Running Bear's January 2024 Coffee Shop


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troyphoto said:
Well, howdy there internet peeps and tired railroad fans

It's Troy again. It's 36 and cloudy/foggy. Temps moving into the low 40s (f-degrees) and staying dry until this time next week.

As for the financials of going into assisted care, neither of our mothers are there. BUT, my mother is very low income. Twice divorced, with no savings, no property.

MIL has a sizeable nest egg, and as she made the decision to move into a senior community, she sought out legal advice. A lot of property $$$ was moved into her daughters' names (Jointly owned) but Mom is still taking the income tax hit on it (I don't know the how, just that it was passed on to them somehow.) Also, MIL has a medical trust fund that covers nursing home admittance. She won't be able to spend down her retirement, and her late husband's various pensions (Teamster, Military, etc).

Since my wife is the trustee of the medical trust, any interest on it has to be paid yearly and it's a huge pain to take the money out of the trust, and then set it back up every year. So, we have to pay tax on the interest earned on that trust. Wife hasn't done the taxes yet, but is griping about it already.

Speaking of other worries, wife and I are at the end of our 50s, and are now having those discussions about the end of the bedroom fun times. She started menopause early, and certain parts are not working right. Same with me. It's unfortunate timing as I'm about to hit my 60th Bday, and losing that aspect of marriage is not another complication of the big 6-0 psychological dump I'm starting to deal with.

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And in other news... AI ... OMG. If you thought Polytics was a rough and tumble full-contact sport. In the indy author communities, there a small, but extremely vocal group of authors, and in the art world, artists, who are accusing people of using AI art on book covers... then making the leap that AI was used to write the books.

Yes, AI generated books are hitting the stores. Amazon is limiting people to 3 books uploaded to their servers a day, and requiring authors to check the box if AI was used in either assisting with cover design, or writing the words. Why? Because of potential legal reasons, and so they can develop their own AI tools for authors.

But the name and shamers are getting way out of hand for as small as the group is.

I'm waiting on my first contact with one. they usually scream something about "You're taking money away from real artists!!!!"
The covers I've designed so far haven't used AI at all. I use stock images that I purchase from a legit stock image site. I pre-purchase bundles of credits. 100 downloads with commercial use license for $40. That's 40cents per image.

The book cover with the most stock images used cost me $4.40 and about an hour of my time in a photo editing program.

And, that stock site pays a minimum of 25cents to the artist who offered the stock image. So, I would have paid the artists about $3 total for the those images.

How is AI harming the artists if I use the image above for a book cover?
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Lordie Troy, you’ve got a lot more years in front of you for the love encounters with the wife. Try to stay as healthy as possible, keep the weight down and stay active. My doctor told me ED unless something is definitely wrong can be avoided. Use it or lose it were his words. Don’t turn lack of activity into a self fulfilling prophecy!
 
TLOC said:
Lordie Troy, you’ve got a lot more years in front of you for the love encounters with the wife. Try to stay as healthy as possible, keep the weight down and stay active. My doctor told me ED unless something is definitely wrong can be avoided. Use it or lose it were his words. Don’t turn lack of activity into a self fulfilling prophecy!
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It's not me I'm worrying about... She's not happy with the lady parts post menopause. Or they're not happy with the activity.
 
Minor crisis is over. Daughter rang to say older granddaughter was in hospital and could I collect grandson; so he could sleep at our house.
Long story short.
Granddaughter had a broken finger that was strapped to another, so she could go home. (Was not in hospital as long as imagined.)
Daughter arrived at our house and took her son home at midnight.
All three are on their way home now - a 40 mile journey.
Waiting a phone call to say they are home safe.
 
bnsf971 said:
I think I played that course. The lighthouse was on the third hole.

The fourth hole had a creepy clown you hit the ball into...
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Tom maybe I didn't play it I don't remember any clown. Maybe we were going to play it and played somewhere else? It was so long ago
I played a lot of courses in Myrtle Beach I was there 2 years ago Myrtle Beach National and a few others on a 5-day golf trip.
Swal
 
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