The mug that I got

Hi,

What to write about here? Well, there’s a question that bloggers may well have, when faced with the Big White Screen. Ah, assuming they’re not writing in dark mode or Notepad 🙂

IT joke: “I’m not saying he’s old, but he remembers when Notepad didn’t have spellcheck and AI distraction” 🙃

Exam results

I am hoping that things went well 🤗 Be that for you or family who were expecting A Level results. Later this month it’s GCSEs, so wishing people well on those too.

As for Child 2.0, I’ll say he did very well and has what he needs to get into the university he wanted to. Dare I say, and personal pride of the student aside, good enough is good enough. Yes, it’s fab to be rewarded for your efforts, and exams are not – IMO – a validation of your intelligence or worth. They’re a measure of your ability to do an exam. Please don’t beat yourself up mentally, if you didn’t get what you’d hoped.

Trust me, and I’m an Old 👵, folk don’t ask about your A Levels or GCSEs as you get older and into work. Often, they’re just a stepping stone to say you can go on to do another course or are proficient in Maths/English for employment.

There’s nothing wrong with taking a gap year, maybe travelling or getting a job to see things different. There’s lots of ways to be.

Looking forward

It was, I think, the hottest day in the UK this week. Something around 38C which is not how we do things over here in Dear Old Blighty. No, our summers should be dashing between trees and doorways, as the Heaven’s decide it’s time to dump a bajillion gallons of water on whatever summer events were planned. That or packing a fleece/cardy in your suitcase because our weather is… to be polite, eventful.

So, with the hottest day fading, I am going to list the things I am hoping to enjoy in due course.

I’m looking forward to September mists and feeling a nip in the air on the early9 morning dog walk.

I’m thinking about cool autumn walks through green forests, and seeing the leafs turn golden, rusty, and dark as the season shifts.

I’m thinking of warm showers, and enjoying that cosy feeling of a fluffy towel.

Kicking your boots off and switching to slippers. Going back to long trousers – jeans! oh I have missed you.

Getting the last few wears out of your sandals, while regular mortals huddle in coats and boots.

All those and being able to open the wardrobe door and not have to dress to survive the heat, but pick something based on how I feel that day.

Things to look forward to! 🥰

Chams

After the last meeting where I’d planned the right outfit and slap, I did wonder if I might manage a fancy night out. However, Thursday proved to be rather eventful with travel and after day of Doing Stuff, I was, well, lathered. If that word doesn’t mean much, how about I was hotter than Satan’s armpit? 🙂

Mind you, if I was indeed The Adversary – which weirdly some Redumblicans seem to think about us gender nonconforming folk – a great way to torture souls living and otherwise, would be to fit air conditioning in Hell, and point the hot air hose to this mortal realm 🙃

NB: Talking of trans* and gender non-conforming people, TransActual are running their annual Trans Lives survey. Details via the link.

So, demonic gags aside the evening itself was very good. The room certainly cooled off once I got the A/C going and the night was busy. We had a two folk back for their repeat visit, and two new people visiting for their first time.

I guess the summer outfit I had planned will wait another month, and that’s okay. I was glad of the company and the good natured humour from the group. I wonder what it might be like to arrive dressed and go home that way, when Child 2.0 heads off to university? I shall miss him, though.

AI-eeee – or more seriously, blog stuff

This week the EU released legislation around the use of AI (details here, if you’re curious). Now, the UK is not currently in the EU – ooh, that’ll ruffle a few feathers 😏 – but one never really knows what the future holds. So I’m thinking I’m likely to be tagging the AI images I have, with a wee logo. Just so we’re all clear what AI stuff I have on YATGB.

It’s around fifty or so images, and bar one – they are all illustrations or cartoon style pictures. I think I have only one AI image of me, and that’s an old how would I look if I was female image. Obviously better, but that’s not the point 😁

Ah, here’s the culprit…. or is it culprits if the photos are meant to be me? Hmm. 🤔

I can tell you right now that that blokey image – the one on the right, not the bloke in a wig & slap on the left 🙃 – is not how I look in drab mode. For a start, they’ve not captured the haunted potato of my day to day existence 😉 Well, I don’t have the money/time for facial surgery and even then, miracles are few & far between outside of fiction, so I’ll just have to live with the mug that I got.

So AI stuff – images, in the main – will be tagged with ‘AI generated image’ and they may start to gain a small logo I doodled in Paint DotNet.

There’s a demo on the ‘vamp phone’ image and you’ll need to click that to see the logo at the bottom left of it.

TBH, I don’t really use AI on this blog. Certainly not for writing, thinking of ideas, or suchlike. Part of the fun, if you will, although enjoyment might be better word, is getting the fluffy of fluff and nonsense out of my head, down my arms, and out through my fingers to this screen. In short, creating.

I don’t fancy ‘outsourcing’ that to an AI because…. well, I guess that would take the fun out of this. Now, personally, I have used AI to generate the basics of a safeguarding policy for Chameleons, but we will be going through that as people, and seeing which bits apply need a tweak.

So, here at YATGB, the main use of AI – which I think I put on this page here – is for creating illustrations. Yes, I could pay an artists to do that, but that’s not going to happen. I don’t have the time, the funds, nor the contacts.

If you want to be completist about things, you might argue that the anti-spam system uses AI. However, that’s not creating content nor trying to trick you into anything. That’s just to keep the junk out of the comments system.

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Thanks for reading & stay cool!

L x