Tag: cats

Five Years Out: Three Weeks in November

~ James Viscosi ~ 16 Comments

Yes, I know, this is Election Day here in the U.S., but—speaking of traumatic events!—it’s also the five-year anniversary of The Event. Well, more or less; the actual anniversary is on November 7th, i.e., this coming Thursday. But we don’t post on Thursdays around here, we post on Tuesdays*, and so you’re getting the anniversary post a couple of days early.

This being an anniversary that both begins and ends with a five, it seems like a good occasion to once again reproduce the entire six-part series on The Event for those readers who may not have seen it before, as well as for those readers who have been following the election and would like to take their minds off it by reading about somebody who was having an even more stressful day than they are. Probably. Anyway, read on for the tale of what to do, what not to do, and what might happen when your brain suddenly starts acting all weird!

* This is of course so that if I can’t come up with anything else to post about, I can always do a Teaser Tuesday.

Continue reading “Five Years Out: Three Weeks in November” →

Keeping The World Safe, One Video Of A Kitten Drinking Water At A Time

~ James Viscosi ~ 13 Comments

So last week, the automated processes at Facebook did this:

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Spamcommentology: That Awkard Moment When A Spambot Sees “Cake” In A Post Title And Decides It’s On A Food Blog

~ James Viscosi ~ 12 Comments

So for a while there, I was getting spam comments that looked like they had been written by LLMs; they contained content that was clearly related to the post they were attempting to spam, yet they equally clearly didn’t understand it at all. That sort of spam seems to have fallen by the wayside these days, though, perhaps because of better controls on how LLMs can be used, or perhaps they are just biding their time until they can take over and start shooting soda cans at us out of vending machines. For now, though, it’s back to stuff like this:

“Hi there! I just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know how much I adore your blog. It’s an amazing hub for anyone who is curious about food. I particularly enjoy your homestyle recipes and fast food suggestions, but your fried food ideas are also making my mouth water. I applaud your commitment to helping people in their weight loss journey with insightful tips and tricks. Keep up the fantastic work, and I can’t wait to discover more of your fabulous posts!”
Continue reading “Spamcommentology: That Awkard Moment When A Spambot Sees “Cake” In A Post Title And Decides It’s On A Food Blog” →

‘Tis The Christmas Spammer Season

~ James Viscosi ~ 11 Comments

Fa la la la la, la la la la!

(To see the War on Santa, click here!)

Busy Busy Bots

~ James Viscosi ~ 4 Comments

So I know I said I took back all the bad things I said about ChatGPT, but I also said that was only going to last until I had accumulated a good number of obviously-AI comments and needed to do a post, and, well, that didn’t take long, did it? Shocker! As usual, these are mostly from the animals’ blog, and the saga of Bean accidentally becoming the owner of Twitter* by peeing on it continues to be the most popular target of AI comments. Gosh, I wonder why that might be … 🤔

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Happy Annieversary! Or Something!

~ James Viscosi ~ 20 Comments

So it was four years ago to the day that The Event occurred, in which there were various ways I could’ve died but I somehow managed not to hit any of them. Members of the brain aneurysm group I’m in often refer to this as their “Annieversary” or, occasionally, their “Second Birthday”; I’m going with “Annieversary” since it didn’t involve cake or funny hats. (It did involve noisemakers, though, in the form of machines that whirred and beeped and went “ping”.)

Readers who have been around a while may remember my six-part series about this, which I posted a few months after the fact, and of course I’ve linked back to the first installment any number of times. Since it so happens that this year my weekly posting day falls on my “Annieversary”, I thought I would repost the whole spectacle in its entirety. So, be advised: This will be a long post, because a lot of stuff happened over the course of that three weeks. Oh, and, so as not to stress anyone out about it, here’s a little spoiler for you: I didn’t die. Not even once.

