A-fucking-I images

Y'all are gonna hate me for this but it's been pissing me off to the point I can't think straight. Puh, more than usual, anyway.

*Inhales*...

...I get it. AI images, or "art" as some people call them, are a menace. They're not good at all, not for artists overall. Not even the environment, if what I've read is true. Which, wow, that's got nothing to do with me; I didn't fucking make the damn things, not my fault if I use social media.

But for little selfish creatives, ones like me who just fucking need a little fucking bone, AI-generated images are a priceless tool.

Look at this...

This is the evolution of my cover for my first completed novel, Inhuman, from 2017 to 2024.

...As you can see, it's...not good. Not good at all. Before this, I had never made a cover before. I'd done titles and logos for a good decade before but the theme and feel for the HUSHS series and Inhuman was just...so hard to figure out even for a logo.

For the longest time, the second to last cover was the "final" cover for this story. I had completely given up trying to find something or make something using free graphics or even some non-free graphics and stock pictures and vectors, you name it.

Then in 2020, I finally succumbed to using AI, first through Artbreeder before settling nicely with Bing AI.

Seeing my characters for the first time, seeing them given faces...I could have cried. I first made a cover for Inhuman, as it is my most recognizable webnovel, and...I'm speechless. This fucking cover is exactly what I'd wanted for it. With that final image for the cover came the brand fucking-new amazing title that I made for it. It's so different from everything else. I love it. It came together so...naturally. Because I had been given a tool to unlock whatever bit of genuine creativity exists in my fucking noggin.

But.

Do you fucking think I can afford to get the artists I want to make a highly detailed cover that of course wouldn't look like that, but what the fuck man? You think I can afford anything past $50 let alone for 30+ goddamn stories?!

I want and refuse to get anything other than high-quality images for my work, even if it's just a fucking stupid webnovel no one reads. Covers are no different. If I had money, I'd pay these amazing, envy-worthy artists a hundred times over just to see my characters and worlds in their goddamn amazing art styles.

Alas.

I'm poor. Really fucking poor. I'm mentally fucked up to the point that I can't make money through writing commissions as people have legitimately asked me to do in the past. I have a very real inability to do fuck shit.

If you are a good artist...I'm not saying people aren't assholes and try to wring you for nothin'. But I cannot imagine having a creative skill with which I can actually make money. Something honed with blood and sweat and tears that you can use to not only make something amazing with, something people always choose over writing when trying to get an audience, but also something you can make money with.

Can't imagine that...that luxury.

I made an update all over some of my socials informing that I have to start selling my body to make ends meet now. That's where I am.

Goddammit...I digress.

Bing AI and Artbreeder are free. I'll bet there are other AI programs that are free, but Bing AI is just...*chef's kiss* for me. I don't need anything else. I'm satisfied.

Fuck, I am so disheartened and mad right now.

I'm not saying people aren't misusing AI images, for fuck's sake. I don't even need to elaborate on that tomfoolery.

But people like me?

Why can't we use it, even if just for now—not forever?

I cannot begin to explain how much...better...I did (in the past) after I started using AI to visualize my characters, locations, and more.

'Course, I'm a fucking bobblehead now. Can't even think straight, I have such debilitating mental fuckshit going on...

Whatever.

You get it.

No, I won't stop being pro-AI images in certain circumstances. Not now. Not if it helps even a goddamn little for my already botched, pathetic attempts at creativity. It isn't the end-all-be-all forever thing.

I don't fucking WANT to use AI images.

So, guess what? Are you happy now, antis? I put all of the four years worth of AI images I had into a neat little folder on my PC and said "sayonara", 'cause I won't use Bing AI for anything public anymore.

S'not like y'all give a fuck about what I write for me to even attempt giving the stories good covers anyway.

But, hey.

What do I know.

I'm just...a sad, fucked up transman.

Whatever.

Thanks for coming to my sad, fucked up TED Talk.

Now go on, do that thing you want to do so badly and block my fatass for defending AI. We're all fuckers here.

The decline of rationality

|        This is a re-upload from my (old) newsletter, The Rational Organ, that was on Substack. 

‘Lo, ev’ryone. If you are still here in 2024, then you know what you are getting into and have no right to complain if anything I say offends you. 

Or targets you.

Yes.

You.

This early morning, I dealt with some shit. It brought to mind the problems I’ve seen with the “social justice movement” and other such things and, well, the general decline of rationality (and intelligence), of minding one’s business, and knowing when to stay the fuck away from something you deem “problematic” instead of complaining about it.

Where this started...

I was on Twitch, watching someone who I’ve rather enjoyed watching now and then. Haven’t watched enough of their streams to really get to know them, but eh. In fact, I believe they even follow me here on the Organ. Probably not for long.

So this, my fellow hooman, is dedicated to you.

It all started with a conversation about One Piece.

If you don’t know, I adore One Piece. I fully believe it is one of the greatest literary epics of the 21st Century and that its creator, Eiichiro Oda, is a goddamned genius. Hell, sometimes I wonder if he’s even human with the way he weaves stories so seamlessly and just pulls the rug from under you every single time.

So, naturally, I highly admire him and feel strongly about opinions of him.

I also feel strongly about stupidity and when someone is accused of horrendous shit.

I also feel even more strongly when someone is accused of horrendous shit without any legs to stand on and when that accusation is called an “opinion” instead of what it really is: An accusation.

You know, like Oda-sama was.

Or more specifically, like One Piece was.

One Piece has problems...

…but if I actually gave a damn, do you know what I would do? I wouldn’t read it. I wouldn’t watch it. So, evidently, the problems in One Piece don’t bother me. You know, me. The deviant. The pervert. *Chef’s kiss* 😘

Clearly, this was just a conversation for neither of us, with you being the sensitive snowflaked flower you are and me being the uncaring piece of shit I am.

The Straw Hat pirates, the main cast of the anime and manga

Okay.

I’m not going to get into the problems in One Piece because I don’t care. It’s not real. It’s not harming anyone. If people are so easily influenced by fiction, they need to stop fucking indulging in fiction.

One Piece is not racist, anti-Semitic, or Islamophobic. I don’t fucking care what Oda-sama has said personally because, unlike most people with functioning brain cells (or lack thereof), I can separate the art from the artist.

And for fuck’s sake. Stop accusing people of horrendous shit just because an element in their goddamned fictitious story is against the social norms or bothers your ass.

If it bothers you, leave it the fuck alone.

If fiction is an escape for you, you are going to be so fucking disappointed, human, for fiction often mirrors reality because you can’t escape reality. Fiction has rape in it. Fiction has racism in it. Fiction has underage sex and “sexualizes cHiLdReN” and actual fictitious children, ermigurd. Da horror. 🙄

If it bothers you, read a kid’s book or make up your own story and put all your effort and time into that.

OH WAIT!

I forgot.

You can’t even escape racism and pOlItIcS in kid’s books either! Now, children are being told about LGBTQIA+ issues, identities, and so forth and even teh critical race theory (why the fuck is it even called a theory? I don’t know nor do I care).

So, sounds like you can’t escape into fiction very easily, human.

Goddammit, I told myself I wasn’t going to use Substack like a blog. Look at me anyway… 😒

Evidently, I am extremely pissed.

As someone who dabbles far too often and far too deeply into the taboo, I know I’ll have to deal with this shit myself one day. And even then, I will not stop countering said bullshit, even if I’m the only one doing it.

To conclude...

One Piece has issues. But racism, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia aren’t three of them.

Anyone who says otherwise either doesn’t like Oda-sama, for whatever fucking personal reason, doesn’t like One Piece, for whatever fucking personal reason, or is projecting their own personal issues and gripes onto something that has no business in their life.

The Fishmen are the One Piece equivalent of black people?

The dark-skinned people in One Piece are caricatures of black people?

Some characters in One Piece have noses that slightly resemble Jewish people’s?

Are you even listening to yourself and have any idea how actually insulting you are being by saying these things?

This person didn’t even correct their chat when they had someone thinking the name “Al-Qaeda” was in One Piece. I did that. Because it’s fucking false.

Seriously, this person had no legs to stand on as far as proof of these accusations in particular. None. They—you—were so far left field, you didn’t have legs to stand on. You were using crutches. You were in a wheelchair. Fuck, you were in bed, lying down, bedridden, and in a goddamned coma; you were not standing on anything, let alone legs.

Stop accusing people of horrendous shit. That’s my actual opinion.

And no, you are not problematic, you are a boldfaced idiot.

There’s a difference.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Now go the fuck away, you disgust me.