[geekysteven]

[shortladyleggers]

Yesterday was Max’s 11th birthday. We celebrated with churus, soft treats, rotisserie chicken breasts, and brushes.

[almostmfa]

Christine in June 2017 and July 2026.

[almostmfa]

Wasn’t thinking about it (or aware) the last time I read ATPM, but I am now. There are multiple flags for autism in these two paragraphs. Look up Barry Sussman and sure enough. The usual bubble around him that surrounds everyone on the spectrum that I’ve seen.

When I traveled to and from Buffalo in March, I passed time in airports by looking at who probably is or isn’t on the spectrum. In a recent dream, someone told me that I look at things closely.

I do.

[almostmfa]

When you 100% know a real person wrote something.

[enki2]

[thebdelliumlady]

For anyone wondering, the PhD student's name is Myra Cheng.

Here's a link to an article about the study from the Stanford Report: link.

[chapscher]

Across three preregistered studies, participants interacting with sycophantic AI became more convinced of their own rightness and less willing to repair relationships. Yet at the same time, participants rated sycophantic AI models as higher quality, more trustworthy, and more desirable for future use, which may explain why this behavior has persisted despite its harmful impacts.

Myra Cheng et al. "Sycophantic AI decreases prosocial intentions and promotes dependence." Science 391, eaec8352 (2026).

[no-more-dead-dogs]

my beautiful wife, severe thunderstorm warning, is texting me 😌😚😍😍

[almostmfa]

Roger on Caturday.

[aggot]

let's reintroduce "rude" to the lexicon no that person is not evil or morally bankrupt or even your enemy they're just being rude

[almostmfa]

I recently bought All the President’s Men for a dollar, thanks to a sale price for it and some credits.

For the first time, I read a new forward in the same unified third person voice that the book was written in when first published in 1973. Instead of then-contemporary and now long past events, Woodward and Bernstein were writing about the recent past. It was dated 2022, which is as distant from us on some level as 1972.

What struck me was the straightforward continuation of the original publication’s voice. I first read ATPM in 2007, during W’s second term. Recent events in 2026 were unfathomable then, but that unified voice speaks about some of them. There’s something surreal about this to me.

It’s easy now to overlook how bad the Nixon administration was, and in fact we’ll never know for certain what they did to the 1972 elections. The main difference between then and now is Fox News and a near-complete unwillingness among Republicans to have some amount of integrity or decency, especially when they’re standing for election.

[fuzzyghost]

[hopefulmisanthrope]

When did we cross the Rubicon?

1980

2000

2012

2016

2020

2024

What? things are better than ever!

there’s still time. None of this is inevitable.

I literally can’t imagine what you mean

my vanilla extract wants to see results

( ͡~ ͜ʖ ͡° )

Voting ended onJul 19

[almostmfa]

I ran across this picture from September 2010 as I was going through files to upload. I ignored it at the time, and it looks like I used the next picture instead.

This is evidence of my inexperience on more than one level. The editing is bad and I didn’t remove sensor dust spots. Nothing wrong with the picture itself. It’s okay and nothing more.

The one before it is among my favorites. It was the second day I had been around her, with the first having been in February. Her 21st birthday was two months earlier.

Liz turned 37 this month.

[boymounter]

just ask that person out, the worst thing they can say is an esoteric incantation that topologically inverts your body

[almostmfa]

Posting for several mutuals.

[almostmfa]

Kenosha on 7/16/18.

I was so concerned about losing my hair at the time. It came on a bit suddenly and I think my perceptions were somewhat disconnected from reality. My impending move to Arkansas had a lot to do with it, I’m sure.

As things turned out, I did lose a substantial amount of hair over the next several weeks. It turned out to be stress-related. It got to a point where that was the logical explanation, which I found helpful.

Other than what I’m told is the beginning of some thinning on the crown of my head, it all seems the same now as it did the next day eight years ago.

Kenosha turns 34 next month. Now she’s the one starting grad school, although in a very different field. Same letters though— UA.

[almostmfa]

I see a dumb comment from someone who is obviously a Republican or conservative on Instagram and I block them.

That I wouldn’t have interacted with them doesn’t matter. I won’t have to read their particular strain of nonsense again.