I didn't take any photographs to illustrate this post, but I'm going to have to start taking pictures again. I used to take a lot of photographs to try and build those skills in secret. I don't have to do that in secret anymore (thankfully). But companies are asking for photography and videography skills. I already detailed what I'm doing in terms of videography (a few stories have been sent in, I should be able to post one Story Time video next week, even if the housing association sort out what they were meant to sort out three weeks ago).
Luckily, I spent a few years taking selfies to keep the creeps away (it was to stop the in person creeps and creepettes from targeting me, not to stop online creeps as obviously posting selfies attracts more of them and in all honestly some creep living in his mother's basement is not a threat to my safety, the people in person, however, are). Those really helped my photography skills. Then I started adding filters and messing around with the digital darkrooms. As the selfies had the effect I was going for (for the most part, I still get nasty messages from people connected to my ex and I'm not sure if there's been a data breach or if one of these losers who can't handle the word "no" is still pissed off that I snapped at his persistence, but I keep getting emails saying I signed up for adult sites). But for the most part, all but the most persistent of local area creeps have stopped and I get left alone. Unfortunately, the remaining ones are absolutely terrifying.
But I won't be doing the selfie thing again. It served its purpose. I will start photographing random, more interesting bits of litter again (like old cassettes). But for the most part, I will arrange toys in a scene. When I was sorting through my son's room the other day, I saved dinosaurs and Playmobile figures from going into the charity donation pile or the loft containers. If I get a decent size royalty payment I'll pick up a Sylvanian Families Playset from Home Bargains (if they have any). I'll just have some fun with it. And I might post some of these pictures on social media or deviant art.
I'm not sure of the laws (mainly copyright) regarding selling cards and prints with branded products in them, but non-branded things, if there's a call for it, I can put them up on my Redbubble. As this is a skill building exercise and not a project, I won't be looking into and trying to make sense of the relevant copyright laws and then trying to get permission from the companies to use their products in for-profit prints. I obviously have better things to do, so you'll just have to make due with non-branded products in prints.
At the interview I had for a job I would really like (even though the skill set needed is a bit different from what was advertised), I was told photographs taken on my phone are fine. When I finished university, I did want a proper camera setup, but I think with how powerful mobile phone cameras have become these days, using mine and then adjusting things afterwards (rather than adjusting the camera) will be fine. Even the i-Phone camera is pretty decent (and maybe the settings can be manually adjust before taking a photograph, in all the years of using an i-Phone, that has never come up).
In other job related news, apparently my CV is pretty impressive. That's good considering my age and current skill level and being a single mother and not being allowed to work in the field in which I'm qualified to work in for ten really long and horrible years (people are fucking cunts, the system was set up and run by insecure cunts, I hope they actually seek treatment for their insecurities so they don't take out on people in their personal lives - mainly their children). I really focused on redeveloping lost skills from 2018 onwards, with things speeding up when social media kindly bought me my last MacBook and then some more during the lockdowns (peace at last). I need to hone some of those skills now and redevelop ones that were neglected (and even develop skills I never had the chance to develop in the first place).
In terms of this Bank Holiday Weekend, I did a lot. It doesn't seem like it though. I did a lot in the house, particularly with cleaning. But there's still more to do: the person who was going to help me get things into the loft came down with COVID, so once he recovers, he'll come help; still waiting on the window and skirting board from the housing association so I can put the contents of the china cabinet away, then I have to buy my son a new bed and mattress before we can have his bed dismantled and then paint in there, followed by the landing. The room of shame is definitely waiting until next year. I am hoping to purchase a new TV in the Black Friday sales this year, but new front room furniture that fits a bit better will be done with the room of shame so we can hopefully move some things (mainly books) into the room of shame.
I have been working on getting together my Godless releases for the rest of the year. Pig Fucker will be returning from the dead in time for Halloween. And I am working on a second Satan's Yeast Infection as the first one has proved so popular (plus Marmite is still available and Marmite infused products are still kicking other products off supermarket shelves). Then, of course, there's my Christmas stories. All three Leon stories will be found together in one ebook. The Dog Dies at the End is still going strong on godless despite it being April (thank you). The Leon stories were written one after the other, whereas the only thing that connects the two stories in The Dog Dies at the End is the dog dies.
What is going on with my house and how many job applications I need to fill in (some of these are brutal) plus when I actually get a new job, notice period, etc will determine how many posts I make and how much skill building I have the time to share over the upcoming weeks, plus whether or not I do a Story Time. As I said over on the Story Time blog, things are a bit up in the air right now. Hoping they'll calm down soon so I can settle into a routine. I will get back to my AI postings once I have a routine too. I might move them to a different site so you can see demonstrations etc and have a lot of fun with it. But I just don't have the time today to hit up Semrush for some keywords, write a post and get the AI generator to spit out something with those same keywords. Plus there's been some AI developments. The one I'm most concerned about (for selfish reasons, I don't have the time to go into morals, ethics and the law in this blog post) is that the image generators learned how to spit out hands that look like hands. I have a short story due for release in June that has a main theme of AI not being capable of generating hands (plus I love the AI hand pictures, they are creepy and weird, I was even working on a visual project based on AI hands).
Thank you so much for picking up my books. I haven't been keeping track of sales this past week with everything going on. Don't forget, 56 Seconds is back in paperback. I will fix the hardback once things are settled and my house is as sorted as it is going to get this side of winter (it'll seriously only be a new smart TV in November, if I can afford one and work on the room of shame and new downstairs furniture won't start until the sometime in the New Year).
And before anyone comes along and tells me how to handle the work related stress, I am handling it. I have been under legal advice since mid-2018 with medical advice following later that year to not tolerate that behaviour. I also have a ton of medical advice from people with actual medical degrees in how to deal with it until I can escape from the person causing the problem. I'm going to listen to those people and not some rando from the internet who doesn't have their own life in order. The advice I was given works. It may take a few days to kick in, as things concerning stress often do (drinking or taking drugs into oblivion or trashing things or self-sabotage are not sensible ways of handling stress or the blows that life sometimes deals and all they do is create more problems).
Have a great week! Only two days of work for me thanks to the Bank Holiday and my son having a dentist appointment on Thursday (seemed pointless to go in on Friday as the dentist can be a whole day affair considering they are never on time so I couldn't take it as a half day).
Luckily, I spent a few years taking selfies to keep the creeps away (it was to stop the in person creeps and creepettes from targeting me, not to stop online creeps as obviously posting selfies attracts more of them and in all honestly some creep living in his mother's basement is not a threat to my safety, the people in person, however, are). Those really helped my photography skills. Then I started adding filters and messing around with the digital darkrooms. As the selfies had the effect I was going for (for the most part, I still get nasty messages from people connected to my ex and I'm not sure if there's been a data breach or if one of these losers who can't handle the word "no" is still pissed off that I snapped at his persistence, but I keep getting emails saying I signed up for adult sites). But for the most part, all but the most persistent of local area creeps have stopped and I get left alone. Unfortunately, the remaining ones are absolutely terrifying.
But I won't be doing the selfie thing again. It served its purpose. I will start photographing random, more interesting bits of litter again (like old cassettes). But for the most part, I will arrange toys in a scene. When I was sorting through my son's room the other day, I saved dinosaurs and Playmobile figures from going into the charity donation pile or the loft containers. If I get a decent size royalty payment I'll pick up a Sylvanian Families Playset from Home Bargains (if they have any). I'll just have some fun with it. And I might post some of these pictures on social media or deviant art.
I'm not sure of the laws (mainly copyright) regarding selling cards and prints with branded products in them, but non-branded things, if there's a call for it, I can put them up on my Redbubble. As this is a skill building exercise and not a project, I won't be looking into and trying to make sense of the relevant copyright laws and then trying to get permission from the companies to use their products in for-profit prints. I obviously have better things to do, so you'll just have to make due with non-branded products in prints.
At the interview I had for a job I would really like (even though the skill set needed is a bit different from what was advertised), I was told photographs taken on my phone are fine. When I finished university, I did want a proper camera setup, but I think with how powerful mobile phone cameras have become these days, using mine and then adjusting things afterwards (rather than adjusting the camera) will be fine. Even the i-Phone camera is pretty decent (and maybe the settings can be manually adjust before taking a photograph, in all the years of using an i-Phone, that has never come up).
In other job related news, apparently my CV is pretty impressive. That's good considering my age and current skill level and being a single mother and not being allowed to work in the field in which I'm qualified to work in for ten really long and horrible years (people are fucking cunts, the system was set up and run by insecure cunts, I hope they actually seek treatment for their insecurities so they don't take out on people in their personal lives - mainly their children). I really focused on redeveloping lost skills from 2018 onwards, with things speeding up when social media kindly bought me my last MacBook and then some more during the lockdowns (peace at last). I need to hone some of those skills now and redevelop ones that were neglected (and even develop skills I never had the chance to develop in the first place).
In terms of this Bank Holiday Weekend, I did a lot. It doesn't seem like it though. I did a lot in the house, particularly with cleaning. But there's still more to do: the person who was going to help me get things into the loft came down with COVID, so once he recovers, he'll come help; still waiting on the window and skirting board from the housing association so I can put the contents of the china cabinet away, then I have to buy my son a new bed and mattress before we can have his bed dismantled and then paint in there, followed by the landing. The room of shame is definitely waiting until next year. I am hoping to purchase a new TV in the Black Friday sales this year, but new front room furniture that fits a bit better will be done with the room of shame so we can hopefully move some things (mainly books) into the room of shame.
I have been working on getting together my Godless releases for the rest of the year. Pig Fucker will be returning from the dead in time for Halloween. And I am working on a second Satan's Yeast Infection as the first one has proved so popular (plus Marmite is still available and Marmite infused products are still kicking other products off supermarket shelves). Then, of course, there's my Christmas stories. All three Leon stories will be found together in one ebook. The Dog Dies at the End is still going strong on godless despite it being April (thank you). The Leon stories were written one after the other, whereas the only thing that connects the two stories in The Dog Dies at the End is the dog dies.
What is going on with my house and how many job applications I need to fill in (some of these are brutal) plus when I actually get a new job, notice period, etc will determine how many posts I make and how much skill building I have the time to share over the upcoming weeks, plus whether or not I do a Story Time. As I said over on the Story Time blog, things are a bit up in the air right now. Hoping they'll calm down soon so I can settle into a routine. I will get back to my AI postings once I have a routine too. I might move them to a different site so you can see demonstrations etc and have a lot of fun with it. But I just don't have the time today to hit up Semrush for some keywords, write a post and get the AI generator to spit out something with those same keywords. Plus there's been some AI developments. The one I'm most concerned about (for selfish reasons, I don't have the time to go into morals, ethics and the law in this blog post) is that the image generators learned how to spit out hands that look like hands. I have a short story due for release in June that has a main theme of AI not being capable of generating hands (plus I love the AI hand pictures, they are creepy and weird, I was even working on a visual project based on AI hands).
Thank you so much for picking up my books. I haven't been keeping track of sales this past week with everything going on. Don't forget, 56 Seconds is back in paperback. I will fix the hardback once things are settled and my house is as sorted as it is going to get this side of winter (it'll seriously only be a new smart TV in November, if I can afford one and work on the room of shame and new downstairs furniture won't start until the sometime in the New Year).
And before anyone comes along and tells me how to handle the work related stress, I am handling it. I have been under legal advice since mid-2018 with medical advice following later that year to not tolerate that behaviour. I also have a ton of medical advice from people with actual medical degrees in how to deal with it until I can escape from the person causing the problem. I'm going to listen to those people and not some rando from the internet who doesn't have their own life in order. The advice I was given works. It may take a few days to kick in, as things concerning stress often do (drinking or taking drugs into oblivion or trashing things or self-sabotage are not sensible ways of handling stress or the blows that life sometimes deals and all they do is create more problems).
Have a great week! Only two days of work for me thanks to the Bank Holiday and my son having a dentist appointment on Thursday (seemed pointless to go in on Friday as the dentist can be a whole day affair considering they are never on time so I couldn't take it as a half day).