“I’d say AI is not good enough yet for most use cases, but it will get better over time. In the long run there will be less work for creatives actually producing their own renderings (linework, painting, photoshoots) and more the art direction angle of knowing what prompts to give the AI to get what you want, plus correction of obvious rendering errors.”
Agreed, its not good enough -yet- as you say…
I’ve witnessed the internet evolve since its birth and saw it spawn several revolutions. AI Art is going to be another one that’s a paradigm shift.1
The art coming out is astounding and I’m amazed at how folks are pushing boundaries by applying it to videos, comic books, creating worlds, wall-art, etc. And paving new entrepreneurial avenues with prompt markets, visual search engines and more.
What’s stunning is it’s ordinary people creating all these things. People who haven’t lifted a paintbrush or even know how to draw.
Finally we have a wild and crazy tool that leverages our imaginations. It’s as if we were given a magic wand to make our dreams come to literal life. That’s the breathtaking part of it all.
I do worry how this affects artists. I’m hoping it has little impact on traditional artists since they have their unique voices, creative styles (imaginations!) and their own clients/market.
It’s the more mainstream ones that might struggle, i.e. those who cater to stock art/photo, clip-art, fashion, merchandizing, etc. general type services. Could these artists can evolve and leverage AI to expand their portfolios further?
There’s always going to be a need for “Visualizers” (Imagineers?) — folks who have an ability to take a client’s vision and transliterate it to reality. Their expertise will be valuable because most people won’t have the ability or time to figure ways to generate the AI art they’re looking for.
I can see these Art Whisperers forging a new / supplementary career sector in art that will become commonplace.
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This is only the early dawn we’re seeing… Art will be the bridge where AI spills into reality and begins to manifest physically… then biologically.
Should we be scared? I’m not sure yet. I do know the speed of how all this evolves is going to make our heads spin even faster.
Especially now that it’s being open sourced (i.e. Stable Diffusion) and therefore more accessible to the masses.↩︎
In the States, they’re also designated as a threatened species, one step away from endangered status.
Despite that, a few years ago the State of Florida allowed developers to pay a “permit” fee to pave over gopher turtle’s homes, suffocating them. The eventual outrage stopped it, fortunately.
Those buggers can live close up to a hundred years. Amazing.
I’ve deliberately muted these videos so you can experience it as I do as a deaf person in the wild. I know some of you will miss hearing the surrounding audio but think of total silence as different auditory experience.
I heard back from the guy working on my camper that he was unable to lift the trailer (raise the camper for higher ground clearance) because the axle is welded to the frame and he doesn’t have the right equipment to cut through it.
Also found out he hadn’t ordered parts for other things so they have yet to arrive. He could have ordered well ahead of time and could have found the axle issues much earlier had he checked when I brought the camper in, sigh.
I want to feel pissed or annoyed at him for these unnecessary delays and such but I can’t. The energy simply isn’t there.
Not because I’m tired (well, I am weary of the slow pace of work) but because he’s just wired that way and I knew it going in. He’s a procrastinator that means well but doesn’t plan or check things ahead and he doesn’t seem to know how to multitask/juggle things around when something doesn’t work.
There’s not a whole lot one can do to change these kind of behaviors but to roll with it and get out when you can. I’ve found getting angry or upset in these situations is wasted energy and usually makes things worse.
He’s a really nice dude and does a good job when he gets it done and his fees are very fair (which goes a long way to saving money in today’s hot RV/camper market). And he’s saved further hassle down the road by finding I need new trailer brakes when he got under the camper.
I asked him to finish up the rest of the work by the end of next week so we’ll be outta each other’s hairs by then.
Many times when I “roll with it” I end up “rolling” into something better.
After he told me he couldn’t do the lift, I reached out to a master welder artist friend of mine (who did the awning earlier) to see if he could work with trailer frames and it turns out he can!
AND he’ll also be able to rig a hidden compartment for my compost toilet so I don’t have to keep it under my bed anymore. Currently I have to lift the bed and pull the toilet out to use it so it’ll be much nicer to just slide it in and out for easy access.
So even though I lose a week or two in delays I’ll end up ahead by having someone I very much trust to properly lift and weld the axle underneath and gaining a hiding place for the toilet that’s eluded me all this time.
WANDER 📺 SHORTS: The Point on Ramah Reservior @ New Mexico
Whew, I remember this as a tough one to capture on the phone camera because it was very windy that day and the normally serene waters were rowdy, rocking me around.
Still, I think I managed to capture the beauty of the area, especially the tall natural spire seen at the end called The Point (Google Earth view).
Here’s a photo I snapped of it under better light conditions to show the deep colors within.
I’ve deliberately muted these videos so you can experience it as I do as a deaf person in the wild. I know some of you will miss hearing the surrounding audio but think of total silence as different auditory experience.
“Because if you’re failing to write every day means you’re a fraud, then be a fraud. Be very a fraud. All that matters is what ends up on the page and the screen, whatever it takes, however long it takes, whether it’s a daily effort or not.”
Love William’s advice to just write whenever you can and not worry about doing it every day as long as you get to the finish line your way. Writing daily can be a good practice but it’s not for everyone.
Rode my bike for the first time in a good while — I haven’t felt strong enough to do it until now. It was easier than I expected and fun to glide down the path, feeling the breeze whiz by.
When it was time to turn around and head back, I realized I’d been going downhill most of the way.
Oh sheet my mind thought as I laughed. No wonder it was easy!
Ayup, it was a struggle crawling back up but I made it.
Boy, what was supposed to be a leisurely bike cruise ended up kicking my arse but it was so worth it because my body really needed it. It’s a different and seemingly more intense kind of cardio than jogging.
My mind also needed it for the confidence boost knowing I can work my way towards biking again regularly.
Now to find less slopey bike paths to ease my way back in so I don’t feel like puking at the end, LOL.
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The guy working on my camper asked me to swing by and check on things.
Turns out he ordered the wrong parts for lifting the camper so we’re waiting on getting that done. Other than that everything else looks to be coming along well.
When they’re done working on it, they’re going to polish the fiberglass to make it shine brightly again, yay.
I can’t wait to get her back and start prepping her to hit the road again. I’ve been very much feeling trapped all this time being land-locked so it’ll be good for my soul to finally be free again to wander.
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I’ve been writing everything, including these blog posts, by hand on a notepad the past few months.
But because I was already on the laptop at the moment I figured I’d go ahead and type in the thoughts you’re reading now.
I wrote one line and stuttered to a stop. My mind locked up and couldn’t go any further…
So I switched over to my trusty fountain pen & notepad and words started flowing freely again as if the ink in my mind undried itself.
It’s unusual not to be able to write on the laptop but I love it because it means I’m successfully reprogramming my mind to let words flow on paper after decades of writing digitally.
When I started writing on paper again it was hard so it’s interesting to see this on the flip (digital) side.
My mission of re-wiring myself from digital back to analog seems to be working out so far.
Came across this alien-monolith-like thing on a hike from my campsite at Palo Duro Canyon State Park:
Plenty more of these to see as you wander around, including a dried up waterfall looking structure I clambered down.
There’s several campgrounds here — I camped out at the Mesquite and can recommend it. Easy access to tons of trails. It gets hot out here so be safe with plenty of water and proper shading.
I’ve deliberately muted these videos so you can experience it as I do as a deaf person in the wild. I know some of you will miss hearing the surrounding audio but think of total silence as different auditory experience.
Checked the queue over at Blogroll.org and I see there’s over 500 blogs to wade through. Daunting? Nope - I love it. The small web most certainly isn’t dead. It’s there in the margins and corners of those big silos. Keep looking and keep blogging!
