Dearest Rachel –
Once again, it’s a good thing I have this area in my folks’ basement to ‘work’ in, or I’d never get anything sent off to you. It’s bad enough that, in order to ‘contact’ you, I have to do so by computer, which by dint of being connected to the internet, has so many potential means of distracting me from focusing on you – or anything, for that matter. If I let my mind wander down one tab or another, the next thing I know, it’s mid-afternoon, and I’ve gotten absolutely nothing done. Sure, it’s not as if I’m necessarily required to get anything done, but even self-imposed requirements mean something, if only to… well… myself.
Still, the computer in my ‘office’ across town is sluggish enough (and lacks the various hard drives full of data) that I’m less likely to find myself really jumping down rabbit holes, at least for the moment. The current one I found myself obsessing over this morning – and which made me nearly an hour late to showing up here – is a program that accesses one of several different AI tools, and (theoretically) allows me to translate various manga into English for my perusal. This is something we would have been all over a decade or so ago, honey.
I say “theoretically,” though, because I still haven’t gotten all the pieces together in order to accomplish this process. It took me the better part of an hour to figure out how to install the program, because I’d forgotten that all I need to do is to use the directory line in Windows Explorer as a command line – opening up an instance in Python itself only confuses Python; most of the commands only get it to respond with a “syntax error” reply, whereas typing them into Explorer gets the process running, no problem. Clearly, I need to work in this language more often, as I’ve gotten rusty much faster than I ever expected to. From there, I had to set up an account with my preferred AI provider, and pre-pay for a bunch of tokens to be used for this (and other) processes; not a big deal, as I expected these companies to monetize the process at some point, or it would all die out. And it’s not as if running it costs all that much, as a 300-page .pdf file appears to take maybe an hour to run through and only costs four cents in tokens. The problem is that the .pdf file it generates can’t be opened, let alone read, for some reason.
At this point, I decided to use the ComicReader .cbz file for the same manga volume, which promptly informed me that I needed to set up a separate program in order to convert from Japanese. Which makes some sense, as the kana and kanji would require a completely separate dictionary and typeface recognition than a language that uses the Latin alphabet. But at this point, I was already running late – I do still try to show up at the folks’ by nine or so – and I hadn’t even so much as had breakfast, let alone filled you in on what little I’d accomplished since I wrote you yesterday.
So, yeah… there’s no end of distractions in terms of things to occupy my time and mind, and thereby prevent me from getting this or that done (and, more to the point, telling you about them). To be sure, a lot of it is hardly worth telling about; granted, I’ve finally gotten around to those first few loads of laundry since returning – and my clothes are a little softer than they were after leaving them for I Komang or Marlon to deal with – but I hardly need to prattle on about the drudgery of doing laundry, let alone the fact that I basically fell asleep mid-process last night. Likewise, I’m going to be heading out early this afternoon from the office to replenish my fruit and juice supply (and bread as well – I’m actually shocked about how many carbs, and how little meat, I eat here at home, compared to what I consumed while on the ship, and really ought to do something about that), but since I’ve already been to Aldi once since my return, it’s hardly worth commenting on, either.
To be fair, this alleged ‘distraction’ could amount to something, once I’ve figured out how to work it properly and start generating output. It’s why I bother to mention it in the first place, as well as a sort of mildly chagrined, mildly self-deprecating acknowledgement that I’m still not as on top of the technology as I thought I was, or that I know I ought to be. At least you could get a bit of a laugh as I feel my way blindly through these woods. I’d tell someone else, if I knew anyone who could relate; as it is, all I’ve got for now is you.
In any event, I do have other tasks to take care of before I head out to shop and (presumably) give this whole process another go (or maybe just wind up watching some video or another with Daniel yet again – yet another distraction to tear me away from this distraction), so I really ought to let you go and focus on that for now. In the meantime, keep an eye on me, honey, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 