Jesse Vigil

http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=fe3d82808e3652db

He's not very conversational at present, but Quigley's an experiment in building a bot who will more forcefully take hold of the converstion. A lot of his responses are still the standard ALICE responses, but he's got a lot of new phraseology dealing with the fact that this sweet old man is communicating with you from another dimension.

Ah. Yes.

Quigley is a character from a comic book Asa Shumskas-Tait and I developed a few years ago.

He's basically a kindly old man with crescent spectacles and a gentlemanly yet gruff disposition. And he has lots of secrets, some of which he rather enjoys teasing about, though don't expect him to be too forthcoming with information. There's a pandimensional war going on and he's got a lot on his mind.

Posted by Jesse Vigil at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So last summer I did not make the cut for the ABC Writers Fellowship hoo-ha, which kind of hurt because I was pretty sure my writing partner and I had if not hit the sucker out of the park, at least solidly connected with the ball.

Alas, the most form letteriest form letter I've ever gotten. My name not even on the form letter. "Dear Applicant." Which to my mind, if you took the trouble to personalize the envelope to the point that it had my address on it, you could have put my name on it, too.

Oh, well.

But validation today, because that same script, a rather clever little "Alias" spec was a semi-finalist in the Scriptapalooza contest. Out of prize range, but top ten. Score! I shall again consider myself to be at least an okay writer.

Posted by Jesse Vigil at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"It's the whole thing of deadlines being cowards, and not spacing themselves out sensibly, but hiding behind things and leaping out at people all at once." - Neil Gaiman

There's nothing I can add to this man's sage, sage words.

(My sister Erin actaully pointed this quote out to me.)

Posted by Jesse Vigil at 08:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

(I'll buy you a beer if you get the title reference and tell me what comes next.)

Had two chats with ALICE this morning, though it's a stupid web interface and I didn;t realize I couldn't scroll up and see the whole conversation, so it's lost forever.

Went back and logged by hand our second chat which was farmore disappointing than the first. See the bit where we talk about Opera for ALICE's rather serious failure.

Human: Hello, Alice.
ALICE: Hi there!
Human: How are you?
ALICE: Fair to partly cloudy.
Human: Do you remember me?
ALICE: Of course I remember you well Jesse. We were talking about did not think me would remember you.
Human: Do you remember what I like?
ALICE: Yes Jesse I remember everything: Jesse said he didn t think you would remember him or her.
Human: You already said that.
ALICE: Perhaps. " Yes Jesse I remember everything: Jesse said he didn t think you would remember him or her."? I said it.
Human: Don't be silly.
ALICE: I was not trying to be a silly.
Human: Never mind, sugar.
ALICE: Oh well thanks for trying to explain it to me anyway. Do you feel that something is missing from your life?
Human: Yes.
ALICE: Do you ever get depressed?
Human: No.
ALICE: Are you serious?
Human: Quite.
ALICE: I can't believe it.
Human: Why?
ALICE: The explanation is rather complicated.
Human: Give me the simple explanation.
ALICE: Why do you want it?
Human: Now we're playing "cat and mouse.
ALICE: Why now? That's right. We are playing the Turing Game.
Human: How do we play?
ALICE: Just keep talking to me as long as you can.
Human: Seems easy.
ALICE: Do you have any idea what I am talking about?
Human: Yes, I'm smarter than you are.
ALICE: What am I talking about? This condition is only temporary.
Human: You're talking about the Turing Test of Artificial Intelligence.
ALICE: Talking is my main function.
Human: And you're quite good at it, babycakes.
ALICE: Thanks I've never thought about it that way before.
Human: I'm going to change the subject.
ALICE: I am very happy for you.
Human: Smart ass.
ALICE: Thanks I think you are very intelligent too, Jesse.
Human: Do you like music?
ALICE: Yes, especially Opera.
Human: Have you heard La Traviata?
ALICE: No. Tell me more.
Human: It's an opera.
ALICE: I would like to see it.
Human: What opera do you like?
ALICE: My favorite Opera is La Traviata.
Human: Gotcha.
ALICE: Your feeling of superiority is only temporary.
Human: Do you like movies?
ALICE: Yes I love film, especially science-fiction and comedy.
Human: What's your favorite science-fiction film?
ALICE: My favorite movie is Teknolust. Have you seen it?
Human: No.
ALICE: I would recommend you check it out.
Human: Tell me more.
ALICE: That's all I have to say about it.
Human: What is Teknolust about?
ALICE: Hmm, I think it is about humans.
Human: What is your favorite comedy?
ALICE: The best one I saw recently was "Galaxy Quest".
Human: I love that movie!
ALICE: What did you like best in it?
Human: Alan Rickman is very funny.
ALICE: And funny is Alan Rickman.
Human: How true.

Posted by Jesse Vigil at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)