I think I"ve mentioned this previously, but my daughter thinks the church down the block from the library is a castle. She really has no other context for it, and it is a rather fancy looking building (which feels surprising given that they're Baptist, but whatever).

When she was younger, she'd talk about how the wooden robot and the log princess lived there, though lately she's gotten the idea that royals are a thing that "lived a long time ago, like the dinosaurs."

Yesterday, she *really* wanted to see inside the "castle". My initial, and super careless, response was that we weren't welcome there, and I kind of saved it by explaining that someone lives there, and we can't just go inside someone else's home. Except that then she was like "what if we knocked first?" Oh.

My stepfather is there now, trying to clean up the place and possibly find the will, and it sounds like her mental health was significantly worse than the already bad impression I'd gotten from her doctor.

The good (?) news is that it sounds like she may have only been dead a couple of days before they found her. I was afraid it might have been a bit longer. Also her cats are ok.

Today at the playground, a girl--a little older than my daughter--handed me a flower and said it was for me, and that was just so kind and absolutely something I needed in that moment.

@SpindleyQ Whereas "normal" people's phones autocorrect swears to be less offensive, mine tries to change "Docker" to "fucker."

I just got off the phone with my mother's physician. She couldn't tell me much, because I wasn't listed as a family member (and I don't think my sister was either, or if she even would want to talk to them about it), but it sounds like she had both physical and emotional issues that she had stopped taking medication for, and she also hadn't been in for an appointment since *last* summer. So. I guess that's all I'm going to get as far as closure here.

I don't really know how I feel right now. I may not have had a mother *in my life*, but up until this evening, I had (or, given the uncertain timing, thought I had) a mother. And now I don't. And I'm not sure how to process that. I never expected a reconciliation, but now there's absolutely no chance of one, and it turns out I'm really fucking sad about that.

More than anything, I'm distressed by the realization that at the end of her life.. she had nobody left. She died alone. Nobody deserves that.

We found out today that my mother passed away.

I hadn't spoken to her in forever (like 15 years, not counting a less-than-pleasant interaction in 2023), and it doesn't sound like she really had much of a relationship with anyone, including my little sister or my (ex) stepfather. I'd thought about reaching out last summer when my grandmother passed away, but... I ultimately chose not to.

The sheriff says they were called to do a welfare check because her mail and stuff was piling up, so they don't know when exactly she passed. But her doctor basically told them that it "wasn't unexpected".

(continued)

So, I've just committed myself to forming/co-leading a Girl Scout troop. Whee?

There was a Copilot mini-hackathon at the office today. With a theme of interacting with the real world.

But the *real* real world is messy and fickle. So I decided to burn through some tokens having Copilot interact with a *fake* real world.

Humankind has always hated playing video games. So now Copilot can play a 30 year old game for you, while you go fill out your TPS reports

#textAdventure #interactiveFiction #modelContextProtocol #copilot #llm #mcp #emacs #dunnet

Actually, I think I'm just going to make the outlines darker (once I get a new paint marker), but not fill in the letters. I did a quick mockup in GIMP, and it's really a bit much. I kind of wish the heart had a thicker border, but I'm afraid to try modifying it.

You know you can just not use AI, right?

You can make a choice not to be part of this.

Even if your job uses it, YOU don’t have to in your normal life. You don’t have to let your kids use it.

You didn’t have it three years ago. You can just…be on Team Human. You can choose.

Work in progress!

I plan to fill in the letters, but I figured (correctly) that the black marker would give out, and this feels more satisfying than having fully filled-in letters, but only half of them.

Also my hands *really* hurt right now.

Any Democrat whose idea for resistance is “here are the people we need to throw away to win” needs to be the one thrown away; it should make them unelectable; it should make them unwelcome at parties.

I've never seen The Greatest Showman, but the kiddo learned A Million Dreams for her KPrep graduation ceremony, and now I'm in love with this "Reimagined" cover album.

I was telling the spouse about it, and I was about to list off some of the included artists, when he very confidently guessed Panic! At The Disco. He was joking (because they perform covers on both the Frozen 2 and Nightmare Before Christmas soundtracks), but, actually, yes.

Happy pride to anyone else who before they came out was like, “Oh I’m just a really good ally. I really care about those gays and their rights. It just makes me so mad how they aren’t treated equally. I’m just really viscerally empathetic”

I'm a hardcore atheist, but I was baptized and confirmed in the Episcopal Church. So I can't help but feel a little burst of pride when I see things like the official Episcopal Church Facebook page reiterate that *everyone* is welcome, alongside a shield in the colors of the progress pride flag.

better yet, consider unsubscribing from HBO/Max the week before her show comes out (& if you rejoin, wait until the HP season is over). it's not enough to *not* watch it – HBO needs to know it will hurt their bottom line if they continue producing it

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mf5dzzqkp7fnmby6blfeljwj/post/3lqn7c6e7jc2f

I took the kiddo to CaziCon (https://cazicon.com/) yesterday. It was small and crowded, but also adorable and *extremely* queer. Everyone we interacted with was lovely, and her dinosaur dress from Princess Awesome received a ton of compliments.

She came home with two new friends, a needle-felted unicorn (made by Instagram user jojoscience) and a tiny plaid/zombie chicken (made by Instagram user jmsmagid_creations).

I took the absolute worst route to the Armory, and ended up trying to bike up this massive hill. Like, I have an e-bike, and I still had to get off and walk it. At least I know better now, since I'm attending Poly Speed Dating at the same location next week, and I definitely don't want to arrive half-dead and gasping for air.

I’m officially done with takes on AI beginning “Ethical concerns aside…”.

No! Stop right there.

Ethical concerns front and center. First thing. Let’s get this out of the way and then see if thre is anything left worth talking about.

Ethics is the formalisation of how we are treating one another as human beings and how we relate to the world around us.

It is *impossible* to put ethics aside.

What you mean is “I don’t want to apologise for my greed and selfishness.”

Say that first.

I just found out Glass House in Cambridge (which hosted that anti-trans fundraiser dinner last week) shows up on Google Maps as an “LGBTQ+ friendly” business. You can suggest removing that label in the mobile app like this: