I was hoping to return here with a happier post and new content. I have made some things since I last posted, but I won’t post them here. In fact, I’ll probably be removing most of my content. You see, I went to one of my forums this morning and found this thread about WordPress’ parent company, Automattic, possibly selling our content to AI companies. True, the article linked in the thread mostly talks about Tumblr (another Automattic company), but if you think I’m gonna trust Automattic with my stuff after this…

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe there’s legitimate uses for generative AI, like inspiration (trying to figure out how something might look so you can draw/describe it in your own style) or for the lulz (I’m bored, let’s type in random words and see what comes up). But for ethical and moral reasons, the AI should be trained on public domain pictures and text; legally public domain, not “it was on the internet without right click disabled”. Or they should get permission/license our stuff first and respect any noes they get. Or a mix of PD and licensed content. But techbros gonna techbro, so good luck finding ethical generative AI.

My dolls are definitely going down. Not only are they under a no commercial use license, but the bases I used are under a similar license. I cannot give permission for the base creator, and the non-base parts of my dolls are worthless without the base. I might leave the palettes up, since they’re, in essence, public domain. The thank you to St. Jude, et. al., will stay up, at least until or if I get another blog elsewhere. The rest of my content will likely be taken down on a case by case basis, or at least significantly altered.

Yeah, yeah, cat’s already out of the bag, wave of the future, already been scraped, Luddites, blah blah blah. I’ve heard all the arguments before. And yes, there is an opt out of sorts. But all that’s beside the point. The point is, this is my content. I should have the final say in how it’s distributed. When I put it on WordPress, it was on the conditions that they could use my content to effectively host it, and that would be the extent of their commercial use. I did not opt in to training someone techbro’s software that aims to make human art and other labor obsolete while making said techbro a gajillionaire.

This will probably be one of my last posts on WordPress. If I make another post, it will be to let you know I have new blog and link you to it.

I’d like to thank all the people who visited The Brainchildren, adopted my dolls, used my free content, and otherwise spare a look here. I wish I didn’t have to leave like this, but hopefully I can repost my content somewhere else on the net for you and future generations to enjoy. Until then, I wish you all well.

Sincerely,

AZ Dawn

Thank you, St. Jude Thaddeus, patron of desperate cases, for pleading my case before God. If anyone is in particularly dire straits, I recommend that they ask you for help.

Thank you, Virgin Mary, Mother of God, for you frequent prayers for me, especially for when you and St. Jude both prayed to God for me and my family.

And most importantly, thank you, God, for saying yes to Jude, Mary, and me.

AZ Dawn

Sorry for nearly a year without posts; I really haven’t much to post about. I’m still trying to do things, including dolling, despite my arthritis, but it’s hard at times. Hopefully I can get more done on the Brainchildren this year.

Last month I updated to Windows 10. I won’t bore with a review of it, so suffice it to say that it seems to be working well so far. I’m still getting used to it, but I’ve found out a couple of thing that might be of interest to dollers.

First, GIMP still works with Windows 10. So if that’s your only reason for not updating, you’re good to go.

Unfortunately, MS Paint no longer appears in the apps menu. No biggie for me, but my niece uses it. I searched online for a free substitute for MS Paint, and fortunately found This Article on how to find Paint and make a desktop shortcut for it! I don’t know if it works if your computer already came with Window 10, but it certainly work if you updated.

That’s all for now, and I hope it helps. Bye!

AZ Dawn

First post of the year, ha,ha. My old laptop’s hard drive went south around Christmas on me and I lost months worth of unfinished dolls. I had recovery and back up discs, but still! Right now I’m getting used to a new laptop, so hopefully I can get more stuff done this year.

No doll this time, but I do have some reddish palettes for you, just in time for Valentine’s Day. I made these from the Red-Violet series of the Traditional Colors of Japan.

The named colors are marked with a triangle and are the main colors in the palettes. I used a new technique to make these which involved a shift in hue as well as saturation and value.

That’s all for now. Here’s hoping things are good for you all this year.

AZ Dawn

Wow, I need to update more often.

For a change, here’s the fruit of one of my offline hobbies: loom knitting! Instead of using knitting needles or a crochet hook, loom knitting is done on a frame with pegs with a hook-like tool. It’s easier than regular knitting, but the results are much the same.

This is a dog sweater I whipped up about 3 years ago, after my broken leg had healed up.  Unfortunately, I was (and still am) between dogs, so I made it for a stuffed toy.

It was so cold, the Sonoran Sand Manatees bundled up! 

Side view.

Manatee moons you!

I know it doesn’t look like much, but at the time it was the most complex project I had done. I’m still fairly satisfied with it, though as you can see in the side, the pattern is better suited for creatures with round legs than flippers.

This dog sweater was made on the red Knifty Knitter loom using worsted weight acrylic yarn.

If you would like more information on loom knitting, The Loom Room gives a good overview of the subject.

AZ Dawn

As promised, here’s the pattern from my latest doll.

Last modified February 2013.

For some strange reason the .png file wouldn’t show up right, even though the doll saved in the same format showed up just fine. Saving the pattern as a .gif seems to have fixed the problem.

Have fun!

AZ Dawn

Long time, no post, but now I come bearing content! First, here’s one of my attempts at a variation of the Album Game (not my first attempt, but very timely). Yes, it’s adoptable.

Group Name

Album Title

Original Picture

The title makes sense if you imagine washing up for Christmas dinner and seeing Santa guest towels and cute little soaps by the sink.

That’s not the only goodie I have for you. There’s also a new section in the links: Graphics Links. Right now it’s mostly tutorial sites, but more links will be added later.

Merry Christmas to my Christian readers, and to my non-Christian readers, may this be a great time of year for you, too.

AZ Dawn

My fellow dollers, Xandorra’s Place and the Gathering are both gone.   I guess Xandorra’s contract finally expired; all that’s left are This Site Has Been Suspended pages. You can still get most of her bases at her PixiStar account, but except for the adoptions others have made, her dolls are no longer online.

I’m sad.

Good luck, Xandorra. We’ll miss you

AZ Dawn

It looks like I’m going to have another one of those years, but things aren’t all bad. For instance, the GIMP developers have finally released GIMP 2.8 for Windows! Seriously, I’ve been patiently waiting for this version ever since when I heard it had a single window mode. No more having part of your work covered up by the Layers or the Tools menus.  It has some other changes that sound pretty good as well.

Now the question is, should I download it now or should I wait for a couple of bug fixes first?

AZ Dawn

Sad news in the dolling world: The Gathering is closing. No definite time has been announced, but the forum’s pretty much dead.

I’ve been a member of the Gathering since 2004; it was the first forum I joined. My reason for joining was to get critique for my dolls, but being there helped me in other ways that I never expected. TG gave me practice interacting online, and while I’m still not exactly a social butterfly, I gained the courage to join other forums on other subjects. If it hadn’t been for TG, I might’ve been too shy to create the Brainchildren!

I’ll never find another doll forum like the Gathering, no matter how long I doll. Farewell TG, and good luck Xandorra and my fellow members.

AZ Dawn