Paul at Lat43 does these hysterical Morning Tea blog posts which are a brain dump of whatever pops into his head while he's writing them. I decided to steal his idea. Except, I'm drinking coffee while I write this and he drinks tea, so it isn't really stealing, is it?
So, here we go - all of the random nonsense floating through my head while I sip on my morning coffee.
- I stayed at a house in Atlanta earlier this month that came complete with two cats, one dog, and an Alexa. I loved the cats, the dog was sweet, but Alexa creeped me out. The thought of an object in the corner talking to me was weird. As much as I love reading scifi, I don't think I'm really cut out for a world populated with androids and AIs.
- Of course, I'm one of those people who has the camera on my computer covered up with blue tape. You know that they're watching, don't you?
- Some raccoons got on my boat in the middle of the night and made a terrible racket.
- I'm assuming they're raccoons because the alternatives that I imagined are frightening. Like an army of Alexas trying to break in and remove the blue tape from my computer.
- What would you do if you had a child named Alexa? How would she know if you were talking to her or the box?
- I asked Alexa about it. She told me we could change her name. I think she meant her name, not the child's name, but who really knows what AIs mean. They're devious that way.
- Dogs smell peculiar. What gets me is that it doesn't seem to bother them in the least. Cats freak out if they get something gross on them and clean themselves immediately.
- The dog I stayed with was called Mr. Chien. I can't pronounce French in the morning before my coffee, so I just called him Dog. He seemed perfectly happy with that. But, then again, he's the type of dog that's pretty happy with everything.
- When I got back to the marina, I found soylent green around my boat. It wasn't as bad as a couple of years ago, but it's still pretty scary to think what the chemicals involved in sugar cane production can do to the local waters.
- If you haven't watched Soylent Green, you should. You might want to think carefully about what you're going to have for dinner afterward though.
- The house I stayed at had one of those machines with coffee pods. I'm not sure what they're called, but they're wonderful. You don't have to clean up coffee grounds, you just chuck the plastic pod in the trash.
- Yes, yes, I know - so bad for the environment. That's why we don't own one.
- Okay, that's not really why we don't own one. There are other considerations like lack of space in our galley, the fact that you need electricity to run it, and because we're cheap. We have a perfectly good French press that does the job. Plus we'd feel guilty about all of the plastic pods.
- Plane tickets are expensive right now. We're looking at flights back for Scott and it's gonna cost a pretty penny.
- Are pennies really pretty? Where did that expression come from?
- I spent most of my time in Atlanta trying to win over the two cats. They let me rub their bellies, so I think I was successful.
- I think I'm going to name my next cat Alexa.
What did you think about over your morning cup of coffee, tea, or other beverage of your choice? What time did you wake up at?
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Maybe Alexa can talk to Simon instead?
ReplyDeleteI don't want any AIs in my house.
Can you imagine Simon trying to order Alexa to rub his belly? :-)
DeleteWhat a fun post!
ReplyDeleteBe thankful all those raccoons did was make a racket. One got into our sunroom and made a disgusting mess. Reeeeeally disgusting.
Ooh...that sounds super disgusting.
DeleteSo, every time we move to a new house for a house sit, I walk in and ask, "Alexa, are you here?" It's good to know right off the bat. She can be quite entertaining, she was telling us jokes last night. We asked her what zero divided by zero was, but her answer was quiet boring - so we asked Siri, check out the answer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOhq_cjOGNo
ReplyDeleteLove that video - too funny!
DeleteArg. The people I nanny for have cameras all over their house and even on their doorbell. They recently got Alexa's which they put in a few rooms of their house too. Not going to lie, it definitely freaked me out. I try to stay outside of where I think the cameras may see. I HATE the idea of being watched and heard all the time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, aren't all dogs happy most of the time? I call my dog "dog" and my cat "cat" and neither seem to take offense to it. (Though if any animal were to it would be the cat.) Sounds like you were successful at winning over the cats!
