Overheard at Table 3: Horrorscope for July 31

Horrorscope for July 31

Aquarius – 1 of you will die today

Pisces  – 1 of you will die today

Aries – 1 of you will die today

Taurus – 1 of you will die today

Gemini – 2 of you will die today.  Sucks to be you.

Cancer – 1 of you will die today.  Of cancer (but of course!)

Leo – 1 of you will die today, but at least you’ll go down fightin’

Virgo – 1 of you will die today

Libra – 1 of you will die today

Scorpio – You guessed it.  Venom/poison.

Sagittarius – You know the drill.

Capricorn – No death. Just a boatload of maimin’

Overheard at Table 2, Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar Rice Burroughs

 ... annnnnnd following on the heels of yesterday's revelation, I was trying to read this book (the 9th Tarzan book by Edgar Rice Burroughs) on the plane coming back to Houston from Newark.   

While I do enjoy the fact that the books show Tarzan as more than the grunting fool portrayed in the movies, and chapter one opens with a well written scene of the lion cub witnessing the death of his mother, chapters two and three seemed poorly written and indicative of a writer who was more pushing through the years to rush to some future story than desiring to build up the suspense. 

Tarzan has a bratty son, seems to be almost worshipped by the African tribes (so, yeah, in our contemporary culture, this smacks of White Savior Syndrome) and chapter three with the weird relation between Flora and the Spanish actor who resembles Tarzan ... well, let's just say, I was not really intrigued to go further.

It's not badly written, but again, from the book the day before, there are other things I want to read, and so I shall cast this back into the world and move on to other tomes.

First copyright 1922

This Ballentine Edition 1976

Overheard at Table 2: The Code of the Executive

Perhaps it has since been revised and updated, but this 1997 edition is not only outdated, but it is a relatively insipid read.  While the idea is brilliant - to take the Bushido code and apply it to Executives (by this, he obviously means upper Management, those who have direct contact and responsible for support of the CEO)  - the actual advice reveals nothing new.  There are the ideas of studying your business even while not at work, making certain that your CEO is always prepared for meetings, that audio-visual for any conference has been tested, that you have your golf game adequate, etc.   

As I said: a bit pat, and now even a bit dated.  Yes, this book does speak to the need for absolute integrity, and yes, perhaps I was a bit ruffled when it suggests that I, as an Executive, shouldn't focus too much on my creative writing, but the one thing that I took away from this book was that time is short and my days are now shortening, and it does not good to waste precious time on books that I do not find enjoyable. 

So I haven't finished it.  Therefore, this can't be added to my list of 1,000 Books.  But I've read enough to put it here for the rest of you ... and hey, if it's been brought up to date, please let me know.

Overheard at Table 2: The Whole Government is in on it ...

I looked up what you sent me today from that Rodas lady.

And do you believe me now?

What you sent me said that she's saying the entire government is feeding children to a worldwide sex trafficking ring.  What she actually said to Congress is that "Whether intentionally or not, it could be stated that the government has become the middleman in sex trafficking"  That's basically just saying the government dropped the ball

NO IT'S NOT!  I THOUGHT YOU WERE SMART?  HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID! It's the government, the entire government.

You're saying the entire two million government employees are involved in trafficking children?

Yes YES!  That's why they don't want us to see Sound of Freedom!

Reference:

https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/rodas-testimony.pdf

Overheard at Booth 1: Really Doesn't Matter

Really doesn't matter the actors on strike over AI, because at the end of the day, the execs already won.

What makes you say that?

They say they're up in arms over AI using their faces and trying to say that public doesn't want that, but really doesn't matter because at the end of the day the public don't care if that's really Tom Cruise or Timothy Chamalet or Zendaya or Margot Robbie's faces or just some AI image of the faces because all they want's the image.

Come on, now, sure they want to know that's a real actor talking.

They didn't care about Gollum being CG.  Or Rocket in the Guardians.

That's motion capture, that's different.  Actors still shooting scenes.

That's where it started though, all that background, CG.  Not a real set.  

Of course, all that people want is to go the movies to escape to worlds of fantasy.

Which is why the AI faces don't matter to the people.  Carrie Fisher - the last Star Wars.  People thought it was silly, but no one said it was WRONG. 

I think a lot of people said it was wrong.  The actress was dead and they were using her face.

But not enough said it was wrong to ever make them say, "we promise never to do this again."

OK, I'll give you that one.

What I'm saying is that AI will replace Mo-Cap.  Because AI, at the end of the day, don't go on strike, and it really doesn't matter to people who, as you said, ALL that people want is to go the movies to escape to worlds of fantasy.

 

 

 

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a30429072/was-carrie-fisher-cgi-in-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker/

 

Overheard at Table 3: Poets All Ages

The young poet feels too much.

The old poet has seen too much.

The middle-aged poet has just the right touch.

MR

2023-0713

Overheard at Booth 3: Crazy World

It's a crazy world.

Sure is.

How do you stay sane in a world like this?

Easy.  You don't.

Overheard at Table 3: Colin Through a Glass, Dimly

Just saw the first four episodes of Colin in Black and White.

How is it?

Well, I know it's from his memories, so it's GOT to be the truth, right, but damn, he makes northern California in the aughts look like Tulsa Oklahoma in the 80s!  I mean, seriously are we to believe that during the Dubya Bush years that a brown high school kid with his white middle-aged parents standing RIGHT BESIDE HIM are going to have a hotel clerk ask them if they are feeling in any danger?

Well, its his memories, might have happened.  Lots of brown kids get accosted ... and killed all the time.

Still, it just seemed like all the brown characters had depth and all the white characters were stereotypes.

Maybe if whites weren't such stereotypes themselves, they would be portrayed as so milky white and pasty all the time.

Sounds like you would really like the show

 

 

Overheard at Table 3: It Is Not Drag Queens Coming For Our Kids, It's AI

Heard on NPR yesterday - rebroadcasting some BBC show - with some tech genius making the case for continuing with the rollout of AI.  He was saying that, while we should continue to implement guardrails, we should not halt the advent of AI altogether.  Imagine, he said, each student in the world having their personal AI - education would be accessible to everyone, not just those who could afford it.

THAT! I exclaimed, right there in my car, is EXACTLY what I said about the Internet in the 1990s - that it would make information accessible to all, and there would be a general lifting of all minds.

I was wrong THEN, and this guy is wrong NOW.

Overheard at Table 4: Everything Causes Cancer

Boy, I sure hope I never get cancer because then my wife will tell me that it was because I had a root canal last year or drank that one soda pop at my cousin's birthday party or bought a pack of deli meat that wasn't free of sodium nitrite.