So I updated our ArtAndTechnology Website today. I hadn't updated our portfolio pages for a while, as I wondered if I should or not any more. But if the page hasn't been updated for a while I get asked in emails do I still do the illustrations or not.
I decided to do "the last" gallery update with an image with a text overlay explaining the AI issue. The description also contains the same text. The images behind the text are new, but it says the 6 pages of illustrations already here should be enough to see what our stuff looks like.
I feel close to being really retired now. Had only 3 clients since 2024, doing some 11 illustrations, which isn't very much. As I saw previously, that seems the way Illustration has gone globally now due to Google search changes, the focus on advertisement delivery, and generative AI.
But that is okay. I am happy making my own music and comics.
In the website update, I also directly linked to some popular Blog posts I've done.
The ones in red are mostly years old. Not blockbuster numbers at all, but that is fine.
I have been paying for the website hosting and url since 2008. I will still be keeping the email addresses we use for some time to come but not so sure about the website itself, and doing freelance illustration. Google keeps on making up new excuses for why pages that have been indexed for 18 years don't comply any more. Heard the same thing from other site maintainers as well. Google would rather push sponsored content.
Will having a website be of any value in 12 months or 36 months? We will see and determine what to do then.
The Artemis II mission kind of caught me by surprise. Think all the SPACE X pr, let alone the Orange Felon doings must have stopped it from getting any air around where I am.
Like it is 1969 in another way too. Back then there was Vietnam...
The music in this is a more ambient version of the last Sewaritei Walk I did.
Other Things
As a kid growing up, I believed the lie, the propaganda, of our western systems of education and law, that the most appropriate people become our leaders and managers.
Not true at all, where in reality money and nepotism play the biggest part.
Not going to go on about current international events though, but back to a 5 month engineering gig I took in the early 2000s.
It was a city infrastructure project that took us about 2 weeks to realize that the company that had won it was in no way suitable for it. Everyone on it was a short term contractor. There was no experienced company with a great reputation behind it. Just a single investor with government friends!
But this story isn't about the guy at the top. One of the things I had to do in the gig was reverse engineer the interface on the companies green box used all over the city.
Why do they need that for their own product?!
Turns out the green box was developed during some previous project many years earlier, and when it finished and they sacked all that developed it, and all the documentation, source code disks, manufacturing information, mechanical design files were boxed up and left for the next project.
Those boxes ended up in the corner of a room that some time later was assigned to a project manager on a later project. Without even looking at what the material was, the new project manager just threw it all out!
The manufacturing information was out at a contracted manufacturer, so that wasn't lost, so they could build more but not update or do anything new with it.
To me, this is typical of Australia, and the people that become leaders, such as project managers.
The arrogance and ignorance was staggering.
I have no idea who that idiot project manager was, but am sure his confidence lead to him being a company director on the board of a big company. And being just as confident and wrong.
Those that know nothing are the most confident. More so than any one experienced in the field. Their I CAN DO THAT! is from ignorance. Not knowing enough to know what they don't know.
There was a NHK early evening story yesterday on a current boom in RADIO CONTROLLED CARS in Japan. The first boom was in the 1970s, and they were very expensive back then. This second boom is guys in their late 60s and 70s who couldn't join the first boom due to that expense, but who are retired and have enough spare money. The cars aren't any where near the cost they were back then, with an entry level car now around 30,000yen.
The 290m Tamiya Kakegawa Circuit was central to the story
One guy 67 was into the racing, another 74 was into the building of the cars. You need different interests when you get older. Both indoor and outdoor hobbies are good to have then.
The last complete figure I sculpted in epoxy putty was this character from one of Dave Deal's Phony Car illustrations a few years ago, to go with a few of the Dave Deal car kits I had in storage and finally built and painted.
Rocky from Project Hail Mary is such a great character. I thought I could sculpt a little Rocky myself, then realized that getting enough reference images wasn't possible. So complicated to get accurate.
Then this morning the film makers posted the STL files for Rocky! This is the parts imported into Blender.
