Mitchell Mayhew's Blog

OpenAI scraped the entire web. All of which had been a labor of love from humans. Wikipedia is the backbone of a lot of LLMs, and that was volunteer human labor. They stole it and now they're selling it back to us.

It feels like a uniquely American capitalist take to assume these traditions will make you completely self sufficient. You need a lot of people, a lot of time, a lot of knowledge across a lot of subjects, and a lot of luck to provide for everyone's nutritional needs.

So should you even bother trying to be more self sufficient with your food? I argue yes. Foraging and gardening are fun and will teach you so much about many things. They are deeply rewarding activities that can supplement your diet. There are herbs I haven't bought in years because I grow my own. There are dishes I can only make with foraged ingredients because I can't get them in stores.

In a good year, these efforts account for maaaaaaybe 15% of our food intake.

We still rely on grocery stores for the majority of our calories and nutrition and that's ok. It doesn't mean the garden is a waste of time or that hunting is a waste of effort.

The first eggs all of my niblings ate as children were from MY chickens, that I lovingly raise in a healthy, humane environment. I start every morning with a mug of black tea sweetened with honey from the bees that industriously pollinate my garden. I can't remember the last time I bought salsa, marinara, or bone broth, but I had to build new shelves to store my abundance of canned food only last week!

There are many scripts online you can follow, many ways to tweak your message to fit your senator (ESPECIALLY if they are up for reelection this year). Whether it's a recording you reach or a real person, be straightforward, don't argue, just let your rep know that you are a constituent and you oppose the KIDS act, etc.

Yes, I was tearing through books constantly, and talking to this teacher at least weekly. Because even though I always loved reading as a kid, literature was always a very weak subject for me in terms of a teaching-to-standardized-test school setting (I just do awful on "what color were the curtains" type multiple choice questions. Those details don't stick in my memory THEY JUST DON'T). But that didn't matter for this class. I could just read my way out of any bad test score. I have always had fond memories of how I "fudged" my way through that class and "abused' the extra credit policy.

Of the bills. The responsibility. The emotional labor. The constant pressure of trying to make life work for themselves and the people they love.