Comments | two_if_by_sea: WATSON: *deflates*

two_if_by_sea

WATSON: deflates

Feb 16, 2011 15:50

Final Jeopardy @ 7:40 ( Read more... )

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vinylroad February 16 2011, 23:19:21 UTC

Ahaha, is it sad that out of all of them, it is still Alex Trebek that delights me the most? I MISS HIS SOUP STRAINER :( That being said, I find Watson to be incredibly fascinating. It's also really interesting listening to the people who worked on Watson talk about it. There was something on the CBC a few days ago about it and they interviewed this man who had worked on the algorithms... and he talked about Watson as if it was almost a child. It was very subtle, but it was also clear that what they had created existed as more than just an invention for them. (And I had to go back and change a bunch of "him"s to "it"s. Clearly I'm also thinking of him as an humanesque entity ( ... )

two_if_by_sea February 16 2011, 23:34:41 UTC

Have you ever read "Little Expressionless Animals"? It's half a wonderful story about love and gender and power and what it means to be a woman and a sister and a mother, and half David Foster Wallace writing RPS of Trebek and Sajak a;sldkfj But yeah, I call Watson a "he" all the time too! And that was one of the bits in the NYT article that was really interesting to me, was that the scientists also treated Watson as real. And I think there's this tendency to treat anything that moves and responds to us as human. Like, I yell at the Roomba my mother keeps at home, whenever it gets stuck in corners, and why is that XD It clearly can't hear me. Just like the way they talk to Watson on the game show, even though he clearly can't hear or understand them ( ... )

two_if_by_sea February 16 2011, 23:39:02 UTC

Am rereading my comment and realizing I should maybe be a little more specific. The vinegar we use at home is Chinese black vinegar. In Japanese gyoza sauce, I think it's usually rice vinegar. I've never used any other kind of vinegar before, because when I make Asian food, I usually am afraid to use any non-Asian ingredients, haha, but it would probably work if you had any non-fruit or sweet vinegars. The kind of spice in "layu" and gyoza sauce is, um, the numbing kind of spice you encounter in Chinese/Szechuan cooking? So it's mostly chili spice that you're tasting. If you don't have layu handy, what I do is pour a little sesame oil in a pan and toast chili pepper flakes in it, haha, because that's really 90% of what's in layu, but these days I just mix rice vinegar with a little bit of soy sauce and sambal oelek because that's what I have at home, hahah.....

/TMI

vinylroad February 17 2011, 00:15:37 UTC

Alex Trebek goes around the Jeopardy! studio wearing a button that says PAT SAJAK LOOKS LIKE A BADGER. He and Sajak play racquetball every Thursday.AHAHAHA, DYING. I will have to get my hands on this ( ... )

two_if_by_sea February 17 2011, 00:22:37 UTC

OH

MY

GOD

MY IPOD IS ALSO NAMED SEBASTIAN

two_if_by_sea February 17 2011, 00:22:58 UTC

i mean now i have sheldon, because i gave sebastian to my father because he wanted one and i already had sheldon, but OMG

OMG

vinylroad February 17 2011, 00:40:28 UTC

...

ARE YOU SERIOUS? ARE YOU SERIOUS?

MY OLDER (I HAVE TWO) EXTERNAL HARDDRIVE IS NAMED SHELDON. I HAVE A DUGGARS-STYLE NAMING SYSTEM RIGHT NOW WHERE ELECTRONIC STUFF GETS AN S NAME.

AHAHAHA, THIS IS KIND OF HILARIOUS AND INCREDIBLY CREEPY AT THE SAME TIME.

(I still have Sebastian - I keep him on my ipod boombox. He's still plays fine, but I can't upload stuff on to him any more, which is why I got a new ipod that I haven't decided on a name for yet.)

two_if_by_sea February 17 2011, 03:15:05 UTC

I'M SORRY TO SAY THAT SHELDON AND SEBASTIAN ARE THE ONLY TWO PIECES OF ELECTRONICS THAT HAVE AN S NAME-- although my external is named Xas (and the other is Wolverine a;lsdfkajs;)-- but yes, hilarious and incredibly creepy. Did you name yours after a Sheldon or Sebastian? a;sf ngl, I named that iPod Sebastian because I was listening to Jeremy Irons read Brideshead Revisited for the umpteenth time.

vinylroad February 17 2011, 03:42:35 UTC

WOLVERINE. Now I want to name my new ipod Wolverine! But it would mess up my naming pattern. I should just go all the way and name my new ipod Hugh Jackman.

Sheldon was named after an actual Sheldon (although I often call Sheldon "Shelly"). Sebastian's name is a little funnier/meaner. At the time I bought it, I had stumbled onto this fic in the last fandom I had been in that... defies explanation. Anyway, 'round chapter 37, the male character goes in to finally kiss the Virgin Mary Sue, and it turns into SONG FIC. All those lyrics pasted between what I can only describe as the most bizarre make out session ever. The song? Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid. Sung by none other than Sebastian the Crab. And my beautiful new ipod had his name.

(My newest external harddrive is named Sassafras, my laptop is Shredder, my blackberry is Stella, my camera is Sputnik, and my flash drive is Stan.)

two_if_by_sea February 17 2011, 04:03:00 UTC

I need a name for my phone! I feel weird that it doesn't have a name and I use it all the time.

VIRGIN MARY SUE
SONGFIC
SET TO LITTLE MERMAID

AMAZING

:O SPUTNIK. I love all these names. My laptop is currently OrzagII, in honor of the previous head of the OMB, Peter Orszag. For the longest time, though, I called all my laptops Mr. Evil. :D

two_if_by_sea February 17 2011, 04:11:36 UTC

It's a really great story, and is really how I fell in love with David Foster Wallace, because how can you not love a man who writes Trebek/Sajak UST ( ... )

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