Merry freakin’ Christmas
It’s the year-end wrap up, and it’s been a full year. I still don’t like Christmas, but that’s unlikely to change at this point, but it is interesting to review the closing of the calendar. The last 12 months have kind of blown past, as it’s been one thing after another. Next year looks to be as busy, with Princess B’s wedding coming up, and the likely hatching of the two dragon eggs I’ve acquired. “What are some particulars?” I hear you asking.
January - I completed a 26+ mile section of the Pacific Crest Trail between Hwy 80 (mile marker 1159) and Jackson Meadows Reservoir (mile marker 1185) over the course of four days. It was damn cold. If I didn’t have the team of dogs with me I honestly don’t think I would have made it. I chose this section as it has Castle Valley and Castle Pass at the beginning of the route.
February - If you’ve been following my blog you know I’ve been playing with image generation via AI. I was honored to be one of the contributing artists in the “New AI technology” article in OMNI magazine. I was embarrassed to be included, as the other images were so brilliant, but they seemed to like it. It’s a piece comparing and contrasting the developing AI generation as a window into the future, and revealing possibilities we haven’t even considered yet, as well as recognizing that creativing being constrained by society’s beliefs and expectations about artists and AI in general. (Image below)
March - I took a trip to Carlsbad Caverns, which is on the New Mexico/Texas border to do some touristy observation of cave myotis bats in their native environment as well as learn spelunking. The native species is typically found up to 1.5 miles inside the cave network (try moving that distance on your stomach!). This particular event was a once-every-50-year event where the bats are allowed to engage in atypical behavior of being hand-fed by the human visitors on their way out in late afternoon. I can’t begin to describe what the experience is like to have your body covered by clinging bats and them chomping the wriggling insects in your palm.
April - My last month of work. I officially retired. People told me it would be an adjustment, but I was so ready. I recommend it to anyone that can manage it. There is only so much gold to pile in a cave you never plan to enter and just want to hand the map to your children. Spend some of it.
May - Honestly, this month is a blur. I don’t think I touched the ground once. Retirement agreed with me. I was getting ready for June and July, and acclimatizing to NOT going to work five days a week. So so good. I started whistling again, which I hadn’t done consistently since fourth grade.
June - My travel trailer was looming, but my puppy was foremost in my mind. I was able to go and get the eight week old canine I had arranged for back in March. Cardiff has been an amazing addition to my life, even though I have to stop myself from selling her on NextDoor a couple times a day. Considering I chose her from a blurry video at three days old, she has the best temperament, is smart, and just a happy doggo. I’m so glad she shares my home. Just not in my bed or on the furniture - you have no idea how much she sheds.
July - Having carefully planned out the puppy and the travel trailer (that is to say I screwed up), it became evident that because of the risk of Parvo I couldn’t drive across the country with a puppy that was unable to be on the ground or interact with other dogs. My dad came to the rescue and drove out to retrieve my travel trailer. I’d leave him in my will if I weren’t so determinedly healthy. I began learning about sway bars and brake controllers in the real world and no longer theoretical.
For those of you that are unaware, Hasbro is the parent company of Wizards of the Coast (WotC). The latter has done multiple awful and surprising things contrary to good sense and the support of their customers this year. As a result, my friends and I began a Pathfinder 2E game and abandoned Dungeons and Dragons. This has been super fun to learn a new system and although we’ve had some adjustment, I feel it’s a superior system to D&D. I’m thankful for the group being amenable to the change, and willing to push through and get to the fun stuff.
August - Pee and poop are still filling spots two through nine at this point, but Cardiff is number one. The weather is turning colder, and the ice weasels are starting to be glimpsed on the hills at night. I’m getting used to dragging the trailer behind me, and there’s a trip to Morrow Bay which is fun for us to practice with the travel trailer.
September - The pace slowed a bit as we went to Reno and I took a solo trip to Petaluma for an archery event. Cardiff stayed with grandma for the duration of the Petaluma trip. Both are fun, but seeing the nail polish on Cardiff in Reno is better than the archery trip. The travel trailer is a lot of fun to drag around and stay in.
October - I got to meet up with Princess A and her boyfriend for a weekend air show; something I’d never previously done - it’s unbelievably loud at those things, by the way. I got so wrapped up in just enjoying day to day activities that I kind of neglected updating my blog around this time. Cardiff shows at this point that although she and I have spent almost every day since she turned eight weeks old together, she prefers Princess A to me, and declares her as her most favorite person in the whole world. I firmly believe it’s because A scoops her up and lets her lick her face. Yucko.
Interestingly, I return to working a couple days a week since I foolishly agreed to it back when I left the clinics. I give about 1.3 million flu and covid shots through November.
November - I see an improvement in my AI artwork generation with an updated release of software, and have the benefit of the new laptop I’ve acquired earlier in the year. The difference is startling between taking four or five minutes to produce an image on the Mac to under five seconds for the Windows laptop with a dedicated graphics card. I still use the Mac for everyday tasks, as well as photo editing, but the AI image generation as well as gaming are just so much smoother on the Windows laptop it’s an easy decision.
Princess B visits from the East coast, and we’re able to celebrate Thanksgiving together. It’s a great time, with family around every corner. Cardiff also prefers B to me.
This is also the time I recognize my deep introversion is not working in my favor (surprise!) and create a profile on a dating site. I’ve since chatted with several people online and even been on a couple dates in real life, but not found the right person yet. I’m trying to be more open to meeting someone organically, and speak up when I would not normally in everyday life.
December - Here we are in the last month of the year and I decided to check out houses after looking at the market for weeks. I went back and forth over two very different geographies, but ended up making a selfish decision to live where I really want to and not just where it might be most convenient. I saw eight homes in a day, put an offer in on a whim, got accepted, and now I have a new house. Boom. I hate the color, but luckily that’s something I can change. I can also toss the wolf on cactus carving in the front yard. The location and the rest of it seems too good to be true. Now I need to do all the painting and getting it ready for move-in, and then fix up my current house to sell. Not bad problems to have.
Note: If you’ve read along this far, you should be aware that dragon eggs ready to hatch, as well as the entire contents of January to March are fictitious. I didn’t do this for any nefarious reasons, but to fill in the months prior to establishing my blog that I just cannot recall the details. Feel free to replace with ‘worked five days a week, did archery on the weekends, had dinner with family and friends a couple times a week’ if it makes you feel better (or superior to me). I don’t regret the time, I just don’t remember any specific events worth remarking on in detail.
In closing, I’d like to say I really appreciate and value my friends and family. It’s been a rough transition to bachelorhood, and I recognize the ongoing support and love that has sustained me this far. I apologize if I haven’t made it clear how grateful I am for your patience and presence. I’ve been privileged with the type of Hallmark Afterschool Special people in my life that many never find.
Thank you all.
Thirty and flirty
It’s odd entering the dating world a few years from 60. People my age now come with upgrades, add-ons, and additional DLC that are not included in the initial release. When you’ve been married, had kids, and effectively retired you have a whole new checklist for the other person in the dating equation. Earlier in my life I may have hoped for someone with a good job, family I could get along with, and similar thoughts on money spending. Now, I hope they no longer have to work, enough of their family is still alive I can get a ride to the airport when I need, and they don’t owe money to “Frankie three-fingers” or “Wanda the Waxer”.
The pervasiveness of dating apps at least helps with doing some winnowing of the pool of matches. Some of the discovery phase of the trial has been made more efficient. Still pretty crazy-making for me though.
The canine unit has now hit 32 pounds, and is seven months old. She’s SO much less bitey than she used to be, and normally just a great dog. We spent a couple days camping and looking at properties, and she was such a good doggo spending time in the cab of the truck not only during the drive but when I was inside looking at houses.
We stayed at a natural hot spring - which is code for “stinky hippie camp” - and the Casita was great to have and be in. Below is a picture of sunset one of the nights. Pretty colors.
In addition, Cardiff spent time with my parents prior to the trip and made a splash on a Facebook group my mother frequents, eventually getting over 1200 ‘likes’ at the end of the day. I still haven’t gotten any phone calls from movie producers or anyone wanting to do her life story yet. Nope - just checked again - still nothing.
And for those of you who can’t get enough of my incessantly produced AI images, here are some more to ogle over. Again, spanning a large subject base and style.
Days on Market
All is well with Cardiff. She was spayed earlier in the week and just about ignored the fact she had surgery. It’s been work to keep her from being too active. Wouldn’t do to pull a suture or end up with an injury from pushing too hard. Tough explaining that to her though.
I’ve started looking at places to move, and there’s a helpful bit of information they include in many house listings: Days on Market. This gives an idea of how long it’s been up for sale. I’m sure there are ways to game the system, but when you see ‘10 months’ the first thing you think of is not “I need to see that right away!” Typically, there’s a bad foundation or neighbor with a shotgun in the equation, and the house is still for sale because it hasn’t been addressed.
Coincidentally, I also just created a profile on a dating site. I think a similar metric of “Days on Market” would be helpful there too.
Last week Cardiff and I took a trip over the hill to Cowell Beach in Santa Cruz. I was hoping to see some surfers, but the water was flat flat flat. No one was surfing. She did, however, enjoy playing in the water and trying to chase birds. BTW, if you decide to visit Cowell Beach, dogs aren’t allowed. Just sayin’.
