This that and the other thingamagig
May. 22nd, 2026 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. Mother won't stop bugging me about finalizing a will.
Mother is like a dog with a bone about my will. Every other month - she'll harp on it. Latest? Telling me horror stories about her friend's children who don't have wills.
Mother: Do you have your will set up yet? Did you at least put together a living will? Why haven't you done so?
Me: I'm single and I've no clue who to put in charge of everything. Also not sure, due to recent conversations, that I trust my brother to do it.
Mother (proceeds to regale me with a horror story about her friend's daughter who is my age and on life support in a nursing home in NYC. And how they can't get her off life support, because she has no will not even a living one. The woman also had a lengthy history of substance abuse, including heroine...while I've never used recreational drugs, and never abused alcohol, never smoked, and am for the most part rather healthy.)
Me: I can't do this right now - every time I get anywhere, I worry about who to make as my contact. It's upsetting. Also -
Mother: Your brother.
Me: I don't trust him.
Mother: You are being paranoid now.
This goes back and forth for about ten minutes.
Fed up finally, because she will not let it go.
ME: I resent you for giving me an untrustworthy brother.
Mother: How is this my fault?
Me: You gave birth to him - (it was better than saying she favored and spoiled him and let him get away with crap)
Mother bursts out laughing. She apparently found this to be hilarious. And she can't stop laughing for a good fifteen minutes. I owe my father an apology, my insane deadpan sense of humor comes from my mother, not him.
Between guffaws of laughter she informs me that she's been watching (obviously AI) videos of kids telling their parents to take the sibling back, put it back, we don't want it. Which she finds hilarious.
Me: Did I say that?
Mother: What? No? You were three. And we prepared you for it - so you were fine with having a little brother.
It is just now that I'd like to get an exchange.
Mother: I'll probably die soon like tomorrow or the next day or next year or before you, and then you'll have to deal with it on your own. I don't know what I'm worried about.
ME: It is a given. You are 84 years of age, you most likely will go before I do. Please don't tell my brother I said this.
Mother (gleeful): I think I will.
ME: I have to be able to trust you - enough to tell you stuff. If you do, I won't be able to tell you things. Besides I didn't mean it - you are just driving me crazy.
Mother can't stop laughing: tee hee, laughter is good for the soul - I really needed that.
Me: glad I could amuse.
As an aside? It's not like I haven't drawn one up yet or investigated it. I do and have. I've drawn up two actually. The previous one is under the tv stand, just not signed. I had to draw up a new one - because I wanted to remove my church from it and a bunch of charities, also stuff changed since I drew up the last one. That one isn't signed yet either. It's the signing I'm having issues with. I need to have it either sent to me, or I'll just download and print it off and scan and send it back.
I subscribed to Trust&Will over the pandemic. It's an online site that legally prepares wills for you. For $200 it will review for accuracy (I don't have a legal trust - I don't need that.), My stumbling block is getting it witnessed and signed, I suppose I could go to a pharmacy and get strangers to do it, or maybe try my workplace. The site does state for a price - it will hunt witnesses and notary for you.
I'm procrastinating - because there really isn't anyone else to make a legal proxy, executor, and to leave everything to - but my brother, niece, mother, and possibly a 75 year old Aunt. And I'm feeling weird about my brother being my health care agent. OTOH - in reviewing the actual document, I discovered he can't commit me to a mental institution, or asylum, they actually have protection in there now for that sort of thing.
It's an odd document - it even provides space for you to make your last requests, and suggest songs to be played at the funeral.
As I attempted to explain to Mother - I only procrastinate about things I don't know what to do, or how to make them work. Also dealing with my brother makes me crazy.
Sigh. Hell is other people.
2. Should we be permitted to critique and analyze and/or review fanfiction (and/or fanworks)? Or is it understood to be off-limits by polite society?
There is an on-going argument about whether people should be "permitted" to critique and/or review fanfiction. And how fanfiction should be either protected, shielded, or off limits to any and all sorts of criticism. (ie. We must protect fanfic writers, who just want to have fun and not create anything of lasting impact or value.) - that's not quite a direct quote but close of a fan and former editor on Threads. [I'd tell you who - but I can't spell the name, or find it again. It's Threads.]
This begs the question? If criticism or reviews are off limits for fanfic, then are kudos or positive feedback off limits too? Should we just pretend it doesn't exist, and not respond to it at all? Or is only validation and supportive kudos permitted?
