I had a long and weird day. Objectively, it went pretty well for me. There was a barely-avoided panic attack in the middle, though. That kind of colored my opinion of this whole getting-out-of-bed scheme.
Anyway, I had a meeting in an office where this was on the desk:
Take a closer look: It seems that somebody ran a circuit board through the Google nightmare-generating AI, with ‘dog’ turned up to 11. I couldn’t stop staring at it.
It is also an approximate representation of my mind this evening, after the day that I had. Hopefully your day went better! Open thread, because we are due for one.
UPDATE: I made one of a Samwise picture for you all:
dmsilev
That graphic makes one want to go back in time and kill the inventors of Photoshop before they unleashed their unholy terror upon the world.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev: Photoshop is wonderful.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He apparently said this to Lindsey Graham….
though I noticed way back when he was an impeachment manager, Lindsey’s accent comes and goes according to the schtick he’s working
dmsilev
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And yet, he doesn’t dare to fire Sessions.
I’m beginning to think that perhaps The Apprentice might have had some elements of fiction to it.
NotMax
Probably top notch at fetching files.
In other news,
1) Dramatique. ‘I quit!’ French environment minister resigns on live radio
2) Only off by $1,999,992. OOPS! Lab says 13 pounds of white powder seized is sugar, not fentanyl
Major Major Major Major
(Note that I just added a Samwise pic up top, run through the nightmare generator and turned into some sort of …snail?)
Ohio Mom
I can tell summer is ending: I’ve seen a couple of monarchs flying south; the annual cicadas are buzzing, buzzing, buzzing; the birds are quieter in the mornings (I guess they’re all talked out by this time of year); the crickets are chirping; the sun is setting earlier.
I wish I could enjoy all this for what it is but I hate, hate, hate winter. I don’t like being reminded I’m going to have to endure another one.
trollhattan
Starry Starry PCB. My life is now complete.
NotMax
@NotMax
One more item that’s been awaiting a less weighty thread.
13 years? Court threw the (cook)book at him.
Steve in the ATL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: those aren’t marbles in Lindsey’s mouth…,
rikyrah
ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
I just hope folks notice a pattern with Andrew Gillum, Stacey Abrams, Randall Woodfin.
Each of these politicians built their own careers as young Southern Democrats, all endorsed HRC in 2016 while Sanders claiming Southern black votes distort reality. That history matters. https://twitter.com/MonieTalks_1/status/1034773938327498753?s=17
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax:
Any time I see a ‘named’ criminal like this I think of the Seinfeld where Kramer’s talking about how the cops are having a hard time naming the new neighborhood serial killer, and he suggests “Son of Dad.”
SiubhanDuinne
That’s just weird, and a very mean thing to do to the elegant Samwise.
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: You should see what subsequent generations of that image have yielded:
Steve in the ATL
@Major Major Major Major: they said “don’t take the brown acid” but did I listen?
danielx
@Major Major Major Major:
Don’t ever do that again. As to that top illustration..new motherboard by Cthulhu!
Don’t do that again, either.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@dmsilev:
You’re a sharp one.
Major Major Major Major
@Steve in the ATL: As wikipedia notes, “The cited resemblance of the imagery to LSD- and psilocybin-induced hallucinations is suggestive of a functional resemblance between artificial neural networks and particular layers of the visual cortex.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
Oh my god
Adam L Silverman
@Steve in the ATL: It’s Sessions that the President says has marbles in his mouth. Which is funny because that isn’t the type of southern accent that Sessions has. Sessions has the effeminate, southern male who might be straight or might not be southern accent.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Years and years of formal education occasionally yields dividends.
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s actually an interesting process. They train a neural network to identify something (e.g. dogs), then point it at a non-dog image and tell it to “enhance the parts that look like dogs.” You do that enough times, and you get a picture where everything is distorted to sort of look like a crazy person’s concept of a hallucinated dog.
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major: Greeaaattt…. nightmare fuel. Just what I needed when I’m on heavy drugs.
I’ll be calling you at 3 a.m. when I’m still wide awake.
danielx
@dmsilev:
…as with virtually every part of Trump’s hagiography. His entire schtick is based on selling himself as a – no, the dealmaker supreme. His dealmaking abilities are abysmal, unless you count his seeming impunity to the consequences of using other people’s money and not paying it back.
NotMax
@Steve in the ATL
Trivia: Most people don’t remember that the problem with the brown acid wasn’t that it was adulterated; the problem was that it was too potently pure.
