I am having a rather peaceful day which followed a rather strange day. Well not that peaceful – I locked myself out of my room safe but found out before I needed anything from it desperately. It just made me laugh. I have asked for help but it can come after breakfast.
I snuggled back in bed after Fajr prayer and suddenly thought of a word – affection. I do use the word when signing off an email to close friends. Affectionately, Alexis or to those who call me by my Muslim name. Affectionately, Alaa.
Decided to look up the meaning of the world. Its definition: a gentle feeling of fondness or liking. Used in a sentence: She felt affection for the wise old lady. I actually prefer some of the synonyms; for example: fondness , endearment, tenderness, devotion, caring, attentiveness, closeness, attachment, affinity, friendliness, intimacy, amity, favor, regard, respect, admiration; warm feelings. All nice cozy respectful words. So when I write Affectionately, Alexis or Affectionately Alaa – I am sending. friendly and intimate thoughts.
Of course, the rest of the message should also reflect the thoughts. It would not be proper, for example, for Donald Trump to send a message threatening the extermination of Iran and sign off Affectionately, Donnie. Hahahaha
Sometimes the only thing you can do is laugh at the mess the world is in. Haha
Google referred me to Wikipedia to get a totally thorough definition of affection.
Wikipedia:Affection or fondness is a “disposition or state of mind or body”[1] commonly linked to a feeling or type of love. It has led to multiple branches in philosophy and psychology that discuss emotion, disease, influence, and state of being.[2] Often, “affection” denotes more than mere goodwill or friendship. Writers on ethics generally use the word to refer to distinct states of feeling, both lasting and temporary. Some contrast it with passion as being free from the distinctively sensual element.[3]
Affection can elicit diverse emotional reactions such as embarrassment, disgust, pleasure, and annoyance. The emotional and physical effect of affection also varies between the giver and the receiver.
From the Wikipedia article I also learned:
Wikipedia: Affection exchange is an adaptive human behavior that benefits well-being. Expressing affection brings emotional, physical, and relational gains for people and their close connections. Sharing positive emotions yields health advantages like reduced stress hormones, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and a stronger immune system.[14] Expressing affection, not merely feeling affection, is internally rewarding. Even if not reciprocated, givers still experience its effects.
If you are a discerning reader you will see that not relying on Artificial Intelligence means that I was able to learn of the advantages of affection as I learned of the article from Wikipedia which is much more informative, and thorough, then the hasty summary provided by AI.
During these last few days I decided to expand my knowledge of Artificial Intelligence. Decided I might use podcasts to learn more. Jon Stewart featured the topic on one of his podcasts. To make a long story short – it was useless. It was entertaining I guess but not remotely informative. Instead I listened to an podcast called Ideas which is a CBC ‘publication” That was informative. The speaker had written a book on the subject, which was a best seller. This a summary of the podcast.
“We need to separate AI from empire,” says tech journalist Karen Hao who used to work in Silicon Valley as an engineer. Now she’s an outspoken critic of its AI giants. She argues AI companies run their businesses like empires and it has to stop. In her book, Empire of AI, Hao digs into the global impact of Big AI and explores how we need to rethink AI to build a better future. This podcast includes a lecture by Karen Hao and a discussion with host Nahlah Ayed. *This episode originally aired on March 25, 2026.”
Karen Hao did not have any real idea as to how to stop the insidious influences of Artificial Intelligence. I do!A previous blog discussed the social movement AAAAII – Alexis Alaa Against Artificial Intelligence. Do admit I laughed at myself! However, all one has to do is stop using Artificial Intelligence. If nobody used it – then it would have no power. Like if nobody had been paying their US income taxes then Trump would have no money to spend funding the Israel, fighting the Iran War. Too late for the US taxpayer but not too late for the fight against Artificial Intelligence. I do not think one necessarily goes cold turkey – abruptly stop. You wean yourself. Slowly. First I stopped using Gemini’s words in my blogs using only the AI on my phone which made copy-and paste-impossible. Then I stopped telling AI anything personal about my life because then all I got was pandering and unsolicited advice – not information. Then, just informal chats, for instance asking about foul weather friends. It was totally useless, I could just be talking to myself. Hahaha. I went back to my pre AI sources like Wikipedia when I needed information and now I do not miss Artificial Intelligence at all.
