#175 - A.I. Slop and Bagels

It was good to sleep in again today.

That’s how Sundays should be in my opinion. We ordered some bagel barn around noon and by the time it arrived, just after one, we were ready for some food. A couple of warm teas and the meal was complete. Robyn had her usual order of a B.E.L.T.

A bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato on a poppy seed bagel.

I tried something I hadn’t ordered before, the Club on a rosemary bagel. We both devoured the sandwiches, and I really enjoyed mine. They have great bagels, and I haven’t had a bad experience with them yet. Always delicious.

Sometimes I ask Robyn where she wants to order from and this morning when she said Bagel Barn, I was silently relieved. It was the restaurant I was hoping she would pick.

We watched a few more episodes of, “The Madison” and ended up finishing the first season. It was, like most series, only six episodes long. It had plenty of wonderful moments along the way. 

After a lazy morning, we went for a walk in the drizzling rain. The temperature was good for walking and the rain let off about half though our circuit. I really needed the exercise. My body feels so sluggish when I don’t get my walks in. Being a digital artist by day and an aspiring writer at night leads to a more sedentary life. Getting those steps in really makes a difference to how I feel and my energy levels day to day.

Another way I am going to increase my energy is by starting an AG1 streak. I don’t track it and I always forget to drink the stuff even though it always makes my stomach happier and gives me a non-caffeinated boost in the morning. I have about seven months' worth of the stuff sitting in sealed bags in the cupboard.

In fact, I have gone downstairs to mix myself up a batch. I usually don’t drink it in the evening because I want to make sure i can fall asleep, but the streak demands it!

This is day one of the AG1 Streak.

I’ve found a teaspoon or two of maple syrup makes it taste very good, particularly on the days when I am consciously avoiding it. So, I’ve added AG1 to my daily tracker along with chess, the 2026 Word Challenge, and these daily blog posts.

I should add reading for half an hour to that list as well to make sure I am constantly learning from the masters of writing. I never thought I would have to add reading to a tracker. It used to be something I did every day no matter what. Old age and old eyes are part of the problem. Having a job that requires me to stare intensely at a screen all day doesn’t help either.

I heard today that they are planning to bring back “Stargate,” the tv show. The artists and VFX heads have been chosen. No word yet on any casting choices. Stargate ran for over ten years and was at one point the longest-running sci-fi show. Not sure if it still holds that title. I rented the movie version hundreds of times in college, and I watched the series and even the two or three spin-offs.

With the advances in VFX, a new series could end up looking really good. I just hope they don’t make it as humourouse as the original Stargate series. Sci-fi was always treated with a lack of seriousness back in the nineties and two-thousands. Since then, shows like Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse have shown you can treat these genres as serious dramas, and the audience will love it.

I think they will make the smart decision of not changing the look of the actual Stargate, maybe just the way the effects work. To change the prop would be unwise, and the fans wouldn’t enjoy it. It’s a pretty cool design anyway.

Last night’s reading of, “Mythago Wood,” was interesting. It reads a bit like Sherlock Holmes or even Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” It has an older feel that lends to the time period of the story, just around the start and end of World War II. The main character often uses the word “Quite!” in a sentence. And there are plenty of English phrases that suit the era. The first-person narration lends itself to making it feel of the time as well.

But the author is doing a good job at stringing the mystery of it all along, done in the manner of a 19th-century yarn.

I may be late to the party, but it seems the mysterious artist known as Banksy has been unmasked as Robin Gunningham of Bristol, England. Apparently, the value of his work is going down now that he is no longer anonymous. We live in strange and wonderful times.

But sadly, a little less mysterious than it was yesterday.

My chicken wire enclosure around our Mount Tacoma tulips appears to still be intact and there are no signs of digging or pulling at the fence.

The Mount Tacoma tulips are prized for their fluffy white and snowy, peony-like blooms. We bought about fifty bulbs from Breck’s Bulbs a few years ago. Little buggers kept coming by and chomping off the flowerheads. Every morning the decapitated blooms lay on our lawn. I suspect skunks and rabbits, but I could never figure out why they bite them in the first place and don’t bother to eat them.

I’ve declared war this year and will be deploying some peppermint oil and cayenne pepper to dissuade the critters.

But today there were even more buds popping up through the soil. It’s still early in the season, but seeing them germinating at least lets me know they survived the winter in their new home.

