2026-07-11 04:02:09
No one really prepares you for this chapter of loving a senior dog. At least no one has prepared me.
I thought the hardest part of it all would be the frequent vet visits, the scheduled medications, or the peppering gray around her muzzle. Those eventually become part of a routine. A difficult routine, but a routine nonetheless. What I wasn’t prepared for was watching my super independent dog slowly lose some of that independence.
Right now, we’re limiting Cocoa’s movement so she can hopefully heal1. She isn’t allowed to roam the house the way she used to, and we can tell that she doesn’t really understand why. She looks at us, wanting to do the things she’s always done. Having to keep her in place is harder than I ever imagined.
Caretaking for a senior dog wears on the soul. You find yourself noticing EVERYTHING, from the way they get up, to how slow they’re eating compared to before, or whether today feels just a little better than yesterday. You celebrate the smallest wins while quietly carrying the weight of what tomorrow might bring.
Cocoa isn’t just my dog. She’s my soul dog. The only way I’ve ever been able to explain it is that it feels like, in another lifetime, we were one soul that somehow found its way back together again in this one.
Maybe that’s why everything just feels extra heavy lately. The thought of mortality doesn’t just feel like a heartbreak. It feels like imagining a part of my soul being torn away.
But she’s still here.
I’m trying not to grieve tomorrow while we’re still living today. I’ll keep helping her heal, maintain her quality of life, celebrating the good days, and loving her through every moment we still get to share.
Because I honestly have no idea what else there is to do.
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2026-07-11 03:12:11
original post by skaetlett. i read this and i HAD to reply to it, because i'm sick and tired of AI-generated promotional graphics and cover arts, too! well, i'm sick of gen AI in general, but its use in covers/posters/etc. in particular.
every time i see such a poster, i think, "come on you cheapskates, are there REALLY no artists in your town that you can work with? you couldn't even just type it out on microsoft word and attach a relevant clip-art? you couldn't just take a photo or video with your phone? are you THAT lazy? well now i'm no longer interested." these AI-generated graphics don't even look good! they're garish and overstimulating, and they hurt my eyes to read. but most importantly, they don't tell me anything about who you are.
it's easy to create these assets when you're strapped for cash, using the methods outlined in skaet's blog post. we've always been able to do it ourselves without asking chatGPT to do it for us, for years. like, look at this. i made this in realworld paint (a free raster graphics editor) in like 10 minutes:
sorry for the shameless plug, but you see? it's easy! don't make excuses for using the environmentally-destructive plagiarism machine. there's nothing wrong with putting in at least the bare minimum of effort. skaet's post will help you out. be a human, be silly, be authentic, and be you.
2026-07-11 01:58:00
Like every other software company these days, my company has been pushing all of us to use AI for everything. Don’t write code, let AI do it. Don’t message each other, let AI do it. Don’t think, just let AI do it. From what I can tell this has divided people into different factions.
There’s a group of really smart engineers who use AI as a glorified search feature, maybe sometimes use it to help with their task, and move on. There’s a group that’s using AI to get some of their work done but still notice that its terrible at a lot of things and lean into those spaces. I’m in this second group. And then there’s the third group which’s been the bane of my existence lately. The shills.
I have a coworker that leaned into AI heavily when we first got access to it. He’d talk about AI and Andrei Karpathy and LLMs and Claude and OpenAI and Elon and Dario and GPT and Opus and Haiku and Mythos and Fable. He’d hunt for low hanging fruit tasks and get it done quickly and then would talk about how his AI has many mini AIs running and he’s the master of all of these AIs. He’s built projects, knowledge bases, knowledge graphs, graph projects, knowledge projects, graph graphs, knowledge knowledges, and project projects. He gives them cool names like neo, or cortex, or brainiac, or his most recent one Ultron. He’s operating as a 100x engineer, and every town hall meeting he gets a shoutout about how amazing he’s been and how every other team needs to learn from him and how he’s the perfect employee.
