AI AI Oh!

So AI is taking over...everything. On the one hand I am old and like using my brain, but on the other hand, using it saves me So. Much. Time. Aside from the obvious AI slop that is all over YouTube, there are so many ways to use this new technology...

• When Chat GPT was first released, I didn't really have a use for it but I told it to write me a song in the style of Kanye West (he may be a creeper but he is a talented songwriter). Within seconds it produced better lyrics than Kanye could and I was shocked!
• Then I had a PDF document that I couldn't un-PDF and faced the task of typing out an entire document so I could rearrange it. In desperation I uploaded it to Gemini AI and it printed out the document perfectly into a Word document and I was able to get my revisions done in record time.
• Next, I had some bylaws for an organization that I said I would review and update. Thinking that I could spend a couple hours revising and researching or I could ask Gemini AI to revise the bylaws according to current 501c3 rules, I uploaded the document and within a literal minute had an updated, accurate, and beautifully revised document. Awesome!
• I wanted to see what Gemini AI could do with photos so I uploaded a photo of hubby, told it to turn the photo into a cartoon, and it downloaded a cartoon-looking picture of hubby which I used for our Facebook page. Cute!
• My friend emailed me at zero-dark-thirty this morning and said "can you please write me a letter to our leasing company asking to be released from our current lease a couple months early because my new house just closed?". I simply cut and paste her exact words into Gemini AI and within a minute it printed out a letter for her to send. Her only comment was "you write so quickly and professionally!" I did tell her it was AI and not me doing the work. She was shocked.
• I was talking to a friend who is a district manager with a company that recently asked him to run a second district when that manager quit unexpectedly. I asked him if he ever uses AI and he said "yes, all day, everyday". I suggested that with AI, he could permanently run both districts, make a higher salary for doing the extra work, yet the company can also save money by not hiring a new full time district manager. He said he was already on it and is expecting a job offer, at much higher pay, any day now.
• Finally, I attended a meeting today and I asked who had their AI avatar on. The host said one lady in our group couldn't attend the meeting so she had her avatar attend the meeting in her place (basically it records the meeting and sends the recording to her inbox). Yikes this technology is evolving quickly!

So I guess whether we love AI or hate AI, it is here to stay. I didn't like the concept at first but remembered the movie 'Hidden Figures' that I watched several years ago. The computers (ladies who computed math equations) were being replaced by computers (the machines).  Instead of complaining about the change like most people were doing, one lady jumped into learning the new system thereby securing herself a new job as a trainer for how to use the new machines. In this vein, I try to watch a few "how to use AI" videos each evening so I can find new and effective ways to enhance my work with the new technology.

10 Quick Things

In no particular order...

1. Our sunrises and sunsets are beautiful (mostly due to the wildfire smoke coming over from Arizona).
2. It has been hot hot hot here...109 degrees, 107 degrees, 108 degrees...yikes!
3. We haven't seen the feral cats in ages (we hope someone is keeping them in their house where it is nice and cool).
4. Sunday is both Father's Day and the Summer Solstice.
5. My friend just moved back to Las Vegas and bought a new home. She is having an Indian housewarming ceremony and I did a double take when the invitation said the party starts at 6am!
6. School is out and there are kids everywhere! However in our area, summer vacation is short-lived as they go back to school in mid August.
7. One of our ceiling light bulbs has been burned out for months but since it is in the section of our house where the ceiling is about 25 feet high, neither hubby or I thought it would be safe for us to change it. Cue me noticing a couple of guys trimming palm trees in our neighborhood so I told them to come to my house with their ladder when they got finished working; they quickly set up their ladder and changed it for me!
8. This lady is so me these days.
9. Things that are stressing me out: funding for my job (will probably evaporate soon according to the governor), prices (high...on everything), news (negative and tragic...plane crashes, murdery people, a video of a lady bungie jumping off a 130-foot tall bridge where they forgot to attach the bungie cord to her....ugh).
10. Some happy news...international visitors are raving about the wonders of the US! There are hundreds of videos like this on YouTube.

