Month: May 2023

Went over to Newport this morning to check out the 2023 Ocean Race boats. These hydrofoil boats are as far removed from my kind of sailing as a wood-and-canvas biplane is from the Dragon spacecraft. 

Behind the 21^st century sailboats is the Oliver Hazard Perry, a sailing school ship and the official flagship and tall ship ambassador of Rhode Island. 1812 meets 2023. I was volunteering on his ship and then along came Covid.

I just finished getting some Epic Passes for skiing next year in Colorado. For some reason, they wanted photos of the pass holders. (I guess no slipping my pass to someone else for the day. No, no, everyone must pay the huge fees even if they’re not skiing that day.) Anyway, I uploaded a mugshot of myself only to have Epic Pass’ facial recognition system come back with a claim that my photo was a photo of some celebrity. Who I wondered? Cher? Harrison Ford? Snoop Dogg? 

I tried several different pictures of myself, but facial rec kept insisting I was uploading a celebrity photo. It would have been helpful to know which celebrity it thought I was pretending to be. Where’s CHATGPT or HAL when you need them? So, my currently posted photo is “under review.” I’m hoping some humanoid confirms by email that I am indeed me and not Ted Cruz or Tom Cruise or Celia Cruz. 

And now I’m wondering how celebrities get ski passes. Does Cher have trouble with the same facial rec system insisting that she’s uploading a photo of Cher? The system doesn’t like photos of people wearing sunglasses either, so that would create yet another hurdle for any celeb looking to grab an early Epic Pass.

Maybe I should have uploaded a baby picture.