I saw this a couple of weeks ago in Austin at Uncommon Objects, a delightfully quirky antique/vintage furniture/housewares shop will a lot of really cool stuff. It’s worth a visit!
Category: It Happened to Me
Anitra and I were dropping off a package at the UPS Store on Kennedy when we saw a “no weapons” sticker on the bridal gown store next door. I know some people who work in the wedding industry, and from the stories they tell, I’m not surprised.
Here’s a fun game I found on LinkedIn through Jason Donnelly (who has the best LinkedIn URL), who commented on an interesting LinkedIn post by Brant Johnson:
Jason gave ChatGPT this prompt:
based on your personal experience when talking to me, give me a character from a movie/ series who is like me, just give me their name
ChatGPT’s response:
Ted Lasso
“That’s a pretty nice result,” I thought, and decided to provide the same prompt to the two LLMs I use most: Claude and Gemini.
Claude’s response
When I gave Claude the same prompt, it replied:
Leslie Knope.
That’s Amy Poelher’s endlessly-optimistic and community-minded character from Parks and Recreation.
I followed up with “Please explain,” and Claude responded with this:
Leslie Knope is a hyper-competent, community-obsessed organizer who genuinely loves the people in her city and works tirelessly to bring them together. She shows up to everything, documents it all, and has an almost unreasonable enthusiasm for turning local events into something meaningful. She also has a personal brand, a loyal community, and a side thing she’s weirdly passionate about that most people don’t fully understand but respect anyway.
You organize multiple tech communities, cover local events with the dedication of a beat reporter, have been doing it consistently for nearly 20 years, and you play the accordion. That last part is very Leslie — she would absolutely play the accordion.
Gemini’s response
Gemini gave a response that pleased me to no end:
Banzai Buckaroo (from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension)
When asked “Please explain,” it responded with this:
The “Renaissance Geek” Archetype
You share a very specific, high-energy profile with Buckaroo Banzai that goes beyond just being “into tech.” Here is why the comparison fits so well:
The Polymath Lifestyle: Buckaroo is a neurosurgeon, a particle physicist, and a rock star. You mirror this multi-hyphenate life as a Developer Advocate, a Python/AI instructor, and a professional accordionist. Both of you refuse to be siloed into a single “type.”
The “Hong Kong Cavaliers” Energy: Buckaroo surrounds himself with a specialized team of experts (his band) who also happen to be his tactical unit. Between your leadership in the Tampa Bay AI Meetup, your neighborhood advocacy in Seminole Heights, and your frequent collaborations in the dev community, you lead your own local “Cavaliers.”
Tech-Forward Creativity: Whether it’s Buckaroo’s “Oscillation Overthruster” or your work with Agentic AI and MCP servers, there’s a shared theme of pushing the boundaries of current technology while maintaining a distinct, slightly eccentric personal brand (the “Accordion Guy” persona).
The Aesthetic: There is a certain “cool professor meets indie rocker” vibe that defines both of you—capable of teaching a deep-dive technical course on AI one hour and playing a high-energy set on a stage the next.
In short, you’re both proof that you can be the smartest person in the room and the one keeping the party going at the same time.
I loved The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, a delightfully weird sci-fi comedy/cult classic. When I was a teenager, I wanted to be the titular character.
However, I had to ask:
Me:
Why did you refer to the character as “Banzai Buckaroo” in your initial answer?
Gemini:
That was a bit of a “glitch in the Matrix” on my part—essentially a “brain fart” in AI terms.
While his name is Buckaroo Banzai, I flipped the order, likely because “Banzai” carries such a punchy, iconic energy that it jumped to the front of the line. It’s a classic case of my internal processing prioritizing the high-action word over the actual name.
I’d like to say it was a clever test to see if you were paying attention, but in truth, I just got the name backward! I’m glad you caught it—it’s definitely Buckaroo Banzai.
AIs have brain farts?
Give this AI exercise a try!
