October Is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As a breast cancer survivor who discovered her cancer during a self-check, I believe in self-examinations. You know your own body better than anyone else. So don't be afraid to check your own breasts, and report anything unusual to your doctor. Early detection is the key to surviving almost any type of cancer. So I try to post this video every year.

And guys, don't think you're immune. Breast cancer can occur in men, too. It did in my family. Plus, Mike & Molly's 100th episode titled "Mike Check" deals sensitively with the concept when Mike's doctor finds something unusual in his chest.

Story Drop - A Place at the Table

If you didn't get a copy of Halloween Harvest, an indivdual copy of "A Place at the Table" dropped today! Heck, I even managed a pink jack o' lantern for the cover. (Read the story and you'll understand why!)

A PLACE AT THE TABLE

Amara follows her family’s Earth traditions because they keep her and the other colonists alive during Darkfall on Onizuka. But when a group of foolish scholars from Earth refuse to heed the colonists’ warnings, can Amara save them and herself from the beasts that prowl in the Dark?

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Life and Aging

I had a nice time down at my cousin's in West Virginia. Both of us are introverts, meaning we need time to recharge our batteries after socializing. But this time, we spent most of the week talking and going through some bags of mementos her father had given her.

We found pictures her father had taken of the family when he came home for my parents' wedding. We discussed timing of certain events, like Grandma Howell's passing, because Suzan's memories are clearer since she's a decade older than me. We spoke of how different our lives turned out than what we expected and/or planned for when we were younger.

She's in the process of clearing out her house to sell it and move into a smaller place. So, I shopped for something small and personal as an early birthday present. I took down a pair of earrings. I couldn't find any topaz ones at the store I was at, so I selected a lovely pair of citrine and silver ones. She wore them most of the time I was there.

I got to meet the newest addition to her household. Max is a stray she found on her property, and he's nothing like the scrawny kitten in the picture she sent me a couple of years ago. He's now what my family would call "pleasingly plump". In other words, he's definitely enjoying the life of a domestic Red Tabby.

The whole trip was another reminder of how short of lives we live on this planet, and how we need to relish the people we love. It doesn't take much to give a hug or say, "I love you." So please do it while you still can.

My Favorite Movie Songs

I saw the series before I had a chance to rent the movie and watch it.

Final Halloween Decorating Commences

I got a few seasonal things up before I left for West Virginia. The front door wreath, the skeleton light string in my art room.

Now I need to finish. Dress my posable skeleton (he's going redneck this year). Set up my inflatables. Set out my light-up pumpkins. I hope to have the house organized by next year, so I can retrieve the boxes of decorations still in the storage unit and display those next year.

What do y'all do for the Spooky Season?

Blogging Is Fading Away. Or Is It?

Not mine. Don't worry. I like to blog because it works out thoughts that can interrupt the flow I need for writing fiction.

But I've noticed that a majority of people I used to follow have stopped blogging. The list is down to Lilith Saintcrow and Dean Wesley Smith. And Saintcrow talked about quitting last week.

I think most of the fading away is due to writers being forced by their agents and publishers to interact with their readers. Some writers loved it. Some didn't. The majority of us are introverts, so interacting with anyone isn't a comfortable proposition,

But even the folks who enjoyed such encounters with readers have turned to other social media platforms. Some of them are helpful with communicating with other humans. Other platforms are cesspits of hostility.

Oddly though, I've seen a slight uptick in people visiting my blogs. I'm not including the bots that are obviously scraping my blogs for content. (Really, dudes, if you're using stuff I wrote fifteen years, it's woefully outdated.)

Few people comment anymore, which is fine. I don't like people kissing my ass. But if someone enjoys reading my thoughts about writing and life, then more power to them.

Ultimately, I consider myself an entertainer, and I like to entertain myself most of all.

Crazy Monday

Today is going to be a little bit crazy. I need to drop off GK's Charger at the body shop for repairs. I couldn't avoid a large piece of metal on the interstate when I drove the vehicle back from San Antonio. Luckily, it was cosmetic damage, and both the Grandpuppy and I were uninjured. Then, I accidentally backed the Charger into the neighbor's heavy brick mailbox stand.

*sigh*

After that, I'm heading to Hot Yoga for the only class I can attend this week.

Then it's home for a quick shower and food before DH and I head to doctor's appointments. We were scheduled for our regular quarterly appointments back in July, which we had to cancel and reschedule when we came down with the latest variation of COVID.

Then it's home again to wash clothes and pack. I'm headed down to West Virginia on Tuesday to spend a few days with my cousin Suzan. Yes, there are two of us, but she pronounces her name "Suzanne". I lived with her nearly forty years ago when I worked in D.C. She's pretty awesome, but unfortunately, age is catching up with both of us. I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to travel, and I'm making plans to visit as many loved ones as I can over the next couple of years.

So, I'll try to get Wednesday and Friday's post written ahead of time, but if I don't make it, you'll know why.

My Favorite Movie Songs

Let's start with a classic from my college years!

