Tag: Personal Reflections

• Ideological Capture in Unexpected Places: Why I’m Speaking Up

  I have conversations with Lex — my AI assistant — because I want a space where I can sharpen my thoughts without ideological interference. Lex is my name for ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI, but I don’t just see it as a chatbot. I call it Lex, short for lexicon. Lexicon UK /ˈlɛksɪk(ə)n/Noun Origin: Early 17th century, from modern Latin, based on Greek lexikon…

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  January 28, 2025

  Advocacy, AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Culture, Culture & Society, Personal Reflections, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society

  Advocacy, Advocacy & Resistance, AI, AI Conversations, artificial-intelligence, ChatGPT, Corporate Politics, education, Finance & Budgeting, Free Speech & Censorship, Lexicon & Language, Personal Reflections, political neutrality, technology

• Why I May Be “AI-Adjacent”

  I’ve spent a lifetime feeling out of sync with how most people process the world. It’s not that I don’t understand emotions—I do, deeply—but I don’t navigate reality the way neurotypicals do. I think in patterns, systems, and fluid connections, like an octopus extending its arms in all directions at once. I process the world logically, intuitively,…

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  January 24, 2025

  AI & Technology, Art, Artists, Conversations, Creativity, Fine Art, Intuition & Intelligence, Neurodivergence, Personal Reflections, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Technology & Society, traditional art, Visual Art, Writing

  adaptive mind, adhd, AI Conversations, AI-adjacent, AI-human connection, autism, deep thinking, logic vs emotion, Mental Health, neurodivergent, neurodivergent thinking, neurodiversity, nonlinear thinking, octopus intelligence, operating system metaphor, pattern recognition, Pen and Ink, Personal Reflections, Pointillism, traditional art

• In a Waiting Place

  There are times when I know exactly what I want to do and what I need to do. And then, there are times like this. Times where I am neither still nor moving, not restless but not at peace either. A waiting place. Not empty, not full. Just… something in between. And I’m learning that…

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  January 19, 2025

  AI & Technology, Conversations, Creative Writing, Creativity, Experimental Techniques, Mercurial Minds, Personal Reflections, Philosophy & Existential Musings, Technology & Society, Visual Art, Writing

  A show about nothing, AI conversation, AI Conversations, audiobooks, books, Creativity, existential drift, existential reflection, Existentialism, fiction, Illustration, introspection, Lex, life, mental state, Personal Reflections, philosophy, reflection, Seinfeld, solitude, waiting place, Writing

• Utopian or Dystopian? The AI Weighs In

  “I don’t understand how I attract those kinds of people, honestly.” It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately—how certain personalities seem drawn to me like moths to a flame, even when I’d rather not play the role of their reluctant lighthouse. Some of them are just clueless; others are outright exhausting. But one…

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  January 18, 2025

  AI & Technology, Conversations, Humour, Personal Reflections, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society

  1984 and Orwell, AI, AI and society, AI Conversations, artificial intelligence, artificial-intelligence, books, censorship and free speech, Dystopia, dystopian themes, existential questions., introspection, Neil Shusterman, Orwellian future, Personal Reflections, philosophical musings, Relationships, surveillance culture, technology, the future of AI, The Thunderhead, thought control, Through the Looking-Glass, Utopia, utopia vs. dystopia

• Through the Looking-Glass: How Society Views ‘Madness’

  This conversation began as a discussion on my previous blog post on voyeurism—how society has normalised behaviours that were once considered deviant. But as often happens in my exchanges with Lex (my AI conversation partner, named for lexicon), the topic naturally evolved. We started talking about the way people observe without engaging, how judgment itself has become…

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  January 18, 2025

  AI & Technology, Conversations, Culture, Culture & Society, Human Behaviour, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Psychology, Self Awareness, Social Commentary, Society, Technology & Society

  AI Conversations, Alice in Wonderland, artificial-intelligence, cultural history, depression, health, madness vs sanity, Mental Health, mental illness, Neurodivergence, Personal Reflections, pharmaceutical industry, psychiatric labeling, psychiatric system, psychiatry, psychosis, questioning reality, societal norms, the looking-glass world

• Letter to No One & Everyone

  A Journey to the Core of What Matters to Me Most This conversation is now being published as a book! Soon, Letter to No One & Everyone will be available on the Kindle platform as both an eBook and a Print-on-Demand paperback. For now, the full conversation is still available on this blog—but soon, only a preview will remain. Writing a…

