Prom Prep

I got home early enough so that Mom, Maddie and I could head over to Dawsonville to shop for the Prom!  You can see above the dress that Mom spent quite a bit of time fixing up, and it looks great!  The three of us went over to use some gift cards that Maddie had gotten at Christmas and even for her birthday last year, visiting places like Ulta and Claire's.  She got some things for fingernails - polish and nails you can apply.  She got make-up, of course.  And also some jewelry too.  We'll add all that Friday for the complete picture, but needless to say, Maddie is pretty excited about Friday.

So today we've been somewhat obsessed with a program that creates AI songs, and it's frankly somewhat amazing and/or scary.  Basically, you type in some parameters for a song like "A rap song called "Squirrel Trapper" about a mysterious man who traps squirrels," and within two minutes or so, out pops this elaborate rap song with these lyrics:

[Verse] I'm the squirrel trapper, man of mystery Creeping through the hood, spitting rhymes so sinister Got my sights set on them little critters My trap will make 'em scatter, they won't know what hit 'em I move like a phantom in the dead of night Cloaked in darkness, ready for my squirrel fight I'm armed with traps, gloves, and a hidden stash A squirrel's worst nightmare, you're dealing with pure cash [Verse 2] I got the skills to outsmart these bushy-tailed foes I'm a mastermind, plotting, scheming as it goes I lure 'em in, with seeds and nuts galore They can't resist, they're coming back for more

So we made a lot of songs, and some of them are so hysterical.  The above is a rap song, but we did soem operatic songs, some power ballads, some country songs, some disco songs... we had it create a country song about a guy addicted to Planet of the Apes movies.  There was a disco song about taquitos.  There was a 70's folk song about how Gandalf stole my bacon.  One of our favorites was a powerful rock opera song that was performed by a lonely Sarlacc in a pit.  And the garden of pancakes with garden gnomes was a great theater song.

We were using it for useful things too - we've got a good amount of Ten Commandment-themed surfing songs that are actually pretty fun.  But this new toy is a great little novelty - I imagine we'll be writing weird combinations for a while now, because our humor is so off.  Or tributes to obscure characters or places or whatever.  Of course, it also highlights how fragile the music industry is at the moment, and how easy it is to produce largely any song of any genre without really putting any individual creativity into it.  I suppose the individual creativity ends with the request at the beginning:  write a Darth Vader surfing song. And the computer goes to work and does it all.  Instant art.  It's a new world.  Kind of scary in many other areas when your mind begins to consider the possibilities.

Tonight Maddie had pre-calculus homework, and while she was doing that, Mom and I went "old school," watching a movie from 1963 called "Beach Party."  We've seen it before quite a few years ago, a fun Frankie and Annette movie we were watching for prep as we return to our series, "Hang 10."  It was fun to see some of these characters again, and no doubt we'll probably be dipping into these movies a few more times as the series goes on.

Speaking of things aquatic, we have a next generation of sea monkeys really thriving in our tank.  This is not from any egg packet I purchased, but rather the children of the previous generation finally growing up and doing well in the tank.  I give them oxygen frequently, and then food once a week.  They seem to be doing really well, and here we are over a year later.  We love sea monkeys!

Before bed, we read from our book, and after that we said our prayers of course.  It was a good day, one made even more special because when Mom and Maddie were shopping, I was next door getting ice cream for everyone at the grocery store.  We had some delicious ice cream cones tonight for dessert, and then got ready for a good night's rest.