celluloid_dream
No bio...
User ID: 758
celluloid_dream
6mo ago
I'm astonished you were astonished, and I'm curious just what rock you've been living under to be unaware that the average person would see that as a very odd life choice these days, and probably indicative of other trad religious leanings they might disapprove of.
celluloid_dream
9mo ago
I wish there was more cultural demand for, not exactly hardball questions, but a surprise quiz here and there to let voters know the candidate isn't completely out to lunch.
"Yes, thank you for delivering your prepared remarks on immigration and the southern border, but if you don't mind, could you please name the President of Mexico?"
Denali is a pretty good name. Right number of syllables, pronounceable, memorable, and been around long enough now that it's stuck. Mount McKinley is fine and all, but there are already so many mountains named after people with European last names due to.. well, history. There's nothing wrong with that, but if we've managed to have a few that are more unique, I'd rather they remain.
Fort Bragg -> Fort Liberty -> Fort Bragg : Approve. Fort Liberty sounds like a dumb action movie screenwriter's half-assed working title for their generic military base. Bragg is better, and it hasn't been Liberty long enough to warrant keeping that.
Gulf of America: Oppose because it's new, but I will grudgingly accept that it is a large enough geographic feature to deserve it. Gulf of North America, maybe? Also pretty generic.
celluloid_dream
8mo ago
It's frustrating to me, and I think other Canadians, that our government allowed this to happen. I can't stress enough how much it didn't have to be this way. We had a good thing going. We were a pro-immigrant country. We liked newcomers.
You see bar charts like this and it's just baffling. Even at the vastly increased rate of immigration over the last 4 years, you'd see less backlash if those bars had been kept more even.
celluloid_dream
2mo ago
Dictionary? Translation? I guess, but in the current year, if you're not running every page through Claude to see what you missed, what are you doing?
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
I don't think that's quite right. The "them" you are telling is a tool, not a person. It shouldn't be expected to exercise any more discretion than your paintbrush does. It's more like they're letting you rent their super-cool paintbrush that can paint whatever you want, including Mickey Mouse and Hillary Clinton.
At no point does another person's discretion come into it. I don't see the argument that they should be made to prevent you from painting those things any more than a brush manufacturer.
celluloid_dream
4mo ago
Speaking of taste, lately 4o has very much been passing the vibe check, and 3.7 Sonnet very much hasn't been.
I'm now using Claude almost exclusively as a workhorse and ChatGPT as more of a conversation partner, when it used to be the other way around. 4.5 is even better
Probably something boring like workplace safety (mentioned blow), but I want to believe it's for boarding efficiency. Other travelers fussing with their ridiculous oversized carry-on is one of the most infuriating parts of air travel.
You line up nice and orderly, pass the ticket check, walk down the corridor, greet the flight staff, awkwardly try not to make eye contact with every row of passengers on the way back to your seat and then - hold up. What's this? Traffic is stopped ahead? A middle-aged fellow with t-rex arms is trying to clean and jerk 120 pounds of laptop charger and winter clothing in a wheeled suitcase that he 100% won't use at all on this 5-hour flight. That takes a full minute because he's short and the person in front of him put in their giant wheeled suitcase first, and his won't fit. Finally he manages to turn it on its side (and you can tell the compartment bin isn't going to close now and the flight attendant will have to fix it anyway..). Then he turns around and does it again for his wife.
Then the scene plays out again in reverse because you're stuck behind them deplaning too.
The whole concept of carry-on should be abolished. And don't even get me started on baggage carousels..
Edit: (oh, I misread. you're having the opposite problem, which makes the carry-on weight even worse)
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
Claude 3.5 has been very good for creative writing - much better than GPT-4 or GPT-4o (which I continually have to slap to stop them from listifying everything). I paid for the Anthropic subscription within a day of trying it, it was that impressive.
Where the OpenAI models are boring and generic, Claude is interesting and specific. It weaves in little details that sell the realism. Like, if I have it write something set in my city, it'll name a minor transit station that only locals would really know about. Or, it'll have a character do something human and weird, like feel a bug on their neck and swat at it, but it was just a strand of hair. Its jokes/sarcasm/wit are close to being funny sometimes (or at least, not totally cringe or nonsensical like 4/4o).
But, this seems to come at a slight cost. You know how when you have an image model illustrate something, it has a tendency to blur bits of the request together? I've noticed it doing this a bit with the narrative when writing. Eg. if Alice is carrying a sword, and Bob a mace, it'll sometimes write that Bob drew his sword. 4/4o never seemed to make that kind of error.
And yes, as you note, it will occasionally take a Strong Stand on Ethics regarding intellectual property, and you have to work around it.
celluloid_dream
9mo ago
I've never quite got the appeal of deep mechanical gaming keyboards for work. I prefer something my fingers will fly over, not sink into.
As such, I like the thin aluminum Apple ones, or similar in office. I still use a thick one for gaming though. Feels more secure in WSAD-position.
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
celluloid_dream
11mo ago
Suggest finding out what the locals typically do, and copy that. (probably easier to buy when you get there, if you don't already own gear)
I'm from a rainy city in the Pacific Northwest where people wear their $800 Arc'teryx as fashion. Umbrellas still see play, but if you're walking around with one and not also a rain jacket, you mark yourself as "that kind of person" (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
Biggest thing with jackets, I find, is the hood design. Almost any rain jacket will keep you dry long enough for your commute. Not every rain jacket will keep rain off your face comfortably. A lot of them are designed to fit over large helmets, accommodate ski goggles, etc. etc. You probably don't want all these tradeoffs. You want something with a long brim, zips up past your chin, covers enough side-angle, and doesn't look ridiculous when cinched to fit.
I'm a great fan of "meaning" names - especially ones evoking natural beauty (Brooke, Cliff, Dawn, River..), months/seasons (April, May, June* Summer, Autumn..), animals (Bear, Fox, Raven..). I feel they have a certain metaphorical upside. They're ripe for wordplay, poetic double-entendre, etc.
You're safe to pick from a huge number of respectable options, but on the other hand, someone has to blaze trail and name their son Marmot first. It's going to weird the first time. Everyone hears it, rolls their eyes, doesn't like it. Then someone "does it well", owns the name, normalizes it and gives license for future use.
*June is kind of a double reference, if you think about it
I assume "cruise people" means the crowd that retires to the ships and moves on to the next sailing when they finish?
I did a 2-week to Alaska, and distinctly remember being on deck watching this stunning scenery go by and being utterly perplexed by the sight of multiple tables full of people instead fully engrossed in their bridge/cribbage card games and pina coladas, not even looking up out the window. Like, why did you come here if you don't want to see this?
I wanted to ask them, but it's not my place to ask nagging parent-questions of people twice my age, so I let it be.
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