Logistical problems with spacetime prevented me from attended the launch of Derwin Mak's new short story collection Mecha-Jesus and Other Stories on Leapday, when he was interviewed by Liana Kerzner, author and media personality-- fondly remembered by Canadians who were late-night-TV-viewing age in the 1990s and early 2000s as "Red," Ed the Sock's partner-in-crime.
The following Saturday, I drove to Toronto to visit my niece. She's been in the hospital for the last month, and only now able to receive visitors beyond immediate family. En route, I stepped off the subway and met Derwin for dinner. Over food and drinks we talked of many things, Mak being a polymath, and all: writing, presentations, commendations, people notable and not, politics, strange encounters, cabbages, kings, and why there existed for decades on the Ontario map a place called "Mongolia"-- neither a paper town nor a locale noteworthy for its Mongolian population.
My niece is doing much better. Thanks for asking. After an extended visit, her brother and I caught a late, light dinner and then I drove out of the great urban sprawl and back to the smaller one where my home is situated.
In other worlds, I continue to tool with the tech that will replace us all one day. Lately it has been Microsoft's Image Creator. It appears to create more realistic images if you define the image as a photo from some pre-1980s era. I suspect it has been trained heavily on vintage photos (I won't discuss MidJourney, which is becoming scarily realistic, nor even start on Sora. But I digress). I also realized that "alien" means to AI either the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise or those big-headed, big-eyed creatures beloved of UFO "contactees" and novelty toy manufacturers. If you want interesting aliens in AI, it's better to bash together odd assortments of biological classifications. Define the image as a photo from a recent (but not too recent) past, provide a setting, and hey, the extraterrestrials have arrived.
I've posted a video of the most interesting results. They will either charm you or provide nightmare fuel.
Possibly both.