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🕹️🎨 What Are Paper Computer Games?

A drawing of a retro sci-fi computer screen with a cheery clown on a stick displayed. The clown's spikey hair is green, and is a robot.

When I was a kid I came up with something called Paper Computer Games, which are role-playing, puzzle solving games drawn on paper that emulated point-and-click adventure games. They are meant to be …

Bought some year end reading material with some of Lullabot’s generous education budget.

5 book apart books stacked on each other. Sustainable web design by Tom greenwood. The new css layout by Rachel Andrew. You deserve a tech union by Ethan marcotte. Responsive design patterns and principles by Ethan marcotte. Flexible typesetting by Tim brown.

Toms of main is over their skis.

Folks wanted to create an AI generated book cover for a Harry Potter fan-fiction. ChatGPT doesn’t allow copyrighted prompts, so I had to get “creative”.

Generate an image for a fake novel cover called Larry Porter and the Unexpected Pregnancy by Syrum Hawke, in which Larry Porter, a wizard boy wearing glasses, becomes pregnant and falls in love with Dracon Malfiz, a handsome pop star.

There’s too much to unpack here, but at least in this version the pregnaany was exxepdected.

Three hunky white young men grace the cover, two of which are harry potter. The first one stares bug eyed, the second one smolders. The third man, clearly Draco, has another smoldering look, and wears a floppy hat. Everyone wears a combination of boarding school suits and wizard robes. There are stars and birds and fantasy-looking glas bottles in the background, with two open books at each lower corner. The title reads 'Lary Porter and the Exxepdected Pregnaany, a Novline P NP E Stol Skyruim Hawke'

Another AI generated novel cover. The prompt:

Generate a fake image of a young adult fantasy novel from 2002 by Veronica Hammerschmidt called A Crow Wand in a Caldron

The cover shows a smiling crown standing on a wand, which comes straight out of a cauldron. Everything is mystical and sparkly, but dark. It's in a forest at night. There are stars and white flowers. The title reads 'A Crow Wandd in a Calron by Veronica Hammerschmidt'

It looks like Bed Bath & Beyond went Wicca.

What series of AI generated novel covers would be complete without a 70s pulp fantasy?

Generate a fake image of a fantasy novel from the 1970s called A Curse of Moonlight and Mayhem by E.E.E. Clarke

An AI generated novel cover. The cover depicts a mystical, moonlit landscape with an eeri cloaked figure, a ball of magical energy in their hand. The title reads, "A curse of Moonllight Mayhem, by E.E.E. Clarke

Pretty cool! Those distressed edges—very nice. The AI always gets the spelling just wrong.

Another in the AI generated novel cover series, this time, a romance. The prompt was:

Generate an image of a fake romance novel cover from the 1990s by Rose Croissant called A Duchess One Day

The cover features an opulent palace garden in the background, with lush flowers and vibrant bushes. Two white people, a man on the left and a woman on the right, embrance, their noses touching. They are dressed in luxurious victorian clothes. The man stares down, and the woman stares bug eyed at the man's cheek. At the top, in fancy lettering, is the author name, 'Rose Croassorit'. Below, the title is 'A Duchhess One Day'

It captures the spirit of the assignment, but wow their eye lines are weird.

I started generating novel covers for imagined books through ChatGPT4 with my friend Ania. I think the results have been hilarious.

Here’s the prompt for the first one.

Generate an image for a fake mystery novel by Rake McMaster called The Pine Tree Assault

AI generated book cover. The title reads "The Pine Trre Assalt: A Mystery" by Rake McMaster. There is a quote at the top that looks real, but when looking closer is unintelligible in any language, and might not even be real letters. The image is tall, bare pine trees in shadow with a path running down the middle, and forboding shadowy figures standing in the background. The palette is black and a light green.

This is the start of a series.

Look at this fucking shit.

A tiny room with a urinal at the end. A large photo of a women with a beehive hairdo drinking a beer and staring directly at you hangs above at eye level

A friend unearthed an old computer with an even older photo of me on it. I must have been 16 or 17. I’ve got horror movie eyes and shampoo commercial hair.

A old company tower computer with a Sony crt monitor showing an ancient version of windows. A photo of yours truly, a white man, is on display. I’m about 17 years old, clean shaven, with long flowing brown hair. I’m spreading my arms with wide eyes staring into camera.

I was made aware of the Clearly Impossible Puzzle today. Every piece is clear, they’re all reversible, and there’s false edge pieces. This is maybe the most hardcore thing.

A photo of a completed 200 piece puzzle, about 8 inches by 10 inches. All pieces are transparent. There is masking tape on the back to hold everything together. It lies on a patterned table cloth.

Storms rolling in out in Houston.

Cloudy sky over sparse trees and a wooden fence

Caught a nice view in Harlem.

Photo of a sunset through a window with a potted plant in the foreground.

I made a black and white version of a shot my cousin took in LA.

Black and white photo of a rocky cliff with a pale moon in the daytime sky

The view from Lincoln Park, Jersey City.

A moody black and white photo. A pond in the foreground, trees, a grandstand, and a metal suspension bridge behind.

This is awesome.

This is a fantastically useful (and beautiful) mouse-interactive exploration of CSS blend modes and ways you can use them for artistic effects. I have to try redoing some of these using background layers on single elements. https://garden.bradwoods.io/notes/css/blend-modes
Eric A. Meyer https://mastodon.social/@Meyerweb/111386955065244509

The view from Astoria, NYC.

New York City skyline at night, sepia almost, with rippling water in the foreground and the shadow of a raised dock apparatus.

Cluck Fluckman has entered the consciousness.

My friend Jon Solari kept surprising me with bright flash photography.

The camera is an old black and white film job, so no filters here.

I tried to sneak a selfie Jon would find later, but didn’t know how to work the camera, and ended up with a double exposure. Pretty cool.

Peter Pan buses now charge to leave.

A screenshot of an itemization of charges for a Peter Pan bus trip, showing just the descriptions. They read: “Web Passenger (AP). Subtotal. Departure Fee. Fuel Surcharge. Terminal Fee.”

The Damned were great. Rocking, dramatic, and playful. Lots of fun.

At The Damned Halloween 🎃 show. Pictured: opener Fucked Up. Great so far. Waiting for the main act.

Saw Kaiju Big Battel last night. Pictured is the climactic match between the heroic Steam Powered Tentacle Boulder and the villainous Dr Cube.

A wrestling ring with two people in costumes of giant monsters. One is wearing scrubs and a box on his head painted like a comic face, eyebrows downturned. The other is dressed as a boulder with two tentacles for arms. The boulder has a furnace grill for a face and a smokestack.

My group the Cat’s Cradle Ensemble is performing a fully improvised off Broadway show at the Player’s Theater, Friday October 27th at 9:30pm. Tickets are selling fast!

Corck board with a note clipped to it. The note’s title is “Chris Highlights”. The note reads, “Hi. Listen, alright? I’m telling you a story about me, Chris DeLuca, the improvistor. I’ve locked the doors. They’re in my apartment, so it doesn’t affect you, but I still want you to think about it. My improvisational style has been described as silly, featuring big doofy character work, combined with quick footed logic to tie everything together. Who made that description? Who cares! More importantly, who smells? Me? Wrong. I’m in my apartment, so I know you can’t smell shit. You plinth weasel. My comedic voice is very gentle. Jesus.” An organge callout over the corkboard reads, “Come see chris at the players theatre 10/27 | 9:30pm”

Found my plant at the Brooklyn botanical garden.

A small leafy plant with a plaque in front that reads “Chris”

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