Day: February 18, 2026

Presently enjoying a sunshower outside my office door. There are moments when AZ is pretty darn lovely. It is a pleasant reminder that the space is not always bad. It tells and show me that I need to make the best of the space that I can in a way that is sustainable as opposed to vegging out on youtube just to avoid work and avoid hearing what’s going on in the next room as though I was some pre-teen with parents who fight all the time. In fact, I am avoiding the post teens and their loudly played youtube.. with my own youtube. It is a vicious circle.

I gotta say, it is hard to get off the youtube fix once you get on. I am still on right now, taking in some ASMR from zenfinite. I suppose I can call it weaning myself off that fix. TBH, I did take in a crime video before this. It was right there looking at me and I took the damn bait. Trust me, there is a way out of this. It just takes time to get right.

Last night I slept with the phone in another room. I stayed in bed in spite of waking up a few times and wondering about the time. It isn’t much, but it felt huge to me. It felt like progress.

Some Thoughts:

1. Absolutely Bonkers Headline of the Day: “Raccoon goes on drunken rampage in Virginia liquor store and passes out on bathroom floor” So… That happened.

People are really really scared of AI. First of all, it isn’t AI. Not the stuff you’re used to seeing in movies. No, it is not HAL. Or anything remotely like that. For what it is worth, we are traveling in two lanes when it comes to these types of tool. One, AGI or Artificial General Intelligence is going to be able to think for itself. The other is going to be algorithmic and designed to respond to prompts… and threats. What we are dealing with now is better categorized as Narrow AI, though I doubt the average person or user even cares. I cannot decide if they should or not. I can say this: AI in any form is a existential threat to the way we function in our lives and creative means. In fact, the University of Manchester is funding a slew of Doctoral projects that “explore the rapidly evolving relationship between creativity and artificial intelligence (AI), considering what AI does for creativity and what creativity does for AI.” These creative AI studentships are the wave of the future. That future is going to change everything.

We just don’t know how.

Some Thoughts:

1. Bonkers News Headline of the Day: “Trump family business files for trademark rights on any airports using the president’s name” The Great Fleecing Continues… I Imagine he will soon push for airports to be named after him. I used to think we were collectively feeding this man’s delusions, but now it feels like the delusion is the reality.
2. If you prefer a less political bonkers: “4 dead in crashes involving over 30 vehicles in ‘brown out’ conditions on Colorado interstate” This is of the “what the hell is even that” variety. Turns out a brown out is similar to a haboob dust storm, but the dirt gets blown around crazily resulting in zero visibility.