What made me unhappy today ?

[Madman Starryteller]

Broke up with the one I thought I would live with for the rest of my life. Feels like I keep waking up in a nightmare and alternate reality. She gets the cats, which I'm fine with, because she was always better at taking care of them. We agreed that she would send me pictures of them sometimes.

I understand why there are so many ancient songs about love.

I hope to occupy my mind with writing, reading, and gaming.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

5 Days into my public social media foray, i am frustrated and disheartened.
There are many people out there who believe people who invest money into book edits and covers are "vanity authors" while "hobby authors" who use AI to write, edit, and create their covers are better selling and inherently better than "vanity authors" who only do it for clout.

Um.... what??

Book editing and covers may be expensive, but it's the only way forward. :-\

Using AI to create a cover isn't just plagiarism, it's also fruitless. (I speak from experience: I once spent 4-5 hours trying to design covers for various books, and the best that AI gave me was amateurish at best). I'm not going to use those covers, but at least the exercise gave me some ideas of what I'd like the covers to look like. Now I can speak to cover artists.

Anyone who believes that someone who uses AI to write, edit, or create a cover has never tried any of the three.

Broke up with the one I thought I would live with for the rest of my life. Feels like I keep waking up in a nightmare and alternate reality. She gets the cats, which I'm fine with, because she was always better at taking care of them. We agreed that she would send me pictures of them sometimes.

I understand why there are so many ancient songs about love.

I hope to occupy my mind with writing, reading, and gaming.

I'm sorry to hear this, Madman. It is better to have loved and lost than ... oh, bother that -- pass me the bottle.

 

[Luxuria]

Ordered book for school. Apparently good used means pages are falling out and 209-214 are missing. Gotta fix this.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Ordered book for school. Apparently good used means pages are falling out and 209-214 are missing. Gotta fix this.

It might be a good idea to take the book back to the shop (maybe the used book shop?) and ask for a replacement. They can't sell you a book in that condition.

If you ordered it online (e.g. through Amazon), maybe ask the seller. Sorry, I've never ordered through Amazon (only Abe Books and, back in its day, Book Depository), but I never had problems like this. Good luck.

Something that made me unhappy: after a couple of weeks of being relatively pain-free, the old neck pain is back with a vengeance. Every day getting out of bed is an exercise in groaning. Ow.

 

[Link the Writer]

When I’m trying to make a post on a Reddit sub forum but the AI flags it as rule breaking even when I’m clearly not.

I really hate the idea that I’m gonna have to eventually have to fight a robot red tape to get to actual shit like doctors.

 

[Madman Starryteller]

I really hate the idea that I’m gonna have to eventually have to fight a robot red tape to get to actual shit like doctors.

Yeah that's a great fear of mine as well.

They already have useless chatbots for a lot of support things.

I hope the techno-dystopia crashes and burns. All it will take is one big solar flare and we'll be riding horses and raiding the neighbour again.

 

[Homer Potvin]

one big solar flare

A comet extinction event would be cool. It's cosmic, gravationally preordained, impossible to duck, validation for the global self destruction lifestyle... like if Keith Richards got hit by a bus before any of the hard living kills him, which doesn't appear to be in his immediate future.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

We don't need a comet extinction. All we need is some nutjob to switch off all the electricity. Here's why.

 

[Set2Stun]

When I’m trying to make a post on a Reddit sub forum but the AI flags it as rule breaking even when I’m clearly not.

I really hate the idea that I’m gonna have to eventually have to fight a robot red tape to get to actual shit like doctors.

I also had a recent experience along the same lines. When I got fired (without cause), I had a (deeply discounted ) mobile plan with the company, and I needed to get my account number in order to get another provider to port my number over to them.

How to acquire this account number? Easy, just login to your account - provided you've actually logged in within the past decade and happen to remember the password. Don't know the password? No problem, just click the reset password button and it will send you an email - provided you still have access to the email account you signed up under. I had signed up under my work email, which they cut off my access to when I was sacked.

So, anyone can see this is the kind of scenario where I need to explain the situation to an actual human. Guess how easy it was to reach an actual human?

Online support - all chatbot and no humans - kept putting me in the same circle of failure no matter what options I chose or what I typed.

"Just login to your account!"
"No problem, just click the reset password button!"

Sigh. It was time to try this over the phone.

I chose a few different options, and they all ended in the same dead end.

"Hey did you know you can just login to your account online? You don't need to speak to anyone! Have a great day." *click*

It wasn't long before I started hammering 0 on my phone and shouting, "Agent! Agent! Agent! Agent!"

"We will text you a link that will take you to the online account login page. Have a great day." *click*

"AGENT AGENT AGENT AGENT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS HAVE I DIED AND GONE TO HELL??"

The IVR/chatbot on the phone finally began to show progress.

"Okay. You will be connected to the next available representative."

Two dropped calls, one with silence, the other with a weird message that said something like, "There are no representatives available to take your call." *click*

And then I finally reached a human. Only took a couple of minutes to get the information I needed, and I was able to port out my number and close the account.

Who are the beneficiaries of such support systems? I think we know.

The future is shit.

Ope, that went on a bit long, didn't it. Fun post though, think I will put it on the twits

 

[Dogberry's Watch]

The melancholy has found me. I've a fairly social weekend ahead, but the long workdays and short free times are wearing on me. Also might have some kind of chest infection. This cough isn't going away. I showed someone our system today and had to talk nonstop for two hours (I rarely speak at work) and I lost my voice by the end of it.

 

[Casket]

Today I saw a disabled man going from table to table begging for money. Reminds me of the poor state of welfare organizations here which could have helped people like him if only the organizations' state was improved. Heck, I hope that guy wasn't being made use of by a syndicate.

 

[edamame]

Recently upset with work-related issues. It seems like the better I do, the more certain people want to dig up faults.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Recently upset with work-related issues. It seems like the better I do, the more certain people want to dig up faults.

My mom always said some people can only make themselves feel taller by digging holes under other people. Hang in there.

 

[Rath Darkblade]

My mom always said some people can only make themselves feel taller by digging holes under other people. Hang in there.

A-yup. It's called the Tall Poppy Syndrome. Tall poppy syndrome - Wikipedia

 

[CatrionaGrace]

A-yup. It's called the Tall Poppy Syndrome. Tall poppy syndrome - Wikipedia

That's interesting. Mom's comments about digging ditches predates tall poppies down under by several decades. I remember her saying it when I was a wee little girl. Proverbs 26:27 and/or Psalms 7:15 may lurk somewhere in the background of the expression, though they don't say quite the same thing.