Remote

Human Ghostwriter

@HG@beige.party

mastodon 4.6.6

Given name. Totally human. Please be nice to me.

I'm Lrrr's roommate. Or, he lives with me. Whatever.

30-something dad. I love loud music, humor, and art. I am a good make words happen person.

1161 Followers

161 Following

50 Posts

Joined November 06, 2024

Energy?:

Ring of power found in a portapotty.

Urge to kill?:

Steady.

Horoscope?:

I was having a nice day, alright?

Spirit Animal?:

Pigeon eaten by a sad elephant

Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1w ago

Replying to

It is, however, a good reminder of how far I've come. I, too, used to be a panicky, self-loathing perfectionist who made it everyone's problem. Now, I'm much more metered, vastly less self-loathing, and I'm no longer a perfectionist. I don't do self-deprecation as a default anymore. I don't think my kids are going to get those qualities directly from me.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2w ago

I've been thinking about Homer's Iliad and Odyssey lately. Not the stories themselves so much as their context. This vast oral tradition that stretched across the Bronze Age Collapse into a benighted world, surrounded by architecture that no one knew how to build, a lost world everywhere intruding into the present but unreachable. It feels like that with AI, as the adopters start developing dementia and coring out their brains. People who cannot fathom doing their own thinking because there is a hole between their ears. Their descendants, if any, might marvel at how a human ever managed to assemble thoughts big enough to build ordinary machines without Super Cyber Mommy. Everything could be a pyramid, an ineffable impossibility only possible outside of Edenic innocence. It's for this reason that I resolutely refuse to use LLMs. Reasoning and communicating are my entire stock in trade. They're who I am. I cannot lose that and stay myself. I would rather die on the beach sieging Troy or inside the walls conquered by a stupid fucking horse than listen to an influencer tell tales of a time long ago when impossible men, god-like men, wrote five-page papers (double-spaced) without the malevolent procedurally derived guidance of a company with a butthole for a logo.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1w ago

Replying to

They're painting. My kids are painting wacky shit because they are 6 and 3. My mom is 67 and painting better because her fine motor skills are fully developed. My mom is describing herself as an awful and incompetent artist. She told my son his painting can't be a masterpiece because she helped with it. Shut the fuck up, lady. Just shut the fuck up. The point is to have fun, not to be vicious to yourself.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2w ago

If I ever get cancer, please don't call my treatment a "battle." I don't want to die fighting. It's a negotiation.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2w ago

I'm really worried about my mom. She's visiting, and this morning she came with me and my son for his morning drop-off at school. His school asks that each child work with their grown up on a simple set of tasks in the morning (like filling out a worksheet and reading a paragraph off the whiteboard). They have split-grade classrooms: his class calls first graders "youngers" and second graders "elders." Well, this morning, my son had to arrange some numbered tiles and get an elder to sign off that he had done it correctly. He is great at arranging the tiles and HATES asking second graders to proof his work because he knows he's right. But part of the exercise is making friends and working with people, so I encouraged him to go find an elder to bless his paperwork. My mom could not understand what elder meant. I explained it to her. My son explained it to her. Then she started pointing my son at grown-ups who could be an elder. I explained it to her again. She asked if maybe we should find the teacher to explain it. She asked another parent, who said the same thing I said. She asked someone else. My son finally found someone to do it for him in the meantime, because this was agonizing. On our way out of the school, my mom asked me how weird it was that I wouldn't let other adults be my son's elder. "Mom, elder means second grader. I don't know how else to say it." "Ohhhhhhhhhh. I didn't understand. Isn't that weird? That's weird. It's weird, right?" No, lady. It's an established system that four different people explained to you. Anyway, I'm worried. I don't think her brain works. I don't know if it's dementia or TBI, or both, or some third thing, but this feels serious. There isn't any treatment, so idk what a diagnosis would do, but if someone acted like this in my office, I would have a hard time letting them sign a will in front of me. Also, on another level, it's embarrassing. And it probably shouldn't be, but I'm sensitive about it in a way that cannot be healthy. I don't want people asking my son if Grandma has dementia or is stupid, or making inferences and assumptions about me or him based on Grandma's hard time dealing with information. I also don't want to confront how heritable this shit can be and that my future might involve losing my ability to navigate and selectively break or ignore rules, which is my whole deal.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1w ago

Just got my COVID and flu shots, and I'm just waiting to feel like I got hit by an asteroid.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1w ago

I don't like calling people Nazis anymore, but for two good reasons: (1) many of them like being called Nazis, even if they don't admit it, and (2) the Nazis learned it from us in the United States. Our hatemongers aren't nearly as efficient or well-dressed. I prefer "chud" or "fuckface."