I don't have a 3D printer, but could use a 3D printing service, or use this as reference for a sculpt in epoxy. Does seem too much trouble at the moment though...
Did a variation on the Sewaritei Cherry Blossom Walk Yawata Kyoto using portrait video I also recorded as a MUSIC+COMIC YouTube SHORT.
Keep seeing posts from YouTube channels with large followings and lots of views explaining how their views have dramatically dropped recently. But Google has used their bait& switch strategy forever to limit their payouts to a smaller and small number of channels since the beginning. Nothing "recent" about it at all.
Still surprised Google hasn't killed Blogger yet, what I use here. I could put a blog on my own website, and may do that in the future.
So I revised this older 1 page comic into a slightly longer 5 page MUSIC+COMIC.
As a short it may get heard by a few more. Or maybe not. It certainly isn't the kind of music or subject in any TOP 5 list you will find.
It seems most English VBloggers in Japan are now posting their stuff at 7AM Saturday morning, an hour earlier than it was a couple of weeks ago. It must because of Daylight Saving change in the USA which must be their main audience. I tried that scheduled time myself this week, even though I aren't making Weeaboo Japanese content myself.
I am still searching for my best mix of synth/sequencer and heavy guitar riffs.
I keep on using the same 6 or so drum patterns and never more than 16 tracks, so I think I am just a minimalist. Minimal automation and effects. Just enough to "solve the problem" and no more. Only one track for rhythm guitar and one for melodic guitar (I would not call it lead guitar, as it isn't flashy enough).
Visited the Clinic (Ohgaki Clinic, Shijo Kyoto if you are interested) yesterday for what I thought would be the last time. I even got reservation #2. Doc said the largest of the internal hemorrhoids he used Band Ligation on is only half gone, and it needs another go. I am still recovering, some 5 weeks now, from the external things he removed and wasn't up for that yesterday. Internal band ligation isn't painful, but it does effect me for a few days, so I will go back in a month or so for that. Have to take the cat across town again for his hair trim in a few days time and need to be in better shape to carry him on public transport there and back.
Not painful now at all, but it kept me up half of last night as it just is not comfortable sometimes, especially at night. So a bit of a downer to be not over it all yet, but still a much better experience than 9 years ago.
A week since seeing PROJECT HAIL MARY and so much PR across Social Media and YouTube on it now. A great, positive movie. A masterpiece even. Dolby YouTube channel even has an interview with the soundtrack composer, even if the soundtrack isn't something that struck me as amazing.
Then there are the YouTube videos explaining it, but that doesn't seem to be for non native English speakers, but for the extremely stupid. No need to mention who they must be!
Was expecting that with the early Cherry Blossom Blooming across Japan, that my local Sewaritei walk would be on my todo list for today, but no. I saw from the train coming home yesterday from the clinic that the trees had barely started to bloom, 98% still brown.
So probably something for next weekend. For the last few years doing this 2km walk under the blossoms, with music in my earbuds ( TANGERINE DREAM last year), then getting a KEBAB and other food from the stalls along the river on the walk back to the station has been a great experience for me.
The location with the music is a magical Visual & Auditory experience.
A video I made on it last year:
It seems the first weekend of April 2026 will be the days to visit this year too.
UPDATE 2026/3/29: And I was wrong. The warm weather meant today was the day for the Cherry Blossom walk. Not at full bloom, but with rain from this evening, getting heavier over the next few days (if the forecast is correct), they will probably be all washed away by next week end.
Have seen at least one other Neil deGrasse Tyson video on the same topic. In the other he talks about himself not getting good school grades. I didn't get great school grades either and found it all really dull and stopping me from actually doing more interesting and worthwhile self study of electronics or something. Except in a Geography exam once I did color pencil diagrams as well as words to answer a question and that was used as an example to the whole geography year of a great way to answer a question. I did the most original answer they had ever seen.
But original answers is not what school is about at all. I hated school.
