Mark Carroll's Journal

In writing here previously on generative AI I had wondered what happens to society when people can routinely lose themselves in artificial worlds of their own design. I had been thinking from the point of view of their being able to act out dark fantasies then adjusting to the real world where they don't make the rules and their actions affect others.

Anticipated by many works of fiction over the years, I was slow to consider what may be a good side of advancements in training inference models. There are many people who don't have enough contact with friends, perhaps especially the elderly. We may not be far from a point where they can have some artificial companion, patient and configurable, that offers interesting and helpful conversation on whatever topics the user wishes, even joining them actively in some pursuits, far beyond Alexa who can do little more than reading out the results from web searches.

Such companions may be considered a poor substitute for human contact but I suppose that there are probably funded startups chasing this very market.

We recently had a storm pass over Britain, not that it much affected us here in Glasgow. A high pressure system is following it, tomorrow should be pleasant, just in time for not-the-weekend of course. I took the day off for Thanksgiving so perhaps we'll be able to take a nice walk with L. This evening, we drive out to the supermarket to pick up the remaining items for Thanksgiving, including a turkey crown. The traditional meal with the turkey, stuffing, pies, etc. is the kind of food I enjoy, just as I also enjoy the traditional English meals like a Sunday roast. In unrelated news, I remain overweight.

Recently, R. made us some pan de coco. She wasn't impressed with the yeast or the coconut but I thought the buns came out well. I miss living in Maharlika Village where we could walk over to the market with the people with the, er, coconut machines, and R. could select a coconut and instruct them as to what she wanted, then we would come away with our fresh, er, grounds and fluids.

I held my diet for seven weeks, weighed myself, and had lost only a kilogram, which dispirited me enough that I've eaten more freely since, though at least without gaining much. I don't know when I'll actually start my journey back to what I weighed when I moved from Tennessee.

( Work remains busy, bringing my first project nearer delivery. )

( British unemployment benefit isn't generous. )

( I filed my US taxes but am not holding my breath for the refund. )

( Tax paperwork for charity donation irritated me. )

( Me and our dog are both heavier. )

( We are looking to move just a little south. )

I am not managing to read others' journals anywhere near as completely as I once did. Perhaps if I post rather more briefly, I will get around to posting at all. It's been very many weeks. I will try to mention the occasional random things, even if the picture of things as a whole is left even more incomplete than before.

Last weekend, the recent rain had passed. On Saturday, we had a cool, sunny day which was perfect for a couple of walks. In the morning, we strolled a little in Glasgow Green then headed over to Barras Market. After lunch at home, we walked in the other direction, and I picked up more books at the Mitchell Library. For some parts of our walk, there was a strong wind. I wondered why the sun and wind felt so familiar, and I realized that it was from having lived in Cornwall, it reminded me of visiting the coast.

The next day, I visited my kids in Dundee, and rode on a Ferris wheel for the first time in ages. I expect that I must have before but I don't recall when. It was great to get to talk with them and hear how they are doing.

Monday saw me flown to London for meeting my new colleagues in person for the first time. I took the bus to the airport and, after arrival at Stansted, took the train to Liverpool Street from where I could walk. The weather was nice, I joined one remote meeting from a bench in a small, pleasant park before meeting people for lunch then going on to do some work with them before heading back home.

Tuesday we had the property maintenance engineers visiting to check into the recent water ingress into our building. It turned out that the gutters hadn't been properly maintained, they had blocked and the rain overflowed into the wall cavity. We will do what we can to make sure that doesn't happen again. In the evening, my throat didn't feel right.

Yesterday, I felt as if I had a head cold. However, I had wanted to make at least some progress with my work, and I finally managed to make a proper start on my current project, with obvious points for continuing.

Today, I felt unusually dreadful, and took my first sick day for many years. I don't even remember when I was last off work sick but it was at least three jobs ago. Testing tonight, an expired COVID test showed my first positive result. That's entirely my own fault for finally letting my guard down and not being careful enough in travelling to London. It's an education that I ought not have needed but perhaps I can at least learn to try to avoid subsequent reinfection.

One thing that is somewhere between interesting and frustrating about headaches is what causes them. This morning, I woke up with a headache and don't know why: it's difficult to determine. I took some paracetamol with water and, even after an hour, that hadn't much helped. Afterward, I made some black coffee and drank that with a decongestant and now feel somewhat better.

But what helped? I don't know, it could just be that time passed. Similarly, sometimes I might try drinking and eating more, etc. Maybe it helps but it's hard to know what makes my headaches come or go. Also, I can go for weeks with hardly any, then go through phases in which they're more frequent, and I have yet to spot any likely suspects. Just about the only useful means I've found to prevent them relates to hangovers: back in earlier life when I might drink more heavily, drinking a pint of water before bed would have me feeling much better the next morning.

My current optician impressed me a while ago. He had asked me about headaches and I mentioned I get some, then he went on to ask various questions about them, determining that they weren't related to my vision. I suppose it's standard training but, until he started probing their nature, it hadn't occurred to me that he'd have some ability to usefully interrogate me in diagnosing something (even negative) about them.

Fortunately, my few migraines remain symptomatic mostly in non-painful ways. I know they could be much worse and, in those of us in whom they're milder, I know they can worsen later in life; so far, I remain relatively lucky in that regard. Their main inconvenience is just that I may have to take a half-hour away from work until my occipital lobe returns to a state more conducive to reading text.

I am back to finding a GP practice that will accept us as new patients and I am again struck by how the system could and should be so much better. Principal criteria are: (a) are they already full to capacity and (b) does one live in their area? Surely I should be able to type my address into a website and be provided a list of practices to call. There's a national health service, after all. Instead, I am calling one place, having another suggested, having that place say, no and suggesting the place that suggested them, etc. We'll register somewhere but this should be far easier on everybody.

It is interesting to organize one's day around the incoming text messages about house viewings. For example, I had thawed a Cornish pasty for lunch, I put it in a 300°F oven to bake during one viewing, then turned it up to 400°F and had time to eat it and hide the evidence before the next. (I also burned a couple of odor-eliminating candles in the vicinity.) Naturally, the pasty required egg wash so I ended up opening the milk anyway.

One facet of the organization is what to do when out of the house. Today's chores included getting gas for the car, a little grocery shopping, returning my Xfinity streaming box, and getting my Tdap booster, not bad for a Sunday afternoon.

I was back on a cross-trainer at work this morning, for the first time since returning from my vacation. I didn't achieve a lot, the couple of weeks off may have set me back another couple of weeks, but I will eventually get to half-hour workouts.

My fear of SARS-CoV-2 means that the dropping of the mask mandate at work makes me hesitant to use the gym. I do not think that I dare risk it during normal workdays. If I go in on weekend mornings, I typically have it to myself but that is extra drive time and I don't know if two consecutive days of cardio each week suffices for reaching reasonable fitness atop my simple strength training at home.

Cautiously, I declare myself to have resumed a habit of working out again, finally. Walking up to my car this afternoon, to drive over to the gym, I observed how untimely it seemed to now be feeling some kind of soreness in maybe some muscle in my thigh. Still, I thought I'd try working out anyway and, sure enough, I was able to do what I had planned and I felt no worse for the attempt. This reminds me of how, when I feel somewhat achy, if I work out anyway then it doesn't feel any worse.

Ignore that you feel worse and work out anyway is hardly generally applicable advice to be endorsed by medical professionals but it pleases me that it tends to work in my case.