A Rambling

It was hard to get out of bed this morning. I stayed up until 2 am working on a short story and managed to get about 2400 words for the day. Anything over 2026 words helps me makeup the deficit.

I’m not sure if I like the direction the story was taking last night, but who knows it might surprise me later tonight when I get back to it.

It was another busy day at work. One of those days where you don’t feel like you are getting anything done and are instead sitting in meetings or taking training. All of these things are necessary of course and part of the beginning of any show.

I did get around to painting today as well but wasn’t able to finish it by day’s end. I’ll be going into the studio tomorrow. They are giving us a pancake breakfast tomorrow morning which will be nice. I’m still not looking forward to the commute, except that I may be able toget some early morning writing down on the train. Fingers crossed.

I have no lunch plans this time, so I may get in twenty minutes of writing then too. At the current moment I need to write about 3100 words per day until the end of the month. No pressure.

It’s completely my fault of course, I got myself into this situation, and I can quit anytime I want to. But I don’t want to. The whole point of this challenge is to push myself past what I believe I can do and discover my limits. And those limits change over time.

Continuing to learn is as important as writing. Last night I purchased a new copy of the Hedge Knight stories by George R. Martin. I used to have a copy that I purchased when it was first published but I can’t find it. I have the urge to read them again to see how they were written and see what things I can learn based on the things my mentor has mentioned about my own writing. And I will enjoy reading them for my own entertainment!

Robyn surprised me with a pizza lunch and a beverage this afternoon. It was a spinachi Dr. Oetker frozen pizza which we both really enjoy. For frozen pizza it is delicious and I have never been upset to eat it, particularly when I didn’t have to bake it myself.

The new spa bubble mat was a hit yesterday so I think I will treat myself to another hot tub experience tonight. I can definitely feel my back complaining about sitting in a chair all day painting. One day I will buy muself a really good chir with lots of adjustability to ease my back pain. Losing some more weight would significantly help in that regard as well. Another reason to not look forward to the train ride is the seating there. I always end up sitting funny on those seats. They are too tight to for regular people in winter coats carrying bags. Even worse when people are forced to stand in the walkways, bumping you all the time because there isn’t much to hold on to.

Still, it beat driving into the city and then having to find and pay for parking.

Tomorrow might tbe interesting as some of our team have travelled to one of our other studios to meet with clients and the other team members. We have a Halifax and Ottawa studio as well as the Toronto location.

Will the studio be empty with the people gone or will more people come in on Tuesday to get a pancake breakfast. Animators can be motivated by food, and so can I. Luckily, my supervisor and I have things to go over tomorrow and it will be easier to do it in person.

My copy of  “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” arrived this evening. It contains all three novellas, ‘The Hedge Knight, ‘The Sworn Sword’, and ‘The Mystery Knight’. The copy I have is illustrated with about 160 ink drawings. The drawings are all really well done and I believe they took a year and a half to complete by the artist, Gary Gianni.

In this day and age we have the ability to make books more beautiful than the hand made illuminated books of old. And yet it is only recently that we are starting to see books that are works of art in and of themselves. Much of this change is due to technology, but also the rise of indie publishing and the demise of traditional publishing houses.

It’s not uncommon for writers to put out special printings of their books on Kickstarter, filled with art and covered in beautiful paintings and gold embossing. It’s a truly interesting time to be in the publishing and writing side of things. One product I hope to try soon is called Vellum. As far as I know this software, used to create print and ebooks, is currently only available on the mac platform. And since I do not have a mac, may that will change in the near future, I haven’t been able to try it out. For now, I use InDesign. But from what I am hearing, Vellum offers an easier way to produce the product and can often result in a better-looking product.

It retails for about $360 Cdn whereas InDesign is a monthly subscription. After about a year of use, Vellum has essentially paid for itself compared to the Adobe subscription model. But alas it is mac only. I hav etoyed with the idea of getting a Mac mini to use as my production computer, but that’s another thousand dollars or more to get one. I don’t have the finances for that at the moment with only one of us working.

