Blogging With Artificial Intelligence

Technology innovations come and go.  Most turn out to be nothing, but some turn out to change the world -- things like the internet / web, or cellular / smart phones.

The current most-talked-about tech innovation is artificial intelligence (AI), more specifically, ChatGPT.  It's an AI chatbot developed by a company called OpenAI.  In the vernacular, when asked for information, it can scour the web and give detailed responses for practically any topic.

Of course, the technology is still new, and it can give some strange, even inaccurate responses.  But one can certainly see how it could be a game-changer, for better or (gulp) for worse.

I signed up for the 'free' version being used for testing, and today I asked it for "A blog entry on the topic of Spring Break."  Below is the result, which I have not edited:

As the weather starts to warm up and the end of the school year approaches, students everywhere begin to eagerly anticipate spring break. This much-needed vacation is a chance for students to relax and recharge before the final stretch of the school year. In this blog entry, we'll explore the history and significance of spring break, as well as some popular destinations and activities.

History and Significance of Spring Break

The origins of spring break can be traced back to ancient civilizations, who celebrated the arrival of spring with festivals and other festivities. In the United States, the modern concept of spring break began in the 1930s, when college swim teams began traveling to Florida for training camps. Over time, other colleges and universities began scheduling their own spring breaks around the same time, and the tradition grew.

Today, spring break is an important part of the American academic calendar, and students use it as an opportunity to unwind, spend time with friends and family, and explore new places. For many students, spring break is also a chance to engage in activities that they may not have time for during the school year, such as traveling, volunteering, or pursuing hobbies.

Popular Destinations for Spring Break

One of the most popular spring break destinations in the United States is Florida, particularly cities like Miami, Panama City Beach, and Key West. These destinations offer warm weather, beautiful beaches, and a range of activities, from water sports to nightlife.

Other popular domestic destinations for spring break include Las Vegas, Nevada; Cancun, Mexico; and Puerto Rico. These destinations offer a mix of adventure, culture, and relaxation, and are popular with students looking for a more unique spring break experience.

For those looking to travel further afield, Europe is a popular destination for spring break, particularly cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona. These destinations offer a mix of culture, history, and nightlife, and are a great way for students to broaden their horizons and experience new cultures.

Activities for Spring Break

While some students choose to spend their spring break relaxing on the beach, others prefer more adventurous activities. Popular activities for spring break include hiking, camping, skiing, and snowboarding. Students may also choose to volunteer during their spring break, whether by participating in a service trip or working with a local organization to give back to the community.

Whatever your preferences, spring break is a great opportunity to explore new places, try new things, and recharge before the end of the school year. So whether you're planning a beach getaway or an adventure in the great outdoors, make the most of your spring break and enjoy this much-needed break from the rigors of academic life.

Not bad, huh?  You can certainly see how it can be used as a way of generating a first draft for something like a term paper, or news article.  Let's just hope this isn't the beginning of a takeover by our AI overlords.

What's The Harm

Have you ever wondered why so many people care so much about things that do no harm to anyone?  I have, and it’s recently been a recurring theme politically, professionally, and personally.

Starting with that former one, in Iowa and other republican-led states, politicians and their activist buddies are primarily focused on passing laws that hurt the LGBTQ community.  Why?  How are they or anyone else being harmed by library books, drag shows, or gender-identity causes?

The answer is they aren't harmed, but they're scared -- not only about change, but about losing money, power (same thing), and religion (also the same thing!).  Fake conservatives want no threats to their straight white Christian world.

Moving on the the professional front, I work with vendors who need authorization forms.  That's no problem, until they start requiring a specific manner of delivery.  We've long ago entered the digital age, and the COVID-19 pandemic made it even more common, but I still work with vendors who require original documents.

Who is harmed by accepting verifiable electronic signatures?  I guarantee these companies are going to digitize the document anyway!  I suppose the answer here is, some companies will only do things the way they've always done them.

Finally on the personal level, I've experienced an increase in the already-high number of people who want to make everything about themselves.  No conversation can be had without them taking it over, for nothing can be more important than what they or their loved ones do.

They'll even complain when told good news, if it isn't given at the time and place or their choosing.  A family / friend getting more attention harms no one; it only interrupts the desire of some for affirmation from others.  (Thanks, Facebook!)  Those who represent the 'some' should be avoided.

My conclusion in all of these items is pretty libertarian: If it harms no one else, why do you care?

The NASCAR Noncompete Clause

Another new season for NASCAR began last week, with the running of its most famous race, the Daytona 500.  Why they start their season with their biggest race is a mystery decades in the making.  To say the least, it's unique; to say the most, it's the dumbest thing a spectator 'sport' could do.

