https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/15/syd-barrett-ai-chat-language-poetic-tech-bro-jargon-oversight

How long until the data-center bombings start? This is Avalanche from FF7 shit – I can’t say I’d be opposed, so long as nothing but servers and hard drives are hurt (but first, grab me a 32TB or two of the latter.) As a linguigeek I find this kind of thing inordinately interesting but I understand most people don’t care, as I thought when I read an article about a guy who made a great advance in number theory regarding consecutive primes under 40 million – that’s great, but who the fuck cares and who dedicates their life to this stuff? But that’s what most people, who don’t have an autistic deep interest, think about Grimm’s or Grassmann’s Law.

I ordered some nicotine patches which came yesterday, but before I use them I’m going to try to quit cold turkey. I’ve quit smoking before (for six years), albeit with patches, so I know it can be done. I also have much more experience with withdrawal now that I’ve run out of meds many times over the years and mostly haven’t minded or even kind of perversely enjoyed the altered state, in a degenerate-druggie way (though SSRI withdrawal still sucks ass, though it’s bearable – think your flesh simultaneously crawling and tingling 24/7 for potentially days before you can snag a refill.)

I had my last cigarette at four this morning and withdrawal is starting to kick in. Not bad so far – just out of it, I’ve paused several times while writing this and spaced out; no cravings or irritability yet – and from what I remember it stays not that bad as long as you don’t mind a series of wasted days when you’re just productively worthless and out of it. I have some THCa bud coming tomorrow, a new sativa. The mixture of altered states should at least be interesting, which at this point in life is more important than “fun”.

I recognize a lot from this year’s list, more than yesterday. I hate “Bad Day”. Hate it hate it hate it. I’m surprised you’re unfamiliar; it was all over the place ambiently, like in grocery stores and the like. It’s actually the quintessential grocery store song, though I haven’t heard it in literally decades. I hate that James Blount song. Hate it hate it hate it. He has a weird voice and all I remember is the refrain, which has no melody. It also reminds me of that Plain White T’s song I can’t stand. When did that song come out? It’s coming up, right? It has to have been in the top 100 of its year.

How dare you not pay attention to, hang onto, harken unto, and note my every utterance? I said in the 2004 list that I liked “Unwritten” – which is indeed a 2004 song, even if it didn’t chart until 2006 apparently (presumably beginning in late ‘05). Slow chart burner, I guess. – and compared it favorably to the stupid “Never Really Over” 2019/2020 Katy Perry song, noting that the two songs, while minimally different, are separated by 15 years, the interval between “Johnny B. Goode” and “The Revealing Science of God”. Surely you remember.

I forgot what else I was going to say. The absence of nicotine twelve hours later plus six cups of coffee at four in the afternoon is a hell of a drug. Oh yeah, that Gnarls Barkley song was huge – they were discussed a lot here – even though I don’t remember ever hearing it. I liked “Fuck You” though, by one of the guys in the duo (Cee Lo Green), although the only version I’ve heard is the “Forget You” radio cut.

How long do you plan to continue these? Keep it up until at least 2010 or 2012 (one of the two), or whenever “Call Me Maybe” came out – I remember comparatively more pop songs from the early 2010s, roughly from Lady Gaga’s The Fame singles (surely you remember all of them – “Bad Romance”, “Telephone”, “Alejandro”, “Poker Face”, some of that shit legit bangs) up to Taylor Swift’s 1989. For some reason I was able to tune out most pop music after that even though I wasn’t any more isolated than before. I guess with the songwriting plus the rise of hip-hop it was all in one ear and out the other at that point.