Shedding the Weight of Old Dreams

computing, internet, personal, writing 2022.12.19 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

While testing out the new ChatGPT chatbot several days ago, as I detailed in my most recent blog, I had neglected to notice that the bot allowed you to post follow-up questions in your session, to ask for more information or clarifications or such. While not perfect, this makes the chatbot exponentially more useful at certain tasks, so I want to take back what I said last week and state, on the record, that ChatGPT does represent a quantum leap forward in chatbot technology. I’ve…

This Title is a Very Ideal Title, Which Does Things Like Inform Readers About the Blog’s Subject Matter

arts, personal, teaching, writing 2022.12.13 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

AI bot ChatGPT writes smart essays — should professors worry? (nature.com) For a long time now, I’ve wanted to study Cold War-era fiction from the communist countries of the era. It’s fairly well-known that authors in those countries were restricted in how they wrote, essentially conscripted as propagandists for the state. As such, from the accounts I’ve read, most stories from those countries are stultifying in their adherence to formulas, protagonists invariably coming to sing the praises of communism (if they weren’t already at the…

Sighted

personal, politics, rhetoric, television, transgender 2022.11.21 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

I didn’t bother unpacking my television when I moved to Platteville at the start of September; on top of not really using it that much in recent months, I also wasn’t sure just how I wanted to position it in my new apartment. After the chaos of my first weeks here, and especially after getting so sick in the middle of the month, my television kind of stayed on the back burner for a long time, especially since I had my streaming television app on…

Flipping the Switch

personal, teaching 2022.11.07 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

[The following blog contains mentions of child abuse, bullying, and death.] Even though my everyday behaviour definitely falls in line with what most people would probably refer to as introverted, I’ve never felt fully comfortable referring to myself as an introvert. When I think back to my earliest coherent memories, from when I was around four years old, I remember myself being kind of extroverted within the very small circle that my family kept, and as a very curious child, I was eager to go…

Want Not

mom, personal 2022.10.31 Sean Shannon Leave a comment

One of the more frustrating things I had to deal with in my final years living in Toledo was how Mom’s trash cans were taken from her at one point, and despite promises of them being replaced by the family member generally responsible for these things, that promise was never delivered upon, until I had to spend my own money buying new garbage cans (at a time when I was barely getting paid anything at all). On more than one occasion, Mom simply hauled sacks…