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vastateofmind

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Everything posted by vastateofmind

  1. vastateofmind
    Oh, I'm quite sure. So, I have been tasked to "teach" a course in MS Copilot to not only my team of co-workers (around 10 folks), but potentially for larger groups across our organization in my "day job." I have about as much trust in Microsoft as I do Google...which is to say, meh. Beyond that...while generative AI has great potential as a "starter" tool when it comes to writing, I've already developed a disdain for it because in the undergrad courses that I teach as part of my "side/evening gig," easily ONE QUARTER (or more) of the students I've taught in several class offerings over the past 1.5 years have blatantly used generative AI to cheat their asses off in submitted papers and required discussions. There are generative AI "writing checkers" online now, but FFS...you can just tell, because there are always a couple students who normally write complete and total shite (in terms of grammar AND content), who suddenly turn in the most gorgeous, GENERATED prose ever. It's just so completely and egregiously obvious.
  2. vastateofmind
    So. Dune Chapter Two. Who's seen it? I've clearly missed my opportunity to see it on the big screen. But I loved Denis Villanueve's interpretation of the "first half" from a couple years ago and purchased the digital version immediately back then. Full disclosure -- I'm...mostly...still a fan of the creepy 1984 version of Dune directed by David Lynch, but Villaneuve has clearly nailed the more modern/artistic vision of what I think Frank Herbert would want. I'm thinking I just need to go ahead and purchase Chapter Two as well. But if there are impressions out there...please share.
  3. vastateofmind
    But...yesterday was kind of a last-minute surprise! I started catching up on this thread yesterday morning, and the LWX (and SPC) discos started being more spicy as the morning progressed, and...wow. My little corner of SE FfxCo didn't see much action (again, glad to miss out on the hail), but so many of you around us did. It was an impressive uptick in severe activity in a small amount of time. It's kind of why I increasingly like tracking severe in spring/summer, vs. the original reason why I came to this sub over a decade ago (tracking snow).
  4. vastateofmind
    I hear you, brother...OTOH, since my wife was out and about driving during that timeframe when there was quarter and ping-pong-ball sized hail...and since we just had a new roof put on our abode about three years ago because of previous hail damage...I'm kinda alright with missing out on the hail action today...
  5. vastateofmind
    Gonna go out on a limb here, based on both radar and this pic, that we probably dodged the hail bullet. For now.
  6. vastateofmind
    Seems the past 4-5years, a ninja cold snap would ruin the emerging flower buds on our pink dogwood resulting in no, or just a few blossoms. This year our luck changed. I'm thinking there was likely at least one cold morning in late March while we were traveling, as the bottom 1/8th of the dogwood hasn't flowered much but the rest of the crown looks pretty good right now.
  7. vastateofmind
    Bees are particuarly persistent/prevalent for past two weeks....have never seen so many around all of our frontside holly bushes.
  8. vastateofmind
    I worked on a PennDOT road crew every summer from the last two years of HS right on through all four years of college. The biggest running joke I repeatedly heard back then -- Q: What's yellow and sleeps six? A: A PennDOT crew cab! (Rimshot) Same age for me. Perhaps I'll work a codicil into our will, that our sons must wheel us into WDW to see the (hopefully?) final eclipse of our lifetime. They'll just love that...
  9. vastateofmind
    These are great shots. Any experts here that can comment on that "spot" just to lower left of the center of the sun? What exactly is that? Unrelated -- it's interesting how "big" the sun actually is when you view it through eclipse glasses, unimpeded by the nearly blinding nature of it when attempting to glance at it via the naked eye.
  10. vastateofmind
    Definitely noticed the temp drop here! I didn't notice by how much, but there was a definite difference between 3:20 and an hour ago. Here is my 80% totality pic from NoVA, taken through a solar filter, and a pic of the friggin' cloud bank that moved in about 5 minutes after I snapped that pic at 3:20. Because, of course, that's my eclipse luck...a last minute, rogue popup thunderstorm ruined the 2017 eclipse at my location as well.
  11. vastateofmind
    Probably goes without saying...but for those of you equipped with appropriate filters on your DSLR/phone cameras, I hope you're willing to share your pics here over the next 24-48 hours. I will be doing my best here in the southern part of the DMV to capture our 70-80% eclipse by way of my trusty eclipse-filtered phonecam, but it sounds like a lot of you are traveling to locales in the path of totality, and I'm thinking/hoping you will get great pics.
