Weekly Update 10/24/26 – 10/30/26 (Voting, AI, and Family)
This week's Weekly Update covers the continuing arrangements for my mother's memorial, a visit with my neurologist, my thoughts about the election and using AI to help me vote, and some progress at work and on my office.
Well, this week my mom's final journey continued. We have decided to hold a service for her on January 9, 2027, at St. Michael's. It was not until after we had settled on January 9 that we noticed Dad was also interred at St. Michael's on January 9, but 11 years earlier.
In the meantime, her remains have been cremated and are now at Susan's house, awaiting her final interment.
Monday, I met with my neurologist, Dr. Kollie. He is just another one in what has become a long line of neurologists who have overseen my care. Nothing much happened. My condition seems to have stabilized over the last few years, so there wasn't much for us to go over.
He does want me to have some imaging done next year, but other than that, we will stay the course. Mainly, I see him to maintain my connection, just in case (or really, for when) my condition changes. Autoimmune encephalitis is not generally something you get over; it just goes dormant.
The odd part of all this is his name, Kollie. What makes that interesting is that my first doctor, my pediatrician, was Dr. Collie. So I seem to have gone full circle.
I don't have any memories of Dr. Collie himself, but I do remember his office. It was a brick building on Riverside Drive near Coldwater Drive, and I remember the parking lot quite clearly. I also remember his nurse. I don't remember her name, but I do remember being quite scared of her, as she was the one who would give me injections. That was something I used to be terrified of, while today I take injections without causing a scene like I did when I was a kid.
It's strange. I mentioned Dr. Collie to Susan, and she also remembers his nurse, but she remembers her as a kind person.
I think the most annoying thing going on this week has been the election and all the advertisements I've been hearing. I think this has been a particularly disgraceful election cycle. The quality of the advertisements and the vitriol in them have been amazing.
I remember one in particular that seemed to be threatening voters. It suggested that friends and neighbors could find out whether you had voted and that you should vote to avoid letting them know you hadn't. It wasn't suggesting that anyone could find out who you voted for, just whether you had voted at all.
I also think that this year I have heard, many times, the most useless political advertisement I have ever heard. I would think the purpose of an advertisement was to help convince someone to vote for or against a certain candidate. But this advertisement totally failed to do that.
Listening to it, I couldn't tell whether it was for or against the person named in the advertisement. I'm not going to give the candidate's name, as I don't want to support that person, but the advertisement simply stated that if you voted for this person, it would be good for Donald Trump.
When I first heard the advertisement, I thought it was opposing the candidate. But thinking about it, I realized that if you don't like Trump, as I don't, the advertisement would encourage you to vote against the candidate. However, if you were a Trump supporter, it would encourage you to vote for that same candidate. So why run the advertisement at all?
Well, I'm ashamed to say that just before I started writing this update, I did, in fact, finish my ballot and mail it. So I have voted.
Why am I ashamed? Because I feel that by voting, I'm lending my support to a system that I believe has failed us. Perhaps the problem isn't just the electoral system. Perhaps it's the electorate itself. Between the system, the political parties, and the candidates they put forward, we seem to have arrived at something I can only be ashamed of.
George Carlin used to make an interesting argument about voting. We're always told that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about the results. Carlin turned that argument around. He argued that the people who voted were responsible for putting those politicians into office, while those who didn't vote had every right to complain.
And yet, despite agreeing with Carlin's reasoning, I voted anyway.
This is the second time I have used AI to help me through the voting process, and I must say I have been very impressed. It gave me the ability to develop a much deeper understanding of what I was voting for, including the arguments both for and against the candidates and ballot measures.
I feel that I was much better informed about the choices I was making than I have ever been in previous elections. While AI certainly has its limitations, I found it to be a valuable tool for understanding the issues rather than simply relying on political advertisements and campaign materials.
I was particularly impressed with the way Astra (ChatGPT) was able to present the information. I told it which precinct I was in, and it was able to walk me through the candidates and issues in the same order they appeared on my ballot, without all the extra information contained in the voters' pamphlet. This made the entire process much easier.
Astra also maintained a running record of my selections as we went along. Once the election results are available, I will be able to go back through that record and easily compare how I voted with what actually happened at the polls.
As to my work, this week saw some major progress on my project. I now have the API calls (the way my program will connect to our company's system), so I can proceed with connecting EBizCharge to FACTS.
I already have most of the FACTS-to-EBizCharge connection done, so I hope to have a testable system ready by the end of November.
Work on my office has slowed down. I just have the finishing touches to put on, like the window treatments and the possibility of crown molding with lighting embedded in it. I'm quite proud of the work I've done and will be doing a separate article on the office when I'm finished, including pictures.
This is truly a space for me. My desk is on the west-facing wall, which also includes my diplomas. The north wall has the door to the hall and several historical pictures about my life. The northeast corner has my wing chair that I use for thinking and meditation. The east wall has my collection of Phoenix art and the closet, while the south wall has my side desk and the window overlooking the deck.
Well, I wish you all a Happy Halloween and a great week.
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