Close Enough

On Thursday, after I had written Friday's blog post, I realized I didn't really have an image to go with the content.

I like to add an image to my blog posts, as I feel that it helps the reader visualize what I'm telling him or her. It also becomes a draw for when I share the blog post on social media, as a visual can be eye-catching. The same goes for the right-hand margin of my blog, where the popular posts of the last month are listed.

Because Friday's post was about me working on my novel, Dark Water (the name will likely change), I wanted to include a picture that would relate to the story. But I couldn't think of one.

I haven't been using my camera very much, this year. I attended a model shoot with my photography group in January, I took some self portraits for my 60th birthday (I've since shaved off my beard so should shoot new ones), and DW and I took a few photos of birds at Mud Lake, a few weeks ago, but that's it.

I'm retired, now. I should take some time to get outside and start shooting.

I considered setting up my camera to take a picture of me, typing at my computer, but my desk isn't really set up so that I could place a camera behind me or at the side. My workspace isn't conducive to capturing in a digital image.

Last month, when I first thought of Dark Water, I wanted to create a cover to the unstarted book, so I tried ChatGPT. As a previous post showed, that experiment failed terribly. But I thought I would give the AI tool one more try.

I asked the program to

Create an image of a writer at a desk, typing a story onto a computer. The writer's back faces forward and the computer screen is obscured by the writer's head.

And this is what it came up with:

It was pretty good, actually. The image was pretty much what I had imagined. Even the writer, from behind, looks like me when I was in my early 20s. And I wondered if it could age the writer.

Because many people say that I don't look like I'm 60, I asked ChatGPT to age the writer somewhere in between what it had created and where I am.

Make the writer a bit older: perhaps, in his 40s.

It wasn't bad but it was definitely not me. The writer was still as thin as in the first image but his hair was a salt-and-pepper colour, and he had a bald spot at the top of his head.

Luckily, for me, I still have a full head and the grey is minimal. But I'm no longer thin, regrettably.

Give the writer a full head of hair but add about 15 kilograms.

Oops, too much weight.

Make the writer a bit less fat. Keep everything else the same.

Unfortunately, I used up my requests. After my attempt with the book cover, I created a basic account, which, apparently, limits me to three images a day. I wouldn't be allowed to request a modification until late the next morning—too late for Friday's post.

The final attempt would have to do for Friday's post.

The next day, I tried my last request again, and I'm not sure but I think it's the closest to resembling me. Close enough, anyway.

But now, I'm determined to get more exercise. After all, I'll be on vacation in about three-and-a-half weeks, and there's some climbing involved.

Happy Monday!