It’s the last day of December, and this is my last opportunity to ramble about what I’ve been watching, reading, and listening to. You ready? I’m not. Let’s go. 📺 TV I watched … Read more

🍿 My year in film stats, via Letterboxd. Do I stand behind all my star ratings? No. Will I revise them? Absolutely not. Most interesting takeaway? Only a quarter of the 93 movies I watched were released in 2023.

I figured out how to post my year end book wrap up in micro.blog, evidence: this. Read more

Yes that’s right, 2022. Using micro.blog to track my reading is great. It has a nice feature to generate a year in review post like this one. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give me 2023, only 2022. I … Read more

Took a hike up in Garrison NY with friends.

I tested negative this morning 😎😷

What do you call a thirsty piece of fire fighting infrastructure?

A fire dehydrant

I’ll see you all in hell.

Today I learned that “moonbat” is a pejorative inside the US government for leftists.

Chocolate covered cucumber: gross or genius?

When I was a kid I came up with something called Paper Computer Games, which are role-playing, puzzle solving games drawn on paper that emulated point-and-click adventure games. They are meant to be … Read more

Stumbled upon a heartening/concerning story of a man who compulsively digs a tunnel. I wasn’t planning on spending a half hour digging into this but I found the whole thing oddly compelling.

Don’t Get Pantsed!, my comedic, yet surprisingly human, interactive fiction is back online. It’s short, you can play it in the browser, and I’m still proud of it. 🕹️

Tested positive for COVID this morning 😞

My symptoms are mild (so far). Isolating and resting. Stay safe everyone.

Started reading: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi 📚

Bought some year end reading material with some of Lullabot’s generous education budget.

Had a lovely Christmas and Christmas Eve with friends. So much good homemade food, so much laughter. I’m very grateful.

Finished reading: Old Man’s War by John Scalzi 📚

Toms of main is over their skis.

Big chores day. Thought you should know.

Folks wanted to create an AI generated book cover for a Harry Potter fan-fiction. ChatGPT doesn’t allow copyrighted prompts, so I had to get “creative”.

Generate an image for a fake novel cover called Larry Porter and the Unexpected Pregnancy by Syrum Hawke, in which Larry Porter, a wizard boy wearing glasses, becomes pregnant and falls in love with Dracon Malfiz, a handsome pop star.

There’s too much to unpack here, but at least in this version the pregnaany was exxepdected.

Another AI generated novel cover. The prompt:

Generate a fake image of a young adult fantasy novel from 2002 by Veronica Hammerschmidt called A Crow Wand in a Caldron

It looks like Bed Bath & Beyond went Wicca.

I just figured something out at work, and exclaimed, out loud, “Zonkers!” I continue to be an unforced verbal slide Shaggy.

What series of AI generated novel covers would be complete without a 70s pulp fantasy?

Generate a fake image of a fantasy novel from the 1970s called A Curse of Moonlight and Mayhem by E.E.E. Clarke

Pretty cool! Those distressed edges—very nice. The AI always gets the spelling just wrong.

Another in the AI generated novel cover series, this time, a romance. The prompt was:

Generate an image of a fake romance novel cover from the 1990s by Rose Croissant called A Duchess One Day

It captures the spirit of the assignment, but wow their eye lines are weird.

I started generating novel covers for imagined books through ChatGPT4 with my friend Ania. I think the results have been hilarious.

Here’s the prompt for the first one.

Generate an image for a fake mystery novel by Rake McMaster called The Pine Tree Assault

This is the start of a series.