Comic Con Cameos, AI Deep Dives, and Thunderstorms at the Door

So this week’s been a pretty standard one overall—nothing too crazy or over-the-top exciting—but still had some pretty cool moments scattered throughout. Honestly, sometimes those are the best weeks. No big dramas, just steady life with a few unexpected plot twists.

During the workweek, I’ve been continuing to explore the world of AI—mostly ChatGPT and something new to me called Grok, which I guess is Elon’s version of AI. I’m still learning the ropes, but ChatGPT seems like the front-runner right now. It’s more polished and professional, at least from what I’ve seen.

It’s wild how much this stuff can do. The speed is insane—whether it’s pulling things off the internet or helping with planning, it's fast. And honestly, I don’t even know what the full limitations are yet. I’m just now dipping my toe in the water and trying to wrap my head around it all. I’m mostly doing it just to keep up with my kids. They’re using it in school and college—to write papers, do research, all kinds of stuff—so I figured it’s time I at least pretend to know what I’m talking about when they bring it up.

For me, so far, it’s been a great starting point for research. I’m not using it to finish anything, but it’s definitely helpful when you’re just trying to figure something out or get moving in the right direction.

On the more unusual side of things, we had some pretty bad weather in Peachtree this week. It was so rough one day that we actually had a police officer knock on our door. Apparently, someone in the neighborhood had gone out on the lake in one of those little boats and then went missing during the storm. Their family couldn’t reach them, and I guess they were really worried because of the lightning and wind.

The officer asked if we could walk down to the end of our yard and help look out over the lake. Thankfully, everything turned out just fine—no one was hurt, and the person showed up safe. But it definitely added a little unexpected drama to the day. Not every day you get a knock on the door from the cops during a thunderstorm.

On Friday, Holly and I headed up to Atlanta Comic Con, which was fun and a little different from what we’re used to with Dragon Con. First thing I noticed? The costumes weren’t quite as intricate or over-the-top. And surprisingly, there weren’t as many comics there as there used to be.

Years ago, Comic Con was wall-to-wall comics. Now it’s maybe 20% comics and 80% other types of vendors—figurines, art, collectibles, you name it. Not a bad thing, just different.

The big win for me was getting to meet Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Phillips. That was a huge deal. Kiefer was one of my favorites from Lost Boys, and both of them were in Young Guns, which I absolutely loved growing up. It was a little surreal seeing them in person.

There were a lot of anime voice actors there too—definitely a draw for the younger crowd. Me and Holly had a great time just taking it all in.

On Saturday, we brought our son Sam with us for another round at Comic Con. He’s really into anime and had a blast seeing some of the voice actors from the shows he watches. We also saw Frank Grillo (he’s been in a bunch of Marvel stuff), and the voice actors from Rick and Morty, which was cool. Just a solid weekend doing something a little different.

Then that night, we caught the UFC card—which was a big one in the fight world. Dustin Poirier’s last fight before retirement, going up against Max Holloway. It was a great fight. Early on, it looked like Max might end it quickly—he landed some really good shots—but Dustin held on and made it the full five rounds. No early knockouts, just a tough back-and-forth scrap between two legends. Definitely one of the better fight nights I’ve watched lately.

Sunday, Holly and I drove over to Jackson, Mississippi to have dinner with one of my uncles and his wife. It was nice to catch up—good food, good conversation. Next week we’re heading down to Louisville, Mississippi, where a lot of my extended family lives. Just doing a little summer visit and reconnecting with everybody.

Sam’s staying back home to hold things down and take care of the dogs. Speaking of the animals…

Our dog Luna had to get spayed this week, so she’s been on strict rest. She’s not exactly loving it. We skipped the hard plastic cone and got her one of those soft blow-up ones, which she tolerates a lot better—but she’s still not thrilled. She’s used to being outside and running full speed, so this whole "no jumping, no running" thing isn’t her style.

She’s been slowly increasing her walks, but she’s ready to get back to her normal routine. I think by the end of the week, she’ll be 100% again.

Meanwhile, she’s discovered the little fairy house in our backyard and decided that’s her new hangout spot. She’ll just lay there, watching the kids swim and soaking it all in. The cats—Ivy and JJ—are doing their own thing and loving summer too. Noah and Carlye had some Amazon boxes show up and they turned them into a whole adventure. Simple stuff, but it’s been fun watching everyone enjoy the season in their own way.