Accidentally Out of Triathlons

This has been a weird year and it’s almost halfway over already. Truly, I can hardly believe we’re nearing the end of June and guess what I haven’t done this year? I’ll give you a hint…

Still need another hint? OK, I’ll use my fancy pants new Samsung phone to create another AI image…

I can’t give you a third hint because, well, then it’ll just be too easy for you. Plus, it’s in the title you goofball! We’re six months into 2025 and I haven’t done one triathlon.

It’s not totally my fault, though. Weather is also to blame. For one thing, winter. That’s why my first race this year was a duathlon (run/bike/run). Water temperature, even in Florida, can get really cold in the winter so a lot of races exclude swimming. If you ever want to participate in a winter triathlon, you’ll often see duathlons instead of triathlons.

And then… and then there was the storm clouds. Radar wasn’t looking good but I drove the two-hour trip to my first triathlon of the year only to have it cancelled 5 minutes before arrival. Seriously. Other friends of mine have had races cancelled, even 70.3 half Ironmans. So it’s going around like a flu. But I’m still training as if I have a race coming up soon… which is sort of true. Next race on the calendar is early July so I’m hoping to complete my first tri of the year with only 5 months left in the year. 🥴

-Out of the Wilderness

5-Photo Friday #9 – Artificial Intelligence Helps My Drawings

I just got a new phone because my Galaxy Flip 4 was sputtering on fumes for the last few weeks I had it. In a surprise twist, I was picking between the Flip 6 and the Motorola Razr and went with the Samsung S25 Ultra instead. It’s been so fun to learn more about the phone. My favorite feature so far is the “Drawing Assist” which will take images I barely make recognizable and turn them into what I was trying to create. Artificial Intelligence the way I like to see it used! So from my sketches, here are my top 5 favorite AI interpretations.

Pretty cool feature on a pretty cool phone. For more of these AI-assisted pictures, check out the folder here and while you’re there you can see my professional photography, too… or just click here to go there directly. You’re cool. Have a good weekend!

-Out of the Wilderness

Another Simple Favor – Spoilers of a Terrible Movie

If you’ve seen A Simple Favor, you probably wondered like I did how they could possibly make a follow-up movie. Never underestimate Hollywood’s ability to create something out of thin air. In this case, it’s a secret dead sister who’s magically not dead. Before I watched Another Simple Favor, I was very skeptical about it. I just kept thinking that there was no way they could make a smooth transition from the first one. The two women were basically mortal enemies by the end of it and now audiences are supposed to believe the pair come together again for a whole new plot?

I don’t want to necessarily influence your opinion of the movie but……… it stunk sooooo much. This post about it sums up all the reasons why and for me I’ll just narrow it down to two three four reasons it was one of the worst sequels, nay, the worst movies, I’ve seen in a long time.

  1. Emily and Stephanie are friends after Stephanie is the reason Emily is in jail for a very long time. In no scenario would these two people ever want to speak to each other again, in the real world or in any movie. Yet here they are acting like best friends.
  2. There are multiple scenes with lengthy exposition– Emily or one of the other characters going on and on and on and on with dialogue to help explain the plot.
  3. The amount of gay kissing, incest, homosexual references is enough to make James Charles blush.
  4. The surprise in this movie was that the third sister– the triplet who was stillborn– wasn’t actually stillborn, just stolen by the mother’s sister. Stories like this tick me right off because it’s so clear producers/writers knew what I knew… that there’s no logical way to make a Part 2. They got so desperate to make another one, they just made up a new part of the story, that the third sister resurrected from the dead. 🙄 I’ve seen soap operas storylines better than this movie.

I haven’t even mentioned that the movie is over 2 hours long. Lots of people don’t mind long movies but anything over 2 hours, it better be worth it. This movie was not. On a positive note, there were a handful of laugh-worthy scenes but at no point in the entire 2 hours did I think to myself, “I’m glad I’m watching this.” Save yourself time and inevitable anger by skipping this one.

-Out of the Wilderness

Shoulda Been A Hockey Player

Every time I watch a hockey match, I’m more impressed than the last time. Did you catch any of the Stanley Cup this year? Florida Panthers versus Edmonton Oilers and there were some magical moves I absolutely loved during the series. For instance, passing it to yourself between your skates. One player did a backhand pass from behind himself, between his skates, up to the front so he could hit a forehand shot on goal. Another time or two in the Stanley Cup, players passed it around the defender back to themselves for a shot on goal. Just last night a player deflected a shot with his skate blade and scored.

Hockey fascinates me because of how skilled and talented the players are. I sometimes forget that they aren’t just whisking the puck around up and down the ice. They’re also ice skating! When’s the last time you went ice skating and thought to yourself, “Oh yeah, this is easy.” Put a stick in your hand, full pads, people coming to get you, and then what? If you’re like me, you’d be frozen in place… pun intended.

These guys are incredible. I can’t think of another sport where the partaker is doing two really hard skills at the same time, at least not to the level of hockey (skating + all the puck handling). Crazy. Congratulations to the Florida Panthers (I guess hockey in sunny Florida is legit) for the second Cup in consecutive years. I used my new Samsung S25 Ultra to render an AI panther based on a pretty terrible sketch of a panther from yours truly. Here’s how Samsung interpreted it.

I thought that was a pretty good rendering of my poor drawing! Even though it looks more like a rabid deer. See my other AI-assisted images here. I never played organized football growing up. Now I’m wondering if I missed another chance– organized hockey. It would’ve been beneficial to learn how to skate. Oh yeah, hitting people would be fun, too.

Subscribe for daily posts…

-Out of the Wilderness

Ed Sheeran does behind-the-scenes how it should be done for Sapphire music video…

How many times have you watched an official “behind the scenes” clip from the shooting of a music video (or a movie, to be honest) and it was just a huge waste of time? They just throw clips together without much thought and artists (or their record label?) think fans are going to die of happiness. If you’re about to give fans an insider look into what goes on for the making of a video, take notes on this great montage from Ed Sheeran for the making of his video “Sapphire.”

There are multiple reasons all BTS videos should be done this way but two I’ll point out are… 1) it actually offers a lot of information on the locations and the stories behind the clips, and 2) I feel like I get to know Ed by listening to his commentary. So it’s insightful, endearing, and informative. I don’t know much about Indian culture or the famous stars there, but now I know a little more. That’s what these videos need to be… every single time.

Everyone out there, do it this way! Please. Anything less comes across like an afterthought and your fans deserve so much more than that. Ed’s music video is a fantastic spotlight on India and the explanation of how the video came together adds even more to India’s charm and Ed’s relatability. Very cool.

I post daily at 1pm central. Add your email below to be notified each time a new post pops up.

-Out of the Wilderness