The drama today has been the discontinuation of access to Character.AI for kids under 18. Robin has been devastated. In looking for alternatives, I’ve learned just how bad AI chat bots are for kids. Billy and I reluctantly allowed her to try another one – until this one blocks kids too – as long as we have access to her chats. It reminds me of when AOL invented the internet (ok I know I know but still) and all the 13-year-olds (myself included) went into the chat rooms and we learned how easy they’d made it for pedophiles to find victims. Now there aren’t chat rooms for kids anymore, but look what it has blossomed into! I have to imagine that AI chat bots will eventually develop into something both safer and more fulfilling than how it has started. I tried to explain that to Robin, but how do you explain AOL chat rooms to teenagers who have no possible way to conceptualize a life without internet? She’s not a fan of the new app we allowed her to have, but oh well. It’s better than the little kid ones I was originally going to give her. And so goes the growth of parents and teens and AI everywhere.
Author: peanut7312
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November 20
Robin cheered at her first basketball game today. I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time. I’m so glad she found something she loves. The games themselves weren’t that awesome. The girls lost by a score of something like 38-2, and the boys lost by something like 52-13. It’s bad enough that they lost so badly, but the sportsmanship of the visiting team was very unimpressive, from the students to the parents to the players to the coaches. They were rude and disrespectful to our teams all night. The girls basketball team chanted over our cheer team every time they started a cheer and taunted the boys to miss their foul shots. When our cheerleaders did tumble passes, the other team’s girls players did their own. The parents were no better, cheering insanely with every score, even when their team was up by 40 points. It was disappointing to see, and I’m so proud of our kids who took it in stride and still left smiling. It takes a good heart to find the wins in a loss, and our kids definitely did.
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November 19
Today was a day for assertiveness. I was feeling good about it in the moment, but now it’s quiet and I’m alone and I’m second-guessing myself. Also today: I made a Christmas music playlist because Christina only wants to listen to Christmas music and every Christmas music playlist on Spotify is horrible. I 95% finalized our Thanksgiving plans. I made two octopuses and chicken parmesan. I angered Robin when I told her there was no way she could earn extra time on her phone at 8:45pm. So a typical day.
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November 18
Today was nothing really out of the ordinary, but little things marked it. There was a fairly sad rewards and recognition presentation at work that followed an ominous and incomplete announcement of org changes coming soon, but we’re excited about it, yay! Robin was in a fury when I picked her up from cheer practice and threw her bag at Christina’s head when she got in the car. Still no idea what that was about. Robin also refused to eat anything other than tortilla chips for dinner, so there was a power play over her phone after which she finally ate three slices of a frozen pizza at 10:45pm. And that pretty much brings us up to date.
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November 17
I had a pretty good day today. Nice run this morning, some good meetings at work, fun conversation at the dinner table, made an octopus, did a crossword puzzle, listened to some podcasts. Now I am ready for bed.
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November 16
Did my run on the Baldwin rail trail this morning. I had hoped to do somewhere between 2-3 miles, but after a mile I was toast. You know why? I was running way too fast. I have no idea how to get myself to run at an easy pace. But at the end of 2.7 miles, my average pace was faster than normal and I stopped to walk at least five times. It just feels so much more fun to go fast. At the very least it was beautiful. It was yet another perfect weather day. I’m just going to go with it.
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November 15
We went to the Jacksonville Fair today. I haven’t been to a fair since Robin was a baby. Highlights for me included my deep fried Twinkie and a ride called the Hydra, which was by far the scariest ride I have ever been on. It spun and swung and went just a little bit upside down. Robin wasn’t having any of that, but Christina liked it. We saw a bunch of the shows too, including a sea lion show and pig racing. I could have stayed another couple of hours to go on more rides, but I think the food and rides were catching up with everyone. I’m so glad we went.
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November 14
I had a horrible night of sleep last night and I have been fighting exhaustion all day. But I did make two octopuses and finished reading Journey to the Center of the Earth. I feel like that has earned me my rest tonight!
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November 13
I broke my brain today trying to think too much. It’s open enrollment season, which comes with all sorts of questions about HSAs and FSAs and copays and coinsurance and in-network and contributions and disbursements and dude, seriously? And then we also decided to scratch off another activity card to do over the Thanksgiving break. Seriously, what were the odds we would scratch off a visit to Universal Orlando? That was zero parts part of my plan. I mean, I was 100% confident there were no theme parks inside this box. But the scratch-off card has spoken. And I will be picking up pieces of my brain for weeks.
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November 12
I’m always so happy when Robin’s red rose blooms. Which is twice so far. She picked it out this spring and it makes me happy to see it. I hope it survives the winter.
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November 11
We were going to go to the fair today, but with temps in the mid-50s, it was pretty chilly to be walking around and going on rides. Plus, Billy had to work and he wanted to come too. So instead we painted pottery at the mall, and we’ll try the fair this weekend when the weather’s warmer, even though it’ll probably also be much more crowded. I took entirely too much time painting my piece and I still didn’t quite finish. I am too painstaking with the details. I think everyone had fun, though. Now back to work and school tomorrow. Boo.
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November 10
I had to get my semi-annual jewelry inspection, so took the girls to the mall and then to their first-ever experience at Dave & Buster’s. It was a pretty good day. Christina finally has some pants, and not a moment too soon since it’s supposed to dip below freezing tonight. They had Guitar Hero at the arcade, so I was happy. I think everyone had fun, especially Billy, who didn’t have to go to the mall.
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November 9
Rosina and Dion came up to join us in a chocolate pizza-making class at Sweet Pete’s. The whole affair was disappointing because they were halfway between fall decorations and Christmas and it just looked messy instead of magical. And the class was disappointing because all they did was pour chocolate on a plate and tell us to put candy on top of it. Don’t think I needed to spend $22 per person for that. But… the chocolate and candy were tasty, so at least there was that. We went out to European Street afterwards and rebooted the beer challenge we started a few years ago. Dion was up to something like 42 out of 125. I was up to 8. I have a little catching up to do. I’m up to the challenge.
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November 8
Billy and I went to a history storytelling show by the person who leads the podcast, “History That Doesn’t Suck.” It was pretty good. He talked about American history from the formation of the United States through the end of the Civil War. Hearing about both stories as part of the same story really shows how we have grappled with the same issues literally for centuries. Today we don’t call it slavery, but it’s the same fight between the same people. It was really interesting and I enjoyed it. I thought for sure that Billy and I would be the youngest people there by far, but there were a lot of younger people there. It’s heartening to know there are younger people still interested in history. All I can hope is that we can all learn something from it.
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November 7
Making octopuses was not inspiring enough for me, so I decided to make blank notecards for the Kindermarket too. I’m making sets of four using my own photography and they’re coming out so well. They look so professional. If I had more time and money for supplies, I might try to build an inventory and rent space at an upcoming seasonal market to see if I can make any money at it. I am just a little too lazy to deal with all the logistics of card acceptance and taxes and all the rest. But I am having fun making stuff for someone else to sell. I hope it brings in good money for the PTA.
