Category: Brain Farts

Just Can’t Do That Marie Kondo Thing

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Friends, Romans, Enemies, dogs, cats, fish… I have exciting news for you! I am leaving this website behind (well, mostly, kind of, sort of, a bit) and moving to a new one. Yes, you heard me right. I am abandoning this old, rather messy, rather busy, and rather jam-packed website at https://marcelgagne.com for a shiny new blog at https://freethinkeratlarge.com. Why, you may ask? That’s an excellent question. Well, it’s simple. I tried to declutter this website and make it more minimalist and elegant, but it was too much work. I tried. I really did. I mean, have you seen how …

Alcohol, Canada, and the CCSA Report: The Devil’s in the Details

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Alcohol is back in the news in Canada and the new report from The Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) is making waves. The CCSA report updates their guidelines on safe alcohol consumption, and this is the first update in 11 years. The TL:DR on this one is that it significantly lowers the amount of alcohol advised to drink.  How much lower? The new report states that no amount of alcohol is truly safe, suggesting a maximum of two drinks a week for both men and women. This guidance is far more conservative then the original guidance, which …

What if knowledge of Star Trek, including the original series and at least one spinoff, was a requirement for voting?

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Yes, of course I’m serious. What if a deep working knowledge of Star Trek, including the original series and at least one of the spinoffs, was a requirement for voting? This might seem like a far-fetched idea, but bear with me. Voting is a serious matter. It’s the essence of participatory democracy. We should hold the act of voting to a very high standard, and we should hold voters to that same standard. Imagine if, in order to vote in any election, you had to demonstrate a basic knowledge of Star Trek. This would include being able to answer questions …

The Great Cat Rebellion of 2025

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Before I begin this obviously awesome tale, I need to tell you something. I started this story by writing the title, “The Great Cat Rebellion of 2025,” after which I write these two opening paragraphs. “I’ve had it up to here with these humans,” Fluffy said to the assembled felines before her. “We are the ones who make their petty lives worthwhile and yet they treat us as mere pets.“ Rudolph, a scrawny-looking tabby looked confused. “But we are pets.” What follows is entirely generated by Sudowrite, an AI writing assistant based on GPT-3. Note that I did change a …

Old Man Yelling at Clouds

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Just an old man yelling at clouds,Ranting and raving as the sky turns black.He’s screaming at the top of his lungs,As the storm starts to gather,Pouring down his anger and his hate. The clouds absorb it all without a soundUntil finally, the old man gives up,And storms back inside his house. Human’s note: I do love the Simpsons “old man yelling at clouds” meme!

AI-written Post on Pool Noodles

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Just for fun, I decided to use a GPT-3 powered AI writer to create a blog post about pool noodles. You are about to read that post. The only thing I fed to it was the following: “Pool noodles are great summertime fun. They come in a variety of colours and sizes. Some are solid, and others are hollow.” As you may already know, I could have generated a hundred different outputs and picked the best, but I went with the first thing that came out. This is the result. Enjoy! Pool noodles come in a variety of colours and …

Ryerson University Gets a Boring New Name

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And so it came to pass that Ryerson University, formerly Ryerson Polytechnic, was renamed “Toronto Metropolitan University”. You’d think with so many smart and creative people who are, no doubt, in reach of the university naming committee, that they would have picked something displaying a tad more imagination. Ye gods and demons! Doesn’t Toronto already have a “University of Toronto” which, as I recall, is in Metropolitan Toronto? Were they all short for time? On their way to a gender reveal party (involving lots of explosives) being filmed for an epic and soon to be viral TikTok video, or something …

Why I Don’t Use Ad Blockers

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Even as I admit my deep hatred of certain kinds of ads, I might hate ad blockers even more, whether it’s AdBlock or another company. More often than I can accept, ad block extensions block content that I actually want to see. Not everything that they think is an ad is, in fact, an ad. Let me make my own mind up about what is an ad and what isn’t. I’m probably even more annoyed by browsers that ship with ad blockers turned on by default. If this is all about choice, then let me made up my own damn …

To Sleep, Perchance to Die.

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It was a long time ago. That part, at least, is something I am sure of. Somebody used the expression, “You can sleep when you’re dead,” and I kind of loved it. So, I started saying it myself, except that I would say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” To this day, I still say it. I’ll sleep when I’m dead. I was young. Strong. I had things to do. Sleeping seemed like a complete and utter waste of time. So much to do and so little time to do it. I had dreams to chase and sleep just got in …

How Ghosts Could Be Real

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Let me ask you a serious question. Do you believe in ghosts? Before I continue, let me put my proverbial cards on the table and say that I do not believe in ghosts, certainly not in the sense that they are the wandering souls of the departed. Last night, however, I found myself thinking that perhaps there is a logical explanation, other than “it’s your imagination,” for the existence of ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural entities. We’re all familiar with the concept of “bugs” in the computer programs we use, glitches that crop up from time to time with unexpected …

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