Riverbend Journal

A.I. Generated Artwork Once again, cancer has snuck into my life and clenched it's ugly jaws onto another person I love. The first time it grabbed my mother some six and a half years ago and that battle ended up in a draw with the death of both my mom and the cancer. This time it has chosen my wife to pick on. I hope this time, it will be a clear loser. As far as cancers goes, this one is the one I would chose if a gun was aimed at my head and told to pick one. My wife didn't get to choose and was merely told by the doctor she had breast cancer. As we have learned in the months since, it models low aggressive growth, was caught at an early stage, Stage 1A as they say in the cancer world, has hormonal receptors which means hormonal blockers are effective treatments, and has no bad genetic markers for cancers know to spread virulently or to offspring. We were given two different treatment options and though they have the same overall prognosis, they both lead you down much differ...

A.I. Generated Artwork I had the dream again last night. In it, I am sorting through the relics of an inheritance I received separating things into piles and eagerly anticipating researching and looking at each and everything carefully to identify the story behind it and why it is so meaningful to me. But at the end, the people in the room helping me sort them into piles leave and I'm left with this sad feeling of what to do with these things. The memories of them are what make them valuable to me and I know they create no memories for anyone else. I woke up with a generally sadness of trying to figure out what to do with all the physical items. This is probably the third or fourth time I've had this dream now. Having received similar inheritances in the past, I'm guessing it is my brain's way of processing subconscious thoughts, although writing this post brings them out to the forefront of my conscious. As I have sorted through things in the past, I have indeed writte...

  Not often am I blown away when a genealogist on YouTube puts out a video showing me the latest and greatest way to find new records on ancestors. For the most part, it is just rehashing what I have already known about and tried. But recently, I watched a video about a new search function on FamilySearch.org called "Full-Text Search". As of writing this, it is still a feature in their "Experimental Labs" section of their site but one I think anyone can navigate to it and try it out. Essentially, it is using some sort of A.I. software to read and translate script written documents that are scanned but not yet translated or indexed in any way. It sounded promising so I went downstairs to try it out. I have a lot of fairly undocumented families that I would like to search for more documents on but I chose to do my first search on my Chicken family since their surname is fairly unique. I typed in the name of Joseph Chicken since the two most researched people on that b...

  Gourmet table back in 2022 Long time readers will know that my wife and I are part of a gourmet group. We were invited into it many years ago and have enjoyed being in it all these years. It consisted of four other couples besides ourselves, and we rotated through our ranks being hosts. We break out the fine china and have a five course meal with each couple being responsible for one of those courses at the direction of the host who usually picks the theme, if any. The results are about five times a year we gather over a delicious meal that stretches over three hours long filled with great conversation among the lawyers, doctors and engineers (me being the only one of the latter) that comprise our group. It has been thoroughly enjoyable. A few months ago, one of those couples moved away to be nearer their kids and grandkids leaving a hole. Before they left, we had one more gourmet meal and had a great time except at the end when we normally pull out our phones and set up a date f...

A.I. Generated Image Back when I was growing up, "horseshoes and hand grenades" was a saying that was used to signal someone coming up short and saying they had been close. The response was "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." These days, nobody uses that saying anymore, at least that I've heard. Instead, we give out participation ribbons for everyone. With nothing really on my mind to post, other than that saying, I typed it into an A. I. image creator and above was one of four results it spit out at me, none of them really having a horseshoe in them. So perhaps horseshoes are still a bit fuzzy for A.I., especially when referring to the recreational game of horseshoes. The other three pictures options presented a person with a cowboy hat on their head. "Slicker than a bean" was another expression that came to mind but in that case, google couldn't provide with any help on determining its origins or meaning. I can still remember how...