There is this fellow on YouTube who does really nice bookbinding; his channel name is Four Keys. Recently, he did Andy Weir’s three books, and they turned out really cool. I love to watch craftspeople doing their thing and all the unique steps and problem-solving that they do.

He’s recreated books from movies, used old techniques, and torn modern books apart and rebound them. Once he even restored an old text he picked up on a trip to a Scottish bookstore.

I look forward to his new videos. He can’t post too often as the work he does takes time to do. On some projects, he even hydro dips the edges of the books or makes his own decorative end papers using the same technique. The end product is always amazing if you like books, that is!

Tomorrow night we're heading over to our friend’s house for dinner. They have offered to make us quesadillas since our oven and stove are still not hooked up. It was a very kind gesture for them to have us over.

It does mean less time for writing tomorrow, as I finish work at five thirty and it’s a fifteen-minute drive to their house. We are meant to arrive at six and that gives me fifteen minutes to myself to get ready. And of course, I have to get up early on Tuesday to drag my arse in the studio.

Time sure does fly.

On the Brightside, I think this is a short week as the studio is closed on Friday for the Easter weekend. And scratch that. I have my weeks all wrong.

I heard from my mother today that she can’t attend the musical we had reserved. It’s the “Book of Mormon” at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. I am sure we can find another taker. Should be plenty of people who want to see a musical. One of the kiddo’s friends is in a music program and would probably enjoy it.

I’ve been thinking about other ways to get some writing done in a day.

One thing I keep coming back to, is to use my typewriter collection to get one hundred to two hundred and fifty words a day in. I would leave the paper in the typewriter and as I walk past it, maybe I write for five minutes or maybe as long as twenty.

If I could have an ongoing story sitting on the page, it might be fun to add to it little by little. I set up my Olivetti Lettra 22 on my desk and rolled a fresh sheet.

Tomorrow, I’ll take breaks from sitting at my desk and see if I can peck out a few words. Anything that gets me out of my desk for a break is great for my back.

I’ve been seeing more and more posts on LinkedIn from people in the animation industry who have had to move on and find other careers. Some of the career changes are giant pivots. People have joined the army, trained to become firefighters, got their real-estate licence or even become mail sorters at UPS. Every day there are more announcements. 

The amount of experience that is being lost in the Canadian animation industry is staggering. The senior staff always taught the juniors. It was just a fact of life at a studio. You learn from others every day. Now, many of those leaders are working in a completely different field. The effects of this brain drain are yet to be felt.

If things do pick up by the end of this year, which is completely possible, the current senior staff will be run ragged with junior teams that need more training than one person can reasonably do in a day. We can only hope that many of the people who have migrated away still want to return to the industry when and if it gets back on its feet.

Update on the new portable lap desk:

In short, I love it. I basically use it all the time now in place of all the other ones I have. Because of its small, compact size, it basically is always in the same bag as my laptop. I use it on the go and in bed or when sitting on the couch. Its small size will make it perfect for the car as well, and when we are on vacation or at the cottage.

It fits perfectly when I sit in the Lazy Boy recliner as well.

The slide-out mouse tray has really been useful as well. I was resistant about how useful it would be when I saw the photos, but I really like it for the train. At home I either use it or keep my mouse beside me. It also adds the extra width that stops the lap desk from sliding between my legs like the laptop does by itself.

It gets Brian’s seal of approval.

A.I. was in the news again. This time is centered around Hachette Publishing pulling Mia Ballard’s “Shy Girl” over alleged A.I. use. This is the first book to be canceled over A.I. content or generation by a major publisher.

Ballard has refuted the publisher’s claims and said it was an acquaintance that she hired to edit the book that used A.I.

I can imagine who used A.I. will become important when the lawyers get involved, but the fact that A.I. was used seems not to be in question. And if it was, the publisher would not be able to defend the copyright of the book. Hachette sent out a statement saying, “Hachette remains committed to protecting original creative expression and storytelling.”

Ballard commented in an email to the New York Times, the newspaper that broke the story, that her life has been turned upside down and her mental health has suffered all for something she didn’t do.

There is a real minefield out there waiting for those who use A.I. tools to create, forgetting that the models were trained on stolen work, a violation of their copyrights, and is nearly impossible to copyright. Why would a publisher like Hachett tale the chance on a book they can’t legally defend. The A.I. book has no real world value to a publisher or a streaming platform or a movie studio.

But enough doom and gloom.

I’m off to read a book that was written before A.I. models were even a thing.

Night all.