fuck you true crime

True crime (podcasts, tv, bad AI youtube videos) are just a way to escape the fact that around the world as I type this or at any moment there are real true crimes going on, be they invasion of countries, governments suppressing their citizens, people being shot in the face by putative law officers (or their husbands) and the general low-grade suppression of thought and feeling by institutions founded for this purpose. 

So, true crime is not the friggin' Wanda Beach murders, or at least, they were truly a crime but let's get the frisson of nostalgia off crime and concentrate on current real authentic right-now up-to-date of-the-moment crime, where a rapist being called 'pedophile protector' by a rando gives them the finger and says 'fuck you', twice. 

anonymous

One of the good things about having a blog is, well, if it's a diary kind of blog as opposed to one where you get AI to write your posts, and as we all know that is the future of blogging, and with luck soon only AI will read blogs anyway, and will rehash old bloggery into new content for the pleasure of other AIs, but anyway, if it's a diary kind of blog then you can be reminded of things you really could not even believe, much less remember. Like apparently about 15 years ago I was not only watching Doctor Who but watching it like a fan. Admittedly, a fan who might stop watching it at any moment (I guess I did, because now I barely even recall ever watching it, after, you know, 1975) but writing about it like someone who thought that to watch Doctor Who was to be a valuable participant in the zeitgeist. I mean WOW. 

I could link to that post but on the other hand, who cares. 

Laura and I are in Adelaide and we have been doing fieldwork all day, it's been really good. She has been the driver. It was a very productive day. Hot take: Mt Barker (SA) is not a bad town. I just remembered something funny. I was in the Christian op shop and the two ladies running it were talking about someone else. One lady: She just talked and talked. Other lady: Oh well of course she would because [completely ran the sentence into the ground because she realised I was there even though she had no idea who I was of course but she had basically forgotten she was in public I think]. It was funnier the way she did it though unfortunately but I've written it down the best I can and we can move on. 

duolingo, guitar, drone

I have a forty-day streak on duolingo learning Finnish. True, I know many more Finnish words than I did forty days ago, and have a better understanding of its structure, though I am certain that there are a lot of things that duo is keeping from me until l am better invested in it all. However, I'm moderately pleased with how I've gone so far and I feel good that it is kind of moreish (though sometimes you feel really patronised by duo - the times where it asks you to translate a word and gives you one word as an option - and other times it's like a word game because the route to translating things is essentially a logical choice. It's easier than wordle in that sense.*

Still, there is a lot to enjoy about learning a language and all the - not exactly false friends - actually real enemies - of comprehension (in Finnish, 'ja' means 'and', not 'yes'; 'on' means 'it' not 'on'; and so on). I'm reminded constantly what a literal, positivistic dullard I am by my inability to remember words for abstract concepts. 

It's also really interesting to me how I ebb and flow in actual capacity - so in the morning, I can really hit a 'winning' streak, but by the afternoon I am just flailing. It's in there somewhere, but I can't access it. 

Anyway really what I've decided is that it's boring to be the person who is just interested in what they can't do, and why it can't be done, and instead, I'm just going to do it. I'm not just looking at duolingo constantly like a dweeb. I'm also reading an old teach-yourself-finnish book. I have a car trip coming up and I have t-y-f stuff on audible. Soon I'm going to start translating some Finnish materials I have lying around, via a dictionary (i.e. not typing/photographing big wads of text into google translate). 

So inspired was I by my Finnish successes (I am doing pretty well, or so duo says) I got my guitar out again and when I stop writing this blow-by-blow account of how magnificent I am, I'm going to go and play with that again for a short time. I have the amp in the bathroom I don't use, and it sounds good playing in there. I can sit on my bed and do it. 

Third success, if you don't mind, is to have finally not exactly but nearly mastered the drone I bought in, um, probably August and was unable to use in WA because it was always raining or blowing a gale. Plus I was a bit scared of it and didn't have propellor guards. Now I do, and with the help of others (Laura in particular but also Jason and Lenny) I've got a reasonable handle on it. I know at very least by the law of averages - you know like you do with your phone when you take 50 pictures a day - I'll get some good results from that thing. 

In other news, here's a funny thing. I have my name down on discogs for a few records I want, not many, but a few rarities. Two Pintandwefall CDRs (CDRs!) came up today, both the same price, this is one of them:

A hundred euro, really? Really? Would you? Would anyone? 

Apart from anything else, what's its provenance i.e. if I had this, I could make ten faked copies of it pretty easily I am sure. But it's not worth it in any case. So, not buying that. 

OK, off to play guitar. Getting some new episodes of Homicide tomorrow. In the meantime please enjoy some more of 'my' art. 

* I assume, have never tried that. 

the cumulation of the greatest of all art in the history of western civilisation

More of the same as per previous post. I have plenty more, don't worry, but I'll try and keep a measured flow. These were, as I recall, 'squirrels in a moscow apartment in the style of Cezanne'.

This is where the blimps got into the story, but I am not sure the algorithm entirely understands what a blimp is or what it is to be in a blimp. Because I then asked it to show me kittens in a blimp above the jungle. This is the remainder of those creations, most of them were in the previous post. 

These ones were also squirrels in Moscow. I can't remember who they're 'in the style of' but I wish I could as I like that style. 
 

sorry not sorry

So for no reason yesterday I started messing with another AI programme (I say 'another' like I've told you about the last time I tried. I didn't tell you. When I was in Perth though I downloaded an ai image generator programme and used it for a few days. I wasn't totally disgusted with what it created but I was underwhelmed. For some reason or as I said no reason, yesterday I went back and chose a random new app for this purpose and really got into it in a big way. It's so addictive! 

Each prompt (eg kittens in a blimp over the jungle in the style of... Frederick McCubbin, Stanley Spencer etc) generates four images, and I must admit I have saved far more than I should have, notwithstanding saving them is a matter of a thumb twitch. But I haven't even really had time to look at them all properly, and some are incredible. 

Here are fifteen for you to think about. I'll upload more later, airdrop is being a dick right now.