Cherry blossom peak

I visited the cherry blossom festival at the University of Washington on bike despite the rain. A French class classmate in his 70s who had just done the same thing inspired me. I am not about to look like une mauviette (a wuss) when this old man is out there biking.

Relief at a family member’s health being OK for the foreseeable future

My dad underwent testing for a heart condition and came out with an optimistic outlook, which relieved us all.

Continuing to play with large language model AI apps

I continue to play with large language model chat bots (as a user) and wonder and converse a lot about how powerful and how worthy of prudent, agreed upon precautions they are. In a personal form of caution, I have been making small efforts to ensure that not every instance of me writing something is not modulated somehow by interaction with an artificial intelligence. This means continuing to compose, edit and revise on notecards, in composition books, and in Microsoft Notepad. This last method of writing has no AI attached and watching, at least not yet…

Book recommendation: “Self Comes to Mind”

I am enthralled with the brain science finding described in “Self Comes to Mind” by Damasio about the tension between the confusing, complex, buzzing mess of brain activity on the one hand, and the rich, smooth, adaptive mental state we typically experience, on the other.

Weird barista

I am grateful to the playfully weird barista on Rainier Avenue today who called coffee “bean soup,” and to her colleague who played the Cantina Theme when I got my extra hot cappuccino today.

About the photo

Lastly, I visited Seward Park and observed eagles circling overhead and vocalizing.