#talking smack

AI CAN be useful, but too often it’s used to make corporations more money at the expense of employees, customers and the environment. Responsible use should be the goal. Image found on LinkedIn. When artificial intelligence has made such inroads, how are we in the media supposed to react to it? In some circumstances, I have no problem with AI; when it’s used to take care of repetitive tasks so…

Accurate. GIF found on giphy. The simple fact is that I was not built for heat. Besides being old and fat, IBS can make things … complicated (to say the least; sharts are a very real danger) in summer. Add to that my general persnicketiness when the summer’s heat bears down, and you have the makings of the ultimate curmudgeon. And you kids, get off my lawn. Except I’m pretty sure the bulk of…

I mean, seriously, the signs have always been there. Sometimes you discover things about yourself in the most ordinary conversations. While updating bestie Sarah (by text, since she moved away 😭) on my progress with two new cat-sitting clients/fur-kin, I noted that though they were still wary of this new person in their house, they were perhaps “starting to understand I’m just an overgrown…

I look kinda worried here. No surprise. My mama always told me I came out of the womb worrying (and two weeks early, spoiling her plan for a baby in each week of January, so yeah, I’m impatient too). It should come as no surprise, then, that I worry about my family (blood and chosen) and friends who are part of the LGBTQIA community, all the time, really, but especially during Pride Month.…

Human, this bitch slap is for your own good. Stop believing everything on the Internet! On the other hand, cat GIFs are one of the best things on the Internet, so believe in those. GIF found on LazerHorse. The Internet is great for many things: bringing people together, streaming entertainment (I don’t have cable, so that’s how I watch TV), allowing quick access to products and services around…

Captured on one of my pre-pandemic photo hikes, which I highly recommend as a social-media break. Longtime readers know I’ve often advocated taking breaks from social media. It really helps, especially now, in resetting your mental circuits after absorbing so much horror, inhumanity and rage bait. Take a walk (maybe a photo hike, which is what I used to do pre-pandemic, and really need to do…

It’s amazing sometimes how disassociated American beliefs can be from reality, particularly among the hyperpartisan. Image found on American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It’s hard at times to reconcile with the fact that we are essentially living in two very different realities in the United States. In one of those realities (the actual one most of us are living in), a growing number of people…

Gonna miss that face peering at me over the island … The original plan for this week’s column was to be as snarky as possible. However, the death of a beloved fur-nephew (/fur-son; his mama called me his other mom) over the weekend brought me pause (rest in peace, sweet Tomkin). Tomkin, though, wouldn’t want me to dim my light any more than he would want his human parents to dim theirs. In his…