If you know anything about this blog or of the poor sap writing its main body of information, you might have heard about the Grafton Flea Market. This is the one in Massachusetts–a long-runner, rich with history and cheap with prices. Becoming a vendor is painless enough and the lot always has something for everybody.

What it doesn’t have is a clue.

Now, that sounds harsh, but it’s a fact that the past three years or so have not been kind to the vendors or the market itself. It is under new ownership–a kind little Chinese-American gent–and, together with a mix of veteran and new vendors, continues to take pains in nurturing the market’s continued success. But, this is the Biden Administration. A recent poll says 73% of the US population does not believe the country is moving in a satisfactory direction. I’ll say. This hits even secondhand markets as prospects shrink and dwindle. Everyone feels a burn without any fire and opportunities seem to keep passing by.

During my second year, towards the tail end of August, the owner’s wife made the rounds, asking about whether vendors were keen with opening for Saturday as well as Sunday. I am. When I began working a shift job again, I insisted on specific days off in the week and Saturday is one. I operated then under the assumption that a weekly rental fee (which is how they tally interior and reserved lot vendors) would not double merely because Saturdays were open.

In spite of that not being the case, the other vendors were in an uproar. Even if the owner did not double fees, nobody wanted to pull double shifts. So, the owner compromised by saying they will not open the interior (the vendors, at least; concessions might be available) during Saturdays. With outdoor setups in good weather, life might switch around for the better. One can only hope. I do, however, have one glaring concern: as of May 31st, 2024, why wasn’t the official site updated?

And that’s the reason behind this post, aside of me announcing the Grafton Flea Market does Saturdays now (since June 2024), because the site said nothing. If you check other sites, they confirm old news. Now, I should have posted it earlier, but I was getting wiped out at work and could not make time to write. At least I did not forget, or have no computer savvy, or fail to remember having a blog in the first place. I have no time, it seems, and I have other things on my mind of late.

So, what’s their excuse? Not that the owners are clueless. I taught them the ropes with Google Lens a few weeks back, which helps them confirm what objects are and do. Speaking of Google, the flea market has a real mess on their hands thanks to that company. Google is an info broker, plain and simple, and their abject scope is nerve-wracking when considering their lack of business acumen. That can be said of the Grafton Flea Market if they fail to update the site about Saturdays–the means of gaining a new breed of clientele (churchgoers predominantly).

See, Google devised a language-dependent artificial computer brain. It scans posts like mine, then it regurgitates the main beats whenever someone asks a question in the search engine. This seems like it can steal my thunder, but bloggers who ride on answering single questions with guides that show how to do that one specific thing will hurt the most. We can all weather stupid legal changes like having to disclose our use of affiliate links to keep the European Union happily socialistic. Instead of that, we can adapt a set of how-to guides into mega-posts with everything in it that covers multiple tasks oriented around some specific enterprise, featuring a table of contents that lets you click to the top. It might mean fewer clicks or engagement, but it won’t stop you from applying affiliate links as perfectly appropriate–besides original products and services, they’re the best means of making cash compared to drop-shipping, pop-ups and page banners. I digress.

Or, do I?

I say this because there is a way to circumvent the distilled summaries that this blog-regurgitator does; I don’t see it engineering “brand-new content”, for instance, considering its drawbacks when parsing your intent or nuances. You can manipulate it, plain and simple, to say out-of-context phrases and ridiculous statements. Everyone used to do it to that literal retard in the school cafeteria for fun and sadism but today, hackers can coax a digital apparatus instead. Perhaps that is the only positive indication of true progress that the device reflects.

Everyone harps on its lack of keenness. One user swore up and down how it answered the question of whether or not anybody landed on the sun, that it claimed that someone from North Korea did. I suspect the AI assumed we were talking about proper names and professional wrestling since Sun (pronounced “Soon”) could be a common first name in Korea. It is Grade-A bullshit, mind you, for another reason: you cannot replicate a response so outlandish. The AI is, in fact, refining itself or at least corrects itself.

So, on hearing that sob story, I asked it the same question and received what I predicted would happen: no, and it’s impossible to land there. So, Google’s AI does not suit Google’s business needs if the AI is replacing most blogs’ conceit of utility–informing the public. It cannot perpetually check my somehow redundant site’s ability to achieve financial success since, truth be told, lowering traffic to sites that boast advertising tied back to the company sounds not even counterproductive. It will be dialed back or tweaked so as not to incense the blogosphere that the company relies on.

Still, most of those ads on anyone’s sites that loans out such space will wind up being seen less. Traffic for sites–an important metric in determining trends in business–will dip down, upending Google with nary any effort in shooting feet full of lead. Thus, I don’t nag about corporations stealing everyone’s souls, not because we somehow don’t have any to sell, but rather their baked-in fallibility is important to personal and cultural growth. I don’t want to think of a world where nothing could take down anything past a certain threshold of being either giant or numerous, some methods better than others.

Even so, the regurgitator poses another threat in how we need to update regularly. This returns me to my dig: bloggers beware, not for evil AI stealing your spotlight, but that you cannot become complacent, not in your moment of glory. Don’t feel bad about Google experimenting in abject terror when it’s more like a stupid haunted house mirror. That said, don’t forget to update regularly and alter how you present your information. Don’t write a guide on but one thing–I insist that it both scale and run the gamut of every possible contingency.

Last of all: tell the Grafton Flea Market site to update their schedule! They might get a clue. I wouldn’t be surprised. Tend your blogs in the meantime. You’ve been doing it longer than I have, after all. I know that you are well-skilled.

Good hunting.

 

P.S. If you live in Southern Worcester County and want a way to blow steam and buy something you never expected to see for a buck or three, then don’t be a stranger to the Grafton Flea Market!