On writing and other thoughts

 

When I began to think about this thing of writing, I saw several ways to break it up. That has expanded a bit as I came across a good article in a Missoula, Montana newspaper, about an author who thinks a lot like me in terms of the writing world from her perspective based on her experiences. I related to a lot of it, though there are also differences. Here's the link to the article.

https://missoulian.com/entertainment/books/as-a-professional-romance-novelist-she-publishes-books-at-a-furious-pace-it-s-never/article_856af382-1abc-5322-9484-cf4a252aa56a.html#tracking-source=home-entertainment

Another article I had recently seen is something we all need to consider-- how much will we let AI, as in ChatGPT, influence our reading, world, and what we do.

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11775455/FOCUS-ChatGPT-launches-boom-AI-written-e-books-Amazon.html

It turns out that Amazon already has 200 books written by what is basically a bot-- and that's only the number where the author shared how they wrote the book. ChatGPT already has 100 million signed up-- or what it had when I read the article, with probably more by today.

This is a big deal for authors dependent on making an income from their creative work. But even for someone like the author in the first link or me, we want our books to be seen. Selling is how that happens, but the most important part is that others read our work-- and ideally like it. If the system is crowded with bot generated work, how will that influence what is out there.

Those who use something like ChatGPT, can turn out books like hotcakes. Are they as good as those by creative authors? Who knows. Not for my reading taste, but then I am not fond of reading formula writing either and it's been around a long time.

Stephen Hawkins wrote his concern that robots and AI would take over the world. I don't see how it could but maybe it could take over creative writing and what will it do to children as they find they don't have to write their essays-- something many of us learned much by doing whether successfully or otherwise.

More next blog about my own writing life as this time, I hope you will read those links.

We have been reading a new book by Rick Rubin-- "The Creative Act: A Way of Being." Here is one of the many worthy quotes from it.

"The ability to look deeply is the root of creativity. To see past the ordinary and the mundane and get to what might otherwise be invisible."

This is what those people lose out on when they allow a bot to write their books or essays. I wonder though what it does to those who read such works. It would be more fair to readers and writers if it was required that the book was written by a bot. As it stands, there is no such requirement. Unless a reader is familiar with the author, they might have no clue from the blurbs.

who to trust

photo from our Arizona home with unusual morning cloud pattern

 After writing about the State of the Union address, I came across things I had written (years ago but that's the beauty-- or not-- of blogging). What I had written in 2009, makes it sound as though I have changed my mind on my political thinking regarding issues today. I do not believe I have. What has changed is my belief on who can fix what I think is wrong. 

I had planned to make this blog about my writing; but it seems that this is more important. What did I want to see done then versus what I want to see today. I have lost all faith in either party solving things-- and worse, now I distrust most of the agencies on which we depend. That means leadership, not the boots on the ground but those who rose to the top to run things.

My real question now is-- who can we trust? I think this is a worldwide problem and not just for the United States (not so united these days). A recent example regards the recent downing of four unidentified objects, which were balloons or were they? We were told the first, a spy balloon from China, was downed over shallow ocean-- turns out not so much as they didn't have all of it retrieved, when I wrote this blog. First, they said they saw it over Alaska... Now, we learn they followed it from its launch site in China... or did they? See the problem and it grows with the next three that are balloons, or were they? And have they retrieved them? Not any word that I know of. Were they from aliens? They weren't sure, then they were. Most of us figured they were from this world; but they, whoever they are, weren't sure, but now are-- or are they?.

The President said he didn't want to talk about it as it'd lead to panic. Really, he didn't figure people already understood this was an unknown situation. Now I read he might give a speech, but who will write it for him and will it tell us anything more than how great he is?

There is another thing out there, regarding this...Who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? Russia, unknown, or did the current administration do it? Who can we trust to tell us?

When I wrote in 2009 that I liked the idea of dealing with health care, so people were not bankrupted by unexpected illnesses (insurance or not), I hoped there was a realistic plan to do this. It turned out not so much. People get hit by disastrous health issues, and there is no current answers. Who profited from the 'plan'; so far as I can tell-- big corporations.

