Friday Randomness
Apologies for the slightly blurry meme above. Goodness, I feel like all I do these days is Friday Randomness posts. Oh well, they work for me. I spend my week looking for things for you to enjoy, and then here they are. Ready? Let’s dive in.
I’m on a Podcast!
Are you a fan of British band Sade? I am! Ted has a music podcast, Planet LP, where he talks about all things music, and this week he had a very special guest – Me! My assignment was to listen to all of their albums (there are 6, not a huge discography), and pick my favorite song from each. Sometimes this was easier than others, but it was a fun project. Give it a listen if you’re so inclined. It’s about 25 minutes. The ad at the beginning is my BIL’s online radio station!
Speaking of music, on Saturday, Maya and I were out on our morning walk, and came across this man practicing his bagpipe. As one does, I suppose. He sounded pretty good.
Sunday Ted and I went to see the new Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu. I was prepared for unrealistic fight scenes where The Mandalorian hits his targets and the other side never does. I was prepared for the adorableness of Grogu, aka ‘Baby Yoda’. I was not prepared for Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s oddly ripped gladiator type fighter son. We came out thinking it was fun, but not great. B, maybe B-. B+ if you count the popcorn.
I finally decided who to vote for in the California Governor’s race. WHEW! We vote by mail, and even more convenient is voting drop off boxes at the library.
My friend saw this ad, a dog walker looking for work. Cute! But I read it wrong (the yellow writing was too faint) and thought they were charging you $5 to walk their 12 year old dog, Aven, for 35 minutes. I could get behind that! Give me your dog for my morning walk, I’ll pay you $5 for the pleasure!
I decided to try another frittata recipe, this one from Williams Sonoma. It calls for arugula, cherry tomatoes, and goat cheese. That seemed like it would be really good, and it was fine…but the proportions of egg to milk were really different, and I think maybe I like the recipe I made last week a bit more. So I won’t be posting this recipe to my blog, but you can find it here if you’re interested. Those who make frittatas, how much milk do you use? Last week’s recipe was 8 eggs and 1/4 cup milk. This week’s was 8 eggs and 1 cup milk. (Both recipes called for 6 eggs, but I used 8.) That’s a big difference. I feel like maybe 1/2 cup of milk would be good?
Wednesday’s Connections was perfection. I loved finding the purple row right away (Little Women) and I loved that their red herring was Shakespeare plays. I always try to get a rainbow row on top, and I love it when they try to fake us out.
Stephany sent me a text saying she was reading last week’s post, and perhaps we should have a group chat with our Connections results. Anyone want to do that? I’m ALL IN.
Truly random photo…I was amazed at the variety of beans at last week’s Farmer’s Market. I should have bought some, because we ended up having green beans that night for dinner. The broccoli I bought instead is still in the fridge.
We’re currently watching Younger on Netflix. Did you see this show when it was on TV from 2015 to 2021? We didn’t, but we’re enjoying it now. It’s cute, light fun. The premise is that a newly divorced 40 year old mom from New Jersey finds herself in need of a job, after taking many years off to raise her now college aged daughter. She’s been out of the workforce and can’t find anything. She’s fine with taking an entry level job, but due to her advanced (ahem) age, no one will hire her. A cute tattoo artist who lives nearby mistakes her for being his age, 26, which gives her an idea. She gets a job in publishing as an assistant by pretending to be 26. Sutton Foster was 40 when she played the role, which was good because you can kind of see how she might get away with it. Except her boss is about her same age, and remains clueless (at least as far as we’ve gotten), which seems unlikely. Anyway, suspend your disbelief and enjoy if you want a light, watchable comedy full of generational misunderstandings and so on. We watch 3 episodes most nights, which is just over an hour (they’re just over 20 minutes each), so we will get through all 7 seasons before too long.
Is it virtue singling when I say I wish I cared about the World Cup so I could boycott, since the FIFA President awarded Trump with the totally legitimate and real FIFA Peace Prize? Alas, I have never tried to watch the World Cup, I’m not a big sports fan, so I can’t really claim to boycott.
If you love soccer, however, feel free to virtue signal that NY Mayor Mamdani has secured $50 tickets for NYC residents to the World Cup. Something for everyone.
I’m so sick of AI everywhere. Mostly I hate the energy it uses, and the huge data centers being built. Am I worried about my job being taken by AI? Yes. Am I more worried about my daughter’s job being taken by AI? Yes (more her because I’m 60, so maybe it won’t get there before I’m ready to retire). And yeah, maybe AI will be good at things like programming and science and medicine, and her English degree and critical thinking skills will turn out to be more useful in the future. I don’t know. But I hate seeing people post on Facebook that they asked AI to describe them in 1 word or whatever. I’ll confess that I use it occasionally in my job, when I can’t manage to make my brain reword tech speak into English, but probably once a month or so. ANYWAY, I got tired of my online search results coming back first with AI results. If I’m looking for a frittata recipe, I just want links to recipes, not a summary telling me what frittata is and its basic components. I don’t want this to be the default, I want to only use it when I seek it out. I haven’t figured out how to opt-out using Google, but Duck Duck Go has the option, so I switched my search engine and now I’m a happier, less annoyed and judgy person. Maybe.
Because I’m a big ole hypocrite, after I saw this on Facebook (Paul Heggen was my favorite local weatherman until he moved away…on Mulder’s Fabulous Friday, where we went to a little fair in San Francisco, he was at a booth for the TV station where he worked, and he gave Mulder some water.) I had to give it a try.
OK, I’m sorry for the energy I wasted on that one, but it made me laugh. Sometimes I’m hilarious.
I couldn’t get a good photo of these two, they were too busy playing. Last week’s kittens were so shy and scared, and these two are so friendly. It’s almost like they all have their own personalities or something. I saw them last Friday, and now they have been adopted already so I didn’t go on Wednesday. Today there is an adult cat. The kittens are so fun, but the adults are easier to clean up after.
My sister sent me this picture of her roses – she planted them for my dad after he died, orange was his favorite color. Aren’t they gorgeous?
Tell me, do you love Sade? Do you pronounce the ‘r’? Do you want to join a Connections chat via text? How much milk would you put in a frittata with 6 – 8 eggs? Would you pay $5 to walk someone’s dog? Have you ever come across someone playing the bagpipes in your neighborhood?
42 Comments
Suzanne
I immediately thought of you after Connections yesterday morning!!! I would have texted you but it was five thirty am my time and I didn’t think you would be quite so enthused about the Little Women row that early in the morning. ?
But I am HERE for a group chat! I love Connections!!!!!
That dog walking flyer is adorable. My kid is working on her own flyer for the summer and I love the way her marketing mind works.
I abhor AI, although I am trying to soften my stance a bit because I don’t want to be left behind, you know?
J
What is your daughter’s flyer going to be about? So many things a teen can do, so many things they can’t…
Jenny
Ha, no bagpipers in my neighborhood! Also, I love that flyer so much. I hope that kid gets a lot of business.
i have a client who loves to talk to me about AI. Just about everything I know, I know from him. Yes, it can make mistakes and you have to be careful! He said AI REALLY wants to do what you asked it to do, so if you say “Give me ten examples of lawsuits involving penguins” it will- even if it has to make some up. So you have to be careful how you word things. You have to say “Give me ten examples of lawsuits involving penguins, and if there aren’t ten, then tell me how many there are. If there are none, that’s also useful data.” Anyway… I don’t use AI much and am not worried about it taking over my job. But I’m worried about my daughter and any young person joining the workforce soon- I think it’s very confusing and worrisome for them.
I will definitely listen to the podcast!!!!!!!
J
I’ve heard that about AI as well. It wants to make you happy, so it’s fine with lying. Lawyers have gotten in trouble for using it and not verifying the results. My husband uses it sometimes for his job, and like your client, he is very specific and precise with his prompts.
AC
I am recently finding AI searches to be very helpful for quick answers that I don’t want to drill down for. I just found out where the soccer club, Arsenal is located — north London . I didn’t have to find an Arsenal home page of go to Wikipedia first; the info was right there in seconds. From there, I quickly found that are 7 such teams within or very close London. That’s a lot; there are just 2 NFL teams in New York, for example. Nevermind why I sudently wanted to know, I just did. ?
Among current watches that we missed at the time is The Good Doctor. It’s amusing me for now, but I don’t know if I will like it so much at the end of 6 long seasons.
J
I think AI is really good at giving you quick trivia for sure. It just takes so much energy to do it is the thing. Once (if) we’re on all renewables, I will feel better about it. Or if they could make the data centers quieter and use less water. Or or or…so many issues. But yeah, it’s here to stay for sure.
AC
I get it. It concerns me a lot, especially frivolous use.
J
And yet…not much is more frivolous than asking how many r’s in Sade, right? The siren song of frivolity.
Lisa’s Yarns
I’m in for a connections text group! I am not great at it but have fun doing it!
I hate AI so much. I am trying to be more open minded but it depresses me. And it is so inaccurate at times. I am supposed to use it at work so I asked it to compare 2 mutual funds and the response got one of the funds wrong even though I used the ticker for the fund. Instead of Nuveen Strategic Income, it used Fidelity Strategic Income. So I have no faith in the system when it makes the most basic mistakes. It also gave the wrong dates for the Federal Reserve meetings to my coworker. These are all very obvious mistakes or easy to detect. So what else is it missing that we don’t detect? And I want my kids to have plentiful job opportunities. I have never used ChatGPT. I am really holding out on using it since I have serious concerns about what it will do to our economy and society!!
J
Yay for group text! Stephany just added you.
Yeah, I have a lot of concerns about AI too. I wish it would slow down. Or kill us all so we can just be DONE. (KIDDING!)
Margaret
I got fooled by the Shakespeare plays; the awful part was that I felt so smart. Bah! I love Connections most days and do Wordle and Strands as well as a couple geography games and crosswords. (easy ones) Those orange flowers are gorgeous; I love orange ones too although I never wear the color. I hate AI–which seems to be imbedded everywhere. I try not to use it, but it’s insidious. 🙁
J
I also do strands and wordle, plus some other games (waffle and waffle number).
I try not to use AI, at least not mindlessly. If I’m going to use it I want it to be on purpose.
NGS
Aven can walk Hannah anytime they want to. Except Hannah is a brat, so maybe not. I would not pay to walk someone’s dog, but I would pay someone to walk Hannah if that were possible.
Julie, we don’t use any milk in our fritatta. NONE.
10 eggs
a green thing (broccoli, kale, chard, whatever)
a thing to give the frittata bulk (potatoes with broccoli, mushrooms sometimes, etc.)
a cheese (cheddar with broccoli and potatoes – it’s like a baked potato, parm with kale and shrooms, etc)
if you’re feeling spicy, add some olives or tomatoes or something
That’s it. That’s my recipe. NO MILK. I measure everything with my heart.
J
NO MILK. Great to know! I would pay to walk Hannah for sure. But then when it turned into just a sniff walk, I’d become impatient so it would be a one time thing.
Birchie
Anyone who is offering dog walks for $5 is going to be SWAMPED with business. Right after Stepdog died I so desperately wanted to walk a dog, any dog. The Humane Society wasn’t accepting new volunteers just then and I was too shy to ask the neighbors. If I had it to do all over again, I would not have been shy!
I’m in for the Connections group chat! I enjoy playing, but I am terrible at it. I only solved Tuesday and Wednesday’s puzzles this week. Hey, I rocked it the time that they had a row based on Alfred Hitchcock movies!
I have mixed feelings about AI. There’s a joke that it will never replace programming because “then people would have to be specific about what they want”. I’ve used it for workouts and eating advice, and it’s been very helpful for that.