10 Random Things

1. These are lemons (or they will be when they are ready to pick in late November!).
2. The baby eagles that were hatched only a couple months ago are almost ready to fly!
3. 10 Things that Are a Complete Waste of Money After 60 (I wholeheartedly agree with all of these).
4. I am using AI more and more these days, especially if I can't "un-PDF" a document. I just upload the PDF to Gemini AI and tell it to print out all of the content in the document then I copy and paste the results into a Word document and I've saved myself hours of typing! Next up...agentic AI!
5. Summer is definitely here...100 degrees+ for several days and this is just the beginning :/
6. I watch a LOT of tech videos but in an effort to save money (and because I already have too much tech already), I just order cute new covers for my phone and tablet (about $10 each) instead of new devices (about $1000 each).
7. I wish we lived further north. I've never seen the aurora borealis before but apparently many people in the Lower 48 have the opportunity to see it this weekend.
8. Speaking of nature, there was an earthquake in Vegas yesterday but hubby and I didn't even feel it.
9. FWIW, I think everyone should have a 30-day (at minimum!) stockpile of food on hand.
10. A month from now, the US will turn 250 years old!

Hot Cats

It's over 100 degrees here this week and these poor feral cats are hot! 

100 Extreme Money-Saving Tips

I came across this article on how people survived the Great Depression and it brought back memories of my grandparents who were young adults during the Depression. Pretty much everything they did to save money during that time carried with then through the entirety of their lives. Even when financial times were much better, they never changed their money-saving ways; these skills were so ingrained in their everyday behavior that it even rubbed off on me--I still have these habits nearly a century after the Great Depression!

Here are the things that helped them--and me--save money during difficult financial times...

1. Take the bus instead of having a car (this is more time-consuming but can save a fortune!).
2. Walk or ride a bike to do your errands.
3. Car pool to and from work.
4. Try bartering for the things you need.
5. Shop thrift stores, yard sales, etc. to save money on the things you need.
6. Ask for hand-me-down clothes and tell people you will gladly take the things they want to give away.
7. Grow your own food (fruit, veges, chickens, etc).
8. Forage for food.
9. Ask local farmers if you can glean their harvested fields.
10. Hunt and fish for a hobby as well as to fill your freezer.
11. Buy in bulk and preserve (can, pickle, freeze, etc) the food for future use.
12. Repair instead of throwing items out and buying a new ones.
13. Make coffee at home and take it with you in a thermos.
14. Skip restaurants/fast food and always cook at home.
15. If you will be out, take food from home with you to eat.
16. Utilize the free services of your local library system.
17. Use preventive maintenance to make things (furnace, clothing, teeth, etc) last longer.
18. Don't buy an item unless you absolutely need it.
19. Consider alternative ways to acquire items you don't use often (rent, borrow from a friend or neighbor, etc).
20. Use less of an item (shampoo, toothpaste, laundry soap, etc) than the manufacturer recommends (it usually works just as well). I also add water to shampoo to make it stretch.
21. Use washable rags for cleaning instead of disposable paper products.
22. Hang clothes to dry instead of using a dryer.
23. Cut and chop your own firewood if you can heat your home this way.
24. Look for ways to save water/electricity/natural gas in order to lower those bills.
25. Save money on personal care by doing it yourself (nails, haircuts, etc) or go to a beauty school for these highly discounted services.
26. Ditto dental care (go to a dental school instead of a regular dentist).
27. Consider "medical tourism" to Mexico or other countries for highly discounted medications, glasses, dental care, medical care, etc.
28. For vacations, go on day trips instead of far-flung travel, go camping instead of staying in an expensive hotel, drive instead of flying, etc.
29. Use an over-the-air antenna to watch TV instead of having cable or expensive streaming services.
30. Listen to the radio instead of subscription services like Spotify.
31. Use the cheapest phone service you can find. Years ago this would have been a "party line", these days it would be a $15 a month Mint Mobile plan.
32. For extreme folks, skip the cell phone all together and only communicate with people over wifi (at home or at work or use free wifi in public places).
33. Don't let food go to waste--eat leftovers, freeze leftovers for a future meal, turn small bits of meat or vegetables into a soup, use old bread for bread pudding, etc.
34. Add food scraps/coffee grounds/egg shells/etc to your compost pile.
35. DIY as much as possible--watch YouTube for videos on how to fix your home, fix your car, plan your wedding, sew a dress,etc.
36. When you have a problem that requires money to fix, brainstorm several ways to do it the cheapest way possible (instead of having a computer printer that requires expensive ink, I have documents printed out at the library/Office Depot/casino business center instead for about 10 cents a page).
37. Stop bad habits. Drinking, smoking, drugs, gambling, etc are a huge waste of money.
38. Choose cheap hobbies (walking, disc golf, etc) over expensive hobbies (golf, boating, anything to do with horses).
39. Never carry debt. Save your money until you can afford the item instead of paying interest on a loan.
40. Pay cash instead of using credit cards.
41. Avoid subscriptions as much as possible (these can really add up over time).
42. Avoid scams and money-sinks (like time shares, get-rich-quick schemes, MLMs, etc).
43. Skip the gym membership and walk around your neighborhood/mall, work in the yard, do high-intensity cleaning, etc.
44. Pay attention to freebies (free stuff and events listed in the paper/social media, free furniture left on the curb on trash day that you can rehab, free stuff that neighbors want to get ride of when updating their homes, etc).
45. Look for alternate ways to fund your education (scholarships, join the military, skip college and do an apprenticeship, etc).
46. Skip "normal" bills if possible (process your own trash, use solar panels and battery banks to replace all or some of your grid electricity, etc).
47. Drive your car until the wheels fall off (at $50k for a new car these days, we will drive our old car until it dies a permanent death!).
48. Downsize and minimize your home/belongings/social commitments/etc.
49. Volunteer at an event/venue so you can get free entry to the venue/event.
50. Pick a good spouse (this can make a huge difference in your financial well being).
51. If you have a lousy spouse who is a financial/emotional drain, get divorced (usually there is a cost up front but it can save you money in the long run).
52. Raise good kids (this can save you money in the long run and the world will thank you for this).
53. Instead of planting ornamental trees and shrubs, plant fruit trees and berry bushes.
54. Instead of planting flowers, plant vegetables (actually plant some of both!).
55. Think long and hard about having kids or pets (some people skip both based on the extreme financial commitment required).
56. Avoid financial problems of your own making (ie: speeding tickets, parking tickets, not paying off credit cards each month, buying more house/car than you can afford, etc).
57. Don't fall for advertising that makes you buy junk you don't need.
58. Shop around for car and house insurance at each renewal time.
59. Google for discounts that pertain to your situation (student, veteran, senior, first responder, etc).
60. Consider retiring in a foreign country to save money (some people actually do this!).
61. Eat less. Many Americans eat 3000 to 5000 calories a day which is enough for two or three people. Skip snacking, junk food, and eating huge meals.
62. Do meal-prep cooking and put several meals in the freezer for those times when you are tired and feel like ordering food to be delivered.
63. Try dumpster diving (especially around universities at the end of the school year).
64. Find free stuff, rehab/clean up the item, then sell the item on FB/CL.
65. Shop loss leaders at the grocery store every week then build your meals around these items.
66. Eat cheap and healthy (a giant box of oatmeal is $10 at Costco and can make breakfast for months; 25 pound bags of beans or rice can be the base of numerous meals).
67. Consider reusable items over disposable items (plastic sandwich boxes over ziploc bags, dryer balls over dryer sheets, storing food in plastic containers instead of plastic wrap, etc).
68. Buy and hold items for years (ie: buy a car instead of leasing, buy a house and keep it for years instead of renting, etc).
69. Buy items that hold their value (ie: a Honda, guns, gold jewelry, etc).
70. Buy items that last forever (cast iron pans, quality tools, Speed Queen washers, etc).
71. Pay more for quality products with great warranties (Darn Tough socks, Osprey packs, etc).
72. Buy bug spray each season and spray around your house for pests instead of hiring an exterminator.
73. Buy a big Sunday newspaper, use the coupons to save on groceries, then use the newspaper in place of paper towels for draining fish, cleaning windows, etc.
74. Look through your junk mail for money-saving coupons.
75. When you are looking for one-time use items like wedding dresses or prom dresses, check thrift stores or ask to borrow from friends rather than paying retail for these items.
76. Don't increase your standard of living when your paycheck increases.
77. If you want to get out of debt and 'live like no one else', follow Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps.
78. Buy inexpensive items until you know you will use that item everyday (ie: buy a hand mixer for cooking/baking and skip the fancy Kitchen Aid mixer until you know you will use it a lot).
79. If you know you want to buy/upgrade an item, be patient and wait for the item to come on sale; you can save hundreds of dollars this way.
80. Buy an item based on your needs, don't buy "the best" item if you don't need it. I buy mid-range laptops because, while I use them everyday, all I use them for is writing documents and Zoom meetings not big number crunching and video production.
81. Don't loan money. Ever. We give small amounts of money as gifts to people in need but if people need a loan they should go to a bank.
82. Have an emergency fund instead of relying on credit cards for this.
83. Be completely debt free (your emergency fund can cover many more months of an illness or job loss if you don't have house/car/student loan payments to pay).
84. If you must get a mortgage to buy a house, get it for a 15 year term and save a fortune on interest (also buy less house than you can afford rather than the most expensive house you can get a mortgage for).
85. Use apps to save money (at restaurants, at grocery stores,etc).
86. If there is a place the family likes to visit often (zoo, museum, National Park) consider buying an annual pass.
87. Even used cars are expensive these days but a low-mile, high-quality used car will be cheaper than buying a brand new car.
88. Once you have a good-sized emergency fund, consider raising your insurance deductibles to $1000 or more. Also read the policy thoroughly to make sure it doesn't cover things you don't need. 
89. These days we swear by having bidets on each toilets which saves a lot of money on toilet paper (this is much better, IMHO, than using pages from the Sears catalog like they did in my grandparent's day before indoor plumbing!).
90. To save money on heating, dress in layers, wear sox to bed, if you will be watching TV, use a blanket instead of turning up the heat, etc. In my grandparent's day, they would fill a hot water bottle and put it by their feet when they went to bed to stay warm.
91. Although I am pretty much a minimalist, my grandparents saved everything. Buttons, rubber bands, wire, bacon grease, magazines, foil, wrapping paper from gifts...literally everything just in case it could be useful later.
92. Take care of your clothes to make them last longer--remove stains, iron before wearing, sew on a lost button or frayed hem, etc.
93. Reuse containers--years ago every home had a collection of jelly jars used for drinking, these days we use take-home containers from restaurants to give food to the neighbors, pasta sauce jars to store beans, etc.
94. A great compost can be made from chicken droppings, food scraps, leaves, etc. Let cure for many months and it works wonders in the garden.
95. These days literally anything from cooking to gardening to much more can be learned from YouTube while years ago, most information came via word of mouth from friends and neighbors. Use both of these resources to learn things.
96. Many hours of entertainment can be had from board games, card games, picnics in the park, walking in the woods, etc.
97. When cooking, skipping or limiting an expensive item, like making bean chili instead of meat chili, or cutting up a small piece of meat to add to the stew and adding more vegetables, was a common thing back then and now as well.
98. Skip all of the "influencer" stuff like unending hair and face products. Polishing your nails on special occasions is healthier than using chemicals on your nails everyday, false eyelashes are ick, and don't even get me started on GLP-1 drugs that make people look skeletal. Yikes
99. Make your own bottled water/sports drinks/soda by bringing these things from home in an insulated tumbler.
100. Finally, doing without used to be a thing. These days Amazon can deliver literally everything you want or need but years ago this wasn't an option. Sometimes you had to make do or do without.