The latest spiel about how it should be off-limits to any and all sorts of criticism came once again from the Buffy fandom (do other fandoms do this? I presume so? But I'm not certain?) and it was on Threads. (This individual thought of themselves as old school fandom - since they went all the way back to the dark ages of 2007. I thought, no, hon, that's not old school fandom. Old school fandom is the 1960s with Star Trek and Doctor Who, before you could post a fic to over a million readers on the internet. Back then, they published it in fanzines handed out at conventions. (I found this out from Star Trek and Doctor Who fans.). And old school Buffy fandom goes back to the late 1990s and up to roughly 2004, when the show was airing live. You're not that old. (Not that old school fandom doesn't necessarily agree with your sentiment - the last argument I had on the topic was with someone twenty years older than me, and who dated back to the dark ages of fandom - 1960s Doctor Who.)
I flirted with responding and chose not to - it wouldn't end well. (Been there done that...back when I actually bothered to review and critique it. I don't do that any longer - either.) It never does end well. Note: Never argue with someone on Threads, Twitter, Bluesky or on social media who is in sermon mode or rant mode or on their holier than thou soap box - it won't end well. I have the battle scars to prove it.
But it is something I want to discuss? Preferably not with someone who feels strongly about it? (I don't read or critique fanfic any longer folks, I can't remember when I last critiqued or reviewed it? It was THAT long ago. And the folks whose fanfic I did critique? Are long gone from Dreamwidth and the fandom. So, even if I disagree with you? I'm hardly a threat.)
While I understand the desire to protect emerging writers from criticism, it's kind of counter-productive? How do you become a better writer?
Also once you post something on the internet, you are kind of opening yourself up to criticism. (Trust me, been there done that have the battle scars?) But every writer worth their salt gets bad reviews and critiques. And every writer has given them. The fans writing the fic critique the original creator's work - often their fanfic is a critique of it.
Add to the above? I'd understand this better - if we were back in the dark ages, prior to the internet, where folks sent stuff to each other by mail or traded it at conventions. But we are in the age of the internet? Where folks post fanfic to millions of people hourly? On various public and subscription forums, that publishers, editors, and agents lurk - hunting potential best-selling novelists?
And those publishers, editors and agents comb the fanfic for works they can iron off the serial numbers and legitimately publish. They also comb it for writers. (I know this - because various fans told me about it at meetup - one woman explained how agents and publishers were looking for a large already existing audience that would devour anything their fav wrote - so big fan names fit the bill. It's also how Cassandra Clare, VE Schwab, EL James, and various other Fantasy and Romance novelists got published.)
So, considering how poorly written most of these books appear to be? (I've issues with the romance-fantasy genre for that reason.) And poorly edited? Dear god, Clare was accused of plagiarism at one point. I think a good constructive criticism at the fanfic stage would have helped some of these writers. (And their future readers.) Because the publishers assume they can write, write well, and there aren't that many errors. It's one thing to be sloppy in fanfic, it's another to be sloppy in a traditionally published book - which presumably went through about five different editors, and costs anywhere between $12-$50 (special editions can run up to $80) depending on the version.
Then, let's add AI. There's a view that if the book is cleanly written without mistakes - it's by AI. (AI makes mistakes, and struggles with syntax at times.) But, if AI can write a book better than a fanfic writer - and get it published....
I've had this argument a lot. After the last one - I decided to read fanfic sparingly or just keep it to myself.
The problem with being a writer or any type of artist - is reviews are painful. They are also subjective. And tell us more about the tastes and interests of the reviewer. They are also important - because they are the only way you know whether someone understood what you were trying to say, got put off by it, or didn't get it at all - and why. It's the reader letting the author and other readers know whether the story worked for them, and if not, why.
I remember something James Gunn (the writer/director of Guardians of the Galaxy, Superman, Suicide Squad, Peacemaker...and show-runner of the DC franchise films and television properties) - he said: "I show my films to a select group of friends, filmmakes, producers, actors - to get an idea of whether certain things landed or worked. And I expect them to rip it apart, I want them to. I learn from that. I don't always agree with them. And that's okay too. It's all part of the creative process. Also, I'm genuinely curious to see what they think of it, what their response to it is."
Or Illona Andrews - who said she didn't mind getting negative reviews, because sometimes that would convince someone to pick up the book who might not have otherwise, out of curiosity.
Censoring folks - by saying a review, critique, or negative response to a fanfic is off limits - is kind of hypocritical? I mean, should fanfic that goes against the author's original intent be censored? You are using someone else's copyrighted property to tell a story, right? Maybe the original creator would take issue with you making Spike and Xander lovers? Or Harry Potter a villain?
The problem with Free Speech is - that everyone has it. Not just the people we agree with.
It's not like you can't ignore the critique? I ignored the critiques of my book. It's better to ignore. Stephen King stated once that he ignored the critiques that didn't help him as a writer. And picked and chose.
I just don't see how making critiques or reviews of fanfic off limits helps anyone? It feels a bit too much like coddling or coddling through censorship, which is even worse. And, if you are old enough to be posting fan-fic on the internet, you are old enough not to be coddled. People coddle teens too much. If the teen can watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they don't need to be coddled.
I don't know. I guess I can be convinced that fanfic and/or fanworks should be off-limits to critiques. It's not like I critique fanfic any longer, or fanworks at wall. I barely critique traditionally published or independently published novels any longer. So, no skin off my nose, either way.
3. Barnes and Nobel announced it would sell AI Books. And the internet along with various co-workers have been debating whether they should boycott Barnes and Nobel. (Poor B&N, just when they had made a comeback and were seen as the golden child in comparison to evil Amazon. Although, I've got news for people - AI written books are most likely in Amazon, and various independent bookstores as well. They aren't that selective on the books they sell us.]
To be fair, that's not exactly what they said?
"CEO James Daunt told TODAY's Jenna Bush Hager in a May 18 interview that he would have "no problem" selling AI-written books in the chain's more than 800 locations nationwide, but under one condition: transparency.
“Yes, I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t, and that it has an essential quality to it, and that the customer, the reader, wants it,” Daunt said. The key, he said, is to ensure there is "clarity" behind who the author is and if they're, well, a real person.
“So as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them," he added.
[Cubicle aisle mate and I decided we weren't going to exactly boycott B&N, just not buy as many books there. We'd both started buying them again, because we'd learned we didn't own them on the kindle.
Mother had to rebuy a book on the Kindle recently, because she lost the previous one - due to the fact that it was on a kindle she could no longer use. I don't understand why she couldn't transfer it to her current one - I do. But it could have been on my Dad's. According to co-worker - to get access to a previously purchased version on an old device - on a new device, you need to write customer service a letter and advise them that you had bought the book on such and such date and shouldn't have to buy it again. He said you have to do the same thing with albums you purchase on Apple Music. And if you upload CD's to your computer - you have to upload them again if you get a new computer, which is why he has them saved on a zip drive or back up drive. I said that I use the cloud. Everything is saved to that. But you have to subscribe and pay extra for it. That's how they get you. True - I have Apple Music, Apple Cloud, and Apple TV all bundled together. Then once they get you, they raise the rates. Sigh life was cheaper without the internet. He said he still had a DVD player, regular and Blue Ray, also DVDs, and a CD player - because of the licensing issue. I don't have the space for it. Although I did start buying books again because of this problem. Even if the kindle e-books are easier on the eyes, the others have faded print and you have to squint to see the print.]
I think there's a high possibility people will buy them. There's a lot of books out there that kind of written that way already, formulaic and paint by numbers.
4. Actors and AI (And James Marsters' sexy Spike as a Rock and Roller video)
I can see why Actors fear it - it's relatively easy to grab an actor's likeness and enhance it with AI or alter it, or have AI take over. I see it on Facebook and Instagram constantly.
Heck, James Marsters recently put out a music video of his band's song, Civilized Man, where he's playing the guitar shirtless, and looks 35 years of age. I'm willing to bet he used AI? Even though it comes with the disclaimer that this video used no digital effects. (So maybe not?) I wonder why he didn't do it while he was playing Spike? Whedon probably wouldn't let him? Or it never occurred to him? He really should do the Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" song in Spike get up.
Proving that he'd have no problems coming back as Spike in the Buffy Reboot. Annoying me all the more with the missed opportunities. I really wanted rock star Spike. Even as just a cameo.
At the very least AI may wreck havoc on the plastic surgery industry.
It works better on film than plastic surgery does.
Mother is like a dog with a bone about my will. Every other month - she'll harp on it. Latest? Telling me horror stories about her friend's children who don't have wills.
Mother: Do you have your will set up yet? Did you at least put together a living will? Why haven't you done so?
Me: I'm single and I've no clue who to put in charge of everything. Also not sure, due to recent conversations, that I trust my brother to do it.
Mother (proceeds to regale me with a horror story about her friend's daughter who is my age and on life support in a nursing home in NYC. And how they can't get her off life support, because she has no will not even a living one. The woman also had a lengthy history of substance abuse, including heroine...while I've never used recreational drugs, and never abused alcohol, never smoked, and am for the most part rather healthy.)
Me: I can't do this right now - every time I get anywhere, I worry about who to make as my contact. It's upsetting. Also -
Mother: Your brother.
Me: I don't trust him.
Mother: You are being paranoid now.
This goes back and forth for about ten minutes.
Fed up finally, because she will not let it go.
ME: I resent you for giving me an untrustworthy brother.
Mother: How is this my fault?
Me: You gave birth to him - (it was better than saying she favored and spoiled him and let him get away with crap)
Mother bursts out laughing. She apparently found this to be hilarious. And she can't stop laughing for a good fifteen minutes. I owe my father an apology, my insane deadpan sense of humor comes from my mother, not him.
Between guffaws of laughter she informs me that she's been watching (obviously AI) videos of kids telling their parents to take the sibling back, put it back, we don't want it. Which she finds hilarious.
Me: Did I say that?
Mother: What? No? You were three. And we prepared you for it - so you were fine with having a little brother.
It is just now that I'd like to get an exchange.
Mother: I'll probably die soon like tomorrow or the next day or next year or before you, and then you'll have to deal with it on your own. I don't know what I'm worried about.
ME: It is a given. You are 84 years of age, you most likely will go before I do. Please don't tell my brother I said this.
Mother (gleeful): I think I will.
ME: I have to be able to trust you - enough to tell you stuff. If you do, I won't be able to tell you things. Besides I didn't mean it - you are just driving me crazy.
Mother can't stop laughing: tee hee, laughter is good for the soul - I really needed that.
Me: glad I could amuse.
As an aside? It's not like I haven't drawn one up yet or investigated it. I do and have. I've drawn up two actually. The previous one is under the tv stand, just not signed. I had to draw up a new one - because I wanted to remove my church from it and a bunch of charities, also stuff changed since I drew up the last one. That one isn't signed yet either. It's the signing I'm having issues with. I need to have it either sent to me, or I'll just download and print it off and scan and send it back.
I subscribed to Trust&Will over the pandemic. It's an online site that legally prepares wills for you. For $200 it will review for accuracy (I don't have a legal trust - I don't need that.), My stumbling block is getting it witnessed and signed, I suppose I could go to a pharmacy and get strangers to do it, or maybe try my workplace. The site does state for a price - it will hunt witnesses and notary for you.
I'm procrastinating - because there really isn't anyone else to make a legal proxy, executor, and to leave everything to - but my brother, niece, mother, and possibly a 75 year old Aunt. And I'm feeling weird about my brother being my health care agent. OTOH - in reviewing the actual document, I discovered he can't commit me to a mental institution, or asylum, they actually have protection in there now for that sort of thing.
It's an odd document - it even provides space for you to make your last requests, and suggest songs to be played at the funeral.
As I attempted to explain to Mother - I only procrastinate about things I don't know what to do, or how to make them work. Also dealing with my brother makes me crazy.
Sigh. Hell is other people.
2. Should we be permitted to critique and analyze and/or review fanfiction (and/or fanworks)? Or is it understood to be off-limits by polite society?
There is an on-going argument about whether people should be "permitted" to critique and/or review fanfiction. And how fanfiction should be either protected, shielded, or off limits to any and all sorts of criticism. (ie. We must protect fanfic writers, who just want to have fun and not create anything of lasting impact or value.) - that's not quite a direct quote but close of a fan and former editor on Threads. [I'd tell you who - but I can't spell the name, or find it again. It's Threads.]
This begs the question? If criticism or reviews are off limits for fanfic, then are kudos or positive feedback off limits too? Should we just pretend it doesn't exist, and not respond to it at all? Or is only validation and supportive kudos permitted?
