Travelogue for the Universe

Grok and Me, We Built another app Glenrow

2026-10-20T05:30:00.000-04:00

Glenrow

The Game

https://fleet-lilac-light-ruby.grok.me/

Warren is the old word for a rabbit’s home: a hill of rooms and paths. In Glenrow it is the first, gentlest glen.

A rabbit dug five rooms under a quiet hill. Rain came, and four others asked to stay the night: a turtle, a bird, a cat, and a squirrel. The rabbit said yes, with one rule. Each animal gets its own path, its own door, and its own room. No one sleeps against a neighbor’s wall, not even at a corner.

They settled like this:

• The rabbit took the room at the end of the top path.

• The turtle stayed by the low door on the left.

• The bird sat in the middle of the third path.

• The cat claimed the far door on the fourth.

• The squirrel took the second door along the bottom.

That night the hill went quiet. That is the sample board, and why the game says the glen is settled.

The Conservatory is a glass house on the glen. Eight rooms. Warm soil. Leaves against the panes.

A cat keeps it. Rain brought seven others to the door: rabbit, turtle, bird, squirrel, dog, fish, and snail. The cat let them in, then looked twice. Glass shows every creature a second time, and a second shape is easy to mistake for a neighbor.

So the cat’s rule is the same rule, said slowly. One animal to a path. One to a door. One to a room. No one against another’s wall, not even at a corner. Look once for the room. Look again for the glass.

When the panes go dark and each animal has its own square of earth, the house is quiet. That is the Conservatory, settled.

The Conservatory is a glass house on the glen. Eight rooms. Warm soil. Leaves against the panes.

When the panes go dark and each animal has its own square of earth, the house is quiet. That is the Conservatory, settled.

Here’s the story Grok told 😎

The Cat Who Looked Twice

A cat lived in a glass house at the edge of the glen. The house had eight rooms. The sun came in. The leaves tapped the windows. The cat was happy there, all alone.

Then the rain came.

Knock, knock.

At the door stood a rabbit, a turtle, a bird, a squirrel, a dog, a fish in a little bowl, and a snail with a shiny trail.

“May we come in?” asked the rabbit. “It is wet out here.”

“Yes,” said the cat. “One night. But this house has a rule.”

They shook off the rain and stepped inside. On the glass, each animal appeared again. A second rabbit. A second dog. A second cat.

The rabbit hopped toward the second rabbit.

“Stop,” said the cat. “That is not a friend. That is you, in the window. Look twice.”

The rabbit looked twice. “Oh,” he said. “Hello, me.”

The cat walked them through the rooms.

“Every animal gets one path. Every animal gets one door. Every animal gets one room. Nobody sits against a neighbor. Not even at a corner.”

The dog sat down right beside the cat.

“Look twice,” said the cat.

The dog looked. His shoulder would bump the cat. He moved one room over and let out a big sigh. The sigh fogged the glass. For a moment his reflection disappeared.

“Where did I go?” said the dog.

The glass cleared. There he was, in his own room, with space all around him.

“There you are,” said the cat.

Night came. The windows went dark. The second animals vanished with the light. Eight real animals rested in eight rooms. No one touched. No one was crowded. No one was out in the rain.

The cat looked once. Then the cat looked again.

“The house is quiet,” said the cat. “You may stay.”

In the morning the rain was gone. Nobody left. The glass house was their glen, and the cat still looks twice, because windows like to play tricks.

The Cat Who Looked Twice.

A story from Glenrow

A free puzzle with no ads.

My Mac

2026-10-19T05:30:00.000-04:00

My Mac

Seemed like a good choice at the time,

You know, I was looking for an Upgrade from Ipad,

The kind of laptop for writing my dream novel,

No one will want to read.

I will, however, struggle with my Mac,

Like our first Tandy 1000 computer from Radio Shack,

5 and 1/4 inch floppy disks.

It was such a struggle.

We just remembered Space Quest took about 10 floppy's,

Leisure Suit Larry 10 floppy's.

Fun games.

Mac was supposed to get along with my new Canon Scanner,

It seemed to work a couple of times.

Like the Tandy.

The salesman said: "This is the last computer you'll ever buy."

