"Your future is a canvas of endless opportunity!" - Futurist Jim Carroll

I'm learning to make little cartoons. Pity my family!
Anyway, with that in mind, I'm thrilled to announce that we got an ISBN for Dancing in the Rain yesterday, so we are pretty close to being in print! I celebrated by putting together a little cartoon that showed my patience through the process.

I've also been tracking the weather for this weekend for a wedding shower for some good family friends. It's been looking like rain, but the forecast suddenly started to look better. I created a little cartoon to share this good news with my close friends.

All of this has come about as I continue to relentlessly explore the creative opportunities that are AI. (I haven't even touched on the massive explosion of creative innovation occurring with AI video. Suffice it to say, that the Bible, Titanic, and Star Wars will never be the same. If you are on social media, you will know.)
Anyway, my little cartoon endeavor began with this character, who I have named Little Guy.

He was generated by an AI for item #113 in my Embracing Mediocrity book. I kind of took a liking to him. A simple drawing that just seems to somehow show a range of emotions. The caption that went with him? "STAY AVERAGE. Stay where you are. Treat being ordinary as an accomplishment in itself." And then, I liked him so much that he appears again in item #96 of Escaping Mediocrity, "WELCOME HARDSHIP. Difficulty builds character. Easy paths create weak people unprepared for life."
My new cartoon skill (LOL!)? I first began going down this path when, several weeks ago, we seemed to be in an endless cycle of rain. I made myself remember why a gloomy season of rain leads to the growth that marks spring.

Of course, this led to a little comic that reminded me that the rainy pattern would eventually end...

That led to another one that is a bit self-explanatory - how we react to bad golf shots, but how it is our mindset that matters.

Anyways, what is the point of all this? I continue to learn new skills, exploring the depths of opportunity and challenge with all the new technologies that surround us. This brings me to the point of today's post - I spent a little bit of time yesterday, pulling together this PDF and website - 101 Learnings for a Better Life. It's a series of lessons that I've worked to summarize over time that tries to summarize my approach to things.

I would encourage you to read it and share it - you might find some optimism among the gloom that seems to be a big part of our world today. And in fact, that's the origin of today's quote - because our future truly is a canvas of endless opportunity! I asked ChatGPT to summarize my 101 learnings and that is what it came back with!
Oh, and if you would like a personal little 6-frame cartoon with my 'little guy', send me a message with what you are looking for!
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Futurist Jim Carroll’s family has not commented so far on the random little cartoons he is sending them throughout the day.