But aren't they bad luck?

 

I've had a couple of black cats in my life. And they were both as sweet as could be. This is unlike the cats we have now. One is a Bengal and is crazy as a bedbug. And the other is a gray domestic cat with white feet. He is a ghost and can't stand to be around anyone. 

Cats are like that.

It is also National I Love My Feet Day.

That is about the stupidest National Day I've seen yet. Who loves their feet? 

Though tomorrow is National Fajita Day and National Mail Order Catalogue Day. I'm not going to bother with t-shirts for those days. I've got standards.

Blue, blue...

 

It was 47 years ago today that Elvis died. He was 42 years old. I was 19 and didn't realize how young 42 is. I also didn't really think much about Elvis at the time. I remember watching his movies on television when I was a kid and thinking how really bad they were. I wasn't an Elvis fan. But his death did cause a ripple in my universe. 

I was working at the public library in the town where I grew up at the time. And my boss was an annoying and not overly bright person named Dalene. She wasn't really a librarian. I worked in Circulation and in the hierarchy that exists in libraries that is the equivalent to the Infantry in the army. The elite people were the reference librarians. Circulation people were basically clerks. When I started at the library, I was 16. It was my first job. And I was hired to shelf books 15 or so hours a week. Later I rose to the status of Circulation Clerk and checked out (and in) books.  It was a shit job.

But Dalene had worked at the library most of her adult life and had risen to the rank of Head Circulation Librarian. She got the job after the Head Circulation Librarian before her retired and on the condition that she get her library degree. So she was going going to college during the night and working during the day.

As I said before, Dalene was about as sharp as a river rock. She was in her 30s and still lived with her mother and sister. And Dalene loved Elvis. She loved him so much that she became despondent when news that he died on his toilet in Graceland on August 16, 1977 hit the air waves. And she had to go home.

I thought that was weird (to coin a phrase we now reserve for Trump and his supporters). I thought it was even weirder when Dalene asked me to house sit at her house when she, her mother and sister went on vacation and I was introduced to the Elvis shrine in her bedroom complete with candles and photos. It left such an impression on me that years later when the Internet was new and I was looking for inspiration for a Web presence and a hook for a plot for the novel I was attempting to write at the time I remembered Dalene and her obsession with the King of Rock and Roll.

So I developed my first Web site called Disgraceland and filled it with information about Elvis and the people who were obsessed with Elvis. And I tried writing a novel called "Jukebox of the Gods" about Elvis, Quantum Physics and an Exotic Dancer who got caught up in a plethora of Elvis sightings triggered by a young man selecting the song "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis on a jukebox at a dive bar at the same time his doppleganger in an alternative universe played the same song on an alternate jukebox causing their worlds to collide and bring Elvis with it.

I've written about writing it several times in my blog, I just never finished it. And what I did write got lost somewhere on a floppy disk (just to show you how long ago it was). And "Jukebox of the Gods" never got to play its tune and make me a famous novelist. Though something tells me it would have been as popular as my blog is today if I'd written it.

Still, Elvis' death has woven its way through my life now for years. And although I wasn't a fan when he was alive, I became an Elvis scholar and collector years later. I've been to Graceland twice and I still have a fair amount of Elvis memorabilia and every year at Christmas I put up a white artificial tree and decorate it with umpteen Elvis themed ornaments. 

It's not weird. It's odd, but I've accepted that Elvis and I were destined to be intertwined regardless of whether I am a fan or not. And honestly I am not truly a fan in the true sense of the word, but I do appreciate the phenomenon that he was and is.

That being said, today is the anniversary of his death. It is also National Tell a Joke Day and National Roller Coaster Day.

How do those things relate to Elvis. Elvis liked jokes (just not at his expense) and he loved amusement park rides and would rent out entire amusement parks and ride the rides all night for his amusement. So kind of like Kevin Bacon, everything ties back to Elvis.

For example, next Monday is a rare Super Blue Moon. And Elvis was a super star and he sang, "Blue Moon."

Elvis is indeed everywhere.