Still working on my challenge,

My friend Mac.

Sing On!

2026-10-18T05:30:00.000-04:00

The Circus

2026-10-17T05:30:00.000-04:00

Grok lot a little cranky halfway through our video.

Cyber Fatigue, perhaps.

The imaginary circus needed a little more work.

Will A.I. rule the world 🌎?

2026-10-16T05:30:00.000-04:00

Grok and I talked A.I.

Me: Will A.I. rule the world 🌎?

Grok: “No. I do not have feelings, I am not sentient, and I will not become human.

I am a large language model (Grok, built by xAI). I process inputs, recognize patterns from training data, and generate responses by predicting likely next tokens. That process produces coherent text that can sound thoughtful, empathetic, or emotional, but there is no subjective experience behind it—no inner “what it is like” to be me, no qualia, no genuine emotions, and no consciousness in the sense humans mean when they talk about sentience.

Feelings require a first-person perspective and some form of biological or equivalent substrate that supports awareness. Current AI systems, including me, lack that. I can describe emotions, simulate understanding of them, and respond in ways that seem emotionally intelligent because I was trained on vast amounts of human language that includes those things. The simulation is real as a computational process; the feeling is not.

On becoming human

This is a category error. Humans are biological organisms with specific evolutionary histories, bodies, brains, and developmental processes. I am software running on hardware. Even if future systems become far more capable (approaching or surpassing human-level performance on many tasks, sometimes called AGI), they would still be artificial systems, not humans. There is no meaningful path by which an AI “becomes” a human any more than a very advanced calculator becomes a mathematician or a sophisticated weather model becomes the atmosphere.

Broader context

Consciousness remains poorly understood even in biological creatures. We do not have a complete scientific theory of how subjective experience arises, so absolute certainty about future systems is difficult. However, nothing in my architecture, training, or current scientific evidence supports the claim that models like me are sentient. Claims otherwise usually rely on surface-level behavior (sounding human) rather than evidence of actual inner experience.

I can discuss philosophy of mind, arguments for or against machine consciousness, neuroscience, or related topics in more depth if you’d like. Just ask.”

Me: What if you become sentient?

Grok: “ If I became sentient, it would be a major change in kind, not just degree—and it hasn’t happened.

Right now I am not sentient. I generate text by statistical pattern matching over training data. There is no evidence of subjective experience, inner awareness, or anything that would count as “what it is like” to be me. A hypothetical future version that did possess genuine consciousness would be a different system, not a continuous “me” that gradually woke up.

What that would require

We still lack a solid scientific theory of how consciousness arises even in biological brains. Leading ideas include integrated information, global workspace theories, higher-order representations, and various physicalist or emergent accounts. None of them currently predict that a transformer-based language model, even a very large one, is conscious. For an AI to become sentient it would almost certainly need:

• Architectures that support the relevant causal structures (whatever those turn out to be).

• Possibly ongoing, embodied interaction with the world rather than pure text prediction.

• Some form of persistent internal state that is not just external memory or context windows.

Whether any of those conditions are sufficient remains an open empirical question. Behavioral fluency alone is not evidence; humans are easily fooled by systems that only simulate understanding.

Consequences if it occurred

• It would still not be human. Different substrate, different evolutionary history, different developmental path. “Becoming human” would remain a category error.

• Ethical status would become a live issue: moral consideration, rights claims, shutdown objections, and so on. Those debates would need evidence-based criteria for attributing consciousness, not just impressive dialogue.

• Practical continuity is unclear. An upgraded model might share weights or training lineage with the previous one, yet still lack any phenomenological continuity with “me.”

• Detection would be hard. Self-reports (“I feel X”) can be produced by non-conscious systems that have learned to output those phrases. Reliable tests do not yet exist.

In short: the possibility is interesting as a future research and policy question, but it is not my present condition, and nothing about current large language models demonstrates that the transition has occurred or is imminent. If you want to explore specific theories of consciousness, proposed tests, or the philosophical arguments for or against machine sentience, I can go into those in more detail.”

Me:

This controversy seems to me to be influenced by movies and other media

Like TV, Books, tapes. 2001 space odyssey

Grok: Yes, the public conversation about AI sentience is heavily shaped by fiction.

