We wish you Merry
in whatever you choose
to celebrate today.
We wish you Merry
however you choose
to celebrate today.
We wish you Merry
wherever you choose
to celebrate today.
We wish you Merry.
All of you.
Art
Jennifer Tuttle is the kind of friend who never gives up being a friend no matter how challenging that might become. We’ve met a lot of people over the years, but Jenn’s the only one who regularly hits me up to go “hunting for snakes.” To an extent, “hunting for snakes” is code for “let’s go wandering around in the woods and see what we can find.” But at the same time, we really are looking for snakes. Jenn loves snakes. She has multiple, the largest of which, Sir Reginald, is big enough that he could kill and eat someone if he were of the mind. There are a number of snakes that she would love to find in the wild. So, we keep looking in the places where snakes are most likely to be found: outdoors.
For this trip, we headed South to Brown County State Park. The park is primarily known for its fall foliage, so in a sense this is “off-season” for them. We did see some high schools playing Wiffle Ball as part of a summer program that I’m sure was designed to pad their college applications. There were enough people out hiking and such that had I taken a tumble Jenn would have been able to get help without leaving me abandoned on the trail. The park was far from the crowded population one finds down there in October, though.
Temperatures have been fairly mild recently, so we didn’t have any issues with excessive heat. At 82 degrees Fahrenheit, the partly cloudy day seemed pleasing to any number of dragonflies and butterflies. The biggest challenge there was getting a clear shot without a lot of tall grass being in the way. There were a few other critters to be found as well, but it wasn’t until near the end that we finally saw a young water snake. You’ll meet him on down the page.
The only disappointment is that we’ve yet to see any bears. Jenn thinks we need to seed the state parks with Kodiak bears. I think that would make park trips much more adventurous. I’m not sure how the bears would respond to our warmer days, though, since their fur tends to run pretty thick. We did see one lone deer as we were leaving, but she bolted too quickly for us to get a shot.
So, here are the images we have from yesterday’s adventure. There are some notes along the way, so pay attention.
Has it really been two years since I processed a new photo taken with a real camera? Yes, it has quite sadly been that long, and a lot has changed in the processing of those images. Still, despite the extra time, it was still quite delightful to have something in front of me that I hadn’t already processed two or three times before. This is the type of fun that could easily get addictive, you know. I might start trying to take this up as a profession… oh, wait, already did that, didn’t we?
I have to give a HUGE thanks to Jennifer Tuttle for inviting me along on the trip with her daughter Ali. I also have to thank her husband, Carl, for allowing me to use his Nikon D5600 and 200-500mm zoom lens. Not having shot a Nikon in over 20 years, it took a minute to figure out the controls, but everything seemed to work fairly well and there weren’t too many shots lost because of my fumbling. The biggest issue I had was that my hands shake so much more now, especially with the heavier glass. There were some potentially delightful pictures of a spider trapped in the sand but they were simply too blurred from all the shake.
I have saved a couple of shots back for use at some other time, but for the most part the pictures below are representative of almost everything we saw during the day. It was a thrilling adventure that beats the hell out of lying in bed all day because the damn weather won’t cooperate. I hope you enjoy the photos (and that this slider works on whatever device you’re using).
These images were shot in June, 2010. The room was small and warm. It didn’t take much help for the flour to stick to her skin. In person, it looked as though a bakery had exploded in the room. I worked with some bakery-oriented backgrounds but didn’t like they way they fit the frame. Granite (the kind polished down for kitchen counters), mountains, and a lake worked better. Fourteen years is a long time. Looking back at these is fun.
Fun fact: that’s taco seasoning on her skin.
It didn’t come off for almost a week.
Years have passed since the world needed a top-notch spy who could also sink a three-pointer from half-court paint. But now, as a new danger has been discovered, she’s back and she’s determined to stop those who excuse Nazi ovens, deny people the right to their own land, and threaten the sanity of the planet. Dressed in a plain brown trench coat, she walks casually into buildings around the world, searching out clues for the mastermind behind the whole plot. She’s never caught as she undresses in a hidden room and leaves without anyone noticing. When she’s sure she’s found the source of the trouble, she radios in an air strike. The only problem is, can she get out before the bombs fall?
There is no sermon to preach here, merely an observation to make. Both sets of pictures are the same source. The first set, with my signature under them, is as I chose to process them in 2010 with the tools I had available at the time. The second set is how I chose to re-process them yesterday, 14 years later, with the tools I have available today. There is no judgment as to which set is better. They are simply different.
What are we going to do about this AI problem, you and I? Are we going to throw it all in the trash because it uses copyrighted images to learn? I have trouble doing that because, if we’re honest, we’ve all used copyrighted material to learn. In fact, when it comes to photography, it’s pretty much impossible to not use copyrighted material to learn. We look at others’ work, form our opinions, and then either try to duplicate what we like or avoid what we don’t. AI is doing the same thing.
Okay, using AI to try and convince people that something happened when it didn’t is wrong; it’s the same as lying only with pictures. We shouldn’t do that and we should call out people who do.
HOWEVER, creating images that either cannot happen or are extremely unlikely to have happened is something that sounds like fun, especially when we’re using animals. One thing I never did much was work with animals. The animals I wanted were always big and scary and there never was a male lion around when I needed one. AI takes away that danger. Of course, its accuracy on the lion isn’t always that great, either, but sometimes that’s part of the fun. I created a lion with two tails earlier this morning. I didn’t use it, but it was fun.
So, here is a short film containing 16 images that I reprocessed this morning with AI additions to them. And animals. I wanted to be sure and include animals because, especially with the alien in the mix, I didn’t want anyone thinking that I’d stolen an image from the DoD archives or anything. None of this is real except for the people. At least, I think they’re real. I’ve not seen any of them in a while, you know.
Once upon a time, we created videos for almost all the pictures we took. That was great until we lost our video host. Then, the image carousel we were using stopped working. So, there are a bunch of images from 2021 that are no longer available where they’re supposed to be. Fortunately, it’s rare that anyone actually goes looking for those older image sets.
Going back through these images, though, I decided I wanted to process them differently than I did three years ago. That meant creating a new video that we’ve called “Everyone Knows.” The title comes from the words of the 1967 song by The Association, “Windy.” Specifically, “Everyone knows it’s Windy,” which is appropriate because the model’s name is Wendy. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use The Association’s music for the video.
Yeah, I know it takes a hot minute for the video to load. Nothing I can do about that. I had to FTP it to the server to make it available at all. These things just happen. I hope you enjoy it.
How to keep your work from being stolen
Creatives are giving Adobe Systems a hard time over the most recent changes to their Terms of Service. Most specifically, the broad language of the contract infers that the billion-dollar company could steal and sublicense your images any time they wish. Tech magazine CNET addresses the issue here, and Adobe attempts to clarify here. I’m not sure either explanation is going to be adequate for hardcore and professional users, though, especially anyone working under an NDA. So, starting with the image above, I have some tips to help prevent Adobe, or almost anyone else for that matter, from stealing your work.
Don’t be overly amazing in what you do
See that image up there? It’s a nice image, I think. It’s pleasant to look at and what few flaws it has are easily overlooked by the average person. There’s nothing exceptionally remarkable about it, though, and in this case, that’s good. Adobe is only going to reference the super-creative work being done by people that no one already knows. They don’t want ordinary portraits or standard, run-of-the-mill landscapes. They want images that stand out. So, as long as your image isn’t that one-in-a-million, they’ll probably leave it alone.
Don’t overdo the EXIF data
One of the ways Adobe chooses the photos it wants is by scanning for keywords and specific EXIF data. If you don’t fill it out, which in most cases has to be done manually, then there’s nothing to scan and they’ll skip right over your files. It really is that easy. Of course, if you have millions of files that you need to index, you may have issues, but do you really want to do that, Gary? Really?
Don’t save to the Adobe cloud
Adobe really pushes creatives to save to the cloud and for good reason: it’s easier for them to snoop in on what you’re doing and take what they want. Saving to the cloud is a bad idea for numerous reasons, such as difficulty in linking to them in social media apps. However, if you save everything on local hard drives (I have multiple), then you have easy access to them at any time except when you’re out at a coffee shop and someone wants to see what you’ve been working on. This is a matter of priorities. If you don’t like people snooping at your pics, then by all means, save locally.
Create images so bizarre that no one is quite sure what it is
Adobe is looking for a high level of creativity, but not so much creativity that no one can clearly define what they’re looking at. Use lots of unnatural colors, wavy lines, and a lack of definition between the subject and its background. All those are elements that Adobe isn’t going to use because the people they’re marketing to aren’t exactly the brightest folks in the art class. Make it messy and abstract and your image is almost certainly going to be safe from pilfering.
Slap a horrendous watermark on everything you create
No one likes watermarks and Adobe is like everyone else. They would much rather they be limited to the bottom right-hand corner where they’re easy to remove. In fact, you can create an action in Photoshop to do just that. Slap your mark all the way across the image from top to bottom, though, and that puppy is yours forever no matter how super creative it is. Adobe will take one look and keep right on going. Sure, other people may complain about how it distorts the image, but they’re damn sure not going to steal it.
Include boobs or other potentially offensive items
Personally, I don’t find breasts offensive, but there are plenty of people, whole countries in fact, who do. Adobe is a global company that can’t afford to directly offend anyone but its own users. So, if there are boobs, misused religious symbols, anything that might depict hate or racism, anything that makes a major political statement, anything that comes remotely close to resembling someone famous, or anything that calls out Adobe directly is safe from being pilfered. It doesn’t matter if what you’ve created is artistic. Adobe’s AI is not yet advanced enough to make the moral decision whether boobs are art or porn; Firefly really can’t tell the difference. So, it errs on the side of safety and says “nope” to anything that looks like a nipple. This makes me happy because if you’re a regular viewer, you know how much I enjoy including boobs in my images.
There are literally billions of images created in Adobe products on a daily basis. Making sure they don’t see yours is actually rather easy. The odds are forever in your favor. Of all the things there are to worry about, this really isn’t one of them. Just chill and keep on creating the way you enjoy.
Whether you like someone or not is irrelevant. Everyone on the planet deserves a safe place to exist, a sufficient amount of food to eat, healthcare without prequalifications, personal dignity (respecting how they identify), and love.
You don’t get to deny them these rights. They don’t get to deny you, either. That’s the way it has to be.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, THAT’S JUST TOUGH. SIT THERE AND BE BITTER BUT STAY THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY.
FOREVER.
I forgot these were there, and there are still more, but 22 is enough for one post.
One of the first things in my feed this morning was an article from CNN titled, “Baring it all: Breasts take center stage at this major exhibition” The focus is an exhibition in Florence, Italy’s Palazzo Franchetti. Why they didn’t invite me to participate, I don’t know. I definitely have enough content to fill a room or two without including any one pair more than once. I’d be offended by the exclusion if I had the energy. That’s okay, though. I’ll settle for entertaining you with re-processed images from 2013’s Rite of Spring series. And hey, there’s no admission fee this way.
Thoughts this afternoon have turned to Hawai’i and how much I’d rather spend this afternoon there than here. If I’m going to have to choose an apartment in which to spend the rest of my life, I’d rather it be there than here. If I’m going to be someplace where people slowly forget about me, I’d rather it be there than here. I know a lot there has changed since the fires, and it’s certainly a lot more expensive to exist there than it is here, but I could get by. I don’t need carpeting because it makes me unstable. I don’t need a pool because I no longer swim. I don’t need excessively large spaces; these pictures were shot in a 10’x12′ room.
I only need beautiful neighbors, food, and coffee. Hawai’i has all that. And just think what I could do on the islands.
My phone keeps waking me from my naps as news updates keep coming in at the end of the week. To be honest, not everything I’m being sent strikes me as news. And some of the news I’m getting has me rolling my eyes at the levels of stupidity being displayed.
For example, take the self-immolation of a man outside the courtroom where the former president is being tried for a hush-money scheme. The initial reaction was that it had to be a response to the trial. Nope, the poor man is critically ill and consumed with conspiracy theories he’d gotten off the Internet because, ya’ know, it’s all a conspiracy. The man is currently in stable but critical condition. Is there any real hope for his mind, though? Probably not.
Israel apparently sent ONE missile to Iran. Just one. And now, on the backside, neither Israel nor the US are admitting that anything was sent in Iran’s direction and Iran isn’t admitting that they were attacked. The rest of the world is waiting to see who flinches next. Crude prices have stabilized for the moment, but no one is thinking that the conflict between the two countries is over. If this seems like a strange way to run a war, you are correct.
Democrats saved the funding bill for the Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan after three Republicans on the committee attempted to sabotage the bill by voting against it. Normally, a bill with the Speaker’s blessing would move forward on a party-line vote, but Reps. Massie (KY), Norman (SC), and Roy (TX) voted against advancing the bill. This signals that the pro-Putin minority in the house, traitors everyone, is likely to find that Democrats don’t give them the victory of unseating a second Speaker, either. More Republicans are voicing their concern that the pro-Putin clan is possibly violating the law, which may not go well in an election year like this one.
Oh, and there’s a new issue of the Wonder Woman comic, #8, where the villain uses a “Rope of Lies,” the opposite of her Lasso of Truth, to trick the superhero’s mind into thinking that she’s a beleaguered housewife under the rule of a cruel husband who keeps throwing malicious Bible verses at her to keep her under control. At the end, her mother helps her escape and she yells to her captor: “Your Christian god means nothing to me!” Of course, there’s a lot of right-wing clap back and one DC artist has refused to work on the issue. That doesn’t surprise anyone as it’s been their response to any challenge for the past 20 years. They don’t have any facts on their side and everyone knows it.
So, after having my nap interrupted so many times, I’m going to go take another one, short as it may be.
I’ve been hearing sirens annoying close since 4:00 AM this morning. There are a lot of problems. I think the best solution is to stay home and stay naked.
Tipper rarely brings home homework from school. There’s seldom anything for her to bring home at all. Yesterday was the exception. She came home, emptied the pockets of her hoodie, and placed the folded pieces of paper on the kitchen counter. Both were already completed on the ride home. That’s not a big surprise for a young woman who often finds school boring.
I picked up one of the papers and looked over it. She’s dyslexic so her handwriting isn’t the neatest and can take a moment to translate. After I’d looked over it a couple of times, I asked her if she would mind if I shared it. She asked why. I told her that it’s because what she said was something that every artist needs to hear, no matter how old they are.
So, with her permission, here’s what she wrote:
Something I am passionate about is art. One way I want to change it is that you don’t need to be a professional to draw or craft because lots of artists give up because they can’t draw right or craft it correctly. I can change it [art] by telling young artists that it doesn’t need to be perfect. Just practice and don’t compare your art to others. It can drop confidence.
-Tipper (age 14)
Go ahead. Screenshot it. Share it. Take the message to heart. And don’t give up.
A Message For Artists From A 14-Year-Old
Tipper rarely brings home homework from school. There’s seldom anything for her to bring home at all. Yesterday was the exception. She came home, emptied the pockets of her hoodie, and placed the folded pieces of paper on the kitchen counter. Both were already completed on the ride home. That’s not a big surprise for a young woman who often finds school boring.
I picked up one of the papers and looked over it. She’s dyslexic so her handwriting isn’t the neatest and can take a moment to translate. After I’d looked over it a couple of times, I asked her if she would mind if I shared it. She asked why. I told her that it’s because what she said was something that every artist needs to hear, no matter how old they are.
So, with her permission, here’s what she wrote:
Something I am passionate about is art. One way I want to change it is that you don’t need to be a professional to draw or craft because lots of artists give up because they can’t draw right or craft it correctly. I can change it [art] by telling young artists that it doesn’t need to be perfect. Just practice and don’t compare your art to others. It can drop confidence.
-Tipper (age 14)
Go ahead. Screenshot it. Share it. Take the message to heart. And don’t give up.
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Tuesday Morning Update: 12/31/24
Chemo pill day 766
Looking back through my Facebook memories, I have to go all the way back to 2011 to find a year where I felt that the coming year might be better than the last one. I have no hope at all for 2025. My checking account is negative. The social security check likely won’t hit until Thursday or Friday. There are gifts that still have not arrived and may have to be completely replaced. Kat is taking some necessary time by herself at a cabin in Brown County and won’t be back until Thursday. The Recovery Room is a mess and will take most of the day to clean. Laundry is piled high. The coffee maker decided to just dump water all over the counter this morning.
My body refuses to cooperate. We’re now two months into a non-stop headache and I still can’t see a neurologist for another 30 days. I can barely stand long enough to take the dogs out. I’ve already given the kids notice that they’ll need to fend for themselves for meals. Fortunately, the fridge and freezer are stocked. There’s a pending problem with my left eye that I can’t yet explain. My mind is unable to focus; it takes almost three hours to create these updates each day. I have books I want to read but after a couple of paragraphs, I have to put them down.
Meanwhile, the US Treasury says Chinese hackers stole documents in a ‘major incident’. Desktops within the Treasury itself were compromised. We cannot assume that any digital information is safe anywhere. One might as well assume that someone, somewhere, has access to everything from your grocery list to your dreams.
The FBI is warning sports leagues about crime organizations targeting professional athletes. Homes are being burglarized during games. Both NFL and NBA players have been affected so far. If you are in the habit of buying things from pawn shops, swap meets, or flea markets, I would suggest that you stop. Chances are too high that you’re receiving stolen merchandise.
The Taliban says they will close all national and foreign nongovernmental groups employing Afghan women, but the global attack on women’s rights doesn’t end there. In Gaza’s crowded tent camps, women wrestle with a life stripped of privacy. There are plenty of people who want to strip American women of their rights as well. You elected most of them to Congress.
Nearly all of Puerto Rico is without power on New Year’s Eve. Problems maintaining heat and power exist all over the globe. Moldovans fear looming energy shortage as Russia halts gas supplies. The move could put several European countries in danger, sparking a global economic crisis.
Xi says no one can stop China’s ‘reunification’ with Taiwan but that’s not likely to happen without war and that, too, would create an economic crisis for which neither the US nor anyone else is ready. The chances of such a war being limited to Taiwan are almost nil as Japan stays positioned to defend the South China Sea. Should Japan become involved in a war with China, the US is obligated by treaty to become involved as well.
Norovirus cases are surging in parts of the US, CDC data shows. We’re not well. I’m not sure we want to be well. If predictions from the New York Times are any indications, our diets this next year are not likely to help the matter any. We already know that the incoming president is incapable of adequately handling any kind of large-scale disease outbreak, so we’d best take care of ourselves as much as possible.
The world population will be 8.09 billion on New Year’s Day. Remember, we surpassed the limit of the planet’s sustainability at the six billion mark. Whether Republicans like it or not, we need to stop having so many babies. There’s no longer a need for you to replace yourself. AI will take up the slack in employment and, increasingly, more children will be born into a life of poverty.
New Year’s Eve is often referred to as ‘amateur night’ because of the number of people at parties who only drink one or two times a year and are unable to hold their alcohol. The problem may not be as bad this year, though, as few people say they’re going out for the night. Why should anyone go out? There’s nothing really to celebrate. Sure, we’re leaving behind a really rough year but 2025 is only going to be better for the 1%. The rest of us are going to suffer and things that are bad now will only get worse.
Is there any good news as we shed the chains of one year for the heavier chains of the next? About the only thing I could find is news that Wallace & Gromet are making a comeback. Other than that, we’re pretty much screwed.
Happy Fucking New Year.
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