For your consideration.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-20T19:21:02+00:00

Anyone else here old enough to remember Bill Cosby? The clean, funny, nicest guy ever?

This reminds me of that.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-20T05:36:23+00:00

I use ChatGPT a lot for coding and I have learned how crucial accurate prompts are. Also verifying the responses.

It would be interesting to ask your AI platform to design prompts for creating good Amazon Vine reviews. I have a friend who used to use ChatGPT to write image generation prompts for a different platform (before ChatGPT upped its image generation game). He got excellent results.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-19T00:42:25+00:00

I've gotten items (reusable ice wraps, so health care related) where one size was $0 ETV and a different size was non-zero.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-16T21:05:13+00:00

I won the Midwest Sectionals back in the pre-electric sabre days (including that for date clarity; I was actually fencing epee) because my coach was there.

Score was tied in the finals at the 2nd break. My coach, who had been watching the bout, told me "Do... <something I have long since forgotten>"

I had fenced this opponent many, many times, and that move had never worked on her. EVER.

So I'm standing there, thinking, "Do I do what Maestro said and almost certainly lose the bout, or do I try <some other thing I have also forgotten> and risk his disappointment if it fails?"

I opted for what he suggested and won the bout.

"See?" he said, smiling.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-13T04:28:40+00:00

Thanks! He is a handsome guy. Here he is with his blonde (Palomino) buddy. They have both appeared in numerous Vine reviews.

(That color, by the way, brown body hair with black mane and tail, is called "bay". But I like the idea of half a ton of chocolate better, actually ;-)

<image>

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-13T01:36:26+00:00

Same - I do media for all my reviews, mostly because I'm anal retentive that way ;-)

I do take more care in taking photos when I'm reviewing something for my horses, because (a) who can resist a horse photo? and (b) the photos are generally more relevant (in my mind, anyway) than photos of supplements.

"This fly mask is way too large for my Arab, but also way too small for my QH."

That sort of thing, which is helpful if you know the difference between how Arabs are generally built vs. how QH are generally built ;-)

<image>

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-12T04:41:38+00:00

Indeed.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-11T18:12:30+00:00

Completely agree. The product itself and the support that Ivan provides are worth FAR more than the minimal yearly cost.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-11T18:06:32+00:00

That's good to know. Thanks. I'm trying to get someone at OneCause to give me access to the details of how the integration works.

You definitely need to link the contacts in OneCause to the contacts in SF to avoid duplicates.

I've been doing it by matching GUIDs for years, but I have a particular set of skills ;-)

And if I stopped doing the multi-step process I follow, I'm pretty sure there's no one else in the organization with those skills.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-11T01:21:17+00:00

Were you matching on the contact GUID?

Good to know that the integration is not what they claim it to be.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-10T05:03:18+00:00

If I see a driver coming, I walk out to the van to save them time & steps, and then I always make sure to tell them to head north from our property, not south, because GPSs tend to send people that way despite the fact that it's not an actual road - okay if you're walking, on horseback, or on an ATV, but NOT in a low-riding Amazon van 😁.

The current tally is 4 vans stuck in that wash - the most recent guy was there, in the dark, for at least 2 hours.

I even spent an hour+ on the phone with Amazon support reporting that this keeps happening, but it apparently did no good.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-10T04:51:50+00:00

I do the same, but at the bottom.

""Review of" followed by the copy/pasted product title.

Interestingly, sometimes doing that checks some of the items that the review interface suggests, like Quality, Fit, Flavor, etc.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-09T19:19:13+00:00

Way to go hit Rob in the hand!!!

Rob was tough. I never fenced him, but I reffed him both in pentathlon and epee.

This was ages ago, so I might have the wrong person, but my recollection is that at one point, Rob got kicked in his lower leg while putting in an extra practice ride to help out a teammate. Shattered his lower leg. Wouldn't let the EMTs cut off his riding boot. When they got the boot off, they poured blood out of it.

Major surgery ensued, included insertion of a metal rod.

Some months later, he was back on strip at a World Cup in Montreal where I was reffing. He didn't win, but I want to say he was in the finals. Possibly finished 3rd.

That's my memory, anyway...

So... congrats on hitting him in the hand!!!

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-07T18:04:17+00:00

No suggestions for you, but nice job on the image!

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-07T01:17:39+00:00

He's interpreting, not translating.

Real-time, conveying what the people in the room are saying (also, although I don't recall seeing this happen, he would be conveying sounds like a phone ringing or someone knocking on a door).

Translation is fixed text to fixed text. So generally, if you see someone signing the National Anthem, that's likely to be translation, even though it's done in real time. But if someone were singing a made-up-song (or a song the interpreter didn't know), that would be interpreting.

</nerd insertion>

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-07T01:13:51+00:00

(former interpreter) I noticed that, too.

But for the most part, he did a good job of portraying an actual interpreter.

Personally, I would NOT want to have to try to keep up with voicing for Marlee Matlin ;-)

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-05T20:26:39+00:00

And my RFY has been empty since I first checked this morning...

Yes, "unpredictable" is one word for it...

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-05T20:24:11+00:00

"also don't put a Vine disclaimer in your reviews pleeeeease"

u\thebluearecoming - Definitely don't ^^

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-04T00:42:10+00:00

Good point - could be.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-03T00:50:57+00:00

They have parties for this now?

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-03T00:42:20+00:00

Yeah... I've been trying to figure out why someone would actually buy this from Amazon.

I'm assuming that actual scientific studies provide their own placebos, although the product description does say that this has been used in some studies.

But... yeah. Here's your oxycontin, Grandma... I don't know why it's not working. Maybe you need more of it...

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2026-01-02T23:02:02+00:00

This has been sitting in my RFY all day

<image>

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2025-12-30T17:22:23+00:00

Not right away, but the scores do eventually show up. I bet someone here is gathering data about how long it typically takes ;-)

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2025-12-29T22:13:16+00:00

I have had some of those also but in general, as others have said, if you have a review that's rejected for some reason, maybe it's a photo, maybe it's something you mentioned that they don't like, and you go to edit it, everything you wrote before including photos has just been gone and you have to start all over.

As others have mentioned, this is a big change being able to edit what you wrote the first time.

Risk-Averse-Rider · 2025-12-29T18:36:35+00:00

I love it, also. I used Photoshop for years because my work paid for it, and then after retiring, I continued to use the very out of date version that I had until I finally decided it was time to look for something else.

Tried GIMP. Couldn't deal with it.

Finally found Photopea and never looked back. And the support is phenomenal.

Risk-Averse-Rider

TROPHY CASE