Yup! The beer I learned how to drink beer with is no longer one I want drink. Bunch of Trumper dorks. I was so sad when I found this out because I did a tour of the brewery, had a hat, and some anniversary coasters. A lot of cool history with that beer. Now they all sit in a box. I don’t live where it’s sold easily and I don’t drink it when I go back to visit.

I stick to homemade cocktails now

I dabbled with ChatGPT when it first came out, then this happened:

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1159286436/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-magazine-clarkesworld-artificial-intelligence

That was the catalyst that turned me against it. I’m a pretty big reader and I love finding new authors and stories. Knowing that people were cheating the system to make a quick buck did not sit well with me. Knowing that a scifi magazine that has published some of my favorite authors received so many bad submissions that they had to shut it down for a while made me angry.

Then came the information about inaccuracies, environmental issues, AI psychosis, and it being forced into Google searches made me not want to have anything to do with it. I was so disgruntled that I switched every one of my default search engines to https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ so I can avoid it.

One of my biggest gripes is that people use it for an easy quick solution but do not verify the information is correct through other sources. I have a friend who is very into AI, to the point he told his employee that he must use it during work hours when trying to find solutions. I told him, if my boss said that, I would start looking for a new job immediately.

That said, I’m not entirely against LLMs in specific circumstances. I can see how it’s useful in research spaces, but it should be triple checked by a human. Or in creating documents and summaries of meetings, but again should be triple checked by real humans.

I don’t trust the output, I don’t trust the companies behind the output, I just don’t trust it.

lol I’d go crazy eating the way two eat. It would be constant migraines all day every day. He doesn’t eat much by way of breakfast either for the same reason, his stomach gets upset. Once in a while, he suggests going out to breakfast on the weekend and I always jump at that chance lol

Folks are all kinds of different!

Ah! That makes total sense. Our definitions differ and that’s ok! I also giggled at “honey mustard pretzel books” 🤣

I know “popcorn book” is often used to kind of write something off but for me it’s not like that.

I agree it’s usually used as a write off of poor or simple literature, but that’s not how I define it either. To me a “popcorn book” is more synonymous to a vacation book, something that is quick and I can finish an entire story in a week. I don’t typically consider series as popcorn books since I can’t go start to finish in a single week. I’m a slower reader, so that probably changes my definition a little bit.

To me, books like Dark Matter and Run by Blake Crouch or The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi or some of the Star Trek novels are popcorn books. I loved the story and absorbed the entire thing within a few days. But they anre also one and done books. I’ve reread Dark Matter and recommend it frequently, especially to those new to scifi-ish stories, and I would never look down on them.

I don’t personally consider “popcorn books” a write off or insulting either.

I tend to eat the way you do; 3 meals a day with limited snacking. I eat this way because it helps me manage my migraine issues and snacking too much will cause weight gain, which (for me) causes bad back and knee pain. I used to snack more when I had a very physically demanding job. I’m a healthy weight.

My partner naturally fasts between 9pm-12pm every day. He eats a good size lunch, big dinner, and a good amount of usually healthier snacks. It works for him, I could never eat that way because I wouldn’t be able to afford the migraine medication that would go with it, but he does not have that problem. He’s a healthy weight.

I have a couple of friends who are more 1 meal a day with healthy snacking throughout the rest of the day. They are healthy weights and it seems to work for them.

Everyone is different and if it works for someone, I say have at it!

Yeah, I meant in general. I’ve seen quite a few times instances of it outside of womensstuff and not many people call them out except for folks like me and velma. I’d never expect a guy to do that there.

Can’t steal what’s freely given! Have at it!

I have so many misogynist cries misandry tags out there that it’s pretty crazy. I just tag folks instead of blocking since this is still such a small space, that way I can read their comments/posts but otherwise not engage with them.

The worst of the worst I’ve seen here hasn’t been active in over two weeks thank goodness. Hopefully he got told he’s an ass by enough people other than me that he left.