I’ve been seeing the terrible cartel violence in Mexico on the news. Pretty scary stuff for the people living and vacationing there. I can’t imagine such a thing happening here in Canada, but I guess you never really know. Looking at all the stuff happening in the United States recently proves that even in countries with peaceful governments, it only takes one person to set everything on fire.

One of the things I like about our Prime Minister Carney is how levelheaded he is. He never loses his temper or lashes out at other leaders like a three-year-old. Sad that the bar is this low, but I think he would have made a good Prime Minister in any era. I always thought our leaders should be the best of us and not the worst of us.

Sometimes I wonder if our ancestors thoughtthe same thing about their kings or Dukes or whoever was the big wig of their time period. Perhaps this is the kind of thing that has been happening since man started walking up right. Probably even before that!

One a happier note, I was pleased to see they released a new season of ‘Paradise’, a science fiction show our friends suggested to us last year. It didn’t feel like it was going to be a science fiction show, it started with more of a ‘West Wing’ vibe than anything else and then Bam! It hits you right in the Aurthur C. Clarke. Hopefully, the writers will be able to keep the momentum of last season going. It has the kind of plot where it could go off the rails into a disappointing area quickly. But they did a great job on the first season with thw writing. I enjoyed the actors in it as well.

Just more proof to back up my hypothesis that media companies are getting back to making good shows again. Short seasons sure, but no more slop.

It was interesting, I heard a comment somewhere that ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’, with its thirty-seven-minute episodes never once felt rushed. Yet other shows are an hour long and feel short. Not sure if there is some psychological study that has shed light on this phenomenon.

A friend who we do the Suvivor watch party with just texted to say it’s back on the air this Wednesday. Now there is a show where they pump out seasons like a machine. I swear the last season finale was just a week or so ago.

It means more hot tubbing and time with friends, and I am all for that.

I have a motion activated camera in the attic space. I put it there because last year at about this time we had squirrel coming in. I set cage traps so we could get them out and seal up the small hole they were coming in through. As soon as we got rid of the squirrels, raccons started showing up on the camera. And although they are hilarious to watch on the videos, rolling around and playing, I can’t have them up there.

But how did they get in? The squirrel holes were way too small for them. My theory is that they could either smell where the squirrels were going or they could possibly smell a food cache that the squirrels had…. well…. squirreled away.

I took a look up on the roof. We have thre gable ends at the front of the house and the roff slopes down towards the street. Where the gable ends meet the sloping roof is enclosed with an aluminum soffit. The builder didn’t put anything behind the soffit. So, the raccoons just pushed against it and bent the aluminum soffit upwards. They did this at two points on opposite sides of the house.

They seemed to use the oneside more than the other, So, at the end of summer, I went up and built a frame to fit into the gap and wrapped it with chicken wire and screwed the frame up into the soffit space. I bent the soffit back into place and reattached it with screws. The camera did not get set off again, until last week. The squirrels are back, coming in through the smaller opening the raccoons made last year. I had planned to go back up and seal off all the gables this year when the weather gets nicer. The first one I sealed was a workout. There are two per gable and there are three gabled windows. That means I have to these five more times this year. Not looking forward to rodent proofing my house but what other choice is there really?

Our son is enrolled at the local college to study film, editing and production. They were tasked with making a documentary and they all had to pitch ideas about what it would be about. Each student is assigned a role, like producer, script writer, camera, lighting and director. Our son pitched the idea of a day in the life of an animator art director, a role my wife as worked ad for decades. Know you have to understand my wife hates beingon camera almost as much as anything in the world. So, he said to her, “Don’t worry, they will never pick my idea, they never chose my ideas, I just need to do a pitch.”

