Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Wednesday: vindicated

I don't use AI very often.  What tends to happen is I'll try something I think is rather straightforward and it will fail completely.  This leads me to not use it as often.

There are some things I've asked of it that work.

The other day though, I asked it to do something that I thought was very simple.  It needed to look through a table on Wikipedia and return the image URL.  It would not work.  It just made up links that looked very realistic.  

Ben uses AI on a more regular basis, so he gave it a try.  Not because I needed the information anymore, but because I wanted to know what I was doing wrong.  Well, Ben tried pretty hard and couldn't get it.  It turns out that part of the reason was that Wikipedia was blocking the AI generator.

I was rather relieved.  I was glad that it actually didn't work and it wasn't just me.

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Tuesday: tired

I've been staying up too late.  Then today was a busy day - I didn't really stop until 9pm and I am exhausted.  I should go to bed but that involves getting ready for bed.

Monday, April 13, 2026

Monday: ready player 1

I finished Ready Player 1 (for the second time) last night.  Ready Player 2 is out and the library hold just became available. It has been several years since I read the first one, so I wanted to read it again and refresh my memory.  Again, it was an excellent book. 

However. 

I found my excitement to start reading it a bit lower than normal each time I picked it up.  Their world is having problems due to an energy crisis that kicked off a cascade of bad things.  It feels just a little too close to home with recent current events and caused the book to be depressing in an unexpected way.

Sunday, April 12, 2026

Sunday: Vanilla Wafer Birds

We play a card game called CuBirds and one of the cards looks like a vanilla wafer to me.  So I finally got some vanilla wafers to eat while we play the game.

They reminded me of Sunday after church while growing up.  Joshua did not enjoy them.  Ben and Isaac didn't say much.

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Wednesday: normal

It was a pretty normal day...Joshua and I dropped Isaac off for rock climbing and went to get groceries and to the library.  It was nice to have company while shopping.

We came home, had lunch, then screen time/rest time.  Afterwards the kids set up an obstacle course in the basement for a little bit while I prepped some chicken.  I had gotten two family packs because they were on sale and we didn't have chicken, but it did take a while to do everything I wanted to do with it.

The washing machine stopped working today too.  I got two loads done with no problem and went to do my third load and it just wouldn't start.  There are still a few more items to look at to try and troubleshoot. This washer is 18 years old and I'm rather attached to it, so I hope we can figure it out - it's worked really well for us.

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Tuesday: a first

After dinner I went rock climbing all by myself.  I think it's the first time I've gone without kids.  

The climbing session was nice, but I didn't really climb well.   There were several routes that I've topped in the past that I was unable to get today.  It was a bit disappointing, but I tried really hard.  Talking with people was nice.



Monday, April 6, 2026

Monday: up and down

Oh my goodness, the kids' emotions went up and down today.

1. Down: Isaac accidently took apart part of a LEGO contraption while we were cleaning the basement.  Joshua kept it together but it was close.
2. Up: I had both of the kids work on putting the contraption back together while I continued to clean the basement and Joshua was very grateful for the time.
3. Up: the basement got very clean!
4. Up: I had a coupon from Isaac and I used it to have Isaac make an easy lunch for Joshua Tuesday and Thursday.  Joshua hates making his lunch and was again very grateful.
5. Up: we went rock climbing with some friends and then they came to our house to play
6: Down: Joshua took Isaac's spot in the basement and apparently that was not ok
7: Down: Apparently Joshua didn't have fun rock climbing.  I know it isn't his favorite activity, but it seemed like he was mostly enjoying himself
8: Down: Apparently the kids get really bored for the last twenty minutes of playing.  Really bored.  (They didn't sound really bored.)
9: Up: we did forms in karate tonight