It is so strange to the rest of the world how, to Americans, GOFUND ME has become normal. And this AI summary seems spot on to the rest of us. And that these pleas are now a constant thing on Social Media. Understand the reason, but not that nothing is being fundamentally done to fix that places issues, that go way beyond the felon in chief. Propaganda around "freedom" has worked a treat to the advantage of the 1%.
UPDATE: 2026/4/2 This mornings YOMURI SHIMBUN Kansai has a short front page article on Sewaritei Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom yesterday, in the rain.
Artemis II launched with a crew to go around the moon this morning! It caught me off guard that this was a thing. I assume Mulusk's SpaceX BS has taken all the space stuff coverage and something real didn't get to poke its head out.
A bit like all the Japanese prime time TV news coverage of the figure skating and High School Baseball, but nothing on the Japanese GP in Suzuka last weekend.
Had started an extended version of the Hail Mary music a week or so ago, but with not feeling great, didn't come back to it till yesterday.
And this morning thought to do this first 4 pages with 2 minutes of music to see what it looks like. Of course realizing that doing that Monday morning is when no one will see it.
I then added that DUAL progress bar. RED for MUSIC duration and GREEN for when pages change. Seemed like a good idea.
This and my other comics are being constantly accessed by AI scrapers in Singapore and China, so it would be nice if a human, or even an alien, took a look too.
I'm not blocking the scrapers though. Think that is a pointless struggle now and I just give these away anyway as something I wanted to do.
Makes me realize I haven't done a multipage comic since 2022 too. Found them really interesting to do, but isn't something anyone else bothers to look at as far as I can tell.
And most people only look at the first 2 seconds of the MUSIC+COMICS on YouTube I have made. 2 seconds. That is immediately determining they don't want to see it. YouTube is broken in so many ways now. In the time this got 8 views on YouTube, it got 80 on Facebook REELs.
Other Things
I see they are announcing Dune PART3. I have no interest in seeing that at all. Still think the REDUX fan edit of David Lynch's DUNE is a better movie.
Friends are not posting like they did on Social Media, a few have stated they are trying to get away, and stay from it. Even those that are actually good people can post far too much. A few others are using it to promote interesting things. Recently I mostly post a music+comic, and maybe something else on my mind once a week, but that isn't what the algorithm wants and my time line is filled with orange garbage.
Like watching the end of Sumo Haru Basho in Osaka yesterday afternoon:
Since I started the medical procedures end of January, our cat hasn't wanted to sit on my lap like he always does. I assume the medicine/ointment and his empathy just makes that not something he wants to do at the moment. Instead if I am lying on the bed, he will lie next to, or across my ankles. The physical connection.
Kirishima had already won outright the day before. Onosato had pulled out at day 3 of the 14. Aonishiki, who had been unbeatable the last 2 bashos, wasn't this time, and even Hoshoryu beat him for the first time, after loosing the previous 4 attempts. Not much for watching sports, other than some motorsport, but I find Sumo really interesting, even if I can only remember the names of about 8 wrestlers at any given time. Favorite is Ura, just as he often does the most entertaining moves, even if he only wins about 50% of the time..
Seen a few advertisements for EL CLAPO, a hand clap and foot stomping vst. On special at the moment. Seems to work pretty well, but I don't need to do a version of QUEENS - WE WILL ROCK YOU, and that makes it kind of limited to me. Cool, but kind of a one trick pony...
To come up with the next thing I want to do, I need to be offline and just think about stuff without distractions. That is actually the same for anybody...
Of the things I have done recently, I feel STORY SHAPED BEATS means the most to me, despite getting few views:
I was visiting a medical clinic regularly for a couple of months, listening to old and new John Foxx and spending even more time with our cat. Or rather he was spending even more time with me as I didn't go out much during recovery from each small procedure.
It is 3/4s synthesizers and sequences with a spoken lyric and a late section with heavy guitar. I spent 25years of my tech career developing systems to make music with synthesizers, so it doesn't have to be all guitars.