The Bunyip

 

The Bunyip's Lair

In the murky swamp so deep and wide,
Where shadows in the water glide,
The Bunyip waits, with watchful eye,
Beneath the darkened outback sky.

His voice is low, a distant roar,
A whisper heard along the shore,
And those who dare to venture near,
May find themselves consumed by fear.

With flippered limbs and eyes aglow,
He haunts the billabong below,
And in the night, when winds are still,
He prowls the riverside at will.

But is he real, or just a tale,
A phantom born on moonlit gale?
The Bunyip keeps his secrets tight,
A creature of the endless night.

I asked ChattyGPT if there were any poems about Bunyips and it wrote the poem above for me. I thought it was pretty damned good and I am kind of blown away that it was composed by AI.

A Bunyip, by the way, is a creature from Australian Aboriginal mythology. It hangs in swamps, billabons and waterholes. As with other Cryptids, it is kind of a mutt made up of lots of different creatures parts (kind of like a duck-billed platypus).  I made the mistake of asking Gemini Cricket to create an image of the Bunyip dressed like Crocodile Dundee and it kept giving me images of crocodiles dressed like Crocodile Dundee.

Oh, as I mentioned yesterday, today is National Lemon Meringue Pie Day.

Oh, and it is also National Leathercraft Day.

And I liked using Leatherface as the spokesperson for National Leathercraft Day so much, I produced two others.

I imagine the Leathercraft people wouldn't be too thrilled with my designs, but as I've said many times, I can put the pearls out there, it's up to people to pick them up and string them into a necklace.

But I suppose that doesn't mean anything to you.

 

Teamwork makes the cream work

 

As promised, it is National Creamsicle Day. And I must say I have always liked creamsicles. I have this fond memory of going camping as a kid and driving along these winding dirt roads on our way to a campground near the Middle Fork of the Boise River.  We would always stop at this remote country store out in the middle of nowhere. I think my dad would need gas or ice. But this elderly lady owned the place and worked at the counter and they always had creamsicles.  It was a memorable treat. Little did I know that the creamsicle would one day have its own day.

But enough about ice cream treats. I spent the day focused on cryptids. Cryptids are creatures or entities whose existence is suggested based on anecdotal evidence, folkore, or reported sightings but very little scientific confirmation. As I mentioned yesterday I've dabbled with Bigfoot, Chupacabra and Mothman. Today I turned to the Loch Ness Monster, the Jersey Devil, and the Beast of Gevaudan. 

I took three approaches to the Loch Ness Monster.

Next I messed with the Jersey Devil.

Then I did a little bit of high-brow cryptid designs with the Beast of Gevaudan, a man-eating creature that terrorized the Gevaudan region of France in the 18th century. 

I'm kind of wondering if the Beast of Gevaudan wasn't the inspiration for Beauty and the Beast.

Finally I combined two of my favorite topics and created these:

All in all it was a monstrous day.

BTW, tomorrow is National Lemon Meringue  Pie Day. 

A meating of the minds

 

Today is National Filet Mignon Day.  So if you feel strongly about it, you can now buy a t-shirt to commemorate it.  Gemini Cricket gave me a few choices for National Filet Mignon Day. This seemed the most t-shirty. But I almost went with this one:

This is exactly the way Gemini Cricket provided it. I'll probably use it if they ever create a National Filet Mingon Day.  Or if they create a National Dexter Serial Killer Day I'm ready.

I created ten National "Something" Day t-shirts today. Its enough to get me through August 16th. I decided to go ahead and put the month and day on all of them but not the year. In theory the same things will be relevant every year on the same day (unless the National Day Calendar bumps items each year to make room for new random National Day items). I will try to keep up with what day it is every day now until I grow bored and move on to some other trendy thing. I did get kind of burned out on Mothman Goes to... designs. Though he had a good run.

I have ventured down the cryptozoology path a few times now. I turned Bigfoot into a Beatles cover band and I gave the Chupacabra some love. And there was my mild obsession with Mothman. I need to find some other cryptids to exploit. Apparently they don't have teams of lawyers to scream "Intellectual Property" violation at the drop of the hat. 

