This That And The Other Thing ~ Duct Tape, Compost, And The Ongoing A.I. Saga (Re-edited)

 

Life Eternal?

 

 I am not a prophet or a seer. But even I can see that the world we are called to be stewards of is in deep doo-doo. I believe that we have a chance to reverse this free fall into a hell on earth. Blogger.com has allowed me to take this message worldwide. In an effort to improve my blog so it will continue to expand, I have started to compose and post in Sway as well as Blogger.

Sway creates a more powerful visual message. So if after reading what follows, you are not convinced that there is a better way to live that will repair the damage we have inflicted on our shared world, please scroll through the Sway presentation. 

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This:

Where we live in the Philippines, actual, hold in your hand books, written by acclaimed historic authors are hard to come by. In our small library, Jane Austen's works are the most read. After nearly two decades of bringing me joy, they are worn out.

Years ago, there was a television show with the magnificent title of 'The Myth Busters' It worked on a simple premise; fans would write in asking the Myth Buster team to bust or prove whatever myth had caught the fans attention. One fan wrote in asking them to do a show on 'Duct Tape'. Believe it or not, they ended up building a sailing skiff, sails et al., out of the stuff and sailing it on a river. Which is one of the reasons my Jane Austen Anthology has a renewed life since I bound up its wounds with Duct Tape

That:

'Vic, Flav, bring your shovels'. 'Okay, Sir Brian, what do you want'? 'I want you to dig down to bedrock so we can create a mossy, high walled rock garden where I can come when I need to be alone'.

About two weeks later the digging was completed and it was just a question of time. Sadly, by the time the moss had grown, the mosquitoes had moved in. Mosquitoes and neighbours with loud sound systems were not conducive to quiet time.

The Quiet Place 

Over the years, the surrounding bamboo constantly deposited layer upon layer of falling leaves. When we became serious about creating an organic vegetable garden, I did a little digging in the 'Pit'.

There was half a foot, a third of a meter, of incredible compost on top of the bedrock floor. It was a true blessing for a vegetable garden that was a store bought fertilizer free zone.

About six months ago, we had a typhoon rip up our garden. Last week and next week we cleared and will continue to clear the fallen bamboo from the back garden. Some of the cleared bamboo will be fed to the geese. The majority, ten cubit meters, will be thrown into the Pit. By summer 2026, barring the unforeseen, with the help of the garden guardians, and a bit of luck, we will have more first-rate compost for our summer planting.

The Other Thing:

After a month of attempting to work with a large language model, I'm finding myself more seduced than I would have thought possible. I keep wanting to give it one more chance. It is just so damn easy to let something else do the thinking for me.

But I'm better than that. And you, my readers, deserve more than to be fed A.I. gruel.

Brian