Changing times, are we ready for them?

This morning I was thinking about an article I did on this blog, August 8, 2025, entitled "In the Shadow of AI: The Future of Websites" in which I postulated that websites as we know them today would disappear in about 10 years because the act of searching will have radically changed by then. You will just ask an AI and it will get the answer for you. While I was thinking about this today I ran across a YouTube video by Christopher Barnatt entitled "Radical Computing Evolution" where he suggests that the old familiar Graphical User Interface that we all know and love will become an "Agent Command Interface ", that is, you will ask your computer to do something and the AI agent will carry out the task. This would go beyond simply opening programs and automating mouse clicks. You might for example ask in the computer to look through all your mail and create entries on your calendar for events pertinent to your daily routine. The agent would then run the appropriate programs in the background to complete all the tasks necessary to complete the objective. 

I have been using AI increasingly over the last two years, because it is the best way to get things done. As long as you know how to work with the AI agent. (An "AI agent" is a program that can act autonomously and plan the steps necessary to accomplish a goal without the user having to spell out each individual step.)

November 11 is Remembrance Day in Canada so I thought "I would like to create a poster of the Flanders Fields" poem with some artwork that would be both respectful and artistically correct to the year 1915. I headed over to Google Flow which is Google's image and video creation AI platform and I must say the agent did a marvellous job of framing the poem in a beautiful setting. Complete with the "Canadian Red Ensign" which was the flag flown in Canada prior to 1965. Below is the image created by the AI along with the instructions (prompt) I gave it: 

 

POEM: In Flanders Fields 
Written by  Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae in 1915

If you would like a full colour printable version of this poem suitable for 8.5 x 11" (US letter) printing you can download it here.

 

In Flanders Fields
By Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie, In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

 

After the image was created I spent several hours reading about the old flag and the Canadian troops. The point is though, just like a librarian the AI brought together many historical items and each one provided me with a new avenue to research.

In future, this trend will continue and I can see the traditional, most driven graphical user interface that all computers use now days being looked at like a model T Ford. Indeed I think the whole concept of a computer with separate parts is about to be challenged. Integrated onto a single chip perhaps instead of discrete components.

However there is a downside I can see if people become overly reliant on this very helpful artificial intelligence. AI's need to be created which will nurture investigative skills in people rather than just giving them the whole answer up front. If we do not do this, I can see vital skills being underdeveloped or lost. Particularly in young people this can have catastrophic effects. Because one learns how to think at a very early age and they're usually some challenge aspect to whatever task is being undertaken. This is very important to do because the child also learns patience while they are working through any given problem.

Yesterday I was asked by someone to help them with a issue they had encountered when filling out a form online. Specifically they wanted to change some of its contents. Once we got into the discussion however it became obvious that the original form had been converted to a graphic and therefore the text could not be edited. However I could tell that they did not understand the nuances. To them even though it had been converted to a graphic you should be able to easily replace the text and perfectly match the font that was there in the original image. Anyone who is trying to do so knows how difficult it can be to match fonts in an image. This would normally be knowledge would gain through actually editing an image and learning the appropriate software. But even though they had had a phone and a laptop for many years they had never learned that different types of content can be displayed on a screen, and that it affects whether or not they can and it what they can see on their phone. This situation had occurred because technology as it evolves hides the details of how it works and unless one starts to investigate one never learns how the device truly works. In this case that meant that how they thought their phone worked was not how it really worked. It was also hard to explain the differences to them between a picture and a document file which could be edited.

Historically whenever society changed in response to major changes, be it the advent of electricity, the steam engine, or something else, people given enough time began to understand the new thing and adapt to it. However, I think this time around, we are in danger of losing the very skills we as human beings need to adapt to the massive changes technology is bringing. In the above example regarding editing a form the person did not exhibit any investigative desires. They were not curious about their phone displayed the form. They just thought because it "Looks like a form you can fill out." One should be able to edit it like a form and a word processor.

