Month: May 2023

Played at De Koepel golf course today in preparation of next week's big senior championship. About a two hour drive to get there, but it was worth it.

I think that I am finally starting to play better again. Shot an okay 37 + 41 = 78 with one birdie and two stupid double bogies. The back nine is much more difficult. Wish me luck next week.

Whenever we visit my elderly relative in the care home, and the weather being suitable enough, we take her downstairs to have a nice cup of coffee out on the patio which has a pleasant view of the garden. She enjoys the sounds of birds and the beautifully colored flowers and plants.

There are a number of older folk living there with various levels of one or the other ailment. A large majority have to be pushed around in wheelchairs, and sometimes you see someone walking along slowly using a wheeled walker.

On this occasion, there was an older man scuffling along the garden path which is made of gravel and is circular in shape. The path takes you along the perimeter of the garden with a total length of some thirty meters.

For whatever reason, this older man kept moving faster and faster. As he picked up sufficient pace, his legs seems to go out of control, propelling him at a pretty significant running speed. Indeed, his body had acquired youthful energy, and he was jogging along like someone half of his age.

At first I just thought that he was exercising extra hard, after being cooped up all day inside of his room. But it soon became apparent that he could not keep up with his quickly shuffling legs, and he launched himself onto the patio about to hit a table. Fortunately there was another person sitting there and she caught him by the arm just in time. Whew, that was a close one. His right right arm was bleeding slightly due to his brushing violently along the bushes during the final lap.

I learned later that this behavior is a common syndrome of people suffering from Parkinson's disease. The trembling of extremities sometimes gets triggered and turns into more violent synchronized motions. In the case of the old man, his shaking legs went into turbo mode and sped him along like a unmanned projectile. Getting faster and faster until disaster was ready to strike.

Let's not forget to be thankful for our good health now. Appreciate life to its utmost while you can.

How often in the past have ignorant ivory tower government officials tried to impose supposedly inane IT security measures, which on closer inspection are completely infeasible in terms of the existing technologies? Going overboard along a single front line of defense is not the right answer and is plainly insane. As even more draconian measures are imposed, following a just-in-case mentality, there remain much easier and less obvious means to hack into a given corporation. Remember the Maginot line which was simply bypassed by the Germans during the first world war? We should learn from our mistakes in the past and just get along with our work without unnecessary barbed wire, trenches and imaginary Maginot lines.

Despite the huge hype about ChatGPT these days, I still entertain a negative feeling towards all of the so-called amazing promises that this wonderful new technology has to offer us.

However, before I go too far sticking my neck out spewing negativities, I figured it would be better if I first learn more details about what this new technology is under the hood and what it has really to offer. For me, for my surroundings and for the rest of society.

That's why I have signed up for for a course and am following it now.

ChatGPT - The Complete Guide to ChatGPT & OpenAI APIs

What a great privilege it was for me to be the captain of such a fantastic team. Ending up second place is a great achievement, and I congratulate all our golfing heroes who made it happen. We will have to wait until next year to decide how to proceed further, but no matter what happens, the fun memories will last.