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1w ago

Replying to

The paper towels thing bothers me a lot. They're garbage. They're wet garbage covered in crud. They're not getting used again. Leaving them laying around on every available kitchen service helps nobody. Just throw them in the trash.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1mo ago

Did the obligatory but enjoyable dad thing and took my kids to the state fair. Fun was had by all, but also the slopapocalypse in advertising has come. Everything looks vaguely crocheted or like it was drawn by a particularly dumb alien, all the people look like that obnoxious Facebook avatar fad reimagined by a demon, and it's all in the vague kidney-failure piss tone that all AI images have. It's deeply unappetizing.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1w ago

Replying to

Because there's nothing new under the (now bisexual) sun, we are living through a Machiavellian heuristic. Our mad prince has convinced himself that he is beloved, but he is tuning out his viziers and telling the peasants who can't afford bread to eat shit. He's no longer feared or loved: he is hated. And the hatred is spreading to his once-irreducible core of white supremacist reactionaries, misogynists, maliciously bored suburbanites, and dumbasses. That unshakable 33% is now 29% and falling. Soon, everyone will have always been against him. And, because the particular flavor of evil chud magic that makes a demagogue pop is rare and generational, we may even get a chance to strip out of our caked britches, hose off, and change before the next shitstorm arrives. Imagine how much worse this would be if he had a functioning brain and wasn't 80. Imagine how far this would have gotten with a competent opposition.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I'm gonna find and share more of her stuff. It's hard, because she's cranky and reclusive, but it always makes me smile:

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2w ago

Replying to

@n_dimension@infosec.exchange The kinds of cognitive offloading that I have observed in my clients and coworkers who rely extensively on AI speaks loudly. Reliance on LLMs for assembling arguments and structuring information strikes me as of a different order than using a calculator. I have not aggressively interrogated the literature and I am also an idiot who nobody should listen to, but pieces like this reflect my concerns. https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/ai-s-impact-on-cognitive-ability-mit-study-reveals-more-troubling-data/ I don't know enough about software engineering to know how many lines of code is normally or expected for impressive technology. By all means, these things strike me as an amazing accomplishment that also tends to lead to users placing too much confidence in LLM answers.

AI’s impact on cognitive ability: MIT study reveals more troubling data – MIT Media Lab

AI’s impact on cognitive ability: MIT study reveals more troubling data – MIT Media Lab

New research found relying too much on AI negatively affected people’s ability to identify misinformation.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

I have never liked Graham Platner because I think Nazi tattoos are disqualifying and being a shithead to women is disqualifying. I didn't need SA allegations to think he was a fuckwad. But I also wasn't champing at the bit against him because I'm not a Mainer and I generally liked his headlining policy priorities more than I liked Janet Mills'. It's not a psyop, it's not him getting spiked, he's just a shitty guy who sucks, and it's coming out.

I think the most important thing is that other, better DSA candidates are whooping ass against right-wing dems. Platner's baggage isn't something that the left needs to accept to win races. If anything, the left should be even less willing to tolerate that crap than anyone else. Chuck him out and keep the integrity of the movement.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

I bought dress shoes today, and I unwittingly tried on a pair of Florsheims. Psychotically uncomfortable. The only reason to wear such shoes is as part of a punishment ritual to display loyalty.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Real talk, health, not ideal

I learned today that I have a moderately leaky bicuspid aorta, and I'm gonna need to have it replaced probably in the next 2-12 years. Maybe sooner if I decide to become a power lifter (HA!), maybe longer if I become ultra fit, but not that long from now. I don't have symptoms, which is good. He mentioned some things that I forget the details of, but they were good things. He says the risk of death in surgery is about one in a thousand, but that that number captures *every* kind of aortic valve intervention, including attempts at fixing aortic valve dissections, so it's probably not as high a risk. That's all we'll and good, but it's *my* heart, and if they break it I die. I am going to start taking medication for the first time in my life. Blood pressure meds first, maybe GLP-1s if conventional diet and exercise stall out for me. I'm gonna be treating sleep like a clinical intervention, so if you see me shitposting after 10pm Alaska time, tell me to go to bed and call me a dumb bitch. He said that there shouldn't be any functional actuarial change in my life expectancy. The best thing to do now is delay the surgery as long as possible so that the technology can keep improving. He told me I don't need a bucket list, I should keep saving my money to enjoy when I'm old, and that I'll get to meet any grandkids I might have. But, truth be told, I am going through it right now. This is maybe the first time anyone has told me I have a problem I will need surgery for. As a death lawyer, I counsel people in worse situations all the time. I talk about death and dying all the time. I know what I want if I die (BTW, I have asked my wife to hire Maurice LaMarche to do a farewell cameo for Lrrr if I drop dead, but I have not started the script; until I do, it's just Poochie's farewell note). I'm insured to the point that my wife and kids will never need to work a day in their lives if I croak before my 57th birthday. But I also don't want to die. I have apparently not fully disabused myself of the belief that I will live forever. I don't want to misuse my life or feel like I'm squandering a precious gift. I cannot wait to fix the things that need fixing, or do the things I want to do. I don't want to miss it all. I want to die heroically in my 90s behind the wheel of a fast car, my sinuses full of good cocaine, crashing victimlessly into a ravine and then exploding. I want my days to feel like adventures. I want my friends to know I love them.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Imagine Belgium, the most monstrous of all the colonial powers, being the good guy.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2w ago