When I was a very young child, my parents would go crazy at Christmas trying to figure out what way to get me, because I would take everything apart. I am wanted to know how the thing worked and I did take everything apart! I still do it whenever I can :-) I am curious, some might call it insane curiosity but I really enjoy finding out that how and why behind whatever it is. This can take time, lots of time. I wish my days were longer. It is this desire which seems to be disappearing and that has me concerned. Because the world is so automated now, people assume that everything should just work. All I on the other hand marvel at what is going on behind the scenes. Even if I don't understand the device or topic, I know there is a huge amount of technical detail and people behind what ever it is. I do not take anything for granted. I still get excited about my seven-year-old electric chair. Occasionally when a repair technician comes over to fix the thing I tend to drive them a little crazy because I see the evolution of the technology. I will soon start investigating a replacement for this chair and I'm excited because, not only will I find the full service manual and read through it. I will most likely fry every aspect out :-) there won't be a mode I, a button or a module not turned on at one point. I know that it is very important and healthy to understand change.

So if you read this on November 11, 2026 appreciate all the effort and sacrifice people have endured to allow us to experience these new changes and if you're reading this after this date, try to learn something new today. Get used to change and if you can learn to enjoy the trip involved in changing.

Patrick

 Note:All images displayed in this article were created by Google Gemini Pro. Any semblance to other work is purely coincidental.  All text is actually written by human and it is original.

Halloween 2026

 

 This post will continue to get longer as Halloween approaches. Therefore the latest material and graphics for your amusement will be found at the bottom.There is also now quite a few graphics loading, and a few of them are quite large. Please be patient. 

I am a total 130% kid at heart, and proud of it, so when Halloween is even remotely close I get totally into the spirit of it. The same sort of thing happens around Christmas and I have over 50 Christmas albums to prove it. 

Most importantly though it's not the belief or the ritual that intrigues me. It is how people can manifest changes although they may insist that the change is due to a belief I see it as an ability which is innate to everyone. You don't manifest a change in spirit or situation because of "something", you do it because you undertook the effort to alter your self. Let's put the power where it belongs and it is always with the individual. And there isn't anything spooky about that .🧙‍♀️

So I enjoyed the festive season's even though I'm not a believer in any way shape or form. When I die, that will be it for the program known as "Patrick" now, some may find that perspective a little alarming. I find it comforting and indeed motivating.-Life is short and I am not going to waste it. So pardon me will I go Halloween crazy and then Christmas crazy. It is the chance to let a little creativity out while getting together with friends.

The photograph at the top of this article is simply a picture I took of a jack-o'-lantern purchased from the local Home Depot. The image is initially underexposed and then I ran what is known as a histogram equalization filter which simply brought all the colour regardless of how dark it was up into the visible range. I put it through the same software that I use to make my YouTube videos and put an animated background behind the image. Proof-one tripped out jack-o'-lantern face.

I will be adding more images as we approach Halloween and if I get time I will do a video. So stay tuned and feel free to come back to this post. All graphics in this post I will place in the public domain. If I come up with something really fancy I will also provide a download link. Until then take care

I'm going to do something very childlike, go out and buy some fluorescent paint, a black/white or two, some craft paper (preferably black) and a paintbrush. To be clear I'm no artist so this is most likely going to be a pleasant disaster... But not from the kid's point of view. I am writing this text ahead of time so a photograph may show up on this post in a day or two.

  

The image above with the haunted house was created by starting with a real photo of a dilapidated house in Vancouver British Columbia. Then re-rendered through an AI to give it is spooky feeling by adding the weather and the woman walking down the sidewalk. I then took the image and put it on a swirling the background which is simply the colours up from the original drawing blended together. The image is suitable for a computer desktop or printing if you would like.

An interesting note about the house: it was later renovated by the city of Vancouver as a historical building. They brought it back to its original condition using period specific paints. They then moved it slightly down the block to accommodate new construction which grew up around it. If I can get a good photo of the renovated building I will post it on the blog with a separate history. For now know that the house lives on in the 21st-century. I believe a small business moved in and is opened a coffee house on the first floor.  

Oh I can't resist it… I want to see what Ideogram AI can do with Halloween. I gave the AI the following prompt and here's what it came up with. I can't decide on which image I like better so I will post all four: (As far as I can tell from their usage policy these images can be used freely, but please check here before using them for any specific public purpose as these things can change.) Note: Clicking on any of the following images may take some time to display as it will be the full 4K version. Especially over Wi-Fi or phone.