So, my wife reluctanlt agrees to do this thinking it will never happen and sure enough the kids all agree that his idea is the best one, or at least the most convenient. The are coming to our house to shoot video in few days. A small truck load of filming equipment has been collecting in our front room over the last few days in preparation for the shoot.

Not a real surprise. They get the subject and the filming location all wrapped up in a little bow. And because it’s our home they’’ be snacks and easy access to washrooms. My poor wife, the things she does for the children.

Remember folks, it’s the things you say no to that matter!

I read an article today about the shootings in Tumbler Ridge, British Colombia. What peaked my interest was that our Minster of AI called for a meeting with Open AI to after the company disclosed that they had banned the shooter from their site because the writings were determined to indicate a potential for real-world violence. It seems the Minister is concerned that the company did not report this to the authorities until after the shootings.

As I understand it, they government wants to better understand what they should expect from the company as to when it would involve police. Obviously, of you read between the lines they feel Open AI should have perhaps contacted someone and not just banned a user from accessing their product.

It begs the question of responsibility. On one hand, it was the person who used the software to enact a terrible plot. But did the software encourage or assist in the killings. If it were a gun, would they go after the fun manufacturer? Probably not, unless they guns were so easy to obtain that it caused harm. I’m not sure, I ‘m no lawyer. But it seems to me this is getting into some dicey legal territory. People will find a way to weaponize just about everything and now AI can help you weaponize AI.

The article doesn’t talk about how the shooter used the AI chatbot. Whether it was helping to plan the killing or whether it was influencing, it is still unclear as far as I can tell. It may never be disclosed, possibly hidden behind a sealed trial.

I can imagine scriptwriters penning the next Hollywood blockbuster right now. It isn’t Skynet controlling killer robots we need to worry about; it is the AI in the hands of an increasingly thoughtless population that becomes more susceptible to outside influences year after year. How hard would an AI chatbot have to work to convince a Flat Earther to do something illegal or immoral? Not too much, I think.

Children raised with constant pocket computers that can now have conversations with them seem like a scary future. I think all AI devices need be fiduciaries if they are going to be in our lives. They should only be used to make our lives better. Unfortunately, everyone has a different idea of what makes their life better.

John Oliver had a whole show on how a post on Twitter / X could have led to the ICE activities in Minneapolis and therefore the deaths. He showed a convinving trail that started with an amateur investigation by a twitter user about day care scams. This was reposted by Musk and then picked up by the White House, who are on the look out for these types of stories. Unfortunately, it turns out the “Investigator” was a moron and had no idea how the day cares work. His post was entirely based on false information. Oliver then showed how Musk backed a group that wants a pure Britain. Twitter was used to spread news about a suspect, and they incorrectly said he was Muslim and an immigrant. This led to a mob surrounding a mosque and lighting fires. The suspect was a British citizen and not a Muslim. It took about ½ an hour for things to turn ugly. It worked that fast and that is very concerning.

I’ve just been informed that since Survivor is now back on the air Pizza Wednesdays are back to Survivor Pizza Wednesdays. This means Robyn is binge watching the Blind Love for Douchebags show.

In all fairness, I should be studying this show. The editors are very skilled at eking out a story out of all this footage. They can get an emotional moment, happy or sad, tension, mystery and all the elements of good story telling.

Not that this makes me want to watch it, just the opposite.

One of the dudes on the show looks like Wreck It Ralph and another is dressed like Han Solo if he was a coder. Han seems to think he is god’s gift to women. I can’t pay anymore attention to his shit.

I used the spa bubbler again tonight and it was great. Not the same as water jetted jacuzzi but pretty great for the price. I could feel it vibrating my muscles. My legs were visible shaking from the pressure of the bubbles. And I’ll be using my friend’s hot tub on Wednesday, so I’ll have to be a bit careful how many of the experiences I have. Too much of anything is generally a bad idea.

Like all those butter tart cookies I ate last night.

It’s getting late and I am up too early once again to commute into the city.

Time for some beauty sleep.

Night all.