This is why I said in my comment that I wish more guys would call out their fellow men’s misogyny more instead of relying on others to correct them. It would be a step in the right direction.

Not saying this is you at all, but it would nice to not have guys arguing and crying misandry/sexism when they are politely asked to leave a space specifically made for women and femme adjacent folks. Maybe if more guys pushed back, women would feel more welcome.

You’re correct, my bad. It was Mastodon but I don’t doubt it can happen here eventually.

I literally just read an article here an hour ago about how LLM bots are starting to get through signup protocols on Lemmy and mods are becoming overburdened. They even mentioned a brigade of Russian bots that have been shit stirring and spreading propaganda.

I would not be surprised if you are close to the truth here. Especially because this is supposed to be a good off my chest comm lol

Edit: found it

This problem is not only spam in the ‘click-here-for-free-dogecoin’ sense, IFTAS reports that the fediverse has been targeted by the Russian botnet Portal Kombat for misinformation and propaganda.

https://piefed.social/post/2165924

Edit 2: I was wrong, it’s a Mastodon thing but I wouldn’t be surprised if it came here eventually too.

Absolutely! I wish more male users of these comms would call out their fellow men’s misogyny and not rely on others to do it for them. It would make the spaces more welcoming to a lot more people and create a more positive atmosphere.

I also love seeing 2 of my fave lemmings in other spaces 🥰

Nice plants!

I just moved 8 freebie hydros to soil in the last few days and I’m hoping they don’t die or bud up early. Hope mine look as good as yours!

I have to disagree with The Expanse as a popcorn book. I’ve read all the books 2-3 times, all the novellas, all the graphic novels, played the Tell Tale game, waiting on the next game, I own the tv series, and have Detective Miller as my desktop background. It’s a universe that, if you really want to, you can get obsessed with it. That’s one of my all time favorite science fiction series, but I do agree they are fairly easy reads.

Yeah, RP1 was definitely not groundbreaking scifi at all, it was way too hyped up. It was alright and even when I recommend it to someone I think would like it, I always include caveats of the cringe and other weird stuff. Like, I know Watts is a younger guy but some parts are just 🤢 And don’t even get me started on RP2, just ugh! Bad bad bad!!

Snow Crash was far better and I’m glad I didn’t read it as a vacation book. I absorbed more of it reading it at home rather than while traveling. I remember way more of Snow Crash than I remember Ready Player One. We absolutely deserve a Snow Crash show!

War of the Spark: Ravnica by Greg Weisman

This book took everything that was decent about the Magic the Gathering universe and threw it directly into the trash. Poor writing, poor characters, lacks development.

The gross comments from Chandra about Gideon’s rippling muscles and sexiness were just completely not worth the read (and I actually love romance novels). The changes of making Chandra more straight than she actually is, does a complete disservice to the love story between her and Nissa. Very disrespectful to the characters and community from an otherwise decent author. Just no!

If you still want to read a Magic book, check out Children of the Nameless by Brandon Sanderson. It’s a far more compelling story about the spark of a new planeswalker.

What’s funny is I 100% agree with both of you and I still enjoyed that book. I read it as a vacation book a few years back. I refer to it as a popcorn book; quick, easy to read, mostly forgettable once done. But when it cringes, it cringed so hard.

And Snow Crash was definitely better

Oh goodness, this is me. I enjoy going out and I can go out without spending any money other than gas. I’ll walk around a park with friends, hang out with them at their homes, go on hikes etc. But man…that hurdle of actually going is so massive.

Yep, this was my experience working in retail as well. They flat out told us this was the reason why we merchandised stores the way we did. The more commonly purchased items started to the right of the store doors and went in a circle to the less commonly purchased items.

Door > mobile phones > computers > home entertainment (tvs and such) > appliances

All of the other commonly purchased stuff was in the center of the store.

I always felt that that current times are the buildup to Idiocracy rather than actually being Idiocracy. All the people in charge who did stupid shit that led to that world are what is happening now.

Yes! And a super cutie jumping spider at that!