Thursday, 25 June 2026

Race Track Diary, Entry Number 31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)

Race Track Diary, Entry Number

Thirty-One

31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)

Introduction

This blog and some following blogs are sections from an informal diary of “visits to the race-track” at a particular time and place, by a person who has followed the races with varying levels of participation over a long period. These relate primarily to some visits to the track and/or off-track betting venues in the 2025 period and onward. They contain observations about the activity, both specific and general. Although these remarks are personal, they also reflect general cultural and historical trends, as they have impacted horse-racing, wagering and culture in general.

The setting is Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (population of about one million plus). However, I imagine that the observations would apply to many places in the world, as they are a reflection of how changing trends in technology, globalization and culture in general have affected this ancient and honourable activity of horse-racing.

For now, I will use what I call “polished point-form” for the narrative.

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31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)
- It was another pleasant Saturday afternoon, so as usual people were out and about.
- Bud’s was fairly busy in the horse-racing section, not as much in the rest of the pub. The guy who looks like one of my old U of A colleagues was there, as was the lady who reminds me of one of my sisters-in-law. There were a few other faces that looked familiar to me. I suppose that my brother and I are looking familiar to some of those people as well.
- It wasn’t long before the races at Santa Anita started.
  - In race #1, I had an obvious pick, the #4 horse, which had vastly superior numbers to the rest of the field. But, I played it safe and went for a place ticket. It did come in second, paying a bit less than even odds to do so. There was an inquiry, but everything stayed the same.
  - I didn’t get to play with track’s money for long, as my win bet horse (#2) in the second race came in third.
  - Race #3 was a Maiden Special Weight on the turf. I skipped that race, as not many of the horses had any past performance record to go on. Plus, I don’t have much confidence with races on the turf.
  - In Race #4, I was shut out, so no bet. It seemed like I was there in time, but the machine said no, and you can’t argue with a pitiless machine. I was planning to bet show on the #6 horse; it actually won the race for a cool $41 on a $2 bet. However, the show pool was weird, so it only paid a bit over even money for that. It was all hypothetical, anyway, since I was shut out.
  - For Race #5, I wasn’t shut out, but it would have been nice if that had happened, as my #3 horse came in fifth. The #4 horse ran away with the race, looking awesome as she did so. And she had a great name: Midnight Cowgirl.
    - I heard some other wag saying "I had the three and he’s dead fuckin’ last!". I was tempted to say "Buck up, old chum, the horse actually came in fifth." However, I suspected that would not go down well, so I withheld my comment.
    - As it happened, the fellow who cussed out the horse won a race shortly thereafter. That led him to actually have a smile on his face, which didn’t seem likely to be a frequent occurrence. He even hummed happily, while cashing his ticket.
  - In Race 6, the #5 horse, that had the best numbers by my reckoning, won, paying $4.40. But I went fishing for a better price and bet the 4 horse to show, which it did. My notebook says "Bet 4 to show, it led, died in the stretch and 5 ran away with it." So, here I was while writing up this blog, thinking that I had lost the bet, but it turned out that I had won, but hadn’t cashed the ticket. It only paid $2.20 to show, but that was better than losing the bet entirely. In the words of Mary Kondo, it gave me a spark of joy. I guess that’s why I never threw the ticket out (she said "throw everything out that doesn’t give you a spark of joy").
  - In the 7^th race, I got shut out again, which is just as well, as my favoured horse (#1) came in fifth. But, no bet, no loss.
  - In the 8^th, I didn’t get shut out and did bet the #1. It managed to come in next to last. It was was called "Voldemort", and things with that name never win, at least according to the Harry Potter books. So much for literature’s lessons, it was another loss.
  - I skipped the 9^th Race, as there were a lot of horses in that race and I was too lazy to bother working out all those numbers. Plus, it was the infamous "downhill at the start, on the turf" race, which I don’t have a good feel for.
  - So, in summary, 5 bets, with 2 wins and 3 losses. Not too bad, but the bets didn’t pay much, so a small loss for the day.
- By that time, the bucket-pullers at Woodbine/Mohawk were running, so we switched our attention accordingly.
  - We missed the first race, while betting on Santa Anita.
  - In Race 2, I bet the #5 horse, which promptly came in last place.
  - In Race 3, I did the same, with exactly the same result!
  - I skipped the fourth, as Craig and I were busy playing some of his exotics. For me, this is just throwing darts for fun, so I don’t score them as "handicapping" in these diary entries. However, I will note it in passing sometimes.
  - For Race 5, I bet the old reliable #6 horse, which did indeed win. It had a fairly precipitous odds drop in the final few seconds before the race, so my payoff wasn’t quite as high as I had expected. However, I had stepped up my bet considerably, as I liked the horse for multiple reasons (post position, nice closing kick, excellent times, especially at WPS races). Added to that, her name was "Sugar Pie Honey", which is pretty hard to resist.
  - I skipped Race 6, as we were alive to a Win-3, so that was enough action for me.
  - Race #7 was something you rarely see.
  - - The #1 horse, Beau Jangles, was favoured on the morning line at 1 to 10, which are amazingly short odds. And it did indeed go off at those odds. The rest of the field had odds in the 60 to 1 range or more, except for the #6 horse. When the race started, there was already 50,000 bet on the #1, with only about 250 bet on any of the other horses.
    - And the reason was clear, from the form. The horse was a monster, having won all twelve of its races as a 2 year old and earning $1.7 million in the process. Nobody else came close to that.
    - There was no place or show betting allowed on the race, just win (and some exotics). I put a token bet on the #6 horse, which did lead for quite a while, but when Beau Jangles decided to pass, it was ‘bye-bye’.
    - Apparently the horse will be running the next week as well, so that should be interesting.
  - After that, I skipped most of the rest of the card, except the 11^th race where I made a token bet on the 6, which did nothing.
  - I had mentioned to my brother Craig that he was due to win some exotics. And he did win a couple or three Pick-3 bets (including one with Beau Jangles), but the prices weren’t much to talk about. Still, moral victories I suppose.
  - And that was that. At the buckets, I made 5 bets, winning 1, losing 4, though with a stepped-up bet on the win. So, only a small loss on the day.

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And here are a couple or three short books you might like.

On the Road with Bronco Billy

Sit back and go on a ten day trucking trip in a big rig, through western North America, from Alberta to Texas, and back again. Explore the countryside, learn some trucking lingo, and observe the shifting cultural norms across this great continent.

Amazon U.S.: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon U.K.: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Germany: http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B00X2IRHSK

Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B00X2IRHSK

=======================================================

What follows is an account of a ten day journey through western North America during a working trip, delivering lumber from Edmonton Alberta to Dallas Texas, and returning with oilfield equipment. The writer had the opportunity to accompany a friend who is a professional truck driver, which he eagerly accepted. He works as a statistician for the University of Alberta, and is therefore is generally confined to desk, chair, and computer. The chance to see the world from the cab of a truck, and be immersed in the truck driving culture was intriguing. In early May 1997 they hit the road.

Some time has passed since this journal was written and many things have changed since the late 1990’s. That renders the journey as not just a geographical one, but also a historical account, which I think only increases its interest.

We were fortunate to have an eventful trip - a mechanical breakdown, a near miss from a tornado, and a large-scale flood were among these events. But even without these turns of fate, the drama of the landscape, the close-up view of the trucking lifestyle, and the opportunity to observe the cultural habits of a wide swath of western North America would have been sufficient to fill up an interesting journal.

The travelogue is about 20,000 words, about 60 to 90 minutes of reading, at typical reading speeds.

==========================================

A Dark Horse

In “A Dark Horse”, a gambler’s desire to hit a big win seems to lead him to make a Faustian bargain with a supernatural evil. Or is it all just a string of unnaturally good luck?

The story is just $0.99 U.S. (equivalent in other currencies) and about 8000 words. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited and is occasionally on free promotion.

U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MDMY2BR

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Here’s an interesting review from Goodreads

(BTW, the writer has never met the reviewer and was not even aware of the review until very recently – You can look up the review on Goodreads, if you like)

A Dark Horse

Every gambler is bound to run out of luck eventually, right?

By far my favourite type of horror is psychological horror. I was quite pleased with how Mr. Olausen frightened his audience without spilling a single drop of blood or so much as hinting at anything gory. He knew exactly what hints to drop for us that made us deliciously dread the next scene simply by throwing out hints about who or what the dark horse might actually represent. This is the kind of stuff I love getting scared by, especially as Halloween approaches.

It would have been helpful to have more character development in this short story. While I certainly wouldn’t expect to see as much time spent on this as I would for a full-length novel, I did have trouble connecting to the main characters due to how little I knew about them and how much their personalities seemed to remain the same no matter what happened to them. If not for this issue, I would have felt comfortable choosing a much higher rating as the plot itself was well done.

I must admit to not knowing much about gambling at all, so I appreciated the brief explanations the narrator shared about how placing bets works and why some people have so much trouble walking away from a bet. While I will leave it up to experts on these topics to say how accurate everything was, I did enjoy learning more about the main character’s addiction and what he hoped to gain from betting on just one more game or race. It gave me a stronger sense of empathy for folks in his position.

