Saturday, September 22, 2007

NetBopping

So there I am, bopping around in the net, and I came across a site called About AI, and so I immediately started reading it, because AI is one of those things that can always grab my attention, particularly if its talking about applications thereof, which these guys do. Granted, I likely won't ever have the AI of my dreams, to run the house and orchestrate life seamlessly, not to mention, scan the web for specific-subject porn and download it during off hours, but I can dream, can't I ? And the nice part about AI related sites is that there is almost no politics or grandstanding there. Occasionally, someone talks about how wonderful they are and how great their project is, but even thats okay, because in many cases it really is wonderful and great stuff, even if you do have to drink the koolaid a little bit to get excited about someone building a lifelike automaton that really seems to be relating to you, or a chatbot that really does seem to respond to what you said, or an autonomous self-controlled terrain scaling vehicle, or a superslick aerial reconnaissance vehicle equipped with pattern recognition systems. This is really cool, but not for everyone.

I'm a little edgy tonight, but I don't know why. I think I just want to get the wall fixed in my daughter's room. I don't like messes (I'm not anal about it, and I can be messy, too, but when it feels like something that I can't fix, then I start getting tense about it -- kind of a feedback loop. Mess makes me tense, which makes me feel like I'm not in control, which makes me tenser...) I'm grateful that my wife (always marry someone smarter than you!) pointed out that we have wallboard patching tape; I'm amazed how well that stuff works, even if I did use it with spackle rather than wallboard compound. I know you're supposed to use the compound, but as it only comes in ten gallon jugs, that didn't sound too tasty as an option. If I can just get it sanded and painted tomorrow, we can give a try at putting the shelf back up -- though that bracket will be right the heck up against the window, so I will be screwing into wood, not air. I really want that to be done. As to how this happened -- well, I think my daughter leaned on it to reach something, but I won't challenge her on it. She's having a rough couple of days, and what would be the point?

I haven't been doing much baking lately. I want to get back to doing that. The Culinary Institute isn't helping; here it is, almost October, and they still don't have the schedule posted for any Boot Camps past January. I'd like to go in April or May -- give the winter snow a change to get out of there. And I'd like to try some more breads -- haven't done nearly enough of that, lately. And cookies! What can I say, I like baking.

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