Thoughts about using an AI checker for plagiarism

 A writer friend tried using several different plagiarism  checkers to make sure she wasn't copying anybody else's words or sentences.  I responded:

I have some thoughts: In the first place - lots of people have the same idea, but it's the execution that is solely yours. Yes, you use the same words as the rest of us, and some phrases will be the same or similar to others. But it's the paragraph, the emotion behind the writing, the emotion that is created in the reader that is solely yours.

My husband and I are/ were both writers. But our styles couldn't have been more different. I stopped letting him read my work until after it was published because he would get out a pen and try to edit my writing to be more like his style. 

We both wrote nonfiction (and I also wrote fiction). But his articles about car repair and using computers were directed at adult audiences who used his writings as instruction manuals. Whereas I was writing for children, making history interesting, plus writing picture books to entertain youngsters. I'm sure we both used similar words/ similar phrases, after all, we lived together and influenced each other. 

In other words -- you do you.  

Another thought - one which you already know. Ideas are out there and (for example) oftentimes my work has been rejected because it was too similar to something the publisher already had. (we already have a pumpkin book) So, of course some AI programs would mark us as plagiarizing, when no, the complete work actually was original to you and to me. (It turned out that MY pumpkin book was actually very different from the one that publisher had in the works.)

We will use the same words as someone else. "green grass" "blue sky" We will use same or similar sentences, because there is just a limited way we can describe things. 

Unfortunately, AI can't judge the effectiveness of a scene, a paragraph, a sentence to convey what you are portraying in your writing. 

Cats

They say that orange cats are usually male.  However,  Our orange cat was female.  

And she was Queen of the house/ bossed around the other cats.  (We called her -Queen Katie)

She and her friend had kittens at the same time. A total of 11 kittens. We set up two boxes for the two families and woke up the next morning to find the two cats plus all the kittens in one box. So we ended up creating a huge box for them and they shared raising and feeding all the kittens. Ended up with huge breasts. (the vet called them "Dolly Parton cats) The 8 inch wooden frame around them boxed in the kittens while allowing the moms to get away from them to take a break or eat or lie in the patch of sun nearby.  

But when the kittens became large enough to get over that frame, it was mobs of kittens all over the place. And when they had 'nap attacks' they simply dropped onto the floor wherever they were. We had to be careful where we walked, stepping over sleeping kittens.

Mailing a manuscript by mail in 2025

 Sent out a manuscript by mail. 

Seemed strange to do that, but that's what the publisher's web page wanted.  

But Lo -- there's a second address for the same publisher from another source. Which one to use?  

I picked one and mailed it out.  

And LO -- today it returned:  

Return to sender. Not deliverable as addressed. Unable to forward.  

So, I guess I'll try mailing it to the other address that I had found.  

And then - the suspense. Will that address be also rejected? Stay tuned.

He packs for a trip v. what I pack for a trip

 Husband couldn't understand why it took me such a long time to pack for our trips. (usually to Florida to visit m y parents) He packed for himself, then checked that the car was working right. Done. 

I did a huge wash to make sure everything we wanted to pack was clean and ready. I packed for me. Packed for the children and supervised the packing by the older children for themselves. (clothing for sunny, warm Florida and clothing for the cold, drafty trip there and back.) I planned and packed snacks and various entertainments for the children. I discussed the route with him. I checked that the house was secure so we could be gone a week or so. I cancelled the mail.  

When it came to loading the car - he was unable to fit everything in. So I had to repack the car so that not only everything fit, but so that things we would need during the trip were accessible. Oh, and also pillows and blankets and favorite (small) stuffies for naps.

My grandmother said

 My grandmother told me:

Always wear good, clean, good underwear when you go downtown. Because - what if you were hit by a streetcar and they had to take you to the hospital, and saw you in ratty underwear.

As you may have guessed, my grandmother was born around the turn of the 20th century (1900s). She had a lot of 'lady-like' suggestions for me, her oldest girl grandchild. (I don't think she ever saw me wearing my mini skirt dresses, though  She might have been shocked. On the other hand, she did try to keep up with what the fashionable young were wearing and doing, although she'd never wear or do it herself.) 

Eventually she used a cane for walking and I now use that very same cane. It's over 100 years old. But if you think it's a valuable antique, it's not. That very same cane shape is still available.

Oh -  She also was a suffragette, and I still have her suffragette sash.

A moment of pure happiness

 One of my FB friends just asked us to talk about a time when we had a moment of pure happiness. So I wrote this:

In the music building at college when a friend who was studying to be a conductor chose ME to be in the little group he was going to practice conducting on. Me. He gave us music we had never seen before and let us rip.  

(so happy that he thought I was good enough to sight read anything.)

New iPhone - with no facial recognition

 Why I still have one of the last iPhones that open with a touch button in stead of facial recognition.

The reason I don't want it is because there seem to be quite a few people in the USA and probably elsewhere with my same face.  

When I worked part time in college on the third floor of a department building, people would always take a second look at me and insist that they had just seen me on the first floor of the building. So I went to find that person and discovered she was ugly. YIKES. Do I look like that?  

Over and over again complete strangers would come up to me and start talking to me, then pause, then excuse themselves because they thought I was someone else.