Zoning out

 

It is National Twilight Zone Day! I have had a special place in my heart for the Twilight Zone since I was a kid and it scared the bejesus out of me with the Nightmare at 20,000 Feet starring William Shatner as an airline passenger who is convinced he sees a gremlin trying to sabotage the wing.  It was later reprised in the 1983 Twilight Zone Movie with John Lithgow playing the Shatner part. I was five in 1963 and really freaked me out. Though I wouldn't take my first airplane trip for another ten years.

Looking back at the 1963 Gremlin, it looked more like Harpo Marx in fuzzy pajamas. 

I asked ChatGPT to make Twilight Zone Gremlin with my face and it gave me this.

It looks more like a black and white mugshot of Shrek than a gremlin. So I kept trying. I told it to make it more like the 1963 gremlin and it shouldn't be wearing a suit and tie and it gave me this.

I think it looks like a cross between Spock and Yoda. But I didn't give up.

Close enough I suppose. Not sure why it couldn't put me on the wing of the plane where any self-respecting gremlin would be, but sometimes you've got to quit with ChatGPT while you are close enough.

Anyway, after that digression, back to National Twilight Zone Day.

When I started writing fiction in junior high and high school, Rod Serling was one of my role models as was Stephen King, Edgar Allen Poe and O. Henry. After I got past my fascination with the supernatural, I leaned more toward Tom Robbins. Since I no longer read and all of my role models (except for Stephan King) are dead, I couldn't tell you what influences me now.  I suppose it is whatever famous author sits around coming up with bad pun t-shirts and asking AI apps to put his face on random characters.

I think I have that niche totally covered.