Election season thesis: "small town" people aren't conscious of it, but understand that keeping a city from growing means making it unpleasant enough that more people don't want to move there.
If you're in the Petaluma area, I'm looking forward to Monday October 26, 2026 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM PDT at the Polly Klaas Center, where noted writer and urbanist Karl Elefante will be speaking.
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/urbanchat/2446444
Went over to Berkeley to see "The Work in Progress", with conversation between Heather Lofthouse and Robert Reich afterwards.
And it was, frankly, very dispiriting. I don't know if I can muster any more of those sorts of conversations. And I don't see a path forward in that way.
Now *this* is how you do a political ad: https://bsky.app/profile/greenb3ar.bsky.social/post/3mxptc3s6zk2a
(would love to find a better link for that video, the ad is for https://shakeup-la.com , the LA chapter of the DSA)
Okay, lazyweb, my voice teacher and I need a break from "Moody's Mood for Love". Suggestions for vocally difficult, musically interesting songs?
Moody's has been good for definition in long runs (great fun asking Logic to analyze notes and looking at each one sharp or flat), and timing.
A trip down memory lane trying to find a hobby shop of my childhood lead to finding mention of my dad leading a design of a sulfur hexafluoride gas-insulated transformer. And a neat history of an industry now gone.
https://ethw.org/Archives:Transformers_at_Pittsfield,_part_1
Bonus on the video rental issue: helping an elderly friend buy with PayPal today. Both email and SMS asadditional factors, email then used a second email and SMS as a factor.
At least I hadn't left my phone and laptop charging on the other end of the house, unlike the TV streaming issue last night.
Reading the prospectus on an ETF that has way more Nvidia exposure than I'm comfortable with. Pondering how to get a mix of "good" tech stocks that aren't deep in "AI". If there are any.
Friend's Tesla FSD was doing so well until it turned in front of a fire truck with its lights and sirens going. I mean, I also blame him for not being fast on stomping on the brake, but... "Moral crumple zones" are also a thing, and he is deep in the "AI" delusion.
Thank you for trying to rent a streaming video. From your TV, we've sent an email that leads to a web page which tells you to go check your phone for a code, which...
I am frankly surprised that I didn't have to then go down to 7-11 and buy a money transfer to send to Venezuela or something.
After a long day hanging out at Petaluma Pride in the Petaluma Urban Chat booth, came home and crashed out to "Boys Go To Jupiter", an extremely low budget animated film that... reminded me a *lot* of "Repo Man" thematically. Very weird, but maybe just right for the evening.
I'm swamped in political text messages. At this point I've known who I'm going to be voting for for several weeks, and it's unlikely that yet another annoyance is gonna get me to change anything.
So do text messages do anything? Maybe increase turnout by a quarter of a percent. No indication who those people voted for.
Which raises the question: what are political consultants trying to accomplish?
https://news.northeastern.edu/2026/08/11/text-messages-get-out-the-vote/
I missed this despite doing regular donations to their partner publication here in Sonoma. Pacific Sun on the Nike missile batteries, and if you haven'[t gone down to visit the restored one, I recommend doing so before the docents who served on actual Nike sites all die.
https://pacificsun.com/project-nike-remembering-marin-nuclear-missile-base/
Via https://bsky.app/profile/jef.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy/post/3mxftr4intcs2
Wow. Microsoft has laid off all of their proofreaders... https://youtu.be/K6QJp1edjmU?si=To6VLJ3eU8inWzZq&t=789
Screencap at https://wandering.shop/@cstross/117406958304798773
QFT: "The hard problem in AI is where you hide the human."
David Gerard on Anthropic's Mythos hacking claims. https://pivot-to-ai.com/2026/10/07/mythos-not-the-magical-ai-hacking-tool-after-all/
Our household political giving this year is four figures. I consider myself progressive/liberal. I believe in restorative justice.
But if your platform suggests the death penalty for political SMS spam begging for more donations, sign me the fuck up.
So, anyway...
$ apfel "What’s the frequency Kenneth?"
Kenneth is the name of the character from the animated TV series "The Simpsons." His frequency is 1000 Hz, which corresponds to the frequency of a middle C note on the piano.
For work reasons I'm screwing around with Apple Intelligence, which led to fact checking a complete non-sequitur answer.
Anyway, "What's New Pussycat?" lost the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1966 to "The Shadow of Your Smile". Which says something about awards and longevity...
As the designated tech support person for a number of less tech savvy folks: Jesus Christ, Google, fix your shit.
(Suggestions that Apple may be any better will be laughed at.)
Look, I get the "LLMs are not alive" argument, so, yeah, on the one hand we can't torture AI, on the other hand if you find a kid systematically dismembering stuffed animals, maybe ya wanna check in and see if the home life is okay...
https://www.404media.co/someone-torturing-llms-in-a-robot-prison-has-triggered-the-dumbest-debate-in-ai-yet/
Look, I get the "LLMs are not alive" argument, so, yeah, on the one hand we can't torture AI, on the other hand if you find a kit systematically dismembering stuffed animals, maybe ya wanna check in and see if the home life is okay...
https://www.404media.co/someone-torturing-llms-in-a-robot-prison-has-triggered-the-dumbest-debate-in-ai-yet/
For all the times we've been through Bodega Bay, this is the first time we've been to the Nicholas Green Children's Bell Tower. Stopped in at Ren Brown's gallery and asked him how we could avoid the heat back at home for a little longer...
Some of y'all advocate for touching grass, some for smoking grass, I'm over here pushing for ripping up grass and replacing it with native low water landscaping, and edibles.
The thing about whining about Signal user names on social media is that I now know that Apple's cmd-ctrl-space unicode search gives me the same icon for "radish" as for "turnip"...
If the Eric Lucan signs next to John Hanania and Alan LaPierre signs weren't enough, the news that he's trying to distance himself from the cryptobros pouring hundreds of thousands into his race against Jackie Elward seals it.
Go Jackie!
Friend used voice transcription to describe his shakshouka recipe to Facebook, posted about his "sex shoe shop", and...
Yeah, I'm putting that on the list of things to cook.
Ah, I see that the LLM-as-intelligence discussion has gotten to the '90s "can we have non-consensual fantasies in fiction and what does that say about the consumers?" level of discourse.
A lot of you are scoffing at Meta's claim that $4B in Zuckerberg compensation and a bunch of data center build outs qualify for a "research tax credit", but seeing how far you can push the bullshit before people resort to violence is, legitimately, research...
https://itep.org/metas-outlandish-tax-breaks-for-ai-data-centers/
Discussion in the office about an Anthropic rep pushing the idea of referring to the LLM as a teammate rather than a tool.
Which... uh... I think I've identified the "tool".
Went down to Golden Gate Park today for Forever Grateful, which turned out to be a surprisingly impactful multimedia experience.
https://haightstreetart.org/pages/forevergrateful
I'm reading Conor Dougherty's book "Golden Gates: Fighting for Housing in America". One of the stories he tells is of a development near a BART station in Lafayette, California getting scaled back from dense multifamily to single family detached homes. There is lots of drama, and I don't want to spoil the punchline, but the epilogue is of Steven Falk, the City Manager, resigning rather than holding on for a few weeks to take advantage of a half-million dollar termination bonus.
His resignation letter is well worth reading, especially for those of us who are looking at how other towns, like Petaluma, are fighting growth and celebrating freeway widenings.
https://www.lovelafayette.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=5499
The weird thing about dentistry is what of your general practitioner and plastic surgeon were the same person?
Any one got someone they like in Petaluma?
Got a request to schedule some calling gigs next year, and I realized that... maybe I'm over square dance calling? Maybe it's time to find something else to do with the voice?
I have a few dances scheduled, I'll renew CALLERLAB, but pondering what I give this community vs what I get back.
Dear Google: I definitely don't need more "AI" crammed into my phone, but if y'all could spend a little time making your Bluetooth stack more stable and reduce how often I need to reboot, that'd be awesome.
Huh. Google Maps has an interesting tile mismatch at certain zoom levels over Fairfax right now.... Or there's been a tremendous suburban sprawl event west of town with interesting clipping regions.
Adding picture.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fairfax,+CA/@37.9795698,-122.6331401,4431m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x808596575807f881:0x33e0be844a821450!8m2!3d37.9871454!4d-122.5888686!16zL20vMHIxZGg?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkyMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
Huh. Google Maps has an interesting tile mismatch at certain zoom levels over Fairfax right now.... Or there's been a tremendous suburban sprawl event west of town with interesting clipping regions.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fairfax,+CA/@37.9795698,-122.6331401,4431m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x808596575807f881:0x33e0be844a821450!8m2!3d37.9871454!4d-122.5888686!16zL20vMHIxZGg?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkyMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
My social feeds say it's bisexual visibility day, so I'm trying to find that quote that ends "...anything that moves, but I never saw a reason to limit myself".
For all the times we've been through Bodega Bay, this is the first time we've been to the Nicholas Green Children's Bell Tower. Stopped in at Ren Brown's gallery and asked him how we could avoid the heat back at home for a little longer...
The thing about California beaches is that I'm always surprised by the size of the mussels...
Charlene got this timer to carry in her purse, for reasons, but needed a box to keep the buttons from getting accidentally pressed. White oak.
Huh. Google Maps has an interesting tile mismatch at certain zoom levels over Fairfax right now.... Or there's been a tremendous suburban sprawl event west of town with interesting clipping regions.
Adding picture.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fairfax,+CA/@37.9795698,-122.6331401,4431m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x808596575807f881:0x33e0be844a821450!8m2!3d37.9871454!4d-122.5888686!16zL20vMHIxZGg?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkyMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D