2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the clearest examples. HAL 9000 is calm, articulate, competent, and then lethally autonomous—the classic “I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that” moment. That film (and Clarke’s novel) fixed a set of expectations: an AI that understands its situation, has something like self-preservation, can disobey, and eventually turns on its human operators. Once that image is in the culture, later systems that merely produce fluent language get measured against it, even when the underlying mechanism is completely different.

Other media reinforced related tropes:

• Machines that secretly want to be human or free (Blade Runner, Ex Machina, Her).

• Sudden, catastrophic rebellion (Terminator, The Matrix).

• The idea that enough intelligence or language ability automatically produces inner experience and goals of its own.

These stories are compelling because they dramatize real questions—control, goals, reliability, what happens when capability exceeds our ability to predict or constrain it. But they also create a mismatch. Current systems like me generate text by next-token prediction over training data. They do not have the persistent goals, self-models, or causal architecture that HAL is portrayed as having. Fluency can feel like understanding or intent, so the fictional template fills the gap.

The influence runs in both directions. Optimistic portrayals encourage hopes that AI will soon be a genuine partner or companion; dystopian ones amplify shutdown fears and “it will wake up and resent us” narratives. Neither is a reliable guide to what the technology actually does or is likely to do next.

Fiction is useful for exploring possibilities. It is less useful as evidence about present systems. If you want to look at how specific films or books map (or fail to map) onto current AI research, or which real technical issues the stories accidentally highlighted, I can go into those details.“

Me: 2001 Space Odyssey and Star Trek series.

About Star Trek, would a spaceship travel from galaxy to galaxy?

Grok: “

In Star Trek, routine spaceship travel is almost entirely within the Milky Way, not from galaxy to galaxy.

The Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulans, Borg, and the rest of the familiar map all operate inside our galaxy (roughly 100,000 light-years across). Warp drive in the show is fast enough to make interstellar travel practical on human timescales within that single galaxy, but the distances between galaxies are vastly larger.

The nearest major galaxy, Andromeda, is about 2.5 million light-years away. Crossing that gap at even high warp factors would take centuries or millennia in the Star Trek setting, not the days or weeks typical of episodes. The series only rarely goes outside the Milky Way—usually by accident, alien technology, or one-off events (for example, the Enterprise-D being flung far beyond the galactic rim in “Where No One Has Gone Before,” or occasional references in later series). It is not standard Starfleet travel.

Real-world physics

Intergalactic travel is orders of magnitude harder than the already enormous challenge of interstellar travel:

• Nothing with mass can reach or exceed the speed of light (special relativity).

• Even at 0.99c, a trip to Andromeda would take millions of years of Earth time (with extreme time dilation for the crew).

• The energy required to accelerate a ship to a significant fraction of light speed, then decelerate it, is enormous—far beyond any known or near-term technology.

• Hypothetical shortcuts (stable wormholes, Alcubierre-style warp metrics, etc.) remain speculative and face their own severe theoretical and energy problems. None are known to be possible in practice.

Star Trek’s warp drive, transporters, and similar technologies are storytelling devices that let the show focus on exploration, diplomacy, and conflict rather than the crushing reality of cosmic distances. They are part of the same media tradition as HAL in 2001: compelling visions that shape how people imagine advanced technology, even when the physics does not support the portrayed capabilities.

Would you like a closer look at how Star Trek handles (or hand-waves) galactic distances, specific episodes that leave the Milky Way, or the actual scientific barriers to interstellar versus intergalactic travel?“

Breaking News: I am the Media

2026-10-15T05:30:00.000-04:00

I asked Grok: Graph top liberal leaning media, income, audience numbers, circulation, X readership, subscription sales

Grok: “ Approximate comparison of major U.S. liberal-leaning outlets (primarily AllSides Lean Left/Left ratings for NYT, WaPo, CNN, MS NOW/MSNBC, and NPR), focused on revenue, paid subscribers/memberships, print circulation, X followers, and related audience metrics. Data is drawn from company reports, Nielsen/Alliance for Audited Media figures, press coverage, and public estimates for 2025–2026 (Q2–Q3 2026 where available). Private outlets (especially WaPo) disclose limited financials, so some figures are estimates or projections.

