STILL KICKIN’

After hundreds of crazy and oftentimes inflammatory Facebook posts, perhaps a couple of thousand over 20 years, I wanted the last post to be totally special. To me, this is like retirement all over again.

For this final project, my new and improved AI (artificial intelligence) photo generator asked for early ‘facial only’ images of 12 friends, with the 12th being me. Twelve bodies were all that would fit on the merry-go-round.

This was a tough assignment, yet I succeeded by snipping and copying school yearbooks and classroom photographs. No names or personal information was supplied.

AI somehow aged these people to make them appear in their 70s as if that was hard to do. We all look pretty much the same at that stage. If you see a similarity−it’s probably you−but my lips are sealed on exactly whose mugs were submitted.

I’m extremely happy with the outcome, especially my early Alaska pioneer resemblance. That leather jacket is striking. I was so impressed that I ordered an 8×10 print for the office. That’s a first for me in framing something created entirely by a computer program.

From this day forward, many of my biking, hiking, Jeep adventures, and car show experiences will be permanently housed on the following website: www.michael-hankins.com.

That site and the associated email section are monitored daily unlike fb. The latest goal is to start producing drone videos of mysterious areas unreachable by foot, car, or plane, and preview them on YouTube. Arizona is full of such inaccessible places.

I’m still kickin’ but I’d much rather use my rapidly diminishing time to create entertaining videos watched by many, rather than continue posting redundant info, stories, humorous memes, and photos seen by a few on fb. Nevertheless, I’ll still write for my blog and various periodicals, especially, “The Today’s News-Herald.”

YouTube seems to be growing while Facebook continually suffers from declining group participation. Always one to take an unknown path, new adventures and discoveries hopefully await me around the bend. The ability for drones to scour the desert for treasures has great possibilities. “I’m very excited” is more than an understatement here. 😊