From Apollo to Artemis

I'm old enough to be of that generation that saw mankind's first lunar landing and will probably still be around to see the next one.  From Apollo to Artemis, you might say.

I'm a huge admirer of the Apollo program.  I watched it on TV "back in the day" as we old-timers like to say.  I own movies and documentaries which I watch repeatedly.  One of my favorites is HBO's 2005 television mini-series, "From the Earth to the Moon" featuring Tom Hanks.  I've mentioned the Apollo program several times in this blog.

Having read this, it may surprise you to learn that I didn't bother to watch any part of the first manned Artemis mission (Artemis II).  Not the lift-off, nor the lunar orbits, nor the return and splashdown.  Why not?  Because it's been done.

Don't get me wrong.  I applaud mankind's return to space.  I honestly feel that it's a much better expenditure of our time, energy and ingenuity than waging pointless wars (which, of course, we continue to do).  Why, then, am I so seemingly uninterested?  

I suppose it might be because Apollo did it for the first time, giving this latest sojourn something of a "been there, done that" vibe.  During the nineteen sixties, nobody knew for sure whether flying to and landing on the moon and then returning safely back to Earth could be done.  Seeing something as marvelous and as dangerous as that being accomplished for the first time creates a tension and a thrill that just can't be recaptured.

Maybe it's because I was an imaginative young boy back then, with my eyes literally full of stars and my head full of dreams of becoming an astronaut.  Let's face it, the only way I would stand any chance of flying into space at my age is by legally changing my sir-name to Shatner.

What really gives me a case of the "Mehs" regarding the Artemis II mission, though, is that it has offered us nothing new.  If we would have found a way to travel there and back in a fully reusable vehicle, for example, that might have piqued my interest.  But, no, we did essentially the exact same thing that we did when we left off a little over 53 years ago,  We built a big-ass rocket to get us into orbit, only with two solid rocket boosters this time to help get the rocket off the launch pad and an additional stage to get us to the moon, just like before.  The boosters aren't even re-usable, unlike those that the orbiter (space shuttle) used. 

Earthrise by Apollo 8 (left) vs. Artemis II (right)

The crew did get some spectacular pictures of the Earth rising above the lunar horizon ... much like the one that Bill Anders took back in 1968 (and I still think that the 1968 photo is better than the latest ones).  Oh, wait, there is one thing that we did differently from the last time.  We didn't actually land on the moon!

Okay, I get that one has to (re)learn to crawl before one can walk, and I did enjoy seeing a fellow Canadian joining the the Artemis II crew (that's one small step for beer, one giant leap for poutine, eh?)  That was pretty cool.  And I do understand that the plan is to work toward developing a more long-term presence on the moon this time around, with an eye toward hoarding its mineral resources and any water that we might find there (just like we've been doing down here on Earth all these years) and maybe to set up a staging point for launching us to Mars (which has about as much chance of being rendered habitable before we completely destroy the planet that we already live on as I have of winning the American Powerball lottery next weekend).

Even the name of the new program is questionable.  In Greek mythology Artemis was Apollo's twin sister.  This may make the name seem appropriate for the new lunar program until you consider that these "twins" are more than 53 years apart in age!  It may be inconsistencies like that which have dampened my enthusiasm for the new program.  Or maybe it's just cynicism on my part.  Who's to say?    
 

Can We Be Judged by What We Read?

Recently Bob Gale, the chair of the Niagara Regional government, suddenly resigned after becoming embroiled in a bit of controversy.  His faux-pas?  Owning a copy of Mein Kampf, the book which Adolf Hitler wrote as he languished in Landsberg Prison, having been convicted of high treason, and which laid out his political ideology and his plans for assuming power within the German political system of the time.  To make matters worse, this particular copy of the book was apparently signed by "Der Führer" himself.

A lot of people were, no doubt, shocked and appalled to learn that an apparent Nazi sympathizer had somehow managed to get appointed to the position of regional chair.  Good thing he was found out before he had the chance to do any serious damage.  Dodged a bullet there!

