In sickness and in health

So lately, there's been this song based on spongebob going around, and I am addicted.

For as good as this song is, the lyrics really raise a bunch of good points about the current state of AI. I suppose, like anything, AI is a tool to be used by men, and as we all know, men are the best at abusing tools. Certainly, things might improve for the average person's life as AI is further and further incorporated and advanced, but all those stories about robots taking over the world and the like are far closer to reality than they've ever been.

There's a new anime out called Metallic Rouge which, based on the three episodes that are out, is very much on the 'robots are people too' kind of thing and it's not the only one in recent memory. Pluto, for example, took a very similar angle. It's all very Blade Runner and it makes me wonder how close we actually are to a society where we're working side by side with robots. White Sun War from the blog before the last one also covers this topic a lot. Lots of people are seeing this coming and stories are the mirror of the modern time.

Unlike the more pessimistic of my friends, I don't think that my generation is too late to explore space because I think, in the next 20 years, we'll be there. On the moon, possibly even mars. Radiation is a thing that kills people so I don't know that a permanent moon settlement is on the near horizon, but a temporary one at least is already underway. Just the other day, Japan landed a rover with near pinpoint accuracy on the moon which is a huge breakthrough, all things considered. More countries fail to land anything anywhere historically, so this is a pretty big deal. Considering they're paired with NASA and this data will end up in the hands of companies like Space X and Blue Origin later and we'll see some serious improvements to landing likely within the year. As far as we know, NASA wants to land on the moon again to begin said semi-permanent settlement by 2026 and even with SpaceX's recent implosion, the timeline has yet to be delayed, so confidence is high.

I've been relatively obsessed with this topic in recent days because I have a story idea in my head but haven't figured out what I'm going to be doing. What I haven't actually done is sat down to write much because Palworld came out, I thought it looked fun, and I bought and played it. Considering I've owned it for 6 days and I have 52 hours in the game, so I suppose you could say I'm enjoying my time. People compare it to pokemon for obvious reasons, but IMHO, this game is nothing like pokemon on a fundamental level. If you've ever played ARK, which I hadn't but a bunch of my friends have, it's much more like that. You ride around on your monsters, shooting things be they people or other monsters, and you can catch them all. literally. Slavery is an equal opportunity hire and people are part of it. I get to live out my dreams of being a communist dictator, crushing opposition, enslaving my lowers, and raising myself to the highest possible level flying a top a giant phoenix. It is a whole lot of fun, and at $30, it's a pretty good deal. I'm running a 3080 in my PC and fairly comfortably hit max settings. Highly recommend.

Regarding the title: to add on to this, I've been sick since Wednesday. It also snowed heavily for the first time since I moved to Shimane, and let me tell you, I hate it. I live on the second floor of my apartment, and getting down the stairs to go to the doctor was the most dangerous thing I've done since driving back home from Okayama. covered in at leas half a foot of snow, beaten down by other feet that have passed through it and turned to near ice, having to grip a metal pole that's been sitting at freezing temperatures for days, It's not fun.

Bonus, however, I got my transfer request approved today. I'm headed further south and further west to Yamaguchi in March, which is just a month and half away. My next location will have me teaching middle school which lets me use a higher level of english, and I only have one school, so might actually learn more names than just the trouble makers in my classes. I am cautiously optimistic. It seriously depends on my Japanese English Teacher to determine how fun this is going to be, but given this is a city that isn't out in the sticks, I'm hoping the English level is a bit higher generally.

The real plus side of all this is that it's about an hour by shinkansen either way to Hiroshima and Fukuoka. Sure that's 4000/6000JPY, but I usually give myself about 20000JPY for play money every month, and my expenses should actually go down since the car will be out of the picture. No more gas money, at least until I try again for my license in Yamaguchi. Two attempts at the license was enough for me to say fuck this shit here. Apparently, they don't even give regular japanese people the same driver's license test. With them, they go out on the road and drive like normal. We have to go to a track and drive in fake conditions! I think, what is more infuriating than that, however, is that not all American drivers have to actually do this. Ohio, Virginia, Washington, Hawaii, and Maryland are all totally exempt from this. Why? Fuck you, that's why. I am going home for Christmas this year, and since a friend of mine lives in Virginia, you'd better bet I'm going to get a Virginia license while I'm back in the states. It is annoying, but since all the Japanese government seems to exist to do is inconvenience you, I'm going to play by different rules.

Anyways, that's all from me today.
Until Next Time~
-KCZ