So Peter Chang is coming back to the old place after $450K of renovations. I have questions. So many questions: is it the roof? the plumbing? electrical? That second step from the upper level down to the lower level that is uneven? The windows? Installing a boat-based food delivery system?

Why would I trust AI to diagnose whatever health issue I have when it can't distinguish between Steven Hill and Peter Graves, suggests you raise the temperature to 32 so stuff will freeze, & thinks bleach is a fine recipe ingredient. I give it 6 mos before it clocks my gender & assumes I'm whining.

Pretty sure politicians & politician-adjacent bozos are trying to deaden voter outcome with a deluge of ads that actively insult our intelligence and/or demonstrate the contempt wealthy jerks have for anyone who isn't them so that we're all just so dang tired by the time election day rolls around.

I spent some time googling the various PACs trying to influence the special elections and was profoundly unsurprised by the results. The usual suspects, some of whom I thought would be smarter than choosing northern Virginia for their jim crow-flavored messaging.

*shakes fist* "Technology!!!!!"

In honor of my grandfather, I have waited until Tax Day to file my taxes. He would driven to the PO at 4pm. I did e-file at 8am.

The state of tax form design (both govt and reporting companies) & especially home tax prep software/sites is no better than it was last year. Last year? Disappointing.

Building an AI avatar of yourself so your workforce feels "more connected" to you without you having to interact with the plebes is ... classic TechBro. Egotistic, self-defeating, and the opposite of innovative; an expensive boondoggle vanity project that provides no value.

You really want to be President. You go through all the traditional hoops & petty annoyances to get there. It's a lot.

WHY would you regularly risk that by abandoning morals/ethics/lawfulness/decency/good sense to sate your libido? Your party has a track record of dumping lesser offenders.

Why are we Shatnering when we could be talking about the hatch and the front porch?

Considering how much NASA has been pruned and outsourced and hindered, I find this whole trip's success to be truly amazing and inspiring.

If I were the President and had the choice between watching this with the nation & spending the evening at my winery trying to shore up power & money, I'd have chosen a trip back from the moon every time.

I too have wanted to go full Geno on a colleague, but always chose "being professional" and "being an adult" and "realizing that I might not be objective" instead of wearing my petty like a cloak and my disgruntlement like cloppy boots and channelling my inner 6 year old.

Ta'Niya Latson was my favorite non-UVA ACC player last year, so it's delightful watching her succeed with South Carolina.

Kudos to the NCAA designers for not reflexively turning to the color pink or teal for this year's women's tourney graphic identity.

Yes, I'm not so subtly and still calling out the ACC who can't resist it every dang time.

blergh.

Logged into LinkedIn for the first time in a long time. The nonsense LinkedIn chose to populate my feed was quite a sight: nonsense, ai-enhanced nonsense, ai yammering, & people with 30+ yrs experience writing as if they had just finished their week working and had Deep Thoughts.

I am going to need Interpol to discover that the same people stole the truck of Kit-Kats and paintings from the Italian museum.

Then I'm going to need Interpol to provide some high-def images of the Cezanne so I can see how his watercolor cherries differ from his oil cherries.

Took my mom to Maple Pine Thai for lunch (up near Darden Towe). It was all delicious but their chive cakes were particularly fantastic. Also their lychee ice tea was properly lychee. Recommended in a town with multiple excellent Thai options.

I have completely enjoyed watching the women's team this year despite the ups and downs; this sweet sixteen run was just the icing on the cake. I am sad it is over.

!!!

I was just thinking about pickling some more onions, so this is very timely.

One might think that a local news station with TWO sports reporters ("a sports department") might find 20 seconds on the 5pm news to mention a thrilling record-making sports victory by a local team, but apparently not. This is why I usually only watch for the weather.

I think overtime is their safe space.

I can not express how delighted and hoarse I am for the Virginia women.

The ESPN chyrons and graphic choices for the women's tournament aren't nearly as good as the CBS ones for the men's tourney. The other game score blocks in particular ar barely thought out, and the rest of the design is 2-4 years old. Did they lay off most of their designers last year?

It's very possible - I will say the Aberdeen Barn wasn't as good as in my youth, and didn't have the pork chops (but the ambiance was dead on and it still felt so old school cville) so we could swap that out for someplace also meaningful but currently super-delicious.

For the semi-finals, we went to the Aberdeen Barn, the site of family celebrations for a wee me, and where I once spotted Kenton Edelin, my childhood fave. For the finals, we went to the Bavarian Chef (fam. celebrations during my teen years). (For game 4: Peter Chang - adult fam. celebrations)

My Mom and I have a firm belief that our dining choices on game day power the teams to victory, and so we spend more time on strategizing those choices than we do on our brackets. It worked so well in 2019.

Yesterday? Smokd. Today? Taste of China. Tomorrow? We're eying Mexican food.

The Post Office used to be a marvel, serving the rural and distant, connecting our world, operating smartly, apolitical and service-oriented, providing infrastructure for business, government and civic matters, and people to grow and connect.

Now it's a prop and a stalking horse.

Today I got a postcard from my eye dr that was postmarked Feb 5th at our sorting facility 100 miles away - 46ish days from the originating business (2.5 miles away) to my place.

USPS has been ruined in the name of short-term political win nonsense & regulations designed replace public w/ private.

Why would you have AI create a photograph for you when a real photo illustrating your point exists and is semi-famous and actually includes an image of the person you are referencing? I get distracted by the headless woman in the background, and the functionary whose face is erupting in lizard.