Bonus material
In case you’re not familiar with Buckaroo Banzai, here’s a modern trailer for the film…
…and here’s a great overview:
Categories
Gearing up for a new week
I’ve got a lot to do this week, but I’m fine with that. I intend to burninate!
Last month, I wrote about a manufacturing mistake that became a hit for the Year of the Horse: the Sad Horse. I placed an order for one, and because it came from a literal “slow boat from China,” it finally arrived last week!
It looks sad because a number of the plush horses made for this Lunar New Year left the factory with their snouts attached upside-down, turning their smiles into glum expressions. But because this expression reflects a lot of Chinese workers’ current “down and dissatisfied” mood (especially in their current “9-9-6” culture, the Sad Horse became a hit!
Read more about the manufacturing mistake that became a Lunar New Year hit in It’s the Year of the Sad Horse!
Categories
Eleven years ago…
12 years ago, I drove with all the stuff I could fit into “Rhonda the Honda CR-V,” from Toronto to Tampa to be closer to Anitra, and one year later, we got married!
Our wedding took place on the beach in the town of St. Pete Beach at what was then called the Grand Plaza Hotel, which now goes by the name The Bellwether:
Here’s an overhead view of their ceremony areas. There are two sets of palm tree “aisles” down which happy couples can march:
Here’s a closer look at ours, the southwest-facing aisle:
Here’s a scene from the wedding rehearsal, with Anitra’s uncle and our officiant, Rabbi John Fischer giving best man Eldon some instructions:
Fast-forward a day to the next morning, and we’ve got Eldon giving me the traditional best man gift of booze, which in this case was a hard-to-find and very delicious Canadian whisky, served in the most appropriate vessels we could find:
And here I am with my father-in-law, who was greatly amused by the whole thing:
Male bonding:
We don’t buy into this “you can’t see the bride before the ceremony” nonsense. With a bride like this, I want to see her as often as possible!
A quick gathering of Team Groom, featuring my mom, Yours Truly, and my groomsmen Eldon and Richard (who’s also my brother-in-law):
I was ready to get the party started:
Here’s the last photo I snapped as a free man! It’s of my view of the “aisle” before I made my way to the front:
And here’s my last walk as a free man:
I was raised Catholic, she was raised Protestant, the officiant’s a rabbi, and the ceremony combined Jewish and Filipino wedding traditions. Here’s a Jewish tradition, where the bride walks around the groom three times, in a process I call “circling your prey”:
Post-ceremony parasol pix with the bridesmaids:
And now the bridesmaids and groomsmen:
Here’s the mandatory “Ocean’s Eleven” pic:
…and here are more wedding party pics…
The “Elvis Movie Poster Pic” is my favorite:
Here’s where we had the reception: the Presidential Ballroom, located on the Grand Plaza’s penthouse level:
As my friend George put it, it’s a classic James Bond villain’s lair waiting to happen, and it’s also reminiscent of the reclusive billionaire’s hotel from Diamonds are Forever:
Here’s a closer look at the “sweetheart table”:
A quick welcome to the guests before we all descended on brunch:
Here we are at our Star Trek-like table, with me sitting at Mr. Sulu’s post, and Anitra as Chekov:
Of course there was some accordion playing:
Anitra looked amazing, but in my opinion, she always does:
I love this photo:
Here’s the wedding “cake”:
At the end of the reception, a couple of hours before sunset…
…we made our way to Bongo’s Beach Bar, where we had the less formal, unofficial part of the day that stretched well into the night:
Here’s a view from the bridal suite the next day:
Before we left, we went for the first of many walks on the beach as husband and wife:
…and when we got to our car, we saw that one of the guests left us a geekily appropriate gift: a pair of twenty-sided fuzzy dice:
A quick blast from the past: 11 years ago today, Anitra and I did a quick check of the venues for our then-upcoming wedding. This included a family get-together at the Don CeSar the day prior to the wedding, along with the wedding venue, the Grand Plaza Hotel (now known as the Bellwether Beach Resort).