The thing is, he isn’t the only person like this. There are so many people in my company who lean into the AI thing. The other day we had a meeting of the bigwig devs at our company talking about how they don’t look at messages anymore, they have claude running on a loop reading and replying for them. And they recommended that the rest of us lower down the totem pole folks do the same. Why read? Claude can do everything anyway.
Someone recently made the mistake of saying we should use AI only when needed. They ostracized him so quickly, I see him eating lunch alone these days. I bring up the fact that I can do something in 2 minutes that takes AI atleast 30 minutes and I’m told that its not the "Company way". I’ve noticed people losing their attention spans these days. in a meeting recently one guy proclaimed that he’s testing out the new smartglass transcription feature and that he’s excited for the meeting. I caught him sleeping 10 minutes in.
People throw huge walls of text when I ask them a question and when I point out that something contradicts what I see, they stop responding to me. My manager was having a meltdown recently because he saw AI do something that he thought was revolutionary. It read a file and made a coherent sentence. Which he could have read himself, but he couldn’t be bothered. People make huge changes now that AI can do everything and somehow the humans that review these changes are the bottleneck. “Just use AI”, they say. “But start a new session because it will be a completely different AI reviewing your code”. Why don’t I slap you with my left hand and act like idk what happened because I’m right handed.
And the models. Every other day someone is like “Bro did you see the news about insert_new_model_here ? Companies are scared to release it to the public bro. Its that good bro. Our lives are finished bro.” And whose fault is that? You hype things up like you’ve lost every semblance of a braincell. Your standards are lower than my dead grandma, and you have no respect for yourself. Someone tells you that they’ve used all the work people like you - who used to be passionate about something - had put their heart and soul into and are now giving YOU THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to spend your money to see it. But wait! You have the rare opportunity to spend even more money! But wait! I am your friend after all. And I’m only looking out for you. This batch I’ve cooked up is too good. Some might even say its the best we’ve ever seen. That someone might even be me. Infact, it is me. Hmm. You really want some? Okay fine. But just a little okay? You know how this is really good so I can’t let you have all of it right now okay? And then you sell out your coworkers and your underlings and your leaders and other humans you’ve worked with because they’ve told you its what you need. Who cares that they’ll probably lose their house, and their insurance? They shouldn’t have had that starbucks that one time. Because clearly you can afford life. Who gives a shit about anyone else.
Which brings me to my question, are people idiots or are they tactical? One explanation I have for this is that people know what they’re doing and they’re doing it anyway because they could come out on top. And this makes me sad for myself and the world I raise my kids in. Are we that selfish that we would go to any lengths to get ahead in life? That we wouldn’t look at our neighbors plate and make sure that they have something to eat before we gobble up our 15 course meal?
The other explanation I have is that people are idiots. They saw this shiny thing and sold everything and their offspring for it because they saw all the shiny things the shiny thing was creating. They see a post longer than 3 lines and they can’t read it. They don’t know how to read it. But they still want the credit that someone who reads it gets. But how? Ah lets prompt AI to “Summarize this and give a thoughtful response. Remember to sound more human, I don’t want those people to know I didn’t read what they’re saying.” And they feel better, they got the cake without the baking. Baking is for losers anyway, its the cake that matters. They say its too much effort to learn something in order to do something. They care about the final product, who cares how they got it? We all die at the end anyway, who cares how we get there? Might as well just kill ourselves now. But we don’t. At least, most of us don’t. Because we care to live. And if you can care to live, you can care about the impact you’re having getting to where you want to go.
The last explanation I have is that people are scared. Scared that saying no and standing up to people in power will crush them. That they have mouths to feed and lives to live and its a tradeoff they are forced to make. Maybe they’ve been made fun of for trying and failing at something and they’re embarrassed enough to try anything that makes them more normal.
It really really sucks that society has come to a point where some of us have to decide if we want to have morals or a life. I have no answer to this problem. One of the reasons I started blogging is because I saw it as an act of defiance. Where I could speak my mind and I wouldn’t have to be scared. Where I’d find other people. Passionate, smart, interesting, hardworking, but scared. And maybe by finding each other, we could all be a little braver.
2026-07-10 15:01:06
In August, Red Velvet is finally coming back as a full group after two years with three dates of fan concerts and a new mini album titled Velvet Summer. But uh oh, seems like their comeback schedule was made with generative AI, and the Gemini watermark is even sloppily visible if you look closely. Of course this is going to start a fuss among international fans given the intense anti-AI sentiments among much of the international audience.
This isn't even the first time that generative AI has been used in something Red Velvet-related, and the K-pop industry is rampant with it now in 2026, at the very least on a visual level. But somehow it feels like international fans are still surprised by this?
South Korea loves AI. Whether it's for slop videos or "legitimate" uses, they're on board with far less pushback or controversy than in places like the U.S. A lot of the underlying reasons may be economically and socially driven, as Michelle Kim details in her piece for the MIT Technology Review:
Addicted to their screens, trapped between unemployment and dead-end jobs, and priced out of marriage and homeownership, 46% of South Koreans in their 20s have used a chatbot to read their fortunes, [...] ChatGPT, she believes, is her portal out of reality into a better future. Despite how fond she is of the chatbot as her shaman and financial advisor, she fears losing her job to AI. She still uses ChatGPT feverishly at work, as all her coworkers do, afraid of falling behind.
So it's very natural that it would make its way into K-pop, even as far back as 2023. After all, it's not like the Korean music industry is alone in this - generative AI is likely being incorporated in all aspects of much of Western popular music, but unlike in South Korea, there's a far greater anti-AI sentiment so they're just more quiet about it.
This debate of its use in K-pop is not new, as Tamar Herman noted back in 2024. While I don't agree with much of the piece, this part rang true back then and it still rings true now: "If K-pop fans really want to organize, this is the time."
But I'm not sure if I'm convinced this is happening. AI use in K-pop has steadily become the new normal, even if fans don't notice much of it. And these companies will only get bolder, and we'll start seeing more of those completely out of the industry attempt to use AI to generate the idols themselves, if not the existing companies themselves given their heavy investment into AI.
So if they're not happy with the use of AI, what can K-pop fans really do? Unfortunately there's only one answer.
Realistically the only thing is to boycott. Sure, fans can make noise online and complain, even to the idols themselves (even though this likely wouldn't accomplish anything at all - international fans admonishing idols is a whole another topic). But if they're still spending money on music, on merch, on tours, then any sort of anti-AI sentiment won't really accomplish anything at all. And that ties into another difficult aspect about K-pop, with its infamies of idols who go years without being paid a dime even with perceived success, as profits go to "repaying debt" for expenses stretching from their trainee periods to the actual production of music and videos if they even end up debuting. Do fans cause the idols to suffer over something they, particularly in the case of groups that haven't been around for several years or longer, have little to no control over? This has to be something that fans have to accept with any sort of boycott: veteran idols could see their value tarnished with the possibly incorrect attribution of lower sales to a lack of popularity, and rookie idols - well, they possibly won't even get opportunities to shine at all.
K-pop has only become more competitive over the past decade, with its international success leading to more and more new companies attempting to cash in on the hype. Dozens and dozens of new groups and soloists debut every year, most of which remain unknown both in and out of South Korea. Most of these hopefuls end up disbanding or abandoning the industry within a couple of years, understandably so. There just isn't room for most of them in a shrinking domestic market, one that has always been relatively small with a population of just over 51 million and isn't in love with K-pop as many foreigners believe. Over the past decade that led to many groups attempting to cater almost primarily to their international audiences, such as in the case of a group like ARTMS.
In the context of generative AI use, that ultimately has to be utilized by international fans as an advantage in this battle. With the bulk of income being from international markets, fans have to band together and effectively boycott an artist and/or their company if they want to enact change, hand in hand with messaging by loudly saying this on social media and elsewhere. Messaging alone doesn't accomplish anything, such as in the recent case of Mystic Story's plagiarism debacle with a wishy-washy pledge from the agency to "not utilize generative AI in any form that could compromise the quality or completeness of our work throughout the production process". Yeah, that's not a promise to not use generative AI. So you have to hit them where it hurts with a sizable portion of a fandom choking almost all of their income.
