Even More Wood Chopping

Once again, I did not get as far along as I hoped I would with the wood chopping. I did get one awkward piece carved up, but then mightily struggled with other pieces.

To start:

I can see more of the ground underneath the wood pile, so that's progress. Maybe I can do some more tomorrow.

These logs have got an awful lot of branches poking out of them, and they go deep. I mean deep; I've never seen logs like this. Part of the reason they've been hard to split is because I spend most of the time pounding through the inner branches. Absolutely painful.

I did, of course, run into more trouble. I ended up driving both of these wedges into the wood and had to bash the bottom of the log with another wedge before everything finally fell apart. Not visible in the picture: The *fourth* wedge buried in the front of the nearest log.

Chunk Knows

It's a cliche, but it's true.

Getting mail and messages and phone calls as such as a kid was a lot of fun. Each was an event tied with excitement and mystery.

Getting such things today:

Today's was from the insurance company. Keep bracing for a rate hike. But it was just the insurance card for our youngest's new truck. Expect the worst, hope for the best I guess.

The Word "Furlough" Has Been Used . . .

So I was ill last week and took two days off work.

Came back today and discovered the word "furlough" was used in a meeting on Thursday.

No details offered. No timeline. No word whether this means work without pay or if we're to use our holiday and personal leave to make up for what the government hasn't appropriated.

Don't know what to think except if the expectation is the latter while working, I'm just going to take the time off. I don't feel like I need to burn through vacation and holiday time because the government can't seem to find it's butt with both hands this time around. Maybe if they reimburse. But I'm not holding my breath. We have a Congress and a president who seem content to watch the world burn.

Maybe they will see some burning.

So we wait, I guess. I have little hope any compromise will be found because those in charge are still getting paid and thus have no incentive to make progress. They only seem to be listening to the constituent voices who support them, which shouldn't shock me, I guess, but a guy can dream. The blame game is all they're interested in.

On Feedback from C.S. Lewis

[Of C.S. Lewis's comments on The Lord of the Rings]

When he would say "You can do better than that. Better, Tolkien, please!" I would try. I'd sit down and write the section over and over. That happened with the scene I think is the best in the book, the confrontation between Gandalf and his rival wizard, Saruman, in the ravaged city of Isengard.

I do not think the Saruman passage is the best in the book. It is much better than the first draft, that is all. I mentioned the passage becase it is in fact one of the very few places where in the event I found [Lewis's] detailed criticisms useful and just. I cut out some passages of light-hearted hobbit conservation which he found tiresome, thinking that if he did most of the readers (if any) would feel the same. I do not think the event has proved him right. To tell the truth he never really liked hobbits very much, least of all Merry and Pippin. But a great number of readers do, and would like more than they have got.

(From the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter No. 294, 1967)

Important stuff here:

1. Get feedback and take it seriously. Keep on writing, but keep on getting feedback too.

2. Know when to ignore the feedback you get.

I know this is basic stuff, but it's good to hear it from a writer of Tolkien's caliber.

Well, AI, You Tried

So earlier today I googled to see who is running for mayor of Ammon in 2025.

Google's AI came up with this:

Funny thing is: Just about none of this is accurate.

Mayor Coletti announced in June he wouldn't seek re-election.

No one named Fuhriman is running for mayor this year. Steve Fuhriman, in fact, was mayor in the mid 20-teens.

There are only two council seats in the ballot; seats 2 and 4.

AI *did* get the numbers of the open seats right. But that appears about it.

It's Only Bad when *THEY* Do It

Gerrymandering when "they" do it:

A loathsome practice that disenfranchises voters, empowers the enemy and is generally an underhanded practice that we can all generally agree shouldn't be done.

Gerrymandering when "we" do it:

We have to gerrymander because when we do it everyone has butterflies and rainbows coming out their navel and it's at best a noble practice meant to prevent the enemy from gaining ground and at worst a necessary evil we have to stoop to because *they* are doing it.

Someone make it make sense.

Slight Setback, Temporarily

Slight setback today as I worked yet again to cut up the wood left over from the front yard spruce tree.

I got the second wedge to make sure I could split these big logs (they look big, but they're only about a foot thick. Still).

There was only one thing to do: Go to Ace Hardware and get two more wedges, but true wedges this time, not the diamond wedges. Figured they would concentrate the splitting force in fewer directions.

And it worked. I still have half of the log to split, but the wedges are free and I'm refining my technique.

I've spent about $50 on additional wedges, but Zundel wanted $300 to haul the firewood off, so I'm still saving money. And getting some good cardio in to boot.

