Nicheless & Loving It #94

June 18 , 2024

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Greetings

I’m thankful today that I have an air-conditioned space to live and work in. My part of the world is experiencing a heat dome this week. I can’t ever remember hearing a forecast of a heat dome in this area before.

I learned that a heat dome is a meteorological phenomenon that can be part of a heat wave. In a heat dome, heat and humidity is held over a region through atmospheric pressure. While the temperatures are not expected to be high over the next few days, the humidity will make the days feel like there are high temps.

On another note, I spend the first couple of hours of my day creating images for my Daily Echoes. My generative art tool of choice is Midjourney. Over the last few months they have been talking about creating a personalization mode. I had difficulty envisioning how something like that would work.

Also over the last few months Midjourney has been asking us to take some time to rank pairs of images. We select the one we like or just skip the pair. Turns out, they used the ranking to build an algorithm to generate a personalized code to use on our images.

I’ve played with it the last few days alongside the style codes I’ve been enjoying using. I’m pretty impressed with the style of images I’ve been getting and how much they are the style of images I enjoy creating.

I’m always curious what Midjourney will come up with next.

Hope you have a great week.

ShadowsPub

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Quote of the Week

"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." - Alan Watts

Featured Content: A Year of Echoes

This past Friday I reached a full year of creating the daily images I now call the “Daily Echo”. They start as a word, become and image and then I write a quote to reflect on the image. That’s 365 images published, but otherwise unseen is over 20,000 images from which I’ve selected the daily image.

I’ve structured the project to use random words rather than words I’m familiar with. For each word, I explore its meaning, etymology, and how it has been used in various contexts.

I then want to create images that will not only portray the word visually but also how it resonates with personal growth and spiritual journey. I’ve created a ChatGPT prompt to read and analyze the images. First I use the prompt to provide me with a list of elements to be used in the images to create the visual message.

As I review the list, I gain a stronger understanding of the word.

Then I have a list of prompts generated to use in Midjourney. I often will edit the prompts to something I prefer based on my understanding of the word. I then explore the generated images to find about a dozen of them I think visually portray the word. Then the next part of the fun begins.

I return to the analysis prompt to have ChatGPT analyze and rank each image. The analysis gives information on the description of the image, the relevant symbolism in the picture, its ranking and an explanation of how the word would resonate for personal growth and spiritual journey.

When I first started the Daily Echoes I was certain I would encounter words that just would not fit in. Day after day I’ve learned, all words have connection when we look beyond the surface. A lot like people.

When the analysis is complete I have ChatGPT’s opinion of which image most strongly portrays the word and why. Using the analysis and the previous background information I’m able write a quote to accompany the image.

I shoot for inspirational or thought provoking, often through a question. Some days I do better than others based on the reactions to the images.

To celebrate a year of being able to share the Daily Echoes I created a colouring book. I used the prompts from the Echo images for the month of May and created a colouring page for each day in May.

The book is available as a free download here.

Day number 500 will arrive in late October. I plan on keeping going but don’t yet have a plan on how to mark that day.

Published:

​The Journey of 500 Days​
On May 14th I reached 500 days of publishing content every single day. It’s a streak that started on January 1, 2023 and it will continue for the foreseeable future. Here I talk about the journey I’ve been on.

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​Who Shared at PYPT on June 13th?​

Pimp Your Post Thursday (PYPT) is a live content curation show happening every Thursday at noon Eastern in the DreemPort Discord. Some great discussions take place during the shows. Anyone who creates content anywhere can share it on PYPT—community matters. PYPT is a community you’re welcome to drop into. READ MORE​

A Final Thought

"Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." - George Bernard Shaw

Take care and be safe, everyone.

ShadowsPub