Tommyjournal

Friday 30 Aug 2024 comment?

Thursday 29 Aug 2024 comment?

Dangling modifier yesterday: thanks to @BradMossEsq on X for pointing this out

Wednesday 28 Aug 2024 comment?

51 years ago, Monty Python made a three‑sided record: one side had two separate concentric grooves. The two lead‑out grooves are visible in this pic.

Sunday 25 Aug 2024 comment?

Superficially, it might be said that the function of the kidneys is to make urine; but in a more considered view one can say that the kidneys make the stuff of philosophy itself.
- Homer William Smith

If you read that in context, he isn't likening philosophy to urine. But it's more fun to imagine that he is.

Tuesday 20 Aug 2024 comment?

When stores have greeting cards organized by occasion, I wonder if there's ever a section for I'm breaking up with you but don't want to say it directly.

When I was 21, a boyfriend gave me this card and stopped seeing me: self-explanatory

Saturday 03 Aug 2024 comment?

There's a book whose subject matter interests me but whose prose style is—how to put it?—not understated. I've been wanting to write a chapter-length parody of it but I haven't made progress. Writing good parody isn't easy.

Last night, I asked an online AI chat server for tips. I don't want AI to ghostwrite for me but I thought maybe it could give me some food for thought. After telling the AI about the book and saying I wanted to parody it, we had the exchange shown below. When the AI asked me for a sample sentence, I opened the book at random and picked a sentence at random from the page I'd opened to.

Can you give me an example of an elaborate and florid sentence in that book?

"Once you let the analogy 'A is like B' turn into 'A is B', imagination hardens into the excesses of fantastic conviction, and the catch on the box that stores the demonic snaps open, letting Hell loose."

Nice, this tells me exactly what you mean. What would a sarcastic re‑write of that sentence be?

I was hoping you would suggest a sarcastic re‑write of that sentence.

Sure. The sentence you quoted is making the argument that once we start making metaphors and analogies, it can be a slippery slope to seeing them as true. A sarcastic take might be:

Sure, because saying 'A is like B' is just a gateway drug to believing 'A is B' for real, right? Next thing you know, you'll be seeing unicorns prancing through your living room!

Friday 02 Aug 2024 comment?

A month ago, I wrote about several failed attempts to deter birds from perching on an antenna on a rock in my yard.

After a spike didn't work, I made a roller that turns freely on a horizontally-oriented axle. I thought I'd give it some time before deeming it a success.

So far so good: no birds and no guano on the antenna.

Thursday 01 Aug 2024 comment?

gray fox in my yard this morning.