Fred Lang

Ex-cop, dad, old-school nerd and brand-new Catholic. Lifetime optimist. Native Texan now living in San Francisco. Stranger in a strange land.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

If you are editing a large document and using Claude for research or a second pair of editing eyes, Obsidian is the way to go. You can read and edit, and have Claude working in real time alongside you to send on errands! A+ workflow without having to save or close your document!

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

I once heard that writing is the easy part, and editing is the hard part, and oh my gosh, it's so very true. I feel like I'm going 1/10th the speed I went writing compared to this edit slog.

WHY IS EVERYTHING I WROTE THE FIRST TIME ALWAYS WRONG

[End Wokeness @EndWokeness]

"What radicalized you?!"

This random Coke ad from 1976:

[Xi Van Fleet @XVanFleet]

From a brainwashed Mao’s Little Red Guard to a free and proud U.S. citizen.

Thank you, America! 🇺🇸

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

Awwwwwww yeahhhhhhhhh. 🇺🇸

[Arnold Schwarzenegger @Schwarzenegger]

Happy Independence Day!

There’s a story from the end of the Revolutionary War I want to tell as we celebrate America’s 250th Birthday, and it’s one everyone in the world can learn from.

George Washington, at that moment, after commanding the American forces to victory, was the most powerful man in the new country. Many people talked about making him King of America.

Across the ocean, King George was sitting with an American painter, and asked what he thought Washington would do now that the war was ending. The painter said he believed he would go back to his farm.

The King said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

As the war officially ended, Washington came to speak to Congress and said, “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theater of Action.” He returned his commission they’d given him in 1775 - after more than 8 years of leading the Americans to victory without pay, and he was home at Mount Vernon for Christmas.

Of course, he was elected as our first President a few years later, and after two terms, showed the same selflessness again when he willingly gave up his power and went back to Mount Vernon again.

That’s true greatness. He had all the power in the world. But power, alone, does not make you great.

Washington’s greatness came from being a true servant - to a cause much bigger than himself. His greatness was his complete lack of selfishness.

The whole story of American Independence is a story of selflessness. It’s a story of people who set their self-interest aside and worked for each other.

We’ve all heard the line about “We must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

Apparently, Ben Franklin might have actually never said that.

But that’s fine, because the same mentality is right there in the last line of the Declaration of Independence, published on this day 250 years ago:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

We mutually pledge to each other.

No one was in this alone. No one was in it for themselves. This was a group of people with different backgrounds who were in it for each other.

Today is a reminder: greatness comes from what we do for each other, never what we do for ourselves.

That’s a lesson that applies no matter what country you call home.

It’s a lesson that doesn’t require any law passed by a politician, because, let’s be honest, if you’re waiting for selfless politicians, I really hope you are not holding your breath.

All of us have the power to be there for the people around us. For our families and friends. For our neighbors. For everyone.

All of us can reach for greatness.

It’s as simple as looking beyond yourself, seeing past the mirror, picking your eyes up from your phone, and pledging to be there for each other.

Happy Fourth. May you all find your own version of greatness today by lifting each other up.

Lift up your neighborhood. Lift up America. Lift up the World.

[Dolly Parton @DollyParton]

Happy 250th, America! ❤️🤍💙

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

Claude has made so many mistakes during the past several months of my giant RPG project that I've asked it more than once if it really wants me to succeed.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@osgamer74 It's rare for a piece of original cover art to look better *with* the borders and logo, but this is one of the few. I have such good memories of reading this game.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@CaptainVatican Okay, you almost got a real-life spit take out of that one. Nice!

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@Gingerblast "That's the right call."

-Claude, responding to every idea I bring to it

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

It never creates genuine virality. It never captures meaningful attention. But it just successfully forced you to read to the end of this sentence to see how the pattern resolved.

*heh*

Also, LLMs are riddled with it. I've trained my Claude agent to write how I write to avoid what I call "theater kid" style, which is the faux-meaningful AI default, it seems.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@Rainmaker1973 I needed this so bad today.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@SolutionsMcubed @GuntherEagleman You night as well say the same thing about the Louvre! Get in there next time!

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@osgamer74 Still the best looking and most stylish arcade game of all time.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@TimothyImholt This reminds me of the 12 corporate logos you have to watch before your movie actually starts. IMHOLT FILMS PRESENTS

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@DungeonNoir It would never survive the mODerN AUdieNCE treatment.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@crazyclips_ I can almost feel his relief through this video.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@YoDanno I've ordered print on demand copies of all of the 1E Core books plus Unearthed Arcana and I'm going to run Greyhawk this Fall.

I've been a Forgotten Realms guy forever, but feel called to the OG with 1E.

[Fred Lang @Fred__Lang]

@james_xond 14, mowing the cemetery in my town. Then the guy who managed that job offered me a spot at his FINA gas station where I pumped gas and checked oil on the full-service lane at 15.