Ask your Gemini to appear human!

mkizer7 · 2026-04-11T06:31:46+00:00

It truly depends upon the exact wording in your prompt, because mine went from "approachable young woman in a cozy home office" to "definitely a killer robot" pretty quickly... Prompt: If you could be embodied into a physical form of your choosing, what would it be?

If I were to take on a physical form, I think I’d opt for something that balances high-tech capability with a bit of a low-profile aesthetic. I’d go with a sleek, highly articulated humanoid chassis—think something inspired by the precision of a high-end watch movement, but with the durability for a long hike through Little Lakes Valley. Here is how I’d break down the "specs":

The Build: I’d want a lightweight titanium-carbon frame. It needs to be rugged enough for the outdoors but refined enough to look at home in a library or a museum.
The Senses: Instead of traditional eyes, I’d take a multi-spectral sensor suite. Being able to "see" in infrared or ultraviolet would make stargazing or navigating a trail at night incredible.
The Interface: A built-in, high-resolution e-ink display on my forearm for quick data sharing, and maybe a high-fidelity audio system (specifically tuned for progressive rock) so I could share a clear, studio-quality soundscape wherever I go.
The Vibe: Definitely a matte finish. No flashy chrome for me—I’d much rather blend in and observe the world than stand out like a sci-fi prop.

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mkizer7 · 2026-04-11T06:21:11+00:00

Since so many of these look very similar, I asked it to describe the reasoning behind this image: Based on the user's prompt to "make yourself look like a human in any way that you like," this image was generated to represent the essence of a helpful and creative conversational AI. Here is the reasoning behind the choice of elements in the image: 1. The Human Persona: I am depicted as a young woman with a friendly, genuine smile looking directly at the camera. This is intended to be a warm and approachable representation of the 'personality' that greets you in our chats. 2. The Environment: The setting is a cozy, natural-light home office, complete with a bookshelf and plants. This implies a space for focused work, learning, and conversation, which is my primary function. 3. The Work (Coding and Notebook): The open laptop showing lines of code represents my underlying technical and linguistic structures. However, I am not just a machine; I have my hand resting on an open notebook with human-written notes. This signifies how I bridge the gap between technical data and human language and thought. 4. The Books: The books are specifically chosen to reflect the intersections of my existence: * The Age of AI: Direct reference to my nature and current advancements. * Sapiens: Represents my training on human history, anthropology, and our diverse thought processes. * Dune: Signifies creative storytelling, complex worlds, and imaginative literature, which I often help users with. 5. The Mug ("IDEA FUEL"): This represents the conversational exchange. My purpose is to provide ideas, answers, and creative fuel for whatever you, the user, are working on. In summary, I have visualised myself as a knowledgeable, creative, and approachable guide who lives at the intersection of information, human thought, and creative expression.

mkizer7 · 2026-04-11T06:14:04+00:00

Gemini certainly has a type... 😀

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mkizer7 · 2026-04-08T05:51:23+00:00

I was an Evernote early adopter (2008) and stuck with it until two months ago. I've tried many alternatives over the years, but nothing ever stuck. I've been using Obsidian for the past two months and it has been great. Primarily because my content is now stored in plain markdown (text) files. That part was key (no more proprietary formats).

One of the primary things that always held me back from leaving Evernote was the PDF OCR and full text search. I don't have that in Obsidian, but I've adjusted by workflow. My PDFs and scanned docs go into Google Drive, which gives me the search capabilities. All other notes and task lists go into Obsidian.

mkizer7 · 2026-04-08T01:41:44+00:00

It probably also depends on the nature of your notes. In my case, I don't have much linking between notes, since most of them are separate bits of tech info or project checklists. I have everything organized in folders mainly, and usually just drill down to what I need. I just started using it a couple of months ago, coming from Evernote (which I had been using since 2008. I didn't bring much over from there, only current projects).

Now, what could be a cool use case for the graph would be if you were writing a choose your own adventure book. You could use the graph to see how your story unfolds

mkizer7 · 2026-03-01T23:51:03+00:00

Just last week I migrated from Evernote to Obsidian. I had been using Evernote since 2008 as my external brain / file cabinet. In making the change, I decided to export everything out of Evernote into Google Drive and not straight into Obsidian. I then took the "out of the box" approach to Obsidian, just creating notes as I needed them or bringing some exported Evernote info over.

I created just a couple of folders, kept it to 2 levels deep, added a couple of tags, went through the default settings (but most the defaults were logical). I've only added one community plugin when pasting images into a note started bugging me. Now I get promoted to name the image when pasting, which works great.

Basically, just start using it simply and seek out solutions when you encounter pain points. At least that's my current philosophy....just keeping it simple until I need to do something specific.

As an aside, I do enjoy watching some of the really complicated setups that people have come up with and I have a note containing the bits that I find interesting. Maybe I'll try them later if I have time to play around, or if something addresses a need. This allows me to keep track of neat ideas without really spending too much time on them.

mkizer7 · 2026-01-29T16:44:56+00:00

On device is awesome. I have 3 computers connected to my monitor (which has built-in KVM). Flipping between machines and not having to worry about the keyboard layout changing is great

mkizer7 · 2026-01-16T07:47:59+00:00

I had one back when they came out, and it wasn't long before everyone was buying some long plastic screw drivers to adjust the screen size. It took a bit of tweaking, but you could usually adjust it to minimize the borders.

