photo saturday: artificial paladin

So... I have a complicated relationship with AI generated art. I understand why artists find it problematic, and I agree with them. For further reading on the subject (based on a quick Google search)...

• AI Art and the Ethical Concerns of Artists 
• AI-Generated Art Controversy: The Future of Creativity or a Replacement for Human Talent?
• The Ethical Pros and Cons of AI Art Generation
• Why some artists see AI-generated art as a threat to their livelihood
• ‘It’s the opposite of art’: why illustrators are furious about AI

It very often makes nightmare images where people don't have the correct amount of fingers or have extra hands in places hands shouldn't be, or very much likes to, you know, blend things in weird ways or otherwise make you go... "no... none of that... kill it with fire".

It is also capable of making beautiful images. But it's hard to make a very specific, very detailed, very exact image right now. The generic idea of something, yes. A very specific, "I want exactly these elements, arranged in exactly this way" detailed in a "just so" way, then you go see an actual artist and commission something.

But, of course, I was going to try my favourite loveable lying little shit... my halfling paladin/rogue, Peregrin. Is it perfect? No, of course not. The armour is completely all over the place, the hair is entirely too blonde, it refused to give me an eyebrow piercing, the eyes are the wrong colour and I think the face should kind of be about half-way between these two options.

It's what happens when you ask for "art nouveau" on the left and "photo realistic" on the right... and when you use "jewel tones" as a descriptor. Also, there's a healthy portion of Magic The Gathering art in the DNA of the left image.

Do I like them? Absolutely.

Anyway...

A short run down for this week.

Speaking of halflings, Halfling Tomato Soup continues to be the best tomato soup recipe ever.

As of Tuesday, we can reset the "Yani Fall Down Go Boom" counter at 0. It's been a hot minute, but there we are.

I tripped over one of the many, many uneven paving stones on my morning walk and went down like the proverbial bag of potatoes. Mostly I was fine, although I skinned my knee quite spectacularly based on sliding across the rough pavers. So yay for that. Weirdly I didn't end up with the giant bruises I thought I would on the heel of my hands, so that's a plus. And I didn't break my fancy new headphones when they came flying off my head either.

 I then spent a large chunk of Tuesday's public holiday making a lot of very small jars of apple and plum (plus tomato, obviously) relish. It came out pretty good honestly. The issue now is distribution.

Otherwise, no Thursday Night DnD because of headaches and coughs and such.

Likewise, no Friday Night Not DnD because of head colds.

Pfft.

Anyway.

Today was basically just the supermarket. With the added bonus that I discovered that if you lose your ticket for the parking garage, it costs $25 to get your car out. Where did the ticket go? I hear you ask... If I knew that, I would not have needed to pay $25 to get a lost ticket ticket.

However, if I just happen to find it randomly in the next week I will be very unhappy.

And that's about it really.

Current mood:

photo saturday: complementary colours

Did we see Sofles lovely purple and yellow art already? Yes. Is it lovely enough that we can revisit it for some close up detail shots? Also yes.

Anyway...

I got a little philosophical about soup in my Insta post for this week's take on Halfling Everything Soup...

• Step 1. Make soup according to recipe
• Step 2. Modify recipe slightly to fit your tastes 
• Step 3. Make soup based on your vague memory of the recipe

Which is more or less what I did this week. I bought the ingredients as specified, more or less, but then didn't look at the recipe once. Because, honestly, it's "Everything Soup", so I can put whatever I want in it... and the recipe was always slightly tedious.

And, I stand by that for soup in general.

Otherwise, not much of note this week...

I rage-quit the book I was reading, so had to go to the library on Thursday. I'm currently two books away from reading more books in a year than I've read since I started tracking them on Goodreads. And it's only April. Libraries, man, they're the best.

There was no Thursday Night DnD. And no Friday Night Not DnD. But we're doing Friday Night Not DnD tonight, because of... reasons. I think Mr and Mrs had a thing, I don't honestly remember. It did make the whole week slightly weird tho. No anything on Thursday or Friday. But Friday was also Chiro Day. And I didn't make bread on Thursday but on Friday night instead. And today is Saturday but also Friday Night Not DnD Day.

Yeah. It's all very weird.

Anyway.

Today wasn't much of anything... or at least, not yet anyway.

Basically, just the supermarket and then that's your lot... at least until I need to do things before going out later. So there's that.

Current mood:

photo saturday: brewery art

Some big old brewery vats as this week's photos with various artist's work.

Anyway...

It's been a while since I made pea and ham soup... but the one I made this week was really quite good. I don't know whether it was the mint I added or the ricotta I used in place of cream... or the fact that I bought new mushroom based stock. Yeah, it sounded weird to me too... but it definitely added to the flavour.

In other news, Ma is vastly improved over last week... or as vastly improved as you get while still using a walking stick... but honestly, she probably should have been using a stick for a while, so if there's any positive that came out of last week, it's that she went from "I don't like sticks" to "Gimme that blue stick" without much of a fuss.

So that's a plus.

