Last few days of the year!

Met some nice people from the extended Brasilian family. Sacramento doesn’t have much to do in the way of activities, but is only a few hours from Tahoe. A little bit of Christmas silliness with matching PJs and fun.

On the way back, I was listening to tech news about AI and had a few discoveries:

1. Over-reliance – I don’t currently physically work in an office, so I can’t say much about how regular users use AI. You can see the facility of AI writing your emails and reports. Obviously we are not at a place where we let the AI take over; we shouldn’t trust our critical processes to software that is not intelligent in our sense. Right now, chatbot AI is a probability process of auto-complete.

2. Environmental concerns – Like cryptocurrency, AI is processing-intensive. Data centers are being built for expanding AI processes.

3. Over-investment – The hype, like others, may be at a stage where it’s little more than a buzzword. That’s an oversimplification, but gives one pause when budgeting.

Just some thoughts before the New Year.

End times laziness

There’s a certain kind of intellectual laziness arising from end-times teaching. In the 80s, television preachers pleaded for people to repent because of the approaching end.

Things haven’t changed.

Yes, it will come one day, but His people must live like it is already here. They must take the time to take time. Patience for the waiting come alive. Grace is a big part of it. Grace and patience for others, faith that His hand is on His love objects.

At midnight December 31, 1999, the ball came down and the lights stayed on.

Unions

I have always been ambivalent about unions. I have never actually been a member of one until now.

I am first of all concerned about where my dues are going. We have meetings, talking about organizing. One of the main concerns is the pay discrepancy between the different third party employers that contract us out to the client. We all have MAs and PhDs, but are paid very little for our education. Add experience for some of us.

However, the union reps are recommending we read a book on organizing. I am not optimistic. They are young and idealistic. That is not a bad thing in itself, but I think they may be a bit too zealous as opposition to the employer.

Even so, I am wary about a new union. The client may not be happy and I need to guard my position.