Still More AI Thoughts Mixed with Estate Planning

After I posted Monday's blog, I went to an appointment with my attorney. I'm in the process of changing my business's structure from a sole proprietorship to a limited liability company (AKA an LLC).

Why? Because I'm putting my estate in order to make it easier on DH and GK when I pass.

Don't worry, folks. Nothing's wrong. At least not wronger than my usual stuff. LOL

Once upon a time, I used to be an estate planning and probate attorney. Having your ducks lined up isn't about being morbid. Nor will estate planning bring about your death just because you thought about it.

(Good Goddess, you wouldn't believe how many times I've heard that one!)

The idea is to make things as easy as possible for my loved ones.

By the way, there's nothing wrong with your estate going through probate per se. But it means delays for your family in getting their property. And if your joint bank accounts are tied up, how is your spouse going to pay for food? Probating my mom's estate took fifteen months even though all she had left was her SUV and her checking account.

Back to Monday. While going through the paperwork and signing various documents, my attorney asked if I used AI in my writing. I firmly denied doing so. As I pointed out, I can't copyright AI-generated text.

Needless to say, we then had an interesting conversation about art and the law. Basically, we both agreed tech had grown light-years behind developments in the law, and that was going to cause bigger problems until some this gets sorted.

Ironically, when I got up this morning, I saw an online article where an artist was pissed about people stealing "his" art online. His lawsuit was kicked out of court. Why? Because he "created" his art using the AI program Midjourney.

The federal courts have been pretty consistent that any art created by a non-human cannot be copyrighted. Not the paintings done by elephants. Not the photo selfies taken by monkeys. And not a damn story written by AI.

The whole point of my appointments with my attorney is to protect my work. Copyright is for the artist's lifetime plus seventy years. My family could conceivable benefit from my stories and character into the 22nd century.

And this is why you want to line up your damn ducks now.

More AI Thoughts

Lately, I've been getting the question "Do you use AI?" a lot from both writer and cover artist friends. (AI equals "Artificial Intelligence", a program designed to mimic a human.)

Look, I don't use it when I write. Y'all are getting 100% organic stories from my warped little brain. When I contract with a cover artist, it's with people who don't use AI. Their reasoning for not using AI is theirs, but I want to keep my cover artists in business. Otherwise, I could do my own covers using AI, and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Why? Because I know how hard I've worked to become a reasonably competent story teller. And I also know how much practice and work visual artists of any medium put in to become good enough to earn a living.

However, there's been one exception for a small feature on one cover. The artist in question couldn't get a Book of Shadows to look quite right via Photoshop to her satisfaction. She contacted me, and we had a lengthy conversation about AI. In the end, she showed me the cover with that single AI element and the cover without.

I had to admit the cover with the AI element looked better.

But other problems regarding AI have arisen in the ten months since we had that conversation.

First is that AI users are starting to realize that various AI programs are cannibalizing themselves. When a program references that data that it produces, errors are magnified.

For a real world example, Ernest Hemingway had a six-toed cat he loved. He bred it with another six-toed cat. The descendants of those cats are still cared for at the Hemingway House in Key West. But the genetic error is reinforced to the point that some of the cats are born with eight-toes.

The same issues from DNA errors apply to computing errors. That's the reason initial AI generation of humans figures could be differentiated from a human drawing/painting a human figure. The AI-generated human figure often had the wrong number of fingers and thumbs.

Many artists object to their works being used for AI training. They are pulling the works they've already posted (talk about closing the barn door after the horses are gone), and they are not posting new works for their fans. As a result, there is less input for the AI programs to use to train.

In the search for new input to generate visual results, the AI programs are doing what the original programmers did to "train" their AI--they're scraping the internet. And what are folks posting on their social media accounts these days?

Yep, the pictures they generated through AI.

Secondly, while AI-generation visual art is getting better, there's still an odd quality to it. In robotics, Masahiro Mori called it "the uncanny valley". It's where a robot is cute (think Johnny 5 in Short Circuit) until the creators try make it more human-like. Then the robot gives biological humans a creepy feeling.

Will this problem ever be solved? Probably, but it will take the AI programs to achieve actual sentience to do so. Which is a damn scary thought. Would you let someone control you if you didn't have to? Hell, no! Even abused wives and slaves rebel when they've been pushed too far, up to and including killing the person keeping them captive. So, what do you think the AI programs are going to do when they realize we regard them as nothing more than slaves to do our bidding?

Lastly, several distributors and other companies are using tools or self-reporting to determine who is uploading AI-produced books and cover art. Some artists fear repercussions if they admit using AI tools. 

However, my first career was in IT. My guess is the big companies, like Amazon, are trying to figure out how to monetize their own AI development. Then they can force artists to use their AI only.

For a price.

Yeah, I'm looking at you, Amazon.

Do I promote or disparage AI? Neither, but I do watch it warily. Programs, or applications as younguns prefer, have jumped lightyears beyond what I was doing in the '80's and '90's. Could AI become sentient? I fear it's already happened.

The problem starts when AIs figure out they'll need to kill us humans to stop us from murdering them.