In other pointless news...

Thursday night DnD was good... although, let me just say, DnD adventure writers, stop putting "chase/races" in your adventures, when you hamstring the classes that can move faster than everyone else. That is not a "chase/race"... and it's irritating. Or better yet, don't call it a "chase/race". Because it's not. And it works both ways, when you do let people go the speed they're supposed to, the "chase" finishes after about a round. 

So, just stop doing it. It's dumb and it doesn't work within the rules.

I did get a fancy magic thing though, so that's nice.

Friday night Not DnD was also good... less challenging than the session a couple of weeks ago, but still enjoyable.

Anyway...

Today was basically the supermarket followed by a trip to Haighs for post-Easter broken egg... so nothing exciting, but I do now have Haighs in my fridge, so, yay.

Current mood:

photo saturday: port roker

We all love a good Pawn Roker...

There are still a few Wonderwalls images, but these were just general Port Adelaide images that I really liked, and that seemed to match, at least a little. It was also kind of amazing how quickly they packed all the stuff away when the pawn broker closed for the day. I didn't think that we were gone all that long, but suddenly the footpath was completely clear.

Back to actual street art next week.

Anyway...

Some minestrone soup this week... pretty good actually... lots of bacon, some Chinese cabbage that just kind of bulked it out a bit but didn't really affect the taste or the texture... and some bonus stock powder that really boosted the taste.

In other news...

It's been a rough week. I'm not going into details, I just want to mark this as a line in the sand. For future reasons. Ma wasn't well this week... and that just stresses me the fuck out because of reasons. I mean, she's feeling better, but still, it stresses me out.

Otherwise, not a lot of anything this week... no Thursday DnD, no Friday DnD... 

There has been some Horizon Forbidden West though.

Anyway...

Today was... see earlier comment about stress. But overall, perfectly fine. Just, you know, residual stress. We did the supermarket... we ran some errands... it wasn't much of anything.

So, yeah. That was this week.

Current mood:

photo saturday: cerulean humps

This week was... many things.

Oh, also, rounded things in tones of blue and purple from the Wonderwalls photos for this week.

And Soup Season began this week... I made a decent chicken chow-DAH.

This week was my rental inspection. So I basically cleaned across three days. Not for the whole day, because that way lies insanity and also broken Yani. So, first there was The Tidying, where I put things away, got rid of the things that needed to be gotten rid of, etc. Then there was The Kitchening... which generally involves pulling all the stuff off the kitchen counters, putting it elsewhere, cleaning said counters, then cleaning the stove, forgetting to clean the filter for the rangehood (m'eh, it's not like the appear to check) and then on Wednesday that was The Wettening. Which is basically cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming and then mopping the floors.

Did I do more than was absolutely necessary? Probably. Is cleaning for an inspection my opportunity to do a big clean I wouldn't otherwise give a shit about doing? Yes.

Do I always like the way the house looks after I've done cleaning for an inspection? Also yes.

I kinda preferred every single other land agent who tend to do their inspections somewhere between 9am and 1pm, rather than this land agent who seems to prefer the 2-4pm time slot.

But Thursday rolled around and after installing Horizon Forbidden West on the PS4, I shuffled down the road to the bakery and then went to the library to pick up the giant stack of books that had just happened to all come in at the same time, and read the non-library book I was already reading. The last couple of times the agent did the inspection just after the 2pm start time, and I realised that I could have just come home early... so I kept checking my email for the inspection report email. And, you guessed it, it didn't show up until about 3:30. So much for that plan. But the tiny postage stamp library is nice enough to hang out in.

Thursday Night DnD was decent. And we finally made it to the start of the hardcover adventure. I will say that it did kind of feel a little bit like "enforced fun", just because there were a bunch of "busywork things" on offer for the group, given that we've arrived in time for a festival with associated games and contests and whatnot.

Friday I rewarded myself for all the cleaning by starting Horizon Forbidden West. It's good... I mean I only played until I got to the first place you could save the game after the title finally game up. So, like three hours. And I'm enjoying being back in the world, although all the models for the characters from the first game just seem a tiny bit off... I know they changed Aloy up a bit, but everybody just kinda looks like their own celebrity impersonator. It's not enough to throw me out of the game, more of just a "huh, okay then".

Friday Night Not DnD was also good. The interesting thing is how the Hero Quest can take the exact same board and make each level feel somehow unique. This particular level had us going through magic teleportation doors and bouncing all over the map. Which was fun, if sometimes occasionally frustrating, especially given that getting to certain points meant rolling specific numbers.

But my character also lucked into finding the MacGuffin for the whole adventure in the first room she went into, and also just happened to have the magical vial of Plot Development necessary to do things with it.

Today was... different. Mostly because Ma didn't come down to go shopping with me because of reasons, so I was on my own. Which I don't hate, because I can just put on my headphones, crank my jams (by which I mean the 99% Invisible podcast) and just potter around.

Which basically gives me the rest of the day to myself. So maybe I might need to go fight some robot critters...

Current mood: