cycle success part ii

 mr smear was all about chatgpt today - i tried on multiple occasions to explain what an LLM is, but he doesn't really care. he's decided he wants to inform his therapist that if he ever needs to speak to someone, he should consider chatgpt.

good grief.

the big event of the day: i managed to drag mr smear away from his AI experience, i put on my blades* and helmet and we grabbed the new pump and we headed out with the intention of going to the park.

* after clearing the pads of mold. i kept finding more mold today, almost everywhere i looked. it's very hard not to feel defeated, and it's exhausting constantly having to wipe down new surfaces and items.

we didn't get anywhere near the park, but we didn't need to. a little over a month ago i took mr smear out and he pretty much got the hang of riding a bike downhill. today, he very quickly got back into the downhill thing again (in spite of an altercation with the imagined owner of a parked bike, it took patience to explain to him that it was actually mr smear's fault for hitting the bike and not the owner's for parking it where he did).

his second attempt at the downhill was even better! and then i informed him that he was about to level up, as we were going onto a flat path and that it's harder than going downhill. his first attempt was... unsuccessful. a very upset mr smear decided that he was done with bikes (again), and was going home. i told him he could go home, but that he had to at least ride back the way he'd come (about thirty / forty meters).

something clicked for him on the way back, he managed to get himself pedalling in spite of his insistence upon doing it his way (the hard way, really), and then he decided he wanted to give it one more go. he proceeded to demonstrate that he's now consistently capable of riding his bike, alone and with zero assistance, from a stationary position and without any assistance from gravity.

i'm very proud, very relieved, and very excited both at his progression and at the noticeable spike in confidence. i've explained to him that if he's consistently riding his bike and convinces me that he understands the "rules of the road", i'll be happy to "upgrade" him to rollerblades like his old man, just like he's been asking me for ^_^

we came home, and after another round of chatgpt we all sat down to watch mutant mayhem together. i'm a bit sad that i missed a chunk of it because i felt asleep, but we're going to watch it again for sure anyway. it's AMAZING.

during the course of the day we'd seen a video reviewing a bunch of open world games that are coming out this year, and were very excited about trying out the europa demo.

it's *gorgeous*.

finally, mr cat has completed the work on page 33 and is moving on to page 34. i realized today that this means that i actually need to start putting together the crowdfunding campaign to publish/market/launch the comic. this is great, but also scary. i'm wondering if chatgpt can give me a boost because i've tried crowdfunding before and the experience was... let's just say it's not really my forte.