M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

How to clean your glasses (yawn)

August 7, 2025
MThomas

Daily writing prompt
Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.

Seriously, this is an “NBC Select” article: https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/how-to-clean-your-glasses-rcna175677

I wear glasses. I have worn glasses since I was in elementary school 2nd grade β€” the “aviator” style made of cheap plastic that I frequently broke during recess kickball games and then had to tape together so I could wear them.

I have never figured out how to keep my glasses clean in the subsequent four+ decades of my life.

But I seriously doubt this is “newsworthy.” Cringeworthy, maybe.

Who wants to train AI for free, hands up! πŸ™Œ

July 10, 2024
MThomas

Post a comment on Reddit, answer coding questions on Stack Overflow, edit a Wikipedia entry or share a baby photo on your public Facebook or Instagram feed and you are also helping to trainthe next generation of artificial intelligence.

https://apnews.com/article/genai-training-data-stack-overflow-reddit-9d71b75ec16c78c0d2c51cc46121c1a4

Well, if they’re scrubbing my public FB page for data,

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

I’ll take up my vorpal sword and

One, two! One, two! And through and through 

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!

O frabjous day!

PS I hope this helps hapless mindless office workers compose emails.

BLOCK

June 16, 2024
MThomas

This is how I’ve been feeling the past couple of weeks…

Just too hot. And too busy. And tired.

And my favorite baseball teams keep losing.

At least for Father’s Day my wife got me nice food and drink. Maybe that’ll help get my mojo back…

(The image is of my youngest daughter’s art bag from last year. She has also complained of not being able to write much lately…)

At SuShi High Tech Tokyo: A β€œflying” what?

May 27, 2024
MThomas

From Kyodo, who captioned the image β€œflying vehicle” but headlined the article with β€œflying car”

“I look forward to flying cars becoming a normal means of transportation.” (Gov. Koike)

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/05/5d7888e5eb47-flying-car-makes-tokyo-debut-at-international-tech-event.html#google_vignette

β€œNormal means” for whom, exactly? I can’t imagine the average worker in Tokyo will be able to afford this thing. Even if they had a physical space to store in.

And, you know, I think I’ve seen a β€œflying vehicle” like this somewhere already… 🚁

(FWIW it was part of a conference on technology and sustainability, cheekily called β€œSuShi High Tech”: https://sushitech-startup.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/)

As George Carlin said…

May 15, 2024
MThomas

Are you a leader or a follower?

β€œLead, follow, or get out of the way!”

I obstruct.

Yet another Gen Z vague question?

May 8, 2024
MThomas

What was the last live performance you saw?

Last live performance of what?

I saw a baseball game last September. That was live. Does that count?

Oh. Do you mean β€œlive” in the Japanese sense, i.e., a live performance by a musical artist?

As in a live concert?

At a club?

Or just that the musicians were alive and actually wrote their own music and played their own instruments rather than danced around and lip-synced?

Yes. I am a snarky Gen-Xer. Wave the flannel.

(FWIW I think the last live musical performance I’ve seen was in a Japanese club in Osaka around 2000 or 2001, and before that in mid-1999 in a club somewhere in Boston. It’s hard to get out when you have a family and need to actually go to work in the morning.)

Today’s quote

March 27, 2024
MThomas

You don’t write for success. That takes part of your attention away from the writing. If you’re really doing it, that’s all you’re doing: writing.

Frank Herbert, β€œWhen I Was Writing Dune”

Another…uh, milestone, I guess?

March 2, 2024
MThomas

I’m not sure why 1,337 is a magical number, but if my readers are happy, then I’m happy.

Thank you, all! I hope to continue to like your posts as well, and hope I can continue to write more ✍️ πŸ’» πŸ“±

Booooooring

February 22, 2024
MThomas

What bores you?

What doesn’t?

OK, I guess I’ll play along…

  • Boring people
  • People who talk a lot but say very little
  • Morning β€œnews”
  • Talk shows
  • Game shows
  • Most TV, to be quite honest
  • Pop music. Of any era.
  • Dancing
  • Politicians
  • Business people
  • Pointless paperwork
  • Activities that require no thought or skill
  • Card games (seriously…sorry, I just don’t get the attraction)
  • Long lists about boring things (hey!)

Bringer of Light: Background Notes (1)

February 21, 2024
MThomas

It’s been well-known for some time now that the building blocks of life called amino acids can be found on asteroids strewn throughout the solar system.

It’s also thought that water on Earth is largely (or entirely) the result of comets and asteroids bombarding it (it remains debatable to what degree Earth already had water, but since when it formed the Earth was first molten lava and then dry as a bone, I think it far more likely that water came here from elsewhere, and science tends to agree).

I’ve already blogged about the origins of Bringer of Light, when I (finally) finished the first draft back in early September. In a sense, I’ve been constantly blogging the science behind the story.

But I haven’t discussed the characters at all. And despite what some old-fashioned writers may think (just finished a particularly badly-written snarky “why your books don’t sell” piece of trash that claimed science fiction shouldn’t have any emotions in it…say what? sorry not sorry), if the characters of a story aren’t interesting, there isn’t much point in reading a story.

So for the next couple of weeks, I’ll write a bit about the characters — the crew of the Artemis, the crew of the Sagittarius, the UN flunkies (sorry, career politicos) on Mars and Luna and so forth. There are lots of characters, and their interaction is complicated. Or is it?

I would get into my scifi influences at this point, but long blogs are slogs. So I’ll come back to that tomorrow!

Coffee time. Also to finish up at least one unrelated project and also the hardcover manuscript (which needs to be a different paper size than the paperback for some reason).

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