Just clearing out the AI-banner folder, if you're curious. No meaning implied. I'm done with AI on this site, for the most part; that was a 2024 thing for a variety of reasons, but the amusement and novelty has faded. It's photos, screengrabs, and old ads from here on. The real stuff.
Although I do like indifferent smoking Venetian angels ignoring the throngs on the overloaded bridge.
Wife and Daughter went to a movie at the mall tonight. I wouldn't mention this except for a peculiar set of circumstances:
1. We were out of rice. Wife wanted to make stir-fried beef, and requested that I pick up some rice and soy sauce. This I did, adding a few other items I intend to eat when they're gone for the next few days. Peppered bacon! A great start to the day that will included the jalapeno pizza! Anyway, the bag was heavy, and I put it in the back seat.
2. She took her car to the shop to have the alternator looked at. Because she took it to the shop, I picked her up to drive her home. Careful planning and coordination put me at the shop right after the rice procurement. Because I picked her up, I put my backpack in the back seat, along with the rice and enticing bacon.
3. When we got home, I took in the groceries, and the something something, can't remember, doesn't matter, nap time, Zzzzz
4. Around 8 PM I thought I should peck away at a few things, and decided to sit in the kitchen and write. But my backpack was not on the chair where it always is. That is because it was in the back seat of the car, which is now at the Mall. This I confirm by the Find My Devices feature. I do not think overmuch how the laptop, with its closed lid and sleep function enabled, is able to tell my phone where it is. I am glad that it can but I am also a bit perturbed. How? By what means? By which network? My phone, I understand.
But my laptop?
The app shows the location, right in the movie theater parking lot, so I know it hasn't been stolen yet. It is unlikely to be stolen. The plague of roaming glass-smashing youts hasn't been active in this burb mall for a while. There were some fights a few years ago but I believe the local constabulary is quite keen on keeping the peace. It reminds me of being in church the other day and thinking "we didn't leave any candles burning, did we? Would be unfortunate to return home on Christmas Eve to find the house ablaze." And then I got a notification that one of the wifi nodes had lost contact.
Huh. I called up the app and checked to see what the temperature on the main sensor was. It was normal, but for the next half hour I snuck peeks at the app to see if it was suddenly 140 degrees. I must ahve looked like one of those phone addicts who simply has to check Instagram to see if anyone's putting up pictures of delicious cardamon buns a-proofing on the countertop, making everyone slightly envious, varying degrees of envy being the state of most Instagram users. I wanted to say "house on fire maybe."
But the house was not on fire and the laptop came home when Wife and Daughter returned. So we're two for two.
A month-end list of junk ads, reminding you that the internet is fueled by lies:
Cassidyh
Well, sometimes those subtle little typos just slip thruogh somehowh
Same page. GOSH I wonder who this is, I simply must go to LIFE INDIGO
It's a driver's license from a state in India. Maharashtra, to be precise.
Minnesota, Maharashatra, tomato tomahto.
By the way, there aren't any new senior driver rules.
The dead have risen and are holding court over the fate of the living
Computer, deJokerize
Wow I am so intrigued now
[Discover]
How I hate those call-to-action stingers. Well, I will perform a public service and click for you.
Farmer Jack’s heart raced as he unearthed a discovery beneath the soil, a moment that transformed his ordinary world. The extraordinary gripped everyone, unveiling a mystery that awaited his trembling hands. This event marked a departure from the mundane, heralding a new, uncharted chapter on his farm.
Oh. It's one of those "stories."
Jack, his wife Bonnie, and their daughters, Mary and Gisele, were stunned by the sight in their cornfield. Once lush and green, it now lay barren, with mysterious eggs where cornstalks once stood. The sight was both baffling and awe-inspiring as they pondered the strange turn of events in their once familiar sanctuary, now transformed into a field of enigma.
To be honest I thought AI was getting better than this. Perhaps they haven't paid for the upgrades.
The eggs, on the brink of hatching, sparked a dilemma for Jack. Determined to protect his land, he prepared to destroy them, linking them to his ruined crop. But as he started his tractor, his daughters’ pleas halted him. Their passionate defense made Jack reconsider, presenting a moral quandary over the fate of these unknown entities. What was going on? Jack considered his choices, the air around them thick with tension.
That last line is pure AI. Or a bad high-school writer. Anyway, it goes on forever, page after page, and I've no idea what happened to Farmer Jack and the Mysterious Eggs.
What if Mickey Rourke and Carrot Top had a child?
No, this isn't a doctored picture, much, and he wasn't an actor. He's one of the Bogdanoffs.
Igor Youriévitch Bogdanoff (29 August 1949 – 3 January 2022) and Grégoire "Grichka" Youriévitch Bogdanoff (29 August 1949 – 28 December 2021), alternatively spelled Bogdanov, were French twin television presenters, producers, and essayists who presented a variety of programmes in science fiction, popular science, and cosmology.
They were involved in a number of controversies, the most notable being the Bogdanov affair. It brought to light how they received Ph.D. degrees based on largely nonsensical physics papers that were nonetheless peer-reviewed and published in reputable scientific journals.
They denied getting plastic surgery. Okay. Both died of Covid within the same week.
Buzz Times, which I'm sure is just like BuzzFeed in staffing and reach but much more innovative and interesting
For you, again, I'll click.
These U.S. Colleges Are Lesser-Known For a Reason
by Regina Clarke
This article was originally published on Lizanest.com
Lesser-known colleges across the U.S. often fall under the radar for a reason. While they offer more affordable tuition, the trade-offs can be significant.
None of the schools are "the Worst." Minnesota does not top the list. Minnesota is not on the list.
I was interested in that "published on Lizanest.com" thing, like anyone cares. At that site, a list of pieces published on other sites. A partial list:
This article was originally published on constative.com
This article was originally published on Natureworldtoday.com
This article was originally published on excellenttown.com
This article was originally published on techytwist.com
This article was originally published on diynhacks.com
This article was originally published on travellergazette.com
All robots talking to robots.
I dreamed I was the manager of a pastry shop that made small tubular pastries modeled after famous industrial pipes. I had to keep telling my staff that we would not take orders for Nazi pipes, which were called “Hitlerini"
Now, in a return of the Low Prompt AI Gallery, some other examples of advertising art for Hitlerini.
Either it's trying hard to do what it thinks I want or trying hard not to. When I switched to the old versions I used for making this nonsense, it balked at "Hitler" and forbade me to continue, because, well, Hitler. So I just asked for 1940s Italian ads for pasta tubes.
The mangled Italian is like the mangled English.
Pasta Pube, eh.
This one leaned heavily into the "40s" request:
I'm surprised no one has come up with this product name yet:
Fasta Pasta! Perfect.
Perhaps he's referring to his frothy lust for another woman that made him think he'd be happier without his wife.
Wikipedia: "The Tymes are an American soulvocal group who enjoyed equal success in the United Kingdom and in their homeland. They are one of the few acts to have one and only one chart-topper in both the US and UK with different songs."
Two of the original members are still performing as the Tymes. The whole group last performed live in 2003. Not bad.
Now we're done. Thanks for your visits this week! Substack up at 10 AM, for paid customers. Consider chipping in, won't you? It'll be going to five-times-a-week next year with no price increase.