The latest spiel about how it should be off-limits to any and all sorts of criticism came once again from the Buffy fandom (do other fandoms do this? I presume so? But I'm not certain?) and it was on Threads. (This individual thought of themselves as old school fandom - since they went all the way back to the dark ages of 2007. I thought, no, hon, that's not old school fandom. Old school fandom is the 1960s with Star Trek and Doctor Who, before you could post a fic to over a million readers on the internet. Back then, they published it in fanzines handed out at conventions. (I found this out from Star Trek and Doctor Who fans.). And old school Buffy fandom goes back to the late 1990s and up to roughly 2004, when the show was airing live. You're not that old. (Not that old school fandom doesn't necessarily agree with your sentiment - the last argument I had on the topic was with someone twenty years older than me, and who dated back to the dark ages of fandom - 1960s Doctor Who.)
I flirted with responding and chose not to - it wouldn't end well. (Been there done that...back when I actually bothered to review and critique it. I don't do that any longer - either.) It never does end well. Note: Never argue with someone on Threads, Twitter, Bluesky or on social media who is in sermon mode or rant mode or on their holier than thou soap box - it won't end well. I have the battle scars to prove it.
But it is something I want to discuss? Preferably not with someone who feels strongly about it? (I don't read or critique fanfic any longer folks, I can't remember when I last critiqued or reviewed it? It was THAT long ago. And the folks whose fanfic I did critique? Are long gone from Dreamwidth and the fandom. So, even if I disagree with you? I'm hardly a threat.)
While I understand the desire to protect emerging writers from criticism, it's kind of counter-productive? How do you become a better writer?
Also once you post something on the internet, you are kind of opening yourself up to criticism. (Trust me, been there done that have the battle scars?) But every writer worth their salt gets bad reviews and critiques. And every writer has given them. The fans writing the fic critique the original creator's work - often their fanfic is a critique of it.
Add to the above? I'd understand this better - if we were back in the dark ages, prior to the internet, where folks sent stuff to each other by mail or traded it at conventions. But we are in the age of the internet? Where folks post fanfic to millions of people hourly? On various public and subscription forums, that publishers, editors, and agents lurk - hunting potential best-selling novelists?
And those publishers, editors and agents comb the fanfic for works they can iron off the serial numbers and legitimately publish. They also comb it for writers. (I know this - because various fans told me about it at meetup - one woman explained how agents and publishers were looking for a large already existing audience that would devour anything their fav wrote - so big fan names fit the bill. It's also how Cassandra Clare, VE Schwab, EL James, and various other Fantasy and Romance novelists got published.)
So, considering how poorly written most of these books appear to be? (I've issues with the romance-fantasy genre for that reason.) And poorly edited? Dear god, Clare was accused of plagiarism at one point. I think a good constructive criticism at the fanfic stage would have helped some of these writers. (And their future readers.) Because the publishers assume they can write, write well, and there aren't that many errors. It's one thing to be sloppy in fanfic, it's another to be sloppy in a traditionally published book - which presumably went through about five different editors, and costs anywhere between $12-$50 (special editions can run up to $80) depending on the version.
Then, let's add AI. There's a view that if the book is cleanly written without mistakes - it's by AI. (AI makes mistakes, and struggles with syntax at times.) But, if AI can write a book better than a fanfic writer - and get it published....
I've had this argument a lot. After the last one - I decided to read fanfic sparingly or just keep it to myself.
The problem with being a writer or any type of artist - is reviews are painful. They are also subjective. And tell us more about the tastes and interests of the reviewer. They are also important - because they are the only way you know whether someone understood what you were trying to say, got put off by it, or didn't get it at all - and why. It's the reader letting the author and other readers know whether the story worked for them, and if not, why.
I remember something James Gunn (the writer/director of Guardians of the Galaxy, Superman, Suicide Squad, Peacemaker...and show-runner of the DC franchise films and television properties) - he said: "I show my films to a select group of friends, filmmakes, producers, actors - to get an idea of whether certain things landed or worked. And I expect them to rip it apart, I want them to. I learn from that. I don't always agree with them. And that's okay too. It's all part of the creative process. Also, I'm genuinely curious to see what they think of it, what their response to it is."
Or Illona Andrews - who said she didn't mind getting negative reviews, because sometimes that would convince someone to pick up the book who might not have otherwise, out of curiosity.
Censoring folks - by saying a review, critique, or negative response to a fanfic is off limits - is kind of hypocritical? I mean, should fanfic that goes against the author's original intent be censored? You are using someone else's copyrighted property to tell a story, right? Maybe the original creator would take issue with you making Spike and Xander lovers? Or Harry Potter a villain?
The problem with Free Speech is - that everyone has it. Not just the people we agree with.
It's not like you can't ignore the critique? I ignored the critiques of my book. It's better to ignore. Stephen King stated once that he ignored the critiques that didn't help him as a writer. And picked and chose.
I just don't see how making critiques or reviews of fanfic off limits helps anyone? It feels a bit too much like coddling or coddling through censorship, which is even worse. And, if you are old enough to be posting fan-fic on the internet, you are old enough not to be coddled. People coddle teens too much. If the teen can watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they don't need to be coddled.
I don't know. I guess I can be convinced that fanfic and/or fanworks should be off-limits to critiques. It's not like I critique fanfic any longer, or fanworks at wall. I barely critique traditionally published or independently published novels any longer. So, no skin off my nose, either way.
3. Barnes and Nobel announced it would sell AI Books. And the internet along with various co-workers have been debating whether they should boycott Barnes and Nobel. (Poor B&N, just when they had made a comeback and were seen as the golden child in comparison to evil Amazon. Although, I've got news for people - AI written books are most likely in Amazon, and various independent bookstores as well. They aren't that selective on the books they sell us.]
To be fair, that's not exactly what they said?
"CEO James Daunt told TODAY's Jenna Bush Hager in a May 18 interview that he would have "no problem" selling AI-written books in the chain's more than 800 locations nationwide, but under one condition: transparency.
“Yes, I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t masquerade or pretend to be something that it isn’t, and that it has an essential quality to it, and that the customer, the reader, wants it,” Daunt said. The key, he said, is to ensure there is "clarity" behind who the author is and if they're, well, a real person.
“So as long as an AI-written book says it’s an AI-written book and doesn’t pretend to be something else and isn’t ripping off somebody else, as long as that’s clearly stated and the customer wants to buy it, then we will stock them," he added.
[Cubicle aisle mate and I decided we weren't going to exactly boycott B&N, just not buy as many books there. We'd both started buying them again, because we'd learned we didn't own them on the kindle.
Mother had to rebuy a book on the Kindle recently, because she lost the previous one - due to the fact that it was on a kindle she could no longer use. I don't understand why she couldn't transfer it to her current one - I do. But it could have been on my Dad's. According to co-worker - to get access to a previously purchased version on an old device - on a new device, you need to write customer service a letter and advise them that you had bought the book on such and such date and shouldn't have to buy it again. He said you have to do the same thing with albums you purchase on Apple Music. And if you upload CD's to your computer - you have to upload them again if you get a new computer, which is why he has them saved on a zip drive or back up drive. I said that I use the cloud. Everything is saved to that. But you have to subscribe and pay extra for it. That's how they get you. True - I have Apple Music, Apple Cloud, and Apple TV all bundled together. Then once they get you, they raise the rates. Sigh life was cheaper without the internet. He said he still had a DVD player, regular and Blue Ray, also DVDs, and a CD player - because of the licensing issue. I don't have the space for it. Although I did start buying books again because of this problem. Even if the kindle e-books are easier on the eyes, the others have faded print and you have to squint to see the print.]
I think there's a high possibility people will buy them. There's a lot of books out there that kind of written that way already, formulaic and paint by numbers.
4. Actors and AI (And James Marsters' sexy Spike as a Rock and Roller video)
I can see why Actors fear it - it's relatively easy to grab an actor's likeness and enhance it with AI or alter it, or have AI take over. I see it on Facebook and Instagram constantly.
Heck, James Marsters recently put out a music video of his band's song, Civilized Man, where he's playing the guitar shirtless, and looks 35 years of age. I'm willing to bet he used AI? Even though it comes with the disclaimer that this video used no digital effects. (So maybe not?) I wonder why he didn't do it while he was playing Spike? Whedon probably wouldn't let him? Or it never occurred to him? He really should do the Bruce Springsteen's "Fire" song in Spike get up.
Proving that he'd have no problems coming back as Spike in the Buffy Reboot. Annoying me all the more with the missed opportunities. I really wanted rock star Spike. Even as just a cameo.
At the very least AI may wreck havoc on the plastic surgery industry.
It works better on film than plastic surgery does.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-23 07:15 am (UTC)Can you appoint a lawyer or a bank to oversee your will? That's what happens over here quite a lot if people don't want to use a family member.
no subject
Date: 2026-05-23 04:41 pm (UTC)Yes, a lawyer can be appointed - but you do have to pay them for it. (I'd prefer not to - I'd have to find one I trust, and pay them.) I don't know any estate attorneys. Contracts attorneys yes, but not the same.