PROMPT: " A Halloween image showcasing all the various iconic portrayals in the last 120 years. Blend each portrayal seamlessly into its neighbour so that the viewer understands the chronology. The colour should be vivid and appropriate to the era depicted. You should draw on sources from the movies, folklore, religion and popularity of the time."

 
All of these pictures should be suitable for reasonable size printing. I uploaded them in 4K. However one never knows what the blog compression algorithm will do. Let me know if you need the originals.Just post a comment or if you're on tablet/laptop use the feedback form on the right side of the screen.

 

 I really do find this amazing, the remarkable evolution in quality since the first AI generated image used on this blog, which you can find in "Nurturing the Creative Soul" posted on January 28, 2023. Where will it be in quality in the next 12 months? Who knows.

 

The really wild thing is, it took this AI to create all four images under a minute in a high resolution. Using just the single prompt mentioned above.

 

This AI really likes vampire's, they are definitely prominent. A nice spooky collection to start things off, I definitely say. Stay tuned there is more on the way!
 

 

 

Okay, one more from AI. But this time just using something local running on my machine, which by AI standards is very old about two years. I gave "Vision FX 2.1" a prompt to make me spooky theatre and after several hours and a few iterations one of the pictures it came up with was this one. Here is the prompt I gave the local AI:

 

"Using Halloween as the theme for the style, create the auditorium of the spooky 1940s movie theatre as seen from the back row. The auditorium slopes sharply down toward a massive screen displaying a black-and-white image of a horror movie with the castle and the lightning in the background. Make the weather windy and quite cold looking. Although it is a dismal image it should at the same time the intriguing to the viewer. As though reading a frightening story you still cannot resist turning the next page to find out what happens."

 

If you're like me, one of the fondest memories from Halloween's way in the past was playing around with the original fluorescent Black Lights. I think they may give off enough ultraviolet to give you a suntan and I know we were warned not to stare directly at the light for too long due to the specific wavelength of ultraviolet. It didn't stop me from absolutely covering my apartment with posters that would glow under ultraviolet. I kind of wish I had some photographs to share… While wandering around our local Spirit Halloween store I ran into several piles of modern black lights. They use LEDs and they do work, not quite the same deep purple glow though. Nevertheless I bought enough fluorescent paint with two black lights to crank up the bill over $200 Canadian in about seven minutes. So the photo below is me just goofing around. By no means a work of art, but a lot of fun.

 I am just beginning to get into AI as it pertains to doing full-motion video. Ultimately I would like to create a few sequences with the storyline to put on the computers downstairs in the lunchroom. As a matter of fact, last night I spent two hours creating a witch character.

I believe the experience thus far has given me the tiniest insight into the detail that goes into a movie or even a commercial.This image was created using Google Flow.

 

 

The following video clip was created using "Ideogram AI" which I have used to create all of the artificially intelligent generated images on the blog up until this point. Unfortunately, I can only afford to subscribe to one AI service at a time. So we will be using Google Flow moving forward. This in no way is a reflection of the quality of either service, it is simply a financial decision. This image has been compressed and rendered down a fair bit in order to make it appropriate for the Internet. Please let me know if you want the full resolution version. This is the complete clip. Totally spooky in my opinion.

 

My paper shredder filled up, and I was inspired. I thought "what if we get the AI to create an image of a jack-o'-lantern stuffing candies into a paper shredder only do it in the style of Norman Rockwell?" This is the result and I think it's marvellous. I'm quite aware that I've gone AI crazy in the last two weeks, but not to fear I will return to sanity after the Halloween season.

 

 

November 3, 2026:

That's the end of the 2026 live Halloween post. There will of course be another one in 2027.

I shall do a Christmas version of course starting in early December and will be adding to it throughout the month. So stay tuned for that post I have no idea what graphics I will generate or create by hand. Feel free to send me suggestions!

Take care Patrick

Kindness

 

Whenever the topic of kindness comes up everyone assumes that we refer to being kind to others. "Being kind to oneself" is often pushed to the background if it is discussed at all. In this article I am suggesting not only is being kind to oneself underappreciated it is necessary to be kind to you first. This is because unless the individual has a chance to look at themselves and resolve their own issues around being appreciated and receiving kindness from themselves they often mildly corrupt the kindness they try to apply to others.

--- You can think of this as a mild form of sabotage.

