Memoir of a Real Life Archives - Page 7 of 24

The (Too) Short Season Of Fun In The Sun

By Chris Carosa on July 25, 2023

Do you remember what you did during summer vacation? Note how I refer to it as summer “vacation” and not summer “break.” There’s a reason for this.

Summer “break” connotes that time between spring and fall semesters during college. You usually have a summer job or some sort of internship. Summer “break” entails a break from the routine. You travel from your college either back home or to whatever city you end up working or interning in.

While a break from schoolwork, it’s not a break from work. After all, you do have to pay for college somehow.

Now, a summer “vacation” means something totally different. It evokes memories of a Continue Reading “The (Too) Short Season Of Fun In The Sun”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 300, baseball, Basketball, Dortmund Circle, football, summer, summer vacation

Lunch With Father

By Chris Carosa on June 27, 2023

It was a different time. A different place. Too far back to remember. Too far ahead to imagine.

He was a busy man. Each day, he went to work. But the work never ended. When he left his desk at work, he went right to his desk at home. He was proud of that desk. It was really not much, but it served his purpose. He polished it up regularly, keeping the surface he worked on clean. Beyond that, piles of papers consumed the rest of the surface area. His wife complained about the mess, but he assured her he knew where everything was.

And he did.

If you ventured anywhere near those piles, he quickly admonished you. “Don’t touch anything! You’ll mess up my filing system.”

Not that he didn’t have a proper filing system. It was meticulous. But it was actually easy Continue Reading “Lunch With Father”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Dad

Reflections On The Last Day Of School Past

By Chris Carosa on June 20, 2023

A warm summer day. Cozy warm. Not hot.

The trees and grass twinkle silently in the soft unseen wind, lush from the recent rains. Green. Not that dark green of July. Closer to the lighter greens of the Spring’s new growth.

The bright sun brings out the yellows in that green. But those brilliant rays wash out the sharpness of all color, much like you would see in an overexposed photograph. The effect only brings more tenderness to the scene.

Windows open in the moving school bus allow a gentle breeze to circulate the fresh temperate air.

It’s the last day of school. The last bus ride home. You can feel the excitement. Everyone is Continue Reading “Reflections On The Last Day Of School Past”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team, Anniversary, Bethlehem Steel, Big Tree Fireman's Carnival, birthday, bully, Dad, erie county fair, Ford Stamping Plant, Fourth of July, Fran-n-Ceil's, friends, Ice Cream, Kenny, LAke Shore Road, last day of school, Mike Eruzione, Miracle, peace treaty, Route 5, school bus, strawberries, summer vacation, Tom Tomaka, Woodlawn Elementary

Ground Control To Commander Tom

By Chris Carosa on June 13, 2023

Source: http://megomuseum.com/community/showthread.php?69360-Mego-Museum-Podcast-Growing-up-Parkdale-Tomland-Famous-Monsters

You hear stories from older generations about having to “walk a mile back and forth to school each day… in a snowstorm… and it was uphill both ways!”

Well, truth be told, for my brother and me, it was just under a half mile each way. Four-tenths of a mile from our house at the end of the street (187 Abbott Parkway) all the way up to the school bus stop at the corner of South Park Ave, then a narrow two lanes.

Living in Blasdell meant we were in the crosshairs of the lake effect snow machine south of Buffalo, so you could bet your bottom dollar we often walked during snowstorms. And rainstorms. And thunderstorms. And thundersnow. And even hot (almost) summer days towards the end of the school year. Yeah, mom made sure we always dressed for the Continue Reading “Ground Control To Commander Tom”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Abbott Parkway, Acquaviva, Angelo, Betsy, Big Tree Elementary, Buffalo, Canada, Channel 7, Commander Tom, Dancing Notes, Dave Thomas, Dustmop, Erie, Eyewitness News, Flash Gordon, Irv Weinstein, Jamestown, Kenny, Kingergarten, Markie, Rick Azar, Rochester, Rocketship 7, School Bus Stop, sewer rat, South Park Ave, The Adventures of Superman, Three Stooges, Tom Jolls, Toronto, WKBW, Woodlawn Elementary, Woodlawn Intermediate

My Life With AI—Part II: The Search For The Holy Grail

By Chris Carosa on May 30, 2023

If you stumbled upon this without reading Part I first, you can read it here.

I always had a certain curiosity (there’s that word again) with the idea of artificial intelligence. You can’t blame science fiction for this. It was simply the challenge. Artificial intelligence represents the Holy Grail of mathematics. It’s not simply ramming a bunch of formulas through faster and faster processors. It’s going a step beyond. It’s giving the computer a basic set of instructions, then allowing it to begin programming itself by building on top of that foundation.

Naturally, I monitored the subject. This is one reason I knew about the Boston-based investment adviser BatteryMarch, although, technically, it wasn’t artificial intelligence; it was just another example of brute force processing. For the inside dope on AI, I didn’t rely on the Wall Street Journal or even the data processing trade press. No, I paid attention to Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part II: The Search For The Holy Grail”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged AltaVista, artificial intelligence, BatteryMarch, C++, ChatGPT, expert system, Google, Hamburger Dreams, Holy Grail, knowledge base, Larry Page, Lisp, Modern Portfolio Theory, MPT, Prolog, securities analysis, Wall Street Computer Review

My Life With AI—Part I: Early Geekdom

By Chris Carosa on May 23, 2023

The lure of artificial intelligence (or “AI”) enticed me. But let’s not get ahead of the story.