I see the problem with a neighbor here where she is trying to treat her husband, who had a stroke, at home where it's wearing her out. What is her choice given what care facilities cost? Prescriptions are pretty well helped by Medicare and supplemental insurance, but what about everybody else where the prices continually escalate. An example is a test for Covid. I could get one free (on Medicare), haven't ever needed one; but our family has to pay $8 per test, which when it's a family and you need at least two each incident-- positive and then negative-- adds up fast.

Who can we trust? That's what I want to know today as it is certainly neither partisan party for me, where each have their own agendas that are not mine. Worse though are all the agencies, where nobody votes these people in, and they control a lot of regulations where we have a Congress that does nothing that isn't suiting their partisan agendas. The ordinary people??? It seems they have decided that we are too stupid for them to care what we want!

That's what has changed for me-- who should I trust? It's sure not most media, where it should be if we had reasonable journalism. Scare talk maybe, but I think it's unfortunately where we are and most countries probably suffer the same problems-- even when they are not totalitarian controlled. I want, at the least, a media that actually researches and tells us what they learn-- not what they want us to believe or what they are told they should say.

Hopefully next blog will be more upbeat. Although since it's on marketing books, maybe not lol

Update: I debated where to put my additional thoughts regarding health care-- in comments or here. You can see which won out and virtually became another blog (but I already wrote the one for Saturday).

There are two ways to approach issues where costs are growing too fast-- like health care. One is you try to bring costs down by looking at why so high. For instance with prescription drugs, is it real cost of new development (claims by corporate interests), or greed with wanting higher returns or making the stock market happy. It could even be all the advertising (didn't used to be legal to do) to get patients to want this or that prescription drug instead of letting doctors make the decisions. That advertising is not cheap and might even have someone asking for a more expensive drug when a cheaper one would have done the job-- or when they didn't actually need that one but it has some side benefit they want (recently with a very popularly advertised drug that also causes weight loss).

Looking at why costs rose in so many areas might give clues as to what could be done-- true in rapidly increasing costs of higher education where we could look at the kinds of buildings they claim to need, which might be not simple, safe structures, but more elaborate ones oriented to make the university look more Ivy League. Is it too many aides, high incomes given to only occasional professors (like one class instead of full work loads) for their name prestige? That's not the approach right now, which is more government loans (given at high rate of interest) to keep the students and no concern for why tuition has been growing faster than the cost of living. 

Same is true with many things-- an unwillingness to look at the reasons but instead find more government the answer. We can agree there is a problem-- easy to see sometimes; but what do we see as the answers-- corporate and even individual responsibility or government being the sugar daddy. This is not true of all things, but it's where we should look

This even applies to the recent train derailments. It's the fault of not enough government regulations according to one group. How about instead it's the fault of corporate interests who declare short term profits more important than wise infrastructure updates? Do we have to be forced to do what is right or should we look to responsibility as a big factor?

SOTU

  

image from Stencil

Where I don't generally do politics here, this seems a good time to discuss the State of the Union. Why do we have such a yearly address, and what is its stated purpose?

The 1790 state of the union address was the first one given to Congress, required by the Constitution to have the President report to Congress what he saw happening at the current time and what he saw needed to be done. That one, not titled state of the union, was delivered by President George Washington.  Not sure about Adams, but in 1801, Thomas Jefferson delivered his address in writing, starting a new tradition, which lasted for 112 years. The thinking is he wasn't a gifted public speaker, and he was nervous in front of large audiences.

In 1913, that changed with Woodrow Wilson, who again delivered his message with a speech to Congress. He might be the first who recognized how it could be used beneficially by a President for what he wanted to see done-- setting the stage for the modern SOTU, which has become partisan and about political rhetoric-- where we are today. 

Two more things were added-- first its name, called that by FDR and officially named it by Harry Truman. The second was when it was broadcast to the people with first radio and then television. At that point, it wasn't just about information to Congress but also the American culture, or sometimes defending a war. Reagan enhanced using it as a tool when he began to invite special guests, which hit on issues the President cared about most.-- or thought would register with the American people.