As Brian Jenkins explains in a piece by Taylor Glasby regarding K-pop's "AI problem":
The K-pop machine, like all machines, can be broken. No one in K-pop, says Brian Jenkins, even the seemingly indomitable Big 4 labels (YG Entertainment, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and HYBE) are infallible to failure when fandoms close their eyes and wallets. “It’s happened to all of them. As much success as they’ve had, they've also had quite a few duds. If fans don’t like AI and don’t engage with it, it’s not going anywhere,” Jenkins continues. “K-pop puts out tons of music every year, and a very small portion of it succeeds and a lot of it doesn’t because fans decide they didn’t like the group, whether it’s the music or look, whatever it might be. AI will be judged by the same harsh glare that everything else is in K-pop.”
So the problem then becomes: can K-pop fans actually come together to do this?
While there have been many weak attempts at boycotts or threats of boycotting for all sorts of reasons throughout the decades, there are relatively few examples of a K-pop boycott actually working. One such case is that of LOONA and BlockBerry Creative, with the company eventually crumbling to pieces and after some time all members of LOONA getting their contracts terminated to freely continue their entertainment careers elsewhere. But this was a very specific situation: the group was heavily reliant on its international fandom, the company had little other sources of income, most of the fandom was aligned on how they felt given the deceit and fraud that the idols went through, and there was a clear divide between the agency and the group. Given all that, it's relatively easy for an actual boycott to occur.
This isn't the case with the broad use of generative AI in K-pop. Opinions on its use and acceptability and tolerance wildly differ, even among international fans. Many use it themselves for all sorts of reasons. And it's less likely that the idols take issue with the use of generative AI in the output, so fans aren't able to use the idols' well-being or health or artistic intention or whatever as a definitive cause to support any boycott effort.
Aside from the general complaints about the use of AI, I certainly haven't heard about any such earnest and sizable efforts at boycotts targeting any artists or their companies. With regards to Velvet Summer, I have read a few comments that claim they will not buy the album if generative AI is used on the album cover or any artwork within (although it certainly seems like the album artwork is made using Gemini), but those are relatively few. Even my own position as a generally anti-AI person has been gradually moving towards a reluctant tolerance of it in the media I choose to consume, and I imagine this is what the actual majority of AI opponents will end up doing, at least as the "AI-ness" gets close to imperceptible. Or maybe more importantly in the case of K-pop, well, many of us still wish to support the idols we already like in their efforts, even if in 2026 generative AI is most certainly used in some form in multiple aspects of their output.
The unfortunate reality is that a boycott with participation from most of a fandom is really the only substantial action that fans can take. No engagement on social media, no purchasing of albums or merch, no attendance of their tours. Will enough fans be able to do that for generative AI? I have my doubts.
2026-07-10 00:44:00
AI posters look like what Christian rock sounds like.
Overly compelling yet creatively bankrupt. All the eye catching colors and fonts without any of the charm that actually captivates. Posters that look the exact same; glossy album covers where artists decide the thing to cut corners on is more art; and creative decisions that ultimately alienate their audience.
Some of the arguments you may have heard for AI art might be:
Well... aside from the environmental damages along with the plagiarism of actual artists, it's lazy. Why would I want to go to your event when you can't even set enough time aside to make a compelling poster? Why would I listen to your CD when you couldn't even put in the effort to make a proper cover? Use of AI isn't just lazy; it's rude and insulting to the people whose attention you want.
But how do you make a compelling piece without AI when you're strapped on time and skill?
First off: I think I speak for most when I say we prefer you make something crappy-looking yourself than turn to AI. This is one of the best promotional posts I've seen following this trend:
It's not what I'd study in graphic design school, sure, but it's miles better than any AI slop ever "created". But if you really want something that looks good without AI, without paying any artist a penny, here's a quick tutorial you can use for anything. All you need are royalty free graphics, the free version of Canva, and this image blending website I found in 2 minutes of searching.
Wrong. AI "art" is lazy. Bad graphic design is something worthy of reverence and endless praise: it is stupid (complimentary).
You can do this in two to four layers, dubbed the following:
For a subject, let's do uhhh, a Spring-themed craft fair. I miss Spring in the midst of these goddamn heat waves.
What comes to mind when you think of Spring?
Small flowers growing on trees? Easter bunnies? Sunshine? Groundhog day? Butterflies? Spring cleaning? Gardening? Wind chimes? A hellish academic year coming to an end? Any of those or something else? Pick one or two and let's go. Ultimately planning is in large based on instinct. You know your event, your art, your craft best.
I like flowers so let's do that. Let's use lilies for no ulterior motive whatsoever.
Now, when you find your images, you want to find something that is royalty free. I'm no lawyer, but basically this means you can use it for promotional and/or commercial uses (AKA event promotion and/or album covers). You just can't sell the image without changing anything. This is also called plagiarism, something ChatGPT is quite adept at, and if you play your cards wrong you can end up with a nasty lawsuit on your hands.
There are many websites you can use, but I like Unsplash the best. I'm just going to look up 'lilies' and hey look at that; a ton of images I can use for free! And I only had to type one word for it!
(note: the ones with a "+" by it are premium.)
I like this one, so I'm gonna use it.
This doesn't literally mean texture like a paper texture or how fabric feels. You can simply use a different photo as a means to make the first one more compelling. Typically I find using a pattern of some sort or a scanned texture works best.
I'm gonna try one that's a black and white flower pattern. With the Multiple option, this is what I got:
Now, download your blended image once you like it, and upload it into Canva.
You don't need to know what any of the specific blending modes mean; you can look it up if you're interested. All you need to know is that you can look through the blending modes until you find one you like for your poster. 'Multiply', 'Soft Light', or 'Overlay' are easy and my favorites.
You can also add a subject on top of (or in between) your blended images. This might make it more compelling, or it might make it too crowded to read. Ultimately, do whatever you want.
Since we're doing a market flyer, I found this photo of a girl smiling:
Typically, removing backgrounds is a premium feature on Canva and elsewhere, but you can use this background removing tool on delphitools.
Here's what it looks like. I forgot to document this, but I decided to change the image of the woman to grayscale. It looks fine without the grayscale, if a bit too much of a contrast.
The most important part of text is probably if you can read it. Typically, this is why you won't see yellow text on a white background. If you're struggling to read it, chances are people won't bother to look. You can look up text accessibility tips and find some options. If you're experiencing AI withdrawals by now, you can even ask your old friend ChatGPT.
I put in some basic text and this is what I got:
Voila. A poster for your event without AI.
(Yes there's a typo, it can easily be fixed. Please forgive me; at least it doesn't use AI.)
Please just try. I'm not asking you to make the Mona Lisa of event posters; I'm simply asking that you give it a try. And if you don't want to, or you try and you hate it more than these goddamn heat waves, hey - I'm just a gooner on the internet. Ultimately this blog post's purpose is twofold: shitting on AI, yes, but encouraging people to be creative. It's so much more worthwhile than typing a generic prompt into ChatGPT.
If you really are so allergic to graphic design, though, sure thing; here's another way to make a better poster than you ever could with AI:
But make your work stand out from this compilation of AI-generated posters for spring markets. Ultimately, the more different it looks, the more heads you'll turn. More eyes mean more sales, more attendance, whatever you want.
And hey, small bonus - you won't be using the environment-destroying plagiarism machine. Just as a fun extra.
2026-07-09 23:25:00
I love the idea of a status bar, like what I have at the top of my site. I think most personal sites should use something similar. It provides the feeling of a live look-in to whether the webmaster is currently working on the site or not, within reach of being contacted, etc. It's stupid, but makes your visit feel slightly more personal.
I have a guide to my status bar posted on the homepage of the site detailing what the different indicators mean.
To see other sites start implementing similar ideas would make me so happy. If you'd like to do so, I've created some simple examples you can use to get started: