Author: disperser

Some Dream by WOMBO creations — Part 2

This is the second post of three about renderings by Dream AI using some of my images as seeds.

As a quick reminder, Dream AI (well, all the AI models) has the option to provide an image to serve as a seed for what it creates. The Pro version of Dream AI has the option to output a video of the creation.

I don’t know how accurately the video represents the creation process because it’s too quick relative to the amount of time it takes to render something. Then again, it might be speeded up.

Ah, crap . . . basically, I don’t know what the video represents, but it purports to be the AI in action as it renders the image. For instance, this is the video generated for the above image.

FYI, the prompt was steampunk submarine in an underwater city, and the seed photo was a leaf on some rocks (you can see it in the video).

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Genre Writing Challenge Round 02 — E. J. D’Alise

As mentioned, we’re starting a new challenge — the Genre Writing Challenge. Each round, the three writers — Perry, Gary, and me — will write a story on a given genre. The Twins decided the Second genre is Thriller.

For the record, thrillers can be almost any genre, so this was likely a poor choice on our part, especially since it’s difficult to define thriller as a completely different and standalone genre.

We’re again staggering the publication of the stories, which began with Gary’s story. It went live on Saturday. Perry’s went live on Tuesday, and today is my turn.

Our usual disclaimer:

The writing challenge has no restrictions, and the stories span a wide gamut of genres. The majority of the stories fall in the PG range, with a few perhaps pushing into the R range. Those ratings are guidelines, but they are subjective. If you find a story disturbing because of the topics, language, and/or plot points, stop reading and move on to the next one. The same goes if you are not interested in finishing a story. It may seem like obvious advice, but these days many people go out of their way to experience outrage (and then complain about it).

So, without further ado, here’s my contribution to the Thriller genre . . . although, it may not be a thriller. Suspenseful, maybe. Also, I decided to write it in second person (the reason will become apparent as you read it). And — and this is something many will appreciate — just a shade under 1,100 words. Literally, less than a five-minute read.

Here’s the blurb:
What can you do when your world is being destroyed?

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Some Dream by WOMBO creations

So, whenever I need to pass some time (waiting for stuff, waiting in the car, etc.), I play with Dream AI by WOMBO. The above is a rendering from the prompt “steampunk spaceship”. Each prompt gets me four renderings. I may save all four or none, depending on how they look.

Here’s another from the same prompt . . .

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Genre Writing Challenge Round 02 — Perry Broxson

As mentioned, we’re starting a new challenge — the Genre Writing Challenge. Each round, the three writers — Perry, Gary, and me — will write a story on a given genre. The Twins decided the Second genre is Thriller.

For the record, thrillers can be almost any genre, so this was likely a poor choice on our part, especially since it’s difficult to define thriller as a completely different and standalone genre.

We’re again staggering the publication of the stories, which began with Gary’s story. It went live on Saturday. Today is Perry’s turn, and — FSM-willing — I’ll get one finished for Thursday.

Our usual disclaimer:

The writing challenge has no restrictions, and the stories span a wide gamut of genres. The majority of the stories fall in the PG range, with a few perhaps pushing into the R range. Those ratings are guidelines, but they are subjective. If you find a story disturbing because of the topics, language, and/or plot points, stop reading and move on to the next one. The same goes if you are not interested in finishing a story. It may seem like obvious advice, but these days many people go out of their way to experience outrage (and then complain about it).

So, without further ado, here’s Perry’s contribution to the Thriller genre.

Wait . . . first, the blurb:
A boy born of misfortune plots to slaughter those that bully him. Just before he pulls the trigger, another shooter commences. The boy becomes a hero when he shoots the shooter. He parlays his popularity into politics . . . creating Laws that mandate gun ownership! This can only end one way.

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SmugMug Appreciation Sunday — No. 059

In brief, these posts serve to introduce new readers — and reintroduce regular readers — to photos from the early days of this blog and, occasionally, to photos from days before this blog came into existence.

Today’s stroll on memory lane is another quick one . . .

The photos are from THIS, and THIS Galleries, and both are from my pre-WordPress blogging days. That means that while a few of these photos might have appeared on random blog posts, there is no specific post related to these galleries . . . I think.

