Ryan Pollard 💾

@rdp.blue

167 Followers 39 Following

Formerly @rdpollard doting father丨product manager丨designer丨Cascadian anti-fascist, pro-love-your-neighbor I post about politics and world events, product and design […] 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://hachyderm.io/@rdp, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

Even though the prompt explicitly lists specific programs like (survivor, Black Lung, Railroad Retirement) in parentheses, those are just clarifying examples of specific federal programs to help people identify what counts. They are not meant to exclude general Social Security retirement.” they really should clarify that in the prompt! You are so right — it is terribly written! Putting specific, niche programs like Black Lung or Railroad Retirement in parentheses right after the word "Social Security” makes it look like a restrictive list rather than just a set of examples. To anyone reading it normally, it strongly implies: "Only count Social Security if it's one of these specific types.” The root of the problem is how these forms get built. The software designers try to cram multiple separate federal and state income categories into a single line item to save space. In doing so, they end up creating a confusing, Frankenstein-style question. A much clearer prompt would simply split things up: How it SHOULD read: "Does Robert receive any retirement, pension, or annuity income? (Includes standard Social Security retirement, disability, survivor benefits, Railroad Retirement, Black Lung, or private/public pensions)." When dealing with financial aid or government paperwork, ambiguous prompts like this trigger entirely reasonable second-guessing. You parsed the language logically — the form itself is just poorly phrased!
A photo of many many many birds camped out on a wide, flat rock jutting out of the Pacific Ocean near the shore in Depoe Bay, Oregon.
A photo of a MacBook Air on a lap, in front of a campfire.
A photo of a small white dog atop the sea wall at Depoe Bay in Cascadia
A photo of the moon over the Pacific Ocean.
A photo of the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean.
Photo of two Blockbuster DVDs that had been missing for quite some time.
Claude Monet’s "Waterlilies," painted in 1915. Oil on canvas, photographed in April 2026 at the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, USA A semi-transparent "AI star logo" watermark has been added into the lower right-hand corner of the painting using Serif's Affinity Designer software (no actual AI was employed here).
A photo of a MacBook Air running Linux Mint Cinnamon
A photo of Mitch McConnell in a wheelchair with the caption "Should Mitch McConnell's health be made transparent to the public?"
A screenshot of an eBay product description, showing "128 GB RAM" and an "8 GB" hard drive.
The hind legs of a fluffy cat poke out from under a couch.
.gif of a woman giving a two-finger salute
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A screenshot of a notification on Mastodon. @ Private mention Bridgy Fed for Bluesky @ 47m @bsky.brid.gy@bsky.brid.gy Hil Here are your recent interactions from people who arent bridged into the fediverse. Click the respond links to reply, like, repost, or block them. + bsky.app/profile/did:pl... (respond) To disable these messages, reply with the text ‘mute’. bsky.app/profile/did:pl..
A screenshot of the Podcast Addict app, displaying the RSS feed powering subscription.
Marker on ceramic tile: Dear Dad, You are the super sigma-rizz alpha Chad! Don't let the betas bring you down! With aura, julia
A screenshot (stolen elsewhere) of a post on X.com from MP Lisa Nandy (@lisanandy) I've decided to leave this platform and my Department will too. A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate. It isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and | don’t want to support it. 02/07/2026
A photo of a toilet paper roll that is not only installed backwards (stray end behind) but in such a way that said stray end has been fed into the lower carriage. An abomination.
A photo of a package of Tea Masala
A photo of the OP looking at a cat through a fixture on a cat tree.
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A photo of a Retroid Pocket 5 running the Google Play store, hosting a nasty little note saying the game won't work with the device.
Photo of the MacBook Pro open and working, with a browser up.
Photo of a closed MacBook Pro.
A woman in a bathing costume in the mid 1960s.
A black and white photo of a young couple at the Oregon Coast, circa mid-1970s.
We aim to please
A screenshot of the Mastodon UI. A user is quote-posting another user, but the original post shows as "post pending." A "learn more" button pops up a small dialogue which states "On Mastodon, you can control whether someone can quote you. This post is pending while we're getting the original author's approval."
Brad Pitt from the film "Seven," finding out what's in the box.
A screenshot of the original listing for the MacBook Air. One of the photos shows the bottom of the unit, with "MacBook Pro" stamped on it.
A screenshot of an eBay tracking page showing an Apple MacBook Air en route.
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A NY Times headline: "Israel, Stunned by Trump's Iran Deal, Sees it as 'Catastrophic Capitulation.'" The article summary: "Analysts said the agreement accomplishes none of Israel's war aims and leaves the country in worse shape on each of them."
A photo of downtown Portland from within a moving vehicle
Twilight over Ashland, OR
A photo of a vehicle dashboard showing, among other things, a speed of 69MPH
OP recovers on a shaded bench.
A photo of the entrance to Six Flags Magic Mountain
The stage for Rush
A photo of some other dumb arena next door where they're playing soccer.
A photo of the stage for the Rush "50 Something" show at the Forum in Los Angeles.
A Hollywood star on the Walk of Fame for "Snub Pollard."
Photo of a proper Hollywood motel
A photo of OP looking spent.
A photo of Mt. Shasta from I-5.
A photograph of I5 at the California border.
A photo of a shopping cart with 8 cans of caffeinated beverage.
An email notification from a local school Potential Exposure to Pertussis (Whooping Cough) 5 hours ago - Tuesday, Jun © at 9:30 AM [redacted] families and staff, We are writing to inform you about a possible exposure to pertussis (also known as whooping cough) at [redacted school]. What is Pertussis? Pertussis is a highly contagious disease that is spread through the air by coughing. Pertussis usually begins with cold-like symptoms and a cough that worsens over one to two weeks. Symptoms may include: - Coughing “fits” followed by a “whooping” noise - Vomiting - Turning blue (cyanosis) - inability to catch one’s breath The cough is often worse at night, and cough medicines usually do not help eliminate the cough. Usually, people infected with pertussis do not have a fever. In older children and adults, the symptoms may be only a persistent cough, which is worse at night. This illness is often very severe in small infants. Families can find more information about pertussis in this Fact Sheet compiled by Clark County Public Health and on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website. What We Are Doing at School We are taking these steps to help prevent the spread: - Extra cleaning and sanitizing throughout our school. - Encouraging students to cough into a tissue or into the crook of their elbow. (message continues off-screen)
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A photo of the installation screen for the latest Lubuntu Linux distribution on a 15 year old MacBook Pro
An aisle sign at Hong Phat grocery
An up-close photo of two garden snails... umm... doing stuff.
An up-close photo of a teensy tiny garden snail.
An up-close photograph of a garden snail on a patio.
A very warm cat peers into the camera.
A cat passed out on a big cushion.
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steaming mug of coffee on a picnic table in the forest.