2006 made me suspicious of the Democrats forever. Pelosi and the party ran on defunding the Iraq War, then promptly dropped it upon taking office.

I DID primary for Obama because he was promising a public healthcare option. We all know how that turned out: he ultimately championed a Republican scheme to entrench private insurers. Democrats failed to support their party’s signature policy proposal when it mattered.

While Obama expanded the Bush wars…

That’s when I gave up all hope in the party making any progress or acting in good faith. They haven’t given me any reason to rethink that stance.

Sorry your efforts and enthusiasm were wasted and abused by the DNC…

I recall the Coffee Party having a moment, a nationwide movement planned meetups all coordinated. In Asheville, I attended. the meetup was crashed by Obama’s Organizing for America, and I later learned that they crashed meetups everywhere.

I remember the smooth-talking guy and how he hijacked the meeting as we were making real progress. Fuck Obama and fuck the DNC

Democrats don’t even promise anything anymore. Not since 2008

Obligatory: I’m anti-AI, mostly anti-technology

That said, I can’t say that I mind LLMs using copyrighted materials that it accesses legally/appropriately (lots of copyrighted content may be freely available to some extent, like news articles or song lyrics)

I’m open to arguments correcting me. I’d prefer to have another reason to be against this technology, not arguing on the side of frauds like Sam Altman. Here’s my take:

All content created by humans follows consumption of other content. If I read lots of Vonnegut, I should be able to churn out prose that roughly (or precisely) includes his idiosyncrasies as a writer. We read more than one author; we read dozens or hundreds over our lifetimes. Likewise musicians, film directors, etc etc.

If an LLM consumes the same copyrighted content and learns how to copy its various characteristics, how is it meaningfully different from me doing it and becoming a successful writer?

Ah yeah, well… At least in America, the marketing gap is pretty wide I think! (mostly based around LLMs)

Our “AI” courseware was pretty basic outside of the facial recognition (which I found impressive, if not TOO useful). It would keep track of student responses and tailor some questions based on previous performance, but that’s pretty basic (I think it would have been better if our content developers knew how to work with the software)

About the marketing, we were actually a multimedia educational materials maker. Textbooks, courseware, video series , etc etc

The founder/CEO liked to pretend we were a tech company, but our bread and butter was VIPKids-style English lessons and textbook series with long shelf life. (I often felt like he was cosplaying as Jack Ma, Steve Jobs, or Jeff Bezos, if you know what I mean)

I have no good references that aren’t boring propaganda from state media… Search China Daily for stories about ed tech

Or more broadly, search for “Ed tech” or “educational technology”

I think our “AI” was mostly BS, but I guess it had its niche.

Oh that reminds me… When I worked at state media, we ran stories about AI facial recognition at the winter Olympics. The stories claimed that they could identify more than 99 percent of people wearing COVID masks (I suspect this may be an exaggeration, as airport immigration officials and train station officials would make people remove masks and smile for cameras)

Also, just remembered: During my time at state media, I recall reading some Xi Jinping quote along the lines of “Whoever has the best AI will control the future”

My company in China added AI to its products basically to receive government subsidies.

They introduced it into courseware to track student faces and tell parents whether kids were enjoying lessons, paying attention, etc etc. It was weird to see in action. I used the software and acted like a “bad student” to see what it would say about my face and lack of attention.

I’m also a voice actor. They tried to replace me with AI voices but the voices in 2021 were stuck in the uncanny valley and clients complained.

The company pretty much went belly-up when Beijing introduced the Double Reduction policy. I wonder what became of the their software? And I wonder if they ever made an AI version of my voice

Learn manual. It’s not that hard but later in life you’ll have few opportunities to learn it if you need it

This is fascinating and I have a bunch of questions, basically all centered around the fact that possession of the such content is outlawed. I don’t exoect OP to know, but maybe someone else does:

Isn’t it illegal to have a library of such content? Is there a legal carveout for that, like Coca Cola importing cocaine?

How is the library compiled, maintained, and added to?

Is the library specific to Discord or is it a shared library maintained by some centralized “authority” or developer? If it’s specific to Discord then can we assume there are many different libraries of illegally produced and possessed content compiled and maintained by various social media companies? Who’s got that job? Do they get therapy in their benefits package?

How does eating popcorn == CSAM?

Your city has a cool vibe.

The Sopranos theme music

My wife and my bandmates

You want a guy who’s not interested in sex? Have you considered just befriending gay men? Or dating a guy closer to 50?

Seriously, almost guy your age is on the prowl…

Stories are lame and I literally never watch them unless a sexy woman is involved

If it really matters to you then just say “Hey babe, I notice that you never watch my stories, but you’re on my mind when I make them”

Don’t make it about comparing. Just make it about him meeting your basic expectations of a distance relationship. If he continues to come up short, well… Life is too short to be seven hours away from your partner. I’m sure there are plenty of available folks in your area

And yeah, just don’t sweat if he’s got some thirsty follows. It’s similar to porn so maybe find something you can both enjoy together 🤷🏻‍♀️ or maybe get him to talk about it in a non-judgmental conversation

These guys aren’t corporate though

It’s awful. I’m overseas and so it’s useful for keeping in touch with many different kinds of people in different places, but I use it less and less

Mulletsgalore.com

Cook at home. Use mostly fresh ingredients. Staple foods are cheap… Rice, beans, etc

Beans and rice with oil and vinegar can hit the spot every day for lunch

Cold cut sandwich with fresh veggies. Bonus for homemade bread!

Eggs. Pasta. Eggs & pasta

For snacks, popcorn on your stove. Flavor with salt or spices. (I love Tajin!)

Keep a few spices in your kitchen. Have a decent olive oil and something high temp like grapeseed or vegetable oil

Avoid alcohol. If you must, don’t drink in bars. (I’m alcoholic… I know it’s hard to quit)

Learn how to properly operate your home’s thermostat in summer and winter. Set it for automatic and dial in your preferred temperature. Leave it constant. This is vastly more efficient than turning it on and off and on and off.

Don’t speed when driving a car. It takes more gas and can get you ticketed

Don’t pay for TV or streaming services. Just pirate. Pirate games too. Books from libgen

For internet access, it may be best value to get unlimited mobile data and make a Hotspot for your PC

Have a specific savings plan. Set X% aside immediately after receiving each paycheck. If possible, get a high-interest account where you’re required to make monthly deposits

If you have a hobby, hopefully it’s cheap. If you can monetize it without killing your passion, go for it. If you have an expensive hobby, try to make enough money from it to offset the costs (I study fiddle. I busk to pay for strings, bowhair, and occasional lessons)

Consider leaving the US for a place that’s cheaper or offers better terms. I left to teach English in Korea and China. Was able to save money and have a robust social life.

My eyes glazed over before I finished the first paragraph

Mr. F!