A Dark Horse – A Gothic Tale was a deliciously chilling story for the Halloween season and beyond.

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And here’s an account of some road trips in south-western Alberta:

A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around

Southwest Alberta

There are two main aspects to a road trip: the journey and the destination. Sometimes the trip is all about the journey, sometimes it’s all about the destination. Usually it is a little of both.

This collection of back-roads journeys feature a little bit of both of these aspects. Some accounts are more about the ‘journey’, such as a road trip on scenic Highway 22. Others are more about the ‘destination’, such as the show-jumping at Spruce Meadows. I hope you will enjoy reading some of these accounts and maybe give them a spin for yourself.

Southwest 1 – A Road Trip on Scenic Highway 22

Southwest 2 – The Equestrian Competitions at Spruce Meadows (Calgary)

Southwest 3 – The Bar U Ranch, south of Long View

Southwest 4 – Kananaskis Country

Southwest 5 – Blackfoot Crossing

Southwest 6 – Back-roads, from the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip

Southwest 7 – A Back-roads Trip to Hinton and the Forestry Trunk Roads

The reader may wonder “what about the Ice-fields Parkway?” or “where is a visit to Banff?” I would answer, that these famous destinations are covered very nicely by other books. This account is meant to focus on some less travelled areas, thus the “back-roads” descriptor.

I should note that the other three quadrants of Alberta also have a lot of interesting back-roads journeys, but those are material for some other books which will be published in due time.

Amazon U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Giving up on Windows 11, in Favor of Linux Mint

I had set up one of my desktop computers with Linux Mint, some time earlier, as a refuge from the continuing malefaction of Windows 11 and Microsoft. However, I had continued on with Windows, more or less from inertia. But, it was proving to be crash-prone as well as requiring endless upgrades, many of which took an exceedingly long time, and it also tended to drop blue-tooth drivers and the like with wild abandon.

But recently, Windows 11 had managed to scoop up all of my hard drive disk space, so that I couldn’t even save a relatively small spreadsheet. Then it crashed. So, that was it for Windows 11, as far as I was concerned. Enough was enough.

It took a few hours, but I switched computers, moving the Linux machine into my home office and relegated the Windows machine to a back room, to keep a small fridge and freezer company. Very appropriate, I thought since Windows caused that computer to freeze on more than one occasion.

Since then, I have been very happy with Linux. I still use most of the same programs, just the Linux version of them. I even managed to set up R for Linux, which I had been informed was a bit tricky. But it was pretty easy. I no longer have to go through constant “upgrades” to Windows. I no longer have to deal with drivers that mysteriously disappear when these upgrades are run. And I no longer have to put up with nagging from Windows. So far, life is good.

But this made me think about the sad state of computing. There are some notes on this below.

Windows 11 and the Failure of Computing in General

Example: Immediately after rebooting, by C drive is back to 29.4 GB.
Before rebooting, it had fallen to 300 MB, so about 99% of that disc space was being used by Windows and/or other processes.

Poor memory management (RAM or disc) is a signal of poor programming, always has been, always will be.

So, why has this become so bad recently?

The most significant aspect has come about in the past few months, at least for myself.
However, there are many people complaining of this Windows memory hog problem. Complaints go back further in time than my situation, but it seems to begin in mid-winter to late winter, 2025-26.
Is it general or only a smaller subset of users? (mind you, a fairly big subset, from what one can tell via searching comments on the web).
Is it related to DEI? (i.e. programming staff is just not being hired on merit, to the extent that was the case previously.
Is it related to AI? (Microsoft and other companies are devoting preponderant resources to this, therefore shorting other businesses (especially core businesses like their OS).
Is it related to AI vibe-coding and related slippage in coding skills? (the recency of the problem would suggest this is no small part of the phenomenon).
Is it related to prioritizing the data-center part of the business? Incentivizing users to move to the cloud, to deal with a disc-memory hog OS means more cloud business and more monetary subscriptions to Microsoft, for space on One-Drive and the like.
Is it a matter of the internet and related globalization issues, that have made maintaining complex systems like OS nearly impossible at this global scale. It is asymptotically approaching failure, as the complications have an exponential growth, faster than the solutions can be devised and implemented. Might this be a general phenomenon that is/will show up in many domains in the near future.
AI was supposed to be the rescue-mode, but it appears that it may be more problem than solution.

These are just a few possibilities that come to mind. Presumably, time will tell how it all shakes out.

