On The Fly

In this episode,  Unleash Your Inner Artist with AI Power. Welcome back to On the Fly! Last week, we explored the creative power of human collaboration. I'm excited to remind you of something that feels like a leap into the future this week! It's all about having a super-powered buddy to support your creative passions: artificial intelligence, or AI. Now, I understand what some of you might be thinking: robots are taking over the world. We’ve all seen those movies! However, the AI tools I’m mentioning – such as Gemini , ChatGPT , and others being refined – are not designed to replace us. They aim to assist us, particularly in our creative pursuits. Think back to when we were growing up. If you needed to research something, where did you go? For many of us, it was the family bookshelf and that trusty set of World Book Encyclopedias. Remember flipping through those volumes, searching for that one piece of information and getting drawn into a subject you hadn’t considered? Well, A...

This morning, there is something missing from my life. There's an empty space on the back of our sofa where my companion Tony Junior (Jr.) usually sleeps or watches the world go by through the window, perched on his soft, red, fuzzy blanket. There, he waits for me to join him in a nap so he can climb onto my chest, settle in, and purr as I gently scratch his chin and behind his left ear. You see, last night, October 10, 2023, Jr. quietly passed at about 11:30 p.m. Needless to say, I’m heartbroken. As I write this, tears are streaming down my cheeks. You see, Jr. was my special friend like no other. He never complained; he was always there to greet me every morning, at night, returning from a mountain trip, or just from a daily walk around the neighborhood. Junior, our indoor cat, had a routine of following me around the house. He never wanted to venture outside - he considered our home “his castle.” I could set my watch to his predictable daily routines. And he knew mine. See What ...