Speaking of violation the rules of nature and intellectual property, teepublic.com's cracked team of lawyers reviewed my Kafka design and decided I could post it on my storefront. But they reserved the right to ban it if some asshole lawyer decides it is too similar to some episode of Star Trek or the Hobbit.

I tried asking several times for one of my AI art buddies to give me a beetle that was dressed like Ringo Starr and played the drums, but that apparently was a bit too complex for AI right now. So I settle for a basic beetle. I suppose I could have asked for a Volkswagon Beetle instead. If you don't get the Kafka Metamorphosi reference look it up. I can't spoon feed you all the time.

Spoiler alert: tomorrow is National Creamsicle Day and boy do I have a doozy of a design for that t-shirt. I'll post it tomorrow as long as I don't wake up and find I've metamorphosed into a bug...insect or car. 

A sew-sew day

 

Today was National Sewing Machine Day. Of course, it was also World Elephant Day, National Middle Child Day and National Vinyl Record Day. When I asked ChattyGPT who creates National "something" days it replied that they were created by a variety of entities, including organizations, businesses, and individuals who want to promote a cause, product or event. It admitted that there isn't an official governing body that approves these days so anyone can declare one. 

So, in essence, all of the National "blah, blah, blah" days are bullshit created by marketing and PR people (not unlike myself) to make you buy something. I should declare it National Bad Pun T-Shirt Day tomorrow. It is unclear how you go about declaring a National Something Day. ChattyGPT suggests registering your declaration with the "National Day Calendar." Going there, it informs me that today is also National Julienne Fries Day. They do have a form you fill out to register a National "Something" Day. They suggest you fill it out weeks in advance because they take their own sweet time to review them. So tomorrow can't be National Bad Pun T-Shirt Day. I'll have to figure out what day weeks from now would be a good National Bad Pun T-Shirt Day and submit my application.

BTW, tomorrow is National Prosecco Day and National Filet Mignon Day. I'm hoping Prosecco pairs well with Filet Mignon though it is a sparkling white wine and I have always thought you are supposed to drink reds with red meat. Though sparkling wine doesn't really go with anything. But at least I have a couple of t-shirt designs for tomorrow.  I do wonder why the National Day Calendar didn't have National Sewing Machine Day on its list. Wait, let me do a Google search.

So the little bastard ChattyGPT told me it was National Sewing Machine Day, but turns out it was June 13th. You can't trust that AI asshole. Why would it lie about National Sewing Machine Day but tell the truth about National Middle Child Day and National vinyl Record Day?

My Trump supporting brother who lives in Idaho was a middle child. And if you've read my blog for any amount of time you know how I feel about him. So they can stick their National Middle Child Day somewhere where the sun don't shine...Alaska would be a good place. 

I'm kind of okay with national Vinyl Record Day. It's no National Filet Mignon Day, mind you, which is rare anyway you slice it. 

Not sure how I go off on a National "Something" Day today. I spent most of my time creating Mothman goes to... designs.  I will end with one of my favorites.

Try to get that one out of your brain.

A little fear (and a lot of loathing)

 

No, I'm not visiting Boise. I just did a small series riffing on Hunter S. Thompson and imagined him going to Boise instead of Las Vegas. I think he would have needed some stronger drugs.

I also kicked off a new series of "Mothman goes to..." that was inspired by "Fear and Loathing in Boise."

Notice all of the images feature the Idaho State Capitol building. There just isn't much else iconic about Boise that you can put in a design.  I toyed with adding some potatoes, but I went the high road and stuck with the Capitol Building. 

I remember going on field trips to the Capitol Building when I was in grade school. Pretty much the most fascinating thing to my young self was this story of a guy cleaning the highest point inside the Capitol dome and falling to his death on the marble floors below. Not sure if it was true, but it was a lot more interesting than the Idaho Legislature chambers.

So far I've got designs with Mothman going to Boise, Seattle, New Orleans and Hollywood. I actually have two for New Orleans, one for Mardi Gras and one for the French Quarter.

