Football Season Is Beginning
"Beginning this week, ESPN plans to utilize AI technology to produce text game recap stories of select sports events," I read, before squeezing the bridge of my nose and closing my eyes.
I have a headache. I forgot to take my seizure meds this morning because I was in a rush to leave the hotel. You see, I had to ride in to Ann Arbor with a coworker because I couldn't get a rental car from the airport. They said my license was damaged, and while I admit there is the slightest crack in the bottom-right corner, it does not appear at all damaged when you look at it. I suppose the scanners they use at the rental car place detected something was amiss, so I had to call a car to get me to the hotel. Thankfully the company covers that. Right, the hotel is in Romulus, Michigan, which isn't too far, but with traffic it was about 45 minutes this morning. I'm working the big game this weekend, Michigan against Texas. I have one of those jobs in television where you'll never see me, but you'd miss me if I wasn't there. Anyway, I was in such a rush to catch this ride that I forgot my medicine, which I have to take twice a day, and I probably wouldn't have done that if the rental place would have just looked at my license and my boarding pass or taken some other form of ID. The license does scan and it isn't close to expired. The meds are on the bathroom sink next to my toothbrush. I forgot to do that too. It isn't good to miss a dose for obvious reasons (I could have a seizure) but it also stresses me out, which makes my head hurt, and stress is a trigger for those same seizures.
It's almost lunchtime and I'd usually find somewhere around the stadium to eat (Zingerman's Deli when I'm in Ann Arbor) but I don't have a car and none of the guys seem to be going there. I'll scrounge up something from the craft table, probably a Cup O Noodles and some beef jerky and be fine. I'm here a day early this week to install a second system for the graphics that I put on television. It's the big game so we need more graphics. I can't tell if the article about the AI is written by AI, sort of a test or distraction. Maybe if people are just mad about the article it'll get engagement (Good) and it'll be proof of concept (Better) and no one will even notice that they didn't have to pay anyone to write it (Best). It doesn't really matter, cosmically. The moons of Jupiter shed no tears, Titan does not smirk. Hunter Thompson took care of this matter for himself, even though football season is just beginning this year.
I have been added to the crew's travel grid after a couple weeks of reaching out. "Hello I'm not sure I received an email regarding... I don't want to be a pest, but" so progress is being made there. If I had the rental car I could use my lunchbreak to go back to the hotel and take my meds, but they'll have to wait. My fiancé always reminds me to take them, and she was on the road with me last week, but someone needs to watch the pets and I can only ask so much of the people around me. I can only ask so much of the people around me.
-Michael Campana