duh

Working with ChatGPT—asking it to do your coding for you because you're too fucking code-illiterate to do it yourself—is like working with an earnest-but-retarded genie that, doglike, really wants to help you but can't always quite do it. I finally got the second quiz up today, less than an hour ago, with none of that "disappearing first quiz" bullshit happening anymore, but Jesus, it took a few hours. There was one point at the end where the quiz was 95% of the way to perfect. I asked GPT to render the code one final time, and a fuckup appeared in the quiz's title, which now bizarrely showed the Decimal Numeric Character Reference code for em dashes (—). It took several more iterations before GPT could get everything right, with no code visible to the tester.* Ever had that feeling, shared by movie villains the world over, of being on the brink of an orgasmic triumph when, at the very last moment, something or someone bumbles onto the scene and undoes your victory? Yeah. It was like that.

One way or another, though—by hook or by crook—the second quiz is now up. If you're following me on Substack, please don't take the second quiz until you've gotten at least an "A" on the first quiz. If you're just a rando reader who wants to try the quiz for whatever reason, go ahead, but in that case, why not become a free or paid subscriber to my Substack? I've apparently hit a ceiling at 17 or 18 subscribers (weird fluctuation still happening); your addition could finally push me past that frustrating barrier.

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*It's always tempting to write testee, but can it be done without adolescent snickering?