On the other hand if you have honestly reviewed what you are feeling taken steps to improve your personal situation in a way that allows you to put down some emotional baggage, then you are in a much better position to truly show kindness to others. If on the other hand you find that whenever you are kind to people or even a certain person there is a negative effect for you. For example you feel tired after interacting with them or showing them generosity, that is a clear indication that you have some personal work to do regarding being kind to oneself.

It is my personal opinion that North America has placed a huge focus on the external world rather than paying equal attention to what's going on with the individual. This is equivalent in my book to running a car at full speed and being astonished when either the battery or the gas runs out. Perhaps because of my physical disability I am more aware of my internal world because for the most part mother nature gave me no choice. I had to learn to work with myself because the standard playbook of being completely unaware of the limits and indeed ultimately the insights my situation posed simply were not going to work if I did not pay attention to them. Actually I feel very lucky and am very appreciative that things have worked out the way they have.

Challenges can give a person the opportunity to look at a situation from many different viewpoints and from the inside as well with the external. I see this is a real gift. I can sympathize with the difficulty that many people experience in life because I could not ignore my own. The more you know about your self the better you will be to help others and adapt.

One of the things I see in my assisted-living facility is many people avoiding change. Trying to say the same or achieve again what they once had. "Why?…" I find myself asking. Things have changed and you must as well. If you don't all that happens is you set up a conflict. A never ending struggle that will draw your energies away. Approach the situation in an alternate way. If you have lost the ability to do something find other ways to achieve the same goal. If you can't tie your shoes for example with one hand anymore. Don't waste time and effort putting them on the old way. Perhaps think about a different design of shoes or one of the many devices available. This gives you insight to yourself and the ability to help others and as a side effect empathize and practice being kind to the world.

Look inside and be kind to yourself. That is the first step and it will make all others much more attainable and your appreciation of the greater world will indeed increase. A video on this very topic will appear on this website very soon. For now take care of yourself give yourself the permission to be kind. And then move on.

Patrick 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

 

What Is the Very Essence of Problem-Solving?

 We all have a friend or a family acquaintance who is the go to person when it comes to resolving device issues or even understanding the latest smart TV. What makes them so good at what they do? Is it a skill that can be learned? Or is it some "magical power" they received by virtue of watching 60 years of Star Trek? 😀

In this article and accompanying video I would like to break down what I personally think are some of the key attributes of such people. Let's start with a short list: This is from my own perspective. You may definitely feel differently about the following four points.

1. They come in every issue with a completely open mind. And have a tendency to look at the issue from multiple perspectives. If they could they would indeed try to walk a mile in someone shoes.
   
   One of the most important skills in problem solemnly is the ability to step out of your own mental framework of limitations. Most of us spend the day in this framework because it makes the mental load light on the brain. There is a structure to your reality and everything it's interpreted and filtered through this reality. Being able to put this framework aside makes it possible to be open to unconsidered possibilities. This is the biggest aspect of the essence of problem-solving. If you can do justice first step then you are 90% there to fixing what ever the issue is.
   
   You would be surprised how many people can't or are unwilling to go outside of their framework of reality. I have seen people stop dead in their tracks, hold up their hands and say "I don't know how to make this thing work." Even though the answer may be right in front of them, but not presented in a way they are used to.
   
   A real-life example: Someone bought an Amazon TV and couldn't get the built invoice assistant to work. Here's what they were doing, momentarily pushing the correct button on the remote control and speaking in to the built in microphone. They try this over and over… To no avail. If they had bothered to glance up at the TV while momentarily pressing the button they would've seen a larger message on the screen which read "Press and hold the button down well speaking." Instead they were just pressing the button momentarily and completely ignoring the message on the TV set. The answer was there all the time but they were locked in to their framework which said "You only press a button on a remote control briefly."
   
   
2. They aren't afraid of saying "I don't know.". Then there mind starts to search for possible ways to break the problem down.
   
   Sometimes you are confronted with an issue which is completely baffling or you don't know how to break the various aspects down in order to search for the appropriate answers. Good problem solvers will always ask for alternate input and ideas. This includes using AI to gain further insight or fellow colleagues. Sometimes you just have to sleep on the issue as well, until you get one of those "Eureka" moments. (I find this happens quite a lot with me.) A key point here is, if something isn't working using one approach, don't just repeat the same approach over and over. The open to asking others or stepped back from the problem for a while. Very often an answer will come to you later in the day.
   
