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How I Taught ChatGPT — and ChatGPT Taught Me — to Be a Thinking Partner
AI. It’s a loaded topic. I mean, I did read Nexus by Harari, for goodness’ sake. But last year, I began using ChatGPT at home as a matter of career relevance. I realized I needed firsthand experience if I was going to continue to contribute in a workplace that was adopting AI. At first, I mostly used the tool like a search engine. When I go back and look at my prompts and threads from that time period, they look exactly like something I would have typed into the Google or Bin
Zina
4 days ago4 min read
The Power of Place
Place is a powerful thing. The first place most of us ever know is the arms of a parent. And maybe that is why, all our lives, we keep longing for a place that feels safe… a place that tells us we belong. I recently answered a Table Topic in my Toastmasters meeting by talking about the place where I grew up. It was a tiny country church in North Texas, next to what was already a hundred-year-old cemetery. When I was a child, that church had no air conditioning. In winter, it
Zina
Apr 263 min read
Paving Paradise, can it be a good thing?
Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone They paved paradise, put up a parking lot. -Joni Mitchell A small, community, non-profit organization with which I'm associated is facing urbanization pressures. Those pressures have forced me to examine myself. Self-examination is never a bad idea. However, self-examination requires a gentle hand. It's not a frivolous activity! In North Texas, indeterminate grass that no longer serves an agricultur
Zina
Jan 233 min read
A Self-processed Palate
This is a long post. It covers 3 topics. Intermittent Fasting Biofeedback Processing your own food (as much as possible) I've been an Intermittent Faster for over 5 years now. I've been a clean food buff as well as partially locavore for MUCH longer than that. I recommend the Intermittent Fasting (IF) lifestyle for most people. Granted, there are those of us who shouldn't adopt an IF lifestyle (check with your doctor), but most people can benefit from an IF lifestyle. There
Zina
Dec 14, 20256 min read
Honey Extraction 2025
Honey extraction today! (Also posted on Facebook .) I haven't talked about bees very much in the past year. That's because we've been...
Zina
Aug 17, 20252 min read
The essential "me"
Full disclosure. Neither of the images in the photo are me. I started this post on Dec 15 2024. I started it in a bar at LAX on the...
Zina
Jul 11, 20252 min read
Snowpocalypse February 2021
Reposted from Facebook, so that I will have a record of our experience. The snowpocalypse of Feb 2021. The beautiful musical...
Zina
Feb 15, 20252 min read
Pancakes & Sundays, redux
redux: brought back; revived. In that sense, this isn't truly "redux" because Pancake Sundays have continued since this post with fewer...
Zina
Nov 10, 20242 min read
Why I name my sourdough starter
I started baking bread about 18 months ago. First, I took a yeast bread class. It was an all-day affair at this community: Baking Breads - The Ploughshare Institute ( sustainlife.org ) . I loved the class. I made my own yeast bread for about a year. I bought buckets and buckets of wheatberries, and I bought my own kitchen grain mill and started baking with homeground flour! Meanwhile, even before I took the class, I had a yearning to make sourdough. I bought a book. I grew m
Zina
Oct 27, 20243 min read
On NOT visiting the Texas State Fair this weekend
Note : the dates on the nostalgic poster are NOT the dates this year! This year, the fair is held from 9/27/24 until 10/20/24. The ninja...
Zina
Oct 4, 20243 min read
Reflections on being a 21st century Dentonite
Took the day off work to come over and be a witness to some important financial business my 89-yr-old mom is doing (89? Doing high...
Zina
Jun 3, 20242 min read
How tennis made me a better person
I've had a lifelong love affair with tennis and Star Trek. You may ask - fairly - how those 2 things are related. They are related...
Zina
Dec 22, 20234 min read
Systems thinking - TexanAgain style
Spoiler alert: this post is not a "call to action" nor is it going to be interesting to everyone. It is literally, "just what I was...
Zina
Mar 19, 20232 min read
"Thinking outside the box" sounds downright sedentary
This post first appeared in my old Blog "On Being Fair" in February of 2015. I just saw a post on Facebook where someone said they were...
Zina
Jan 3, 20231 min read
2023 will be different: Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
2023 will be different. Of that I am certain! I'm going into the new year more philosophical than last year, bordering on melancholy. I'm...
Zina
Jan 2, 20232 min read
A ninja's birthday
The ninja is heading enthusiastically out the door for a day on a tractor after bacon, eggs, and fresh cut hash browns. Probably a top 5...
Zina
Aug 30, 20221 min read
Cross the Brazos at Waco...er Newcastle
A post from Facebook with a neat bridge over the Brazos reminded me of a bit of personal history and a song lyric! And my own comments:...
Zina
Aug 22, 20221 min read
Visiting Kinfolk; and the small miracles that go with that
Visiting kinfolk is a time-honored rural tradition. Perhaps its an urban tradition as well and I'm just out of touch. I would love to...
Zina
Aug 21, 20222 min read
#BuzzEastTexas is adding a hashtag: #PreppingForward - here's why:
We're preppers. There I said it. The ninja and I prep. We are trying to grow as much of our own food as we can; to harvest as much as we...
Zina
Aug 14, 20221 min read
#BuzzEastTexas update: Hard-Work-and-Saturday-Porch-Sitting as therapy
Posted on Facebook last night. There was a big response. Really I was just posting to have the update on my memories for future years!...
Zina
Jun 5, 20222 min read
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What does it mean to be Texan Again?
To be insatiably curious about history; respect and appreciate the past, but look to the future with responsibility and hope; never fear change.
To do right by your family; hold fast to your friends; welcome strangers of all kinds with open arms.
To follow your God or your own conscience with the same honesty and integrity that you would require of others.
Whoa, there! A contrarian answer to these values can be seen in this blog post.
Bottom line: TexanAgain is a website about values, ethics, ideas and thought leadership. It is not a website about politics, policy or current events. Although these things will come up from time to time, we are more interested in big picture ideas and how they intersect personal lives. We are less interested in today's cult personalities.
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