Is there a more primal fear one can have than the scenario where you are listening to something on earbuds and you accidentally bump against a counter in a way where the volume up button from the smartphone in your pocket gets pushed and since it takes you a moment to assess and undo these events the podcast which was previously whispering sweet nothings into your ear is now yelling at you instead.
Similarly, a warning for anyone who is discretely approached by a religious zealot or traveling bible salesman - when they open their trench coat or briefcase to slyly reveal their wares to you and await your precise choice of contraband to purchase from them ... please know that the King James edition of the Holy Book will not be in there today.
If you are at a protest today and you are approached by someone who is dressed as a magician but you think they are also an officer of the law or military, and they show you a deck of seemingly normal playing cards and do some elaborate shuffles and ask you to "pick a card any card" please be careful not to select any of the kings, no matter what suit.
They were just like a blank screen with no body, and they were telling me that I'd been chosen as part of the whatever it was they were doing? and that I was being activated and the time to enact our plan was upon us and further instructions would be coming. I'm not sure how to put odds on this ... seem like 90% fever dream, 9% my wife playing some sort of joke on me, and 1% that TikTok has become self-aware and is about to unleash some sort of SkyNet style hell upon us (in which I'm critical).
For this Christmas season our entire family including me have contracted some sort of horrific stomach virus (possible origin: Oysters) and are taking turns being totally out of commission. While lying on the bathroom floor last night (cozy under multiple towels) I entered this weird lucid dream like state where even though my mobile device was not in the room with me, I was convinced that whatever being or entity is at the core of TikTok was speaking to me via an interface built by my own mind.
Another idea for maybe the older milleniums or younger Gen-Xers ... instead of telling your children to "come home when the street lights turn on" after they've been out roaming the village all day like you did in your own childhood, you can tell them to “come home when your phone goes into dark mode”. This will be a lot more relatable for them then your quaint idea of a street light (most of which have been replaced by AI now anyway) - and they will love you more because of your keen insights!
We are on the verge of acquiring some small kittens and making a list of possible names for them. The children have observed how despite the sheer volume of really bad name suggestions I've contributed to the list, a good chunk of the name options remaining in the final running did originate with me. My wife confirmed for them "Daddy is good at ideas but thats how his process works. You need to be patient and tolerate all the bad ones first”. I'm choosing to accept this as a ringing endorsement.
Sometimes I encounter a scenario where in the time I've been away from my computing platforms the system has swapped from light to dark mode and some of the windows have switched over but some are still on the previous mode. I don't really understand why this happens - but I like to think of the windows that have not yet switched over as napping toddlers -- there's no rush to get them to switch! Just stay quiet and let them have their time and when they wake up we can all head to the playground!
