Wednesday Witterings . . .

 

 

Just a short little post this morning. Cindy and I are going to the hairdressers in the next town to get our hair cut.  We are both tired of our long hair.  For me, personally, it takes so long to dry after washing, and I find it very hard to cope with it. I also think it is not all that flattering. (Not that I am looking to attract anyone. So over that game.)  I do like to look neat and tidy however and all those loose hairs that can't be encapsulated around my face drive me nuts.  I kept my hair short for many years when I was working with food and it was so easy to take care of. Just wash and go. I am a wash and go kind of a girl.

Neither one of us are spring chickens so I don't think we, either one, are expecting miracles.  Just shorter hair and a tidier look.

We went yesterday afternoon to the local Spurr's farm market to pick up some fresh bread. They get their bread order on Tuesdays.  I love the sour dough bread. I usually get a fresh olive loaf. It is so good. I could eat it just as it is without any butter or anything on it.  It's just lovely.  I got that and a plain loaf. I cut each in half and have frozen half for next week. That way nothing will go to waste.

 

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My heat pump has broke down again.  I am not sure how old it is. I am not needing the heat at this moment, but it won't be long before it starts to get hot and humid and I will surely be needing the cooling option on it then.  I cannot cope with high heat and humidity very well. It makes me feel really tired and lethargic.  I lose all of my zippidy do dah!

He came and looked at it (the maintenance guy). He was working on painting the unit next to mine. He got it working again for a short, but it reverted quickly to not working and so he is going to have to get an electrician or someone to come and look at it. Hopefully more sooner than later.

 

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The ant saga continues. I no sooner get rid of them in one area and they show up somewhere else. I was taking my class on zoom on Monday night, and I kept finding them crawling over my desk.  I have about 8 baits out now in various spots. The only place they haven't shown up yet is my kitchen counters, but that will be next.  I am sure.

I only have one more class of the self-reliance course to take. These last two classes are on investing for your retirement. It's kind of late for me now. This is the kind of thing I should have learned 30 or 40 years ago now.  All I can do at this point it keep treading water and going for as long as I can. I rely very much upon my faith to keep my spirits up when I feel myself getting afraid.

It is not a nice situation to find yourself in at this stage of life, but it is what it is. I did not take very good care of my own interests through the years, always giving everything to my partners because I didn't know what else to do or allowed myself to be manipulated into doing so.  Three times I walked away with nothing. I have made some very poor decisions through the years and am now reaping the benefits of having done so.  I did not know when I moved to the U.K. that I was going to be there as long as I was and that, in doing so, I would compromise my pensions here in Canada.  And of course, although I paid into the NI over there, it was not long enough for me to qualify for any pensions there. All I can do now is hope that I will get a widow's pension one day. If anyone lets me know I am a widow. Here's hoping that somebody will.  Even so it will not be much, I am sure.

This new jump to the recipe button that we have been told by google that we have to have is not doing me any favors on the food blog. I have seen my earnings decrease by 2/3.  I won't complain because it is better than nothing, but I cannot save for a rainy day as I would like to do, or even for a time when I can no longer work as I am now. I won't lie and say it isn't scary because it is. 

And then there is the AI curse. Real, authentic food bloggers are being taken over by AI food bloggers.  Fake food pictures. Fake recipes.  The people who are writing them haven't even cooked them, but the flashy images catch people's attention and draw attention away from those who are doing the real work. It's quite disheartening.

Here is what they do . . . 

Here is an AI image of a recipe purported to be by this person Zaho on a page called My Homemade Recipe.  Where the recipe is supposed to be a homemade recipe by them. The image doesn't even match the instructions or ingredients asked for in the recipe that they have posted. 

It's all very fake.

 

Fake, fake, fake. If you look at their Pinterest page it is full of fake images for recipes that may or may not work, because it is very obvious, they haven't made the recipe for themselves.

But the damage is done. They (and other sites like them) get millions of views based on a fake photo of something that isn't even real. The recipe may or may not work.  They scrape content from sites that DO all the hard work and then create an AI generated image to represent that and present it to you as their own work.  This site and others like it are full of AI-generated recipes, copied content that has been reworded and published again. Coming from bots that have never even been in a kitchen. They don't test the recipes they post. They don't tweak the flavors. They don't know what actually works and what doesn't. There is no real person behind the fake persona.

They are stealing the hard work from, and pushing the work of, real creators, like myself, further and further down in the search results. They don't care if what they have posted works or not.  They made their money when you clicked on their site. "YOU" and "I" do not matter to them. They worship the almighty dollar, and they are raking it in at the expense of real people.

I don't know what the answer is to this.  It is more than a bit discouraging to say the least. I am even afraid to talk about it on my actual food blog just in case that creates some sort of negative impact for my page

All I can do is to keep doing what I am doing, and to trust in the Lord, and to hope that eventually people will stop falling for the lies out there and want real recipes, etc. before it is too late for me.

At the end of this post, you will see a REAL photo for a Tater Tot Casserole.  Made by me and you will see the difference.

In the meantime, I must dash, so I will leave you with a thought for the day . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★

 *.Life itself is the most wonderful

fairytale of all.

~Hans Christian Anderson

In The English Kitchen today, Tatertot Casserole.  The real deal.

And another view.  I did use the recipe on their page to see how it would turn out. It is really tasty but doesn't look at all like the photo they shared. (see up above) I got lucky with this one. It actually worked. But I have to wonder who the actual original poster was.  The person who invented the recipe or put it together to begin with. No credit has been given to them, and I can't give them credit either because that information is now lost . . .

Anyways, I hope that you have a beautiful day. May it be filled with joy.  Don't forget!

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And I do too!