For reasons that aren’t important right now, I spent my high school years channeling my inner Spock. Relying on logic to drive your life rather than the vicissitudes of emotion made things quite amazing. Today we’d call it going down rabbit holes. Back then, I merely explored wherever my curiosity took me.

“Hold on!” you’re saying, “isn’t ‘curiosity’ an emotion?”

Well, some psychologists might agree, (see Litman, “The Measurement of Curiosity As a Feeling of Deprivation,” Journal of Personality Assessment, 82(2), 147-157). Spock merely uses it as a statement of fact. In Episode 26 of Season 1, “Errand of Mercy,” in Star Trek—The Original Series, he says, “It is curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.”

There is an intersection between Litman (who says curiosity is a “motivation”) and Spock’s use of the term. Think of what happens when you hear a strange noise on the other side Continue Reading “My Life With AI—Part I: Early Geekdom”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged artificial intelligence, BASIC, Basic Scientific Calculator, BatteryMarch, C++, calculator, COBOL, computer, curiousity, FORTRAN, Gates-Chili High School, HP-31E, Litman, logic, Moore's Law, RadioShack, Spock, Star Trek, TRS-80

Ode To An Iconic Public Servant

By Chris Carosa on April 25, 2023

Jeanne

I don’t remember the first time I met Jeanne Loberg, but I remember how I felt. She immediately struck me as the new kid on the block. What did that make me? The newer kid on the block.

This may sound ironic, but her knowledge and wisdom overshadowed all that “new kid” stuff. She was “new” because she hadn’t lived in Mendon her whole life. I was new because I had just moved into town. And because I wasn’t yet thirty years old. Despite my obvious youth and inexperience, she took it upon herself Continue Reading “Ode To An Iconic Public Servant”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Bill Fletcher, Carl Foss, cell tower, Chris Holliday, Chuck Meisenzahl, Empire State Pipeline, Environmental Conservation Board, Jack Leckie, Jeanne Loberg, Jeanne Loberg Park, Lehigh Valley Trail, Lucy Parsons, Mendon, Mendon Foundation, Mendon Planning Board, Mendon Station Park, Mendon Town Board, New York State Public Service Commission, Paul Kehoe, RG&E, Rochester Junction Park, Rochester Telephone, Route 64, Thruway, Zoning Board

There’s A Reason For That Spring In Your Step

By Chris Carosa on March 28, 2023

Can you feel that? I can. But I can’t describe it.

It’s somewhere between a tinge of excitement and elated joy. It’s anticipatory and present at the same time. It’s a satisfied grin, a certain bounce in my step.

Or, should I say, a certain “spring” in my step.

That’s it! It’s spring.

Disregard the fact the weather still thinks it’s winter. It’s not the precipitation that matters, Continue Reading “There’s A Reason For That Spring In Your Step”

Posted in Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries

Spaghetti & Tuna Fish

By Chris Carosa on March 7, 2023

Long ago, before Vatican II, before the FBI targeted Catholics as domestic terrorists, before many of our readers were even born, McDonald’s had a problem. Only they didn’t realize how big of a problem.

That realization would be left to a single franchise owner in Ohio. On January 13, 1959, Lou Groen opened his McDonald’s in Monfort Heights, Ohio. It was the first Golden Arches to appear in the Cincinnati metropolitan area.

You probably didn’t know this, but at that time Catholics represented about 87% of Monfort Heights’ population. And they were good, practicing Catholics. Old-time Catholics. (You know. Toe Blake, Dit Clapper, Eddie Shore. Those guys were the greats!)

Vatican II was still several years away, and Groen noticed something quite discouraging about his new venture. “On Friday, we only took in about $75 a day,” he said.

That was a problem. A big problem.

After researching what the Big Boys chain did, Groen approached McDonald’s owner Ray Kroc (who was very approachable then) and proposed the idea of selling a fish sandwich. The usually astute Kroc did something he rarely did. He made the wrong decision. He Continue Reading “Spaghetti & Tuna Fish”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Butera, Catholic, Cincinnati, Dad, depression, Dit Clapper, Eddie Shore, Filet-O-Fish, fish fry, fried bologna, Good Friday, grandma, grandpa, Hula Burger, Lent, lentil soup, Lou Groen, McDonald's, mom, Monfort Heights, Ohio, pizza, Pope John, Ray Kroc, Ridge Road, Salvator's Pizzeria, Sonny, spaghetti, Toe Blake, tuna fish, Vatican II

And The Jury Is Out

By Chris Carosa on February 28, 2023

I had jury duty last week. It worried me.

Do you remember the first time you got summoned for jury duty? This wasn’t my first time. It was my fourth time. Actually, I wasn’t surprised by the notice. I selected the third week in February last November when I opted for my one-time deferral after receiving the original summons back then. I was a high number (meaning a lower chance of being called), but given my schedule I couldn’t risk it. So I deferred.

My position as an elected official (on the Mendon Town Board) provided me with an exemption the first time I received jury duty. They’ve since changed the law and now Continue Reading “And The Jury Is Out”

Posted in Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged A1, Boyscout pants, Christmas Eve, Court Building, Diet Pepsi, Grinder, Honeoye Falls, Jury Duty, Mendon Town Board, Monroe County, Orchard Park, Rob Lowe, Sacred Heart, Village Court