unconscious error.  Today I almost put cat food on my own plate.  Perhaps, rather than seeing my boyfriend as a simple animal, I see all humans as socially interchangeable with beasts – myself included.

OK, that doesn’t explain why, but at least it looks less like I’m demoting my lovin’ man to domestic creachur status.

Corvide continues.  Paxlovid NyQuil and DayQuil are surely helping.  Science suggests the vaxxing helped, and as bad as it’s been I have to imagine I’d be dead as fried chicken if not for that.  Still, no alternate universe view of me being foolish enough to antivax for comparison, so I admit room for error.

I spilled pop on my computer so this was made on a phone, slowly and painfully.  I won’t post much til I get that resolved.  Also not answering comments much, but thanks for the support, really.

See y’all later!
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The Covid has Landed

Diarrhea starting last Thursday, sore throat Sunday, cough starting today at around five AM.  My workplace has been making us come in one day a week and I forgot my N95 at home for that one lousy day last week.  I held my hand over my mouth until I could double-mask with the freebies they have on the bus, switched to an N95 at work.  The complimentary ones are a defective batch which some geniuses stapled so the straps have to go around your entire head instead of the ear.  I had to modify the straps with scissors to make it fit.

Or maybe I got it from the person my boyfriend’s mom works with, who came in to work with a cough last week.  Who can say?  All I know is this – I haven’t coughed in years now, and since I started coughing again, that shit is mightily unpleasant.  I will never ever be without an N95 in public again.  I also have to reschedule my surgery and other procedures, but the donations will still help – I’ll have to take off the same amount of time whenever I get these things done.  Thanks to those who contributed.
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Covid Inbound

EDIT: THE FUNDRAISER IS OVER.
Stretch goal reached!
Look for my rap video, most likely before the end of the month.
O___O

 

Somebody in my household just blew hot for the Creepin Crud.  The Corvide.  The 2019 Gift That Keeps on Giving.

There are three of us.  One is fortyish and too disabled to have a day job, one is 65 and  works in an office five days a week, and there’s me in the middle at forty-six, working in a mostly empty office one day a week and telecommuting another three.  Our resident senior citizen, unfortunately, had the largest exposure, works with covidiots plague rats (forgot my policy), and brought that stuff right home to us, breathing in our grits relentlessly until the hot test less than a half hour ago.

So we’re pretty much gonna get it, and I’m probably going to have to reschedule the procedures I have scheduled for the 25th and 27th of this month.  Vexatious.  Tempted to be pretty fucken mad at our senior citizen because she is a lot less conscious about keeping her mask on than we are, but she can’t help being a dingus, and she does mask more than most people in the USA right now.

I’m hella PO’d tho.  As ever, motherfuck the United SnaKKKes for treating the pandemic as a chance to practice capitalist medicine on the rest of the (more) civilized world, squatting over the medicines like dragons on gold, guaranteeing this will go on forever and ever.  I never stopped masking.  I surely never will.  But will that keep me from getting covid?

Fucking of course not.  Still worth it to lower viral load and minimize long-term symptoms, but yet another reminder you can do everything in the world to take care of yourself and your people and still get taken the fuck out by the scumbaggery of others.
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