Capturing the zeitgeist, April 2025 AI edition

I saw this on Mastodon and it is perfect. Context provided below.

Context: A few weeks ago, OpenAI released an update that allowed people to generate images, including in specific styles, if they so chose. One of those styles is Studio Ghibli, after the well-regarded Japanese animation studio. This, predictably, led to a bunch of people turning personal photos into pseudo Ghibli images, but others used the style for less tasteful purposes, to showcase terrorism and other violent acts.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, changed his avatar on X to a “Ghiblified” version of himself. A lot of people–rightly, I think–took this as being Altman’s way of saying AI companies can appropriate (steal) art and art styles as they see fit and no one can stop them. It’s at the heart of much of the criticism of AI: that the output it produces is largely built off of stolen works, that the companies behind AI simply don’t care (or even feel entitled to the stolen works) and comes at great cost to the environment, too1Some of these costs are coming down, but it ain’t exactly efficient yet..

But yeah, for a beautiful moment in time, we turned everything into a Ghibli studio movie.

The original New Yorker cartoon, which also remains perfect:

National Novel Writing Month is closing down

Futurism has the story here: NaNoWriMo Goes Bankrupt After Embracing AI

It’s sad but not surprising that this is how NaNoWriMo ends. After dealing with moderator issues on their forums, the non-profit bafflingly chose to not just embrace AI, but accuse people opposed to it of ableism, showing a serious lack of insight into both accessibility concerns and creative writing. I wrote about it here.

The letter from the interim director suggested people were too cheap to donate, while gliding over the fact that over two-thirds of their expenses were for employee benefits, which is unusually high for a non-profit.

I stopped participating in NaNoWriMo years ago, but would periodically log into the site, check my profile, and ponder fiction writing in general. It’s a shame that it all fell apart like this.

We still have Writing Month, among other sites, still around. Onward with the making of words and the telling of stories!

Also, glib but accurate meme (not made by me):

Have I complained about seasonal allergies before? (I checked, the answer is sort of.)

Because they are beating me up this year. My nose is constantly plugging and drying out, my mouth and lips are dry, and I have a semi-permanent glob of stuff caught near the top of my throat.

Today, my stomach turned on me, possibly because the nasal spray I used to clear the stuffed nose may have gotten into my stomach, where it is far less effective. Or maybe it was something I ate. Or stress. Or aliens.

Anyway, I can never remember how long the symptoms persist, but other than nasal spray offering immediate, if temporary relief, it seems like none of the other miracle drugs do much.

At least it’s not an infection.

I mean, hopefully.

I have escaped the penis camera

Which is not a phrase I get to type out every day.

But today I do, because a visit to the urologist has resulted in a referral to get an ultrasound. From there, plans will be made (or not) for a camera that would further probe my innards.

You can probably guess what outcome I’m hoping for here.

March 2025 weight loss report: Down 1.8 pounds

This one was weird.

Yesterday, I had a 1.8 pound jump in weight to a monthly high of 171.6, which would have put me up for the month.

But this morning, I was down a massive 2.7 pounds, which is my lowest for the month.

It also means for the month I’m down 1.8 pounds, undoing some of the February bloating.

I am running more and trying to eat better. I will continue to do both.

The bad news is I’m still up for the year, the good news is, I’m trending in the right direction again.

Stats:

January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds

Current: 168.9 pounds
Year to date: Up 2.1 pounds

March 1: 170.7 pounds
March 31: 168.9 pounds (down 1.8 pounds)

Body fat: 
March 1: 25.9%
March 28: 26.1% (up 0.2%)

Skeletal muscle mass:
March 1: 30.2 kg
March 28: 29.9 kg (down 0.3 kg)

BMI:
March 1: 24.5
March 28: 24.2 (down 0.3)

Historical: January 1, 2022: 182.8 pounds

Run 913: Cloudy with people

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Cloudy but balmy.

It’s late and I am beat, so a short summary today.

I opted to run on Sunday because tomorrow’s weather looks worse and I’m going to have my hands full of icky strata stuff.

It was very mild again today, and I ran in a t-shirt and shorts. Despite some wind, it was perfectly fine. I did a 2.5K run again, partly because I was pressed for time. It also went fine and I very slightly improved my pace. I also did not have nearly as dramatic a fall-off from the first to second km. My stamina is improving slightly!

There were a lot of people out and aboot thanks to the weather, but no problems encountered with humans or non-humans.

In all, a good continuation of my road back to actual regular fitness.

Reflecting pond with train on the river trail, post-run.