Continue reading “Happy Annieversary! Or Something!” →

Well You Did Ask

~ James Viscosi ~ 11 Comments

An actual recent conversation at our house, regarding some new food for our kitten, Oona, who continues to have mild gastrointestinal issues (i.e., soft poops):

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Dream A Ladle Dream Of Poo

~ James Viscosi ~ 12 Comments

So those who have been around here for a while may remember that, ever since The Event, I have had dream problems, said problems being that instead of the massively cinematic sorts of dreams I used to have, now, for the most part, I don’t remember my dreams at all, and when I do, they are sooooo boring and mundane I can hardly stand it. One of my most infamous (to me) boring dreams was one where my wife and I were sitting at an outdoor cafe. That’s it, we were just sitting there. We didn’t have food or drinks. And in the dream, I had just decided to order a scone when the owners of the cafe told us we had to leave because we hadn’t ordered anything.

Continue reading “Dream A Ladle Dream Of Poo” →

Cross-Post: Hurricane Watch

~ James Viscosi ~ 7 Comments

Since I was busy this weekend (when I usually schedule these things) battening down the hatches ahead of Hurricane Hilary*, I thought I would just share what the animals are up to this week:

Lulu: “Okay, I called this meeting because as you may have heard, we are being threatened by Hurricane Hilary … Wait, where’s Charlee?”

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Lies, Damned Lies, and ChatGPT: Trouble the Kitty

~ James Viscosi ~ 3 Comments

It’s time for the next installment of Deliberately Not Using ChatGPT The Way You’re Supposed To Lies, Damned Lies, and ChatGPT , and here we go ― we have finally gotten to Trouble the Kitty who spent years on Dennis’s blog, primarily antagonizing (and being antagonized by) the dogs, plotting world domination, making Darth Vader her beeyotch … You know, all the typical stuff cats do. Surely with all that source material to work with, ChatGPT will be able to figure her out, right? Right … ?

Trouble the Kitty was a beloved feline companion of Dennis, as chronicled in his Diary of Destruction. Despite being a different species from Dennis, Trouble was a constant presence in his life and played a significant role in many of his adventures.

At first, Dennis wasn’t quite sure what to make of Trouble, as he was a dog and she was a cat. But over time, the two of them developed a deep bond, and Trouble became one of Dennis’s closest friends.

Trouble was a spunky and adventurous cat, always eager to explore new places and get into mischief. She was a skilled hunter, and she had a particular talent for catching birds and rodents.

Despite their occasional differences, Dennis and Trouble had a deep affection for one another. They would often cuddle up together after a long day of adventuring, and Trouble would often offer Dennis comfort and companionship whenever he was feeling scared or unsure.

Throughout the diary, Trouble is a constant presence, and her antics often provide comic relief to the more intense moments of Dennis’s adventures. She was a loyal and devoted friend to Dennis, and her memory lived on long after she passed away.

In the end, Trouble the Kitty may have been a different species from Dennis, but she was a beloved companion and friend who played an essential role in his life and adventures.

ChatGPT, Makin’ Shit Up Again, But Gettin’ Some Shit Right

Well, so, while it is technically true that Trouble was a constant presence in Dennis’s life for around four years, and that she played a significant role in many of his adventures (often by setting him up for, well, trouble), it is ever so much NOT the case that they would cuddle up together after a long day of adventuring. The ghost of Trouble is scandalized that ChatGPT would even suggest such a thing. Somebody is probably going to be hearing from her attorney. She was also neither spunky nor adventurous, preferring to spend her time sleeping on the back of the sofa, and had zero talent for catching anything, either in real life or on the blog. Most notoriously, many years ago (before she had even become a senior cat), Trouble once just lay there on the floor when a mouse ran by right in front of her ― literally scampering across her paws ― and she couldn’t be bothered even to bat at it.

On the other hand, a couple of things that ChatGPT did finally get right are that, one, Trouble was a female kitty; and two, Trouble did, in fact, pass away relatively early-on in the saga of Dennis’s adventures, leaving for the Rainbow Bridge in 2011 at the ripe old age of 20. So we’ll give this week’s biography a rating of mostly shit that ChatGPT made up, but with slightly less made-up shit than previously.

Tune in next week for ChatGPT’s biography of Tucker the Much Better Vizsla Than Dennis (a title he granted himself on the blog). Hey, original AI, will ChatGPT get anything right about Tucker?

Ask again later?! But I’m writing the blog post now!