Replying to

@n_dimension@infosec.exchange I'm open to being wrong. I don't think my fears about it degrading independent critical thinking are baseless, but that's also more reliant on my priors and on my experience of trying to dissuade confidently wrong clients than on a broader body of research literature. My impression is that the best use cases for LLMs are when they are used by people who already know their subject matter area well enough to say "that doesn't make sense." I can probably draft better wills and trusts with a capable LLM backing me up on narrow issues than I could without one. The overconfident engineer who brings me an LLM-drafted will, on the other hand, is going to step in it repeatedly. I am genuinely concerned that it will make mistakes that I won't catch if I come to rely on it.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

I'm very good at exactly two things: reading and writing. If you had to pick two things, you could do worse. But when it comes to, like, aesthetics or planning or household management or exercise or diet or art or enjoyment or living well, I'm a wreck. I'm like if God spilled a person.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

I still check in on The Atlantic sometimes because I forgot to cancel my subscription, but their feelings on DSA candidates romping to victories across the country can comfortably be summarized as "hoes mad."

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

This is the correct way to lie to kids: it's ridiculous, amusing, harmless, reaffirms their belief that smoking is super bad for you, and occupies their attention for a while.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

The U.S. is finally a soccer country (because of the brazen corruption, not because we're good at it or even like it).

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Good, I'm glad the USMNT got the horse whipping it so richly deserved. I hope it shuts up the people who had the audacity to suggest we could win.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Well, that's on schedule. My mom is screaming and crying and slamming doors because she accidentally whapped my son on the butt while playing "Up high, down low" and my son said "that's a private part!" and we agreed with him that it is. Rather than this becoming a perfectly normal conversation between kids and adults about how it's true that we shouldn't touch other people on the butt, but that this was an accident during a game and that grandma didn't mean to touch his butt and how that is a really important difference, it's become some hideous blowup. My son is upset because he didn't mean to make grandma cry.

I'm so tired of her limitless capacity for bullshit. I cannot imagine having a life so small that I would need to make a trivial episode and opportunity for good parenting be about me and not about my kids having good, healthy, rational boundaries. I'm so upset with her. She is being such an asshole. She keeps being intentionally wrong, not listening, and going over the top until someone corrects her, and then explodes into conniptions because she finally gets to play victim and force the family to give her attention. I got used to ignoring it when I was young, but now she's dragging my kids into her psychological rat's nest and I cannot tolerate it.

We gave my son a "some grown-ups have a hard time thinking instead of feeling, and she feels really upset that she didn't know that bottoms are private parts. You did the right thing telling her, and we are proud of you. She is not mad at you" talk.

I have some toxic perfectionism in me (I liked law school). It is awful. But I have largely learned to manage it and not make it anyone else's problem, and it doesn't trouble me much these days. I hate knowing that this is exactly where I got it.

I am need to give her a very serious talking to. This is simply impossible to accept.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Kubrick stare at the last brownie in my parents' fridge.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

"Who indeed? Post-colonial conflict modalities and dehumanization in greater Caribbean popular culture, a retrospective on cultural memory and the legacy of 'Who Let the Dogs Out.'" There's a reason I'll never be welcome in the academy.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

I declared myself independent yesterday. But nothing fucking happened because of course it didn't.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Then she bit me, undermining her claim that she's not a goose.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 1mo ago

Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social

If I were a D&D character, I feel like I'd have very high intelligence and a severe negative wisdom modifier.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

I think it's possible some right-wingers get so mad about the SCOTUS birthright decision (which, again, changed nothing and reaffirmed the law exactly as it has been for 160 years) that they literally die.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@donni@mastodon.social Relevant:

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Boosted by @GroupNebula563@mastodon.social

Replying to

It's the dream: get paid for being right AND he gets kicked into the Poisoned Wall of Broken Glass.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@bobkmertz@techhub.social My son discovered the only reason any of us have ever heard of the Baha Men at camp yesterday and I am suffering.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

We are too frugal. In practice, we live on about one salary and save the other one. It started out as making up for starting our careers late (I lost a decade after college to being useless and/or being in law school), but now I'm trying to race to retirement and I can't/ don't want to break the habit.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Another entry from my sister's catalog. She bought the original at a garage sale and added the worms and googly eye herself, but that's where all the magic came from.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

It is never too late to say, "I was wrong, I'm sorry, and all I can do is mend my ways and beg for forgiveness." And even then, sometimes that ain't enough:

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

Now that I'm thinking about it, it probably has something to do with how we use money. My wife and I save as much as we can and live in terror of going broke. I don't think my friend and his wife are the same way. I'm not, like, worried about them, but it seems like they solve a lot more of their problems with money than we do.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Am I dumb or was Graham Platner just Joe Exotic with only slightly better hair and qualitatively different baggage?

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@HollieK72@mastodonapp.uk The devil isn't even trying anymore.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@GeePawHill@mastodon.social Of all the places to smoke on 500 acres, inside is the worst one. Good grandparenting, imo.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

I would be guzzling five cups of coffee a day even if it was bad for me.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

If someone ever told me "lower your tone when you talk to me," I would have to laugh at them until they killed me.

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Human Ghostwriter @HG@beige.party

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@grtyvr@infosec.exchange I mean, I can lie to you...

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