I'm not a car racing fan, I don't watch and I don't really care.  But I still can't get over how, inside every NASCAR race, are two dumber ideas that have come to fruition.  I submit to you 1) stage racing, and 2) overtime a/k/a the green-white-checkered ending.

With stage racing, each race has 2 or 3 'segments' to it, basically a prescribed number of laps.  At the end of each segment, the yellow flag comes out to pause the race, and the top finishers for each segment receive 'points' to be used in a season-long competition.

One of the outcomes of these stages is a re-bunching of the field.  So, if the driver leading the race was ahead by a lot, now his lead is gone.  In other words, it takes the strongest cars / drivers and evens them up with everyone else throughout the race.  Huh?

Imagine that happening in any other competition.  A team takes a big lead into halftime?  Reset the score for the second half.  A golfer has a big lead after two rounds?  Give the other golfers strokes to even things up.  It's unimaginably stupid.

However, when it comes to stage racing, NASCAR's overtime rules say, "Hold my beer."  The overtime rules were established years ago, after many races were being decided while the field wasn't actually racing, but proceeding 'under caution' due to a crash near the end of the race. While that type of ending was very much a buzz-kill for fans, the overtime rules don't help.

Now, instead of the race ending like that, extra laps are added, so that at least two laps can be run full-tilt to the end.  This sounds better, except it isn't.  Again, it hurts the race leader.  Plus, it often doesn't work.

Consider this year's Daytona 500, which went to overtime not once, but three separate times, because crashes just kept happening after re-starts.  In the end, NASCAR basically put the race out of its misery by declaring the race over, and naming the winner to be the car in first place at the last crash.

So after an extra 30 miles / one hour of boring caution laps, there was still no racing to the finish line.  The winner wasn't the best car / driver, it was more a matter of who was lucky enough to avoid the crashes.  Again, unimaginably stupid.

NASCAR has long fought the stereotype of being a good 'ol white boys 'sport' with fans that aren't the sharpest tools in the shed.  In the case of these rules, it takes one to know one.  If they were looking for ways to make races more boring and non-competitive, you could say they're the big winners.

We Care How You Care

Many years ago, my late mother became a resident of a long-term care facility.  While it was hours away from where I lived, over three years I still spent dozens of hours visiting her.

More recently, my wife's parents have also been, let's say, voluntarily relegated to a similar long-term care facility.  This time, it's quite near where I live, and in a short time I've already spent many hours there.

These care facility visits have made me, in my own mind, enough of an expert to know a few things that work and don't work -- not for the residents, but for the loved ones who visit them.

First, we want to have enough caretakers there to help.  Finding employees to work at these facilities wasn't easy before the COVID-19 pandemic, and it's even harder now.  But figure it out -- no resident should have to wait too long for help the basic activities of daily living.

Next, we want everyone to show kindness.  Of course, there will be days that workers there are stressed, and short of time, and basically don't want to be there.  Let's just keep that to a minimum, and be as pleasant as possible to those who have no choice but to be there.

Finally, an overlooked on one for a financial-focused person like me -- let's have staff that understands the health care provider / insurance administrative labyrinth.  By this I mean a staff that can understand and explain it, and doesn't allow it (or them) to make obscene profits off of the elderly.

I have more knowledge about how medical providers and insurers operate than most, and I still struggle to understand the rules and costs.  The residents of care facilities are already losing their independence, let's not let them unnecessarily lose their money.

Beware The Phog

If I had a written bucket list, which at this time I do not, some of the items would involve attendance at certain sports events and/or sports venues.  I was able to make it to one of those venues this month, Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas, home of University of Kansas basketball.

This is possibly the most famous college basketball venue in America.  Its history is magnified by the success of the men's team, which as of this writing has the most wins of any large university, along with several national championships (including last year).

I attended a close game between #14 ranked Iowa State and #2 ranked Kansas, so presumably I experienced everything the venue and crowd had to offer.  So did the visit meet my expectations?  Yes, but not all in a good way.....

When people refer to Allen Fieldhouse (named after former coach Phog Allen), they don't say 'old' they say 'historic' to put lipstick on a pig.  Yes, it has hosted historic games, and even has on display the original first draft of the rules of basketball by the game's creator, James Naismith.  The entrance also doubles as the KU Athletic Hall of Fame, with many trophies and pictures to be seen.

However, 'old' also means 'not contemporary'.  It has mostly uncomfortable fieldhouse seating, with hard-to-get-at wooden bleachers that have you sitting next to the feet of the people behind you.  Let's just say it isn't spectator friendly by today's standards.  Age comes with a cost, in both people and structures.