Or did we?  Just because a man owns a book doesn't necessarily mean that he sympathizes with its author or its contents.  Perhaps he was simply intellectually curious to read about how a megalomaniac thinks and reasons.  Or perhaps he wanted to know just how accurately Hitler's plans reflected his actual rise to power.  Perhaps he wanted to compare Hitler's ramblings with those of Donald Trump.  Or perhaps Gale is just a collector.  A signed copy of Mein Kampf would certainly be something of a rarity, and likely valuable as well.  If the book was signed by Hitler, it was likely printed in German.  Can Bob Gale even read German?

The Niagara Region Anti-Racism Association and Justice 4 Black Lives Niagara condemned Gale for owning the book, demanding that he provide both a public explanation and an apology.  For what?  As far as I've been able to determine, Bob Gale has never made any racist or anti-semetic remarks, nor has he belonged to or sympathized with any racist, fascist or anti-semetic persons or organizations. He just owns a book whose author isn't well liked.

Gale did offer a statement without either confirming or denying that he owns a copy of Mein Kampf.  He wrote, "As everyone knows, I am a passionate historian with a broad collection of historical art and artifacts.  My collection includes an 1859 letter from anti-slavery advocate John Brown, a letter from George Washington, a letter from Winston Churchill and Vatican archives.  I also have a signed copy of the first book in 1685 about Niagara Falls by Father Hennepin."  

Okay, so Bob Gale seemingly has a lot more money than I do to put toward his collection of written works, but his statement does seem to support my argument.  He went on to say that "Today, a member of the communist party circulated a dated document that listed my name as the owner of a historical book found in many libraries."  He makes a valid point.  Mein Kampf can be found in many libraries and book collections.  There's no law against owning a copy.

To me, this is a clear example of how quick people can be to judge others based on appearances without really understanding the situation or their motives.   We start down a slippery and dangerous slope when we begin to judge people based on what they read or collect.  Bob Gale's collection of historical books and documents has nothing to do with his public service as regional chair of Niagara and he should not have had to resign because of it. As the old adage says, judge not lest ye be judged.

And Yet More Fun With ChatGPT

I've blogged about my experiences with ChatGPT a few times now.  From having a conversation with it to translating Shakespeare into Nadsat slang, my interactions have been strictly verbal or "textual" (if that's a word), even when I had it write a tongue-in-cheek editorial decrying the LGBTQ movement's commandeering of the leprechauns' rainbow.  I recently decided to delve into its graphical abilities.

I was gazing at my Google avatar; a caricature of myself.  It's getting rather dated (because so am I!) and no longer represents an accurate, if somewhat exaggerated, approximation of my current appearance.  It was hand-drawn some 28 years ago, by an obscure caricature artist who was doing it as a gig at a software trade show which I attended in Florida.  The attendees who were interested in having themselves "caricatured" (if that can be used as a verb) stood in a short line, waiting their turn to pose and be immortalized.  To the best of my recollection, the artist spent an average of maybe 10 minutes on each portrait.  I had to admit, he did have a knack for capturing his subjects' personalities by the way in which he rendered their most typical facial expressions.

Here's a larger rendition of mine.  I have to admit, the somewhat goofy smile that he gave me is a pretty good indication of my happy-go-lucky outlook at the time.  The fake arrow stuck on my neck wasn't the product of any creative license on the cartoonist's part.  I was actually wearing one when I posed for the picture.

As I say, I don't really look like that anymore, so I thought that it might be fun if I could somehow get an updated caricature of myself.  Unfortunately, tracking down the guy who drew the last one might prove difficult nowadays, even if I could decipher his signature.

Then I remembered reading that ChatGPT is capable of creating graphics, and I got to wondering whether it might be able to create a caricature derived from a more recent photo of myself, so I dug up a reasonably recent (but still almost seven year old) picture of myself, started a conversation with ChatGPT, uploaded the picture and typed "Turn this into a caricature".

