For others, it’s not so easy, nor does it elicit any feel good memories to recount for others.
While I may be one of those who doesn’t have any of the mushy pleasantries to offer you, I don’t wish to make the prompt into something sad. There are many wonderful legacies being made by loving and decent human beings. Just not in my family tree, that’s all.
Though I don’t wish to point out the obvious here, aren’t most folks doing the same things as mine, when it comes to the average day to day living? I’m unsure what the prompt expects for an answer.
Being in my late fifties, I suppose that I do mostly what other mid fiftiers are doing… you know, worrying about my cholesterol, wrinkles, and hair loss. I suspect that it was the same for everyone around that age, back in my parents day, too.
Well, that’s all I can really say about the whole ‘what were your parents doing’ thing.
Cookie?
You don’t have to eat the one with a bite out of it… I was hungry.
Ahhhh, the laws of nature, the laws of Government, and yes, the laws of mankind, themselves. One might pick from any number of lists, in order to locate a law that seems in need of being changed. Would the change even remain, once enacted?
If we’ve learned anything at all regarding the law, it’s that if man is involved in it’s creation, modification, or even dissimilation… it won’t last!
After all these generations of humanity, we still struggle with racism, hate crimes, corporate greed and injustice, along with a completely inadequate educational system. Why is this still occurring? Human Nature, that’s why!
Until we learn that we never had any power in the first place, we’ll never stop making mistake after mistake after mistake!
I vote that instead of trying to find some law that we think we have the power to change, we start giving God the space to start making changes within our very hearts! Big, and very powerful changes are possible from the smallest of humble surrenders. I know who holds the power… and it’s neither you nor me, but God and God alone!
When I am weak, He is strong!
When I am lost, He makes a way!
When I am powerless, unseen, and discarded by a very broken and fallen world, He lifts me up, surrounds me, and covers me with His providence… and His Power! Since I never had the power to change the world on my own, in the first place, I never really lost anything of myself, aside from the fear, shame and self-loathing that usually comes with existence.
Since God’s the only one with any true power to change what needs changing, I choose to let Him do that which I cannot! That’s all I wish to focus on til I get home…
Eustace is determined that I should get Valentines cookies that won’t hurt my stomach, so he spent the whole of yesterday baking dairy-free, Gluten-free, and low sugar/sodium cookies… Oh, Joy!
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that they looked and tasted kind of like Playdough.
I’ve even thought a great deal about my dream home…
But it’s not nearly as easy to write about a dream home, as things keep changing, the longer you’re awake!
Beautiful colors, and exquisite designs fill the rooms of this dream house, but each time I try to dream it again, the rooms have all changed…
What makes something dreamy, at all, really?
Is it the sights, the sounds, or the smell of a dream home that make it dreamy?
I’ve found that when you dream on a thing too much, you miss all the other dreams you could’ve been dreaming.
Truthfully, that saying about home is where your heart is, or the scriptures about storing up your treasures…
those are really good things to think on.
You can stuff your home with every manner of beautiful, and yes, dreamy things you wish. Hopefully, you’ll come to realize that it’s not what’s in a home that makes it a dream home… it’s what you do when you’re there!
Love changes the way everything looks and feels, making even the smallest of spaces quite beautiful and dreamy…
You know, it’s much harder than you’d think to create images of myself in miniature… and even harder to make them look anything like me, at all!
I don’t know why it’s such a big deal to me, anyway, but it is.
For some reason, whenever I work with this program to generate images of the little model I’d created, it still requires me to go back and alter not only her eye color, but her hair color and style, as well. I get very irritated by this little daily detour the ai tries to take me on, so it’s time to make an actual avatar, or character, if you will.
I got to thinking about it yesterday, when I’d attempted to generate an image of myself for the daily prompt. Asking Norbert to create an image of myself dressed in a childish outfit, actually created a random image of me, but in small form.
It was actually kind of funny at first, but then I got to wondering if I could reproduce a similar image of myself for creating a child sized avatar. First of all, the child looks kind of mean. Secondly, I’ve no idea why it put me in that ridiculous pajama get-up!
So, I tried a different scene, with different clothing and actions, just to see if it might improve things.
Nope!
All I ended up with was a really creepy image of one of the von Trapp family singers from The Sound of Music…
Quickly, I realized that it would require an actual child in order to create a valid childlike appearance in the image’s rendered. So, going back to our little model of mini Wiwohka, I asked a similar question to the ai, and this is what it offered me…
While she is an adorable little girl, as you can see in the image, her hair goes blond and her eyes go any color but blue!
Now, OpenArt recently added in a new feature where you can chat with the ai, rather than trying to manually edit the image on the art board. In truth, it’s kind of like leading a child through an art class… very slowly.
I first asked for blue eyes and brown hair,
Now she looks like a small teacher, ewwwww, no! So, I asked Norbert to soften her hair…
Uhhh, no! Please shorten it…
What is this, Shirley Temple hour? Don’t get me wrong here, as I love that actress, but I’m not her!
So, I took the first image of the child and took it to my art board, just to adjust the eye color, which worked better for what I was looking for…
From here, I went back to Norbert for another go, but this time I chose to make mini Wiwohka her own beautiful self instead of trying to copy me! Why? Because, I’m not that little girl anymore, so of course it’s going to be an impossibility for me to duplicate the Now ME into an image of the Then ME. Hopefully, I’ve not just talked you into a giant circle. Sorry for that.
Before I finalize her into the actual avatar, I thought to ask what your take on her personality and image in this next photo…
I tweaked a few colors for comparison, but I can’t decide which is better. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Til next week, thank you in advance for any feedback, and I’ll do a whole fun photo reveal for her… hugs
While I could show you a video of my own very excited, and amazingly fantastic news dance, I’ll show you the video of how I learned to do it. No one does it better than Johnny Depp and Mia Wasikowska…
Seriously though, I really do dance a bitty Jig when I get really happy. You should’ve seen the crazy dancin that went down at the birth of each of my grandbabies. I could have been a star (not really).
The next best thing to do with good news is to bake cookies, and I’m very good at that! Well, at least I think so…
It’s amazing what kind of stuff you can find in a dictionary, but what if it’s not amazing stuff… what if it’s inamazing? Apparently, that’s not a real word, and I even checked!
So, what’s with Famous and Infamous? Why didn’t they just say famous or average… famous or unknown… or even, famous or boring? I think these are valid questions.
Before I go judging those who created the English language rules, I’ll make an effort towards some good old google research… that’s what everybody else does.
According to Google,
Famous and infamous both describe someone or something that is widely recognized, but they differ significantly in reputation: famous means well-known for positive, admirable, or neutral reasons, while infamous means famous for bad, evil, or scandalous actions. While a celebrity is famous, a criminal is infamous.
Sorry, but that’s sort of a silly reason to do that with the word famous. You’re either famous or creepy, so why muck up the language waters?
What stops us from switching up all words and giving them nefarious opposites by adding two letters?
I thought to find out how many words they’ve actually done this to… oh, and they call these words Antonyms, if you were at all wondering.
Google says,
Many English words form opposites (antonyms) by adding the prefix in- (or its variations im-, il-, ir-) to indicate “not” or “opposite of.” Common examples include accurate/inaccurate, complete/incomplete, visible/invisible, formal/informal, and sensitive/insensitive.
Ok, in some instances, I guess it actually does make sense, and also saves a good amount of time in explaining a thing… but all of them? I’m still not sold!
In most of these words, adding the in seems more like holding a mirror up to a word, and seeing it’s perfect opposite. But I believe that some words are too broad of a word to simply flip-flop it’s meaning with two simple letters.
Here’s where things get really irritating for me, personally…
Valuable and Invaluable,
Valuable and invaluable are often confused, but they are not antonyms; rather, invaluable is an extreme form of valuable. Valuable means having high worth, importance, or monetary value. Invaluable means something is so extremely precious, useful, or essential that its worth cannot be calculated—it is truly priceless.
Now, they’ve added a new in word, but with an entirely different definition to remember.
How on earth did any of us learn to read as children, honestly? Grown ups need to make up their minds, I think.
Open the door for a stranger, take someone’s cart back for them, allow a car to merge in front of you, offer a smile to encourage another, or even be bold enough to pay it forward, so to speak.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud… It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (describes the nature of love).
Journey With Me! 