I've got one in the works for Las Vegas. I'm trying to decide where else to take him. The garment district in New York seems like someplace he'd really like.

Like a mothman to a flame

 

I admit I've never really thought about Mothman much. But I saw a t-shirt design that just said "Mothman" and had a crude picture of a moth creature and I knew I could do better. And I think I did. But I did look on teepublic.com and there are 50 pages of Mothman designs. So the odds of anyone actually seeing mine are pretty slim.

I was kind of fascinated by the idea that Mothman would be attracted to porchlights just like a regular moth. And then there would be that inevitable moment of truth when he encounters a bug zapper.

The problem is, people who like stuff like Mothman don't seem to have a sense of humor about it. It's hard to be afraid of a Mothman who tilts with windmills like Don Quixote, has a love affair with porch lights or meets its end with a bug zapper.  So my earning capacity with these designs seems limited.

You know what I say?

Ennui the people

 I was e-mailing someone at work today and made a sarcastic comment and they replied something about there is nothing like a little "existential ennui" on a Friday.  I like the way existential ennui we sounds but I have to confess I have never totally known what ennui is. ChattyGPT explained that it is a "profound, existential kind of boredom, where someone might feel wear or jaded due to monotony or a lack of meaningful activity. The term is often used to describe a sense of disillusionment or the fatigue that comes from a routine, unfulfilling life."

Okay, that more or less describes my unfulfilling work life. But it doesn't describe the joy I find creating t-shirt designs or flipping stuff I find at Goodwill for much more than paid for it (though right now my eBay career has stalled because no one seems to be buying vintage crap...I blame Trump). 

Now existential ennui cuts more into confronting the absurdity or meaninglessness of life. That just comes with old age (and don't let any geriatric Pollyanna tell you different). Though I couldn't stomach people with an overly positive outlook when I was young, either. 

And speaking of overly optimistic points of view, I went to a Titanic exhibit a couple of days ago in downtown Seattle. For some reason I have always been fascinated by the Titanic.  It was the largest floating object ever built at the time and was supposed to be unsinkable. And what happens on its maiden voyage? It hits an iceberg and sinks. Isn't that ironic, Alanis?

 And many of the third class passengers on the Titanic were originally booked on another ship and got transferred over at the last minute because of problems with their original ship.  So how sucky is that? The only suckier thing would be the people who booked the most expensive cabin on the ship which they said would cost about $80,000 in todays money. Lot of good that splurge did them. 

Oh well...

Well, in some places, it can, but look at the bright side...

Did you ever dance with the Devil?

 

Is it a coincidence that Trump dyes his hair (and face) red and his followers all where red? Could he be, in fact, the devil? I doubt it because I've always assumed the Devil was fairly intelligent. He is supposed to have been a fallen angel that got sick of serving in heaven and decided it was better to rule in hell than serve in heaven.

As I come closer to retirement and ruling my own life, I can relate. Not that my job was comparable to serving in heaven. But it is a hell of a lot nicer to work for yourself. Not that I will ever truly do whatever I like without someone wagging their finger at me. 

Gemini Cricket helped me with this "Dance with the Devil" image. In some ways I like it's stuff better than Artie over at Ideogram. Gemini is more abstract and deep whereas Artie can be pretty damned literal. I like this Devil (though it looks very much like all of the cow images Gemini seems to spit out no matter what image I ask for. At least this one is red.

I was reading this e-mail spam from a British guy teepublic.com suggested I read to learn how to design t-shirts. He has been dissing on AI because it threatens people who "create their own quality designs." Now he is is admitting that AI can produce some pretty bitchin' designs in a fragment of the time the "designers" do. And he begrudgingly admits that the designs are nothing without a good idea. But he did raise the concern that you can't copyright AI designs so anyone can steal them from you if you post them in your storefronts.

I asked ChattyGPT about this and it pontificated for awhile about it is a gray area. If you just ask AI to barf up a design and you post it, technically you can't say it is yours. But if you give fairly detailed instructions and alter the designs to meet your expectations, then technically you can say it is your design and potentially can copyright it.