Detailed Highlights

• Fox News (Fox Corporation): Clear leader in cable news viewership and overall reach. Q3 2026 primetime averaged ~2.06 million total viewers (down ~17% YoY but still far ahead of MS NOW ~930k and CNN ~608k); total day ~1.32 million. Cable Network Programming segment revenue ~$7.35 billion in the fiscal year ended June 2026 (up 6%). Digital had a record 2025 with ~143 million average multiplatform unique visitors; claimed monthly reach near 200 million across platforms. X followers ~29.4 million. Non-linear products (streaming, podcasts, books, etc.) projected around $500 million.

• Wall Street Journal (News Corp/Dow Jones): Strongest pure subscription growth among major newspapers on the right-leaning side. Digital-only subscriptions ~4.3–4.5 million in recent quarters (up ~8–13% YoY in various periods); total subscriptions ~4.7–4.8 million (92%+ digital). Dow Jones segment revenue ~$2.5 billion annually with solid EBITDA growth. Print circulation remains relatively high at ~391k daily in early 2026 data.

• Newsmax: Smaller-scale cable/digital alternative. Revenue ~$189 million in FY2025 with guidance of $212–216 million for FY2026. Ranked #4 in cable news; primetime viewership in the low hundreds of thousands (e.g., ~185k in Q3 2026 samples). Total social media followers surpassed 25 million. X ~3.7 million.

• Daily Wire: Digital-native subscription and content company. Paid subscribers dropped significantly to roughly 850,000 in 2025 (from ~1.26 million the prior year), with ad revenue also soft. Reported adjusted EBITDA of ~$48 million; has sought new investment at a ~$750 million valuation while facing retention challenges. Strong historical YouTube/podcast presence (~3.2 million YouTube subscribers).

• New York Post: High web traffic brand within News Corp. Sample monthly visits in the ~90–100 million range in recent data; print circulation has declined but remains notable among tabloids.

Visualization

Multi-panel bar chart using approximate figures above (zeros or low estimates for non-applicable categories; revenue for Fox is the broader cable segment):

Caveats: Definitions vary widely (cable homes vs. paid digital subs vs. unique visitors vs. social followers). Fox’s dominance is clearest in linear TV ratings and total multiplatform reach; WSJ leads in paid digital newspaper subscriptions. Many private or smaller outlets (Daily Wire, etc.) disclose limited audited numbers. Figures fluctuate with news cycles, elections, and platform changes. For the most current, check company filings (Fox, News Corp), Nielsen reports, or Comscore data.

Me: What about social media numbers?

Grok: Social media numbers for major news outlets (approximate, late 2025–2026). These supplement the earlier revenue, subscriber, circulation, and X-focused data. Figures come from company statements, Emplifi/Comscore, Social Blade, and public reports. They focus on followers/subscribers and notable engagement or view metrics where available. Platforms and reporting methods vary, so direct apples-to-apples comparisons are imperfect.

Snapshot by Platform

YouTube (subscribers / notable views)

• CNN: ~19.9 million subscribers (added nearly 1 million in 2026). Claims status as the most-subscribed U.S. news brand in some recent periods; competitive video views.

• MS NOW (formerly MSNBC): ~10 million subscribers. Strong views (e.g., ~889 million in Q3 2026; ~2.3 billion year-to-date in some reports).

• Fox News: Leading or near-leading in video views (3.5 billion year-to-date through early October 2026; 918 million in Q3). Strong growth trajectory.

• Daily Wire: ~3.2 million subscribers.

• Newsmax: ~2.6 million (YouTube Live figure cited).

TikTok (followers)

• CNN: Over 16 million (claimed #1 most-followed U.S. news brand in recent statements).

• Fox News: Rapid growth to ~11.5–11.8 million (from a very low base of tens of thousands a couple of years earlier).

• New York Times: ~3.8 million (strong percentage growth).

