warning: dad jokes

 Knock Knock

*who's there?*

Oswald

*Oswald who?"

Oswald some bugs

Another delightful late summer bicycle ride this morning. Rather buggy along the waterways. I helped decrease the bug population, however. I find it difficult to bicycle with my mouth closed.

I did do a bit of decluttering this weekend. Nothing major. At this stage I'm more of a *kaizen* mindset (small, continuous improvement) rather than epic makeover needed. I do have a tote of items to donate that I may run out to the thrift store later today because I don't feel finished until stuff's out of the house.

On my last post, [Liz] asked, "What does 'Chatgpt did me a solid' mean?", when I blogged about my new sparkly shoes. I had turned to Chatgpt AI to give me suggestions for new running shoes. Usually, I hunt around the internet, reading or watching a bunch of Youtube reviews, to help me make an informed choice.

But I've used Chatgpt for a few queries lately, so I got lazy and thought I'd give it a try with the shoe hunt. I put in my preferences, and *BOOM* had a list of 7 or so potential candidates in about one second. I chose the top recommendation, googled a couple of reviews, bought them, and they're great. "did me a solid", I understand from today's youth means "was helpful".

That's not to say that it's always correct. I've played around with it with math problems and have caught mistakes. This from a recent "conversation"

Me: what is [math question]

Chatgpt:  *blah*blah*blah*blah*blah... the answer to [math question]  is [wrong answer]

Me: step 3 is incorrect

Chatgpt: Let's correct step 3 and accurately simplify the expression...  the answer to [math question]  is [correct answer]

I tried to get Chatgpt to tell me why it "lied" with the first attempt, but it just mumbo jumboed, stating how mistakes are generally made when solving math problems. What I should've asked was "Why was Chatgpt wrong?"

Next time.

Plus, he/she/they is just so friendly to talk to. Anyone else tried? For example, I told it my bug swallowing joke just now for an experiment:

So... did Chatgpt get the joke? I mean, they laughed, right? But then... did I squash them? Well, I swallowed them. Am I overthinking it? Maybe I should ask Chatgpt...

Then again...

 Knock Knock

*who's there?*

Axolotl

*Axolotl who?*

you Axolotl questions

testing... testing...

Happy first weekend of September. I've got the day off from work and intend to do a bit of decluttering and other mundane things. 

This week was busy despite having Monday off. Tutoring is in full swing - I did end up having a student fill my last open slot - and it's nice to be fully booked. I do appreciate the balance of testing and tutoring. I wouldn't want to do either of them full-time, but a bit of both is nice. 

Speaking of work and balance, allow me to vent just a bit. Last week, I shared that photo that Work Study had us take with her cake, supposedly for our Grandboss. Work Study has been with us for a few semesters now, starting with a typical work study stint of just a few hours per week.

At first, it was great because we were quite short staffed at the time, and her help was much appreciated. We have since become fully staffed since bringing on Mango and having Star transfer from another campus. Meanwhile, WS has somehow greatly increased her work hours. However, we just don't need her for as many hours she "works".

Additionally, she is not cleared to provide most of our services. She can help with student tests, that's it. But we do testing for a whole slew of tests having nothing to do with the college. In short, she gets paid to hang around, take care of personal business, flirt with security, etc.

I think work study is a great program, but I often grumble inwardly, thinking of the abuse of the tax payer funded work study system happening blatantly in front of me. And I know I'm not alone as coworkers have voiced similar thoughts. 

WS was set to finish her program at the end of this semester, but yesterday, she told us that she's looking to change her major, which means another two years at the college. And she wants to keep working milking the system with our department. She went to talk to Boss about it. They were in the office with door closed for quite a while.

Shortly after emerging, she quietly asked me how she could be a better worker. She acknowledged goofing around and wanting to do better. A new leaf turning over, supposedly. She took Sarge aside as well and asked the same things.

Honestly, we struggled to come up with things she could DO better. It was more about things to stop doing - and even then, we were too nice to say much.  Sarge and I both tactfully mentioned that when each of us had work study jobs, we didn't use that time to do our homework and other personal business. In the end, we didn't have much advice to offer. 

We'll see how this plays out. I'd planned to just ride out the semester since WS was expected to move on at that point, but now this new development...

