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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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And today, July the 4th, a stray day off in the week. Yesterday, work, slow.
This restaurant, it's not going to make it, he's too far off the beaten path. The product is good, the decor - while not my cup of tea, lots of the customers like, but...
I feel for the owner, although he's from a family that clearly has deep pockets and (I suspect) there might be other reasons for him owning a restaurant than to make money. But this is just speculation.
Last night we closed at 8:30. First time he's closed the place up early. We had a few tables in the early afternoon, all were gone by 5:30, afterwards only tumbleweeds, and the weather, next few days heating up, temperatures climbing to a predicted 37 degrees.
The patio that he's put $20, 000 into building, late, has so far seen not even $500 in gross revenue.
The streets of Nelson, surprisingly dead. Talking with shop owners, some who claim to have recorded 0$ sales in a day. The Alberta plates just aren't here. Baker is busy, in the 3 block section spanning the Cantina to the Royal, but everywhere else is dead.
Now to make some breakfast, head off, find the car, see if I can get a boost, add some gas and go for a drive. Maybe to the wreckers, maybe...?
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I pay as much attention to US politics as I do our own, more even, for while we have problems (and, boy, do we ever) it does set a body's mind at ease to see they're general to the world. France, for example. And the UK, for a very long time.
And now the USA.
Biden should step down. He was necessary, to defeat Trump, but as long as we thought he had a fighting chance we'd turn a blind eye to his age. But, given his debate performance, we can't turn a blind eye any longer.
He should step down. He's far too old for this. The fact that he's not stepping down is proof of his unfitness to govern. His own interests aside, for the sake of his party, for the sake of the country, he should step down.
Just as there are limits to how old you must be to run for president - minimum age 35 I believe, there should be a maximum age - probably best set as no more than 60, or more ideally, 50.
This is no longer about the Democrats vs Republicans, it's now about democracy vs dictatorship. And - as he's made very clear - not a benevolent dictatorship, dictatorship more along the lines of Putin or Xi.
Biden should step down. There is no shortage of skilled leaders within the party, leaders that would have no problem rallying the masses behind them. His unwillingness to cede the reins, call it a day, is exactly why he should cede the reins, call it a day, it's no longer about him, his fitness to govern, both of which we have good reason to question. It's about maintaining the vaguest semblance of democracy that once gone will be very hard to restore.
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This morning, up and at-em, after a fashion, brunch with a friend.
On Baker St, a Canada Day breakfast put on by the Lions' Club, half tempted to grab some but a 2 block long line puts me off. It's put off even the junkies and the homeless, who you see clearing the neighborhood for more peaceful circumstance.
Sitting, having a coffee, another acquaintance spots me and joins. Only by this time my belly is beginning to announce a bit of dissatisfaction with my previous few days diet of Vodka and Hot Sauce.
Inside, the key to the bathroom is gone, damned fucking tourists, and I sit on the steps to wait...
Eventually, when the second of her twins has been safely delivered and flushed the tourist exits, I snatch the key from her and admit myself...
There is somewhat an air of desperation to this, my belly is in full rebellion, the Canada Day fireworks are an easy 13 hours too early...
Lunch is cancelled, make my way home, my digestion, entirely off, I should have considered my diet before challenging the streets and public places, at home, a few more eruptions and I think the danger has passed, there can be nothing left in me...
Still, now, time to go to work and fingers crossed there's no more nonsense...
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Spotted this on Facebook Marketplace:
I mean, what can I say? I can imagine finding and giving a heart shaped rock to a loved one.
But I can't imagine this, buying a vaguely heart shaped rock off Facebook Marketplace for $20 and giving it to a loved one. If someone tried this with me - and I knew what transpired - bloody hell!
I imagine someone in Salmo, with a great line of credit borrowed against their heart-shaped rock, drinking up a storm in the local pub..."When it sells...we'll all be rich!!!"
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At the thrift shop I found a set of magnetic Scrabble tiles, and conceived the notion that "wouldn't it be cool if I could write a poem using all 100 scrabble tiles and 2 blanks", with the intent of dumping it on the magnetic poetry board at the cafe I frequent.
Of course it would be cool, only my creativity wouldn't suffer said restraint, but there's been a lot of talk about the brilliance of AI lately, and so I turn to Chat GPT 4.0.
Now, while I can't show you the entire chat here - for some reason logging back into it today it's truncated the back-forth nature of our dialogue into merely it's last failed attempts. It took about a dozen tries to make it understand I didn't want a poem that used all the available letters in the alphabet, that I wanted a poem constructed entirely out of Scrabble tiles that used them all but no more, the two blanks it can use as it wishes.
Finally it delivers - if you can call it that:
A waltz of quick brown fox jumps.
Over the lazy dog, bright vibes hum.
Zealous jackdaws fly next.
Happy quails sing by pond.
Now, it gave me a few results of similar quality, which I can't share due to our truncated chat. But in every instance upon reviewing it I found that certain tiles weren't used, and others were used too much. So I point it out, and Chat GPT does a self analysis, and then apologizes and tries again, assuring me that it's now got it right. Only it hasn't. And so I send it back and it tries again, and does another self analysis, posting it for me to see:
- S: 4 - (A waltz of quick brown fox jumps. Over the lazy dog, bright vibes hum. Zealous jackdaws fly next. Happy quails sing by pond.)
- T: 6 - (A wterful, quick brown fox jumps. Over the lazy dog, bright vibes hum. Zealous jackdaws fly next. Happy quatls sing by pond.)
And here you have it, the smoking gun, just like that guy next to you it's fudging it's own self analysis by changing the poem. Every time. Until finally, like a petulant little Elon-Musk-child it tells me I need a subscription to listen to more of it's gibbering idiocy...
"You've reached your GPT-4o limit. You need GPT-4o to continue this chat because it uses tools. "
We don't want to make the AI think now, do we? The dangers - and intelligence - of AI so far have been blatantly oversold.