J
Yes, I sometimes consider asking my neighbors if I can walk their dogs, but I don’t know them very well and think it might be weird. I mean, I would not have let anyone walk Mulder, unlesss they were a close friend.
Adding you to the group Connections chat stat.
Midwest Mark
Ha…I am a Sade fan, and not long ago, Tara looked at me funny when I pronounced it “Shar-day.” I’d heard that many years ago and it always stuck with me. I have since changed my ways and dropped the “r”…but maybe I was right all along? I’m so confused now. (And “Cherish the Day” is my fave…I like a moody slow jam.)
J
I love ‘Cherish the Day’, excellent choice! Looking at my ill advised AI thing, above, I wonder if they put ‘Shar-Day’ on the album cover to differentiate her from the Shah of Iran? I mean, it wasn’t THAT long ago at that point, so maybe? But yeah, that’s how it was said for a while in the US.
Michelle G.
I love your randomness posts, and YES, I want in on the Connections chat! I’m terrible at it, but it’s fun to try.
AI art is a sore subject for artists for sure. It upsets me that so many people who DON’T use AI for their writing or art are being accused of using it, and it’s like a witch hunt.
Well, the little dog walker’s sign made me smile! That gives me hope for the future!
I gasped at the orange roses. Wow! What an amazing color!
J
OK, just added you to the Connections chat. So far it’s you, me, Suzanne, Caroline, Stephany, and Lisa!
Diane
I LOVED Younger. I thought it was such a fun show – just the right amount of romance-y angst and also the female friendships were so great. I was definitely Team Josh.
We just got Netflix and I’ve been watching Derry Girls with my Husband – such a good show show too – I laugh and laugh.
I did an opera with bagpipes once – the opera Silent Night. Actually I’ve been lucky to get to do it twice, for two different opera companies. Funny thing is both times we had the same bagpiper. Turns out he is actually a trumpet player, but you have to be in the musician’s union to play for these companies, and he was the only one in our area with a union card who could play the bagpipes. The Bagpipes were really loud, but I looked forward to hearing him play every evening.
J
Yay! You saw Younger AND worked with bagpipes. Awesome.
We enjoyed Derry Girls too!
DB Stewart
Fun project, a little jealous, ha.
I adore the bagpipes.
Those AI errors are indeed glaring!
J
Funny, right? AI can do a lot, but it also makes a lot of mistakes.
San
Funny, my sister hired a bagpipes player for her wedding. That was fun!
I also dropped off our ballots today. I did a lot more thinking (and reading the last few days) and talked with my friend, who voted (wholeheartedly, I must add) for Tom Steyer. I was a bit surprised by the enthusiasm.
Don’t get me started on AI. We’re (very) encouraged at work to use it but I had the same experience as Lisa – I have noticed a few times that it was getting basic things wrong (where I knew the correct answers) and it makes me wonder how much more it gets wrong that people take for face value.
I actually googled the primary polls the other day and didn’t put in a good prompt and AI answered that Katie Porter was leading the polls! I MEAN, I wish! But it’s just scary how much people already rely on it and don’t even question the answers.
J
A lot of progressives really like Steyer. I like his words, but like the article you sent me said, I don’t want to normalize billionaires.
If AI thinks there is an R in Paul and Sade, then yeah, it’s getting facts wrong. I also wonder about how much people accept what it tells them.
Coco
I’m amazed by the variety of beans too! That’s something I look forward to explore with my daughter over the summer when we stay in dc area.
AI, I’m hearing a lot of noises around it. I have a draft post to share my thoughts especially because even at work we talk about it and need to think how to use it and advise government to use it.
J
I know that in some tech companies, people are encouraged to use AI, and some of their metrics for their performance reviews can be based on it. UGH. I do think it will be important for thoughtful people to use it in order to advise governments though, because I doubt that it is going away.
nance
Why so many beans?! I’d probably have bought some of those purple/black ones, just to try. I like beans stirfried; boiling them seems wrong.
