Sarah and I received a mysterious email recently that included the following:
We followed the instructions and said nothing to Griffin. He and the rest of his upper school classmates dutifully arrived in the Huss Auditorium for the awards assembly, having no idea who might win an award. Griffin noticed that we were in the audience, didn’t catch on.
To our delight, and Griffin’s complete surprise, Griffin won the “Science Magazine Award” in recognition of “a passion and Love of Science as well as an Exceptional Class Citizen.” I’m especially pleased that this award focuses on his level of interest in the subject and his citizenship in the classroom, two elements that are given short shrift in the typical grades-are-everything paradigm.
Griffin has been taking music lessons for a few years—first piano and then trombone. He plays in the jazz band at school and is improving rapidly. Along the way, he has become interested in composing music. With easy, free electronic tools like BeepBox, he is able to develop electronic compositions pretty easily. Sarah and I have been quite impressed with what he’s been working on. This summer, he’s hoping to enroll in a music theory class at the Saint Paul Conservatory of Music.
This is his most recent composition, completed this morning:
The Song of the Ages
And here are links to a bunch of other pieces he’s been working on over the past few months, at various levels of completion. Some of them are just for fun. Others were composed to fill particular needs in his video game coding projects.
Star DanceA Character ThemeAmbience UnfinishedBeepBox SongDrippity SplitFrog SongFun SongGame OverLittle SongifyQuite UnfinishedThe Game MusicTheme for BobUnfinished ForeverUntitledValley of the Midnight Dancers
AI art is controversial. Some would say the phrase is an oxymoron. Or it’s more like AI Art Theft. I follow these discussions with interest and think that there is a lot to be concerned about. With that said, I also have a MidJourney account that I’ve been using for the past six months to play with the technology. I mostly use it for role-playing game material, particularly for illustrations of the fictional characters that inhabit the milieu.
While preparing for a birthday game session for Griffin and some of his friends, I needed to whip up a bunch of modern-day characters for the adventure (wherein a mundane plane flight would go horribly awry). Here’s the cast, giving you a sense of what MidJourney can produce these days.
Carlos Quintana, helicopter tour pilotCindi Bankemper, physics teacherDuke Remington, police detectiveGreg Stamour, paramedicTesha Janusz, circus coachWhiskey Sour, drag queen
Note that for each image, I gave a very simple prompt. Whiskey Sour’s prompt, for example, was “middle-aged drag queen.” I never specified an art style, so it’s interesting that four of them are photo-realistic while Cindi and Duke are stylized. (Ms. Bankemper’s prompt was “science teacher middle-aged red-head glasses.”)
In a comical turn, on my first attempt at Greg Stamour, I typed in this prompt, “hot surfer dude paramedic.” MidJourney always produces four possibilities for each prompt. You can then choose one, add variations, or modify your prompt. One of the first four pics for Greg was this one:
hot surfer dude paramedic
Note the three pairs of sunglasses! Apparently MidJourney’s algorithm associates copious sunglasses with hot surfer dudes. If you zoom in, you can also see that the logo on his shirt is nonsense squiggles. Text-like artifacts are a common issue with generative AI.
I don’t know how all the ethical considerations will shake out in the coming years, but from a tech-geek standpoint, it is fun technology to play with.
The Faculty Fun Committee organized an afternoon of bowling at Sunray Lanes, not far from our house. Maggie opted out, but the rest of us had a great time. (And Griffin beat Andrew!)
Earlier this year, the kids agreed to cook at least one dinner per week for the family. They have chosen a number of bold recipes, including their first lasagna this week! It was delicious.
I was just thinking about this kid this morning, as I lay in Oliver’s bed to wake him up (he likes to snuggle awake, which I will take as long as possible). I adore Griffin as an almost 15 year old, and I continue to be amazed at the person he is becoming. He is remarkable in all ways, and I love growing with him. I have no desire for him to be little again.
Except.
I do desire to be the mom I am now to the kid he was then. I know so much more than I did then about myself, about children, about life. I want to scoop that little boy up and let his little head fit perfectly into the space between my neck and my shoulder and whisper to him: I love you. I love you. I love you.
Facebook memory from 2011 of Griffin discovering his pockets.
Griffin and his friend, James (and a few other friends), dove into a programming contest last week: the New Year, New Skills Game Jam. The contest ran for exactly one week, from January 7 to 14. They worked hard and developed a prototype game called Wyre. James was the lead coder and Griffin composed the music and designed many of the graphics.
You can play the game here and see the contest submission here. A few screenshots posted below.
Congratulations Griffin and James! This took a lot of work to put together.
We spent a fabulous day exploring the Hirshhorn Museum on the National Mall. We were wowed by sculptures by Simone Leigh, Yayoi Kusama, and Rodin. We also explored other worlds through an exhibit of contemporary Chinese photography, Laurie Anderson’s “Four Talks,” Mark Bradford’s 400-foot long “Picket’s Charge,” and John Akomfrah’s “Purple.” And food trucks. Obviously.
Griffin just sent this message out to his friends and their families (parents are still involved for rides). It warms my heart.
Good day, everyone!
I am excited to announce that next Sunday (26th), from 2 pm – 8 pm, I will be hosting another RPG session at my house (finally)! We will have dinner provided, as well as the game, characters, dice, and a trampoline. We will not have a lot of snacks, so if you want to bring some, please do (Ava, if you decide to come, some extra Wii and Switch remotes would be delightful!) My father, a very experienced DM, will be running the session, and we will have about equal parts gaming and other stuff. Please respond to this email so I know if you will make it!
My address is â– â– â– â– â– , St Paul, MN â– â– â– â– â– , and you can contact either me or my parents for questions at:
[email addresses removed]
Quick note: We have a new member! Everyone, please welcome Ellie to the campaign! Ellie, if you need help with a character or something, just contact me.
I hope to see everyone here next Sunday!
-Griffin Roy (Dragonborn Wizard)
For the gamers in the audience, we’re playing the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (Powered by GURPS), which has been my go-to game for the past few years. They created a wild array of characters:
Fred Half-Elf BardJack Cat-Folk ThiefMaryx Squid-Folk Martial ArtistThe Mineor Human ClericMaurice Half-Ogre BarbarianMozell Bolick Opossum-Folk Phantom-ThiefRed Human DruidZorgar Lomikos Dragon-Blooded Wizard
Note that the pictures of Maryx, Mozell Bolick, and Red were created with Midjourney, a generative artificial intelligence program that creates art based on written prompts. I’ve been experimenting with the service for RPG art like this. If you look carefully at Red, you can see some of the details that AI art programs struggle with. Her eyes are a bit wonky and her left hand appears to have three somewhat misshapen fingers.
