Standing Into Danger

Friday, March 8, 2024

Flying!

Aloha!
Waikiki and Diamond Head, O'ahu, Hawai'i
November 13, 2023
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Today Terry and I are flying home after saying "Aloha" to the lovely island of O'ahu.

I'll be back next Friday with a new post.

Have a happy, healthy, and creative week!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be March 15 🤞

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

IWSG: Wednesday, March 6, 2024 ~ AI and Creative Writing

It's the first Wednesday of the month,
the day that members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG Founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are Kristina Kelly,

Miffe Seideman, Jean Davis, and Liza@Middle Passages!

I hope you have a chance to visit today's hosts and thank them for co-hosting.

I'm sure they would appreciate a visit and an encouraging comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.

This month's featured question is:

Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses,

or do you refuse to go that route?

How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Aloha Everyone!

I hope that February has been good to you and that you enjoyed love and friendship.

We are flying home to Colorado on Friday after a wonderful time in Hawai'i.

I'm not ready to leave this beautiful island; I never am!

Baby Makapu'u Beach

Looking Toward Makai Research Pier

Waimānalo, ‎⁨Honolulu⁩, ⁨Hawaiʻi⁩, ⁨United States

March 3, 2024

Regarding this month's AI questions, I'm very clear about where I stand.

I have not "played" with AI to help me write anything.

I've been "tempted," but I know that using AI to help me write

would result in something that was not my creation.

AI is a science that makes machines to think like humans,

but machines do not have souls or emotions or feelings,

so they can't create like humans.

They can imitate someone's writing, but they can't experience

the author's experiences and how they color his or her creativity.

AI machines lack nuance.

Therefore, as I see it, machines cannot write creatively.

Only I can create my writing.

Polemonium or Jacob's ladders

Baby Makapu'u Beach

Waimānalo, ‎⁨Honolulu⁩, ⁨Hawaiʻi⁩, ⁨United States

March 3, 2024

I can see some non-creative ways for AI to assist writers.

For example, AI could scan a document or manuscript

for errors in typing, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Or, AI could be used in writing bibliographies

or supplementary notes that don't belong in the main text,

especially to ensure that the format is consistent and follows conventions.

These are not creative activities and are not creative writing.

Some people might label me a luddite for my position on AI,

but my guiding principle is that I create my own writing, whatever the genre.

Terry with Our Friends Kathy and Bruce

Baby Makapu'u Beach

Waimānalo, ‎⁨Honolulu⁩, ⁨Hawaiʻi⁩, ⁨United States

March 3, 2024

Sadly, I can foresee AI being used to pump out mass-market,

plot-driven "novels" in many genres purely to make money.

I hope there will always be a place for good authors to publish their creative writing.

We Were Enjoying a Day on the Windward Side of O'hau ~ LOL!

Makapu'u Lookout

Waimānalo, ‎⁨Honolulu⁩, ⁨Hawaiʻi⁩, ⁨United States

March 3, 2024

Have a creative and fulfilling February!

Enjoy IWSG Day! And a big thank you to the co-hosts!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

https://selkiegrey4.blogspot.com

My next post will be on Friday, March 15th. 🤞

Friday, February 23, 2024

A Dozen Eggs and a Half Dozen Faces

I'm doing a short post today.

I can hear the sigh of collective relief ~ lol!

We're flying home in a week, and I am slammed!

Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date theme this week is "Eggs."

So, out of curiosity, I had my computer search my collection

of 142,156 photos and 909 videos for egg and eggs

(count as I write this and sure to increase).

I was curious to see what would turn up.

Here goes!

A Delicious Lunch, Jam Cafe, Victoria, 2015:

Terry Divvying Up an Egg Dish

Old Town, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

October 5, 2015

Alter "Egg," Fremont Street, Las Vegas, 2023:

Alter Ego, a Favorite Fremont Street Cover Band

Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

July 18, 2023

Pandemic Encouragement, Along Piney Creek, Aurora, 2020:

Rock Art, Along Piney Creek

Aurora, Colorado, USA

April 9, 2020

Dining Options, Brighton, 2016:

No Need to Go Hungry!

Brighton Beach, UK

May 27, 2016

Hard Boiled, Victoria, 2015:

Eggs of a Theropod (Carnivorous) Dinosaur

The Royal British Columbia Museum

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

September 16, 2015

Dim Sum, Chinatown, Honolulu 2015:

Small Egg Custards at Legend Seafood Restaurant

Chinatown, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

February 11, 2018

An Easter Egg Crisis, Lansdowne House, 1961:

No Easter Eggs for the Easter Bunny to Deliver to the Five MacBeath Children!