It's also not visiting-team friendly, in the sense it's small by dimension but still holds 16,000 people.  The crowd is very close to the court, and consequently, very loud.  When you can't hear the person next to you shouting in your ear, it's noisy.  It's quite a home-court advantage.  To make a football comparison, I'd refer to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City -- another very old structure with close bleacher seating.

The Kansas fans themselves were a good group, friendly and very knowledgeable about the game. They knew when to cheer or not, when to complain about officiating or not, that sort of thing.  Put differently, they know and respect the game and opponent.  To make another football comparison, I'd refer to Nebraska football fans at their home games. -- also friendly and game-knowledgeable.

One odd thing about the Kansas fans.....there were an unusually large number of them wearing the team jersey of a current or former player.  That's something you might see at a professional sports event, but it was very strange to see it at a college basketball game. 

All told, it was a fun trip to your basic college town, with a very old, er, I mean historic basketball venue.

2023

I promised to be less optimistic in my last annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year.  For the most part, that turned out to be a good idea.  Let's review the 2021 list, with comments in ALL CAPS:

More mandates and life complications for the unvaxxed, making more of them get vaxxed.

I SUPPOSE MORE GOT VAXXED, BUT NOT FOR INVOLUNTARY REASONS

Cryptocurrency regulations.

CLOSE BUT DIDN'T HAPPEN, BUT IT'S A LOT MORE LIKELY NOW THAT BIGSHOTS LOST BIG MONEY IN THE BANKRUPTCY OF FTX.

Prosecutions and convictions of Trump administration / organization officials who had roles in the 1/6/2021 insurrection.

CALLING THIS A YES, BECAUSE ALTHOUGH IT DIDN'T HAPPEN YET FOR ADMIN FOLKS, IT DID FOR MANY OTHER INDIVIDUALS.

A Winter Olympics that actually happens.

CHECK.  BUT IT WAS SORTA BORING.

An executive order, at the least, to loosen federal rules on cannabis.

YES THIS DID HAPPEN, BUT IT'S ONLY A PYRRHIC VICTORY WITHOUT ACUTAL LEGISLATIVE ACTION.

A top-tier Minnesota Vikings football team.

12-3 AS I WRITE THIS, SO I GUESS IT'S A YES?

A loss of market cap and credibility for Facebook/Meta.

A GIANT YES.

Me playing golf at a famous course / resort.

NO.

A decline in residential home buying.

ANOTHER GIANT YES, THANKS TO HIGHER INTEREST RATES.

A repeat from 2020 – me traveling to the final four U.S. states in which I’ve never set foot.

75% YES SINCE I GOT TO 3 OF THE 4.  ONLY ALASKA LEFT NOW.

Now for my new annual list of things I'd like to see happen next year.

A rising stock and bond market.

That Vladimir Putin is purged as a leader.  Any mysterious and/or violent way is acceptable.

Newly remodeled bathrooms in my house.

Me attending a major sporting event.

Elon Musk leaves Twitter, or I leave Twitter for another similar service.

Drought relief for the western U.S.

Me getting a golfing hole-in-one or eagle.

MAGA-death, and a crop of moderate presidential candidates for 2024 who aren't aged 70s or 80s.

More acceptance and usage of plant-based proteins.

FIFA Fo Fum Fake Fans Feign Fun

Once every four years, the FIFA World Cup is held.  This is a soccer (or as it's called in every other country, football) tournament that pits teams representing countries from every continent except Antarctica.  Let's just say, it's a very big deal outside of North America, and becoming a bigger deal there, too.

This is one of those contested years.  Normally it's held in June/July, but this year it's being held in November/December, to account for the fact it's being held in Qatar, one of the hottest places on earth in June/July.

[At this point, I could go on about how FIFA is an incredibly corrupt organization, and how it accepted bribes from Qatar (as it does from every host country) to agree to hold the World Cup there.  It's another sportswashing attempt by a place that openly discriminates against gays and females.  But I'm not actually going to go on about that.]

It's strange to see what happens to Americans during the World Cup.  While the vast majority will go four years without watching so much as a minute of soccer, many of those same folks suddenly take off work to watch the U.S. team play their World Cup games.

It doesn't matter that they don't know the name of a single player, much less the rules of the game.  What matters is making sure they are part of the crowd that suddenly cares about the national soccer team.  

Yes, there are avid year-round fans out there too -- tens of thousands of them -- thanks to the growth of U.S. soccer at the high school, college, and professional levels.  The most avid even traveled internationally to watch the games.

But that number still pales in comparison to the quadrennial jump-on-the-bandwagon group.  And to those people I say, like I did ten years ago in this very blog:  You are a Pretender.  You're the person who doesn't watch a baseball game all year (and I don't blame you, it's even more boring than soccer) but then becomes a huge World Series fan.

For the World Cup, that might make you feel patriotic, but that doesn't make you a fan.