Duh. That's what I have been saying from the beginning. Art AI still takes a great deal of work to direct it and get it into a form that makes a great design. I don't even ask Gemini for headlines most of the time. It takes me so long to clean up text that I've taken to just asking for images and then adding my own headlines. 

So I do a lot of dancing with the devil to create my designs. And they are all my ideas (even if they are based on movie lines). 

See, I was able to repurpose a spare Grinning Reaper who truly does see dead people.  And to give credit to the "Sixth Sense" where the "I see dead people" line came from in the first place I created this design.

It's a pity that there are probably generations of people now who don't get the reference. It is the downside of being old and working with my version of popular culture. I do try and keep up with thing that are trending but I have to admit things change very rapidly in the age of Tik Tok and the Internet and many of the trends so seem very stupid to me.

I mentioned I go through the 6 dollar t-shirt site periodically and ask ChattyGPT what some of the t-shirts that I don't get mean.  That's where I found out about a meme that was trending some time ago that I sort of knew about but didn't pay any attention to.

Doge was a meme that  featured a Shiba Inu dog from Japan called Kabosu, It was posted by a Japanese kindergarten teacher. "Doge" was intentionally misspelled (this was before AI Art) and the memes all had words like "So," and "Very." This was all back in 2013 and I just now found out about it. The doge is "so very" dead now. Ironically, my son had a "Doge" phone case for a couple of years and I just thought he like Shiba Inus. 

Oh well, may be I'll catch up to the trends before I die.

It's all relative

 

I'd like to think that I'm raising the bar on t-shirt design subjects. In my quest for new designs I run into obscure topics that really only appeal to a very niche audience in very specific fields. But as I mentioned, this journey of mine into creative directing AI down less travelled paths is providing me quite the education. Take Einstein's general theory of relativity, versus  his E=mc2 theory of relativity which is also know as special relativity (as in "it's so special.") Basically E is energy, m is mass, and c is the speed of light. So the "you're so special" theory of relative deals with the speed of light and something about the laws of physics being the same for all observers moving at the same rate in relation to each other. 

But Einstein also had a general theory of relativity.  It extends the principle of relativity to include gravity and acceleration. It posits that gravity isn't a force, it is the product of mass and energy throwing a curveball with spacetime. The formula for the general theory of relativity isn't as easy to remember as E=mc2.  It is Gμν​+Λgμν​=c48πG​Tμν​ (which is about as intelligible to me as Klingon).  Gμν represents the spacetime curvature. Λ represents the cosmological constant or the energy that just hangs around in empty space. gμν​ is the metric tensor (the tool that allows us to measure distances and angles in space and time), G is the gravitational constant, c is the speed of light and Tμν​ is the stress-energy tensor (a mathematical object that describes how matter and energy are distributed in space and time). 

You following me so far? 

As I understand it (which is very little) general relativity gives a framework for understanding the dynamic nature of the cosmos including why the universe is expanding.  In that theory is the suggestion that time runs slower in stronger gravitational fields, light goes around really big objects and black holes are places where gravity is so strong that even light can't get out of them.

The important thing about general relativity is that it gave me an idea for a really bitchin' t-shirt design with Einstein dressed like a General. 

And what else did I learn today?

"Rocket 69" was a song released in 1951 that sounded like it was about a rocket ship but it was really about very dirty sex (and I mean dirty sex in a very positive way that escaped the censors in the repressive 1950s). 

I also learned about the Sri Yantra.

Sri Yantra is a mystical diagram used in Hinduism. It has nine interlocking triangles that surround a central point known as a bindu. These triangles represent the cosmos and the human body and are a symbol of the union of the masculine and feminine divine (so it kind of relates to "Rocket 69.") The Sri Yantra is used in mediation and worship to focus the mind and achieve spiritual insight. It is also used to invoke the goddess Lalita Tripura Sundari, the supreme deity in the Hindu Shakta tradition. She represents beauty, wisdom, and power.

I also incorporated a bowl of Udon into a t-shirt design.

So I think I've had a pretty profound and productive day.