Jay
@Ohio Mom:
I love winter. The key is to stay active. There’s nothing better than snowshoeing around seeing the “stories in the snow”, sitting around a bonfire with friends, showing kids how to do really stupid stuff on a toboggan. Somedays, after a windstorm, the lake is clear of snow, and turns into a massive skating rink. When the snow is only a few inches deep, I love taking my iceboat down to the lake and showing the snowmobilers how slot effect on a couple of small sails results in 70mph.
Major Major Major Major
@Sister Golden Bear: Alright, I get it, I won’t share the newer generations.
Sorry to hear you’re heavily drugged–hopefully it means everything is going according to plan.
@NotMax: They probably don’t remember that because they took it!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: which, some might say, makes it odd that Lindsey Graham is his new Senate BFF. He’s also ragging on Sessions for not having a better academic pedigree
Lindsey went to South Carolina state schools, per wiki.
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: How you feeling?
lgerard
@Adam L Silverman:
That’s why they call Sessions the Dixie Pixie
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have no sympathy for any of those people.
CaseyL
@Major Major Major Major: I kinda like the AI dreamscape stuff. They hit my brain in a funny way, like a little electrical shock.
Reminds me of a series of paintings I saw in a window – lordy, it must be at least 40 years ago – five or six paintings of a cat, taken by an artist who was schizophrenic, as a wave of madness hit him. The first cat looked just fine. The next looked spikier around the fur and the background wasn’t quite right, but it was still recognizably a cat. Each painting was a few degrees more distorted than the last – near the end, it looked like a Van Gough, if Van Gough had done some bad acid.
CaseyL
…painted by an artist, with photos taken of the paintings.
Adam L Silverman
@lgerard: There are things I do not want to know.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Old (probably apocryphal) anecdote.
The time: the early 1960s.
The place: lab where the first demonstration of a revolutionary English-Russian computer translation program is being held.
Head computer honcho asks for a volunteer to provide a test phrase. Prominent military person raises hand and suggests “out of sight, out of mind.”
Punch tapes are punched appropriately and fed into the machine.
“We’ll now let the computer translate it back and forth between languages over a dozen times in practically the blink of an eye! Ending in English,” exclaims the chief engineer.
Lights flash impressively on the computer panels, typewriter attached to the computer comes to life and types out “invisible idiot.”
Major Major Major Major
@CaseyL: there’s a famous LSD drawing experiment like that http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/artist-draws-nine-portraits-on-lsd-during-1950s-research-experiment.html
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: Maybe you’re thinking of this?
gene108
@Ohio Mom:
Same here. I dread the days after the summer solstice, because it just means the days are getting shorter and winter is coming.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Those are some very recent citations.
I first heard it at the time it supposedly took place.
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major: OK, the lady doth protest too much… I’m actually just on Tramadol and Tylenol, with an occasional seasoning of Celebrex and CBD pills.
@Adam L Silverman: I’m OK. Months 2 and 3 are the hardest, since the nerves have woken up, and the scar contracture begins in earnest.
The good news is that I heal quickly, but that’s not necessarily ideal for this particular surgery, since my body is trying to close what it thinks is a giant puncture wound. Hence the need to dilate 3x/day, and if it gets difficult, then you need to do it more frequently. Since each session takes at least an hour, it does shoot a good part of the day.
Things are supposed get much easier starting in month 4, although I’ll still need to dilate 2x/day for another three months, and then daily through months 7 and 12. Meanwhile I just embrace the suck.
(The way my surgeon does genital reassignment surgery is completely different than how it’s usually done in the States, and Dr. Suporn is very upfront that the recovery is twice as hard and twice as long. However, to me, the superior results are worth it — I’ve heard of GYNs who didn’t realize it was an after-market installation until they did the interior exam.)
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: that joke’s probably as old as Babbage.
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: Not sure if my reply is in moderation or whether WP simply ate it.
Sister Golden Bear
@gene108: Agreed. In NorCal, it’s not the cold that’s the problems for me, it’s the comparatively shorter amount of daylight.
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: Let me look. I’ll dig it out one way or another.
Major Major Major Major
@Sister Golden Bear: does not appear to be in moderation ?
ETA by which I apparently mean the opposite: found and freed.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major: It was in the trash. You have to check that and the spam folder as stuff sort of randomly seems to go in each of them.
