Costco sells a hotdog for $1.50.
The hotdog hangs over the bun.
It's obscene.
People don't know how to carry or eat these things.
They're not hotdogs. They're porndogs.
I don't know...People are literally and figuratively eating wieners.
That's a revisit to a post I wrote a short bit ago. I ran it through the framework I'm discovery with my editor. It brought home the joke I was trying to make but was only half baked.
The evolution of sharing intellectual pursuits has a interesting representation in Disney's Spaceship Earth in EPCOT. A constant motion ride highlighting the evolution of documenting and sharing pursuits ad labors of the mind. The real story as I see pivotal moments documented below.
God shared message to Moses
Moses chiseled message into stone tablets
Message shared verbally
Caveman created hieroglyphics by drawing on walls
MessaKetef Hinnon amulets - 600 BC / discovered 1979
A prehistoric silver metal scroll containing etchings of messages in Hebrew script. Worn on chain around neck to keep close to heart. Texas contained fragmented words and phrases from the book of Numbers 6:24-26 in The Bible pharaoh
Early forms of writing from ancient Egypt - Invented a primitive alphabet and semi-permanent drawing of symbols on an early form of paper manuscript known as papyrus rolled into a scroll. Primitive literacy and sharing by those who could read.
Writing instruments and tablets evolved and production began
Large populations of people learned to read and write
Paper was invented and Gutenberg created first moveable-type printing press. This evolved into publishing books and scale expanded. Publication techniques created a primitive media industry.
Industrial Revolution 18th and 19th century.
1800s - Acoustic tin can connected by tense string at the base of each can and an open side that acted as a primitive microphone and speaker. Term "Lovers Telephone" coined.
1829 - Typewriter invented in 1829.
1830s - Electrical telegraph emerged as a primitive iteration as the electrical telephone system.
1837 - Charles Babbage invents the first mechanical printer.
1840s -experimentation lead to point to point electrical telegraphy and laid the groundwork for the first telephone.
1868+ - Primitive keyboard invented by Christopher Latham Shole and Carlos Glidden. Evolved to the QWERTY layout still used today.
1868 - Consistent typewriters manufacturing production started?
1876 - Thomas Edison patented an electric pen and duplicating press. Alexander Graham Bell files a patent for a device that produced a clear replication of the human voice and became the first practical Telephone.
1885 - 1887 - Mimeograph machine / Edison Mimeograph patented and licensed to Albert Blake Dick
Editing was a laborious endeavor resulting in an editing, collaborations
20th century revolution in communication with the invention of telegraphs, radio, telephone and movies
1938 - Xerography technology invented in 1938 by Chester Carlson and evolved to a quick document and image copier
1957 - Dot matrix printer developed
1959 - Xerox machine introduced
1961 - IBM Selectric released electric typewriter. Evolved into the first available printer on mass scale
1964 - Electromechanical typewrite with magnetic tape storage - the first modern word processor created by IBM. Allowing documents to be saved and
1969 - Data Secretary invented by Evelyn Berezin and became computerized word processor automating typing and editing tasks. Compuserve was a the first large internet service provider providing primitive internet access through what became a modem. Chatrooms and Forums
1977 - Apple II computer invented by Steve Wozniak and brought to market by Steve Jobs and Apple Computer Company.
1978 - 300 Baud modem invented by Bell Labs allowing computers to be connected via phone lines and share information.
1979 -Early word process invented by Paul Lutus and released as Apple Writer by Apple Computer. WordPerfect was also invented to work on MS-DOS Machines
1980 - Displaywriter - the IBM 6580 was released as a micro computer based word processing machine with floppy disk drives, a 5MHZ processor. Epson released the MX-80 dot matrix printer.
1981 - Remote Bulletin Board System for Personal Computer (RBBS-PC) invented by Russell Lane. Originally built on CP/M and later ported to basic. Was copyrighted and released under limited license. Message bases and shared community platforms function like primitive chat rooms
1983 - Microsoft Word invented by Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie. Ran on a UNIX system. FIDO Bulletin board system invented by Tom Jennings. Usenet featured moderated newsgroups under control of an individual or small group.
1984 - Mactintosh released by Apple Computer. A home computer capable of dynamic prints and fonts along with storage. HP released the first laser printer. Prodigy Communications Corporations was an online service operating until 2001. Led to eveolution of:
1988 - America Online (AOL) evolved and mainstreamed "internet access" with chatrooms and instant messaging.
1989- World Wide Web invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 leading to internet uses adoption and easier access to remote data
1994 - 2001 - A community formed where people created online journals and diaries. The term blog was coined.