I've been impressed by ChatGPT enough times now that a wasn't really surprised when it did so, and in only a few minutes' time at that!  Here is ChatGPT's caricature of my more recent self.

Perhaps I haven't changed as much as I thought I have, after all.  That same old goofy smile is still there and, yes, I may have acquired a few pounds over the years since my original caricature, although it's not as extreme as it appears (remember, it is a caricature and therefore, by definition, exaggerated).  

I thought that it might be better to render my caricature as a pencil sketch, in keeping with the style of the older one, so I asked ChatGPT to re-do it as such, and it came up with the version below. 

Never one to make everything about myself, I wondered how ChatGPT would render my wife in caricature.  The answer is below.  

Unlike my caricature, hers is most properly rendered in colour.  It has to be, to bring out that frizzy mop of red hair (one of her most striking features) and I daresay that it captured that impish smile of hers beautifully!  To me, this looks strangely like something from out of a Norman Rockwell painting.

Now that my creative juices were really starting to flow and my imagination discovered an exponential branching out of "The Possible", I considered that I have always wondered how I might be rendered as a Simpsons character were I ever to become famous or, perhaps, infamous enough to merit a guest appearance on The Simpsons.  I tossed the challenge at ChatGPT: "Render me as a Simpsons character!"  Lights flashed, gears whirred and I could have sworn I heard a female voice say "Working..." and, a minute or three later, the caricature to your left appeared on my screen.

Delighted, yet not quite sated, I decided to take it to just one more level.  I recalled a certain photo of a good friend of mine and me "having a moment" at a local bar after having had more than just a couple of drinks.  In fact, the particular photo to which I refer has already been shared elsewhere in this blog but, for those of you who may not remember it, or perhaps came late to the party and never ventured to read the posts which you had missed, here it is for posterity.

I uploaded this to ChatGPT and asked that it be rendered as a scene from The Simpsons, perhaps appropriately set in Moe Szyslak's tavern, with Moe himself standing between my friend and me.  Here's what ChatGPT came up with.

 In fairness to Google, I should note that their A.I. chat-bot, Gemini, is also capable of rendering graphics, and I had it render the same self portrait that I had uploaded to ChatGPT as a caricature.  Gemini's first attempt wasn't even so much a caricature as a digital portrait.

 I suggested to Gemini that the idea behind a caricature is to exaggerate the most prominent facial features and bade it try again.  It then came up with this:

 

Okay, better, and certainly a slightly different take from ChatGPT's, but I still didn't feel that it captured my essence in quite the same manner as ChatGPT.  Another niggling complaint that I have with Gemini's graphical work is it's irritating insistence on embellishing every rendering with a watermark of its logo in the bottom right corner.  I will concede, however, that its pencil sketch better matched the style of my old original than did ChatGPT's.

 

Parkinson's Update

This coming May will mark the fourth anniversary of my Parkinsonism diagnosis.  The disease probably began presenting symptoms for at least a year before I finally took the symptoms seriously enough to consult with my family doctor, so it's safe to say that I've been living with Parkinson's for about five years now. 

Parkinsonism, like Autism, includes a spectrum of disorders.  It can be split into multiple categories, including Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease (the most common type), Familial Parkinson's Disease, Early-onset Parkinson's Disease (the type with which Michael J. Fox is afflicted) and even Juvenile Parkinsonism, which starts in childhood or adolescence.  

Then there are multiple types of brain disorders which resemble Parkinson's Disease but involve different regions of the brain than the basal ganglia, which is the region affected by the more common varieties of the disease.  These include Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (or PSP), Corteobasal Degeneration (CBD), Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) and the nasty Multiple System Atrophy (MSA).

Finally, there are "Secondary Parkinsonisms", which are Parkinsonisms caused by external factors such as medications, exposure to certain chemicals, head injuries or strokes rather than unexplained brain degeneration.

These Parkinsonisms can manifest in several ways.  The most common symptoms are tremors, slow movements, rigidity of muscles and trouble balancing and/or walking.

Parkinson's can also affect cognitive ability and, in my case, I fear that it has.  I find myself having difficulty recalling the names of well known people such as actors, musicians and politicians who aren't in the news every day (although I sometimes wish that I could forget about Donald Trump!)  I can usually recall the name eventually but, at first, I'll often have a clear mental image of the person that I'm thinking of, but I just can't recall his or her name.  I'm not talking about obscure people, either.  Some actors' names that I've had trouble recalling include Alec Baldwin, Russell Crowe and Sandra Bullock.

When conversing with others, I find myself mentally groping for words much more than I used to which, in turn, causes me to stammer.  When I do recall the word that I'm looking for, I sometimes have trouble  enunciating it.  My speech enunciation problems are related to the drooling that I've spoken of earlier.  Try speaking with a mouthful of saliva some time and you'll understand what I mean.

Perhaps you are thinking to yourself, as you read this, "Gee, Halmanator, your vocabulary seems pretty good to me."  I do pride myself on having above-average writing skills. The degradation in my ability to communicate isn't as apparent in my writing because you can't see the number of times that I paused while trying to think of the correct word or phrase, or trying to remember a name or a term.  Of course, enunciation isn't a factor, so I'll never shlur my wordsh or sta-sta-stammer when I write. 

I've been at my current job for going on seven years now.  My boss and I get along well and my annual performance reviews have always been very good.  She made the following comments in my performance review for the past year:

"Andy is very knowledgeable and a great resource.  I am starting to see Andy struggle with his level of comprehension when working on the finer details in projects and day-to-day issues that require a more detailed approach to resolve ... Andy puts in a great effort but sometimes needs someone to check for accuracy with the small details."

Well, at least she sugar-coated it somewhat.  She didn't comment that I'm taking longer to complete my assignments, but I know that to be the case as well.  I should note that my boss is aware of my Parkinson's diagnosis, so she understands that it's the disease that's causing my professional lapses as opposed to any apathy on my part.  

To illustrate a point that I made just before, the word "apathy" didn't come to me immediately.  I had to stop typing and think for several minutes before my brain was finally able to retrieve it.  Had I been speaking to you verbally, it would have come out something like "I should note that ... my boss is aware of my Par-Parkinshon's diagnosis, s-so she understans that it's the disease that's causing my profeshnal lapses as opposed to any ... uh .... any ... oh, what's the word I'm groping for?  ... Apathy!  As opposed to any apathy on my part,"

Getting back to memory lapses, there have been times, at work, when I've needed to revisit a program that I know I've worked with before, and yet I've had to re-learn how it works.  I've even forgotten how some of the changes that I myself made to programs work.  It seems that the moment I complete a task, my brain erases it from my memory before moving on to the next task.  Oh, I don't completely forget what I've done.  When reviewing it later, it does come back to me, so it is still buried in my deeper memory, but it seems to have been erased from that memory which is readily accessed on demand.

I'm taking steps to mitigate these problems.  I read a fair bit and, when I'm alone and no-one can hear me, I read aloud to practice my enunciation.  I'm going to try posting to this blog more often as well (yeah, I know, you've heard that one before!)  Writing on a regular basis may help me to retain my vocabulary, not to mention stimulating my creative pathways.  At work, before declaring an assignment as being completed, I will try to review the original request and everything that I've done, making sure that I haven't missed or forgotten anything.

Hopefully, with the help of a few mental disciplines, I can minimize my cognitive deterioration, if not turn it around.  My goal is to see something akin to the following on next year's performance review:

"Andy has demonstrated increased meticulousness over the past year. His work has returned to its former quality and it has not been necessary to check it for mistakes or omissions.  Well done, Andy!"