Jay
OSCE SMM Ukraine
@OSCE_SMM
As observed by
#OSCE
SMM, EECP in govt-ctrl Novotroitske is temporarily closed as mines in the area started detonating due to wildfires
Brachiator
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction may be a little dated, but it is now online and free.
http://www.openculture.com/2018/08/encyclopedia-science-fiction-17500-entries-things-sci-fi-now-free-online.html
dww44
@Jim, Foolish Literalist @Adam L Silverman: I’ve come to have a grudging respect for Sessions because of the unrelenting abuse he’s taken from Trump. He obviously very much wanted to be Attorney General and at this point he’s serving a greater good than himself. I believe he knows that. Plus as a lifelong Southerner I know his upbringing and his culture, albeit I do not agree with his politics.
Perhaps he took the bit of respect that I used to have for Lindsay Graham. That was all the half-hearted respect I had to share.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jay: Hmmm, that’s one way to do mine clearance.
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: A “I’m a bit sore and uncomfortable, but doing well” would have sufficed.//
Glad to hear things are going according to your plan and that of your doctor’s. We’ve been keep good thoughts for things to go as easily as possible for you.
Duane
@Major Major Major Major: I saw the dog right away. Psychedelic music plays.
Led Zeppelin.
Jay
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
These arn’t WWII minefields, but newly installed fields on the border with Russia.
In Germany they can’t even fight the wildfires with ground crews because it’s setting off WWII UXO.
At least our fire crews don’t have those problems.
Major Major Major Major
@Duane: This Samwise picture is getting trippier and freakier each generation, but people will yell at me if I share it…
Tazj
@Ohio Mom: I’ve seen more monarchs lately and silly me didn’t even consider the fact that they were migrating now. One spring I was fortunate enough to see about 100 monarchs on my flowering pear tree.
Yes, we’re getting closer to winter, which I don’t particularly love myself. I love fall like most people,but by the middle of January I’m done with winter.
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major and
@Adam L Silverman: Thanks.
And yes, I’m a bit sore and uncomfortable, but doing well.
Balloon Juice: Come for the pets and politics, stay for the TMI… ?
Amir Khalid
@Major Major Major Major:
All I see i a blank rectangle.
Mnemosyne
I go in for my knee surgery at 8:30 am on Friday. It turns out that someone at one of G’s two jobs also had a revision of a previous ACL repair and said that the actual surgery will probably take about 45 minutes, but the pre-op and post-op take way longer. This same person also has a very bad reaction to opiates and has started claiming to be allergic because the side effects are so bad. I think it’s too late now for me to try and claim that, though.
Mnemosyne
@Sister Golden Bear:
I came up with a new metaphor for our respective surgeries! I feel like you remodeled your house back to the studs (heh, studs) and I’m complaining that my refrigerator broke and I have to get a new one.
But one of my friends at work reminded me that there’s an emotional difference between an involuntary post-accident surgery and elective surgery, so that made me feel a little less whiny.
Major Major Major Major
@Amir Khalid: Yeah, looks like something is wrong with the image host.
John Revolta
@CaseyL: Schizophrenic cats!
I remembered these too. I think I saw ’em in a Time-Life book my parents had.
Viva BrisVegas
@lgerard:
“I hates those meeces to pieces!”
piratedan
not wanting to engage in topper or the like, my day was filled with stress and vet visits and worry today as our little monster dog Mochi (Shiba Inu-American Eskimo mix) got tagged by a rattlesnake that had/has somehow taken up residence in my front courtyard…. many hours and a dose of anti-venom later, our young canine is home, swollen and subdued, but thankfully home and recovering… and here I am rambling, too tired to sleep, going through my second adrenaline crash of the day it seems….
Amir Khalid
@piratedan:
Yikes. I hope Mochi recovers without incident.
Mary G
@Mnemosyne: All my surgeries went spectacularly well and improved my quality of life immeasurably, but I still dread the ones I need now. There’s something primal in me that fears letting someone cut into me on purpose, so I know how you feel.
@Sister Golden Bear: I find the details of your procedure and recovery fascinating, so don’t let Adam’s squeamishness shut you up!
Sister Golden Bear
@Mnemosyne:
Absolutely! I ruptured my quad tendon years ago and had to have surgery to repaired, so I totally get that difference.
The recovery from this and my prior surgeries aren’t/weren’t fun, but I had signed up for them.
BTW, you should at least talk to the doctors about your previous bad reactions. They might be able to come up with some alternatives — after my facial surgery, the surgeon in Buenos Aires gave me a high-powered prescription nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, that was effective as a painkiller (it provides analgesia at the opioid level). It’s not as commonly used in the States because it’s hard on the body, so it can only be used for five days. And/or they might prescribe some anti-nausea drugs that might provide some relief. Won’t know unless you ask.
