Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, cats, home, the menagerie, yay on July 27, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Our menagerie is about to expand. Not only have three adorable little bunny rabbits taken to frequenting the front yard, but we finally decided on a cat. We went with the slightly older, shy, fluffy and adorable option. We’ll pick him up this weekend so no pics yet, but here’s what he looked like as a kitten.
I asked DALL-E to make you an image of “a white cat with black spots and three rabbits in a garden, layered paper style” and got this.
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, cats, choices, decisions decisions, kittens, Thoughts on July 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
I believe I mentioned that we are just about ready for a new cat. (Honestly, can I even call myself a writer if I don’t have a cat?) The problem is, how to choose?
We’ve started the search at our local rescue, the one we turned to when we realized that the local strays were breeding up a storm and both they and their progeny needed to be trapped. Now we’re on the other side of that equation, which feels good. Still, there are so many options, each a door into a different version of the future. (It’s kind of fun when you think of it like that.)
Do we go for a kitten, engineered by evolution to be cute (nice) but without any idea what sort of personality they’ll develop as they get older (feels a bit risky)?
Do we go for a more sedate, cuddly cat with a couple of years under its collar, both to know what we’re getting and to skip the crazy kitten “It’s four a.m. and you have toes! I will eatz them!” phase?
Or somewhere in between?
Friday we met a pair of kittens relatively fresh from the trap and still a bit skittish. Yesterday we met the shy adult cuddler. Tonight we meet the in-betweeners.
This is why I don’t visit the animal section in pet stores; I want to help them all.
How to choose?
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, inspiration, Thoughts on July 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“. . . what I like doing best is Nothing.”
― A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
“How do you do Nothing?” asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.
“Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it, What are you going to do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing, and then you go and do it.”
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, cats, home, Thoughts on July 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »
After many months, we are finally ready to start searching our local rescue for a new cat. Or two!
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Posted in Other, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, supermoon, Thoughts, Writers on July 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Tonight, if you have a moment and remember that we are, after all, just passengers on a ship hurtling through space with only one true companion, look up. The Buck Moon will be waiting.
Supermoon / Super Moon – Why and When?
“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.”
― Paul Brandt
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Posted in Other, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, #craiyon, computer-aided fun, creativity, design, inspiration, Thoughts on July 11, 2022| Leave a Comment »
Welcome to Monday, brought to you by an AI’s idea of a “cat in the style of Vincent van Gogh.”
Not bad, actually.
Running through different versions using the same root prompt (“cat in the style of”) made the artistic differences (and any deficiencies) clear. A lot of the images produced by the DALL-E mini system are a bit odd, particularly when faces are involved. (The site even has a FAQ on “Why are faces so weird?”)
Even so, it was interesting to see what an AI considers the essential style of an artist or technique, and there were a number of attempts I found fun.
Rather than upload all images I made a slideshow. It’s lower-resolution (I shrunk it down to 16MB instead of 80MB+) but you should still get the picture.
(Did I leave out the truly disturbing results? Yes. I don’t know what this AI has against Vermeer but I want no part of it!)
Thanks, Craiyon!
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, home, technology, Thoughts on July 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »
(written 07/08/22)
Today I’m dealing with a new kind of challenge.
We have power, which I no longer take for granted. The microwave works, the computers work, the TV and stove and washing machine and lights all work, and for that I’m grateful.
Our components are all functioning. What isn’t working? The network that connects those components, and us, to the wider world.
We woke up, started the laundry and coffee and breakfast and booted up the work computers. Then? Nothing. No signal. I can work in my design program, for example, but I can’t deliver my project. I can’t check my email, log in at work or make calls (sorry Mom!).
Somebody at internet central did something and somehow it all went wrong. (The part of this equation that interests me the most is that apparently no one thought to ask, “What happens if this thing we’re about to do doesn’t work?”).
So today has been business as unusual. On the plus side? Another opportunity to appreciate all the technology, infrastructure, and other amenities that we typically take for granted.
And while I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to post this today (spoiler alert: nope), my target was to write every day. Goal achieved.
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Note from the future: it wasn’t just us, here, it was every Rogers customer, everywhere.
Rogers outage shows need for Plan B when wireless, internet services fail, analysts say | CBC News
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, change, inspiration, Thoughts on July 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
— the Dalai Lama
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, power, Thoughts, women, Writers on June 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »
The problem with writing a daily blog with a bright-side bent is that not all days are bright. Some days the news is not what you’d hope. And what to say about a society that, despite the wishes of the majority, is on its way to becoming a Margaret Atwood reality show?
But, as I remind myself, there is always tomorrow.
“I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1792 (died 1797 of childbed fever)
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Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2022, inspiration, news, Thoughts on June 24, 2022| Leave a Comment »
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.
― Maya Angelou
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