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DEAD LOAD (A Nick Stello Action Thriller) Chapter Two: The Load Path

By Chris Carosa on August 18, 2026

CRACK!

The hammer struck the diagonal brace exactly where Nick intended. Dry pine splintered outward from the impact point. The unstable frame lurched to the left, pressing against the scaffolding, buckling a weak strut.

Nick never saw most of it. The moment the hammer left his hand, he was already moving.

A wall doesn’t fail because one stone falls. It fails when several stones fall simultaneously. In the same way, a good plan requires several independent pieces moving at the same time.

Tough to do when you’re acting alone.

Only Nick wasn’t alone. He had gravity as his partner. If it chose to play its part.

Would it?Continue Reading “DEAD LOAD (A Nick Stello Action Thriller) Chapter Two: The Load Path”

DEAD LOAD (A Nick Stello Action Thriller) Chapter One: The Plumb Line

By Chris Carosa on August 11, 2026

The granite didn’t care about the cold.

Neither did Nick Stello.

The hardened stone mason adjusted his grip on the three-pound steel club hammer, his thumb resting just beneath the head for maximum control, and delivered a short, rhythmic strike to the tungsten carbide chisel.

Clink!

The sound rolled across the valley and disappeared into the trees.

No sirens.

No radios.

No shouted orders.

Just wind.

Most people would have called the valley isolated.

Nick preferred the word…Continue Reading “DEAD LOAD (A Nick Stello Action Thriller) Chapter One: The Plumb Line”

Posted in Nick Stello, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Dead Load, Nick Stello

My Life With AI—Part VIII: The Fallacy Of Grading GenAI

By Chris Carosa on August 4, 2026

Lured you, didn’t I? When I said last time, “Eventually I realized the problem wasn’t GenAI. It was my prompt. I wasn’t asking it to preserve my voice. Once I explained that preserving my voice was part of the assignment, the results improved dramatically.” You no doubt thought, “What was his prompt?”

There is an art and a skill to training AI. That’s a bit involved and definitely depends on your use and needs. It’s also not the subject of this column. Rather than discussing how to train GenAI, I want to discuss something just as important: how to evaluate it.

Every semester, students receive report cards. Imagine how little a report card would tell you Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part VIII: The Fallacy Of Grading GenAI”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Anthropic, artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Copyedit, excel, fact-checking, Gemini, GenAI, Google, Grammarly, Grok, hallucination, Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity, Pinpoint, Powerpoint, presentation, proofread, ProWritingAid, research, SpaceXAI, voice, Word, X

My Life With AI—Part VII: The Joy Of Discovering The Hidden Value Of GenAI

By Chris Carosa on July 28, 2026

Have you ever hired an intern? Besides having a good heart, you probably also hoped to get more work done. An intern can help you do it.

Hold this thought. I’ll come back to it in a moment.

Despite piquing my curiosity, I quickly abandoned the first generation of GenAI platforms. They were too inconsistent. That frustration led me to build my own local AI environment, which taught me Python but also taught me how demanding AI infrastructure really is. Ironically, while I struggled to Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part VII: The Joy Of Discovering The Hidden Value Of GenAI”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, Charles Dickens, English teacher, Ernest Hemingway, GenAI, generative AI, Hamburger Test, hidden value, intern, Python, resources, speed, voice, William Faulkner, writing

Midsummer Musings

By Chris Carosa on July 21, 2026

Midsummer is a misnomer. The Anglo-Saxons called it “midsumor.” They apparently stole the term “midsommar” from the Swedes (who may have themselves stolen it from the Germans). Unlike what your instinct tells you, it’s not really about the middle of the summer. It’s about the summer solstice. That would be the beginning of summer.

But don’t blame the Old English. The blame goes to the Romans, who, to be fair, once ruled the province of Britannia. In the strictest chronological terms, this would fall under the category of “Older than Old England.” Julius Caesar first invaded the island in 55 BC. About a century later, in 43 AD, Emperor Claudius formally conquered it. Rome would hold the land that would become Great Britain for nearly four hundred years.

A lot of things can happen in four centuries. For one thing, the conquered can assimilate the Continue Reading “Midsummer Musings”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged AI, Britannia, Catholic Church, compromise, data center, Emperor Claudius, Fasti, Fors Fortuna, Fortune, Germany, Great Britain, Julius Caesar, midsommar, MIdsummer, Midsumor, Ovid, Roman, Rome, Sandra Billington, solar farm, St. John the Baptist, St. John's Day, summer solstice, sun-worship, Sweden

Competing Dreams of the Genesee—Part II: Phelps And Gorham Play By The Rules

By Chris Carosa on July 14, 2026

Before there was Phelps and Gorham, there was only Phelps.

Oliver Phelps came into this world on October 21, 1749 near Poquonock, Hartford County of the Connecticut Colony.²¹ The seventeenth child of Thomas Phelps, Oliver’s father died only three months after his birth, leaving his family destitute. At the young age of seven, Oliver got his first job working at a store in Suffield. Despite his employment, he was able to attain a modest education. By the time he was twenty-one, he had relocated to Granville, Massachusetts, “where he established a prosperous mercantile business and became recognized as one of the leading citizens.”²²

An ardent patriot from the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Phelps was there at Lexington. With his business experience, and not because of any family wealth or ties, he was appointed to the commissary department, where he served until the end of the war.²³

Livingston came from one of New York’s most prominent families. Phelps, on the other hand, rose from far humbler beginnings through trade, logistics, and business. While he may have Continue Reading “Competing Dreams of the Genesee—Part II: Phelps And Gorham Play By The Rules”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged Adam Hoops, Genesee Country, Israel Chapin, James Sullivan, John Livingston, Lessees, Lexington, Massachusetts Legislature, Nathanial Gorham, Oliver Phelps, Revolutionary War, Robert Morris, Sullivan Campaign, Thomas Skinner, Treaty of Hartford, Western New York, William Walker

Competing Dreams For The Genesee Country—Part I: John Livingston and the Lessees

By Chris Carosa on July 7, 2026

The future of the Genesee Country remained uncertain even after the Treaty of Hartford settled the dispute between Massachusetts and New York. The question was no longer who owned the land, but what would become of it.

