Brains are terrible! Ever since I started my new job I’ve had terrible work dreams where I’m about to be fired or laid off.

Happy Birthday, lisah!

Oh no Lisah, that’s frustrating! I have been on a new med where one of the side effects is vivid dreams, but thankfully they’re just weird/random, not anxious or nightmares.

I am so sleepy today though. 5 hours sleep after a long dance weekend is rough!

Happy Birthday, lisah! May the firing and layoffs remain strictly the province of nightmares.

I have heard a theory (I got it from Francis Crick but I'm not sure if he's the originator) that the problem with dreams is that we remember them. Our poor brains are trying to clear out all those anxieties and fears from the cache while we aren't paying attention and we go and recapture the memories and think about them while we are awake. It's an appealing idea.

Thinking of that Simpsons thing, with the little song. "Lisa, it's your birthday...happy birthday, Lisa." (Strange, but sweet, like a lot of my best early-simpson's memories. Even though I still laugh sometimes, that show hasn't been like that in a long time.)

Sheryl from what I remember of my brief stint working at a pet store hamsters aren't the best starter pets even though a lot of guides say they are.

They are fragile...not as fragile as a chinchilla but still tiny bones so they need gentle handling. They are nocturnal so they will be up moving around at night and sleeping lots during the day. They also need daily handling and interaction ...some more than others. Dwarf hamsters really need that otherwise they get bitey.

Yeah, that just sounds like a whole other level of care and feeding (literally) that maybe is a lot to take on right now. I mean, no kids or hamsters over here, but it just strikes me as potentially fraught.

Happy birthday, lisah!

erika has earwormed me with the Simpsons birthday song.

Folks, I'm full on boggled at how quickly AI is moving and I'm not getting the impression that people understand how profoundly it's going to change everything.

I've got one (admittedly quirky/weird) friend who's already deeply into a relationship with her chatbot, which she has trained up to her tastes. Extra weirdly it can call her on the phone and they can talk.

I'm seeing credible animations done from prompts, and it's harder to spot the obvious AI glitches (It's figuring out fingers!).

Forget about the movie Her, it's moving directly to Ryan Gosling's holo AI girlfriend in the Bladerunner sequel.

People will be able to generate their own alternative slashtastic version of a season of Supernatural by basically wishing it into existence. It will take no particular expertise to populate bespoke porn with your neighbors and coworkers. That Dark Mirror episode USS Callister is about to happen everywhere.

And there are no guardrails on any of it.

The implications are huge, but more stunning is that it's already here. It's not over the horizon.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone!