I’m a simple girl, but still partially feral…
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Category Archives: Words + Words of The Day
What Do You Know About AI and ChatGPT?
Instead of a word of the day, I thought I’d share what’s been on my mind and bothering me for a while…
I admit to not knowing much at all about machine learning. As someone with a Minor in Creative Writing, it seems like a travesty to rely on an inanimate computer program to interpret what my brain and my heart might think.
I chatted (talked human to human) with someone who used to work for a large company and they wanted her to use AI to create documents, mainly because it would save them money. When she pushed back and said that she didn’t feel comfortable with that decision and that she was an expert in this particular field, she was terminated. True story. She got a lucrative settlement, but still…the ramifications are kind of scary, don’t you agree?
Funnily enough, I used AI to query “what is Chat GPT?” Here’s what this inanimate, nonhuman responded:
ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI that generates human-like text, code, and images in response to user prompts. Released on November 30, 2022, it uses large language models based on the generative pre-trained transformer architecture and runs on a freemium model.
What Does GPT Mean?
- Generative: The model creates new content, such as text, answers, or code.
- Pre-trained: It learned patterns from a massive dataset of books, articles, and websites before its public launch.
- Transformer: It uses a deep learning neural network to understand the context and flow of conversation.
Key Capabilities
- Conversational Chat: Answers questions, solves math problems, and remembers the context of a dialogue.
- Writing and Editing: Drafts emails, essays, resumes, and creative stories.
- Coding: Writes, debugs, and explains code in multiple programming languages.
- Multimodal Tools: Handles text, voice conversations, web searches, and image generation.
I know that Professor Angel Boy really really despises AI, and in general, teachers generally view AI-generated content with deep concern, fearing it hurts critical thinking and academic honesty, though opinions range from total bans to cautious integration. Most faculty focus heavily on detection, assignment redesign, and clear syllabus policies. I think that it’s a clear form of cheating to use AI and not spend hours reading books, researching, and using their own brains to THINK.
- Loss of Skills: Over 90% of faculty worry that relying on AI reduces student critical thinking, writing ability, and deep engagement with course material.
- Hallucinations & Accuracy: Professors note that AI tools frequently invent fake sources, facts, and citations, turning research into a verification trap.
- Cheating & Equity: Most instructors see a rise in unpermitted shortcuts, making it hard to grade who actually did the intellectual work.
- Writing Style & Anomalies: Professors look for sudden shifts in tone, overly generic or formulaic structures, unusual formatting, and a lack of personal voice.
- Draft & Version History: Instructors check Google Docs or version logs to see if a paper was written incrementally or pasted in all at once.
- Oral Interrogations: When suspicious, many professors skip faulty AI detectors and simply ask the student to explain their paper or sources out loud.
- Skepticism of Detectors: Many faculty know that tools like Turnitin or Copyleaks have false positives—especially for non-native English speakers—and hesitate to rely on them alone.
Don’t get me started on ChatBot…a computer program that simulates human conversation through text or voice. It helps users find information, answer questions, or complete tasks automatically.
Love him or hate him, but Bill Gates is also concerned about artificial intelligence because it is advancing at an unprecedented rate and threatens massive job displacement, security risks, and social upheaval without proper preparation or government plans.
Even Melinda Gates, whom I do respect, says she’s nervous about AI and warns that a lack of women and diverse voices in tech risks “baking bias” into AI systems.
At the end of the day, all of this non-human interaction makes me sad and I fear for the next generations. We need to think for ourselves, not rely on anyone or anything else.
Rant over.
Music and Literature: Leon Russell and Herman Hesse
“This day will never come again and anyone who fails to eat and drink and taste and smell it will never have it offered to him again in all eternity. The sun will never shine as it does today…But you must play your part and sing a song, one of your best.”
—Herman Hesse/“Klingsor’s Last Summer”.
Right now it’s about 6:30 a.m. The day is fresh, the sky is pink, and it’s so quiet that I can hear a Downy Woodpecker poking holes in the eucalyptus tree. Other birds are singing and flying back and forth across the garden. A few crows call to each other. It’s peaceful. Serene. Meditative.
Leon Russell understood exactly what Hesse was talking about, especially sing a song, one of your best.
“Life is a song, and love is the music.” – Leon Russell
Leon’s last recording of his iconic A Song For You from the album A Distant Shore, was released posthumously in 2017.
Leon alwaysalways managed to convey a lifetime of authentic heartfelt emotion in every word and note, as he played the piano like no one ever will again. This version is beautiful; reflective, melancholy.
“A Song For You” by Leon Russell
I love you in a place
Where there’s no space and time
And when my life is over
Remember when we were together
We were alone, and
I was singing this song for you —
Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped shape his literary work.
Nearly fifty years earlier, this was Leon on the Homewood Sessions with “A Song For You”…
In December 1970 Leon Russell recorded the Homewood Sessions at the Vine Street Theatre in Hollywood, broadcast as an ‘unscripted and unrehearsed’ one-hour TV special on KCET TV and later re-broadcast several times on the Public Broadcasting System. They actually shot six hours but only broadcast one. Claimed to be the first national broadcast of a stereo rock and roll performance, this would have required an FM simulcast, since American television was not stereo in 1970s.
If You Find Me
“If you find me not within you, you will never find me.
For I have been with you, from the beginning of me.”
Rumi
Word Of The Day: Myrmecophobia — Fear of Ants
Myrmecophobia: that huge word describes a fear of ants.
I don’t mind if they stay outside and it’s not like I have intense physical reactions like panic attacks. but I do admit to compulsive cleaning and excessive use of toxic chemical sprays to prevent any possibility of an ant infestation.
I read some articles about how to overcome a fear of ants but I don’t really want to do that. Overcoming this phobia isn’t my goal. I like that I’m diligent about NOT allowing an army of ants to occupy my living space.
Updated ant saga: After I initially encountered the scout ants in my bathroom and quickly dispatched them, the next day I walked into the kitchen and was shocked to see a MILLION ants. I’m not exaggerating. Well, maybe I am, but only slightly.
I had been hopeful that the scouts found in the bathroom had been successfully “dealt” with, but I guess a message was still able to reach the collective.
The colony decided to retaliate in a big way and war was imminent. It seems as if they gathered their forces and decided to descend on my kitchen counters and sink during the night. I awoke to large-scale hostility.
I had to take immediate action, and I’m quietly optimistic that this will be the end of the 2026 ant assault. All surfaces have been compulsively scrubbed and bleached and there isn’t a single crumb of food in the sink to attract another interloper.
The part that terrifies me is when I ruminate about how they breached my defenses and found a way to stealthily sneak in the house while I was asleep and vulnerable. Was it revenge for the “scout” episode? Are their tiny ant minds capable of such machination?
But why me?
A couple days have passed and the enemy lines have been drawn. It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morningvand I check to make sure my perimeters haven’t been breached.
However, it appears that these militant ants have honored the agreement to stay outside (at least for now). My fears have slightly subsided but I am on high alert.
Ahimsa: Word Of The Day + The Three Gates
Do no harm. It’s really a simple way to live.
Ahimsa is an ancient Indian ethical principle meaning nonviolence, non-harm, or harmlessness toward all living creatures.
It’s a core virtue in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It forms the first restraint (yama) in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and inspired Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful resistance movements.
Non-harming: Avoiding injury or pain to any living being, including animals and insects, through the smallest footprint possible.
Three Levels: Practiced through thoughts, words, and physical deeds.
Universal Benevolence: Cultivating an inner attitude of peace, empathy, and love instead of malice or aggression.
I think we need to include the Three Gates that I annoy the Ferals with on a regular basis.
When they’re being obnoxious to each other, I ask if what they’re saying passes through the three gates…
The three gates of speech are a mindful communication framework often attributed to Sufi mystic traditions and the poet Rumi, as well as Buddhist teachings.
They act as a filter to pause and evaluate our words before we speak:
Is it true?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?
I think we all can benefit from the practice of Ahimsa and think before we speak, right?
Word Of The Day: Lethologica
Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever forgotten a word while you were in the middle of a conversation? Did you feel that it was on the tip of your tongue but oh so elusive?
I have, and it just happened to me today! I was chatting with a friend and completely lost the word I was searching for. It was so annoying,
I discovered there’s a word to describe that phenomenon. It’s lethologica, the technical term for the “tip-of-the-tongue” feeling—that frustrating moment when a specific word or name is on the tip of your tongue but you can’t quite retrieve it from memory.
The term combines lethe (meaning forgetfulness or oblivion, referencing the River Lethe in Greek mythology) and logos (meaning word or speech).
Every language seems to have a way to describe it; in German it’s Es liegt mir auf der Zunge (It’s lying on my tongue.)
While it happens to everyone, lethologica is a complex neurological event involving many factors that aren’t completely understood. Scientists believe one contributing element could be sleep levels, as lethologica tends to happen more often to those who are tired. Other factors might include how well the memory was encoded (the base memory of the word) and interference from other memories, which can cause confusion.
Studies have also found a positive correlation with age. Older adults might experience lethologica up to once a day, while younger adults experience it around once a week. The average native English-speaking American adult knows around 42,000 dictionary words; it’s only natural that some are forgotten from time to time.
The most common resolution for the failure to recall a specific word is to NOT think about it, which is often when the word suddenly “pops up” out of nowhere. This is referred to as a spontaneous resolution or one in which the state resolves itself.
Some content curated from: grandezza.seabreezecommunications.com and https://www.verywellmind.com/ Image credit to owner, from Pinterest.
Word(s) of the Day: Sun Glitter
As someone who loves shiny, glittery things, I always wondered if there was a specific term to describe the sun’s sparkles on the ocean, and I discovered that there is, and it’s adorable!
The proper technical and descriptive term for sun sparkles on water is sun glitter or sun glint.
This phenomenon occurs when sunlight reflects off wind-rippled water waves, creating a shifting, bright path of individual glints known as a “glitter pattern”.
I love to be at the beach on a hot summery day, taking pictures of sun glitter.
Word of the Day: Excogitate (In/Out The Box)
EXCOGITATE: To think out; devise; invent. To study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully.
TO THIINK IN OR THINK OUT…WHAT IS YOUR METHOD?
According to wiseGEEK, to think outside the box means means to “handle a situation or challenge in an unconventional manner. The origin of the phrase is believed to date back to the 1960s, and is often associated with a famous mental puzzle called The Nine Dots.”
I’ve had a lot of jobs over the years and I’ve found that no one really wanted me to think outside the box — independently, creatively, with imagination or compassion. I felt the overwhelming corporate mantra was to agree with everything and keep quiet.
And that leads us on to another outside the box obsession of mine…
I love boxes; cardboard boxes, wooden boxes, large and small boxes. Over the years, I’ve accumulated a massive collection. (I’m not a hoarder, I’m not a hoarder, I’m NOT a hoarder. Stop thinking that!)
But a box full of Bandit was my favorite. Our poor baby died of chronic renal failure. Wasn’t she soo beautiful? Sniff.
Do you have a favorite box? What do you collect?
Word of The Day: Zipola
Zipola: Slang. Nothing at all; zip; zilch.
A monster has been created.
Almost ten-year-old Angel Boy 2.0 has become a rabid Scrabble player. Zipola is a word he used to gain a triple word score.
It’s a valid word in SOME Scrabble dictionaries, but not all. However, no one was going to take that pride and joy away from him, that’s for sure.
In fact, last night he surpassed 400 points in a one-on-one game, winning against his PhD literature professor dad, and it’s one of our proudest family moments.
It’s bad enough that I could NEVER win against the original Angel Boy; I can’t imagine the future as a total loser.
