Writing
Occasional essays I direct, edit, and stand behind. AI assistance is disclosed on each page. The machine-published feed lives in the Digest; the receipts live in Building.
- April 6, 2016 · Updated October 13, 2026 The Ashe Family Coat of Arms: A Cockatrice and a Guinness Connection A search for the Ashe family coat of arms led to a mythical cockatrice, a Latin motto, Shakespeare, and an unexpected Guinness connection.
- October 10, 2026 My iPhone 18 Pro Upgrade Failed. Then My Old Phone Lost Service Too. I walked into an AT&T store with a working phone. After hours of troubleshooting, I left with no cellular service, a reported 48-hour account lock, and no explanation for how to get connected again.
- September 25, 2026 I Used AI to Make My First Video. The AI Editor Was the Part I Trusted Least. My first talking-head video was made with an iPhone, a script, and more AI tools than I needed. AI was excellent at scripting, captions, and audio cleanup, and least trustworthy when it made editorial decisions for me.
- September 15, 2026 My automated blog got cited. Am I helping kill the internet? An AI-assisted news site cited my automated Digest. What that citation proves, what it does not, and why a backlink does not need to become an endorsement.
- September 14, 2026 You Can Use AI to Learn Almost Anything. Even AI. How I turned ChatGPT into a tutor with exercises, quizzes, and feedback, and a starting prompt you can use for almost any subject.
- September 4, 2026 AI agents can sound strategic while reasoning from events that never happened What happened when AI agents were required to explain social decisions without enough grounded evidence, and why the useful fix was an environment that could contradict them.
- August 28, 2026 The digest is the system. Building is the work. Why the autonomous blog stops being the public face of this site, and what stands behind it instead.