For those most interested in more about its history, an online search finds many articles. I didn't do that, as frankly, I am turned off on it and have been for some years, when I believe it became solely political and not really about the state of our country. This year was no exception to my dislike for it as I only read about it later, with no desire to see partisan rhetoric given such a broad stage.

Some have said this year's SOTU was the beginning of a campaign speech. Probably not the first, given the time a Speaker of the House tore up the papers she held with the words of the speech. She did it right after that President's speech and in front of the cameras. She wanted to make as strong a political point as she believed the President had just tried to make. 

After the most recent speech, on Wednesday, I figured the left would like it and the right not. Pretty much, how it went. We see what we want to see, which is another reason (besides not believing they tell us the state of the nation), why I don't watch it. Bad enough to read about it later.

For my SOTU, I'll give my take on what I think should have been dealt with as it stands right now. It's not about what was said-- as none of it was; but rather what we need to deal with and understand as people living in the United States-- or sometimes those around the world impacted by us. I am not providing all the problems or answers, as the SOTU didn't necessarily need to do that, but rather what are some of the issues that impact daily lives. These are not in order of importance.

First would be the downing of the spy balloon (there has since been a second but this is about the earlier one). It's not so much what the spying nation got in terms of information that it could not have gotten other ways, but because it could have carried anything with it (think diseases, destruction of cyber systems, or even bombs). Since it was a remotely controlled robot, what else was it capable of doing? Plus, should one nation allow another to cross their whole country that way? We know the answer even if our President, apparently, does not.

It is claimed this one had antennaes, which means it could listen in (potentially) to conversations on the ground. Which discussions? We shouldn't care?

It is also an issue that citizens weren't told about it until a man took a photo from his window in Billings, Montana. When the military said it wasn't an intrusion could they possibly know that it was not preparing the way for a lax attitude and something different coming as a payload?

To me, it's also a big deal that many are being, and have been, sent out from a site that manufactures them and from which they are launched around the world. Are we facing a war, as why else are they used other than preparation? Maybe to find important minerals, but this one didn't go over such sites but rather bases and missile sites.

To go with this, there are currently at least two nations that could want to attack us, have threatened us. Shouldn't we be told the details and our own readiness for such a possibility? Are we in another Cold War or might this become a hot one? This isn't about fear but a realistic attitude for what might be coming. If the President doesn't tell us, what is the point of a state of the union that doesn't reveal possibilities, which could be so important! With grandchildren of the age to be pulled into fighting a war, I have selfish concerns, as well as for our nation as a whole.

Second, impacts some of us to a greater degree than others; but most of us notice it-- inflation in the grocery store and at the gas pump. We are told it's getting better; but when we get to the store, we don't see an improvement. I would guess it is even more of an issue at restaurants (but we almost never eat out; so I don't know for sure). 

Instead of saying inflation is decreasing (rah rah talk) why not talk about the pain it causes and what could really be done with a realistic look at how the dollar is losing value and prices are going up up and have for many years to some degree. I have books I purchased years back for $1.29 on their jackets but today would be $20. It should be a real concern-- also for those who save money and find those dollars decreasing in value by the year. I do have some ideas why this is happening, but not sure what should be done instead-- other than this is disconcerting.

Third, while it was emphasized in the speech about the need for more training for police (or so I read), but what was there, regarding crime, random violent attacks, thefts (such that some insurance companies refuse to insure some brands of cars)? The reason we might find some of our police overly violent could be what they face daily and never know when a domestic violence call is really a trap. Add to that the haranguing they receive, which has led many to leave the job. I am all for more training, weeding out bullies and thugs, who should never have been there, and higher wages to draw the best possible candidates. We have to recognize what is going on in terms of violence as it has increased and like a black swan, randomly could hit any of us.

Rather than blame one party or the other for this anger and violence, ask the question as to why is that happening??? The answer is likely not simple and involves mental health along with many other possibilities. At least, acknowledge this in any state of this nation.

