On Wednesday evening I walked with Mum and Nash around the Torrens after dinner. She was complaining about dealing with call centres and hard to understand people. I mentioned that AI and voice synthetization would probably replace those employees within a few years, and potentially my own job as well. After I extolled the benefits of generative AI some more she asked what I would do as a job if AI replaced my current one. I answered that I would pivot back to being an author and writing stories. I don't think AI will take over that for a while yet.

And yet... I finished the draft of my latest story a few months ago which gave me great satisfaction. And I workshopped it after making a return to writer's group where I also received good feedback to help improve it. All that is left for me to send this story to publishers for the small chance of it being published. And I have procrastinated that step more than any other in the process of writing it. Much of this procrastination time has been used to upskill myself in Generative AI.

Submitting stories is so hard because that's the point you lose control of them. And that's the point the feedback loop can stretch to such lengths that the whole hobby feels unfulfilling. Programming in React means you don't even need to refresh the page to see functionality changes. A short story can take months to get rejected. That means a thread is running in your brain for all that time. You can try to ignore it, but it's there.

But getting stories accepted is more fulfilling that pushing code or even running serverless function apps. You have to try and submit, even though rejection will come. And what better time to learn how to handle this fear, when AI is coming for our day jobs.

The last week of September has been the kind of unrealistic spring weather you dream about in winter. Sunny, warm enough to wear shorts, but not so hot you can't go outside. Basically perfect, if you don't suffer from allergies. I've been riding my bike into town when I'm not working from home. Drinking coffees in the sun. I can't help being fascinated by flowers and the lifecycle of plants.

On the weekend we went to the Barossa to dog sit, and took Nash along for the ride. This presented more opportunities for enjoying the weather. We did the full Kaiserstuhl walk after having to cut it short last time due to injuries. I ate cereal, fruit and yogurt on a log in the morning light watching the birds before striding on up the hill and it felt like this was what my body was made for.

While in the area I also tried award winning bacon (it tasted like bacon smells like) and visited Greenock Brewery for a tasting paddle. I also walked around a lake and took in the golden canola fields.

The second brown snake spotting made us to decide on cutting the trip short, and we packed the second dog into the car for two more nights of dog sitting back in Adelaide.

I feel like I will finally sleep well tonight.

On the weekend I walked a loop around West Lakes under grey, drizzly skies. Sunday morning I walked along the Torrens and into North Adelaide for a bakery visit. That afternoon I ate a huge chunk of pork and bystanding garbage directly out of the bin. My name is Nash the dog and I am living my best life.

The Monday morning walk was the more pedestrian circuit between home and the local park. About five minutes in, I had to shit and after scooting about in a hunched pooping position it became apparent to me that not everything that was in that mouthful of garbage was digestible. Luckily my human, Bradism himself, had the bag ready to go and he yanked the compromised, half-exported turd right out of my butt and off I went again, smiling toothily in the late winter sunshine.

Well, I definitely learnt my lesson, which is: it's cool to eat as much as you want out of the garbage if you have a giant being watching out for you at all times.

It was a very family and Adelaide focused weekend. Mum arrived Friday night and stayed the weekend. Saturday morning we had coffee at My Grandma Ben at Bowden. Then there was a walk from Grange to Henley Beach. Saturday evening was My Brother's Engagement just off Goodwood Road. Sunday morning we walked Nash Along The Torrens. Then the afternoon was spent learning the basics of quantum physics in Oppenheimer and then dinner at Daughter in Law on Rundle Street.

I added better image zoom and optimisation to Bradism today, after June 2023 cracked 100mb page load. Other than that, nights are essentially as above.

Event Ahead!

It was Nash's birthday today. She is aging in her own style. Most Sundays she gets a walk to the bakery and a mini sausage roll during the intermission. As today was special she got a full size treat.

And she pissed exactly nine times over the course of the walk up and down the hill.

December has continued since last Friday, with some time on the bench and alternating my wrist brace between arms.

Also, according to my camera...

There were a lot of green stones on the beach.

Annual advent calendar has kicked off.

Played some lawn Yahtzee

Started a pub under my mulberry tree for all the local birds.

Nash got a new squeaky

Nash came to the beach for an ice-cream

Went to the beach again without Nash

Hiked to Long Gully for breakfast