AI - Learning to live with it.

AI is perhaps the first time in my life where I am being forced to really change my thinking patterns. I have been in IT for 22 years, and for better or worse, I have reflexive thought patterns towards problem solving. My brain tends to fire in a certain, almost instinctive way when presented with a challenge. In the last two years I have been trying to force myself to adopt the new kids on the block, those being gen AI tools. I have been experimenting with ChatGPT and Copilot for about a year now, and I still find myself thinking about it second, or third. My goal for this year is to force myself to go AI first when approaching things, in an effort find the value.

I have also been having some fun with Sora, which is OpenAI’s image generator tool. And, it’s really quite good. It will also make video, which is wild. So, here’s some of those.

May 1st! A quick photo drop

Easter, Spring, the beginnings of summer, it’s May 1st. Figured I’d drop some recent photos today, and special shout out to Chella’s, an amazing road side Arepa stand in Lancaster PA. If you are anywhere close to Lancaster, you owe it to yourself to go check this place out. Unbelievably good food.

If you’re reading this, I hope you have a great May!

The Major Leagues of Gaslighting

Baseball umpires do not make sense, especially now, in the AI era. Every season that passes makes this more clear, and every season no one does anything about it.

The current reality is:

  • Umpires blatantly miss calls all the time.

  • Some even have a reputation for it.

  • When this happens... there is no recourse. The decision is final.

Why are these calls decisive and final! We have multiple camera angles and slow motion in stunning 4k. On video review nearly every bad call can be definitively corrected with this technology. The MLB knows this, and the telecasts dissect these calls in seconds, in real time! Meanwhile, the MLB is content to let mistakes happen, and do nothing to correct them.

It gets worse! The coach or a player must voice their disagreement with these calls, they have no other choice. It's their job, these are athletes, they must have that competitive fire. And when they do, in most cases, the umpire will eject them! Which means, the umpire makes the mistake, and then punishes the player? Are we just paying to watch millionaires get gaslighted on TV? That's baseball now apparently, that's the real game.

Baseball umpires are the closest thing we have to politicians outside of Washington in many ways.

  • They are inherently flawed

  • They cannot be challenged

  • Once they're in, it is near impossible to get them out

  • They get paid a lot of money to be bad at their job

  • Everyone knows its a problem, and just ignores it

Now, just recently, in 2025 spring training, the MLB tested an automated ball-strike system. Ultimately, they used it to supplement the umps in place. A batter could challenge a call, and if it was a confirmed bad call, it was reversed and they kept the challenge. Only two challenges per team. This is fine, but here's the thing. We're ceding authority to the tracking system to make the call. This being the case, it's clear. Umps no longer need to bother calling pitches.

I think it’s time to move on from umpires, nothing ruins a sport more than knowing that incompetence played a bigger role in the game than the players.


via Umpire Auditor - X