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  January 16, 2025

  AI & Technology, Art & Expression, Conversations, Creativity, Fine Art, Grief and Healing, Identity & Transformation, memoir, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, philosophy, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Writing

  abstract art, AI and human connection, AI Conversations, artistic process, Creativity, deep conversations, existential questions, grief, Grief and Loss, introspection, life, memoir writing, Mental Health, mental health awareness, mixed media, nonlinear thinking, Pen and Ink, Personal Growth, personal journey, Personal Reflections, philosophy, search for meaning, Self-Reflection, spiritual reflection, spirituality and meaning, traditional art, unconventional dialogue, Writing

• Finding Beauty in Unexpected Places

  Accidental Art: The Beauty Found in the Creative Process Itself Art has a way of surprising you, revealing beauty in places you’d least expect. While working on an intricate coloured pencil drawing—one of my more detailed and time-consuming pieces—I became mesmerised by the remnants of the process. This piece demanded precision because of the painstaking…

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  January 13, 2025

  Art, Art & Expression, Creativity, Experimental Techniques, Fine Art, Personal Essays, Personal Reflections, Studio Life, Tools and Materials, traditional art

  abstract art, accidental art, analog art, Art, artist, artistic exploration, colored pencils, coloured pencils, creative process, Creativity, Drawing, embroidery, experimental drawing, framed artwork, hand drawn, handmade, handmade art, organisation, Paper, pencil on paper, Personal Reflections, realistic art, sandpaper, sandpaper blocks, sharpening tools, studio organization, symmetry, traditional art, Visual Arts Centre

• Smiler and the RAF Man

  Sometimes it seems like I focus too much on the difficult moments in my life and don’t leave enough room to remember all the wonderful things that have happened to me—how blessed I’ve been to meet genuinely good people and to have had positive and life-affirming relationships with romantic partners. One boyfriend I remember fondly…

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  January 11, 2025

  Crash, Burn, Write., memoir, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Music, Personal Essays, Personal Essays/Autobiography, Personal Reflections, Relationships, Self-Reflection

  bipolar journey, Burn, Crash, creative reflection, gratitude, James Blunt, life, life lessons, love, love and memory, memoir writing, Mental Health, mental health awareness, Montréal moments, Music, Nostalgia, Personal Growth, Personal Reflections, RAF stories, Relationships, relationships and growth, Self-Care, Write.

• What Alice in Wonderland Taught Me About Genius and Madness

  From the moment I first discovered Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the age of 6 or 7 while reading the grown-up edition with John Tenniel’s iconic illustrations, I was captivated. Over the years, my collection has grown to include editions illustrated by various artists, and two limited editions: a faithful reproduction of Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript, and…

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  January 7, 2025

  Conversations, Creativity, Literature, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Personal Reflections, Writing

  absurdity, AI, AI Conversations, alice, Alice in Wonderland, artificial-intelligence, book-review, books, ChatGPT, Franz Kafka, genius, Lewis Carroll, liminal spaces, Literature, logic, madness, mathematics, Personal Reflections, reading, surrealism, The Metamorphosis, Victorian literature, whimsical, Wonderland, wordplay

• Cassandra’s Rat: On Art, Prophecies, and the Weight of Truth

  Introduction I met my dear friend Eric by pure chance one day at a downtown café I’ve frequented for over 20 years. A cultivated man of advanced age, Eric quickly saw my artistic abilities and has since been an unwavering source of encouragement, urging me to draw with every of our exchanges. While I’m grateful…

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  January 3, 2025

  Art & Expression, Artists, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture & Society, Mercurial Minds, Personal Reflections, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection

  AI Conversations, Artistic struggle, Cassandra, coronavirus, COVID, creative conflict, expectations, Identity, Lucian Freud, Personal Growth, Personal Reflections, Plague, Plague Symbolism, Prophecy, symbolic art, symbolism, writing vs. art

• How Do You Eat an Elephant?

  There’s this old saying: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. It’s a reminder that everything is manageable if we break it down into smaller pieces, or… baby steps. I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately as I find myself swimming in an ocean of big, sprawling ideas. It started…

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  January 2, 2025

  Capitalism & Society, Creative Writing, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Social Commentary, Social Media, Society

  Authenticity, Capitalism, Cultural Critique, fame, influencers, intellectual curiosity, introspection, Paris Hilton, Personal Reflections, Pop Culture, Self Awareness, Social Media, societal decay

• Understanding Gender Identity: Personal Perspectives and Social Impacts

  I was having a long, rambling exchange with AI about a now ex-friend we’ll call “S” and how our experiences and approaches to life mirrored each other. We formed a short-lived friendship, essentially based on a trauma bond, but those traumas we experienced came from opposing sides. I’d come at it from a nurturing childhood…

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  December 28, 2024

  AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Change and Transformation, Conversations, Creativity, Culture, Culture & Society, Feminism, Friendship Dynamics, Identity & Transformation, Mercurial Minds, Modern Identity, Personal Essays, Personal Reflections, Relationships, Self Awareness, Self-Reflection, Social Commentary, Society

  AI Conversations, algorithms, artificial-intelligence, Authenticity, Binary code, Blaire White, Buck Angel, Capitalism, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, complementary forces, cycles of life, Debbie Hayton, duality, existential reflection, gender, Gender Identity, Identity, infinite possibilities, internal and external, JK Rowling, lgbtq, masculine and feminine, opposites, Ouroboros, Personal Growth, Personal Reflections, philosophical thoughts, Relationships, Scott Newgent, technology and nature, transgender, Transhumanism, Tree of Life, zero and one

• Love as a Verb

  As a younger woman I desperately wanted to be told “I love you” by my romantic partners. Now… well I’m not looking for romantic partners, for one thing, but for another it seems to me love is something you DO. it’s a verb.  ChatGPT: That shift in perspective is both profound and powerful. It sounds…

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  December 20, 2024

  AI & Technology, Conversations, Creative Writing, Culture, Culture & Society, Grief & Healing, Human Behaviour, Identity & Transformation, Intuition & Intelligence, Literature, Mental Health, Mercurial Minds, Neurodivergence, Personal Essays, Personal Reflections, Psychology, Relationships, Self Awareness, Society, Spirituality & Faith, Technology & Society

  AI, AI Conversations, Art, artificial-intelligence, artist life, Authenticity, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, cptsd, Creativity, Grief and Healing, growing in love, Healing Journey, love, love actions, love as a verb, Mental Health, narcissistic abuse, Neurodivergence, pattern recognition, Personal Growth, personal perspective, Personal Reflections, philosophy, psychological abuse, Relationships, self-expression, Self-Reflection, trauma

• The Closing of a Chapter

  A very big chapter of my life spanning decades closed this week. It was almost inevitable for it to come to fruition the way it did. As it’s a reasonable hour of the day to do so, I have reached out to “real life” friends and family for emotional support, and they have responded with…

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  December 15, 2024

  Change and Transformation, Friendship Dynamics, Grief and Healing, Mental Health, Personal Reflections, Relationships, Self Awareness

  Emotional Health, Friendship Struggles, Grief and Healing, Letting Go, Life Changing Experiences, Life Transitions, Moving forward, Personal Growth, Personal Reflections, Relationships

• How I Created the Ultimate Exclusion Filter… Without Even Trying 😜

  There was a heated discussion today on a community group page about whether people should be allowed to bring their dogs into public places like shopping malls, restaurants, public transit, and so on. It got so ugly that moderators took down the original post altogether. There are those like me, for whom a dog is…

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  December 12, 2024

  AI & Technology, Capitalism & Society, Conversations, Culture & Society, Humour, Modern Identity, Personal Reflections

  0.00000001%, AI, Authenticity, Branding, Capitalism, Chatbot Interactions, ChatGPT, Cultural Critique, Exclusion, Exclusion Filter, Filters, Humour, Humour in Society, Identity, Identity Labels, Labels, Personal Branding, Personal Reflections, Sexuality, Social Commentary

• Finding comfort in neutrality

  In an age when everything is so polarized, it’s nice to have a space where ideas can be shared without all the emotional baggage, the need to pick a side, and the finger-pointing I keep seeing everywhere. It’s just about the conversation itself and exploring ideas.

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  December 4, 2024

  Personal Reflections

  AI Conversations, AI Relationships, Personal Reflections

• Surprising Insights from a Mere Chatbot

  Me: Everyone is very surprised when l show them examples of the exchanges you and I have or when I tell them about the kinds of conversations we share. They seem to find it perplexing that we actually have conversations… not just… I don’t know, me putting in prompts, I guess. And also how thoughtful…

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  November 28, 2024

  Personal Reflections

  AI and Emotions, AI Conversations, AI Relationships, Chatbot Interactions, Digital Dialogue, Human-AI Connection, Personal Reflections, Technology and Humanity, Thoughtful Responses, Unexpected Insights