How to Trim a Palm Tree...And Other Things

Every once in a while I look out my window and see something unusual...

And in other news... 

• I wish you all a happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend! We will probably go to the free military buffet at the South Point Casino on Monday as this is something we usually do on the holiday.
• When things get stressful (which work has been lately...I would love to elaborate but policy says I can't talk about ______ and confidentiality protocol says I can't talk about ________ ) I zone out occasionally and watch live cat videos here and here.
• I will also be voting in the mid term primaries this weekend (everyone should vote like their life depends on it...because it does).
• I will be avoiding people as much as possible, which is kind of normal for me (measles, ebola, and hantavirus oh my!).
• There are 100 days between this coming Sunday and the last day of August so I may do some sort of '100 Days of Summer' project.
• Finally, for those of you who will be out and about, Memorial Day is a free entry day to the National Parks.

The State of the Economy?

Some random observations...

• They now sell half loaves of bread (literally labeled half loaf) at the Dollar Tree. Of course they charge the same price as a whole loaf of bread for it  :/
• A quick note if you use an OTA antenna on your TV, rescan every once in a while. We did this a few days ago and found that dozens of new channels have been added!
• I got a Starbucks gift card for Mother's Day so I swung by our local Starbucks to pick up a coffee Frapuccino and I couldn't believe that in the short time I waited for my drink, more than a half dozen Doordashers came in to pick up Starbucks orders. That seems like a crazy expensive way to get a coffee!
• Here is a subreddit on the proverbial cat distribution system.
• Also from reddit, a great list of frugal tips.
• Polymarket and similar sites prove that people will bet on literally anything!
• Finally, here are some uplifting memes...