Weeknotes 67 - "Geeks, nerds, and dorks"

I haven't written weeknotes for three weeks now, each week for different reasons that I would explain in the following week if each week didn't get progressively worse; too lazy, too busy and a death in the family.

This week has also been just straight-up weird, but I'm forcing myself to write something to get back into the swing of thing.

I have an extensive list of things to write about, and as I walk to the art studio, my brain reads out the would-be blog post, reorganising and rewriting parts of it. As I do the washing-up, other parts drop into place. Mowing the lawn can sort out another 1,000 words or so. I can almost hear myself pacing a tiny TEDx stage, speaking my blog posts as everyone nods with understanding and delight at my clear explanations and sharp insights.

Then I sit down at the keyboard and, yeah, still too much effort.

If only some tools could help...

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"Geeks, nerds, and dorks, listen up! I have a very special print that's going to blow your mind."

Via Denise's tumblr, this is the copy created by Copy.AI when I asked it to generate some Instagram captions for me.

It's not very good, so expect to see me getting them printed onto t-shirts all over the place. 🙂

"Introducing the end of writer's block.
With CopyAI's automated creativity tools,
you can generate marketing copy in seconds."

What's vaguely interesting is that it's clearly just a neural net trained on sources of text that it offers to create. If I ask for "Instagram Captions" I'll get back something mainly trained on Instagram Captions. If I ask for a "Clubhouse Bio" (which is an option), I'll get back a mashup of Clubhouse Bios.

Other Instagram suggestions it gave me were...

"If you're in Shrewsbury, you can get my print at Gallery Oldham until November 18. I've got it framed, so that makes it a little more special. The shop is really friendly".

"In which I awkwardly hold a pen plotter, because they don't really look like pens? And ask: are my plots the pen or are my plots the paper?"

"Pen plotting reminds me of my old drafting classes, but with a modern twist."

Because pen plotting is pretty niche, when it's churning out the text, I often see things written by other pen plotter artists I follow on IG, sometimes including links to their websites. I'm sure everything written under my photos will be in there somewhere, although I'm yet to have my own words handed back to me.

No doubt the answer to any criticisms is "It's just writing prompts to give you ideas and help you work past writers' block", but for the duration of the free seven-day trial (and no, I won't be paying up after then) it's been kinda funny.

It even does listicle titles, so expect to see "3 Benefits of Pen Plotter Art", "8 Inspiring Pen Plotter Tutorials" and "5 Must-Have Tools for Perfect Pen Plotter Artwork" soon, which, um, hey, are actually quite good.

I asked it to write a love letter.

"The art of pen plotting is meditative for me. It's a way to unwind, to think without the noise of words. It's amazing how much a pen, ink and paper can communicate on their own.

Pen plotting is the art of making little pen marks then connecting them to make lines on a piece of paper. You can do it with dye, watercolours or whatever else you choose. It's extremely meditative for me and you can lose track of time, getting lost in the boundaries you are creating. My life has been full of so many fights with myself and others, my entire childhood and adolescence was a confusing mix of wanting solitude yet being the type of person who craves social interaction. Even now I find myself in moments where I need people but also want to be alone; when I want to run away yet find myself faced with an obstacle that I WANT to overcome. I'm not sure if pen plotting helps me"

👆- this is totally going to come back and bite me in Google search result snippets.

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