I also continue to play with AI image generation, which gets more and more attention both technically as well as in the press. Personally, I don’t know the right answer to the whole “who owns the artwork” in the grand moral sense. I understand the software has been trained on a gazillion images from the internet - very notably without consent - and it’s possible to mimic the style of a particular artist. Is this substantively different than practicing drawing or painting based on another artist’s style?
I don’t believe artists should be withheld compensation, but I also know that many people draw “in the style of” for their own profit. I honestly don’t know the best answer to the whole issue.
That being said, I’ve made some weird stuff, in the same smattering across multiple genres and mediums. For those who don’t know, the overhead shot of a bunch of objects laid out is called a Knolling, or “Knolling style”, named for a janitor that always laid out his tools at right angles to each other so each could be seen at a glance. You’ll see examples of this (even for Batman), as well as Fremen from Dune, abstract stuff, cowboys, papercuts, and even a spaceship.
Mark with a K
Cardiff is getting bigger and bigger, almost at six months now. She’s scheduled to go under the knife later this month. We had a hot day, and Princess A and I got the White Trash pool setup in the backyard for Cardiff to play in. She tired herself out, as you can see in the still image.
I’ve been experimenting a lot more with Stable Diffusion, an image-generating AI. I’ll subject you to more of it even though you were too shy to ask. You can see a vast range of subjects and styles, as I’ve not settled on anything long-term. Kind of like careers for me.
Still splootin’
This week has been pretty active. The neighborhood walks have continued - typically twice a day - and we’ve met everyone in a 100 mile radius that isn’t inside while we’re out and about. Cardiff keeps meeting her best friend around every corner. Also, now that they’re both fully vaccinated, she was able to get a play date with my niece’s puppy that is two weeks older, and they had a blast. Add that to the ontgoing wrestling matches with my mom and dad’s dog, and it’s starting to look like ongoing doggo-friends.
I had kind of the opposite effect on my neighbors because I’m getting rid of my old lawnmower, and it must have no gas in it for the city to pick it up. I jury-rigged the safety to allow the thing to run until the gas was gone without me holding it, and had people looking out of windows and walking by frowning at my bad form for wasting fossil fuels. It wasn’t like I was just pouring gas in the street, but I did have the thing running in my driveway for over 10 minutes. I swear there was only a slight liquid sheen down at the bottom of the the tank when I started it, but that sucker just kept going.
This week I found myself in the backyard trying to deal with the very small nettles which constitute the joke of a lawn, and have resorted to vacuuming them up. Seriously. Vacuum. I borrowed my dad’s shop vac and am sucking up all the burrs that are constantly invading the house via Cardiff’s fur. It feels really silly. Kind of like rinsing stuff to be recycled, or as Jim Gaffigan calls it: “washing the garbage”.
I’ve looked at several different spots to travel to next. Still in the state, and not more than a few hours away. It’s a lot harder to determine the right place as I learn more about the process and the type of campground people and environment we’ll be enjoying. Does it look like a parking lot with no grass? Is the majority of the clientele looking to “git drunk and nekkid” on their boat or next to the lake? Is the place decorated in a theme like ‘western’ or ‘surfer’? Do they allow dogs?
ON a totally different topic, I was finally able to install some AI software for art generation on my computer, and boy is it fun. It runs so much faster than the last version I played with. I created images of everything from super villains to statues to D&D characters. Check out some samples if you’re interested.
Lastly, my mom supplied Cardiff with a kerchief to help her be my chick-magnet, but she wasn’t having any of it. You see her below exclaming “I can’t breathe!” and re-enacting the death scene from Over the Hedge. What’s a little air compared to my future happiness? She’s so selfish.
What has it been like so far?
This first week of retirement has been settling in. Maybe even pre-settling in. I’ve had vacations, and taken time off before, so this hasn’t been drastically different from that.
But, I’ve been indulging myself with several of my hobbies and activities:
Archery
Nevermind that one at the bottom, I was calibrating still…
Paracord
Why yes, I made it myself. I give them away pretty fast, so I get low and have to start making them periodically.
Feeding kitty
A friend is traveling, and I’m feeding and playing with the feline. We just met, but she’s very affectionate.
Creating Dughar with AI prompts
I also have been playing with AI art for months, and started back with it this week. I’ve created only crap, as it takes some time to get something worth sharing if you actually have a specific image in mind. The above is a picture of a creature I made for a Dungeons & Dragons game I play in. You can see the evolution from some creepy images to something I thought I could work with then refine.
Also, I helped a buddy with some home-improvement stuff, and eagerly anticipated my new puppy.
Feels good.