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Mon, Jan 12, 2026

9:15pm EST

Members: 722

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Total Online: 6,716

Toe in the Water

by Beholden

Rated: 13+ · Book · Experience · #2223922

A tentative blog to test the temperature.

Ten years ago I was writing several blogs on various subjects - F1 motor racing, Music, Classic Cars, Great Romances and, most crushingly, a personal journal that included my thoughts on America, memories of England and Africa, opinion, humour, writing and anything else that occurred. It all became too much (I was attempting to update the journal every day) and I collapsed, exhausted and thoroughly disillusioned in the end.

So this blog is indeed a Toe in the Water, a place to document my thoughts in and on WdC but with a determination not to get sucked into the blog whirlpool ever again. Here's hoping.

Signature for those who are nominated for a Quill Award in 2021

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

TJ says, "keep on keeping on!"

Jan 10, 2026 at 5:27pm
In response to "Kubelwagen!"

I agree, and I've stopped watching videos because of mispronunciations; it drives me bonkers. I find it's less intelligence and more ignorance!

3 Like

Beholden

Jan 10, 2026 at 1:09pm
In response to "Kubelwagen!"

Amethyst Snow Angel

Yeah, the way people are pirating famous and respected people to present views they would never espouse must surely be prevented somehow. With all this going on, how can anyone continue to support the introduction and development of AI? All use of it should be stopped until ways to control it have been demonstrated.

2 Like

Amethyst Snow Angel

Jan 10, 2026 at 12:31pm
In response to "Kubelwagen!"

AI videos drive me crazy as well. The pronunciation is just the tip of the iceberg: do you realize that people are taking well-known professors, preachers, even musical artists, basically stealing their voices, generating speeches that resemble things they would say, and creating whole channels disseminating this fictional slop? It's absolutely horrifying. I felt sick the other day when I noticed a video of "Imagine Dragons and Sia" with a fake song called Unbreakable Wings. It's disrespectful to the artists (professors, etc.) because I'm pretty sure the people behind these fakes are making money off of the videos. It needs to be stopped, but I have no idea how.

Thanks for allowing me a spot to rant... It's been bugging me.

2 Like

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

Jan 10, 2026 at 12:30pm
In response to "Kubelwagen!"

That was interesting. I dont do anything with ai except maybe using spellcheck! My pet peave is hearing "professional" people using improper English. I dont always use it right..but im not a professional either.

Keep writing
Dianne

3 Like

Beholden

Jan 7, 2026 at 7:03am
In response to "Don't Forget the Quills!"

I probably would, Amethyst Snow Angel

, but I'm so deathly tired.

2 Like

Amethyst Snow Angel

Jan 7, 2026 at 7:01am
In response to "Don't Forget the Quills!"

Ahh... I submitted my three for consideration. Perhaps you should take a gander to "Quill Self-Submission Forum"

with your items. It would be your daily forum post if you haven't already.

3 Like

Beholden

Jan 7, 2026 at 6:58am
In response to "Don't Forget the Quills!"

And this one amuses me too!

"A Powder Blue Suit"

1 Like

TJ says, "keep on keeping on!"

Jan 6, 2026 at 2:37pm
In response to "Froggy Went A-Courting"

Never eaten a fly, but I have swallowed a few mosquitoes and other pesky flying insects over the years.

1 Like

TJ says, "keep on keeping on!"

Jan 5, 2026 at 5:12pm
In response to "Pookie"

I have, for years, wanted to write a semi-fictional story, or even a series, about three past pets and their antics. At the time, these three continued to entertain us, and like you, I put off the story because it had not fully developed yet. After they passed, it was too painful to write, and in time the idea faded. Thank you for reminding me, perhaps now would be a great time for me to relive those wonderful years and share their story.

1 Like

Beholden

Dec 30, 2025 at 4:06pm
In response to "The Land of Echocardiograms"

The water's fine as long as you don't go in too deep, Tee. And it seems to me that you've got a pretty good swimming technique already!

January 10, 2026 at 12:04pm

#1105678

Kubelwagen!

Kubelwagen!

This AI business is really getting on my nerves. I spend a lot of my time listening to YouTube videos on all sorts of interesting things and have noticed a general trend in the delivery of these ever since AI became the flavour of the moment.

The allegedly human narrator seems suddenly incapable of pronouncing certain words in a sensible way. Being who I am, I find it impossible to continue without verbally interrupting the narrator with the correct pronunciation. I know he can’t hear me and that he will make the same mistake throughout the video, but I can’t help it - each offence must be met with my insistence that he’s getting it wrong.

Just as an example, I watched a video about the Kubelwagen this morning. Everything was proceeding elegantly enough until the narrator decided that the way to pronounce the most relevant word was “kubel-varjen.” Now consider the idiocy of this. The blasted machine that had been chosen to read the script had obviously been told the basic information that the Germans pronounce the W as a V. Full marks for that then.

But any applause for this is immediately dampened by that J instead of a hard G. Was it too much to tell the thing that the Germans would never commit such a crime? It’s pronounced “koobel-vargen” and I resent having the ignorance of AI rubbed in my face throughout the video by this stupidity.

It’s worse than the video about ships that insisted on pronouncing the pointy end of a ship as the “bo,” as though the vessel were intended to be someone’s birthday present. And I’ll resist mentioning the abominations that pronounce the PS in corps.

If the people who make these videos can’t be bothered to listen to them just once to weed out such annoying errors, I fail to see why I should continue to give them an ear. The trouble is, the videos don’t come with a surgeon general’s warning or anything like that.

And that’s my rant for the day.

For anyone that wonders, the Kubelwagen was the German equivalent of the jeep in World War II.

Word count: 359

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