Life is good, getting better…
Trubiz, trubiz… I got offered the position as Software Engineer! It’s currently unpaid, but for equity… Hopefully the upcoming meeting with an investor will be fruitful and a salary might be in the picture in the near future. My first official programming job, second official IT-related job! For those of you who know me, yeah yeah – about freakin’ time! HEEYYY – I’ve gathered a shit ton of skill sets over my life, and continued to hone my IT skills… now it’s time to sharpen those skills and get to being Stabby McStabby… figuratively, of course. I would only stab… myself, with a tattoo gun. (Four tattoos so far! one needs a touch up but I never replaced my tattoo gun…) I always knew Ryan to be an awesome guy, and I’m damn glad Jeff – the software developer, my Jedi Master, is also awesome! He’s walked me though the backend, given me a tour of the frontend, and we have met on Discord everyday since the technical interview last Sunday. This guy definitely makes me feel comfortable about work, even though I still have that rookie nervousness! I’ve worked with GitHub for a long time… but never with another person! git clone, git pull, no problem… git push? git merge? but what if I screw up…?? O, the weight of the e-world!!! Nah, not really. I know my nervousness will fade over time and I’ll become a more confident and competent programmer. After long last, I am working on the dream I had back in 2003-04 at Drexel University, for that engineering course… perseverance is key, yo! which leads me to the next topic…
DAISY Update
DAISY has been worked on, yet again! No, not the ML part, ASL recognition… the ChatBot feature. Unfortunately, the DogHouse is still parked at the farm with a flat front tire and the motor isn’t starting. (Quick note: I contacted the previous mechanic who told me to loosen the 6th injector port and maybe even pour half a cup of gas on the air filter, it will start right up and then tighten the 6th injector port and I’ll be good to go) Fortunately, I finally have a ride to the bus and some help with getting it up and running. Let’s hope this goes smoothly and there’s no further issues in bringing it home! Anyways, because GoSign.Ai has its own ChatBot named Lauren, I was inspired to learn about it by… yup, making my own! Mind you, this is a two-pronged approach currently. There’s DAISY-Discord, which is the ChatBot that resides in Discord – same as Lauren. Then there’s this plugin on this website, Meow Apps AI Engine. Both will have the same personas, bio, etc. I plan on training both on my academic writings, poetry, blog posts from LiveJournal and this site, as well as typed copies of written journal. Eventually, I hope to be able to have a well developed model that I can host offline on an air-gapped server that will be built into the DogHouse. EVENTUALLY… aligned with GoSign.Ai’s goals – I hope to be that awesome of a programmer that I can design my own 3D signing avatar!
Of course, every AI needs an avatar. Within reason, for the time being, a 2D image will suffice. I signed up for Mid Journey and played around it to develop an avatar. DAISY, being a female name, and given vehicles are considered female, I went with a female avatar. I kept in mind the fact I did not want to objectify or sexualize the avatar and offend women; I chose versions that did not expose skin as many in the SciFi genre tend to do. I definitely wanted a cybernetic look, totally SciFi, and after tweaking around… Meet DAISY!
Over on The DogHouse Discord server (contact me if you want to join and help me test out DAISY! Also, I have Mid Journey bot there to play with!), it is set up with a persona and I’m still working on fine tuning its parameters, especially for canned replies. I had a good discussion with a Deaf artist in DC over text about the use of AI image generators and the ramifications of its impact on artists, and he gave me a few ideas. Seems it might not be too terribly difficult to implement my own version of Mid Journey/Stable Diffusion (I’ve yet to learn Stable).
Plant Update
The hill that I seeded with crimson clover seed is becoming greener everyday! I’ve kept watering it daily, sometimes twice a day (always early evenings, and if need be, again in the morning) if I know it’s gonna be hella hot that day. I also planted 3 flats of (too much?) crimson clover seeds, and transplanted one flat so far along with some succulent cuttings in one area that has good soil, right by where there is a concrete patio (eventually I’ll get yard furniture for that area). I’ve heavily weeded 1/3 of a long strip of dirt behind the house (my view from the kitchen), and recently seeded that area with a mix of crimson clover and wildflower seeds. That water sprinkler set I got from amazon? It’s watering that area now. Ehhh, plastic stuff aint gonna last long – it was cheap and I’m tight on money! Right now I think I need 2-3 more sprinklers for the fruit orchard and I’ll be good to go with that area. Need to get 1 or 2 hose splitters, as I’ll want to manually water some areas like succulents. I hope the nursery in town restocks their white clover seeds, and soon! Meanwhile… I need to find somewhere that sells creeping thyme to plant on walking paths. THAT WILL SMELL AWESOME. Definitely need a lot more succulents for another mound of dirt that gets full sun. Mulch mulch mulch the front outside of the gates by the road. Plans, plans, need time and money and clones of myself… Anybody master cloning humans yet? Contact me please, I’m down for DIYing that shit!
Sunset, Moonset...
Taken with an iPhone 13!
