Early Version

the tasks for today are going well. the menorah is clean, the lamb is cooking, and 4 of the 6 Atacama tasks are done. the snow has almost stopped; I should be able to start shoveling very soon.

💡 Atacama tasks done: literal text CSS, 404 error handling, the quote tag, line-spacing adjustment, quote-processing adjustments

the main afternoon tasks will be:

• get dark/print mode for Atacama working well
• Peloton maintenance

each of those will take at least 30 minutes. I am budgeting 1PM-4PM for the both of them; both lunch and snow-shoveling should be done before then.

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i will look at the infamous "lexer" again if both are satisfactorily completed by 3PM.

🌎 but first: the snow awaits!

because it's here. 💬 Why climb Mount Everest? Because it's there.

💬 Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside the dog, it's too hard to read.

💡 the machine wrote a list of possible emoji. it understands well enough that some of them might work.

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For System States and Actions:

📝 Would work well for editing or composition activities

🔄 Could indicate processing or refresh operations

🔍 Would be suitable for search or detailed viewing functions

🏷️ Could represent tagging or categorization features

📊 Would work well for analytics or statistical content

For Message Classifications:

💫 Could indicate special or featured content

🎯 Would work well for targeted or specific messages

📌 Could represent pinned or important notices

🔔 Would be useful for notifications or alerts

📜 Could represent formal or official communications

For Interactive Elements:

🔗 Would work well for linked or connected content

💭 Could represent comments or responses

✏️ Would be suitable for draft or editing states

🔑 Could indicate secure or privileged content

📎 Would work well for attachments or related items

For Content Types:

📖 Could represent long-form content or documentation

🗂️ Would work well for categorized or archived content

📈 Could represent trending or popular content

🔖 Would be suitable for bookmarked or saved items

📑 Could indicate indexed or referenced content

🤖 Medicine Hat, a vibrant city in southeast Alberta, Canada, blends natural beauty, cultural heritage, and modern convenience. Known as "The Gas City" for its rich natural gas reserves, the city enjoys over 330 days of sunshine annually, making it one of Canada's sunniest destinations. Nestled along the South Saskatchewan River, Medicine Hat offers stunning landscapes of rolling prairies, coulees, and river valleys, complemented by outdoor attractions like Echo Dale Regional Park and Police Point Park. Rich in history, the city derives its name from the Blackfoot term "saamis," meaning a medicine man's headdress, and features landmarks like the historic clay district and the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre. Its welcoming community of approximately 65,000 residents enjoys a balance of small-town charm and urban amenities, fostering a dynamic economy rooted in energy, agriculture, and arts.

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plans for Thursday:

• One Zoom meeting (already done; notes withheld)
• Snow removal (once it stops coming down)
• Cook lamb roast (3 days of leftovers) 🌎 the House Rule is "no beef or pork"
• fix six bugs on Atacama ⚙️ note https://earlyversion.com/messages/46
• attempt to fix Peloton bike. 💡 the most likely problem is that some of the screws are loose or the bike is slightly non-level; adjusting all the screws might fix the issue
• Hanukkah cleanup - remove melted wax from menorah.

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the weekly Zvi Mowshowitz dispatch is out.

the takes on "AI Alignment" continue to border on the unreadable. the specific question of What could an OpenAI non-profit do with $30 billion is interesting, but none of the answers are interesting.

the Gary Marcus counter-AI content is also borderline-unreadable. he proposes a challenge with tasks (write a Pulitzer-winning novel, make a major scientific discovery) that will obviously require a certain amount of human collaboration the first time. so, even if the tasks are accomplished, Marcus will weasel out of claims that it proves AI isn't useless.

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the updates on "here is model improvement" are also less interesting now than they were last year.

as far as both "medium" ⚙️ any model that can run on an M3 laptop in 8GB RAM and "large" ⚙️ 70B models, Claude Haiku, GPT-4o-mini models: what they do today is "good enough". and the progress is likely to be just shifting the categories rather than improved performance.

💡 that is: maybe those size cutoffs are 4B/30B in six months? but the paradigm will hold, and performance will stay roughly the same.

meanwhile, extra-large models ⚙️ Claude Sonnet, GPT-4o can still get better, but progress is slowing.

as for "foundation" models: 💡 Foundation models are too expensive to make available in a non-subscription ChatGPT-style interface. And they always will be.

💭 Candles in December, make you remember …

🔥 Are you Jewish? / We do the traditions on both sides.

⚙️ Hanukkah is a Rabinnical holiday, so I will defer to them about the moon.

the long game has reduced my appetite for football. i am turning it off.

what is the score? Ohio State 31 - 0 Oregon. in the first half.

i do not need the screen tonight.

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• exposure to screens
• persistence of screens
• content of screens
• attention-consumption of screens

⚙️ there might be a Hanukkah post.

🔥 can we call it "blogging by candlelight"?

⚔️ well, actually, there are now only two College Football Playoff games today. The Sugar Bowl was delayed due to a security situation in New Orleans.

🔥 in the future, the "orange" tag will be an actual orange (fruit) emoji, rather than the crossed-swords emoji.

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I signed up for https://www.damtodsm.com on May 31.

Which leads to a question: do I want to be in shape to run a half-marathon, or do I want to be in shape to run a 10K (and survive the 21K of a half-marathon)?

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It was less painful to watch Arizona State struggle to stay in the game with Texas, than it would have been to watch Iowa State. Texas would have at least 40 against Iowa State.

💡 and, right after I write "painful to watch", the ASU star running back throws a long touchdown pass.

Arizona State have stayed in the game; but the early punt-return touchdown and two ASU turnover-on-downs are likely keeping this in the Texas column.

... and, now, an Arizona State interception.

🔥 more fun from the Always Action League.

⚔️ well, actually, this is college football, not the NFL. and the first of six games that has been remotely close at the end.

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Cam Skattebo is up to 132 yards rushing, 83 yards receiving, 42 yards passing.

💡 I guess they can't stop Skattebo.

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and now a missed field goal for Texas.

🔥 there is one team here that is a team of destiny, and it ain't Texas.

and now a punt for Arizona State.

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and ... a second missed field goal for Texas. 🔥 the infamous "doink!" after hitting the upright

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overtime.

both teams use all of the plays. but, get touchdowns.

🔥 it would be more fun if they just had a field-goal kicking contest to resolve tie games. but it would be rare, and thus weird. the solution: have it before the game, the winner gets 0.5 points.

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double overtime.

texas scores in one play.

and ... texas gets the interception. game is over.

🔥 now i can do other things. free at last!

⚔️ well, actually, the next game has already started!

💡 Four "Hallmark movies" in one day is too much.

🤖 A "Hallmark film" refers specifically to movies produced or aired by the Hallmark Channel, known for their wholesome, sentimental tone, predictable romantic or family-centered plots, and idyllic settings, often tied to holidays like Christmas. In a broader sense, the term is used to describe any movie that embodies these characteristics, even if it is not directly associated with Hallmark, often evoking coziness, nostalgia, and formulaic storytelling.

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"Hot Frosty" (2024, Netflix) - a widow counters her loneliness with a magical snowman brought to life

• The unorthodox character background is a benefit in the format. "I'm a snowman". Nobody wants any more questions. It's magic.
• Jack is the first of several male love-interests who have a super-power of being incredibly nice 💡 and, liked by everybody in the Hallmark-movie town within a week.
• Definitely the horniest of the films. 💬 You want me to get behind you and push?
• Also the only film with a straight up villain ⚙️ Darryl, from The Office is the power-mad sheriff 🔥 of course it's a camp villain

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"Holiday Touchdown" (2024, Hallmark) - a Kansas City Chiefs super-fan falls in love with a Chiefs marketing executive

• The most "name" actors of any of these. Both Diedrich Bader and Ed Begley Jr., as well as cameos including the mayor of KC and various Chiefs personalities.
• There was no Taylor Swift. And about one minute of "watching people watch football". 💡 which was enough; watching people watch football is extremely boring
• Unlike the other films, nobody really believes in the magic of the hat (other than the protagonist).
• The only "Hallmark film" on this list actually by Hallmark. This showed, both in the Kansas City references and the more aggressive conforming to the genre.

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"Christmas Cupid" (2010, ABC) - a ruthless PR executive is forced to reconsider her life choices while being visited by three Christmas ghosts (exactly like A Christmas Carol)

• Some of the most off-color lines. 💬 Quinn was dancing on this spot earlier this evening when she apparently choked to death on an olive while drinking her martini. Too bad it wasn't an apple martini, or she'd be alive today.
• The main character is, predictably, kind of awful at the beginning of the film. And, during most of the film. But the three Christmas ghosts convince her to change her ways. 🔥 the machine didn't put "female protagonist" in its stereotype of a Hallmark film.
• I found the constant "my boyfriend's dad owns the company, and if I do well on this project I will get the promotion" too implausible to be believable.

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"Fit for Christmas" (2022, CBS) - A Christmas-obsessed fitness instructor falls for a mysterious businessman.

• The most Christmas-obsessed film by far.
• The "someone else just flew in from New York" trope happened a lot.
• Once again, the male love-interest has a super-power of being very nice, which leads to everyone liking him.
• A town where they have trivia night "about the town" is definitely creepy. 🔥 what was the answer to Question 3 on last year's trivia night?
• The villain was the concept of big business?

Today: 3 NCAA football playoff games.

I plan to "watch" all three. But, do other things while watching.

For the first game, the goal is 60 minutes on the bike.

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💡 the NCAA football playoffs are broken. this is partly because the last "conference re-alignment" happened after the system was designed.

⚙️ solution 1: 14 teams, 2 byes for conference champions, 5 champions guaranteed. Probably (but not guaranteed) to be Big 10 / SEC in the byes. 💡 the problem is that the bottom of the bracket is "teams that won't win".

⚙️ solution 2: 8 teams. 5 guaranteed + 3 at-large. 💡 the problem is that championships mean too much. also money.

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i am watching a feed without any commentary. just the stadium audio (and the stadium announcer). it's great.

💡 the broadcast audio is not kayfabe the way that WWE audio is. but, there is some element of that. the "storylines" the talking-heads promote don't necessarily show up on the field.

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"blog about football" and "write emails" will be during the other two games.

🔥 blog, such a fancy word ...

⚙️ perhaps I should use code names. but I don't have the london-filters applied yet.

The menorah moved to a more prominent location. The "kitchen" table.

🔥 the fact that i mentioned "code names" means ...