  12. vastateofmind
    Caught a pic of this happy bunch on a street corner in Lexington, VA yesterday morning....
  13. vastateofmind
    We noticed a lot more southbound traffic on I-81 in the valley yesterday, returning from our 2.5 week road trip out/back to TX. We planned our trip without any pre-knowledge of the eclipse and I'm glad it worked out this way. I'm afraid that traffic into and out of the path of totality will continue to mount and reach occasionally nightmarish proportions (depending on location) tomorrow throughout the day.
  14. vastateofmind
    This is where I'm at right now, attitude-wise. I planned "to the hilt" in 2017, for a mere PARTIAL eclipse, to set up my tripod and cameras in the backyard to do time lapse pics of that event...only to have a thunderhead form LITERALLY 5 minutes ahead of the partial eclipse, and obscure most of the "festivities" that day. I'll probably be way too old to care, let alone know, that the next major eclipse is happening (in the 2070's, right?)...so I've got my solar filter for my phone for whatever happens Monday, and I'm happy to take pics of that.
  15. vastateofmind
    Thank you SO very much, and I'm sorry for the belated acknowledgement. My wife and I were doing a X-country road trip from mid-March out to El Paso and back to see our sons, and just arrived back to NoVA today. It's so nice to be remembered on one's birthday...especially at my old age.
  16. vastateofmind
    Well, with the DMV being in the 80% totality zone for the April 8 event, and based on this map....I went ahead and ordered the damn eclipse glasses and "cell phone camera filter" today, before the markups kicked in within next 1-2 weeks. A thunderstorm blew up literally a couple minutes prior to the start of the 2017 eclipse, blowing to bits all of my preparations that year. I'm hoping our luck is a bit better this year...especially because I'll likely be drooling into my food and wearing Depends when the 2044 eclipse rolls around.
  17. vastateofmind
    DAMN. We are taking a road trip to El Paso to see our sons starting middle of next week and returning on 4/6...we'll miss the path of totality by FOUR days. Tempted to talk my wife into lingering on the trip back home for this...but I'm already taking 2.5 weeks of leave...plus, the traffic's gonna suck in and out.
  18. vastateofmind
    Absolutely, stunningly gorgeous photo. Also, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that my only knowledge of the Langjökull glacier is limited to what I've seen in the greatest animated movie ever made...
  19. vastateofmind
    It appears/sounds that you had a great time in the ATL 'burbs, for the '93 Superstorm, I was in Alexandria City, in my loveable 1BR apt (Foxchase, for any of you who know the area), continuing to put together (and paint) my U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-D model from Star Trek: The Next Generation. It's simultaneously predictable and/or (I suppose) sad that I would be constructing/painting a Star Trek plastic starship model during the 24-48 hour period of the 1993 Superstorm. But I still have that starship model, and it STILL stands as a memorial to that incredible, once-in-a-lifetime storm...even if it wasn't that memorable in NoVA.
  20. vastateofmind
    So, TurboTax has been imminently helpful in importing our composite investment accounts from Raymond James for the past decade. But this year, in addition to the past several years, I completely fault Raymond James for posting their "final" composite investment account statements later and later, every year. We really want to have our fed/state taxes wrapped up by end of Feb every year...but RJ makes that damn near impossible, and maybe that means we need to find a new financial advisor after two decades.
  21. vastateofmind
    LOL. My wife relented yesterday and mowed our front lawn...it might be our earliest ever mowing. It was definitely in need of a haircut, though, and would've been an absolute mess if we let it go 'til next weekend....with a number of days in the 70s forecasted between now and then.
  22. vastateofmind
    Love to see it. DID see it on our midday doggo walk today. Some of the daffodils around these parts have actually peaked and are on their downhill slide. #BRINGIT
  23. vastateofmind
    Yea, verily, let it be so. I think @nj2va might be one of the few to agree.
  24. vastateofmind
    I'm thinking that @CAPE would agree with you, based on what he's facing on his "back 40" in the coming weeks...
  25. vastateofmind
    PERFECT days for working one's way through a four-pack of DFH 120 Minute IPA. Or, arguably, a 4-pack for EACH weekend day...God help me.
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