This week I prompted ChatGPT to generate 20 Questions about Weather that I should answer for today’s post. What I typically do is prompt ChatGPT chatgpt.com/to give me a listing of all the different meanings of the word “Weather,” including scientific, definitional, colloquial, and references in pop culture. ChatGPT generates that list and then a second prompt gets Chat GPT to generate the questions keeping “in mind” the different meanings that the LLM had just generated. I always ask for more than 20 questions and then pare the questions down to the ones I find interesting (usually about 15) and then supplement those questions with questions I get from other people I actually know or using Claude or Gemini..
So here we go with the questions… Let’s do this.
1. What’s your favorite kind of weather, and what does it say about you?
I love the fall. The crispness of the mornings and the warmth of the late afternoon sun.
2. Do you think people in warm climates are generally happier than those in cold ones?
Not especially. I think happiness is not expressly associated with temperature as much as it is associated with sunlight.
3. How often do you check the weather forecast, and do you actually trust it?
I check it daily, unless there is severe weather, then I am pretty much on it constantly. I actually trust it fairly well within a certain window of time. I think it is pretty solid forecasting for about 4 days out.
4. What’s your go-to outfit for unpredictable weather?
Layers. Layer up and peel off layers as needed.
5. How midwest dad are you when it comes to weather?
Meaning if there is a tornado warning, do I go outside and see the clouds myself? Ope, let me scootch passed ya there. I’m gonna go see if I can smell if there is going to be rain.
6. Is there a weather-related memory that’s stuck with you since childhood?
During one tornado warning when I was a child in Alabama, my mom came and got me pout of the school (since we had been in a “warning” for over an hour and took me home. When we got home I saw a cloud circling a “pucker” descending from a cloud. It never turned into a tornado, but it was really close.
7. How do you mentally prepare for a long stretch of gloomy or rainy days?
Prepare? I’m Gen X, baby. I don’t prepare for gloominess, I exist within it constantly. One thing my Gen Z daughter asked me was “What do dead dreams taste like?”
8. What is the difference between a tornado watch, a tornado warning, and an actual tornado?
Going to go with a baking analogy. Bread is made with flour, water, salt, a fat of some kind and potentially yeast and eggs as well as add-ins or flavorings of some kind. But the requirements is flour, water, and oil.
A: Severe weather is like if someone put flour, a container of water and a container of oil on the counter in a kitchen.
B: A tornado watch is when someone has mixed up some amount of flour, some amount of water, and some amount of oil in a mixing bowl. Are the ratios correct? Can it make bread? No idea.
C: A tornado warning is that someone has mixed the correct ratio of ingredients in the mixing bowl and now has a dough that is ready to go in the oven.
D: Confirmed rotation is when that dough has been put in the oven.
E: And a tornado touching down is that the dough is out of the oven and now officially bread.
9. Can you tell the difference between weather and climate? (Be honest.)
Weather is the day to day occurrence of atmospheric conditions interacting with a geographic area. Climate is the overall interaction of those atmospheric conditions over a longer time period. Weather is a tree, climate is the forest that the tree resides within.
10. What do you think about people who love “storm chasing”?
I get it, I really do. I would love to see a tornado (from a safe distance). Many of them are really getting good information and that information is used to help predict future weather and might save lives. That being said, many of these people are also addicted to seeing those things. Adrenaline is a thing.
11. What’s the most comforting weather-related sound?
Distant thunder… or moderate rain on a tent.
12. Which ancient weather god would you want to have dinner with—and what would you ask?
Weather is something the ancients were pretty scared of, so most weather gods are angry jerks.
Zues is a rapist and a petty vindictive misogynist
Thor from norse mythology is not the Marvel Cinematic Universe Thor, but more of a quick to anger, dude bro, itching for a fight
Ehecatl could be considered bi-polar…. at best
None of these guys would be fun to sup with. Um… going to go with Guabancex, the Taino goddess of wind and storms. It would need to be a heavy meal though, otherwise the food is flying away
"Can you generate an image of a powerful Caribbean female storm goddess standing tall in the middle of a hurricane. She has dark, glossy skin like wet obsidian and glowing eyes filled with lightning. Her long hair swirls around her like a tornado, shaped like spirals and wind. Storm clouds and fierce winds wrap around her body. Her arms are raised and curved like a spinning storm. Her arms and legs have glowing spiral tattoos, like wind and water patterns. Crashing waves surround her, and lightning flashes in the dark, stormy sky behind her."
I mean, who wouldn’t want to share a meal with that crazily scary lady?
13. Is “weathering” always about survival, or can it be a form of transformation?
Weathering a storm is definitely about surviving, but could also lead to transformation, These are not mutually exclusive categories.
14. If you could forecast your creativity, would it come in waves, droughts, or lightning strikes?
Right now is is in a bit of a drought. I need to draw more, I get it. Get off my back, Chat GPT.
15. Could you love someone who always lives in a fog?
Yes. People in a fog deserve love too. You just have to have mutually agreed upon and strong boundaries. That way the fog is an acceptable part of the relationship.
16. What do you weather silently that others never see?
I’m not telling you that. Then it would not be silent and would be seen.
17. Which is more powerful: the anticipation of a storm or its aftermath?
Honestly, it depends on the storm. Often the anticipation of the storm is stronger (usually when talking about winter storms and snow accumulation), so the actual effects of the storm are not as bad as expected… and then there are hurricanes and tornadoes.
18. What smells like home—ozone before the storm or warm pavement after?
The ozone smell and the odd smell of petrichor is more homelike than steam and warmth radiating from the pavement after a summer storm.
19. Are you more drawn to lightning because of its beauty or its danger?
Its beauty. Lightning is fairly beautiful and relatively safe to watch. The biggest issue with lightning is just how ephemeral it is. It is there and then it is gone.
20. So, what is “greenage” in weather?
It has to do with how light gets refracted through the rain clouds. Due to the height of some storm clouds and how they are structured, it refracts the light to a more green hue.
To recap:
The dumpster is truly on fire
Had an interview that I thought was going to die off
It came back to life, thankfully
I am trying to reach to a bunch of other creators to see if they would be willing to be interviewed
The interviews are more interesting to me than my answering questions
I can only imagine that they are more interesting to my fine dear readers
I am open to ideas for side-hustles that are not Uber or Doordash
I know that the gig economy is not for me
Commissions are still open
Cartography, graphic design, illustration, etc…
Contact me, yo
Hope I will not need a passport to vote in November
I really do not mind the retail job, I would just love to do something that takes a bit more thinking
I might be trying to take this to bi-weekly, officially instead of defacto (I mean defacto-ly, it has recently been more random than bi-weekly) ( I think that is because it feels daunting to do this weekly, therefore it becomes a weekly task even when there are fallow weeks in the interim between posts)
I need to be drawing again
Maybe bleed off some of this nervous energy
I would not be here without the support of my friends and family
Y’all been awesome
Taxes were rough this year
But they are done
Drop a line to me and let me know how you are doing
I truly do care
When Little Man was younger, he used to call it “The Eastern Bunny”
