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Talking to AI Bots · 13 December 2025

I should not talk to AI bots on social media.

I wonder if people really think that their bots on X/Twitter (I am still hoping for them to change their name back) can get mistaken as people. I know that there are sophisticated bots out there, but some are just silly. Especially the ones that make grammatical errors and get back to you right away.

Okay. Maybe not everybody uses those bots. Whether on X/Twitter or wherever. Still, the whole AI thing has gotten us to wonder if we are ever really talking to people online. Or maybe that is just me. Maybe I am the only one who is a cynic when it comes to interacting with people online who I do not know in person.

The interesting thing about X/Twitter (still hopeful) is that nobody really knows who is who. At least not if you do not really know who is who. Think about it. If you do not really know somebody online, do you really know somebody at all? I wonder.

Now, I have heard there are people who have known each other online for decades who consider each other friends. I have even heard that those people fly from far away to be at weddings or other special occasions. I heard of a person meeting his best man for the first time in person at his wedding. Now, that is probably the exception to the rule. I cannot think that people have most of their relationships online. I suppose it is possible, but I do not really know how.

I have only a few online relationships with people I have never met in person. One is a writer. Another is a chess player. I have only interacted with these two people online. I would say that we are acquaintances. Maybe even buddies. But I do not think they would come to a special milestone event. Or even expect to be invited to one. Nor would I expect to be invited to any special occasion of theirs.

So I wonder about these AI bots. They seem to talk to people. They seem to have interactions. But they are just machines. They just complete the conversation based on other conversations that have happened. At least that is how I understand Large Language Model AI. The bots just use their huge database of text to figure out what comes next. Maybe with a little help from some directions. Directions to get you to buy a product or do something else that you need prodding to make a decision about.

At any rate.

I suppose this topic has lost any steam that it might have had. I do not know where I was going with it, and I even got lost in the weeds for a moment. Which is okay. I can save it for later and maybe salvage it or at least part of it for later. (Or maybe I will just post it.)

All I know for sure is that I do not want to talk to AI bots for my social interaction. On X/Twitter (still hopeful) or anywhere else.

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Blank Mind · 6 December 2025

My mind is a blank today. Just blank.

I do not often have times when my mind is blank. I am not even sure if it is a possibility. For the mind to be blank, that is. After all, here I am writing. So it cannot be completely blank. Still. I just do not have a topic to write about. So I am saying that my mind is blank.

If you even wonder what real writers do when they have blank minds, do not look to me. After all, I am just a poser. A hack with a website. A mediocre man. Well, the MediocreMan. Maybe not the only one, but the only one with MediocreMan.com and a lot of blog posts to his name.

At any rate.

When I have a blank mind, I just write. A stream of consciousness. Just whatever comes to my mind. Which is what is happening now. A stream of words. Maybe not even conscious. Just words. They flow regardless of whether my mind is blank or not. Even though I am asserting that it is. Which is strange in and of itself. Usually, I have something in there. Perhaps it is just old age. Perhaps when you get older, you get blanker. (Is “blanker” a word? I do not think so. Ah well. People often give grace to older folks for saying silly stuff and using fake words.)

But I am not a doddering fool. I am just older than I think I am. Which is an interesting think in and of itself. (Yes, I used think there in that last sentence. I like it better than thing in that case. Or even thought.) But I do wonder if there are thinks and thoughts and musings that people can get away with as they age. I wonder if I am there. Hmm. Maybe in some people’s eyes.

Which reminds me of something dumb I said long ago. I was in my twenties hanging around with some of my brother’s friends. Now, my younger brother is five and a half years younger than me, which made him and his friends in their teens. I do not even know what we were doing. Or maybe we were not even doing anything yet. They were inviting me go do something with them. I replied, “Ah you don’t want to be hanging out with an old man, do you?” They all laughed and called me “old man.” They have called me old man ever since. I do not remember what we ended up doing, but I am sure it was fun. Even for an old man in his twenties.

It is funny how perspective changes. Being five years older than a person when you are in your early twenties is so much different than being five years older than a person when you are in your early sixties. It seemed like I was so much older than my brother and his friends when they were in their teens than it does now that they are in their fifties. Now, we’re all basically in the same stage of life.

Well, I am not getting any younger writing this blog post. It started out as just a blank sheet and a blank mind. (Well, the blank sheet was really a computer screen, which is never blank. Ah well. You get the picture.) Now that I am almost done, I can see that I just rambled on until I got to a short story about my past.

I hope that I have given young writers a little hope. Okay, young is not exactly what I meant. I hope that I have given aspiring or fledgling writers a little hope. Just remember that you can write all the time. Just put pencil to paper or fingers to keyboard. Words will come. Even when your mind is blank.

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Thanksgiving Reflection · 27 November 2025

Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday, so I thought I would take time on Thanksgiving to reflect on Thanksgiving. Especially since some people like Thanksgiving and some people do not.

Now, I am not going to get into reasons why people do not like Thanksgiving except to say that some people just do not like the food. Or maybe preparing the food. Which is a valid point. I mean whether or not you like turkey and stuffing and gravy and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce is beside the point. After all, you do not need to eat what is seen as traditional Thanksgiving food on Thanksgiving. You do not need to eat turkey and stuffing and… Well, you get the picture. You can eat whatever you think ought to be your Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving. No apologies necessary. To anybody.

(By the way, if you think I am giving you permission to eat whatever you want on Thanksgiving or any day, I am not. It is not in my power to grant you that permission. Unless, of course, you think you need somebody to give you permission. In that case, by all means say that the MediocreMan on the internet gave you permission to eat whatever food you want to eat on Thanksgiving. Or any other day for that matter.)

Heavy sigh (Not for the last paragraph, but for the next.)

I know that there are political reasons or even historical reasons for people not liking Thanksgiving, too. People have that right. Of course, they do. But I will not debate those issues. I am not savvy enough to do so for one thing. And who needs to have arguments on Thanksgiving anyway?

Speaking of arguments on Thanksgiving, I think arguments are okay. After all, perhaps we need a little discourse in our lives. The problem is that we do not know how to have civil discourse anymore. We think that name calling and screaming are part and parcel with arguing. We think that reason has nothing to do with life anymore, so we just conjure up assertions and call them facts and say we are having reasonable civil discourse. Actually, I do not know that I have been at a family dinner when that happened. Unless, of course, I was the one who started it all. Sorry about that.

At any rate.

I think when all is said and done, we all ought to just take a day to be thankful. Everybody has at least one thing they can be thankful for, right? Even if it is being thankful that we got to take that previous breath. Or the next one. Breathe in. Breathe out. Aah.

Well, I was going to try and be more positive than this on Thanksgiving. I was going to try and lift up somebody’s spirit. But I do not know that I have done that. What I do know is that I am thankful for life. For my family. For my friends. For my faithful readers (both real and imaginary). And I am thankful that I know the One I am thankful to.

I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving. (Whether you actually like the holiday or not.)