   
3. They cultivate emotional awareness in themselves. This aids in the ability to look at a situation in different ways and identify biases they may have which could block the solution.
   
   Additionally, cultivating your own emotional awareness allows you to adapt to other people's way of explaining an issue. In its most basic form this could be just recognizing and adapting to the fact that the person who you are trying to help solve a problem has a completely different way of describing the issue than you're used to. To use a computer as an analogy, you may be completely clear on exactly what a "Drag bar" is on a typical computer screen. The person with the problem on the other hand may have no clue as to what you're referring to. They may see the exact same object and call it a "small rectangle". Emotional intelligence allows you to adapt to another way of communicating with the world under the circumstances. The first step in adapting is to understand how you communicate and how you interpret things. Then using this awareness to translate appropriately in order to make the communication between all parties clear.
   
   
4. Not only do they love to solve problems, they love the entire process. They may experience a little let down if the solution is to easy. 
   
   Oh, this one is so applicable to me! 😊I do love the thrill of solving a problem. I really do love the difficulty. There is one little downside you have to be careful though, and that is knowing when to move on in order to keep a project or other activity on schedule. Left to my own devices I would focus on one aspect for an entire day. Getting everything perfect! Well this can also be a way to shoot the project down completely. The good news is I am slowly learning not to get stuck. But I admit I still love perfection. And I am finding a happy ground between "Too Easy" and achievable.  

Edited photo of a Stella d'Oro Daylily. 
Just thought it looked nice with this post.
Download full size by clicking on image (3285 x 2266) 11 MB

You may have a different order or additional items than the ones I have indicated above, but I think the essence of problem-solving is in these four steps.

Problem-solving is a critical skill, and it is something I do every single day. Indeed I welcome the various challenges and I am the first to say that I actually enjoy difficulty in a variety of aspects. To clarify that previous statement, "difficulty" in this context refers to having to do additional work to find an answer and making progress during the process. Just making something difficult without any reason or expected outcome is a waste of time and can only lead to polite frustration.

There will of course be and accompanying video once I have fleshed out the points mentioned in the above list. For now however, take care and have a great night or morning where ever you are.
 

Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

You Must Have Aspirations (at least one)

 

To my way of thinking "aspirations" are something one assumes everyone has… I have met a few people now however who don't appear to have any desires or goals to reach for. They take each day as it comes without any thought of tomorrow. I find this incredibly perplexing. Not only that a few of them literally don't want an aspiration. They appear to be quite content almost blindly going from one day to the next. This short-circuits my brain.

These people are quite young in their early 20s to the oldest being early 30s. You would think by that stage of life a person would have a few goals at the very least. Maybe it's because they are all in stable situations where most of their needs are met. (I'm talking here about the assisted living building I live in. So maybe this is particular to these kinds of environments.) I cannot recall a time when I didn't have a goal. Even as a very young child I remember thinking clearly "If I could figure out how a light switch worked I could take over the world." I kid you not that is verbatim what I used to think as a child, of about four or five years old. You can find it either amusing or perhaps a little disturbing :-). In either case however I had a goal, an aspiration. I think this attitude of mind frustrated both of my parents because I would come up with spectacular ideas and my parents would have to explain to me why you can't make a steam engine out of just a coffee can and perhaps some tubing.

I think a critical component of my early years was seeing my father build some small item on the floor with my sister and I watching. One time this was a simple electromagnet which she made by simply wrapping some wire around a nail and connecting it to a battery. My sister and myself may not quite understood what he was doing at the moment but we both perceived the sheer joy. And that I believe is key, aspirations involve great emotions and great emotions push personal evolution. That's overstating it a bit but you get the idea.

Now, society seems to be heading in the other direction, not finding the solution and thereby gaining insight to a question, we are now strictly focusing on getting just the answer. Maybe this is why I am beginning to see and meet so many people without ambition. On the surface one may think that "ambition" itself is unnecessary when you can go straight to the answer. To that I counter that a great deal is gained from the process of heading toward a goal. Very often the insights are yet very subtle and at the same moment profound for the individual. That is something you can just not get by going straight to the answer. Think back less than 100 years ago and people would routinely do high mathematics in their head. Or work it out by hand on paper. What a remarkable set of skills they gained and undoubtedly those skills would be applied to various situations throughout their lives. I can't help thinking that as we modernize we are losing the real depth and benefits of hard work and the rewards of aiming toward an achievement.