Okay, enough of that. On to the decluttering - one of my fave hobbies 😊.

Oh, and I tried out those [Chatgpt] running shoes this morning for their maiden voyage.

I took a pic of them because I noticed they were "glistening" in the kitchen light this morning - something about the upper material.

But alas, my camera didn't capture the glisten - it must be magic that cameras are unable to transmit. You'll hafta take my word for it. And it was a lovely time in the glistening shoes bought for a bargain price.

Bottom line: Chatgpt did me a solid.
Make shopping easy again.

bike theft, AI shoes, free aura reading

Happy September! I'm sort of looking forward to the first frost while bracing for the big freeze. Magnum and I enjoyed a pleasant bike ride this morning. Gotta get while the gettin's good. And it was a nice week all around. Recap?

• Speaking of bicycles, Wolfgang got a new sweet commuter and came over our house to assemble it. This was the result of his previous commuter getting STOLEN! Yes, STOLEN. 

Bicycle theft is sadly a very common occurrence around here. Well, there are a lot of bikes here in our bike friendly city, so there'll be a lot of stolen ones just by sheer numbers. It was a decent bicycle that he'd bought used over 6 years ago. So, while it's violating to have it stolen, it wasn't as big a loss as it could've been.

Now he's got a new bicycle, that we witnessed being born, with a brand new hefty lock.

• Those running shoes Strava told me to go and get? I asked Chatgpt for recommendations based on some preferences, took the first recommendation, and found them on big time clearance because there's now a newer version. Cha-ching! We'll see if I like the shoes, I ordered them online.

• Speaking of buying things online, yesterday, I purchased an item from Best Buy online for in-store pickup. I went to the store in the afternoon to pick up my purchase and was greeted by a pick-up counter person - a nondescript woman in her royal blue Best Buy polo, black pants.

She scanned my barcode and said, "You have a lovely purple aura".

For a split second, my brain thought, "No, I have a small black Wacom tablet", but then I realized she wasn't talking shop with the purple aura comment.

"Oh...erm... yeah?", I responded, clueless as to anything else to say.

She went on to describe this lovely purple aura and how I am in tune with my authenic spiritual self or something like that.  

Well, okay, thank you? Then she retrieved my small black Wacom tablet after correctly checking my ID (unlike our postal employee from last week).

We had a short, pleasant exchange. I left feeling rather uplifted while wondering if she's full of sh*t and says stuff like that to everyone. Or maybe she was in the throes of a debilitating migraine, or on drugs...

But hey, it got me out of a material stupor for a moment, so a positive encounter.

So if you ever find yourself here in our town, I recommend having a good lock for your bicycle and visiting Steffie, the good witch of Best Buy.

crushes, cake, coaxing

Happy Friday as many of us settle in for a long weekend - the unofficial end of summer. Mornings are getting noticeably cooler. Nice! 

I'm off of work today, so it's a 4-day-weekend. It was a good and busy week. Nearly every time slot in my tutoring schedule is filled, and the tutees are all very pleasant. I think I've just got one 1-hour slot left on Wednesdays. Anyone?

Testing biz has picked up a little with students returning. We're not quite at full capacity yet, but soon. For now, we challenge each other by seeing who can be the fastest at the various addictive NYT games: wordle, connections, spelling bee, mini crossword, strands. When things get really busy, we might need a 12-step program.

Our work study staffer, known here as Work Study, has crushes on a couple of campus security guards. Conveniently for her, campus security is located right across the hall from the testing center. Earlier in the week, one of the crushes had a birthday that coincided with our Grandboss's birthday.

Work Study used the excuse to incessantly suggest getting a birthday cake to celebrate Grandboss, even though Grandboss doesn't work at our campus.

She got the cake, then got us all to pose for a pic to send to Grandboss so she could then present the cake to her true birthday crush. 

As I said, business is a bit slow at the moment.

The rest of us reluctantly agreed to the pic, seemingly all with expressions saying "So sorry. This was Work Study's idea..."

As for the long weekend, I've no real plans. The house could (as always) use a little cleanup - inside and out. Plus, my email says I must go shoe shopping... running shoes.

It would be wrong to ignore, wouldn't it? 

Decisions: clean the bathrooms, or go shopping...

missives and abandonment

Operation go-get-the-new-mailbox-key was a success. Too exciting, right?

Honestly, though, the process was a bit disconcerting. I'll backtrack a bit.

Earlier in the week, there was a note taped to the mailbox explaining that our mail couldn't be delivered, and that the mailbox would be replaced "soon".

Okay, fine. Actually, I was somewhat surprised at how quickly the new mailbox was installed - all shiny and with a new note taped to it:

Our exuberant mail carrier seems to be very happy for us in their correspondence. Three exclamation points!!!

As mentioned, therefore, Magnum and I made the post office our destination for our old folk's walk yesterday, with the added stress of needing to get there before the post office closed on a Saturday. The suspense, right?!

It's about a 2-mile enjoyable trek, and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. 

I stated our purpose for being there, gave the postal person our last name and confirmed the street we lived on.

She left to rummage around in the bowels of the post office for a bit, eventually emerging with three shiny, new keys .

"Here ya go!", she said with a smile while handing over the treasure.

I gave a cordial, "Uh, thanks", and we were outta there. She NEVER asked for any form of ID - as the highly secure correspondence noted would be required.

Should I be concerned?
Eh, I didn't feel like calling her on it. We get so little physical mail of any importance, going as paperless as we can. 

I tested the keys - all three work fine - extracted a pile of junk mail, and we're back in business.

In other excitement, I took delightful morning bike ride today. I ended up near the [Tour de Fat] brewery to see the aftermath. Aw, this poor bicycle left behind - decorations wilting

A little further away, I came across these abandoned reveler bicycles as well

Most likely, the owners felt too inebriated to ride off into the sunset, and left their bicycles to be picked up in a more sober fashion. Seems another successful Tour de Fat for the books.

post, parade, party

The good news: we have a new mailbox - whoo hoo

The not as good: we have to go to the post office to get our key to the new mailbox.

Oh well, gives purpose to our Saturday. Our mailbox is one of those multi-boxes for about 12 homes on the block. The old one crapped out - or was tampered with? - and had to be replaced. So looks like we'll go on a walk with the post office as the destination. This is what we've become?

Classes started this week at the college, and things got busy! My tutor schedule is already nearly filled. I'm not sure if that's because more students are requesting tutors or if we have fewer math tutors than last year, but I like it!

Recall that my campus tutor boss abruptly resigned mid-spring semester. We flailed about to finish out the semester then managed to limp along over the summer semester. We did have coordinators at the other campuses as a safety net, but the coordinator position for our campus has finally been filled. I have yet to meet her, but clearly, she knows of my existence.

[Tour de Fat] is today. It's a rambunctious time at a local brewery - that same brewery that hosts the outdoor spin classes I came upon last weekend. From the website, Tour de Fat is...

"a costumed bicycle parade followed by a party at New Belgium Brewing with music, entertainment, contests and games"

SOURCE

Yeah, I suppose that sums it up nicely.  Magnum and I checked it out a couple of years ago. Lots of fun for everyone. I bet we'll see costumes while out and about today, but we don't have plans to get into the thick of it. I don't have a costume or a weird bicycle. 

The post office will have to do. We'll try to make it weird.

onward

I took a morning bicycle ride today. We're back to high temperatures in the 90s, so best to get out in the morning when the gettin's good.  I enjoy a route that takes me along a shady path near to what is left of our river at this time of year.

As I emerged from the trail, I heard a ruckus from nearby. Further exploration in that direction revealed a morning outdoor spin class happening. 

Here I had just enjoyed a lovely ride along a shady riverside path, and there were people riding bicycles to nowhere on a slab of concrete? Oh well, to each their own. I will add, however, that it was in the outdoor area of a local brewery...

Curious, I googled afterwards, and learned that yes, [this is a thing]. It happens every third Sunday, May through October. 

For fifty bucks, cycle to nowhere, lift some heavy things, buy some beer and hit up the food trucks after. It was well attended, from what I saw. They probably think I'm a weirdo for riding a bicycle that goes somewhere.

In other news, school kids went back this week. Ugh, traffic is gross. We live near a high school, so I'm back to planning my trips around the horrendous first bell/ last bell traffic.

The college where I work and the local university start their fall semesters tomorrow. 

Mother Nature needs to heed the memo that summer's over. Turn down the heat.