Yeah, the whole nanny cam thing is disconcerting. I can totally see why parents do it, but I hate the idea of being watched and heard.
DeleteI thought it was just us not wanting an Alexa or whatever. And the camera on my computer is covered over, too. I wish I could do it on my phone, but then I'd have to rip it off whenever I wanted to take a photo.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear I'm not the only one who covers up the computer camera!
DeleteYou're a hoot. My son Fain and I were at a marina recently and a woman called to her dog Diogi. Fain said, "What language is that?" I said, "English. D-O-G." Ha! I'm usually up by 6:30, and I used to drink coffee as soon as I'd wake up. However, I read an article this week that said your cortisol is already so high in the morning, you don't reap the full reward of coffee until around 9:30am. I'm testing that theory, so now I drink water when I first wake up and hit the coffee at 8. (The article said to get the full benefit, you should drink four and six eight-ounce cups of coffee between 9:30-11:30.) I usually don't start thinking until around 7:30. I like to pace myself. :D
ReplyDeleteNot 8, 9:30. Duh. That was my brain's wishful thinking, maybe. XD
DeleteInteresting tidbits about the optimal time to drink coffee. I might have to try that out.
DeleteKeurig! I have one of those coffee makers. Love it. I have some pods, but we purchased a filter that fits inside and I fill it with regular ground coffee. Cheaper and no pod to throw away.
ReplyDeleteA reusable filter is a great idea!
DeleteI loved that movie. Scared me to death that people were eating people, but it was a most entertaining movie.
ReplyDeleteI think about what I'm going to do today. What chores that need doing and if I can put them off for another month.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. ♥
It was a very creepy movie, but quite entertaining.
DeleteI say why do today, what you can put off for another day :-)
As always, i was up before dawn. When i’m on vacation, as now, i walk the beach to watch the sun rise. The rest of my day i am going to just lounge around, it’s not something i get to do much of at home.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my clients have an Alexa, and i wonder about such things. Neither of them use it much, Ms. JAI went back to playing records on her stereo and tapes on her tape player, and Ms. G got tired of bothering with it.
Such a nice start to the day to go for a beach walk. I do wonder how many people end up not really using their Alexas.
DeleteHmmm, yes, my 20-something daughter is named Alexa. She had the name first.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great name :-)
DeleteI know an Alexa AND a Siri. They are unrelated, indeed unknown to each other. Might be good names for a set of twins though! Or maybe not.
ReplyDeleteWhat a hysterical idea for twin names!
DeleteI cover my camera, too. ~grin~ I didn't enjoy my usual fruity iced tea this morning, too busy socializing with the little stray cat in my basement. He's so sweet and grateful acting! I'm crossing my fingers his vet appointment goes well on Tuesday and our old female cats get along with him. Be well! Thank you for the giggles.
ReplyDeleteI've seen pictures of your stray. He's such a handsome kitty. I hope all goes well and you get to keep him.
Deletefun read. If you name your next cat Alexa, don't get an Alexa or your cat is going to get confused as to who you're talking to when you say, "Alexa, turn on the TV"
ReplyDeleteCan you just imagine the cat looking at you like you were crazy. "You expect me to do work for you and turn on the TV. Get lost."
DeleteYou can play Skyrim using Alexa - not only you are talking to an object in the corner - you are asking it to swing an axe at the oversized crab!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what Skyrim is - off to google it :-)
DeleteI'm chuckling as I'm reading your post. But coffee? No it has to be tea! lol We have a Google thing like Alexa - it was given to hubby as a present. We hardly use it - he's too much of a technaphobe to sort out adding music etc to it. She mostly gets to tell us the time and the weather forecast! There was a TV programme here recently that was scary about how easy it is for people to hack into things like Alexa. The main mistake people make is to not change the password on their wireless routers. Thankfully we've done that. But it was still scary.
ReplyDeleteIt is scary what all of these devices can do and the security risks.
Delete