… so I said, whatever! I don’t care. If there’s a special place in hell for me, I gots no problem going there.
The snow has returned and left just as quickly. Remember how I told you I’d stay ahead of my weekly posts? Well … I’m behind. Even this journal entry is two weeks behind.
Overall, October was shitty, and I’m back to figuring out how to illustrate my book all by myself, but I’m okay with it.
The words are where I want them on the page; I need the images, and I have OpenArt to help me. All you “real” artists out there, please don’t be pissed, but I cannot afford to hire an illustrator. So it’s me and OA.
The other day, a friend was telling me just how much disdain artists have for AI, and rightfully so, when I hear specific arguments. I don’t know enough to have an informed opinion … for me, it’s a tool, and if it tries to sound like me, it’s ok – you can’t stop my ideas from flowing.
Of course, I am not published or well-known, so steal away. I will likely change my tune when I’m making a shit tonne from my art. Speaking of tune …
🎶
Goumangala – Shadow
Leroy, I have a message to give you
Leroy, I have a secret to tell you
You in luck with Matilda, she invite you for dinner
Mama done start to prepare, she done boil she underwear
Don’t go in dem people house, a warning you
Don’t go in dem people house, a telling you
Goumangala in the coffee
Goumangala in the mauby
Goumangala in the porridge
Goumangala in the sandwich
If you eat them people food, yuh turn stupid
And when you start feeling good, yuh done married
🎶
BTW, since I’ve been using OA, I have a new idea: all my crazy, random, dumb shit stories, OpenArt can help me animate those too (projects for later). First, I gotta finish this damn book and this damn script I’m working on.
- The Troll and the Ballerina is ~ 45 pages, so it needs lots of images.
- The script is about a corporate retreat (no title). It’s ~30 min, and I’m on draft #3.
I have a list of other projects on my homemade kanban board, but those two are the high-priority ones.
You know how you hear about artists dying with unfinished shit … I don’t want that to be me. I will likely have digital and RL notebooks of ideas to turn into poems, scripts, posters, long-form shit, etc., but I don’t count those.
When I think about all the people who’ve died and didn’t finish their work, or maybe they didn’t even start, or they didn’t get the chance to do more exploring, that makes wanna cry, so I don’t think about it. Well, I just did, and it’s ok.
If I died today, I’d have seven unfinished things.
Back to the worst Halloween October ever. The horror movie selection sucked. Weapons (2025) was different. I judge movies by whether I’d watch them again. I wouldn’t rewatch. Weapons, I mostly resorted to true crime shows (can’t get more sacry than that). Ideally, though, October is when I look forward to horror movies.
Did you hear the good news about Canva buying Affinity (previously owned by Serif) and keeping it free as a continued non-subscription competitor to Adobe? I’m gonna try creating my next poster in there.
And finally, I have a poem I wrote yesterday that I really like, so I’m gonna post it. I not waiting till next week. It’s part of my On The Brain PSA.
I hope life is good and all is well with you!
Sat Nov 15
Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
© 2025 Samantha Williams. All Rights Reserved.
