Ani Was Writing

   There are moments where humans get a taste of godhood that shows how chaotic our creation truly is. I find it is the most apparent when we show our desire to build something. From a Christian perspective, we find ourselves wanting to create, just like God wants to create. Our human nature often gets in the way and we find that what we build just cannot live up to our expectations or our dreams. To me, this sticks out a lot when artificial intelligence is created.    It gives me an appreciation for God (or Elyon, as I call him) when I see a robot or some sort of A.I. . I can sense the countless hours and well of knowledge to get a piece of AI to understand the concept of space and time! To simply tell a robot, "This is a thing you need to recognize and recall," is a tedious process with so many lines of code and hours of refinement to perfect a statement that is naturally done by a small human.   I have to give some of the blame to fellow writers in general. W...

  Last year, I had the wonderful experience of attending a high school basketball game for a group of special needs students. I work on a bus full of them, and they were begging me to come. I went to at least five of them.   One of my riders, Jack, is a slower student with a limited vocabulary. His family was nice enough, but as the basketball game reached halftime, I had a feeling that I wasn't welcomed to join them or be around them. The parents especially came across as cold and intensely focused on the game in a judgmental way. I wondered why they were so invested until I recalled Jack's older brother was on the varsity basketball team for the same high school.    Once halftime came around, I said goodbye to Jack's family and found John's family. John -compared to Jack- functions like any other high school kid with an exception of his ability to quickly process words and thoughts. This doesn't affect him much as he plays. I found his family cheering the whole te...

   So, I have been aware of the trend of hatred toward Mondays and what they mean for a good chunk of the majority of the general population here in the United States. Is it the same in other countries?   I just find it interesting that Mondays have become the bane of everyone's existence. Is it because that is when everyone has to go to work or school? If that is the case, then why does work or school cause so much dread for everyone?   I will try to avoid getting preachy. I am just curious. I feel like having this mindset of work or school being miserable does not help with Monday feelings. Maybe if that wasn't the case, our Mondays wouldn't be so bad. Maybe. Would we then find a new day to be miserable about? Or would our lack of misery about Mondays affect how we see other days of the week?   Personally, my day of dread isn't on Monday. Mine is usually on Sunday. Sundays for me are a reminder that I have to shift from my more carefree perspective of Saturday...

 Book Review The Siren World Written by Juan J. Morales   Now, I must admit, I have a slight bias with this author. I got to meet him and have him sign my copy in Colorado Springs a few years back. I also got to be in many classes that he taught at my university (I will not say which specific one, but it doesn't take too much digging to figure out.) which was a delightful experience.    With that in mind, this collection of poetry is one of my favorites. There was so much to take in between the poems themselves and how I felt in the moment to the poems that I had to grab a pen and my notebook. A lot of what I experienced fell into a series of dualities, which is an odd experience for me. What made it odd was how familiar it felt to me, even though I never wrote any of the poems. This concept of dualities is something I enjoy and wish to explore more of in writing or media of any time, but it is rarely given enough attention to make it interesting. In The Siren World,...

   "This is what you get for trying to advertise too much at once. First a video, then you mentioned a blog, when really you wanted people to pay attention to the poll. Great going, Ani." I stare down my computer screen and refresh the page. I refresh it again. Again. Again. Again. I see the same thing I see with every refresh: the two votes I cast myself to get the ball rolling. Amethyst has been sitting on the floor to pet my dog while I give a low huff of frustration. She looks up at me. "What did you expect? Did you expect the heavens themselves to send their armies of angels to help you decide on what should go on your blog that hardly anyone reads unless you post it somewhere in Discord?"   I glance back to her. "You know, for someone who is supposed to be more supportive... You sound a lot like your mother right now." (A sidenote: Her mother is one of the most unpleasant entities I've had to work with. Without going into details, she's cold,...