Random thoughts... - by Tocky
howeird on 10/3/2020 at 18:35
Quote Posted by Tocky
Yesterday as I did it I said the perfunctory "nevermore" and started to walk away when one of them said "neh mo". I was stunned. I said "never more" and one said "neh mo" in response again.
So what's your random shit ?
Mine is putting songs with things. The crow could be saying Nemo - if that's the way the crow pronounced the word. There is a song by(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIBdpFJyFkc) Nightwish called Nemo and it has crows in it.
demagogue on 11/3/2020 at 02:43
Interestingly, after I posted that I saw peter_spy (aka Judith?) also posted a (
https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20216-share-your-status-whats-on-your-mind/&tab=comments#comment-443981) video showing their evolutionary neural net for a little virtual RC car learning a track. There's lots of people doing lots of different little variations on the theme, so it's not easy to sum up. It's interesting to follow anyway.
I'm fascinated by setting up a self-learning system and watching it gradually approach some "solution", not always the solution we're thinking about. (I think I told my story from my AI course about the robot arm that learned to knock its platform to the side to drop the thing in the bucket before.) One application I'm curious about is feeding it a scientific literature in some field and let it approach some "conclusions" it can extract, and see what it comes up with.
Tocky on 28/3/2020 at 03:41
I had a strange dream I'm sure was Corona virus related. I arrived at a dinner party held in a stone mansion atop a hill. We sat at the table in formal dress and held pleasant conversation over wine with everyone ribbing each other good naturedly. As a platter of meat was passed to me I noticed the fellows wrist begin to sprout hair and looked into his face seeing a snout and teeth. It startled me but just as I acknowledged it in my mind his face returned to normal. Another fellow to my right leaned forward and pointed at him saying, "Ha! I saw you change! Don't deny it!". "I never did!", he replied. "You did! You did! I saw you you lying liar from liar town!" And then HIS face changed to a wolf and back briefly. Then they both laughed as if it were the most natural thing. I was horrified.
Another fellow did it and denied it as everyone poked fun only he was denying it AS he was a wolf which made everyone laugh harder. Soon they were all going back and forth from human to animal and kidding each other. I noticed a lady at the opposite end of this large oval table biting into a slice of beef with long sharp teeth and looked down at my portion which was hardly seared at all and very bloody. When I looked back at her there was blood running down her chin. Worse, she was staring directly at me. "Well what are YOU looking at?" she said, smiling a wide smile full of bloody pointed teeth. I fumbled for something to say, something which would cover the fact I was the only one not changing, but all I could think was "the better to eat you with" which she found uproarious. She tilted her head back and laughed a way too wide laugh.
The table, which was raucous before, became quiet and everyone stared at me. They were no longer changing but that didn't make it any better. They all looked like lunatics and I was scared shitless. There was an air of expectancy and I suddenly wondered why I was here with all these well dressed people I didn't know. I looked down at my hands and set my knife and fork down carefully saying, "Oh look, I didn't wash my hands, I'm sure I passed a lavatory down the hall. I'll just wash up then, excuse me". Every head turned and every eye watched me leave, all of them smiling in silence, some with smears of blood on them.
I stole my way down the hall and into the first door I came to which was a kitchen. There was a fire with a large kettle on a hook over it. I slid the bolt over as quietly as I could but there were no low windows and the ones there were were too high and narrow. I looked into the drawers and cabinets for a weapon but everything was utterly bare. The pot over the fire was empty as well. The whole place looked medieval but there were no fireplace pokers even. I sat down at a rough hewn table and tried to gather my thoughts. Directly I heard a soft rapping at the door and a soft male voice say, "are you alright in there?". Then there was a lot of tittering laughter and snorting as if behind hands. That scared me so bad I woke up.
I lay awake for a bit thinking how strange a dream it was and how vivid.
zombe on 30/3/2020 at 09:02
That reminded me Grimm, the now ended TV show. Have you seen it?
