Todays deck is the Stained Glass Tarot.
Such a shame the backs are the way they are, it’s not even like “well when you get used to them you’ll notice”, no, the pentagram is very obvious.
Anyway, today’s reading advices that things going at an accelerated pace should be taken a as a good thing rather than something that will be taken away from you.
Considering all the talk about sorting this and sorting that that I’ve done, it should be evident what this is all about.
I ended up giving a test run to the bed that E is gonna be staying in because I overexrted myself to the point where moving things out of my bed even to the floor was making me do loud HDD noises.
I can confirm one can have a since sleep in it, though I have a weird problem with futons where I end up shuffling in a way that makes me push myself upwards (as in: in my head’s direction, not Exorcist-style).
By the way, in the middle of all the sorting and sifting, there’s something that’s been running in the back of my head.
I’ve talked in the past about how I’ve tried a few of those “AI GF” thingies and to be honest I still get a very specific itch like once a month to see what the computer would say if I asked this or that. And every time I do so, the fact that there’s people that legitimately want to use this tech for proper creations baffles me more and more.
And recently there was this whole trend where people were redoing pics “Ghibli-style” with AI and it finally helped me put into words the sort of person that thinks GenAI is the future and all that nonsense. Emphasis on “person” not “corporation”.
You see, I don’t have the best opinion of Ghibli. While I do have a base respect for it just because they HAVE done a lot in the industry, I saw Spirited Away (AKA El Viaje de Chihiro) when I was a kid, liked it, and then every other Ghibli movie felt redundant to me.
It’s not a matter of the aesthetics alone, there’s a thematic undercurrent that’s so strong that it feels like the only thing I can taste in them.
I always compare it with Satoshi Kon because even though there’s certain surface level similarities (creators with strong vision and recognizable aesthetics), Kon’s work feels more differentiated between stories.
Of course, this is ENTIRELY subjective. And the subjectivity isn’t gonna stop anytime soon, because I feel like the key element that makes Kon’s work stand out to me is that there’s friction at every level, not just in the story but even the aesthetics allow themselves to be “ugly”. Ghibli to me lacks a similar sense of friction, even the in-story friction feels like it’s scared to upset people. It’s not even a matter of “I was something edgy and grotesque” but more like “even the things clearly meant to be upsetting feel cushioned”.
Perhaps I just lack nostalgia? I mean I’m not nostalgic at all to begin with, but I saw Spirited Away when it was making the rounds with it being nominated or something like that.
But anyways, this isn’t about Ghibli specifically. The point is that that lack of friction makes it just perfect for a more mainstream sensibility.
So picture the average joe shmoe who remembers liking them Ghiblis and you give him a website where he can put in a photo, tell it “make it Ghibli” and he gets that.
This person who due to life has never meaningfully engaged with making things or even been curious about it because learning skills takes time he doesn’t have. He just put word into computer and cool thing came out.
Of course he would start claiming that GenAI is for “accesibility”, he just did something he never even thought about doing. Of course he doesn’t see how soulless and mathematically averaged the AI Art is, he’s never really cared about aesthetics anyways so he’s like the medieval peasant with a Dorito except it’s an unflavored off-brand chip. Of course he wouldn’t care about how the process of Making is just as important as the end result, they’re used to just Consuming and now you’ve given them a faucet that craps out Content. Of course these Joes of the Shmoe clan would end up aping Ghibli, it’s the closest you can get to saying “anime style” or “recognizable style” without needing to use more than one descriptor.
Which brings me to the AI GF stuff. While cleaning stuff and with my brain just idly going places I started to remember some of the… bland stuff I’ve seen in those websites.
As regulars of the page know from the games I talk about I’m used to Freaks and Sickos and that crowd has to be the blandest brand of freaks and sickos ever. Like, I’m not even talking about “bland” as the opposite end of “extreme” because even the “extreme” scenarios they come up with are the blandest stuff you’ll ever see.
We’re talking “dude went through all of a tag and just put in whatever was in that tag”, we’re talking someone that hasn’t had to really have to put into proper words what gets them going and still don’t have to because I’ve seen how those bots are created, I’ve tried it out myself. You can just describe what happened in some doujinshi and let The Computer do the rest.
So what’s my point?
Uh… that the regular Dude McPerson doesn’t have the appreciation nor staying power as a consumer where any self-respecting artist should care what fullname_bunchanumbers thinks about AI being better or more soulful.
Like, I do think that shit needs to be regulated. I especially think that the same companies that have made life hell with their IP laws thinking it’s fine to break those laws when THEY do it are extra extra bad.
But personally that’s where any amount of “new” concerns I have for the matter stop, at least in the sense that other problems like content theft, plagiarism, identity fraud, how much a company owns of a creator, and whatnot are just a different shape of problems that have already existed. Why just a couple of years ago there was that nonsense of randos going on Twitter (formerly: Twitter) going “mint it” on random pics posted by people.
And I always bring up things “being the same as always” and my intent isn’t to dismiss things because they’re the same, rather, if you ever see me go “well shit’s always been like that”, my intent is specifically to point out that not being a new problem means we’ve dealt with this bullshit before, the form might’ve changed but so can the solutions and not being a new thing means you can look back onto how it’s been dealt with in the past.
If humans are doomed to repeat the same mistakes, that conversely means we can use the same solutions and evolve them over time.
Back to the matters I actually care about though, turns out in the hyperfocused Blur I fell into yesterday (more like “today before sleeping” but anyways) I ended up filling 17 trash bags.
They weren’t efficiently filled or even classified, but God Damn, Seventeen Bags.
By the way, here’s some unnecesary and obvious wisdom for you all: If you’re gonna move a cupboard for disposal and said cupboard still has the doors, make sure the fucking doors don’t open while moving.
Freeing that space also means I’VE RECOVERED MY BOY
AND HE HAS HIS SWORD FINALLY
Nature is healing.
Also I remembered the TV cupboard has drawers and that’s where my 3DS went, go figure.
I did also wonder when I was burning discs to my PC where my copy of the Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou OST went.
While all of this is happening, it’s interesting to me that my reaction has been less “mess what a mess that things got to this” and more “HELL YEAH I’M GETTING SHIT DONE”.
I wonder when that clicked, I mean, I know why it clicked, repeated percussion against the head and all that but the question is when.
After buying some things and hitting my pinky toe something fierce it was time to head to the airport.
I’ve been awake since like 8pm so for better or worse the one hour trip to the airport passed in a blink, and when I stepped out every muscle in my body was shrieking bloody murder.
I mean I’ve got the evidence of my exertion in this website I guess.
I had like half an hour to kill so I got Kamakura Noodles while I waited.
As the time drew near there was a crowd by Arrivals. Apparently some K-Pop dudes were arriving and there was a crowd of girls trying to get a peek of them.
Dunno if they snuck that peek, there was a bunch of black curtains and next thing you know the women are scattering into the wind.
The black curtains were ready and waiting and it’s just dawning on me that this is most likely a normal occurrence for airport staff.
Friend in tow we went back and I crashed HARD onto my bed.
Life will be as usual but there’ll be extra friends around for a couple of weeks.