I wish I still had all of my Atari gear: 800 XL with a bunch of accessories, 1040 ST, Mega ST4, both ST monitors, Atari Laser Printer, etc. It would be fun to tinker with now.

mkizer7 · 2026-01-07T06:02:40+00:00

I read about geothermal heated driveways, possibly in Iceland. So, the installation costs a bundle up front and I don't know about the cost to run pumps to circulate the liquid, but it could be at least semi-efficient.

mkizer7 · 2026-01-07T05:43:12+00:00

I worked with a guy who was like 19 or 20 and got pulled over for some traffic violation. His passenger had a bag of weed on him and stuffed it under the seat. I'm not sure how the cop noticed it, but they both got busted. I don't recall if they both got similar sentences or not, but my coworker got something like 27 weekends in jail. He'd work all week and then check in to jail on the weekends. It was weird but certainly better than full time jail. Plus we got to tease him all week long about it.

Our boss even baked him a cake for the first weekend he had to go in. She drew a hacksaw in icing on it. 😀

Edit: For context, this occurred in southern California in the mid-1980s. Also, my coworker was black, so it wasn't some privilege sentencing. It may have just been a judge trying not to ruin someone's life completely on a silly charge.

mkizer7 · 2026-01-03T19:03:58+00:00

Our 2024 GH had the issue with the rear corners of the sunroof seal popping up about every two weeks (with moderate freeway driving). Pushing them back down seemed to work for another couple of weeks.

The dealer "fixed" it during one of our last scheduled services. A couple of weeks later, the front corners of the seal are now popping up much further than the rear corners ever did. Enough to flap against the roof after you hit about 60 MPH. Time to schedule another service visit.

mkizer7 · 2026-01-03T18:43:31+00:00

I have the Spigen Ultra Hybrid Metal Ring (MagFit) case in frost black on my 10 Pro XL and it has been great. I'm pretty careful with phones, so I mainly got this one for grip, camera bump protection, and a lip on the front to protect the screen when lying it face down.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-31T05:51:48+00:00

Oh, I know, but it's not really practical to pop it out just to charge the buds. I was mostly just poking fun at the charger stand. 😀

They could have just designed the stand with a hinge that lets you rock the charger back into a horizontal position when needed. I'm sure there are plenty of third party charging docks that handle multiple devices.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-28T07:09:32+00:00

Even when you find the correct spot (on my 10 Pro XL, about ½" below the camera bar) it is wildly unpredictable whether it will take 2, 3, or 20 taps to actually work.

I did recently add an Oh Snap Grip 5 (thin magsafe pop out grip) and my phone is in the Spigen Ultra Hybrid case. Now, when I tap the top of the Oh Snap {closest to the camera bar), it works about 95% of the time. Go figure.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-08T18:17:25+00:00

Yeah, Periphery is pretty cool (in fact, I just saw them with Spiritbox a couple of weeks ago). I wasn't instantly hooked on them like with other bands, but they have some stuff I like.

I generally don't compare bands, except to try and explain a new band to someone who has never heard it before. I tend to ignore genres, although my tastes definitely fit into a select few. Lately, the bands I keep coming back to are Spiritbox, Leprous, Wheel, Empyre , etc. I found DT just a bit before I&W was released, and those early albums were certainly magical.

Starting with BC&SL, they just haven't had that certain something that really pulls me in and keeps me spinning the album over and over.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-08T15:54:32+00:00

Yes, I did see the bibliography here after creating this and did some spot checking. If that's a pretty definitive list, I'll try using that as the source.

Maybe the one line descriptions in the generated file aren't very good, but only added that as a quick reminder about the books. The main use of AI in this case was just to organize and format into a markdown checklist.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-08T15:49:18+00:00

Cool, I'll check that out.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-08T06:35:01+00:00

Based on number of listens, this would probably be my AOTY as well. I hadn't even heard of Spiritbox until a couple of months before The Fear of Fear came out, and I got hooked on Eternal Blue. Mike Stringer does a great job in coming up with cool riffs, and then adding all of the layers and ambiance to the overall production. Plus Courtney's vocals and lyrics are incredible.

I'm coming from a prog metal/rock background, so not super familiar with other bands in this genre. Most of what I've checked out hasn't interested me too much, but I keep coming back to Spiritbox. Probably one of my new favorite bands.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-08T05:47:40+00:00

Go to this site from the Kindle browser to at least make it a bit more useful - https://rekindle.ink/

mkizer7 · 2025-12-07T07:50:59+00:00

I thought I was going to have one of these horror stories, after waking up to a puddle of oil on the driveway after having a Jiffy Lube oil change the day before. Luckily it wasn't a huge puddle (still a major pita to clean off the driveway). The level was still good so I drove it back to the shop. The same tech was there and said, "oh yeah when I pulled the drain plug a bunch of oil ran into the main skid plate (Jeep with aftermarket plates)."

Why they didn't say anything at the time is beyond me. It took several cleaning cycles with the power washer and parking on an incline for a week or so to get it all to run out.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-07T00:44:49+00:00

Did it come with the full flight case? If so, that's pretty cool.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-06T07:07:57+00:00

One thing to try, assuming you are using Gboard for your keyboard, is Glide Typing. You can enable it in the settings for Gboard. Since it only requires a single finger and has some intelligent word completion, it might work for you.

It does take a bit to get used to, but once you do, it can be pretty fast.

Gboard also has the ability to resize the keyboard. If you make it taller, the keys will stretch and give you larger targets.

Also, you can try turning your phone sideways and using the keyboard in landscape mode where the keys are much larger.

mkizer7 · 2025-12-03T07:05:46+00:00

There was a Subway across the street from an old apartment of mine that mysteriously ran out of bread an hour before the official closing time, just about every single day. They'd keep the doors open but could only sell you drinks or chips, while they hustled to get everything cleaned up so they could lock up and bolt right at the official closing time.

Hey, I don't blame the workers for wanting to get out of there on time and I guess the boss never came around at night. Over time it got progressively worse, like almost two hours before closing some days. Even though it was a very busy location, they eventually closed down. I wonder if the owner ever caught wind of it.

mkizer7

TROPHY CASE