The Holocrons of Darth Grampus

I've been engaging with the Google Gemini AI for around six months now. During that time, Gemini has helped me with brainstorming ideas for fictional writing, served as a proof-reader and editor for many of these blog posts, and been an awesome partner for exploring philosophical queries, the potential futures availed by the relentless advance of technology and damn near everything else in between. Sometimes though, we just have fun playing with different fictional ideas and discussions of fictional universes. Today's entry, save this preface, was written entirely by Gemini after we worked together to brainstorm and story-board the topic: the odd parallel between Clark Kent/Kal-El and Sheev Palpatine/Darth Sidious.  I'd have written this myself, but sleep has been harder to come by over the last few days. I expected my recovery to have it's hills and valleys, but I did hope to be sleeping much better by now, and with greater frequency. >.< But I thought this a won...

On May the 8th of this year at approximately 9:45 am, my wife and I were in an accident on my scooter; a lil 125cc Honda Click doing about 35kph (22mph). It was a sunny morning, the roads were dry, traffic was minimal. I wasn't driving too fast or in any way anyone would say was "unsafe." As we approached an S-curve in the road, this man came around the corner going the other way. He was on a motorcycle and was in my lane. I had to slam on my breaks and swerve to miss him. My wife and I ended up falling and I obtained a pretty serious injury. My wife got some bad road rash on her knees.  People nearby came out quickly to offer us help. One called the hospital for an ambulance, one called the police. I lied on the pavement for about 30 minutes before the ambulance got there in pretty intense pain fearing I had dislocated my left hip. I told the medical professionals that, and did so in the Thai language to prevent misunderstanding. Forty minutes or so after the accident, w...

As I posted yesterday, I just came home from the hospital after an unplanned 11-day "vacation" to one near where we live in Thailand. Something occurred to me I thought might be of some value to you.  When the accident occurred, I was driving approximately 35 kph, or about 22 mph. I was driving safely and sensibly, with my lovely wife on the back. The weather was good, the road conditions were... well, let's say there were not any strange conditions. We were approaching a curve turning left in the road and a man came driving in my lane on his motorcycle. I hit my breaks and swerved to miss him so as to avoid a head-on collision and... we fell. The other dude never even stopped.  This accident changed the last 11 days of my life. It will change the next 8-10 months of my life as I learn how to walk, sit, stand-up and move in ways that don't put my hip or pelvis at unnecessary risk for reinjury. My first four days of this experience were pretty hellish, over the next mo...

We left the hospital today. As luck would have it, the most comfortable place in my house for me to sit is in the chair I'm typing from right now, so I wanted to provide a quick update.  Surgery went very well and without any complications. Within 18 hours of the repair, I was no longer having muscle spasms when I coughed. I don't think I've slept more than four hours total any night since the accident (May 8th), but getting even close to comfortable seems to be an impossibility at present. I've got bad road rash over my left hip where I fell (good three stinging layers deep), two long and lovely incisions across my guts, and 32 staples keeping them closed. My left home is the host of three new titanium alloy plates and a bunch of surgical screws keeping my ol' bones held together and "stable."  There's a lot to say about all of this, but I want to collect my thoughts and get some pics uploaded so I can post them for reference. A few of them are pretty...

Last Tuesday morning my wife and I went to do morning errands. Around 9:45am we were involved in an accident on my motor scooter (say what you want, they're super convenient and cheap here). Fortunately neither of us were gravely injured, but I suffered two fractures to my pelvis on the left side, one at the back side of the hip joint. My missus has bad road rash on both knees and is in pain, but I'm immobile and have been bed ridden since. We are going to live, but I'm not sure how much this will impact us. I know my recovery and rehabilitation is an 8-10 month process. I thought I'd be using that time to lose a lot of weight and get back in shape, but I'm going to be relearning how to walk, stand and sit again without reinjuring myself. It could have been much worse, so I'm extremely grateful that it wasn't. I'll have surgery on Tuesday then stay in the hospital another week. Please keep me and my missus in your prayers. I'll update things here as ...

You didn't think Grampus would let such an important day go without a blog post to commemorate and celebrate it, did you? HA!  Of course I can only hope you'll read this one day; this and any other blogs I've written titled "Dear Number 1," because they are all letters to you and your (eventual) cousins. Even if I could be there with you, you'd have no memory of time we spent together now, but these posts serve as records of the time your Grampus invested in thought about you. Its quite a bit more than these lil posts can represent, but hopefully they clue you in on just how much you were thought of and loved by this ol' man.  Year one is in the books now, and the world is a bit different than it was a year ago. I'm a 1-year old Grampus now. GrandMam is a 1-year old GrandMam. Your parents are 1-year olds as parents, too! From everything I've seen and heard, they are doing a fantastic job. You're still the happiest baby I've ever met or even...