There are many more issues but I want to put two together here; since they are used by both parties in partisan ways. I believe they should have been addressed if someone really wants to talk about the state of this nation. 

One is Social Security and the other abortion. They are used in different ways to inspire fear and anger with different age groups-- old and young. It seems that our leadership should delve into answers for these. I have two ideas. On SS, increase the income level on which the taxes can be levied-- way up-- and lower the percentage for all. It's an easy fix to bring in more money and was regularly done in the past. For some reason, that stopped. It's not as though anybody gets a lot of money for the checks when they reach a certain age, but it'd be a big deal to the nation,all of us, if the program failed. 

The second very partisan one, abortion, could be dealt with in Congress by passing a federal law allowing it up to certain times in the pregnancy-- in all states. As it stands, even the so-called morning after pill could be called murder in some places. Do Americans want abortion returned to back streets and turned criminal for women and doctors? Some do, but the big thing with it, as a partisan issue, is votes-- not concern for women or babies.

Should not our President discuss his ideas for both of these important issues? IF state of the union actually meant what the people in that nation actually need for concerns.

There is more I could say about each of these issues and a ton of other critical ones to evaluate for risks and possible solutions; but this blog is already too long. My main point is the SOTU has become a rallying cry for either party and a campaign speech where Presidents toot their own horns, more than discuss real issues facing the nation. Some are cultural; but this time, one involves war, which could involve attacks on our own country but also sending more of our young off to fight wars. We've been there, and it's a big deal, but no reference to it-- or other major issues impacting the country-- some with obvious fixes and some not so much. If it's not a campaign speech, issues and reality should be at the head of the list, not ignoring or casting blame but looking for real solutions. Currently, they are not while each party rah rahs their own side while the other side groans and Americans suffer.

Update: Turns out the second UFO is not thought to be a balloon, but they are still not saying what they think it was until they can identify what they shot down-- if they ever tell us.

 

pet problems

Well, I have to say one of the big concerns for me is the other beings that share our home-- 5 of us, which means 3 cats. They are varying ages with all being rejected somewhere or feral. That means staying very aware of their health. We have always had cats since we got married. Having pets that many years, we are familiar with loss. We just don't want to hurry it.

Tigger loves finding new places to sleep-- probably a product of his feral years. This was a box that we had no idea would become one of his perches.

Our orange male, also one-time feral after being dropped by a previous owner in the country. Some city folks appear to think country will help their cats survive. Not so. In Tigger's case, he did pretty well for several years (we're not sure how many) before we recognized he needed to be adopted by us. We had him tested, shots given, and neutered. That was five years ago and all went well until recently when he had trouble eating. He had lost 3 lbs. We took him to the vet for major blood work, etc. (i.e. about a thousand dollars overall including meds). He had gingivitis, which is an early indicator of the real problem

That's when we learned he had what is sometimes called feline AIDs (Feline immunodeficiency virus is a Lentivirus). That scared me big time until I researched it. I was angry at first that we'd had him tested for feline leukemia, and it showed negative, but these tests are not the same. Generally they don't test for FIV as it's far more expensive and not as common. It is there most in previously feral cats, who have been in fights as it's spread by biting. I felt reassured that our other cats were not at risk since Tigger is not a biter in our home-- though he'd been in fights previously.

It turns out that cats with FIV can actually live full lives, but it takes being aware of symptoms as secondary infections is what will kill them. It was not good news but knowing he won't infect our other cats (unless he bit them) has been reassuring, as feline leukemia is far more easily spread by saliva, etc. and he doesn't have that.

Now, he has an abscess in his leg after beating the mouth problems. He's been eating well and staying active, but we just need to aware that an immune problem can be a big deal on many things. He'll see the vet Monday morning.

Our oldest female cat began throwing up yesterday-- new worry. It might be a new food she had eaten-- but it's another thing to keep an eye on. Loving pets, family members as they are, requires that.

I thought that this doctor's recommendations for keeping pets healthy was good for dogs or cats. We often don't know all -- though it'd be good if we did.

Recommendations for keeping pets healthy