Rubik's Cube Over Toronto

Based on Jeff's comment yesterday, I thought prompting for a Rubik's cube might give me a Borg cube, but alas. 
 

A Borg Cube Hovers Over the Largest City on Mars

Lt. Commander Perinda Sandberg

Here's another finished Starfleet officer, Lieutenant Commander Perinda Sandberg. 
 

The Last Photo of Dad

Dad died four years ago today. This is the last photo in which he appears, at least that I'm aware of; one of my cousins or aunts or uncles on Mom's side must have taken it, sent it to Mom, who then must have sent it to me. Or maybe my cousin David (seen here between Mom and Dad) sent it. 

The saddest thing about photos of loved ones is that one such photo will be the last, and you likely won't even know it for a while. This photo was shot near Salt Lake, Manitoba, on August 11, 2018. While this was happening, Sylvia and I were with her parents at a dinner theatre show in West Edmonton Mall. A little over a month later, Sylvia and I left the car in Leduc with Mom and Dad just before we flew to New York. Dad's colour was off that day, but at the time we didn't understand the significance of it. 

Just before we returned, Dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was gone a few weeks later. At the time, I honestly thought he was going to be okay; I think maybe my brain wasn't allowing any other possibility.  Even when the doctors had to call off the operation that had a chance to save him, I thought they would just try again another day. They didn't; they couldn't. 

So Dad moved on, and all of us miss him. He was a good man. I wish he was still here; for our sake, sure, but more because Dad was still enjoying life and I feel like he had more he wanted to do. 

That's all. 
 

Lieutenant Teth Mohammed

Here's Lieutenant Teth Mohammed exploring the surface of a strange new world. I like his bald head and the intensity of his expression. He seems really invested in his pursuits. 
 

Golden Age Red Arrow

I repainted and rebased an old Golden Age Green Arrow HeroClix figure into a generic archer. The lines are cleaner than they look at this sky. 
 

It's in the Trees, It's Coming

I prompted Stable Diffusion to offer its interpretation of a Halloween celebration. Here is the first, and so far the best, result. 

Prompt: Artificial intelligence celebrates Halloween, beautiful oil painting by Norman Rockwell and Grant Wood, highly detailed, intricate, elegant, centered, artstation, pixiv, smooth, sharp focus, chiaroscuro, vivid color, spooky, frightening, horror, the Terminator, killer robots, scary, darkness, 8 K
 

More Troubles, More Trumples

He's after the quadrotriticale! 
 

The Trouble with Trumples

I prompted Stable Diffusion to create a painting of Donald Trump being swarmed by Tribbles, but instead it created a swarm of Donald Trumples. 

Farewell Twitter

After just over 14 years on the platform, I deactivated my Twitter account tonight. I haven't been using it much since I left provincial politics, but I'll miss it in a way; I won a Canada Writes contest on the platform, and Chase Masterson favourited one of my tweets, and Martin Landau's daughter Juliet followed me out of the blue. 

I once had a lot of hope for social media, but pernicious forces have turned what could have been a promising venue for better communication and understanding into a cesspool of hate speech and an arm for corporate and government surveillance. 

I feel more relaxed already. Facebook will be harder to get rid of, since I engage with more people there, but it, too, must go. One day I'll pull the plug. 

Beautiful Boucher Birthday

A wondrous and joyful birthday for my wee cuddle bunny wife, Sylvia! 
 

Gilligan's Island of Earth-2

I prompted Stable Diffusion to create the castaway huts on Gilligan's Island, and it came up with this. I find it rather relaxing, and there's even a boat should the castaways decide they want to return to civilization. The question being . . . why? 

Some other views:

Droid Passion

I finally managed to get Stable Diffusion to produce an image with characters interacting in some fashion. The prompt that did it? "C3PO and R2D2 share a kiss." Success? 
 

Jedi/Superman Cover?

As my (still very limited) understanding of Stable Diffusion prompt logic grows, I've been trying to coax the software into visualizing scenes from Jedi/Superman. While the result above obviously isn't from the story, it does serve as a pretty decent visual metaphor for the content. It needs refining, of course, but in some sense the AI is starting to "get it." Or it's giving the illusion of "getting it." 
 

NCR Ranger

Here's the first Fallout: Wasteland Warfare figure I've painted from their New  Vegas range, a New California Republic ranger - or, possibly the Courier in NCR ranger gear. For the first time, I used a headset with magnifying lenses and an LED flashlight to paint the tiniest details of the mini, and I'm quite happy with the results. Normally there's no way I would have been able to get all the paint in the right places on a small, detailed model like this, but I think I made a fair go of it this time. 

Another Day, Another Ghoul

I tried to get a little fancy with this feral ghoul by giving him a shirt with a bit of variation beyond just a single colour. Works well enough, and I think I finally landed on the right skin tone for these guys. 

From Heck It Came

I tried to get Stable Diffusion to render a person being chased by a man-eating toilet, as in the unproduced Toilet Chase screenplay. I hope the AI isn't trying to tell me something. 
 

Pledge of a Grievance

What can I say?
It looked good
Appealing colours
Attractive bottle
Snappy branding
So I popped the cap and took a swig
After all, lemon is my favourite flavour
And I'm not in charge of the housecleaning
I didn't know what it was for
This foul-tasting stuff called Lemon Pledge

A Hairy Hominid

Looks like this guy's fur hasn't changed colour for the winter yet. 
 

Ptery Rodan

Here's my latest completed painting project, a pterodactyl in flight from Pulp Figures. I dub thee...Ptery Rodan. 

Superman Smashes Beetle

 

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's . . . Superbeetle! 

Acooonn Comics #1

I tried to get Stable Diffusion to replicate the cover of Action Comics #1. This isn't the closest I came, but it's the best result. 
 

Trapper Canoe

I actually painted this little set from Pulp Figures quite a while ago, but misplaced the canoe. 

The one thing I don't like about this set is the way the trapper is posed to hold a paddle; if you put the paddle in place, it blocks a decent view of his face. 

Agatha Christie Plays Wordle on her Steampunk Computer