December Deadlines

Dearest Rachel –

After talking to you about trying to shop for Daniel yesterday, I decided to do what I used to do when preparing to shop for you; I just asked him directly. As much as it spoils the surprise for him of finding out what I would be getting him, it’s just safer this way.

It also got him involved with the process of designing shirts for himself, like the help he and Logan gave me on previous projects. Turns out, he wasn’t so much interested in the ukiyo-e style (when it comes to Japanese art, he prefers the modern anime style. I get it, but I find it amusing to juxtapose the modern characters in the archaic style in a way that I rather expected him to. Just as well I found out now, though, rather than getting a disappointed reaction from him on the week after Wednesday), but he was curious as to whether I could have the AI design images in a different style: how about Art Deco, say, or Art Nouveau?

The thing is, as much as I wanted to stick around and see what we could put together, I could feel a little bit of deadline pressure on me while I was doing this. I’d gotten an email from the outfit that I submit my designs to – they send emails to me as both a designer and a customer, which can be mildly confusing at times – warning me that if I wanted to order anything from them that would be guaranteed to arrive by Christmas, this would be the last day I could do so. Meanwhile, with the end of the ‘work’ week approaching, and everything just about sorted out for the camp (the church’s books were already taken care of for November), I wanted to get it all assembled and sent off to the folks who needed to see them before calling it a week. If Daniel and I were to dink around on the computer for an extended period of time, not only wouldn’t I get my real ‘work’ off to those who were waiting for it (although this being December, where everyone has other commitments, there isn’t a meeting scheduled to go over this documentation, so what pressure I have on that is actually somewhat limited; it’s just the desire to have it taken care of), I might let the ordering deadline slip by, and that wouldn’t be a good thing.

Moreover, the attempts we were making were proving to be straight-up useless. It seems that since Flux was created well after Generation Four (a.k.a. “Friendship is Magic”) came to an end (and I think you managed to see it all the way through), there isn’t the fanbase creating LoRAs of the individual characters like there were for earlier models of AI art generation. When I tried to do an image-to-image process, and have the computer generate a version in a specific art style, I basically got the same image back, with only slight modifications to the wings and cutey mark. So you can understand how I quickly began to think that staying home and tinkering with this project would be a waste or time, especially when I had other duties to take care of.

At least when I got to the office, I could place orders for various other items for him (and a couple other people for whom I could shop a little more, as long as I was at it), so even if we weren’t able to design custom art for him – be it at the moment or at all – he wouldn’t be completely bereft of Christmas presents from me. Meanwhile, I could also focus on the other tasks at hand that I wanted to have taken care of, even if they weren’t so urgent as all that.

Fortunately, those latter tasks were about as straightforward as I expected them to be, and (as long as I wasn’t distracted by my internet news feed) I could keep trying to come up with something suitable for Daniel to at least take a look at.

Now, I’ve got my WhatsApp setup on my office computer, so I can keep in touch with him (and he responds faster to it than either texting or phoning, so that’s cool). I sent him most of these images, and he seems to like the last one in particular. So, after a few judicious edits – including a trimming of edges as well as the correction to the cutie mark – I had something we could both appreciate.

It’s not my best gift to him, and I still don’t like requiring him to be so much a part of my obtaining it, as it takes the surprise out of the whole gift-giving rigmarole. But I’d like to think we had fun putting it together, and it’s both unique and professional-looking, so there’s that. I just hope I don’t get a takedown notice before they can print and ship it to me.

Anyway, that’s been my day, honey. Not often that I tell you about it as it happens, and it’s a story that you’d have probably enjoyed hearing about if you were still around to. For now, though, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I may have this bit of shopping done, but I could still use it, that’s for sure.