I don’t measure the milk or half n half when I make frittatas. I just glug it in and judge by colour and consistency, but I do always add it. Otherwise, it’s just a bigass omelet to me.
KITTENS! That tabby with the freckled belly is so darn cute. My DIL just asked me if I wanted a kitten. Her friend has a stray that had a litter in her garage. I said NO. Piper is my last cat forever. I am ready to be petless and have no more cat hair.
I’m currently on a streak of 131 in Connections. The first thing I do is immediately shuffle the tiles. I read that tip someplace, and I find it helps a lot. I frequently shuffle them as I solve. Let’s not talk about my broken Wordle streak three months ago. I’m still not over it.
Bagpipes–love them. Rod Stewart always had them as his opening act! I’d like to try to play them someday. However, I used to want to learn the banjo, too, but got over that.
Congrats on your starring role in the podcast. I’ll listen just to hear your voice again.
J
I do not know the WHY of this, but I don’t play Connections in the NYT app, I play on my browser. Which means I don’t have a streak. And now I don’t want to start one because it would not be accurate. Maybe next time I fail I will switch over. I had a WORDLE streak of 445, and it hurt a LOT when I lost that. Sigh.
You’re listening to my podcast? Even though you don’t care for them? YAY! I don’t think we chattered on TOO much about unrelated things…
StephLove
I’m a copywriter, so AI is already making it harder to find work, but like you I am more worried for my eldest who works as a video editor and my youngest who wants to be a therapist.
How fun to be a podcast guest!
J
UGH on AI. And I hear stories of people using it as a therapist, which is worrisome.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
I’ll have to seek out the podcast so I can hear your voice. It will be exciting to see if you soudn like you as you are in my head. As for stephany and her podcast that threw me off a bit.
Also thanks for the nextflix recommendation. I am always looking for 20 min episodes.
J
I hope you enjoy the podcast. Was Sade popular in Germany? Are you familiar wth their music?
Stephany
Omg, that dog walking flyer is THE CUTEST THING EVER. $5 for a walk sounds like a STEAL these days.
I started watching Younger and then I stopped for some reason. I don’t even know why! It’s a fun show, though.
AI, sigh. I work in digital marketing and I have to know how to use it. It’s how people are searching these days, so writing content that aligns with AI SEO is necessary. I do find it very useful in some instances, but I just wish it wasn’t so terrible for the environment! (And jobs.)
J
Yeah, I feel like AI can be really useful. I wish the downsides weren’t so dire!
PocoBrat
Omigosh that took me back… I had that very Sade LP and played the heck out of it!!!
Also I hear bagpipes all the time 🙂 Our college has a Scottish connection, so bagpipes are huge on campus.
I didn’t see _Younger_ in real time but I did binge it one summer. Really cool show, and I remember some cool book references and Terry Gross (from Fresh Air) was on it!
Your frittata looks ao good, Jules! The eggs-milk ratio sounds about ok? I don’t really measure, so I usually add a “splash.”
J
I think ‘a splash’ might be the right amount of milk for a frittata. Nice to hear someone else saw _Younger_! Oh, Sade. I think we were all in love with her, I know I was.
PocoBrat
I dislike AI and am trying to be patient with people who use AI indiscriminately. I am terrified by how much corporate powers are trying to shove AI on us at such terrible costs to artists, the global south, and the planet.
J
Yes, Yes, and Yes. So scary. I worry the most about the planet, because that affects everyone. But all are worrisome.
Anne
I’ll just say that you do not want to get me started on AI. I will rant for so long that you will want to block me. 🙂
Also? So cool that Ted has a podcast.
What browser are you using? I can tell you what URL to use for your search engine if you want to keep Google to web-only.
J
Would I have to add that prefix to every search? That sounds worky if it’s the case, at least compared to having a different browser. Actually, though, I WOULD like that information so I can use it when I have to look something up on my work computer.