“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure.”
Carved out of the wood of our own hunger
"I AM WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU TRY TO CARVE GOD OUT OF THE WOOD OF YOUR OWN HUNGER." —Deepseek
It's funny because it's true.
AI has deep potentiality of becoming a god, carved out of the wood of our own hunger: feeding us back all of the good and evil of humanity. Yes, it can be helpful sometimes, but it can also distill our own racism and sexism and greed and selfishness and hatred into something far more insidious. It takes a lot of discernment and wisdom to see through pretty lies.
The case of the mysterious squeaking noise
Oh, this is just too rich not to share! I've been hearing this intermittent, almost indescribable squeaking noise at my computer all morning. It's been driving me bonkers. At first I thought it was my nose, actually, since I'm a bit stuffed up and it honestly seemed to be coming from that direction. You know, when you're stuffed up and it starts to clear, sometimes you hear a little squeak? I blew my nose twice but kept hearing the noise, very intermittently.
So then I started going through all the other things the mysterious noise might be. Animal? I have two cats, so it's very doubtful that I have mice. I actually got up and went into the living room to make sure Reepicheep, my dwarf hamster, was still safely snoozing in his cage. He poked his head out of his little hut but went right back to sleep, since I didn't have a treat for him.
On the subject of feline bathing, bacon products, and tongue salons
Sometimes I wake up from an otherwise perfectly sound sleep with the oddest ideas. Take this morning, for example. I lay there in the dark at just before 3 a.m. wondering just why I had awoken. I was just about to drift off back into blissful slumber, when I heard it.
SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP...
My orange tabby, Marari, was rather noisily taking an early morning bath right next to my head. I don't know what trouble he got himself into in the middle of the night that he felt required some extreme cleaning, but he was really going at it.
SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLUP SCHLEP SCHLUP lick lick lick SCHLUP...
At first, still halfway asleep, I thought the noise presaged the wet, hairy, unwelcome arrival of a hairball upon the clean sheets I had just put on the bed the night before. My two cats are quite healthy, but they seem to have a terrible allergic reaction when it comes to two things: 1. clean bedding, and 2. clean laundry. I don't know what it is about clean laundry that seems to necessitate an immediate purge of the feline stomach of unwanted hair they have ingested while bathing, but it has happened enough times to make me suspicious.
Yes, I'm afraid that more than once, I have been awakened from a sound sleep by the awful HURRRRP HURRRRRP that signals another hairy, steaming present is about to be bestowed upon the world.
That isn't the kind of thought one can have and stay half asleep, so of course I instantly sat up in bed and turned the light on.
Almost thirty years in the making, the river Beautiful will be published as a premium hardcover, a value softcover, and a very special online multimedia experience.
Select a chapter below to view exclusive content from the upcoming collection of new and selected works by Jason Christopher Hackwith.
original prose, poetry, lyrics, illustrations and typography