Tocky on 2/4/2020 at 04:17
I caught an episode or two but it never grabbed my interest as I hadn't followed it early on. I think where some of it came from was Poe's Dr. Tarr and Professor Feather and Masque of the Red Death. Throw in some Universal Studios props and it made a nice scary little vignette. Nearly all my interesting dreams are nightmares.
NXMT on 16/4/2020 at 13:42
Got a new laptop, loaded up my GOG account. Saw Thief in my library. Remembered there was an incredible community I used to frequent back in the day.
Tocky on 7/5/2020 at 04:54
There is history all around us. Even in our own back yards. While metal detecting in the field across from my house I found a puddle of lead about three feet down. I knew General Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville was beaten badly by the Chickasaw in Pontotoc and his men bivouaced here in the early 1700's in that retreat but to hold that hunk of lead in my hands and think of the French soldiers molding musket balls hurriedly before dark never knowing if they were being pursued and would have to fight again before their wounds were well licked brought feeling to the very soil beneath my feet.
Similarly I felt an odd chill visiting the grave of Elizabeth Powell recently. I'm kin to some Powell's but that wasn't the reason I visited. I'm still doing the Count Eeflac horror intro gig for a local station and I thought it would serve well for an episode about a witch movie. Her maiden name was Bell. She was Betsy Bell, the victim of the Bell witch, the most famous American haunting. There is quite an accounting of it through the years and many horror movies based on it, most recently "An American Haunting". It's a strange story and here is a link if you are interested- (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Witch). I'm not sure what to make of it truthfully. She had a hard life and if any of her early life is true then I pity the whole messed up family. It is said even president Andrew Jackson visited and had strange things happen to him. It's certainly the most puzzled over tale in these parts and who am I of all people to doubt her. If anything I understand her too well.
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Tocky on 30/5/2020 at 04:57
I'm proud of my son in law. A nice old couple lived next door and the wife liked to feed his chickens so they would come over and visit. Well the man died and the man's son came over to clean up his parents yard. Only he soon came and told my son in law to keep the chickens out or else he would shoot them. My SIL told him the only reason they came over was his mother had been feeding them but if that was how he felt he would hire a surveyor and build a fence to keep them in. They had always shared eggs with the lady and still would despite her sons mean demeanor.
The surveyor comes and low and behold the line is clear up to the edge of the mans driveway. He wasn't expecting that. So he goes and tells the man that he will have to move all of the junk that had been piling up of theirs on his property over the years so the fence building can begin. Oh that set the man off. He told him he would whip my SIL's ass. At that point I would have done something stupid but my son in law is a smarter man than I. He simply reminded him the only way to stop the movement of chickens is with a fence and he did not want to fence in any of the fellows junk. He offered the card of the surveyor and even suggested he get his own surveyor should there be any dispute. He then reminded him that this was all at that mans insistence but if there were to be any fighting it was best to get it done now so they could both get on with what they will have to do anyway.
I had heard tell of this adult way of handling assholes but had never tried it myself. It works. The guy began cleaning things off the property he had thought was his. Later the guys kids came to help and be damned if they weren't in Dustin's class. LOL. Karma will turn around and bite an asshole right in the what they are.
Tocky on 25/8/2020 at 02:09
I know she doesn't appreciate it now but one day when she hears Night Moves or Old Time Rock and Roll on the radio she will recall how she played the theme to Jurassic Park on the very piano she is listening to in the very room where Bob recorded them. Maybe she will think of Papaw and our trip to Muscle Shoals Sound Studio too. So much wonderful music came out of this room, from Etta James to the Stones.
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Tocky on 5/12/2020 at 01:03
Facebook banned again. When a Republican THREATENED TO KILL PEOPLE I called him a lunatic and Facebook in it's wisdom banned ME. I even said I hoped Facebook would report him for prosecution, he had after all, THREATENED TO KILL PEOPLE but because I called him a lunatic that was more important to Facebook. I was being a bully. Never mind that he THREATENED TO KILL PEOPLE, which is a lunatic thing to do, I was a bully for pointing out he was a lunatic for doing so.
I'm pretty damned sick of Facebook.