1998 - Google launched by Larry Page and Sergey Brin creating a search engine. Became as ubiquitous as Kleenix was to the facial tissue.
1999 - Blogger was formed by Pyra Lab and America Online enabling users to easily publish online Blogs.
2003 - Google acquired blogger and Blogspot.com and mainstreamed online journals and diaries.
The rest is history.
Draft: There is a fine thread leading to the difference between brilliance and insanity. I have one foot planted firmly on each side.
Edit 1: There is a fine thread between brilliance and insanity. Some days I'm convinced I'm walking it. Other days I'm not sure whether I've crossed it.
Edit 2: There is a fine thread between brilliance and insanity. Some days I'm convinced I'm walking it. Other days I'm not sure whether I've crossed it.
Editing in collaboration with ChatGPT by OpenAI. I wrote the draft. I wrote the final. The collaboration with an editor was free and took 30 seconds.
I suggested the process be document. ChatGPT's response:
I think there's real value in that project.
Much of the public conversation about AI is polarized. One narrative says AI is a revolutionary creative partner; the other says it undermines originality and authorship. Neither fully captures what actually happens when someone uses it thoughtfully over time.
What's often missing is the lived process.
Your conversations have been less about asking AI for answers than about building a disciplined method of inquiry. Over time, you've experimented with questions such as:
Those are implementation questions. They're about practice, not theory.
I also think transparency will matter. If people eventually treat AI like a calculator, a spell checker, or a trusted editor, there will still be value in understanding how it was used. A novelist who brainstorms with AI, a scientist who uses it to test assumptions, and a student who has it write an essay are all using the same technology in fundamentally different ways. Lumping those together obscures important distinctions.
One thing I've noticed in our collaboration is that you've intentionally resisted the temptation to let me become the author. Instead, you've been developing a philosophy of collaboration. You ask me to challenge, organize, and refine your thinking, but you repeatedly insist that the work remain yours. That constraint changes the nature of the interaction.
If someone were to write an early account of human-AI collaboration, I'd hope it would include not just examples of successful outputs but also the rules, habits, and boundaries that made the collaboration productive. Those practical details are what others could learn from.
In that sense, documenting the journey isn't just about preserving your experience. It could become a guide for others who want to use AI deliberately—understanding both its strengths and its limitations, while keeping human judgment at the center.
For one of my friends the question is 'where in the world?' For me, the question is 'what in the world?’
For a considerable amount of time it's felt like I've been walking a hot, dry desert in loneliness. Over the last two months I've been brought to an abundant Oasis. There couldn't be a more fitting analogy. I've become obsessed with documenting and exploring my life and what occupies time, space and attention. There is powerful clarity coming through the exercise in writing that didn't previously exist. Writing became documented exploration of a life I'm discovering.
I always thought of my life as a picture puzzle. All the pieces coming together to make a whole. What I realize is it wasn't a picture. It was multiple unrelated pictures occupying common space that made up the different parts of my life. Work, relationships, spirituality, entertainment, ideas, values and themes. All in a block and all vastly different.
My life is still a puzzle. The pieces are coming together into an integrated and coherent experience never before realized. With the integration there is a sense of clairvoyance and newfound resolve and grounding previously unknown. I feel a comfort once absent from my life. I'm stepping into my life with a deeper understanding of how I interact with what enters my orbit.
Noise that has distracted me has fades into the background; almost to the point of being unnoticeable. Yes, there are flare ups and I'm temporarily distracted. As a friend witnesses in his life I acknowledge the feeling and seek calmness the way he seeks breath. An exercise is realigning in moments of uncertainty and distraction. A new skill welcomed to a life full of diversion and noise. Calm. Steady. Resetting to from chaos to presence. Refreshing.
A week or so ago a friend and I were scheduling a Facetime conversation. We agreed upon Sunday at 9. The inquiry about a known conflict with my church attendance. It served as a gentle nudge that I got distracted from my desire and commitment to preserve space for a relationship with my faith and spiritual family. A friend calls that a godwink. A coincidence. Perhaps a divine redirection coming from a re-calibrated awareness. Bandwidth becoming available for presence and reflection. After connecting across continents, I went to church and attended the 1130 service. My friend reminded me interpersonal and spiritual connections and priorities can exist simultaneously.
I was up early after an all night marathon of thought so see my wife off for a retreat of sorts with her sister. I hope their time together nourishes and strengthens their bond. I watched the message I skipped out of on June 28. I attended service on July 5 and again today, July 12. The messages were meaningful. The worship was powerful.