Major Major Major Major
@John Revolta: wow, that’s kind of sad though.
Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
In the mid 90’s, a well liked Senior Manager took a year long medical leave from the Company.
2 months before “he” came back, HR started a whole bunch of manditory sessions for all employee’s, explaining the whole Canadian process, and how to react when she returned.
It went very well.
piratedan
@Amir Khalid: the vets seems to think so, he’s young, in good health and we got him in for treatment quickly, but all the same, just like with your human kids, your worry, fret and cry…
joel hanes
@Jay:
my iceboat
DN ?
Knight ?
E-skeeter ?
Major Major Major Major
@piratedan: glad Mochi is well. Cute name!
Sister Golden Bear
@piratedan: Yikes! I hope Mochi has speedy and full recovery.
@Mary G: If you want the full TMI details, check out my blog, linked to from my nym. There, I’ve not really held anything back. If you think Adam is squeamish now…
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay: Glad to hear that. The world was a far less friendly place for folks like me back in the 1990s. I’m not sure I would’ve had the strength to transition back then.
lahke
Hi, anyone know if the Boston Meetup is still on for Saturday night?
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
Anesthesia freaks me out, and I always worry I won’t wake up afterwards. Of course, as both G and I have said, if that’s what happens, it will be his worst day, not mine, since I’ll sleep through the whole thing.
@Sister Golden Bear:
I have told the doctor and nurses pretty vehemently about my previous bad reactions, so hopefully they’re taking me seriously and aren’t just blowing me off because I’m a boring middle-aged woman who’s being hysterical.? Apparently the issue is that my body processes opiates very quickly, so I go into withdrawal almost immediately and end up constantly playing catch-up. I’m probably going to try the alarm trick to keep up with it.
Jay
@joel hanes:
DN
frosty
@Ohio Mom:
It’s definitely late summer light, critter noises, and this week, heat and humidity. My company has let me take leave without pay to bail south in February. I sign a paper saying I understand my job might not be there when I get back. Boss sez “Don’t sweat it.” Wife (retired) sez “That would be great!!”
John Revolta
@Major Major Major Major: I just did some reading and it turns out the schizophrenia angle was concocted after the fact………………..after Wain’s death a doctor took some of his paintings and arranged them in a fake “sequence” to show his “mental deterioration”.
Wain had some issues, possibly Asperger’s, but it wasn’t as bad as it was made to look.
Major Major Major Major
@John Revolta: well that’s quite a relief.
Major Major Major Major
@John Revolta: from his wiki bio:
Wtf?
Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
We “suffered” through the “tech crunch” of the late ’80’s. Basically YVR went from 10 “tech” companies to 400 in about 3 years.
There simply wasn’t the qualified workforce, so sucessful “tech companies” went overboard to hire, train and keep staff and it was very diverse. I went, along with half the Company, to my first Pride Parade, because a bunch of our guys and girls were on the floats. There was a core of employee’s that became “family”. Weddings, funerals, parties, housewarmings. Best working experience of my life. When Mo’s mother made him roti for lunch, she sent him to work with roti for me, and would phone me in the morning at work, so he couldn’t get away with eating them all. ( I helped them get a house). First handfasting, first Hindi wedding, first Newfie Houseparty, first raves, first Gay Weddings,
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne: If you are expecting bad reactions to opiates, you can say so and the doctors will probably accommodate you. They don’t want people barfing in the recovery room.
Sister Golden Bear
@Mnemosyne: The other thing you might do, is ask for lower dosage pills in higher amounts, if that’s possible.
I talked this over with my nurse practitioner to allow myself more flexible in dosing. Right now I’m at the max, which per the prescription is two tablets every six hours. But in reality, I’m actually taking one tablet every three hours, so that the doses are staggered.
In my case, I was previously taking one tablet every four hours, but the problem was that the pain relief not-so-gradually stopped after hour 3. So this way, with the staggered doses, it never fully wears off. (And later on I can experiment with going back to one every four hours, and then scaling back to one every six hours.) So that might help prevent withdrawal. Worse case, if you get a pill cutter, you could do this unofficially. The one catch is that the first time you take a “half dose” can be a bit painful until you are able to take the remaining half.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay: Nice!
Major Major Major Major
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t know if this applies to painkillers but always make sure that the pills you’re cutting are cuttable! Just as a PSA.
Alright, I’m off to bed.
Sister Golden Bear
@Major Major Major Major: Oh definitely!
Has to be tablets, not capsules, and won’t work for anything that’s marked as “long acting” since it’s the coating that causes it to dissolve over time.