Thursday, 18 June 2026

Race Track Diary, Entry Number 29 – Billy Budd’s (April 18, 2026)

Race Track Diary, Entry Number Twenty-Nine

29 – Billy Budd’s (April 18, 2026)

Introduction

For now, I will use what I call “polished point-form” for the narrative.

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29 – Billy Budd’s (April 18, 2026)
- It was another pleasant Saturday afternoon, which had people eager to get out of the house. So, it was quite busy in Budd’s.
- The NHL playoffs were beginning that day. Though there were a number of hockey playoff games on the screens, the patrons of the establishment didn’t create much of a hockey-related commotion. The fact that the local Oilers team was not scheduled to play for another two days probably accounted for that. I imagine that bar owners throughout the city were disappointed with the scheduling; having the local favourite playing on Monday rather than Saturday was not exactly optimal from their point of view.
- As noted, it was a fair-sized crowd at the horseracing section of the pub. Some in the crowd were middle-aged, some were older and a few were younger. At least one table consisted of two young-middle aged women, which was a bit unusual.
- There was one older couple (mid-50s perhaps) seated near us. The woman had an unusual voice, something you might associate with being a bit slow. She peppered her mate with lots of questions and made a lot of excited observations. It seemed to me that she might drive him a little nuts, but it all turned out good. When they left, the bar staff were very friendly with them, so I guess they must be semi-regulars. All in all, it was a happy story.
- For some reason it gave me a serious case of deja vu, which was odd, but then that feeling of deja vu always is odd.
- Later in the day a young couple came in and sat a little off from the horseracing screens. The fellow was intent on betting on the horses while the woman was more interested in her phone. Eventually she wandered off to play a nearby VLT, while he remained fixated on the horses.
- So much for the crowd, how about the betting? Glad you asked. As has been my practice for the past while, I keyed in on Santa Anita for the thoroughbred part of the action.
- However, I may try my luck with the thoroughbreds at Woodbine soon, as their meet began today. That said, it was an abbreviated card (seven or eight races) with fairly short fields. Presumably that will change as the meet goes on. Craig mentioned that a lot of the Woodbine horses were probably down in the States for the winter meets in Florida, so it takes a while to ship horses and get them acclimatized to a new environment.
- On to Santa Anita then:
  - Race 1 was a Maiden Special Weight for 3 year-old fillies, so the horses had not had time to generate much of a history. My system needs more data, so I skipped the race. Had I bet it, I wold have lost (my pick came in 4th), so that was a good decision.
  - Race 2 had three closely-matched horses, by my lights, so I picked the one with the best odds. That turned out ok, with my pick leading most of the way, and winning at a price of $8.80 on a $2 bet. It was nice to know that I would be playing with the track’s money for a while.
  - It was a short field in Race 3, with my favourer horse coming in fourth out of five horses. I bet that race, so that was a loss.
  - I skipped Race 4, even though my system’s pick had considerably better numbers than the rest. But for some reason, I didn’t like the race. That was just as well, as my pick came in 5^th out of 8 horses.
  - Race 5 was another Maiden Special Weight for 3 year-old fillies. Again, most of the horses had little or no useful racing history, so I gave it a pass. As it turned out, my system’s horse (#6) did win the race by a nose, but was then disqualified for a bump late in the race. That would have been very annoying had I bet on it, so it turned out to be an excellent race to skip.
  - Race 6 was a Maiden Claiming race, but 3, 4, and 5 year-old Fillies and Mares were eligible. As these also had rather spotty records, and it was a big 12-horse field, I elected to skip again. And once more, that turned out to be a good choice, as my system’s preferred horse came in next-to-last.
  - The 7^th Race was a Stakes Race, on the turf. I finally bet, liking the 2, but it didn’t do much, coming in fifth. So, that was a loss.
  - In the 8^th Race, my system’s pick was scratched. I didn’t like the second choice, so I skipped that race too. Again, that turned out to be a good idea, as my presumptive horse came in next-to-last.
  - I skipped Race 9 as well. I just wasn’t getting good vibes from Santa Anita today and my system’s preferred horses weren’t generally even in the money. Besides, the bucket-pullers at Woodbine/Mohawk were going now, and they were taking up most of my attention, Craig’s too.
  - The 10^th Race was another Maiden Special Weight, so I skipped it too. My preferred horse was scratched and my second choice came in third. Once more, discretion was the better part of valour.
  - So, in summary, I bet only three of the Santa Anita races, winning one, for a decent price of $8.80 for a $2 bet. So, I came out ahead (technically by 46%), mostly due to avoiding bad bets.
