Yes, bad news in the world - unrest elsewhere in the world, possible wanna-be authoritarian solidifying power. In the US, yet another school shooting still cloaked in the "fog of war" but still - six people (three kids, close in age to my niece, three adults, including the headmaster) are dead.
And in my class today, right before giving an exam, a student asked me: "Have you heard of this thing called Chat GPT?" and it turns out apparently someone fed some of my class materials to it (Best I can figure out is that they gave it my review sheet to try to make a "sample test," which is not so very upsetting - a way my friends and I used to study was to sit around and look at the list of topics on the exam and try to predict possible questions). But also - it's being used for short papers. I got a log in (for the skeleton version, it's free) and tried it out on a few "advanced" ecology essay questions
The answers were MOSTLY factually correct, though the writing was flat and "dead" and didn't sound quite right (but that will probably change the more people use it; apparently it can learn with feedback. I didn't give it ANY feedback). So the upshot is: I am either going to have to substantially change how I do the short-paper assignments or else just accept there will be a few folks who decide to use this as a simple way out.
And I don't know. Part of me just wants to throw up my hands and go "politicians and businesspeople and sports stars and entertainers all cheat, and they prosper, and it seems like folks who cheat their way through are materially better off than I am, so who am I to say my students shouldn't just do this, they'll probably do it on their jobs*"
But part of me wants to nail the cheaters to the wall, for the people who (like me) do things the hard way.
(*And yeah, probably in 5-10 years, there will be very little "everyday business" writing done any more, it'll all be outsourced to bots).
The other thing I don't like? This is another thing I used to be good at (like identifying plants) that an AI can do faster and cheaper than someone paying me and.....what do I have to offer this sad old world if all my skills have been superseded by AIs? Humans are gonna artificial-intelligence themselves out of needing to exist.
So I don't know. I cried a bit in my office today with my door closed, mainly for the school shooting but also for the AI business and also because I got something I have a food intolerance to at the church potluck yesterday and woke up at 3 am with abdominal cramps. And so I'm just tired. (They got better over the course of the day and I did most of a workout after I got home this afternoon).
But yeah. I think I need to find some kind of a career counselor or something and talk to them about "what do you do when none of the things you're good at are valuable any more 'cos a computer can do them effectively for free?" Because I don't know now how much longer I want to stick with this gig if I'm going to have to decide how much AI cheating I can tolerate.
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But then when I got home - my new-old Garfield was here:
This is the 6" version and I think the one I had was 8" tall, but that's fine. (If it does turn out my original Garf is tucked away in a box somewhere, then I have Big Garf and Little Garf. And if I DID donate him to a rummage sale as I vaguely remember, I have a Garfield again).
And yes, he is exactly like I remember the early 1980s stuffed versions - a Dakin product, with the white and red woven tag sewn into one of the seams on his underside, and part of his stuffing is "crunchy" (Dakin used nut shells - I think was walnut? - in many of their toys for weight and texture).
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On Sunday, I got the last of the blocks made for the jelly-roll quilt, and I started sewing them together (I only got three of the seven rows, made, though). I figured out how to position things by drawing a grid and counting up the number of each set of blocks dominated by a particular color, and then assigning each set a letter. And then I filled the grid in with letters, trying to space them as much as possible.
Laying out a quilt is the ideal way to do it, but you need a BIG open area of floor, or a design wall. I have laid ones out on my bed in the past but then you have to take up all the blocks before you need to go to sleep.
But more and more, I think using a grid and color code works well enough, as long as I'm careful to scatter the similar fabrics through the quilt (This is hard for jelly rolls and charm packs where a lot of the fabrics repeat).
Anyway:
And a couple close ups
I'm still not sure how I feel about the colors but maybe I'll like it better when it's totally done. Oh, I will probably have it finished - I already have a backing in the stash for it - but if I don't love it when I have it done I suppose I could donate it somewhere.
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