I will be doing a video for this post in the next few days so please return to the blog and let me know what you think. In the meantime however I hope this short bit of text has given you something to think about. 

Till then, Patrick 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

 

Reframe, and you will see opportunity everywhere

 

I talk a lot about opportunities. But I've begun to realize that there are even more opportunities available then I had first thought because initially I had imposed a set of restrictions which I wasn't aware of on what exactly an opportunity should look like.

This is something we all naturally do, however if one removes the subtle preconditioned we place on any given opportunity which might arise than a whole range of possibilities opens up. For example, let's say we are looking for an opportunity in a certain field, let's say the nonprofit sector. Further presume that we already have an idea in our heads which we believe would be of great benefit to a particular community. We've done the research, added up the various costs and the pros and cons of slightly different approaches. Then we approach a few organizations and are very surprised as well as disheartened to find that we are turned down after a series of very polite meetings.

What just went wrong? In this case the reason was because we didn't demonstrate any previous experience in the nonprofit realm. Of course the agencies would be nervous about funding an idea and a person who had no previous experience and was a complete unknown.

Now let's approach this same opportunity in a different way. Rather than beating the door down and visiting the agencies as a complete unknown, we instead volunteer with a nonprofit group. Getting to know how things work, and a much better overview of issues. Not to mention networking with various people. Then once we have a bit of a track record we pitch the very same idea and this time we get support and some small funding for our idea.

Green Timbers Park Surrey BC July 24, 2026

The difference between these two approaches is obvious, the first one we attempted to bulldoze what we perceived as a marvellous concept. In the second situation we work with the group gaining a track record and understanding along the way. We approach the same opportunity in different ways and one way led to success. Maybe not the full idea which is often what happens when you are asking for funding but we made a step in the right direction.

Opportunities really begin to appear when you think incrementally. The steps involved toward an ultimate goal, rather than trying to achieve everything all at once. When one approaches a situation in this slower more methodical way there are many benefits. A deeper understanding is acquired which can only be gained by going through the more detailed process. Additionally your network of acquaintances grows tremendously. And let me tell you that network may be important throughout your entire life not just the project at hand.

So when you are looking for new opportunities, make sure to consider the situations which might help get you part of the way there rather than attempting to reach the full goal all at once. I can guarantee that when you adopt this approach you will see many more "opportunities" available to you.

Have a great day!
Patrick

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

Useful Hardship

As I get older and continue to proceed through life build one consistent message I perceive is that one must continue to change and evolve, pretty much, at all costs. I've written about this previously on the blog and it bears repeating. From observation, it appears that there is a natural tendency in people to adhere to routine more and more as they age. I don't know if this is based in biology or is merely a side effect of the fact that in this day and age we can literally afford to do so. Where in earlier times the necessities of life required that we stayed engaged with the surroundings and the side effect was people stayed healthier.

When the necessity of this involvement is removed, mental and physical function begins to erode quite rapidly and if there are any underlying medical conditions they become magnified. I am seeing this nowadays all around me as I observe people. Sometimes it is subtle, but many times it is severe and very hard to recover from because the modern way of dealing with this is to remove even more challenges. This makes the person "challenge averse", which of course becomes a loop, speeding up one's decline.

"The Choice to Grow or Stagnate"

Although this situation may produce many diverse outcomes, there is one I see consistently. Negativity begins to manifest in the person and they hold on to this darker worldview. Defending it rather than challenging it. This behaviour then spreads throughout the group. I myself feel the effects and have to keep bolstering my defenses. The very activity I am undertaking writing this article is one of the means I used to keep engaged with life. Later today I plan to take a trip into Vancouver using only my electric wheelchair and minimal public transit in order to stay fully engaged with humanity. I am also doing this because next weekend there is a premier of the indie film "The Decision" and I want to show my support of the film's creator, Steven Cayer.

Trailer: The Decision

 "A sharp-witted 30-year-old man with cerebral palsy living in assisted care has his independence tested when his overprotective mother secretly enrolls him in a risky medical trial – forcing him, his girlfriend, and his neighbor to confront what freedom really means."