It is a complete, non traditionally formatted song that tells a story to me of the time I made it. Most of what I do, with the MUSIC+COMICS is about some kind of "story", or says something. To me at least.
Most people I follow on social media aren't about songs. They shred a solo or something. Very skilled, but it doesn't "say anything".
But I think about that kind of thing a lot, and reposted this old comic I did this on the subject CREATIVITY V SKILL.
Saw PROJECT HAIL MARY first session and really enjoyed it. Lots to think about. I was kind of shocked to be given the PROJECT HAIL MARY patch going into the cinema. Was it because it was the first session. or does everyone get one?
Easily saying "lethal injection with a shot of heroine", was a line that really hit me. Going out on a high, and being okay with that as an option shows how desperate the situation was.
But it is such a positive, NOT dystopian film!
I did this piece of music a couple of weeks ago and tried making a music comic with different subjects since then. This is the 3rd version. Previous attempts were Ricky vs BIlly, then MINT LINUX 22.3 CINNAMON, but both were dull...
Other Things
About a week after having the stiches out, and consistently healing, things started to swell and get painful again Tuesday last week. Wasn't well at all. So went to the clinic and he said a thread that should dissolve seems to have caused and issue, so he took that out from under the skin. Anti infection cream with some tablets, an oozing sore and later that evening and all good again.
Spent much of the last week playing with the Mint Linux laptop and evaluating what I really want from it. Thing is I don't really need a laptop at the moment, only if I have to visit Australia in the future sometime, or something like that.
I found Inkscape, THE Linux vector illustration program is very weak compared to my 23 year old CorleDraw12 I used since 2003. I bought CorelDraw2024 last year, and it is a bit more polished, but doesn't really do anything new that the 2003 version didn't! What I mostly use in the new version is the presets for saving PNGs directly.
So I spent a few days learning Inkscape and trying to get CorelDraw12 to run under Linux wine. Corel installs and runs, but can't open a template so is useless. Tried all the options found in the Linux forums on the subject.
Eventually installed older VirtualBox, Win10 HOME in it without an internet connection, and put CorelDraw12 in that, and the fonts I use for my comics. Can drag and drop files between the systems and it all works. A Laptop for Internet use and a safe to use Win10 isolated from the Internet for CorelDraw12.
But I also made up a JUST THINKING comic template in Inskscape that easily allows me to make that series of comic natively in Mint Linux to. Adding topic based images and text balloons works well enough in Inkscape.
I found KRITA on Linux seems good enough that I don't need to install Photoshop in the windows VM too.
I went and installed REAPER DAW, to see how that works too, but using only cockos plugins isn't an option for me, and putting my windows VSTs in via wine is way too much trouble. I'm not going to be making music in this. What I did do is bring over the stems from a project. Could do "mastering" on it, but don't need to. So far REAPER works, but doesn't seem it will be useful for music.
Now this Lenovo ideapad520 is from 2018 and I used it daily on my desk here from end 2019 till October 2023 when I upgraded my 4GB 32bit Windows XP machine to 64bit Win10 with 16GB memory. and 2 displays. I hate the fan noise in the laptop and keyboard, and moving to the Desktop meant I didn't hear that any more, and had big screens and a way better keyboard.
But before the PC upgrade in 2023 during summer the Lenovo started to overheat, fan on fastest and the keyboard would stop working. So I opened it up expecting it would be full of cat hair and have all the vents blocked. Up until this point, the laptop had never overheated that way. It wasn't filled with dust and hair at all. Some pictures of cleaning out the dust. The machine is very easy to open up.
I found that if I turned the performance of the machine down, the overheating stopped, and for non CPU intensive things, didn't slow the machine either.
I now know ideapads and some other slim Lenovo models can overheat with age as the heatsink compound on the CPU wasn't done well, or hasn't lasted.
I might replace the compound sometime, but at the moment, PowerSav and Balanced in the MINT Linux Power Manager Options handle the issue. In PowerSav the fan noise is never a problem, even if the machine runs noticeably slower.