All the photos are from 2009 . . . it seems like ages ago, certainly more than saying “14 years” . . . I mean, yes, it’s more than 5,000 days ago, but so much has happened that it’s difficult remembering what we were doing (we were living in Colorado, I had a full-time job driving 90 miles a day — Monument to Woodland Park, Melisa worked part-time at William-Sonoma, we had a cat, I was still playing racquetball and golfing, my camera was still the Nikon D100, my phone was a Palm (the Centro, I think), and probably other things I don’t remember).

At the time, we thought the world was going to shit . . . while now we know it is.

There’s a lesson buried there . . . don’t fret about what’s currently happening because ten years from now, things will be worse, and these will be “the good-ole days!“

Anyway, the first gallery is about a John Deere Model “B” that I used to see in an open field near where we lived (it’s now a subdivision).

John Deere Model “B”
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Genre Writing Challenge Round 02 — R. G. Broxson

As mentioned, we’re starting a new challenge — the Genre Writing Challenge. Each round, the three writers — Perry, Gary, and me — will write a story on a given genre. The Twins decided the Second genre is Thriller.

For the record, thrillers can be almost any genre, so this was likely a poor choice on our part, especially since it’s difficult to define thriller as a completely different and standalone genre.

We’re again staggering the publication of the stories, this time beginning with Gary’s story. Perry’s will go up on Tuesday, and — FSM-willing — I’ll have one for Thursday.

Our usual disclaimer:

The writing challenge has no restrictions, and the stories span a wide gamut of genres. The majority of the stories fall in the PG range, with a few perhaps pushing into the R range. Those ratings are guidelines, but they are subjective. If you find a story disturbing because of the topics, language, and/or plot points, stop reading and move on to the next one. The same goes if you are not interested in finishing a story. It may seem like obvious advice, but these days many people go out of their way to experience outrage (and then complain about it).

So, without further ado, here’s Gary’s contribution to the Thriller genre.

Wait . . . first, the blurb:
Prepare to be thrilled in more ways than one. This story starts with a crime and ends with…just read and find out for yourself.

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Long Beach (CA) 2019 — Acquarium of the Pacific Part 1

“What the heck is that?”

My best guess is that it’s a rusty steel drum made up to represent an underwater scene. I took that shot near the end of our visit to the Long Beach aquarium. I’m telling you that as a way to let readers know that these photos are not in order, and the title gives away the plan to spread the photos from that visit into multiple posts.

January 2, 2019, was the day we planned to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific, which is the actual name of the place (click on the name to visit their homepage).

That link has a lot of information about the place, the exhibits, and lots of photos. Photos that are better than mine, so, if interested, that might be the better plan of action . . . or you can proceed with reading what I have to say about it and looking at the photos and videos I took.

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SmugMug Appreciation Sunday — No. 058

In brief, these posts serve to introduce new readers — and reintroduce regular readers — to photos from the early days of this blog and, occasionally, to photos from days before this blog came into existence.

Today’s stroll on memory lane is another quick one . . .

The original post for these photos is HERE, and the photos are from THIS Gallery.

These photos are from ten years ago, so some of the items might not currently be on display.

I’m referring to photos from the National Air & Space Museum, A. K. A. the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.

Museum’s Main Hangar

So, here we are . . . summarizing the wrap-up post of the National Air & Space Museum series.

Note: I just found out that all the links to the Smithsonian’s own catalog changed. That means that — in the original posts and the seven previous Sunday posts about the museum — any link referencing the museum’s database will return a dead link error (error 404). I fixed the links in this post, but I’m not going back through the original or recent Sunday posts to update the links. One, because it’s a lot of work, and two, because no one mentioned it. If you’re looking for the Smithsonian’s entry for a plane, just search under the name.

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Long Beach (CA) 2019 — January 01-05

So, we’re now into the New Year (2019). We stayed in Long Beach until January 6th, when we sailed on the Coral Princess for our Ocean-to-Ocean cruise with passage through the Panama Canal.

On two of those days, we visited the Aquarium and the Queen Mary, but those photos merit their own posts. Maybe even multiple posts. For the remainder of the days, we wandered the waterfront, snapping photos.

This, then, is a visual tour of what caught my interest enough to merit me snapping a photo. Mind you, I have a facile shutter finger . . . I tend to snap far more photos than is probably good for me. Well, I enjoy it, so maybe it is good for me.

One other reason I use the P900 is that it was easier to take hand-held movies with the P900 than my then camera, the D7000 .

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