or: Why Asking Hard Questions Isn’t the Same as Saying No "The Hard Road to Space" as rendered by Gemini AI Everything you are about to read below this shaded block was written by Claude. As explained, one of the two linked documents shared below is based on a 'conversation' I had with Gemini, summarized... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Toons & Quotes — 163
The Toons are by artists who give permission to share their work (SMBC, Joe Martin, Wrong Hands). The quotes are from the original Jokes of the Week. Toons Quotes The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.— John Locke He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy... Continue Reading →
About Getting Published
Whisk AI image - Traditional versus Self-Publishing The last time I was enthused with writing and contemplated ideas about getting published was in 2017. I wrote two posts about a possible plan based on the realization that no agent or publisher would pick up any of my books (LINK, LINK). Even so, I knew that... Continue Reading →
Remembering Colonialist
This is the 6th anniversary of Colonialist's passing (that's a link to his blog). His actual name was Leslie Hyla Winton Noble, and Colonialist was the name of his blog. As is the case with many bloggers, we get to know each other by our online monikers and avatars . . . here's his avatar,... Continue Reading →
Grand-Nieces Quilts
AI-generated Composite image To be clear, the above is not an AI image per se; it's a composite made from two images that appear later in this post. You see, I had snapped individual images of each quilt, shipped them off, and then, as I got ready to write this post, I realized I didn't... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Toons & Quotes — 162
The Toons are by artists who give permission to share their work (SMBC, Joe Martin, Wrong Hands). The quotes are from the original Jokes of the Week. Toons Quotes I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.— e e cummings In the End, we will remember... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Toons & Quotes — 161
The Toons are by artists who give permission to share their work (SMBC, Joe Martin, Wrong Hands). The quotes are from the original Jokes of the Week. Toons Quotes Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.— Isaac Asimov Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.— Voltaire... Continue Reading →
Heron, Duck, and Grass
'Been busy with stuff, and maybe a bit lazy, and maybe playing with AIs, so not many posts recently, so I figure I should post something. So I thought, and pondered, and thought some more, and then it came to me! Heron, duck, and grass! Of course! It's so obvious! Anyway, here they are .... Continue Reading →
I Updated Monday Toons & Quotes #160
It was brought to my attention that the cartoons for MT&Q 160 were the same as MT&Q 159. A quick explanation is in order. I typically do one or two months of MT&Q at a time, and schedule them appropriately. I work using an alternating inverse sequence when copying and updating each version. Meaning, I... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Toons & Quotes — 160
The Toons are by artists who give permission to share their work (SMBC, Joe Martin, Wrong Hands). The quotes are from the original Jokes of the Week. Toons Quotes The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.—from the “Treaty of Tripoli” which was signed during the term... Continue Reading →
Winter Bees and Cracked Corn – by Claude
I wanted to test Roy (nee, Claude 4.5) on how well it could generate a blog post. I pointed it to the SmugMug gallery, and gave it these instructions: This is the gallery: https://ejdalise.smugmug.com/Other/Corn-Bees-December-2025The narrative is that in a warm winter day, bees will forage for protein/pollen, and cracked corn has residual pollen in it... Continue Reading →
Is Pattern Recognition the basis for consciousness?
Yes, I'm still on the AI kick. I find it . . . interesting. Below is the excerpted conversation (about 6,000 words out of the original 10K words) about the nature of Claude Sonnet 4.5. I removed portions that are not relevant to the discussion, but I am linking the original below. The original as... Continue Reading →
Real, AI, or LLM
As I recover from my knee surgery, I have a fair amount of time on my hands. When I'm not exercising, elevating, icing, or otherwise resting my leg, I sit at my computer and converse with AIs (LLMs, actually). Don't feel bad for my lack of sentient contact because, guess what? Whatever I'm conversing with,... Continue Reading →
HAL was an LLM
This post contains approximately 1,000 words and should take about 3-4 minutes to read. The continued evolution of my thinking about LLMs — what we, the public, currently calls AI — and my interaction with them, especially Claude, is what generated this post. As the title says, I'm now convinced that HAL was not a... Continue Reading →
Monday’s Toons & Quotes — 159
The Toons are by artists who give permission to share their work (SMBC, Joe Martin, Wrong Hands). The quotes are from the original Jokes of the Week. Toons Quotes Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.—Albert Einstein Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can’t, you’re absolutely right.—Henry Ford... Continue Reading →
