Caffienated Tree

Hit the “thumbs down.” It’s like, what’s wrong??? Was our summary wrong? Were there offensive words? Thank you for helping us improve our AI tools :)

I selected “other.”

Text box popped up. Please elaborate!

Wrote in “I can fucking read” submit comment

Then had to spend several minutes torching all my settings with a flamethrower. Let me be clear: I’m (a lawyer) notoriously picky with my words FOR GOOD REASON (lawyering) so I overwhelmingly reject Gmail’s “helpful” little assistance. My privacy settings were set to “full paranoia” a little less than a year ago when I saw the writing on the wall and knew public defenders could become a target in the future. Better to lock it all down now.

Gemini had crept in there and turned ALL that shit back on. And showed itself by saying “Jane Doe says she’s so sorry for your loss and offers to reschedule for Thursday at 3” over an email from Jane Doe saying “I’m so sorry for your loss. We could reschedule for Thursday at 3?”

Why would I possibly need this. In what universe would I need this. I have eyes and a brain and a reading speed that twenty years ago was measured at 1500 wpm with full comprehension on dense scientific text. Furthermore! If I read a summary, I’m not reading what they actually wrote. If I’m not reading what they actually wrote, I’m not using my own judgment on the words and phrases that they used.

I literally don’t understand why this is helpful at all. This is just avoidance. Using LLMs to write is specifically Not Writing. Using LLMs to summarize is Not Reading. Using them to make art is Avoiding Making Art. Just READ! Just WRITE! I was not put on this fucking planet to not read and not write and not make art! Avoidance is an anxiety symptom and indulging it gives it more power.

If I had an AI to do my most dreaded task, answer the phone for clients, I wouldn’t use it. Because an AI cannot help them. An AI cannot hear the facts of their case, make appropriate noises, be thoughtful and insightful, and then give them a realistic estimate of what could happen in court. I am unique. I cannot be replaced by machine learning. I have style. I have expertise. I don’t hallucinate unless I’m having a really great Friday night and I’m off the clock.

When I need to outsource tasks from my own brain, I give them to people I know can do them and that I trust to do them right.

mozzie and peter are obviously their own character's but they also represent the two warring sides of him really well — a rebellious criminal vs the more typical american dream life that neal talks about wanting with kate: a permanent home, a happy marriage, a kid, a secure and peaceful life — this ideal he probably barely even remembers living when he was two, three years old before things fell apart.

the thing is that he so so badly wants both of these lives at the same time. at one peter tells him "you can either be a con or a man, you can't be both" and even though it's just a passing line, it ups the stakes on this internal conflict by almost framing it as a life or death thing — you can be one of these things. if you choose to be a con you cannot have a life as a man.

that kind of pressure? especially in the context we see in the show — a corrupt system that repeatedly abuses neal's circumstances? and like, i love peter desperately, don't get me wrong, but he frequently "allows" and sometimes even encourages neal to bend the rules, and takes advantage of the fact that neal is a conman in order to get what they need to close cases and put other people away.

and on the flip-side, his longest friend and confidant and partner in crime, is always trying to pull him back in, telling him the peaceful picket fence life isn't for him, that he's not built for it. that they're criminals and its what they're good at and the life they've dreamed of is at their fingertips, that he's lying to himself if he tries to leave it behind. to him, the con is the idealized life, and being a criminal isn't a shameful thing in any way like it is to peter or any one else in the show. to him, neal is betraying himself and everything they've done together if he abandons the con.

so he's posed with this unspoken problem: you can either be a con or a man, but not both, but your worth is implicitly tied to your criminal abilities, and you're constantly reminded by everyone around you that you are and always will be a criminal. so how can he be anything else? its a brutal situation to be in.

that's not even touching on the issues of justice and freedom which. oh boy. i could write another essay on each of those — he is such a valuable asset to the fbi and the way they keep treating him as a criminal to keep him on that leash to serve them...

So the top relationship is Peter & Neal with 2874 fics (& not /). Perfectly understandable and expected given the subject matter of the show.

Now I would expect the next relationship to be Peter/Neal. From every other fandom in existence that features two really close guys as partners at the heart of the show, I would expect that to take the second place spot, but it doesn't. Peter/Neal takes third place with 1760 fics.

Just nipping in above it with 1776 is Peter/Elizabeth, pairing Peter with his in-canon wife. So, so many fandoms would side-line the wife in favour of the slash pairing. But not here. Here, she is half of the second most common relationship.

And in fourth place, we get Peter/Neal/Elizabeth with 1294 fics.