So for my March Something Old, Something New project, I decided to try writing a graphic novel using some of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) software I've been reading about. I based it on the Coding Critters robot kit I bought for Hazel's birthday, Blazer the Dragon (you have to have a bit of imagination to see this robot as a dragon). I started with Chat GPT, a chatbot technology for generating text, and asked it to create a children's story about a red dragon. The story it generated was a bit dumb, but the part I liked was that it named the dragon, Ruby - much better name than Blazer. This robot set comes with a catapult, so I sent a new query to Chat GPT asking it to create a story about a red dragon with a catapult. It came back saying that Ruby loved marshmallows. I tried several more iterations with Chat GPT, but basically I ended up writing my own story about Ruby, the red dragon, who saves Jellybean Junction from the mischievous googlins by launching marshmallows at them with her catapult. BTW, after doing a little research, I found out there are no children's stories about a female dragon; they're all male. Interesting.
Next, I tried using Canva to generate images for my graphic novel, but that was even worse unless you bought the premium version of the chatbot (I was using the free version). I wouldn't have minded buying the premium version, except I found out that no one would be able to see the images it created if they also didn't own the premium version. Again, I decided just to draw it on my own with my iPad. So this is one of the scenes I created. I turned it into a 12-page coloring book for Hazel, but figured that was enough. Maybe I'll try again next winter when the AI software is a little more developed.
So for my April Something Old, Something New challenge, I thought I'd try gluten-free baking. No special reason, except that I found a cookbook in our clubhouse library that looked easy. For my first attempt, I made some biscuits to go with our Easter dinner. They weren't too terrible straight out of the oven, but the next day, they tasted sort of greasy - not surprising, because gluten-free baking doesn't use traditional flour. Instead, they make doughs out of butter, cheese, eggs, sour cream, and a little bit of almond "flour," which is basically ground almonds.
I'm going to try one more recipe out of the cookbook, but I doubt anything is going to replace good old-fashioned gluten-full baking for me and Bruce. He bought this cinnamon coffee cake at the grocery store last week that was delicious!
In other news, Bruce and I took Charlie over to the prairie dog park. He was absolutely hysterical running from hole to hole every time a prairie dog popped its head out. I felt like we were playing the Wack-a-Mole game. He always looked so puzzled every time he looked down a hole wondering where the prairie dogs had gone.
I went to a demonstration on Art Quilts up at the clubhouse. This lady is extremely talented and has won awards at several art shows. This was a hands-on demo where we made miniature wall hangings to take home. It's hard to see, but most of the design is made by sewing buttons, beads, laces, and other trims onto the fabric. Thank goodness they were only 8" x 6", or I would be working on this until Christmas.
The snow has finally melted around here, so I went out on a bike ride to the Fika coffee shop. It was actually warm enough for us to sit outside in the sun. The snow hasn't technically stopped (they say March and April are the snowiest months in Colorado), but at least the snow melts off quickly when it does come. The skies are clear, so you get great views of the mountains, but I swear the pollen is worse here than it was in St Louis.
I stopped off at the Legends coffee shop before going to Walmart one day. They have a chili mocha that is really spicy - very different from the sweet stuff you get at Starbucks. I stayed around to sketch for a little while, but by 9am, the place was so noisy, I decided to leave. As I was walking out the door, I wondered why no one was at work, since everyone in the place looked to be in their 40's. I guess coffee shops are the new office (though I didn't see anyone on a laptop or phone).