Harry Mudd Warned Us. He Warned Us All.

Researchers from Texas A&M, the University of Texas, and Purdue University conclude in a study that "continual pre-training on junk web text induces lasting cognitive decline in LLMs."

A few news outlets, including Gizmodo and Ars Technica, have written about the study.

Most of what I quote here on out is from Ars Technica.

The results showed that adding more “junk data” to the training sets had a statistically significant effect on the reasoning and long-context benchmarks across models. The effects were more mixed on the other benchmarks, though. For example, a 50/50 mix of “junk” and control data used for the Llama 8B model generated better scores on some benchmarks (ethical norms, high Openness, low Neuroticism, and Machiavellianism) than either “fully junk” or “fully control” training data sets.

Based on these results, the researchers warn that “heavily relying on Internet data leads LLM pre-training to the trap of content contamination.” They go on to “call for a re-examination of current data collection from the Internet and continual pre-training practices” and warn that “careful curation and quality control will be essential to prevent cumulative harms” in future models.

Gizmodo takes it a bit further:

And wouldn’t you know it, it turns out that consuming directly from the internet landfill that is X isn’t great for thinking clearly. All four models tested—Llama3 8B, Qwen2.5 7B/0.5B, Qwen3 4B—showed some forms of cognitive decline. Meta’s Llama proved the most sensitive to the junk, seeing drops in its reasoning capabilities, understanding of context, and adherence to safety standards. Interestingly, a much smaller model, Qwen 3 4B, proved more resilient, though still suffered declines. It also found that the higher the rates of bad data, the more likely a model was to slip into “no thinking” mode, failing to provide any reasoning for its answer, which was more likely to be inaccurate.

This, of course, tracks. Humans, consuming a lot of "junk" will also exhibit these traits. It all goes back to the old computer standard of "Garbage In, Garbage Out."

Harry Mudd, of course knew this all along. Once Spock showed him the way:

As usal, my friend Curtis Clark nails it:

"I Like Me."

"It's the face you put on the world that defines who you are. The face he puts on the world is friendly and happy. And you could be mean, or insult people, or fight back. But he didn't."

Steve Martin, speaking of John Candy.

I'm watching tonight "I Like Me," a documentary about the life of John Candy.

I'll admit I wasn't much into movies or actors or much of that stuff when I was younger. I'd watch television, and go to an occasional movie. But it's stuff that just happened and I was occasionally interested in it.

But John Candy. Well, I saw, maybe, a bit of myself in him, or someone I wanted to be.

Still, I watched his movies at random, not really seeking him -- or anyone else -- out.

Then came Uncle Buck.

The lovable, down-to-earth oaf. Maybe that was something to aspire to.

He was human. He wasn't cool or flashy. He was honest and real and funny. He was something I wanted to be: At ease with himself and with what he was doing. I'm still looking for that, and it's hard to do. John Candy made it look easy.

"He stuck acting in his back pocket and behaved like a human being."

Mel Brooks, on John Candy

He was kind. But didn't brook nonsense, whether it was someone talking down to a kid or someone being unsure about what they wanted to do.

He'd probably tell me to write that book, and stop dittling around with writing. Just write the thing. Do it. Don't try to do it. Do it.

"I grew up with someone who was already a successful actor. Who had made it. The thing that was so big, and such a big secret, was that he didn't believe in himself. How fucking human is that?"

Chris Candy, John Candy's son

It *is* human. It's me.

Maybe that's why I love John Candy so much.

I want to say, like him, "I like me." But I'm not there yet. Working on it.

"I dreamed about him more than I ever dreamed about my parents after they died. And one of the first dreams I had about John, we were just hanging out and laughing and talking and doing bits, and it was really funny. And I said something like, 'Aww, why'd you have to die?' And he said 'Why'd you have to bring it up?'"

Catherine O'Hara, speaking of John Candy

"You're a fairly funny guy."

"Well thank you, and so are you. That's a nice thing to say to somebody. 'You're a funny guy.' It's better than saying 'you're a jerk.' I'll take funny guy any time. 'You know, you're an ass. Thank you.'"

An interviewer and John Candy

Nothingburger

Remember this?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Maybe I'm being shut out. I'm fine with that.

Maybe they're preparing to give me the boot. Honestly, aside from the stress of having to find a new job, okay then.

I suspect there's a little recognition that the training I've received has been subpar. But you never know.

Why *does* Exeter have a picture of a burger on his wall?