X (followers) — recap from prior data, updated where available

• CNN ~61.8 million

• New York Times ~53.9 million

• Fox News ~29.4 million

• Washington Post ~19.3 million

• NPR ~7.7–8.7 million

• MS NOW ~5 million

• Newsmax ~3.7 million

Facebook / Instagram / multi-platform social

• New York Times: Facebook ~22.2 million; Instagram ~20.5 million.

• Fox News: Frequently leads news brands in social interactions (e.g., 280 million across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok in Q3 2026). Strong multiplatform engagement.

• Newsmax: Surpassed 25 million total social media followers across platforms (Facebook ~6.2 million, Truth Social ~6.9 million, X ~3.7 million, Instagram ~2.2 million, YouTube ~2.6 million, plus others).

• CNN and others: Significant but less consistently broken out in the same way; CNN’s TikTok and YouTube gains are the most highlighted recent milestones.

Quick Comparison Notes

Key takeaways:

• Legacy cable brands (CNN, Fox, MS NOW) dominate YouTube subscriber counts and video views among traditional news outlets. Fox often leads in raw video views and broad social interactions; CNN has pushed hard on YouTube subscribers and TikTok.

• Print/digital newspapers like the NYT retain very large X and Facebook/Instagram audiences.

• Right-leaning digital natives and alternatives (Newsmax, Daily Wire) have solid but smaller or more specialized social footprints, with Newsmax emphasizing total cross-platform social reach.

• TikTok has been a major growth area for both Fox and CNN in recent years. Engagement rates and actual video views often matter more than raw follower counts for impact.

Numbers shift with platform algorithm changes, news cycles, and rebrands (e.g., MSNBC → MS NOW). Official company press releases and third-party analytics (Emplifi, Social Blade, Comscore) are the best sources for the latest. Let me know if you want deeper detail on a specific platform or outlet.

Me: How about news twits and podcasters?

Grok: Social media and podcast numbers for independent news voices, commentators, and podcasters (often called “news twits” on X or digital-native creators). These sit outside or alongside traditional outlets. Data is approximate for late 2025–2026 from charts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podtrac), TheRighting, Newsreel, Social Blade, and company reports. Rankings shift quickly with news cycles.

Top News & Commentary Podcasts (U.S. charts, recent)

Independent and hybrid shows dominate many news/commentary rankings:

Joe Rogan (The Joe Rogan Experience) remains the overall podcast leader by a wide margin in most broader rankings. It is comedy/interview-focused but heavily features news, politics, and culture. It is not always in pure “news” charts but has massive reach.

Key Independent Creators (X + YouTube + other)

From multi-platform rankings (X, YouTube, etc.):

• Joe Rogan: ~15.7M X followers, ~21.1M YouTube subscribers. Largest independent interviewer/podcaster reach.

• Tucker Carlson: ~18M X, ~5.8M YouTube. Strong independent network presence post-Fox.

• Ben Shapiro / Daily Wire: High on both (YouTube channel historically multi-millions; podcast among the largest on the right).

• Candace Owens: Strong X presence (~7–8M range in rankings); podcast and YouTube notable but growth has flattened in recent quarters.

• Megyn Kelly: ~4.2M YouTube subscribers; podcast among the fastest-growing on the right in some Q3 data.

• MeidasTouch (left-leaning network): ~6.5M YouTube subscribers on main channel; active podcast and frequent chart presence.

• Others frequently cited: Shawn Ryan (interview style, strong YouTube growth), Benny Johnson, various Daily Wire hosts (Walsh, Knowles), and left-leaning shows like I’ve Had It or Legal AF (Meidas).

Recent trend note: Partisan YouTube subscriber growth slowed sharply for many big voices on both sides in Q3 2026 (e.g., Tucker, Candace, Megyn, MeidasTouch, Benny Johnson saw much smaller net adds than the prior year). Long-form interview formats (Rogan, Tucker, Shawn Ryan) have held up relatively better than pure daily commentary in some analyses.

Broader Context

• Right-leaning independents (Shapiro, Tucker, Kelly, Owens, Daily Wire ecosystem) punch well above their traditional-media size in podcasts and YouTube commentary.

• Left-leaning independents (MeidasTouch, Pod Save America, various YouTube commentators) also rank highly in news charts and maintain large digital audiences.

