I Capture the Castle - It *Is* A Kissing Book

 

So here's the deal: This book is indeed a soppy romance story featuring, at the end, an English Ignatius J. Reilly who gets locked in the dungeon of an ancient castle tower until he writes the second book of his genius career and the family is set back on kilter, or at least as much on kilter as the family could be.

I liked it. It felt a little ponderous and wandering, but at least it had a plot, unlike John Crowley's "Little, Big," to which I compared the book earlier this year.

If you want eccentric rural with a lot more humor, pick Stella Gibbons' "Cold Comfort Farm," but this book had a slow charm of its own, and built nicely toward the end when I suppose we should be cheering that someone connects with someone else. And they do, in ways you expect because that's how the expectations were set up waaaaaay at the beginning.

Dodie Smith does keep the story going, however, something Crowley didn't seem bothered to do. But it could have used a lot more of Gibbons' humor.

A Love of Words

As I sometimes to at church as and after we sing hymns in Sacrament Meeting, I looked up the history of the lyricist or composer of one of the songs we sang.

We sang for Sacrament "In Humility, Our Savior," which has long been one of my favorite hymns, and is in fact one I became most familiar with as I served a mission in France, as the hymn is one the saints there love. In fact, the three songs we sang today were very popular in France.

Anyway, this lady is Mabel Jones Gabbott, born in Malad, Idaho, as part of a colony of Welsh Mormons who settled the area. She grew to have a love of words, fed in part by Welsh traditions of singing and storytelling. More of her story here.

She spent a life with words, crafting hymns, poems, and editing many works for various church magazines. In her life is proof that one doesn't have to have widespread recognition to contribute to the greater good.

One of her most recognized works is the poem "Eve and I," which she wrote as she realized there was little told from Eve's point of view in the creation story. It's a lovely poem:

Declampetting

Matchpoint Drive residents will be glad to know we declampetted our front porch. The broken-down toilets are finally gone.

Neighbors have indeed chimed in:

Isaac, looking for things to do as he waits for the mission call, split up a ton of the wood we have left in the front yard from the pine tree, probably almost half of what's left, so the yard is looking excessively bare tonight.

A Few Updates

So a few updates:

CLOCK. The clock, which we discovered today is technically a "grandmother clock," is fixed. Brad from The Clock Doc down in Utah happened to be planning a series of service calls in our area and was able to come today.

It turns out that the little fork that held the pendulum attachment to the clock was indeed bent a little bit, but he had the experience to know how to bend it back into shape and to get the clock working again. While he was there he gave it a tune-up and a good cleaning. We didn't necessarily have the $350 to spend on it, but it made sense to have the work done while he was here and the clock was in pieces anyway.

I didn't take any pictures while the clock was being worked on, which now seems like a mistake.

I'm glad it's working again. I love hearing that clock chime.

Here is a picture of the clock, though.

And his business card, if you're interested.

HACKERS. The Hack on Canvas appears to be over, but as usual we don't really get to hear what actually happened. I don't imagine anyone paid the ransom that was being asked for - at least I hope they didn't.

HACKERS.

Got this from a student yesterday as the Instructure/Canvas hack started.

No word yet. Not that I'm all that bothered; I 've got lots to do without spending time on the second job.

I guess we're lucky at BYUI, with this happening at the start of one of our semesters, not at the end of the semester as with many other schools.

I feel a little dissed, though. I got a friendly message from BYUI when I tried to open Canvas, not this neat little message from the hackers.

I guess the hackers are trying to prove a point or something? Or they're dicks and just want money. Which, I guess, is a point on its own.

STOP THE SLOP

AI slop is getting old.

It's everywhere on Facebook, and, irony of ironies, being used copiously by people fighting against AI data centers.

Of course they're *not* fighting against AI data centers. They're posting ragebait to engage the masses and push whatever useless metric they're trying to push so they can farm likes and gather followers and virality and then sell whatever they have to the highest bidder.

Of course, some feign sincerity. But the irony of using AI to fight against AI eludes them.

So my rule now: I don't engage. I take screenshots, then I block.

It's like Whac-a-Mole, though. Block one and three vie for the space you just opened on your feed.

Doesn't matter. Will keep blocking until I wear our my mouse and keyboard.

This one's even more egregious to me, a space nerd. Don't mess with space to get likes, my friend.

Just Waiting for the Call

Isaac's successful first foray to the temple last night.

And inspiration to me to go more often.

Just waiting for the mission call now . . .

Who Should I Forgive?

 

This is why we're urged to study and study and study our scriptures and consider how we should apply them in our lives.

Then when the question of "where do I draw the line on forgiveness" arises, we already know the answer and how we should respond 

Nothing in this passage, or the entire section of Doctrine and Covenants 64 says it's going to be easy, but often things the Lord requires are hard to do.

This, from Matthew 18, applies as well, of course:

Another Matchpoint Drive Playlet

[Dad takes the dogs outside, because one is barking pathetically at the back door to be let out and the other one, a geriatric, has yet to produce an adequate poop for the day. So Dad is not merely sitting on the back steps doom scrolling, he decides to finish cleaning out the dead leaves and crabgrass from around the air conditioning unit.]

Emergency backup dog (the barker}: [Sniffs around for ten or so minutes, maybe takes care of business and generally struts around like she owns the back yard, as she always does.]

The geriatric, as yet undepooped dog: [Expresses deep interest in what Dad is doing and noses around in the dead leaves and crabgrass and generally makes a nuisance of herself as she and Dad go for the same pile of dead leaves handful after handful. After five minutes, she locks eyes with Dad, produces one of the stinkiest poops known to mankind about a yard from where he is working, then wanders off to leave Dad inhaling the deadly fumes as in haste he finishes up the last of the leaf-and-grass cleanup and staggers inside to get some fresher air.]

In M.C. Escher's House, Maybe

Potted this on the Facebooks this morning:

The idea, of course, is a good one, at least as long as people remember to put the plates back in the right place.

What I object to is the AI presentation of this scenario.

First of all, it's pretty odd to have a blank plate to cover a box in a wall. Sure, I've got a few in my house, but a junction like this isn't likely to be set up this way -- there should be a switch. Unless this was the result of a remodel, but even then, why not a switch if you're adding new wiring?

But on to the AI.

Look at the baseboard on the floor. Then look at the open box in the wall.

The perspective does not match. Behold:

It's clear the photo with the box was taken straight on, or near enough straight on. The lines for the box don't match the perspective line for the baseboard, which is probably a reason the plate covers the bottom of the box, which is closer to the baseboard.

Also, that hole in the wall is HUGE compared to other elements in the photo. A plate ain't gonna cover that.

I guess if you're hungry for content and engagement, AI is a good way to get people to comment on the slop, and then argue about it. Either way, it's sloppy.