Letter from My Father to His Relatives

March 31, 1961

Pixabay

Supplying and Maintaining the Ovation of the Seas, ‎⁨Papeete⁩, 2023:

Pallet with Egg

‎⁨Papeete⁩, Tahiti⁩, ⁨⁨French Polynesia⁩

October 23, 2023

Looks Yummy! ‎⁨Aurora, 2019:

Reading Recipes at Starbucks in Barnes & Noble

Aurora, Colorado, USA

February 25, 2019

Looks Yummy! ‎⁨Venice, 2018:

A Welcome Dinner at Bar ae Maraveje

Venice, Dorsoduro / Accademia, Italy

September 13, 2018

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date Nicole's Friday Face Off

and Tom's Aloha Friday.

For Rain's TADD: Eggs:

Aepyornis and Egg

The Largest Bird That Ever Lived

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Denver, Colorado, USA

June 15, 2015

Egg of a Roc!

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Denver, Colorado, USA

June 15, 2015

Aepyornis is thought to be the bird that inspired the legend of the Roc.

Now extinct, it once lived on the island of Madagascar.

Seven hundred years ago Arab traders spoke

of an elephant bird living off the coast of Africa.

It was so large that it could lift elephants into the sky.

The Aepyornis couldn't fly or lift an elephant,

but its huge eggs fueled legends of the mythical Roc.

The Mythical Roc

Plate from "The Arabian Nights", 'The Roc which fed its young on elephants & Rhinocerotidae',

"The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor" (Hodder & Stoughton)

Wikimedia License

For Tom's Aloha Friday: Mural at SATO

Hawaiian Mural
Sato Seafood
Waikiki, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i, US
February 6, 20224
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

For Nicoles's Friday Face Off: Bedtime Story Faces

My Sister Donnie Reading a Bedtime Story
to Krista, Sara, Lisa, Natalie, and Gavin
Baker Creek, Alberta, Canada
At Least 26 Years Ago
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Have a great weekend! 🌺 Aloha!!! 🌺

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be soon! 🤞

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Walking Among Giants!

Last year I read Peter Wohellben's wonderful book "The Hidden Life of Trees:

What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from a Secret World."

As I explored the Foster Botanical Garden in Honolulu with Terry the other day,

I couldn't help thinking about what its trees have experienced and perhaps communicated.

And I even crossed off a bucket list item, touching a giant kapok tree!

Touching a Giant, a Kapok Tree

Foster Botanical Garden

Honolulu, Oʻahu⁩, ⁨ ⁨Hawaiʻi⁩, ⁨United States⁩

February 15, 2024

For many years in my teaching career I shared Lynne Cherry's

excellent book about the kapok tree and forest conservation.

Sadly in the thirty-four years since it was published,

we have only worsened the plight of of our natural world. Amazon

How I would have loved to share my pictures of the giant Kapok tree

in Foster Botanical Garden with my students.

It was magical! It's hard to imagine the scale of this giant,

which can reach 240 feet/73 meters in height and 19 feet/5.8 meters in diameter.

This giant kapok, Cieba pentandra, has been designated an exceptional tree

and is protected by a city ordinance.

It was planted in 1850 by Dr. William Hillebrand, a physician and botanist,

who had a cottage in the middle terrace of the current gardens.

The kapok is native to tropical America and Africa.

Its wide buttresses support the tree in shallow soils

like the flying buttresses of Gothic cathedrals.

In its native jungles, the kapok is home to many diverse species,

including frogs, birds and bromeliads.

It's a deciduous tree that sprouts pink and white flowers

that attract bats which aid in pollination.

The kapok produces abundant seeds that are among

the first to colonize open areas in the forest.

The kapok is useful for humans too.

Its lightweight, porous wood is suitable for carving and making dugout canoes.

The seeds' silky fibers have been used in life preservers and bedding,

and the seeds' oil in soap.

Medicines have been created from other parts of this magnificent giant.

The Foster Botanical Garden site has an interesting history.

It was gifted to Queen Kalama, the wife of King Kamehameha III,

during the Great Mahele of 1848 when the Hawaiian Islands

were redistributed among the government, Hawaiian royalty, nobles, and commoners.

Queen Kalama leased some of the land to Dr. William Hillebrand

who imported many plants and animals to the islands,

including the ubiquitous mynah birds.

He, in turn, sold the land to "Captain" Thomas R. Foster,

a master shipbuilder from my native Nova Scotia.

His wife Mary gifted the land to the city and county of Honolulu,

stipulating that it be preserved as Foster Garden.

As a result people today can wander among the beauty and peace of this special place.

Near the Entrance to Foster Botanical Garden

Beautiful Orchids in the Conservatory

There are many storied trees and plants in this oasis near Chinatown.

I'm sharing some photos of some of them:

1. Bo or Bodhi Tree:

Terry stands in front of the Garden's Bo Tree (Ficus religiosa)

Buddha attained enlightenment under a revered Bodhi tree

at the Mahabodhi Temple in Sri Lanka. That tree dates to 288 BC.

A Buddist monk gave Mary Foster a clipping from that famous tree in 1913,

and it has grown into a giant here.

Mary developed a passionate belief in Buddhism and became the first Hawaiian Buddhist.

Replica of the Great Buddha of Kamakura

In 1968 the governor of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan gave this statue to the City of Honolulu

to commemorate the centennial of the first Japanese immigrants arriving Hawai'i

2. Quipo Tree:

Quipo Tree (Cavanillesia platanifolia)

This was the first tree I spotted, and I literally ran to it!

Planted in 1930, it is one of some twenty trees designated exceptional in the garden,

and it is protected by a city ordinance. It is breathtaking!

It is a flowering plant related to the giant hibiscus,

and it can grow to 197 feet/60 meters in height.

Its bark has characteristic rings,

and it produces leaves near the top of the tree for only one month a year.

3. Cycad:

Cycad: Encephalartos gratis

Female Encephalartos gratis with Cones

Cycads are a very old order of tree dating back to about 280 million years ago in the Permian. They evolved long before flowering plants. Many are extinct in the wild. These two are found in Foster's Prehistoric Glen. They grow in Malawi and Mozambique.

I had fun walking among the Cycads and imagining a vanished world.

4. Cannonball Tree:

Two Cannonball Trees (Couroupita guianensis)

The cannonball tree on the left is the biggest in the USA. It was planted in 1931.

Cannonball (Couroupita guianesis)

This tree is hard to see as a whole. Its orange flowers blossom on stems

growing from the trunk. It sports heavy round fruit

which could definitely give you a headache if one fell on you.

And everything is shrouded by thickets of its stems.

It is another of the protected trees designated as exceptional.

5. Loulu Palm:

Loulu Palm (Pritchardia Schattaueri)

A tree just for me!

I shouldn't make light of it, because this species of Loulu palm is critically endangered with only a dozen specimens left in the wild in 2001. Endemic to the southwestern forests of the Island of Hawai'i, it is primarily found in botanical gardens. Habitat loss along with rats, weeds, and hoofed animals were and are threatening the survival of the species. The Nature Conservancy is working with other conservation organizations

to nurture seedlings at its Kona Hema Preserve.

"Beautiful Butterflies" by Bronzemen 2009

So many gorgeous trees and plants ~ It's hard to pick just a few.

I loved the Foster Botanical Garden, and I will return to it!

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date Nicole's Friday Face Off

and Tom's Aloha Friday.

For Rain's TADD: Ladders:

Ladders at Battery Randolph with One of its 14-inch Canons (a model)

US Army Museum of Hawaii

Waikiki, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

February 14, 2024

For Tom's Aloha Friday: Surfing's Done!

Surfing's Done

Marina Beach

Waikiki, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

February 17, 2024

For Nicoles's Friday Face Off: Funny Face

Terry Spotted This Funny Face!

Marina Beach

Waikiki, Honolulu, O'ahu, Hawai'i

February 17, 2024

Have a great weekend! 🌺 Aloha!!! 🌺

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be soon! 🤞

Books Read in 2026

"18 Days in Heaven" by Gale Poirot
"A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Hope, Love, and Overcoming" by Kerrie Rawson
"Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life" by Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD.
"Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics Deepest Truths" by Eugenia Cheng
"Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir
"Tell Me Everything" by Elizabeth Strout
"The Covenant of Water" by Abraham Verghese
"The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" by David Graeber and David Wengrow
"The Life Impossible" by Matthew Haig
"The Lord go the Rings" by JRR Tolkien
"The Match" by Harlan Corben
"The Night the Path Disappeared" by Terri Bergen
"The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper" by Roland Allen
"Theo of Golden" by Allen Levi
"Think Twice" by Harlan Corben
"Why Christianity Must Change Or Die" by John Shelby Spong

Standing Into Danger

Pages

Friday, March 8, 2024

Flying!

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

IWSG: Wednesday, March 6, 2024 ~ AI and Creative Writing

Friday, February 23, 2024

A Dozen Eggs and a Half Dozen Faces

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Walking Among Giants!

Translate