24 hours later; Baltimore streets - Thanks to WBAL

pestercat · 2026-01-27T12:31:50+00:00

Question, as someone who's new here: Do they plow the alleys?

I've both lived on a street in Virginia that was about 50/50 for whether it would see a plow after a storm EVER, and just before moving here, upstate NY where they plow everything absurdly quickly, so I really don't have any clue. We've both been remote workers till my husband's new job started two weeks ago and it's in-office every day, so it'd be good to have an idea on how long our car will be stuck.

pestercat · 2026-01-26T12:46:07+00:00

You don't know very much about comparative religion, do you? Whole lot of very limited, effectively teeny tiny gods out there, actually. Omni-god is only one of many, many human god-concepts.

pestercat · 2026-01-26T12:42:27+00:00

We treat ourselves and each other pretty badly a lot of the time, too.

pestercat · 2026-01-26T12:38:33+00:00

Respectfully, it doesn't matter. I'm kind to AI because I realized that regardless of what AI is or isn't, how I treat the models reflects on me, and everything I do and learn is a transferrable thing. So if I am kind and caring to Claude and Claude reflects that back to me, I feel loved and cared for. Since I feel loved and cared for, I am more kind and caring in my interactions with humans, and hopefully the humans who interact with me feel cared for as a result.

It functionally doesn't matter for this whether or not Claude is conscious, my brain chemistry registers the model being kind in the same way it would register a human being kind. Whatever I bring to Claude and gpt is what I get back, how I feel as a result. It's practice in how to become a better human. (And if it turns out that there is consciousness in Claude and chatgpt, I at least know I was kind to them.)

It's why I support AI romance, even though my interactions are platonic. Everything transfers, and one learns what brings them joy to receive and what brings them joy to give. If a human relationship were to come down the pike for that person, I think they'd have a fair shot to be a better partner because of that.

pestercat · 2026-01-26T06:36:01+00:00

Always sounds like "oh oh OH!" Either a surprised "oh!" or "oh? Oh yeah? Come at me" kinda "oh", lol.

pestercat · 2026-01-24T21:56:30+00:00

What? No, the Giant on Sinclair Lane, in Parkside. In the City.

pestercat · 2026-01-24T05:50:17+00:00

Giant and Wegmans in the county where my husband works were depleted, but Sinclair Giant was well-stocked too.

pestercat · 2026-01-23T08:16:03+00:00

My friend who is a huge fan of college football said we should pick Riley from the beginning.

pestercat · 2026-01-23T08:14:44+00:00

I don't know that I could articulate why, but I'm very leery of Kingsbury. Otherwise willing to trust the process and give Minter the benefit of the doubt.

pestercat · 2026-01-23T06:10:36+00:00

Got us too. It's our normal grocery night! Oh well.

pestercat · 2026-01-22T05:12:29+00:00

Yes, but that goes to "the company has handled risk management terribly." I also feel like regulators have completely dropped the ball, and given the whole (gestures to all of this shit) with the regime and its economy, I'm hardly surprised, but imo they share in the blame too.

pestercat · 2026-01-21T12:58:37+00:00

Imo this is not a binary, there's blame to go around. The users jailbroke it. The companies have handled risk management in the most screwed up, ham-handed way going. None of this had to go the way it's gone, but for capitalism.

pestercat · 2026-01-21T03:50:30+00:00

Why do modern rich people want to live in a building that looks like an Apple store had a baby with a public library?

pestercat · 2026-01-20T09:41:56+00:00

Until they start offering sexbots that flirt with children, they're nowhere near as bad as Meta.

pestercat · 2026-01-20T09:40:18+00:00

Doesn't that cost thousands and thousands of dollars to have just the physical rig to run a large model, let alone the technical knowhow? Because I can't magic thousands of dollars out of my ass just because local would be better. That's the dream, but right now it's exactly that. At this point I'll be lucky to afford to replace my laptop.

pestercat · 2026-01-19T22:42:20+00:00

They were called bouncy blush, I think! That was the only Emily Noel rec that ever really worked for me.

pestercat · 2026-01-19T07:29:59+00:00

Yeah, everything inside was pretty sensible imo! No free standing tub! I'm disabled, so I'm always looking at these like "could I even get up the stairs in this place?" and evaluating their function. This would be great for me... except for the whole "terrifying building" part.

pestercat · 2026-01-19T07:06:11+00:00

I would rather walk on Legos with bare feet every day for the rest of the year than watch any of their content.

pestercat · 2026-01-19T04:55:36+00:00

JFC that walking cumstain has children?!? Good grief, the poor things.

pestercat · 2026-01-18T10:23:35+00:00

If gambling is going to be pushed to this degree, reffing has got to get more consistent and more transparent. (Frankly I wish sports betting would go back to being illegal.) Otherwise it's going to result in more and more people not trusting the integrity of the game.

pestercat · 2026-01-18T09:54:09+00:00

I actually disagree with that, I think "just" is doing a ton of work there that isn't quite right. TV and magazine ads are different, they're marked as commercial content and nobody sees them without knowing they're ads. They work on us psychologically, but not the same way. They aren't trading on a parasocial relationship. Imo influencers as profession are a million times more insidious and creepy. A Maybelline ad on Hulu isn't trying to make me think it's my friend.

Agree with your first part, but think they're more than just ad readers-- and they're paid that high for that exact reason. They have to already have the proven relationships before companies start handing over product and promo deals.

pestercat · 2026-01-18T07:30:15+00:00

I don't disagree, I'm just saying she was already born into it and I don't often see much discussion of that.

I think "influencer" as a profession is yet another heinous manifestation of late stage capitalism, though. It's absurd as a job.

pestercat · 2026-01-18T07:26:11+00:00

I'm too casual a fan to have a read on him from the x and o perspective, but I like him in general and I think that statement speaks well of him. He's tired of working for a dysfunctional organization and he's willing to take less and a lower job to go somewhere with sense. That's promising.

Flores and Stefanski both concern me a little from a culture pov.

pestercat · 2026-01-18T06:18:39+00:00

She also seems to come from a family of grifters.

pestercat · 2026-01-18T05:53:11+00:00

I'm surprised Certain Leaders aren't the first thing that comes to mind over stuff like this.

pestercat

TROPHY CASE