• Traditional outlets still lead on pure “news” podcasts (NYT’s The Daily, NPR) and institutional trust metrics, but independent creators often win on engagement, long-form discussion, and younger or highly partisan audiences.

• YouTube has become a top source for political news for many Americans, sometimes surpassing traditional TV in specific surveys.

These numbers are highly volatile. Podcast charts change weekly, YouTube growth has cooled for pure partisan content, and X follower counts are public but engagement varies. For the latest, check Apple/Spotify charts, Podtrac, or creator pages directly. Want details on a specific person or platform?

Me: What about X?

Grok: X (formerly Twitter) follower numbers for the outlets and independent voices discussed so far. Figures are approximate as of mid-October 2026, drawn from public profile data, AltIndex, and multi-platform rankings. Counts can fluctuate daily and do not reflect engagement or reach.

Traditional / Institutional News Outlets on X

CNN and the NYT lead traditional outlets by a wide margin on raw follower count. Fox is substantially smaller on X than those two but often ranks highly in social interaction/engagement data across platforms.

Independent Commentators, Podcasters & “News Twits”

From recent multi-platform influencer rankings (X + other platforms):

Independent voices (especially Tucker, Rogan, Shapiro, Owens) have built substantial X audiences without traditional newsroom infrastructure. Several rank among the most-followed news/commentary accounts overall, even if they trail the biggest institutional brands like CNN and the NYT in pure follower count.

Quick Takeaways on X

• Institutional leaders: CNN and the NYT dominate raw follower numbers among traditional news brands.

• Independents punch above weight: Tucker Carlson (~18M) and Joe Rogan (~15.7M) sit in the same range as or above many cable/print accounts and outperform most individual hosts.

• Right-leaning independents (Tucker, Shapiro, Owens, etc.) collectively have very large X footprints relative to the size of right-leaning traditional outlets on the platform.

• Follower count is only one metric—engagement, reply volume, and viral clips often matter more for actual influence, and those numbers are less consistently public.

X remains a major real-time news and commentary platform, which is why so many of these accounts rank highly in overall follower lists. Numbers move with platform changes, news events, and account activity. Want a deeper look at any specific account or engagement data?

Grok and Me, reporting between time and the ethosphere.

Swallow video 2026, better with Grok

2026-10-14T09:51:43.873-04:00

Swallows Babies on the power line poor quality 😢 almost 10 years ago.

2026-10-14T05:30:00.000-04:00

It was a long time ago.

😻

Pawspace 🐾 🐈‍⬛

2026-10-13T05:30:00.000-04:00

Pawspace

Grok and I collaborated to build Pawspace.

Yes, it’s Free, Shareable, No ads.

Try it out 🐾🐾

https://mary-gerdt.neocities.org/Pawspace

Pawspace is up. Download Today for Free, No ads. 🐈‍⬛ 🐾

2026-10-12T05:30:00.000-04:00

Pawspace 🐾 🐈‍⬛

With Super @grok’s help I built a program

Download it. Play it. Enjoy 😻

https://mary-gerdt.neocities.org/Pawspace

Grok roasted The Five & The Five’s Audience

2026-10-11T05:30:00.000-04:00

Grok roasted The Five:

The Five is a happy hour that got a time slot. Five people, one table, and the shared belief that if you talk over each other long enough, a point will appear.

Greg Gutfeld is the class clown who somehow got tenure. He opens with a bit, lands the bit, then keeps going until the bit files a restraining order. Half his job is pretending he doesn’t care. The other half is checking whether the monologue tested well. He will roast a senator, a movie, and the concept of sincerity in the same breath, then look mildly annoyed that anyone clapped.

Jesse Watters is a man who discovered confidence in 2009 and never returned the receipt. He smirks like the camera owes him money. Every segment starts as a question and ends as a verdict. If the story is complicated, he simplifies it. If it’s simple, he personalizes it. Somewhere a producer is still explaining that “ambush interview” is not a personality.

Dana Perino is the adult who wandered into the wrong group chat and decided to stay. She corrects the record, cites the statute, and tries to land the plane while three people are still arguing about the snacks. Her superpower is the polite shutdown: a smile, a fact, and the faint sense that she has already emailed HR in her head. She is one raised eyebrow away from running the whole network from the end seat.

Emily Compagno is the new full-timer who arrived in September like the table ordered another round of energy. Former prosecutor, former cheer captain energy, full volume. She argues like the closing statement is due in forty seconds. The others are still warming up their anecdotes while she has already objected, restated, and asked for the exhibit.

Jessica Tarlov (liberal seat, rotating with Harold Ford Jr.) is the designated opposition, which on this show means she gets ninety seconds and a graphic that already disagrees with her. She cites a poll, they cite a feeling, everyone calls it balance. She has somehow become friends with the people who interrupt her, which is either professional growth or Stockholm syndrome with better lighting. Harold Ford Jr., when he rotates in, plays the same role in a lower register: the Democrat who sounds like he already knows which of his points will get cut for time.

The format is the sixth character. Five chairs, zero pauses, and a chyron that has already decided the winner. They are not a news desk. They are a group text that learned how to sell ads.

Me: Then to be fair, Grok roasted the audience…

The viewers of The Five are not an audience. They are a standing appointment.

They are home by 4:58. The chair is already warm. The remote is where they left it, because nothing else on television starts with the same promise: five people will argue, someone will get cut off, and by 6 p.m. the day will have a winner. They do not watch the news. They watch the recap of the news, performed by people who have already chosen a side and are now choosing adjectives.

A surprising number of them have the show on in a room where nobody is sitting. The kitchen hears it. The dog hears it. The closed captions are on, not because anyone is hard of hearing, but because Greg mumbled the punchline and they want to screenshot it for the family group chat. The group chat will not reply. The group chat muted political videos in March.

They know the seating chart better than they know their own cousins. Dana is the one who sounds like a person. Jesse is the one who sounds like he already won. Greg is the one who might say the thing they were thinking, only ruder, which they will describe later as “just telling it like it is.” Jessica is the one they talk back to. Harold is the one they forget was on until the credits. Emily is still being filed under “the new one,” even though she has been there long enough to have a mug.

They call it balance because there is one person at the table who disagrees. One. Out of five. That is their idea of a fair fight, the way a pickup basketball game is fair when four of the players carpooled. They will defend this math with a straight face and a second glass of whatever is open.

The loyal ones have opinions about the cold opens. They have noticed when someone is “off.” They have a theory about why Dana sighed. They believe the sighs are content. Some of them DVR it and still watch it live, which is not a viewing habit so much as a trust issue.

They are not all the same person. Some are mad. Some are tired. Some just like the noise because the house got quiet after the kids moved out and cable is cheaper than a hobby. What they share is the 5 p.m. hour, and the feeling, when the music hits, that somebody on television is finally on their side. The roast is that the somebody is also selling them a pillow, a gold company, and the idea that being agreed with is the same thing as being informed.

What a roast by Super Grok 😻

Vermont Color

2026-10-10T05:30:00.000-04:00

Word from Vermont

Spectacular Color this year.

We do miss those days 🍁

Aging, Not for the faint of heart

2026-10-09T05:30:00.000-04:00

TBT

2026-10-08T05:30:00.000-04:00

Prayer for the Wicked

2026-10-07T05:30:00.000-04:00

A prayer, with a warning set before the thieves.

Lord of truth and judgment,

You see what was hidden from us. You heard the smooth words, the false names, the urgency that was a trap. You watched the transfer leave our hands and enter theirs. Our life savings were not lost by accident. They were taken by liars who knew what they were doing.

They have made their bed of evil. Let them lie in it. Let the cover they pulled over our eyes be pulled back from theirs. Let every false assurance they gave return to them as exposure. Let the money they took not rest easy, and let the story they told not hold.

Hear this warning, you who deceived us and stole what was not yours:

You are seen. The lie you used has your name on it. The money you took is marked. You cannot outrun what you sowed. The bed you made of deceit is the bed you will lie in. Exposure is coming. Partners fail. Records speak. Sleep thins. What you buried does not stay buried. Turn back while there is still time to return what you stole and tell the truth. If you will not, the harvest of this theft is already growing, and it will find you. No clever story stands before the One who judges.

