Venice, Ve-Nice, Very nice

 

Maybe I should test it out?

Maybe every city is improved by canals.

At the least we have here a new set of pictures of Nice as a foray into the theory. Once I realized that I am already removing every car I see in order to make the city more lovely, my momentum inevitably leads me down the slippery slope to inserting canals on all the streets. First you get rid of the cars, then you make it so they are impossible anyway.

Does this mean I think that Venice is the most beautiful city in the world?

No, but its canals sure don't hurt it in that regard.

Anyway then, here is more of Nice, with a bit of VE frontloaded on, and you may find a fox or skunk here or there as well...

More comfort food

 

Sitting around with a broken rib isn't the most fun I've ever had. So I am trying to comfort myself by putting fox and skunk into pictures of Nice, France. I would comfort myself by eating lots of ice cream mochis, which I have become inordinately fond of. These are the size of fat little cookies and are a wee dollop of ice cream wrapped in flavored mochi. But if I comforted myself with these delights too much it would not be good for me. So I prudently limit myself to one ice cream mochi a day.

But I can make as many fox and skunk pictures as I want. Sometimes in the night, with my rib hurting and my head full of anxious thoughts, it comforts me to think of the day when I can get up and put fox and skunk into pictures of Nice.

You may notice alterations of the streetscapes of Nice in these pictures, and you may not. I guess the most obvious parts are the various fox and skunk related street art and graffiti. You probably already know this, but in case you don't, "Renard" means "Fox". "Moufette" means "Skunk". How complex these pictures might become I can't predict, though they drift in that direction. I'd rather they not lose their natural appearance though, so my adornments may be self limiting.

And with that, here are today's pictures:

The only use for magic

 

As a reader of clerkmanifesto you will be well aware of my interest in AI. Although if this is your first time visiting clerkmanifesto, Oh my God!! 

Welcome! Come in. Come in! Can I get you something to drink? Gosh I hope you like it here! 

And to make your first experience here as smooth as possible, there is one thing you should know:

I have an interest in AI.

Oh, my interest is not so much in its technical capacity, or its implications to society, or in relation to its effect on the workplace, to its ethical dangers, or concerning its qualities as a tech bubble. My interest in it is strictly as an artistic tool. I can spend endless hours putting together dodgy music videos made out of old poems. I have painstakingly crafted pictures of my co-workers with their spirit animals. I make library theme songs. I am chasing after AI's magical wonders. And if endless experiments with the dozens of new tools popping up nearly every day end in disaster, or in the common stone walls of false promise, there is still always one thing there for me, one thing that always works out, one thing that will invariably make me happy about AI:

The ability to put a fox and a skunk in any picture I want.

I keep thinking "Surely I will get tired of this."

But no.

So here are a handful of new pictures of fox and skunk in one of my favorite cities, Nice, France.

Michigan seems like a dream to me now

 

It was horrible coming back.

Nice, France seemed like it was right there. Just out of reach and a million miles away. But it was all around me. It felt like it should be out the door, down the hall, through the window. 

But all there was anywhere I tried to find it was cold.

Cold and dentist appointments and work.

And so it faded away.

And one sad evening (15 minutes ago), I was working on the check in machine and I realized it was all gone. 

Nice was gone! 

Did I dream it?

I wanted it back right away.

So I closed my eyes to try to remember.

We were sitting at a restaurant (as we so often did) in the old town. The streets were narrow and bustling and vivacious and free of all cars. The food was delicious. The company was...

perfect.

And I looked up in the sky to see a waterfall.