It all starts with a Ribald Cartoon
Well, this character started when I was attracted to a ribald cartoon online. It was a simple, black & white, pen & ink drawing of two women standing on a sidewalk, and a “little” man (much shorter than either of them) walking away from them. One woman, who is scantily clad is saying something to her friend (who I show here) about her money being missing. Apparently she had an intimate location for stowing her cash, and the supposed joke is that the man of small stature had “a hand up” on being able to snatch the cash without her knowing it.
Now, I wasn’t impressed by the drawing. I have seen something similar in old issues of Playboy from many years ago. And I think that was the first, maybe only time I’ve heard the words, Ribald Humor. Ribald meaning risqué humor, a joke having something to do with a sexual connotation.
I came upon this cartoon by “chance” if there is such a thing. All I was looking for was a black & white, pen & ink drawing that I could process through AI and have the AI “make the drawing 3D.” And it really didn’t matter the content, I just needed a drawing.
An American Eagle and the Maltese Falcon
Recently I’ve found doing this can be a great deal of fun. The end result is usually of such depth from the original that it’s like finding a golden Eagle beneath a statue painted with black paint. This, a reference to “the Maltese Falcon,” who instead of an eagle, was indeed supposed to be a statue of a golden falcon that had been passed down through the ages, suffering intrigue, murder and thievery. But now Sam Spade, legendary fictional detective, is holding the bird statue in his hand and realizing its hidden worth. *I also had AI generate a Spade moment, but with a Golden Eagle. I love what the AI did. Classic, smoky, film noir.
Oh, and why the golden eagle? I was watching a YouTube video of President Trump speaking somewhere, and in front of the podium was an odd golden eagle statue. I say odd, because it was reminiscent of some of the eagles from the 1940s. See below.
and all you’ve got is a golden eagle.
at Presidential podium
AI paramenters that prevent baudy acts & Lady Liberty
So I have the cartoon and start to have “my AI of choice,” ChatGPT, process the image into a 3D rendering. But, it stops me, as it often has. Deep at the core of this AI are rules of “political correctness” which shut down any attempt to deal with suspicious material. You’re not going to be able to take the clothes off of the Statue of Liberty, you pervert. *I will say, I have had fun when the AI allowed me to modernize Lady Liberty into a green tinted modern woman, and I have run in several directions with her.
The modern Lady Liberty has something to say about Immigration and in a modern way, she has even had her welcoming statement tattooed on her arm. She will even hold her torch near so that you can see how she feels. And, I’m not really sure she cares that they are illegal or legal. And because her duties of welcoming the “poor and huddled masses” has been severely reduced in our current Administration, and because of the recent economic upheavals, she has found the need for a second job. She performs ground control at Joint Base Andrews, and quite often directs Air Force One to it’s proper position on the tarmac. And yes, she has been given permission to use her torch in both of her jobs.
I’m not sure that I like that she smokes, but any gal that carries a torch around has to find other things to do with it, other than just welcoming the weary to our country. I love the idea of her taking a selfie with her posing with her lamp and the pedestal on which she normally stands in the background. Always self aware. What a modern gal.
So, the AI stopped me from making the pen & ink drawing
into a 3D image because of the sexual implicatons.
Instead of looking for a different drawing to make into a 3D image, I decided to put the original drawing into Pixlr and remove the suggestive elements, from which I ended up with “the surprised friend.” In the first “cartooned” image, the AI has put a yellow coat, with a large hand warmer in front, and a purlple hat and purple dress with white polka dots and the woman had a surprised look on her face and is holding her hand up to her face. Originally she was looking down at her friend who had just been “pickpocketed.”
First you see the coloring & cartooning effect from the original pen & ink, black & white drawing. The character springs to life, with a yellow coat and purple polka dot dress. Next I “make her 3D” and her body rounds out. I then have the AI have her walking toward a park bench (all from my imagination) and it shows us her back side, which to me makes her behind look enormous. *If the woman asked, “does this dress make my behind look big,” I would have to respond, “No, the AI made your behind look big. I didn’t pay attention that her surprised look had followed her to the park bench. And then on to pushing a pram. Only until I put her in a phone booth and added a small dog did I have the AI get rid of her surprised look.
We then go for a walk and she stops to coo coo the baby and the dog turns and looks up to see what is going on. Now I’ve already determined that the baby in the pram is not this woman’s child and that makes her a nanny that has taken the child and dog out for a walk during the day. The phone booth is both significant and worrisome in that it locks this event in a time before the cell or smartphone as come into modern use. But then I follow the woman home, and put her in an easy chair and give her something healthy to eat (apple slices with peanut butter). Originally I had her eating a small plate of cookies.
She is sitting in her easy chair with her feet propped up on an ottoman, her plate in her hand and looking as if she might be watching TV. But, I could have just as easily given her a TV remote. But I didn’t give her a remote because I was still imagining her as living in perhaps the 1950s. The telephone booth would have made her living in England, but the original pen & ink drawing seemed more like New York or Chicago, although there were no distinguishing buildings in the image. Just a simple cityscape.
But now the woman takes on my personality which I did not originally have that intent. I have her check her blood sugar with a pin prick to her finger. Something you do regularly if you are a type 2 diabetic. I also have her weigh herself, which I do every morning. And here I have the AI change from a digital scale to an analog device, trying to remain true to the original 50s vibe. I have the AI put her in a “red dress with Jetson’s like symbols on it,” and the AI did superbly. But because it made the dress short no sleeved, I had to imagine that the time was nearing spring. She had been wearing a heavy coat, but now she is preparing for warmer weather.
And her is where I take her into the kitchen (my feminine side, although I don’t think of cooking as a solely feminine task). And I first have her do a stir-fry in an electric wok. Now an “electric” wok would first become popular in the 1960s so I’ve jumped her into the future by about 10 years. But, I’m comfortable with the ease at which she is cooking in the wok. I know this task from repeated personal experience.
I now have the AI put her using an Instant Pot Mini and pressing the steam release. The original drawing has the steam only mildly floating up toward the ceiling, but from personal experience I know the steam shoots out in a small powerfully directed gush toward the ceiling. So I had the AI change this and it did perfectly, even commenting on how this is what the actual steam release normally looks like. I told the AI that that was why I had suggested the change. And this was the perfect time for her surprised expression to return to her face. *I’ve talked with several women that are afraid of using this modern pressure cooker, and some have good reasons from having had bad experiences in the past. I’ve embraced my IPM and have had no problems, yet. Only positive ones. **I still know from personal experience that when you press that steam release button, and the steam hisses out in a powerful stream, it still surprises me each time.
And now I change to another thing of which I recently became familiar. The Stelo CGM (Continuous Glucose Monitor) which I used for a little over a month at the start of the year. My experience was almost totally positive, no pain or discomfort, a lot of useful information and insights and only one sensor that died at half-life and was quickly replaced by Dexcom the manufacturer. The 106 showing on the app is not a perfect number, but is a very reasonable number for a type 2 diabetic, depending upon when the test is actually being applied.
apple slices & peanut butter.
electric wok.
but still surprised by the Quick Release.
Bill Gibson, II 