In another time and place, said time and place was active between January 2007 and sometime in 2003, I used to write periodic letters that began: “Dear NSA”. I thought they were funny, maybe not so much now that I think about it.
This was before what we now think of as AI. Keep in mind that we had intranet communication long before we started throwing random shit into the VERY (stop fooling yourself) public interwebs. The NSA always collected data. Where do you think they got it, wire taps? Yeah, that too. But think about it. Long and hard if required.
While mass quantities of data became available, we, and the NSA, and all other entities collecting our pulically aired laundry very quickly ran out of sorting, parsing, and analyzing bandwidth. We got better at that. Google ‘data lake’ and then ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE). Both of those terms and concepts are dated, but it’s a good place to start if you’re unfamiliar with those terms and concepts.
STOP RIGHT THERE: if you’re suddenly finding the need to add a quick comment educating me and any other poor soul who accidentally stumbled on this site, stop it. Don’t. Do your splaining elsewhere. I’m just trying to make a freaking point. OK? Good.
Where was I? Right. AI as we know or think we know or sorta know as of today. I don’t need to bait the NSA by calling them out via blog letter. Now all I have to do is start writing shit and click, Publish (might not even have to do that, who knows).
Do I think I’m that important? Absolutely not. On the other hand, that woman who just had a four year old snatched off the street by a well armed masked man with possibly very little training working for the Federal government? She wasn’t that important either. Not even a little bit. The four year old? Never had a chance at relevance.
Reread that paragraph.
I’m not paranoid, I don’t even pay much attention these days because I tend to froth at the mouth and that’s not useful. I’m not paranoid, I’m appalled. I’m not even astonished, just appalled. Gobsmacked. Flabbergasted. Dumbfounded. Thuderstruck. Stupified. Horrified. Pusillanimous(ed?). Etcetera.
Also, I hijacked this blog (legally). Because I’m unwilling to pay for an upgrade or use another email and just start over, you’re probably seeing the original name (ailishe) by the profile thumbnail. All content associated with the user name ailishe has been deleted. You may now refer to me as mister joyce. I’m not going to bother explaining that. If you slogged through Ulysses or had the audacity to think Finnegans Wake is even remotely accessible to all but four living people, it should make perfect sense. If not, let it go.
That’s not me in the thumbnail. Don’t be silly. That is, however, my cat in the banner (unless you’re trolling my blog from the bottom and I’ve already changed it. I like changing banners. It’s fun for me.
That’s it. That’s the opening post. I’ll probably be back because my daughter has suggested strongly that I start writing again. I’m not willing to pick up the original blog for a lot of reasons, so here I am.
Bad Ideas and Poor Choices 
September 15, 2025 at 7:35 pm |
Hey! There you are! YAY. I’ll be checking back often. Welcome back to the blogosphere. 🙂