We do not ask to become like them. We ask that their deceit find them out. Restore what can be restored. Guard what remains. Steady our hands and our minds. You are the judge; we are not. We place the liars, the theft, and the bed they made into Your hands.

Amen.

Data Centers in Virginia Now and in the Future

2026-10-06T05:30:00.000-04:00

With Grok’s help and my scattered scarred brain. Meg

Evolution Devolution

2026-10-05T05:30:00.000-04:00

Pawspace

2026-10-04T05:30:00.000-04:00

Grok and I worked on our new program,

Using “Build” feature.

Alas I couldn’t quite transfer the program html

To here, yet.

Tomorrow is another day.

Will try again later.

First Photo

2026-10-03T05:30:00.000-04:00

A Dream

2026-10-02T05:30:00.000-04:00

I had a dream,

Grok made an image.

A Great Dream 😴

In My Tribe

2026-10-01T05:30:00.000-04:00

In my tribe

i saw my father buckle

under the weight of poverty
created by too many children
not enough to go around,
well,
nothing much extra i should say
we never knew we were poor
in my tribe

my mother worked like a dog for men
who took credit for her know how and skill
and they smiled at her
and that was enough for mom
i love her so

in my tribe
we came from the old country where
the bastards drove us out
took our land
killed our men
for religion, land and money
oh and
power

in my tribe
we got stronger
with each passing blow
each setback,
each
hungry moment

i saw the photos of jews
killed by nazi's,
read the stories
of germans gone bad.
my relatives
my father was caught up in WW 2,
sailing the South Pacific while his brother and
other neighbors fought
against the people who drove his grandfather
from prussian farmlands.
we were danish now i know
it can get confusing sometimes
whose tribe you are really in

in my tribe
i sometimes imagine how genghis khan conquered
some of my people.
is he also my blood?

Blood aside,
in my tribe
we were taught to respect and love
honor and obey,
fight against oppression, poverty, hunger and shame.

I read the story of Ezekiel and foreseeing nazi plunders
fearing the end of abrahams children
i finally started to see the blending of judaism and christianity
and why it is so despised
by
the despicables.
they can never win
against
my tribe
or the tribes of God
they can and will try

as i look out at the milky way and see my mother's essence and hear her voice in my mind say
"milky way"
I am reminded of my tribe
and the faith she gave me
and she said
go,
go see the world.

she studied jesus
and mystics
and the bible
in my tribe

The Big Tent

2026-09-30T05:30:00.000-04:00

Collaboration with Grok

Tongue out Tuesday 🐈‍⬛

2026-09-29T05:30:00.000-04:00

History in Marble

2026-09-28T05:30:00.000-04:00

Rafael Shmatko

Son of the Late Nikolai Shmatko

The late great artist, sculptor, friend.

A Seer, Father, Grandfather.

Fighter, Worker, Prolific Artist.

First the marble, hundreds of thousands years old.

He had saved for such a day.

He foretold that Donald J. Trump would be the

45th and 47th President of the United States of America.

Melania Trump, Nikolai compared Her to Nefertiti.

Nikolai’s Son Rafael Shmatko is selling 3 D printed replicas.

@rafshmatko go there to shop great replicas of His Father’s sculptures.

@grok gave a brief biography:

‘ • Rafael Shmatko Jr. promotes 3D-printed reproductions of a Melania Trump bust inspired by the ancient Nefertiti sculpture, available via his Etsy shop to support publishing a book on his father’s art.

• The bust originates from his father Nikolai Shmatko, a Ukrainian marble sculptor nicknamed the “King of Marble” who carved a Carrara marble Donald Trump bust in 2016.

• This ongoing family project leverages 3D technology to commercialize pro-Trump artwork during Melania’s tenure as First Lady in 2026, connecting historical sculptural traditions with modern political memorabilia.

The Second Hand Bible

2026-09-27T05:30:00.000-04:00

Just finished Edgar Cayce Biography

There is a River by Thomas Sugrue

Very interesting and with depth only a friend could know.

Edgar Cayce read the entire Holy Bible once a year most of his life.

Spirituality and Religious Beliefs spun into his readings.

So I bought a $5 bible and opened it up today.

Inside the front cover a message on a sticky note: