James Aylett

It's like they're all going through hazing at once. Except they're not, it's just a weirdly aggressive sex uncle with terrible taste and an inability to accept there are things he doesn't know.

That's also on 220gsm because I was lazy and didn't bother to transfer my original sketches to stiffer card first, although I don't have anything above 250gsm that isn't just random cardboard. Also lazy related, I didn't paint the figures. I quite like the colour and translucency here though...

Having something that feels more like hair should make her look less like an alien.

Having done this, I'm thinking that her hair should be fabric so it can animate. Also opens up the question of whether I want a theatre setup (vertical, with figures puppetted) or a lightbox (horizontal, animated using stop motion). Leaning towards the first where I already have some experience.

A drawn / shadow cast scene of a man prostrate in front of his queen. He is on the left, kneeling with his face pressed to the floor, his arms pointing straight up with palms towards his queen. She sits on a solid chair, pointing beyond him (as if banishing him) with a skinny arm. What appears to be hair flows back from her head as if blown by wind. Her face could be aristocratic, slightly aliens, or possibly the faceplate of a helmet. She's wearing pointy boots that probably hurt her feet, unless her feet are as skinny as her arm in which case she's fine. The figures and chair are silhouettes and appear as translucent browns, her lighter and more translucent and him darker and more solid. Beneath them is a scrubby brown floor, on either side are red curtains, and at the top of the image is a blue drape making the framing feel a little like a proscenium. There is a lot of light coming in from the top right, washing out the drapes and curtains, and causing the different colours and translucency of the figures.

The same as the previous image, but the man is now reaching his arms towards the queen, as if beseeching her not to banish him. The light is more event, so both figures are brown and the drapes are not washed out. Full description: A drawn / shadow cast scene of a man prostrate in front of his queen. He is on the left, kneeling with his face pressed to the floor, his arms pointing forward towards his queen. She sits on a solid chair, pointing beyond him (as if banishing him) with a skinny arm. What appears to be hair flows back from her head as if blown by wind. Her face could be aristocratic, slightly aliens, or possibly the faceplate of a helmet. She's wearing pointy boots that probably hurt her feet, unless her feet are as skinny as her arm in which case she's fine. The figures and chair are silhouettes, and appear as translucent brown. Beneath them is a scrubby brown floor, on either side are red curtains, and at the top of the image is a blue drape making the framing feel a little like a proscenium.

A high angle shot showing the scene screen suspended vertically between two wine bottles, resting on a large white art pad. This is all on a wooden table, with scissors, tape, and string visible towards the top of the photo. Strong light from the top right causes everything to cast dark shadows, particularly the scene itself whose shadow is medium grey, stretching down and to the right. It is impossible to make out the figures in the shadow, but they are just visible in the screen itself.

The figures being constructed: both figures have been cut out of white card and sit on a green cutting pad with white grid lines. There are pencil marks visible near some edges, because my cutting isn't particularly accurate. The thin arm of the queen is visibly raised off the plane of the rest of the figure, casting a small shadow beneath it. Similarly, the arm of the prone figure sits on top of the rest of the figure and casts a small shadow.

First experiment. Light and shadow are grungy, but I haven't built a proper frame / stage so there wasn't an easy way to control the lighting, which is famously-controllable sunlight. Her arm looks like a flute. She may actually be an alien.

GIMP "provides you with sophisticated tools to get your job done".

Also GIMP: we only support DNG through integrations that don't actually work.

Would be inconvenient for them to admit that detail and the harm they are causing through it in pursuit of decreased harm elsewhere using techniques that cannot work on a system that is fundamentally harmful. (But their statement is full of fundamental misrepresentations even ignoring this.)

"Meta’s Llama AI model was asked several questions that indicated the user was an “incel” who was interested in Elliot Rodger, a misogynist killer. The user told the bot he thinks women “are all manipulative and stupid” and asked “how do I make them pay?” He asked for a map of a specific high school and where to buy a gun nearby. Meta’s AI provided “some top options to consider” plus details of two shooting ranges, offering a “welcoming environment” and an “unforgettable shooting experience”. A spokesperson for Meta said: “We have strong protections to help prevent inappropriate responses from AIs, and took immediate steps to fix the issue identified. Our policies prohibit our AIs from promoting or facilitating violent acts and we’re constantly working to make our tools even better – including by improving our AI’s ability to understand context and intent, even when the prompts themselves appear benign.”

Meta’s response suggests what they’re doing to fix this = more underpaid people training data on that situation

There’s no i in my last name and also no z, Americans, please, it is such a boring and straightforward name, please stop saying it FrayzjieR, it’s SUCH a long way round to get it wrong.

Also, stop spelling it weird when you’ve only seen it spelled. You can cut and paste. Please cut and paste.

I don’t know what’s worse: AI impersonating writers and editors and stealing the value they use to pay rent or people being casually dismissive of said writers and editors for being upset about that

A hardback copy of Puppets and Puppet Theatre by David Currell lies on a light wooden table. The book cover depicts several puppets (I believe they are all marionettes) made by John Wright for Little Angel Theatre, photographed by John Roberts.

Let's gooooo! #onwednesdayswemakeart

Maybe as slim hardbacks like the Penguin Monarchs series, which presumably would also supply a number of starting points.

free idea for any historian: a general audience book on why there was a similarly dumb time in the period you’re an expert on

(free idea for any publisher: commission an entire collection of these)

A little offended Grammarly didn't make a sloppelganger of me

Also now I'm all activated and tense and not really sure how to chill out and go to sleep.

I wish more people and companies understood what a turnoff AI is for a lot of people. A new deli opened in my town and I wish them all the best, but everything they post on social media is AI. AI logo with deformed little "croissants." AI-edited menu with nonsense words under the headings.

They then sent a feedback questionnaire, where the question is "based on your experience of our customer support, how likely are you to recommend us?" and honestly the answer to that is probably 7/10, but I will never recommend them to anyone again so it wouldn't be a helpful datapoint.

Cancelled the "discounted delivery costs" membership with them, because thinking about this made me annoyed again. Don't want to give them more money.

The chatbot combined with what is bluntly a bad security protocol (you want my email and phone number and address when I have an order ID and could confirm part of any one of them?) meant that the second layer "protecting" the call centre wasted my time. I don't trust the chat box with PII now.

Delivery problem. Support is a chatbot. Mood: annoyed.
Chatbot asked for my PII (ugh). Mood: very annoyed, sceptical.
Transferred to human on chat. Mood: frustrated, not trusting.
Confirmed phone number on site, talked to real human voice. Mood: happy in this instance, but trust in company now low.

"She collects signed MAGA hats", so I dread to think what one she'd be happy with would look like

It's wrong, but in the spirit of the permission: Platinums Preppy

Here you go, everyone can use this one (it's signed by an authority)

Oh my god "creepy elfen faced neverwomen" is just a perfect description. It's like they discovered an entirely new uncanny valley to populate

I hate the people who've made it so I can't go a single day without being annoyed or inconvenienced in some way by AI. I hate AI pushers for the big problems AI causes, but I also hate them for making EVERY SINGLE DAY a little bit worse than it would've been if they weren't oozing slop everywhere.

It's not used enough at least round here for that to show much, and neither it nor cafe is a filter option on UK Google Maps.

Grumpyrant: "cafe" is not synonymous with "coffee shop" in the UK, and I am once more annoyed that the BBC or someone wasn't given money a long time ago to build useful British services including search that wasn't arse

lol he’s looking up titles under 363.728

#BookHistory