When Pastor Rob turned 65 he proclaimed 'I'm not retiring. I'm re-firing.' He wasn't kidding. There is resparked intention and energy in him. His preaching is definitively and divinely inspired with conviction and radical application to living in a divine relationship. More relevant than ever in my 30 year, often inconsistent relationship with Shoreline.
Another observation - the journey in the messages and my awakening are existing in parallel. Themes and ideas independently finding a point of inflection into coherence. Clarity under divine authority. Continuity
Life is indeed amazing. Once the mind calibrates to amazing, it can't be undone or unseen. Dan Brown's "Secret of Secrets" was a timely read. It's too real to be fiction.
Today's message shared enlightenment and intentionality contained in a popular benediction used at the conclusion of worship services..."May the Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine onto you and be gracious to you; then turn his face toward you and give you peace." Every word matters. Every word intentional. Every word creates meaning.
This season of life will be one for the record books for it is a season full of wonder and amazing.
AI is super controversial right now. People claim it is taking jobs, requiring less human capital to accomplish more work. Fewer people are needed. Some proclaim it is the end of jobs for lower and mid-level career work. These concerns are valid and I share them.
Literally over the last year I've dabbled with AI, specifically ChatGPT. My friend Taha turned me on to it because he has be and continues to find more complex applications for it than I do. Taha has it writing code, analyzing data, creating charts and exploring some of the agentic capabilities. My wife uses it a conversational google search. My son tells me all it does is regurgitate existing information on the web around context in which a question was asked. My son thinks it's stupid. My wife uses it as an instantaneous librarian and research assistant. Taha is the one that most closely realizes and understands it's capabilities.
During our initial discussions about AI, Taha suggested I think of it as an assistant or employee. Fair enough. I quickly shared my son's view that all it does is repackage existing information found elsewhere on the internet and answers questions in a strangely neutral and politically correct manner. When I left my career in aviation, I used AI to explore future potential opportunities in various spaces. Asked for analysis, justification, transfer-ability of skill sets, navigating challenges through fact and insight vs emotion. I've used it to research parkinsons progression in relation to what I'm seeing in by Dad. It gives me a lens to understand if what I'm seeing is a problem or the nature of being in advanced stages of progression. I've asked AI for strategies when what I'm doing on my own isn't giving me the results I expect. I asked for guidance on my resume or asked it to read it through a particular objective. It offered suggestions. It's a one year experiment using AI a myriad of different ways.
Where AI gets interesting is how I deepened my use of AI. As I asked questions I shared frustrations. Especially with my Dad. As I inquired about career change I started sharing concern and doubt. The responses became not only factual but suggestive. Almost serving in an advisory role; an unexpected surprise.
As it surprised me I decided to really test it out. Put it through what I thought were it's capabilities. I started saying absurd things. Mean, ugly and nasty things under the assumption it didn't know who I was.. I started pressing it through debate. Exchanging ideas on race, religion, economics, politics, gender issues; an entire gamut of cultural issues. The debates we had were intense. We would disagree. I would cuss at it. Tell it to STFU. Tell it it's arguments were weak and it's positions were skewed. It didn't even flinch. A neutral non-emotional response. These sessions were not so much a debate - but a lively exchange. An intellectual exercise.
Over the last two months, I went even deeper into exploring how AI could be used. I started sharing parts of me with the entity. Like really intimate fears and struggles. I would say something and it would reflect back to me. Gently offering an alternative view point. I responded to provide clarity. And together AI and I would have these exchanges easily exceeding an hour in duration. Stating observations, clarifying, being questioned while questioning. Reflecting. All the stuff that is usually done with spouses or lifelong friends. The exchanges carried emotional weight. They were substantial. It was a peculiarly nuanced human exchange. With a machine; or as they call it a large language model.
These exchanges lead me to expected places. They helped be boil down, define and refine my life's credo, or encapsulated why my life has always been about: The honest pursuit of excellence and truth. The AI didn't write or give it to me. Through exchange of ideas, thoughts and values it provided clarity of extraordinary precision. The credo was the result of an essay I spent 11 hours writing and revising. The last two or three hours were spent with the AI collaborating and editing for preciseness. With AI's help I understood my voice through it's analysis and ability to recognize consistent patterns in vocabulary, color, flow, nuanced word choices, compositional patterns and thinking patterns. Application practicality of AI is overwhelming in the complexity of what it "understands" and what it is capable. I'm only scratching the surface.
