Some progress has been made. I made contact with my oldest sister just before Easter (ran into my brother-in-law in a convenience store near where they live). Sister and grandchildren came to Easter dinner with my brother-in-law. I told them I'd like to get in touch with my nephew (their son) to see if he and/or his wife would be willing to be Executor/Trustee/Attorney-in-Fact in some combination. So I'll be contacting him next week. Last Tuesday I met with a place in WRJ, Vt. that offers Guardian, Executor, Administrator, Agent, Trustee, Consultant services. It was an interesting half-hour get-to-know-how-they-work interview (free) and I came home with their fee schedule. Apart from reservations about continuity (what happens if they place goes bankrupt after they've received a chunk of my money?), I feel comfortable that they would carry out my wishes as desired. They have a flat reservation fee (for future services) of $1200. When the time comes that they need to act on my behalf, their hourly rate for $275 for the above mentioned services, and $150/hr or $175/hr for admin work. If that's all there was to it, I'd be very inclined to sign with them. However, as of this year (2026) they will be billing an annual maintenance fee of $1000. If I knew I only had 10 years left (I hope not... I mean, I hope there's more!) I'd seriously consider it. But 20 years? 30 years? That adds up to a big chunk of change, for doing what every year? Being prepared? (On the other hand, the firm managing my retirement account gets paid more than that, albeit, they are growing, hopefully, my account.) Also, it's asking strangers to manage my personal affairs, so I expect to pay reasonably for that. I just don't know if it's too much? So next step is talking with my nephew. Maybe they'll be happy to manage it all. If not, then maybe power-of-attorney. The responsibilities may get split. I got a letter from the lawyer I met with last October to set up the trust asking me if I was still interested. Heehee. Yeah, it's already been 6 months! I told them yes and that I should have concrete plans reasonably soon. Hate all this stuff. Oh, the other thing I've been working on is a spreadsheet of all my possessions. It may become the basis for an auction after I've gone. Or before.

@Bernard said: AI cannot form opinions. Sometimes, having an opinion is overrated and/or counterproductive. Depending on the circumstances, not having an opinion is a feature, not a bug. Questions to ask about AI': If it is intelligent, where does it's intelligence lie? If it is conscious, where does it's consciousness lie? Where do your intelligence and consciousness lie? Do you know?

Sorry for your loss, wtg.

Lol!

+1 re: the DNC

@bernard Did you see that Fetterman was the single vote to decide not to end the Iran debacle? He and his comfy clothes should be in an insane asylum, or he should be in prison for complicity in war crimes, or he should be in a military prison for treason, in my opinion.

I've heard many times the freeholders are often what we would call private equity firms and are practicing financial predation. I'm living where I was born. It's disheartening to see houses of the exact type my family lived in since I was born rise from well under 20k in 1963 to over 400k today. Wages and productivity were decoupled in the '70's with wages flat lining and productivity rising dramatically. People in this country today in general literally are not being paid wages that that equal what it costs to live. This country is and is about to be more so in a foreclosure crisis, also. Our neverending inflation crisis just got dramatically worse, also. This isn't the country where I was raised. It's not prosperous and in fact is holding on by a thread.

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/chinese-evs-take-world-storm-united-states-rcna344680 I do not trust cars from China in the same sense that I do not trust network routers from China or computers from China. Still, articles like this makes me question of the American car industry is still alive only because of protectionism.

@wtg and @bernard I spent so much time on the music school's website, you'd think I was planning to move there! I would love to be in a class with your, Bernard!

It's encouraging to see progress in what are sometimes regarded as mature technical fields. Having been involved with technical services to the steel industry earlier in my engineering career, I still find news of advances there exciting. Big Al

Very clever! How does it deal with the discard?

Thanks everyone!

[image: IMG-5962.jpg] It’s largely a chronicle of his life (hippie surfer baker chef) up to when he opened the Tartine bakery. It’s a good story. There’s also a good bit of it dedicated to recipes that use day old bread - fancy ones! - and various permutations like baguettes, English muffins and brioche. But in the middle of all that is the base recipe and how he developed it. How it’s supposed to look (big holes, baked very dark), how it’s supposed to taste (not sour. Chad doesn’t like sour). Also pictures. The soupy mess that I get when I use his recipe is not a failure - it’s how it’s supposed to look! It’s what gets you the big holes! He goes on to tell how to make it come together again, something not in the base recipe. Read it straight through in one sitting. I’ll read the part with the method again before my next bake.

Turn on automatic software updates for networked devices. That’s about the best advice that can be given to most casual tech users.