Or why it’s worth discussing with your doctor and see if they’ll write the prescription for half the strength, but twice the amount (if that’s doable). I.e. two pills at 50mg every timePeriod rather than one pill at 100mg every timePeriod.
John Revolta
@Major Major Major Major: Daaammmn
Major Major Major Major
@John Revolta: my reaction would totally be “fuck you all, I’m going to spend the rest of my life drawing cats” too.
Amir Khalid
An amusing story on the BBC site, from a few weeks ago: German police save man from baby squirrel terror
prostratedragon
Eerily prescient —try throwing “Tr—,” “2016 campaign,” and “Dubuque” into your search engine.
sukabi
@Mnemosyne: good luck with your surgery. Opioids are horrible for stopping / slowing your bowels. You’ll definitely want to follow orders for stool softeners, plenty of water and lots of fruits and veggies to keep you moving.
That was the worst of it for me…couldn’t wait to stop taking them.?
Mel
@Major Major Major Major: Oh, no! Handsome Samwise looks slightly aardvarkian in his altered state. Photos of his usual dapper self needed, for a kitty sanity break stat!
It was indeed a strange, unsettled day yesterday.
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
OK, my laptop knows me so well that it is refusing to display any image for this comment, just an empty white box shows after I reload the tab.
Jay
@Sister Golden Bear:
I’m glad that despite the pain and the social “costs”, you have taken the choice to “be you”,
And that the Jackal’s have offered you support.
Love you.
MomSense
@Jay:
The last couple of winters I haven’t been able to do much snowshoeing because we had so much ice. We kept getting storms with huge snowfall only to have it switch to freezing rain at the end. I miss snow.
M4 sorry you had a weird, sort of bad day. Please don’t turn Samwise into a turtle with an aardvark nose again. He’s too handsome for that.
daryljfontaine
Some good cat-related nightmare fuel for the jackals:
Run the Jewels – Meowpurrdy (Trigger warning: cyriak)
D
satby
@Mnemosyne: I am allergic to opiates and they ignored me the last time I had surgery, so I woke up hooked up to the IV morphine drip. And the doctors had also written an order for some sort of injectable Benadryl for when I reacted. Which was nuts, so as soon as I realized the IV was in I pulled it out and refused to let them put it back in. That was almost 15 years ago, they’re more cognizant about opiate allergy now.
satby
@piratedan: Good luck for a full and swift recovery to Mochi and you! That had to be scary.
satby
@Sister Golden Bear: it’s taken you a great deal of strength to transition now, if you ask me! Continued good wishes on your recovery.
evodevo
@Ohio Mom: I agree wholeheartedly. I am looking at the woodshed, trying to psych myself up to start cleaning it up for ….woodcutting season ….NOOOOOOO!!!
evodevo
@piratedan: Dogs are naturally resistant to rattlesnake venom, and often recover without ill effects. That said, it depends on the brand of snake, the part of the body bitten, the size of the dog (larger dogs are very resistant), etc. Deer and pack rats are also resistant. Has to do with having the proper liver enzymes to deactivate the venom, which humans DON’T have.
Matt
Somebody made Deep Dream watch all the Bob Ross and this is what happened:
https://vimeo.com/211758157
The part where the tree he’s painting turns into six kinds of bugs simultaneously is bizarre.
father pusbucket
I see Trump behind one of the hoses.
Miss Bianca
@piratedan: oh, no! Glad that the anti-venom helped! I had one of those scares with Luna a few weeks ago – no bites, fortunately, but not for lack of trying on her part – standing there yipping at the creature when she is supposed to be giving it a wide berth because expensive *avoidance training*, hello!
Bill Arnold
@Amir Khalid:
I had to unblock scripts from imgur.com to see that image.
Sister Golden Bear
@Jay and @satby: Thank you!
BruceJ
Looks a littlelke Robert Tinney’s BYTE magazine covers I used to have a Tee shirt with his ‘Software Piracy’ cover. Hell I used ot have that copy of BYTE…
Julia Grey
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Lindsey went to South Carolina state schools, per wiki.
What you have to understand about South Carolina is that for the purpose of political attractiveness, a degree from Clemson or USC is a BETTER degree than one from those suspect Northern schools like Harvard or Yale.
(And actually Clemson and USC are pretty damn good educational institutions. One of those paradoxical things about South Carolina, where you’d expect everything to always be a a tad-bit behind the curve. When it comes to things that serve the ELITE here, the cream is skimmed and handed to them in a gold-rimmed dish.)