There!!! I just used my blog to start a social movement. Hahaha
I shall now speak of my life at Lyf. No use speaking to AI about it. I suppose I could but why. I am an expert on it – their knowledge would be artificial. Hahaha
This morning at Lyf I was done in the lobby drinking coffee and beginning this blog. A young man walked up and we began talking. I told him I was a writer and gave him a blog card from my gifted. new business card holder. You will hear about that in alater. He said he was from New York and his brother was a writer. His brother had won fame, said he, for an article he wrote for the Atlantic Monthly called Goon Squad. I did not ask Artificial Intelligence – I Googled it and was able to get the entire article – not AI’s summary of it. Who wants that? Hahahaha
Thus, I was able to subscribe to Atlantic Monthly which is what I actually wanted to do. So everything is working out. Hahaha
I did remember quoting an article from Atlantic Monthly in the early days of my blog but typing Atlantic Monthly into the search engine of the blog revealed nothing. The article said that actually Trump not a new phenomena but that there was a steady steam of insanity in the choice of presidents by the American populace. Decided that perhaps typing Trump into the search engine would uncover it. Oh my Allah! Trump appeared in my headlines one hundred times. But some were of the Vancouver Trump Hotel where I lived for four months.
I came across one written in 2020 – the title fascinated me so I opened it and what did I find?? I actually predicted the downfall of Dubai. Honest to goodness I did. It was from the blog of June 24, 2020
Megalomania as Shown by Behaviours of Donald Trump and the Ruler of Dubai; The Probable Death of Dubai; Vice and Megalomania Defined; A Most Unusual Dream But Just a Dream; Photograph of Former ‘Adopted’ Family
To quote myself.
‘But will this Dubai continue to survive in these times? Doubtful. I am not a graduate of the London School of Economics, but I do know that for an economy to survive there must be diversity. There is no diversity in Dubai, technology is in its infancy, but it is a little too late and a little too small. Tourism is going down the toilet because of the contrivers – no one in their right minds are going to get in an airplane and travel seventeen hours to Dubai (seventeen hours from San Francisco, I made the trip to go to London in December of 2019). Almost the entire population of Dubai are ex pats from other countries, there to earn money briefly with plans to go back to their country – citizenship not a possibility. There will be no jobs and like the migrant construction workers, they will leave. Who will be left in Dubai – the Emirate but they are only 11% of the population. The sand will drift in over the huge hotels and tourist attractions. The Royal Family will escape with many millions of dollars, no doubt, about that but the others? There is no way that Air Emeritus can survive when the predictions show that is going to take about a year and half before anyone will be flying. Dubai imports its food stuffs, all of it. Where will the money come to do that? I visited Dubai in its glory days looking forward to Expo 2020, with much technological development sprouting, including an ambitious Mars probe. But along came the contra virus and that changed everything. Migrant construction workers left in droves because there was no work. It is a fact, although not reported by Gulf News and other Dubai agencies not burdened with freedom of speech.”
I do admit freely that I did not predict the effect of the Iran War on Dubai. The bottom totally fell out of the real estate market. Ex-pats that went to live there in the glory days now are stuck there in their worthless homes unable to speak to the outside world about what is going on. Oops. I cannot image how upset the Rule of Dubai must be I read his so-called autobiography downloaded it from Apple Books years ago. I have no idea of the hell he must be going through. I did go and live in Abu Dhabi, fled there after I was persecuted in the US for being a Muslim. I tried to get a retirement visa but Alhamdulillah, it was denied after three months because, I later learned, they were unable to get their hands on my retirement funds as it was not in a bank. It is in the capable hands of MCERA.
I will now sign off and go back to searching through my blogs trying to find the one on Atlantic Monthly. Bye for now. Maybe I can find some photos of me taken in Abu Dhabi during my stay there. Then seeing will be believing. Hahaha.