Stats:

Run 913
Average pace: 5:55/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 3:12 p.m.
Distance: 2.50 km
Time: 14:51
Weather: Cloudy, some sun
Temp: 16°C
Humidity: 45%
Wind: light to moderate
BPM: 150
Weight: 171.6
Total distance to date: 6,407.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Switchback (these are old shoes and will be replaced soon™)

Random answers to random questions, March 30, 2025

  1. If I could go back to 1982 (age 18) and start over, with all of my current knowledge and memories intact, would I (obligatory time travel question)? Yes.
  2. Do I have a favourite colour? No. I used to say red when I was a kid.
  3. Do I have a favourite band? No. But the ones I listen to the most are: R.E.M., They Might Be Giants, Pink Floyd, The Alan Parsons Project, and ELO. Yes, I grew up in the 70s/80s.
  4. Do I wish I had a full, luscious mane of hair? Yes.
  5. Do I weep over the lack of #4? No, but I do wear caps (outside).
  6. If I could go back in time and start jogging earlier, would I? I wouldn’t go back in time just to start jogging sooner, but if it happened due to Convenient Science Fiction Plot Device, I would do so.
  7. Am I an optimist or pessimist? I lean toward pessimist, but never go fully cynical.
  8. Has my opinion of “the average person” declined in the last few years, though? Oh yes. Yes indeed.
  9. What do I think the world will be like in 100 years? Generally worse.
  10. What do I think the world will be like in 200 years? For humans, probably better, for those still around, but not for all.
  11. Will we ever land on other habitable planets? Answer unknown.
  12. Aliens? Aliens!
  13. What’s the most relevant lyric Morrissey ever wrote? “It’s so easy to laugh, it’s so easy to hate/It takes strength to be gentle and kind” (from “I Know It’s Over”)
  14. Are people silly? Yes.
  15. Am I silly? Yes.
  16. Will this list go to 20? Yes.
  17. Hot take on capitalism? It sucks.
  18. Favourite food: I will never say no to cashew chicken.
  19. What used to be my favourite food? Pizza.
  20. Are we stronger together? You know the answer.

I can ease your pain

A few years back I had my ears tested and the guy who tested them, a professional ear-testing guy (I forget the term and I know I could look it up, but I have posts to crank out, and I’m falling behind), had kind of a grave look on his face during the test. I probably did, too.

You know how when you’re taking a multiple choice exam at school and you have this feeling that you’re getting all the answers wrong somehow?

That’s what this ear test was like, especially when he moved to my right ear.

My left ear was rated not great, definitely some hearing loss.

My right ear was basically terrible. Like, you can hear things, but everyone below the age of 20 will be like they’re talking inside a cone of silence or something. Just a huge swathe of my hearing range gone.

Why? I was in my 50s, which I have been assured is not old and is, in fact, the new 30s. Thirty-year olds don’t have bad hearing.

But I did listen to loud (and often terrible) pop music on headphones when I was young. Was the volume too high at times? Probably.

More recently, in 2010 I dated a guy for a while, and we went to a club that was having some kind of contest and there were judges at a table, plus very bug speakers pumping out music at very high volume. We were standing near one of the speakers. My right ear was the closest part of my body to it. I remember after leaving the club, my right ear rang for a long time. It felt like my hearing had been permanently damaged. Probably because it had been.

Then the guy said he wanted to break up. This admittedly had nothing to do with my ear (as far as I know).

The worst part of this loss of hearing was I could tell how bad it was by listening to some of my favourite music. For example, in the song “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. It features Roger Waters singing the line, “Just a little pinprick” followed by what sounds like a triangle going PING. I could no longer hear the PING. Where once was a PING, now there was now nothing. It made me very sad.

Tonight, I did an experiment where I reversed the left/right channels of my earphones (by cleverly wearing them backwards) and played the song, because this would make the PING go to my left ear, which is not completely destroyed yet. I nervously waited for the song to get to that part, noting (not a music joke) that the song so far actually sounded pretty much the same, indicating that the mix was, as the professionals say, balanced.

When it got to the PING…I heard it! It was faint, but I definitely heard it. So now I can still hear the PING, as long as I listen to music in reverse stereo. Or maybe when I get some sort of hearing aids, which I am totally too vain and silly to do.

Anyway, in a world where so much seems to be collapsing all around us, it was nice to know the PING has not completely vanished for me.

Looks like I’ll be spamming a lot of posts soon

I am way behind on my two-posts per day minimum (which is an arbitrary number I made up, but my blog, my rules). Let’s do the math:

  • There are 31 days in March, so two posts per day = 62
  • As of this post, I have written 31
  • This means I must write 31 more
  • After today, there are four days left in the month
  • If you divide 31 by 4, you get 7.75

I must write 7.75 posts every day for the rest of March.

I’m not sure if I can do it this month, for reasons.

But I’ll try.