It seems half the people I know on social media have replaced their profile pics with awkward AI avatars (and by social media, I mean Facebook... because yes, I'm still on Facebook, because I'm now officially over 40 and like to see what my friends and their kids are up to, and I don't actually live that close to many of them, and besides, I'm part of that weird micro-generation that hates picking up the phone but also loves doom-scrolling). There's Starrytars, Lensa, Portrait AI, AI art, DaVinci... the list goes on and on. The basis is simple--upload 10-20 photos of yourself and get back an "original" piece of art featuring...you! Lots of people are jumping in on it, and I'm sure, like every other profile pic trend that's happened in the last ten years, we'll find out soon enough some nefarious data mining having to do with the uploading of 10-20 photos of our faces and facial recognition hacking. The seedy underbelly of how AI algorithms pi
I've been contemplating blogging again for the last few months--going back to a place where I can write my thoughts and let them be, so I don't stew. It's been a good long while since I blogged about my thoughts, and a lot has changed regarding platforms in that time. The first platform I think I used was Tumblr, which is a great platform, but a platform I mostly used to reblog, share, and sort through some very, very emo emotions I was going through at the time. It's fun* to look back on, but not a space I think I want to live in again. I also took a peek back at WordPress, where I have started and ghosted on eight, yes, let me repeat that... eight blogs. Two were about eating delicious food. Two were about adoption and the early days of parenting. One was about fundraising. Two were about art and/or poetry. One was about folklore, magic, and witchcraft. They have all fallen by the wayside. And I love WordPress--it's robust and customizable and also can take a lo