Before Hartford, uncertainty reigned. Competing state claims clouded ownership and discouraged investment. The treaty transformed a disputed wilderness into a marketable asset. Speculators, investors, politicians, and settlers quickly recognized the opportunity.

While Hartford settled one argument, it spawned several new ones.

By the beginning of 1787, two roads stretched westward across a region that would one day become the Crossroads of America. Each promised prosperity. Each attracted ambitious followers. Yet each offered a very different vision for the future of the Genesee Country.

With the ink on the Treaty of Hartford barely dried, ambitious men set out along both roads.

The race to the future had begun.

* * * * *

Why has history forgotten John Livingston? While his accomplishments pale in comparison to Continue Reading “Competing Dreams For The Genesee Country—Part I: John Livingston and the Lessees”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 999-year lease, Bedford Falls, Benjamin Barton, Calen Benton, Columbia County, Ezekiel Gilbert, Genesee Country, George Bailey, George Clinton, Hudson River, John Butler, John Livingston, John Powell, John Stevenson, Lessees, livingston Manor, Lord of Livingston Manor, Massachusetts, New York, New York Genesee Land Company, Niagara Genesee Land Company, Peter Ryckman, Robert Livingston, Robert R. Livingston, Samuel Kirkland, Samuel Street, Seneca, Six Nations, Treaty of Hartford, William Johnson

The Birth Of Western New York: Treaty of Hartford Explained

By Chris Carosa on June 30, 2026

December 16, 1786. The birth nobody noticed.

There were no celebrations. No proclamations. No public awareness.

The Treaty of Hartford untangled a century of confusion. Yet there was very little newspaper coverage of the event. Maybe because New England had more important news to cover.

Still, the long-term consequences could not be denied. The Commissioners in Hartford quietly altered the future of more than six million acres.

The birthplace of Greater Western New York was not a battlefield, a frontier settlement, or an Indian council fire. Rather, it took place at a cold negotiating table in Hartford, Connecticut.

It’s ironic that the formal birth of Western New York occurred during a raging snowstorm. The Continue Reading “The Birth Of Western New York: Treaty of Hartford Explained”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged 1786, Articles of Confederation, British, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Congress, December 16, Egbert Benson, financial crisis, Genesee Country, Hartford Treaty of Cession, James Bowdoin, James Duane, James Sullivan, John Adams, John Haring, John Lowell, Massachusetts, Melancton Smith, Mrs. Hayley, Mrs. Jeffrey, New York, Preemption Line, Revolutionary War, Robert R. Livingston, Robert Yates, Rufus King, Shays Rebellion, split sovereignty, State of New York, Theophilus Parsons, Treaty of Hartford, Treaty of Paris, Vermont, Western New York, Wyoming

The Seneca Between Nations: Western New York After the Treaty of Paris

By Chris Carosa on June 23, 2026

There sat the Seneca between nations. To the west lay the British. To the east stood Americans who could not even agree among themselves who possessed authority over the region.

On paper, Western New York belonged to everyone. Massachusetts had its colonial charter mandate. New York cited both conquest and treaty. Recalcitrant Connecticut clung to its thin claims. Congress may have possessed the authority, but it lacked the means to settle the matter.

These interstate disputes, however, remained largely theoretical. Traders still moved Continue Reading “The Seneca Between Nations: Western New York After the Treaty of Paris”

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged America, Articles of Confederation, British, Congress, Connecticut, Cornplanter, Denonville, Farmer's Brother, Federalist Papers, Fort Niagara, Fort Ontario, Genesee Country, Genesee Valley, George Washington, Iroquois, Iroquois Confederacy, James Duane, Joseph Brant, Massachusetts, Mohawk, New York, Red Jacket, Schuyler, Seneca, Six Nations, Sullivan, Treaty of Paris, Western New York

How Colonial Charters Continued To Haunt The New Republic

By Chris Carosa on June 16, 2026

Articles of Confederation via Wikimedia Commons.

The Treaty of Paris may have resolved the conflict between America and Great Britain, but it left unaddressed the conflicts between America’s new states. United in their struggle for independence, they were far less united in determining where one state’s claims ended and another’s began.

King George no longer ruled the former colonies. The legacy of the colonial charters, however, continued to shape the thinking of the individual states. For more than a century, English monarchs had granted overlapping charters across North America, often with only the vaguest understanding of the geography involved. The Treaty of Paris transferred vast stretches of Britain’s former frontier to the United States, but it also revived old questions those charters had never fully answered.

America had overthrown the king. It had not escaped the king’s paperwork.

Nowhere was this more apparent than in Greater Western New York. Although some colonial Continue Reading “How Colonial Charters Continued To Haunt The New Republic”

Posted in History, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries, Western New York State of Mind Tagged America, American Revolution, Articles of Confederation, Britain, Connecticut, Connecticut Gore, Ethan Allen, Genesee Country, Great Britain, Greater Western New York, King George, Lake Erie, Massachusetts, Pennamite-Yankee Wars, Pennsylvania, Province of New York, Revolutionary War, Seneca, Southern Tier, Treaty of Paris, United States, Vermont, Western New York, Wyoming County

Chris Carosa