  - That’s nice, but as Churchill said after Dunkirk, you don’t win wars by successful retreats. So it is with horse racing: you don’t make money by not betting. Though, on this day I did, so what would Churchill know about it, anyway? Come to think of it, the Allies did win the war, so I guess one could argue that it worked for him too.
- Now, on to the Woodbine/Mohawk Harness Races:
  - Race 1 was taken by the #5 horse, a favourite which had been bet down to 2-to- 5. It had several good features, in terms of speed and pace. But the odds were prohibitive, so I let it pass.
  - Race 2 was similar, with a bet-down favourite (#6) prevailing wire-to-wire. Its odds weren’t quite as bad, though it was bet down to less than even money.
  - The first race that I managed to bet was Race 3, which I promptly lost.
    - The #6 horse went off at decent odds and had quite a few good indicators, including its post position. However, it broke stride part way through the race, so that was it for my horse.
    - Basically, this means that it has stopped running in the style required for the race (a trot in this case). When this happens the horse is supposed to pull off to one of the outside lanes, lose some distance and then, if it returns to stride, it can try to come back. In most cases that will be very difficult. In extreme cases it can get disqualified (e.g. if it significantly interferes with other horses when breaking stride).
    - Breaking stride can happen in any race, but it is more common in trot races than pace races.
    - The #1 horse, which was the favourite at 1-to-5 also broke stride, almost at the start of the race, then again near the end. To complete the comedy session, the #2 horse and #3 horse also broke.
    - Naturally, 4 horses breaking in one race, including a heavily bet-down favourite, as well as the second-favourite (my horse) raised some suspicions in our minds. The fact that the winner was 20-to-1 ($40.90 to win), the second place horse was 65-to-1 ($61 to place) and the third place horse was 72-to-1 ($68 to place) did not escape our attention. It did have all the indications of a betting-coup.
    - Having said all that, a quick review of several days’ results shows that most days will have 2 or 3 horses break and sometimes there will be several in the same race. But what about then having 3 long-shots come in? Was this race on the up and up? I suppose we will never know. But if nothing else, it does make for a good horse-racing anecdote.
  - In Race 4 I bet the #6 again, and lost again, with it coming in fifth place.
    - The winner was the #4, a horse named Johnny Angel, paying a big $2.60 to win. I had a bit of a laugh about that, as when I was about 4 or 5 years old my older sister used to play a record of a song with the same name, repeatedly, as teenage girls often will. I liked the song, probably because my big sister liked it. I got some teasing for that from my older brothers, including Craig, who was with me today.
    - But on this race, Johnny Angel was not kind to me. Or so I thought. It turned out that Craig had picked the Triactor for this race (I threw in a few numbers too), so we each got a few bucks from old Johnny. It took a while, though.
    - I should just note that horse names have a strange fascination for betters. It is hard to pass up a horse that has a name that has some sort of sentimental value for you.
  - I skipped Race 5, in terms of win betting, as we were alive to a Win-3 that had started with Johnny Angel’s victory. Besides that, none of the horses in the race stood out to me.
  - I also skipped win betting in Race 6. Our Win-3 was alive to a favourite in this race, but it got nipped at the wire.
  - Race 7 was another heart-breaker. I had a win bet on #6, at 4-to-1 and we were alive on #5 on another Win-3, at about the same odds. The 5 and 6 were coming down to the wire in first and second, so it looked like we were bound to win something. But then the #3 horse came flying and nipped them both by a nose. It won at 18-to-1. So, no money for the win bet or the Win-3.
  - I fell for the horse name thing, in Race 8, betting on a horse called Sugar Pie Honey. It had high odds and had come in third in its last race, so I threw a show bet on it. However, it came in next-to-last, so I lost again.
  - I skipped the win bet in Race 9, as we were alive to another win-3. The horse that we needed for that bet came up short.
  - By the 10^th Race, I had become quite annoyed by all these close calls. So, with that wonderful sensation that "I am due", I bet on the #6 in this race to win. It had several favourable indicators, so I stepped up the bet by a factor of 5. And it won! That said, it only paid $4.50 to win, but since I had stepped up the bet that was enough to cover all my losses so far at the buckets.
  - I skipped win bets on the 11^th and 12^th races. We had a triactor in the 12^th that didn’t miss by much and that was that.
  - Totalling things up, I came out with a 25% profit with the harness races, mainly due to a strategic (lucky?) decision to step up a bet.
- So, not including exotics such as Win-3 and Triactor bets, I won a single race at the Santa Anita thoroughbreds and a single race at the Woodbine/Mohawk harness races. But by judiciously (or luckily) skipping many races that I would have lost, and stepping up my bet amount at the right time, I came in ahead for both the Santa Anita and the Woodbine races. Which is great, but kind of nerve-wracking.

