"R2, that stabilizer's broken loose again! See if you can't lock it down. High quality. No mistakes."

I genuinely enjoy that most LLM-based AI models will perform better if you specifically tell them not to make mistakes.

I find that hilarious. And it gets funnier the more you anthropomorphize.

Imagine a little robot sitting there thinking "Oh. Good thing you said—I was going to throw in a few mistakes for variety. I appreciate that you specified. Some users expect me to just magically know whether or not I should make mistakes."

I said "Upcoming", but the video was a few weeks old, and the book is now out. So I checked out its Amazon reviews. Here's the first review :

So, youtube recommended this video to me, it's about the sleazy marketing of a particular upcoming YA novel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imVItEPHKPg

The marketing is absolutely sleazy. And the author is self-publishing. Of course.

But what gets me is how hilariously generic the book looks :

Would you believe it's about a heroine who has to go to a special school for smart people?

I don't know a LOT about farming, but I was sure I knew where eggs come from.

Tuxbury pond is an artificial lake created by a dam.

You can tell, too. It's a weird lake. Most of it is super shallow, except for a narrow winding channel that's very deep, which I assume is the original river.

Even with a kayak, I had to do a lot of zig-zagging to get across the lake. I could MOSTLY go over the shallow parts, but it wasn't worth it, because I was plowing throw lilly-pads and other shallow-water plants. Which just makes the paddling harder for no reason.

More Kayaking today.

This time I went back to the Pow-Wow river, but a different part of it. This time starting at Tuxbury pond.

#Monsterdon "I just decided to redecorate my office like a diner."

#Monsterdon "There will be a man patrolling the grounds all night."

Not one of our men, of course. Some chap who dresses like a bat.

#Monsterdon Try to go to sleep. There's a killer in our house, but not in this room, so what are you worried about?

#Monsterdon Being a mystery writer would be a great opportunity to go around talking about murders.

I'd do it all the time if I were a mystery writer.

#Monsterdon "That's just the wind slamming the door."

Oh, just that? Just an unlatched outside door?

#Monsterdon Living the dream of going on a hunting trip in the woods with Vincent Price.

Ugh, the Tubi version is colorized? No thank you.

I'll find another version.

#Monsterdon

... Sigh... Ok, I'm ready.

#monsterdon

The Onion has created a masterpiece.

https://theonion.com/voting-simulator/

I'm still thinking about last night's #monsterdon.

By 1959, I think gas lamps would be a real novelty for the younger characters, but they acted like it was perfectly mundane.

How did old-timey house gas-lamps work anyway?

Did they have to be lit with a match? Was it possible to turn them on without lighting them and then fill your house with gas?

Are there spooky episodes of Discovery or Academy?

There were a lot of Disco episodes, so one of them must be spooooky, right?

The blanks are series I don't really watch. Picard and Lower Decks didn't really have a good Halloween episode, so I just picked the closest I could find.

Suggestions and alternates welcome. TNG and Voyager in particular had a lot of possible choices.