My Journal

Tuesday 14 July 2026

My fascination with history just got bigger

As I mentioned in my last post, I was deciding on pursuing my masters of arts degree in history. Well, today I registered for my first class. HIST 500 Historical Research Methods.

I am 60. it is 2026 and I have registered at American Public University (online) to work towards my MA in History. One class at a time that I plan on paying for out of my pocket (OK, from gig money I make performing on the weekends). I am excited and nervous at the same time, just like I was 16 years ago.

This is a new adventure. My reasoning is because I plan on retiring in 3 years (if I sell back my Army time) and would like to teach as a part-time job to supplement my government pension and my weekend gig money. MA is pretty much required for that. So, we shall see how this transpires. First class begins September 7, 2026

I am 60. it is 2026 and I have registered at American Public University (online) to work towards my MA in History. One class at a time that I plan on paying for out of my pocket (OK, from gig money I make performing on the weekends). I am excited and nervous at the same time, just like I was 16 years ago.

This is a new adventure. My reasoning is because I plan on retiring in 3 years (if I sell back my Army time) and would like to teach as a part-time job to supplement my government pension and my weekend gig money. MA is pretty much required for that. So, we shall see how this transpires. First class begins September 7, 2026.

I have also gotten knee deep in a project called "Rook and Rune Press LLC" which is and asset engine for historical fiction & research that transforms rigorous historical research into enduring intellectual property. We publish history that is meticulously researched, clearly written, and enjoyable to read.

I created a very good backing system along witha RAG system to provide accurate and detailed historical information from sourced data.

This is still in the growing stages, but I plan to release a PDF writers guide: "The Burning of Lawrence: A Writer’s Guide to the 1863 Massacre" Not a textbook. This is a high-fidelity, rigorously sourced reference PDF designed specifically for writers. Extracted from primary sources and mapped using our proprietary RAG system, this guide provides the hour-by-hour timeline, civilian survival tactics, and sensory details you need to bring Bleeding Kansas to life.

So, history is back with a vengence in my life!

Sunday 12 July 2026

Tackling my Masters degree at 60

I have decided that at 60 I'm going to go ahead and work on getting my Master degree in History.

I got my BA in History late in life (I graduated in 2015) so this will be another late one. It will also take a while since I'm paying for it without any loans which will mean one class at a time So by the time I retire I should have my MA.

Still pretty good timing. Once I retire from the government I'll have my full pension, my additional money I make performing music live on weekends and such, and then maybe a part-time gig teaching History online.

There is also a fourth possibility. I have looked at creating an historical fiction company that "transforms rigorous historical research into enduring intellectual property that educates, entertains, and generates value through multiple publishing formats."

We will see how that transpires.

Sunday 5 July 2026

It's been a tough and enlightening week

My last post was June 28th. Today is July 5. A little over a week.I'm honestly going to keep part of the personal items brief. I've lived through them enough for the week.

My daughter passed away from a suicide back on April 12th. I have been living with that evey day and will continue to do so. What has made it difficult was knowing her birthday was coming up, which was today, July 5th. I spend time with her mother and my youngest son planting a couple trees in he memory. I was tired (still am) because of the fireworks for July 4th went on into the wee hours of the morning, causiung me to get very little sleep. So yeah, I am a little sad and emotional today.

To add into this, my step-sister passed away on July 2nd from cancer. She was only 47 years old and left kids and grandkids. We were not close, but she was still family. Her dad (my step-dad) is someone I care about very much and this is his second daughter he has lost. Both of his children. Gone before him. I cannot even imagine. One has been heartbreaking enough for me, the though of my other two going before me? I cannot and do not want to even think about it.

Enough family stuff... I am getting a little annoyed with AI. I am also getting very annoyed with Reddit and Facebook. I wish I could totally expunge them from my life. Reddit I probably could if I truly committed to it. FB is another story I have shared before. I'm tired of social media, tired of people who have nothing positive to say, people who troll and do not think before they open their fucking mouth (or maybe they do think and it is jsut a rotten brain?)... AI is also pissing me off because, regardless of what the naysayers spout, AI for the average Joe is getting dumber and I believe it is on purpose. They want to entice us. They want to get us hooked and then give us inferior products to what we had in order for use to spend more money. Then when everyone does that, they dumb it down even more. Its ridiculous. The models I used 6 months ago were coming up with fanstastic, accurate, and usful output. Now? It is almost all halluci9nation, think it knows what I want, and when I TELL IT what I want, it gets it totally wrong and makes shit up. Even when the task is siple and the directions very clearly prompted (and yes, even iwith a backend of system .md's to keep it on track). It's becoming a waste of money for the one or two tasks I get it to do to save time, but even then I have to double check results.

I have to double check results EVERY. FUCKING. TIME. If I want it to be right, I have massage it from beginning to end. Otherwise, the output is garbage.

It's affected how I am working now. I pay for Claude Code AND Codex because they both USED to be good at different areas of my online life. Now, I cannot rely on either. I am finihsing up a new novel. I had it help a lot, but so far I am finding as I read through it, I am having to almsot completely rewrite sections of text because it either makes not sense, or has totally ignored my VERY detailed writing system. Two of my earlier novels came out incredible 6 months ago. Now? I cannot even get one to be even close to publishable. Same system. Dumber output.

I had plans for some future projects, but now I am not so sure I want AI involved. It's a struggle. And yes, I know that if I go back to writing my own code, it'll take months, maybe years, to complete them. Maybe that is how it should be. But the simple fact that 6 months ago a project that would have taken me 6 months was completed in days and turned out exactly like I anticipated, is proof in the pudding that strange thinks are afoot at the CircleK in the AI world.