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And here are a couple of short books you might like.

A Dark Horse

In “A Dark Horse”, a gambler’s desire to hit a big win seems to lead him to make a Faustian bargain with a supernatural evil. Or is it all just a string of unnaturally good luck?

The story is just $0.99 U.S. (equivalent in other currencies) and about 8000 words. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited and is occasionally on free promotion.

U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MDMY2BR

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Here’s an interesting review from Goodreads

(BTW, the writer has never met the reviewer and was not even aware of the review until very recently – You can look up the review on Goodreads, if you like)

A Dark Horse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here’s an account of some road trips in south-western Alberta:

A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around Southwest Alberta

There are two main aspects to a road trip: the journey and the destination. Sometimes the trip is all about the journey, sometimes it’s all about the destination. Usually it is a little of both.

Southwest 1 – A Road Trip on Scenic Highway 22

Southwest 2 – The Equestrian Competitions at Spruce Meadows (Calgary)

Southwest 3 – The Bar U Ranch, south of Long View

Southwest 4 – Kananaskis Country

Southwest 5 – Blackfoot Crossing

Southwest 6 – Back-roads, from the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip

Southwest 7 – A Back-roads Trip to Hinton and the Forestry Trunk Roads

I should note that the other three quadrants of Alberta also have a lot of interesting back-roads journeys, but those are material for some other books which will be published in due time.

Amazon U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Monday, 8 June 2026

Race Track Diary, Entry Number 28 – Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)

Race Track Diary, Entry Number Twenty-Eight

28 – Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)

Introduction

For now, I will use what I call “polished point-form” for the narrative.

