Gemini* and Gopher

• Personal/Opinions

  • The Family Across the Street

    Well, that was unexpected.

    It usually takes me at least a month, sometimes years, to finish a book. I read very slowly. Not this time. I was racing through this in *a week*, which is crazy fast by my standards.

    "Psychological thrillers" don't work for me - yet - when they are books. I'm probably too used to movies and their *soundtrack*. Music is very important to get an eery, spooky experience, I think. Maybe I just need to put on some soundtrack on headphones myself. :-) Either way, this was a great story, very captivating and exciting. I don't think I've ever read 80 pages of something in one go because I really wanted to know what comes next.

  • NATMOS:R C1| LQ’s account of the end

    Dementia, is an incurable Neurodegenerative disease, that goes through 7 stages. Usually, most people get diagnosed in the first, second or third stages when the disease begins to show. However, knowing that their life is going to end also puts strain on not just yourself, leading to denial, as seen in this year.

  • Food expiration dates: A great American scam (U.S.-specific)

    According to a USDA estimate (2022), roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption is wasted. In a peer-reviewed research paper published in the Science magazine (2018), this accounts for 24 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions attributable to food production, and 6 percent of total global GHG emissions. This figure does not include methane emissions from landfills due to aerobic decomposition of thrown-away food. Combined, food waste is one of the major human-related causes of climate change.

    In other words, we waste a lot of food. Typical suburban, middle-class U.S. shoppers would fill up their massive supermarket shopping carts once a week, whether or not they really need all these things. And a lot of this ends up in the trash. While an increasing number of cities now allow collections of food scraps in the yard debris bins, thanks to an improved compost system, the most important step one can take is to reduce the waste in the first place.

  • Getting adjusted

    I am still getting over jetlag, which always takes around a week or so. One good thing about it is being awake very early in the morning. It is a wonderful feeling to wake up and remember that you have no obligations or set plans for the day.

    We went to the supermarket yesterday, and it was a bittersweet experience, just like last year. The frozen food section was enormous, and chips isle seemed to go on forever, and the deli was inviting. At the supermarkets we go shop at in Tokyo, there is no deli where you can ask for a 1/2lb of smoked turkey or roast beef.

  • Why A Reading Journal?

    Basically, I am a speed reader, and I think I am quite good at reading quickly and holding onto information from what I read in the moment. But I quickly forget about things. And I have trouble expressing my thoughts about these things in any meaningful way. I get really embarrassed at putting my thoughts down even in places that only I will ever read. It's like what I can put down in words doesn't match what's in my head so it's inaccurate and I don't want it. But then since I never put anything down I forget...

  • old air

• Technology and Free Software

  • AI Fatigue Revisited

    Back in mid-June, I decided to try to stop using ChatGPT so much for solving my problems. Instead I'd just go old-school Google searches and see where it landed me. I was unhappy, see, with the general results of ChatGPT since I could never fully trust it despite how confident it seemed.

    And ChatGPT 5, recently released, doesn't seem to be a heckuva lot better on that front.

    In any case, around the end of June, I canceled my ChatGPT subscription. And it's still canceled.

  • Internet/Gemini

    • Network Freedom Act

      In the past few decades we’ve rapidly seen corporations exploiting the network externality become the most powerful entities in the history of the Earth.

      “Join our app and keep using it. Or lose your friends, job, housing access.” From frivolities like playlist sharing and comment section through social media through actual job and house tools. Even your own legal identity in some countries.