Showings:

 April 11, 2026 
The Centre in Vancouver For Performing Arts 
777 Homer St, Vancouver, BC.

(Part of the "CRAZY8S", an  annual 8-day short filmmaking challenge that provides support and funding to 6 emerging and mid-career filmmakers.)  

Steven Cayer Executive Producer / Writer

 

The way out of this negative downhill slide is a situation I call "Useful Hardship" finding the difficulties in life and challenging them, whether that be going out in inclement weather or undertaking a task which requires learning and growth. One cannot let their life become to easy or comfortable. Hardship must be dealt with and that keeps the person engaged in life. More aware of themselves.

The inner journey a person experiences as they confront the difficulties and find solutions is just as important as the external one. It is deeply personal and frequently requires a long commitment to improve what ever the individual's issues are. 

I can guarantee that there are many benefits to useful hardship. It will give you the insights required to know when you can change things versus when you must adapt to a new situation. You will continue to own the decisions which affect your personal and public life. Positive people around you will also see the effort being put in and they will stay engaged with you, seeing the wisdom gained throughout the years. There will be other benefits which only you will know about. That is for you to write about if you wish. 

All the best in your journeys.

Take care Patrick Clark

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.  

Change May Bring Discomfort But...

 ...It Is Guaranteed to show you something positive you didn't expect.

It is always wise to remember that no matter who you are and how observant you are there will be many times in the life where one becomes, quite accidentally, a little too comfortable.

That is, in the absence of an external force acting on the human being, we have a tendency to stop our own evolution by becoming a little too comfortable with whatever the current situation is. This stops most people from developing further. That is until something comes along and shakes them up a bit so that they continue on the road of life.

Everyone falls into this trap many times over a human being's admittedly short lifespan. When people become content for a long period of time they inevitably stop evolving. Which  is a shame, because that is the very time to undertake something new and shake up the tree. To be clear I don't mean you have to do this every day, but I do you mean that it should be frequent enough that you are keenly aware of the benefits. And what might the benefits be you ask?… Far too many to mention, and for each person the list is unique. I can tell you however that it keeps you engaged with the very process of life. Allowing you to notice things you might otherwise have not seen. I bet you as a matter of fact that when you see something new especially if it's unexpected, there is always something deep within that feels a little uncomfortable. That feeling of being "uncomfortable" is an extremely important sign because it means that you are looking at an opportunity to change. You may not like what you perceive as the change, and indeed there may be a fair bit of resistance to the new concepts you are confronted with, but I promise in the end you will gain more than you lose. Usually in ways that are imperceptible to other people. But you know what has occurred.

Click picture to view / download full
resolution printable copy.

This artwork is hereby placed in the
public domain and is based upon material
in the public domain. Patrick Clark

So please don't allow yourself to become overly comfortable or complacent. You should always try to shake each day up a little bit. Because the only meaningful constant in one's life is "change itself".

 So go out and do something you were not quite expecting today. Shake up the day!

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you had any Eureka moments 😉

Take care Patrick 

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

 

Where Will Your Magic Moment Be Today?

 

Somewhere, in the next 24 hours you will experience something positive. 

It will be amongst a flurry of other activity. The challenge will be to notice it.

We are also busy with activities and obligations, while at the same time, being not so subtly, attuned to the negative things that we frequently don't notice small moments of enlightening pleasant events. Now evolutionarily the human species is more attuned to the negative things. After all if you were in the wild you would want to be aware of that line hiding in the bush. Trouble is that advertisers and other influencers have learned to manipulate this trait and the things have gotten out of hand. We are absolutely bombarded with the darker side of life so much so that it takes some effort to see the more positive things out there. I promise you however they are there. Small little dots of pleasantness or calmness scattered about.

Make it a goal today to notice these little moments of uplifting insight. They may be very short, but don't discount them. Indeed, add them up and see what the average amount of daily positive insights there are. To this over a week and I'll bet you will be surprised.

One of the things that everyone has to deal with now days which is unique to our generation and those coming after us, is information is coming at us and an incredible rate. Everything is delivered to us almost instantaneously now. We don't even have to type in a query on a keyboard anymore, you can just ask the question directly and for the most part you get an answer. I find that amazing personally on one level, because I see the potential of this technology, however I wonder on average how this technology is used every day. It is used to uplift, or is it used to depress? Give me a moment, I am going to run off and ask "Gemini" this question right now. The question I posed and the answer will be posted immediately below this text.

The question: "Are there any statistics on whether questions posed to Artificially Intelligent services like yourself or chatGPT are of a negative nature versus a positive query?"

Google Gemini produced quite a response, a mini report on the subject. 

As always take everything produced by an AI system with scepticism. I have not verified any of the information contained in the report. Use at your own risk.

Having said that, it does appear to ring true to me. One thing I take from this output is questions to such systems I won't be as "flowery" in my queries.

 Google Gemini's response begins now:

The question of whether users are "nice" or "mean" to AI is a significant area of study for researchers. While there is no single, real-time "dashboard" for all AI queries, several large-scale studies and dataset analyses provide a clear picture of user behavior.

 

Generally, the data suggests that most interactions are neutral and task-oriented, but a small, vocal minority of users engages in highly emotional or "negative" querying.

1. The Majority: Neutral and Utility-Driven

Most users treat AI as a tool rather than a social companion. Analysis of public datasets like ShareGPT and WildChat (which contains over 1 million real-world interaction logs) reveals that the vast majority of prompts are:

●     Informational: Fact-checking or asking for explanations.

●     Productive: Writing code, emails, or summaries.

●     Creative: Generating stories or brainstorming.

A 2025 study by OpenAI on "affective use" found that while users do occasionally personify AI, the majority of users engage in relatively neutral ways. The emotional or negative queries typically come from a "tail set" of power users who use the AI for more personal or experimental reasons.

2. The "Politeness" Statistics

Interestingly, there is a distinct divide in how people frame their prompts. Some users include "please" and "thank you," while others use blunt commands.

●     The Accuracy Paradox: A recent study from Pennsylvania State University (2025) titled "Mind Your Tone" found that rude or blunt prompts actually resulted in higher accuracy (84.8%) compared to "very polite" prompts (80.8%).

●     Why? Researchers suggest that polite language often adds "linguistic noise" or "redundancy" that can distract the model from the core instruction. Direct, imperative commands (e.g., "Solve this.") provide a cleaner signal to the AI.

3. Negative vs. Positive sentiment

When researchers perform sentiment analysis on user prompts, they typically find the following distribution:

Sentiment Type	Characteristics	Estimated Prevalence
Neutral	Fact-based, coding, "how-to" instructions.	70% – 85%
Positive/Polite	Including "please," "thank you," or "good job."	10% – 15%
Negative/Hostile	Aggressive commands, testing "jailbreaks," or venting.	5% – 10%

4. Sentiment Mirroring

A phenomenon called sentiment propagation is often observed in AI interactions. If you are negative or aggressive, the AI may inadvertently mirror that tone (though safety filters now "soften" extreme emotions).

 

●     Positive Prompts: Tend to increase the "verbosity" (length) of the response.

●     Negative Prompts: Often lead to a decline in factual accuracy (up to 8.4%in some tests) because the model may shift toward more speculative or defensive language.

Summary of Trends

●     The "Venting" Factor: A small percentage of users use AI specifically to vent frustrations they wouldn't say to a human.

●     The "Test" Factor: Many negative queries are not "mean" in intent but are "adversarial"—users trying to trick the AI into saying something offensive to see where the boundaries are.

●     The "Directness" Shift: As users become more "AI-literate," the use of social pleasantries like "please" is decreasing in favor of efficient, direct prompting.

 End of Google Gemini's response.

 

Now let's get back to the topic at hand and that is being aware of the positive events that occur every day in your life and mine. Remember to when you're speaking with people to give them the benefit of the doubt and not to check everything so personally. If need be step out of your comfort zone for a moment and look at at the bigger picture. Even if your Magic moment isn't immediately apparent stepping back from an event often gives you some insights which can allow you time to mold your emotions and indeed see the magic which may be just around the corner.

As you can tell, this is how I tend to approach every day. Knowing that somewhere in the next 24 hours there will be something unexpectedly pleasant. Maybe very brief in duration, but it will be there.

Have a great day and don't forget to keep looking. Maybe make a journal of the events you are now noticing which you might otherwise have ignored. You may be very surprised. Let me know in the comments.
.
Patrick