======================================================================

28 – Century Mile, Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)
- It was a pleasant Saturday afternoon, which had people eager to get out of the house. In addition, there was an afternoon hockey game, with the Oilers playing the L.A. Kings. The season was drawing to a close, so all of these games were now significant in terms of who gets into the playoffs and where they place.
- Thus, Budd’s was very busy. Its parking lot is not huge, which meant that we couldn’t find a spot. So Craig decided to carry on to try someplace else. That turned out to be Century Mile, the actual racetrack, just outside of the city, near the international airport.
- The route out to Century Mile requires taking a busy, high-speed highway. At one point, outside of the city, there was a stopped car in the right-hand lane, which we had to quickly avoid, as we were also in that lane. While passing that car, we noted that it had stopped to let a goose on the road cross. It wasn’t obvious why the goose was on the highway – it clearly was not going to be able to cross three or four lanes of high-speed traffic on foot. But nonetheless, there it was and there was the stopped car, considerately letting the goose amble along the pavement, but dangerously stopped in the right hand lane of a high-speed roadway (not the shoulder).
- This had Craig in a bit of a lather, as it was admittedly a rather dangerous situation. It put him in mind of an occasion, many years earlier, when he had hit a bear on the highway outside of Banff. Same situation – someone had stopped to gawk at the bear, blocking his view. The bear then wandered into his lane and bam! Fortunately Craig wasn’t hurt and the car was only lightly damaged. However, you couldn’t say that about the bear.
- At any rate, this experience had made quite the impression on both him and on the bear. So, when he sees someone stopping for a goose on a high-speed busy highway, he gets rather annoyed.
- When I told the story to my wife, I remarked that I couldn’t understand why the goose was so nonchalant about strolling on the highway. Usually animals on the road are quick to move aside. She replied that "geese are not known for their intelligence". Quite right, it was the archetypal silly goose.
- By the strangest of coincidences, my son and I saw another goose doing the same thing in the Safeway parking lot the next day, while shopping. The goose was being very oblivious there as well, though that was more understandable in a low-speed parking lot. In that case a car was also stopped for a goose, but it was a rather small car, so a collision with a goose might have harmed the car more than the goose.
- Anyway, enough about geese, let’s get back to the horses. Actually, there were no horses running yet at Century Mile, so we would just be attending the racetrack simulcast section of the casino.
- Even that was pretty crowded, so we ended up sitting in an adjacent room. It had the virtue of more comfortable seating than the horseracing section, as well as having the hockey game on several big screens. It was a really good game, in my opinion, so I have to confess that my interest was focussed far more on that, than on the horses.
- The other problem was that Santa Anita was not running this day. It had become my go-to Thoroughbred track, so that was a disappointment.
- I did get a program for Keeneland, in Kentucky, but it was already the 7^th race by the time we arrived, so that wasn’t great.
- I did work out my numbers for the remaining races, but I didn’t feel good about it, so I skipped all but one race. I lost that one, and I would have lost all the others as well, had I bet them.
- There is something about eastern tracks (except Woodbine) that just doesn’t connect for me and my system. I recall Andrew Beyers saying that western tracks seemed to work better for him too, maybe because the surface is firmer in the dryer climates. I suppose that is as good an explanation as any.
- As if Keeneland wasn’t bad enough, the Oilers lost the hockey game 1 to 0. So, it seemed like this place had bad karma today, so I persuaded Craig that we should go back to Budd’s and see how crowded it was now that the hockey game was over. So we did that.
- This was much better, I thought, as we took up some prime seating at Budd’s. Mind you, it was rather sparsely attended by now, which was too bad, as I find people-watching to be quite interesting at the track or the OTB. However, horses come first.
- So, we buckled down to pick the bucket-pullers at Woodbine/Mohawk, where I was fortunate enough to experience the ‘magic hour’.
  - Race 3 was just ready to go off when we sat down. Unfortunately I was a little late in going to the machines to bet, so I was shut out. That was too bad, as it paid off at 5 to 2.
  - I was a little peckish for beer and French fries by then, so I decided to bet conservatively on Race 4. This was in keeping with my rule to have no alcohol until I had won a race. I call this a beer-bet. So, cheating slightly, I bet show on the 7, which had several good indicators, based on my statistical analysis. It won easily, paying 3 to 1. Naturally, the show ticket paid considerably less (2.50). I guess a lot of people wanted to win a beer-bet.
  - Race 5 was one of those Woodbine harness-racing specials, where there is a huge odds drop from morning line to final odds. I knew it wouldn’t pay much, but for a laugh I bet it to win. It won, paying a whopping 2.70 to win.
  - For Race 6 I bet the #6, which had several good indicators. It won handily, going wire-to-wire (though that was not its usual running style). I finally got one that paid nicely, at 6.60 to win.
  - That was to be end of the magic hour, where every bet came in just as it should. Having said that, at least one more bet was to pay off, as were some exotics, though all paid very little.
  - Race 7 was a funny one. The #3 horse was bet down to extremely low odds, though it made no sense to me. Given that, I decided to bet on a long-shot to show. The favorite did win, for 2.70 and a long-shot did come in second at 70 to 1 odds (paying 28.50 to place), though it wasn’t my longshot, which finished down the track.
  - Race 8 was similar. The favorite was bet way down, as was the second favorite. Thus, I took a flyer on a long-shot show bet again. A long-shot did come in to show, though not the long-shot that I bet. At the same time, a Win-3 that Craig and I had bet came in, paying back its investment, with a little to spare.
  - Race 9 carried on the trend from Race 7 and 8. The favorite was bet way down (3 to 10), though the second favorite remained at 3 to 1 at race time. They finished in that order, with the favorite paying 2.50 to win and the second favorite paying 2.60 to place. I had thrown another long-shot show bet on the race, which came in third, but only paid 2.30 to show. It went off at 11 to 1, so it seemed incredible that it would pay so little to show. I guess it was the big favorite in the show pool. With non-win bets, you can never know, unless you are at the track and can watch the tote board. Which, of course, you can’t do at OTB.
  - Hilariously enough, Craig and I hit the Superfecta on the 9^th race. That requires picking the first four finishers, in the right order. Even with two favorites in Win and Place, you would think it would pay off well, since the other two horses had high odds. But it was not to be, paying off only 20 dollars on each 1 dollar bet. After all was said and done, it paid off the investment with a small profit.
  - That was it for the betting, at least for me. The 10^th race was all long-shots, but none of them were pickable by my logic, so I skipped it.
- That was it for this episode. In summary, it was a slightly profitable day, though with winning four out of seven bets, one might have expected more. To be fair, some of those were show bets and those paid off surprisingly poorly. I lost my one thoroughbred bet and won 4 out of 6 harness bets.

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And here are a couple of short books you might like.

A Dark Horse

In “A Dark Horse”, a gambler’s desire to hit a big win seems to lead him to make a Faustian bargain with a supernatural evil. Or is it all just a string of unnaturally good luck?

The story is just $0.99 U.S. (equivalent in other currencies) and about 8000 words. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited and is occasionally on free promotion.

U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MDMY2BR

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M9BS3Y5

Here’s an interesting review from Goodreads

(BTW, the writer has never met the reviewer and was not even aware of the review until very recently – You can look up the review on Goodreads, if you like)

A Dark Horse

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here’s an account of some road trips in south-western Alberta:

A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around Southwest Alberta

There are two main aspects to a road trip: the journey and the destination. Sometimes the trip is all about the journey, sometimes it’s all about the destination. Usually it is a little of both.