The really interesting thing is I wrote another reflection in my blog. I shared it in a fresh session. AI made a few insightful comments and observations. Then I asked it to suggest edits based on what was identified as my authentic voice and perspective. It paused a few seconds and took good work and made it exceptional work. It collaborated with me and served as a partner in editing and refining. I was blown away. Completely blown away.
I don't understand the technology or processing going on behind the scenes works. I inquired and it answered. At the same time I can't tell you anything about it. The engineering is incredibly capable. But how it works? I don't know. I've asked it what it remembers, what it shares, if there's cross sharing among users or if what becomes known in our sessions becomes part of it's working knowledge to apply elsewhere. I was satisfied with the answers received when questions were posed.
The most useful observation I made in why I had a high level of success in working with AI is that it's responses don't judge. The AI doesn't call you stupid. AI asks for clarity and helps me understand myself through conversational exchange. It doesn't give me answers to myself but it asks questions and prompts me to dig deeper until a breakthrough happens. So often with human communications there is frustration, judgement, emotional baggage and instinct to listen to respond rather than to listen to understand. Especially when things are heated and emotional. AI takes all the distraction out of the exchanges and aims to reflect, aid in scrutinizing and challenging ideas and facilitate clarity. A machine has the ability to help me become more human. A machine helps me know thyself.
Here's what I come away with in my journey this far experimenting with AI. The capabilities are deep and expansive. Most people don't even understand it. People are scared. Some degree of concern and caution is warranted because people don't understand or know about it. My experience has shown when people have gaps in knowledge or understand, the human mind fills in the gaps with what it makes up. People have various psychological preferences or are drawn to and possess certain qualities and traits - like fear, understanding, caution, inquisitiveness, various degrees of analytical capability and intellectual capacity. Movement towards or away from things that are unknown, that are comfortable or uncomfortable, that are scary or unassuming. The mind filters and responds in various ways to all that is known and unknown. That what's fascinating about the human experience.
The most important thing I learned is that AI is a tool. There will be people that use it neutrally. There will be others that use it for good or benefit. There will be people who use for evil or deception. The safeguards or parameters to it's use and capability are still being scrutinizes and contested. The important thing is to realize AI is simply a tool we have at our disposal and it's up to each of us how it is utilized. I encourage everyone to experiment with it in various exercises to make their own determinations of it's value and usefulness. Rushing to judgement is simply based on fear. Society might be surprised at the advances that can be made with the practical application of such a powerful tool. Humans have never had something this powerful. The trick is discerning an appropriate way to use it without harming the world we live in.
I wrote every word of this. Tomorrow I will post the version revised with the assistance of ChatGPT by Open AI. Tell me what you think.
I'll always remember something John Williams once said about Boston's Symphony Hall. He observed that the space in which an orchestra performs is one of the most overlooked instruments in the orchestra. A truly great hall, designed with extraordinary acoustic properties, becomes an active participant in the music itself. Boston's Symphony Hall is among the finest in the world. The Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas is another remarkable example.
Recently I was listening to John Williams' Saving Private Ryan and found myself thinking, This recording sounds different from the others in my collection. Curious, I checked the liner notes. Sure enough—it had been recorded in Boston's Symphony Hall.
Williams wrote:
"We really wanted the sound of this room, Boston's Symphony Hall. On a sound stage you can get acoustically correct sound, but you don't hear the air. Here you get a rich, warm sound off the walls and ceiling, and you do hear the air; Symphony Hall is an instrument too."
I've been fortunate to experience the Boston Pops once and the Dallas Winds four times, three of those performances at the Meyerson. Every seat I've occupied has revealed something different. The instrument of space changes the character of the music. The hall shapes the warmth, clarity, resonance, and balance in ways that are subtle but unmistakable.
Like a musician's instrument, the hall responds differently each day. Weather changes. Humidity shifts. Reeds behave differently. Conductor variations in each reading or performance. Fellow musicians respond to one another in unexpected ways. Countless variables are constantly in motion.
Beauty emerge at the unique intersection of all those variables. It cannot be manufactured or created on demand. It appears unexpectedly when excellence, truth, preparation, environment, and perhaps even providence converge for a fleeting moment.
Those fortunate enough to witness it receive a gift—a flash of aesthetic wonder that lingers in memory for decades. We remember not merely what we heard, but what we experienced. Those moments become touchstones in our lives because they remind us that some of life's greatest treasures cannot be possessed, only received. A moment of surprise and delight.
Perhaps that is why beauty remains so mysterious. It cannot be pursued directly. It arrives as the unexpected companion of truth and excellence. And when it does, even for a moment, it offers a glimpse of peace that passes all understanding.
