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Bryceʼs ink bator
Notes from the Publisher ... Fostering ideas , conversations and arguments .
What a difference a week makes … and not always for the better . Well , I shouldn ’ t complain too much ; my latest cancer scans were all clear , so I ’ ll take the win and shut up . But , still , a week ago it was 75 degrees and lovely out for yard work .
Skip ahead a few days , and I was out of commission with strep throat and a serious sinus headache … and it was cold outside , wet , and gross . And I had a gig coming up , the first in six months with my band , Unicorn Fist . Four days of antibiotics had me back on my feet well enough to pull off the gig , and it was excellent . Despite being in the 40s outside , the “ outdoor ” stage at The Yardarm was closed-in and heated , and the big crowd was fantastic , singing along and dancing all night long . Having not played in six months , and then throw a lung cancer surgery in there for good measure , I wondered how I ’ d fare . Nothing to worry about , I guess . It was a breeze ! On to many more summer gigs to come ! But this old man is about done with 9 p . m .– 1 a . m . shows . I can get used to these 7 – 11 p . m . shows . It ’ s almost spoiling me .
Speaking of being sick , I think I may have incidentally murdered a squirrel , Shakespeare-style . Apparently , even if you have a big drum specifically made for holding birdseed , you shouldn ’ t let the seed you didn ’ t finish up in the fall sit sealed in the drum all winter . I filled the feeders a few times this spring before I got down to the level where I discovered the seed had gone bad . There was crusty mold , and below that , it was wet and smelly . Bummer .
So I took the drum behind the house and dumped it in the woods . Two days later , I found a squirrel lying in the backyard . He was alive but not enjoying it . I checked on him a few times , and he was always a bit away from where he was before , once coming up on the deck . Later as it got colder and misty , I felt so bad for him . I took him a bowl of water and covered him with a towel . But not too long later , he was dead . Did I poison him with bad food ? There are a half-dozen other squirrels out there very much alive and active , so I ’ m gonna tell myself no . But that doesn ’ t help him . He ’ s now out in the woods where I took the bad seed . So hopefully nothing bigger eats him and continues the cycle . Needless to say , I scrubbed out the birdseed barrel with soap and a brush .
And speaking of birds : My father-inlaw is a big birder , taking many photos with his giant lens . Occasionally he sends me his nature photos and asks if I can remove some evidence of mankind from the photos , like a pole or a fence or , even … a man , or many men , like people on rocks by the water below a lighthouse in Maine . And being a Photoshop kid , I carefully paint out those people or fences like they were never there .
This week , he sent me a photo of a man with a leather glove holding a hawk , but there was the other ungloved hand in the foreground messing up the shot . He asked if I could remove the hand . But I could not . There was a leather-gloved hand behind that hand , and I can ’ t just paint that in . It ’ s not like rocks or trees . So , I decided that I ’ d ask the new Photoshop Generative AI if it could do something . And oh … my … lord !
Painting out even mere rocks can take me an hour to look just right . And this new tool in the program simply says , “ Circle the problem area , and tell me what you want to do .” I wrote “ remove hand ,” and in 20 seconds , not only did it remove the hand flawlessly , it created the rest of the leather glove automatically and perfectly real . It matched the rest of the glove ’ s color , texture , and style . It WAS a leather glove . And it was almost automatic .
I ’ m not sure if I ’ m thrilled or appalled . It ’ s both awesome and , at the same time , instantly eliminates the need for all of my years of practice . I just obsoleted myself . I can see so many time-saving uses for this technology . Do you know how many great potential cover photos we didn ’ t use in 365ink because the dimensions of the available art were not conducive to the dimensions of the photo ? Now I can just tell it to fill in the photo with more room at the top or bottom , and it will fill in a totally real sky and trees or grass or flowers in seconds . And , yeah , I guess I ’ m going to use it because it makes for a better end product , faster .
But I ’ ll promise you this : I or someone I pay will still write the cover stories you read in 365ink . No A . I . there . And the cover photo on this issue ? Yes , Photoshopped a bit , but by me , not A . I . this time . Only because I edited John Potter ’ s great photo before I had tried the A . I . software the update installed . Yeah , I ’ m an old dog with new tricks , but I admit it ’ s only because the new tricks are so damned easy , even old dogs can do them . •
DUBUQUE365 . COM ISSUE # 459 APRIL 25 – MAY 8 , 2024 365INK MAGAZINE 3