Southwest 1 – A Road Trip on Scenic Highway 22

Southwest 2 – The Equestrian Competitions at Spruce Meadows (Calgary)

Southwest 3 – The Bar U Ranch, south of Long View

Southwest 4 – Kananaskis Country

Southwest 5 – Blackfoot Crossing

Southwest 6 – Back-roads, from the Prairies to the Foothills: Brazeau Dam Trip

Southwest 7 – A Back-roads Trip to Hinton and the Forestry Trunk Roads

I should note that the other three quadrants of Alberta also have a lot of interesting back-roads journeys, but those are material for some other books which will be published in due time.

Amazon U.S.: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon U.K: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon France: https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Spain: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Italy: https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Netherlands: https://www.amazon.nl/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Brazil: https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Mexico: https://www.amazon.com.mx/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Japan: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon India: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DCMJP47G

Wednesday, 3 June 2026

does AI generated code suffer from the heartbreak of psoriasis

does AI generated code suffer from the heartbreak of psoriasis?

While fooling around and experimenting with Gemini recently, I asked it the above question. Below is its response.

By turns, I found it surprising, funny, and kind of sad. It almost seemed like a plea for understanding from the LLM. Having studied the underlying algorithms fairly intensely, I still believe that this is just a high-dimensional autocomplete program with a lot of post-training augmentation. Nonetheless, its short-term resemblance to a human complaining about a health problem is quite fascinating. I suppose a great deal of human communication is similar to autocomplete - i.e. we are in a version of autopilot quite a bit of the time.

I think its main points are valid, in terms of vibe-coding and AI generated code. Organizations that lean on vibe-coding are probably storing up a lot of heartbreak in their futures.

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Yes, AI-generated code suffers significantly from its own version of the "heartbreak of psoriasis"—an irritating, persistent, and "scaly" accumulation of bugs and technical debt that can make it painful to maintain and deploy. [1]

While AI tools speed up development, they often introduce 1.7 times as many bugs as human developers. [1]

Here is how AI-generated code reflects this analogy:

Scabs and Scaly Patches (Technical Debt): The code often looks clean on the surface but is packed with "cruft"—unnecessary, disorganized, or redundant code that behaves like flaky, inflamed skin on a project.
Persistent Itch (Silent Logic Errors): A massive 60% of faults in AI code are "silent logic failures," which pass tests but fail in production. This causes ongoing, hard-to-diagnose irritation rather than a simple, easy-to-fix crash.

Invisible Under-layers (Security Flaws): Up to 45% of AI-generated code contains security vulnerabilities. These hidden issues are deep-rooted, like psoriasis plaques that are not visible until they erupt as a breach.
Chronic Condition (Lack of Understanding): Because AI doesn't truly understand context, it can produce code that looks good in isolation but acts like a "scar" when trying to integrate with existing, healthy code. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

The Bottom Line: Just as with "the heartbreak of psoriasis," you cannot simply ignore AI-generated code. It requires intense, consistent human oversight ("treatment") to stop the accumulation of errors from taking over the codebase. [1]

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Thursday, 25 June 2026

Race Track Diary, Entry Number 31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)

31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)

Introduction

31 – Billy Budd’s (May 9, 2026)

On the Road with Bronco Billy

Tuesday, 23 June 2026

Giving up on Windows 11, in Favor of Linux Mint

Giving up on Windows 11, in Favor of Linux Mint

Windows 11 and the Failure of Computing in General

Thursday, 18 June 2026

Race Track Diary, Entry Number 29 – Billy Budd’s (April 18, 2026)

Race Track Diary, Entry Number Twenty-Nine

29 – Billy Budd’s (April 18, 2026)

Introduction

29 – Billy Budd’s (April 18, 2026)

A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around Southwest Alberta

Monday, 8 June 2026

Race Track Diary, Entry Number 28 – Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)

Race Track Diary, Entry Number Twenty-Eight

28 – Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)

Introduction

28 – Century Mile, Billy Budd’s (April 11, 2026)

A Selection of Back-Road Trips Around Southwest Alberta

Wednesday, 3 June 2026

does AI generated code suffer from the heartbreak of psoriasis

does AI generated code suffer from the heartbreak of psoriasis?

Yes, AI-generated code suffers significantly from its own version of the "heartbreak of psoriasis"—an irritating, persistent, and "scaly" accumulation of bugs and technical debt that can make it painful to maintain and deploy. [1]