Halloween 2026

 

 This post will continue to get longer as Halloween approaches. Therefore the latest material and graphics for your amusement will be found at the bottom.There is also now quite a few graphics loading, and a few of them are quite large. Please be patient. 

I am a total 130% kid at heart, and proud of it, so when Halloween is even remotely close I get totally into the spirit of it. The same sort of thing happens around Christmas and I have over 50 Christmas albums to prove it. 

Most importantly though it's not the belief or the ritual that intrigues me. It is how people can manifest changes although they may insist that the change is due to a belief I see it as an ability which is innate to everyone. You don't manifest a change in spirit or situation because of "something", you do it because you undertook the effort to alter your self. Let's put the power where it belongs and it is always with the individual. And there isn't anything spooky about that .🧙‍♀️

So I enjoyed the festive season's even though I'm not a believer in any way shape or form. When I die, that will be it for the program known as "Patrick" now, some may find that perspective a little alarming. I find it comforting and indeed motivating.-Life is short and I am not going to waste it. So pardon me will I go Halloween crazy and then Christmas crazy. It is the chance to let a little creativity out while getting together with friends.

The photograph at the top of this article is simply a picture I took of a jack-o'-lantern purchased from the local Home Depot. The image is initially underexposed and then I ran what is known as a histogram equalization filter which simply brought all the colour regardless of how dark it was up into the visible range. I put it through the same software that I use to make my YouTube videos and put an animated background behind the image. Proof-one tripped out jack-o'-lantern face.

I will be adding more images as we approach Halloween and if I get time I will do a video. So stay tuned and feel free to come back to this post. All graphics in this post I will place in the public domain. If I come up with something really fancy I will also provide a download link. Until then take care

I'm going to do something very childlike, go out and buy some fluorescent paint, a black/white or two, some craft paper (preferably black) and a paintbrush. To be clear I'm no artist so this is most likely going to be a pleasant disaster... But not from the kid's point of view. I am writing this text ahead of time so a photograph may show up on this post in a day or two.

  

The image above with the haunted house was created by starting with a real photo of a dilapidated house in Vancouver British Columbia. Then re-rendered through an AI to give it is spooky feeling by adding the weather and the woman walking down the sidewalk. I then took the image and put it on a swirling the background which is simply the colours up from the original drawing blended together. The image is suitable for a computer desktop or printing if you would like.

An interesting note about the house: it was later renovated by the city of Vancouver as a historical building. They brought it back to its original condition using period specific paints. They then moved it slightly down the block to accommodate new construction which grew up around it. If I can get a good photo of the renovated building I will post it on the blog with a separate history. For now know that the house lives on in the 21st-century. I believe a small business moved in and is opened a coffee house on the first floor.  

Oh I can't resist it… I want to see what Ideogram AI can do with Halloween. I gave the AI the following prompt and here's what it came up with. I can't decide on which image I like better so I will post all four: (As far as I can tell from their usage policy these images can be used freely, but please check here before using them for any specific public purpose as these things can change.) Note: Clicking on any of the following images may take some time to display as it will be the full 4K version. Especially over Wi-Fi or phone.

PROMPT: " A Halloween image showcasing all the various iconic portrayals in the last 120 years. Blend each portrayal seamlessly into its neighbour so that the viewer understands the chronology. The colour should be vivid and appropriate to the era depicted. You should draw on sources from the movies, folklore, religion and popularity of the time."

 
All of these pictures should be suitable for reasonable size printing. I uploaded them in 4K. However one never knows what the blog compression algorithm will do. Let me know if you need the originals.Just post a comment or if you're on tablet/laptop use the feedback form on the right side of the screen.

 

 I really do find this amazing, the remarkable evolution in quality since the first AI generated image used on this blog, which you can find in "Nurturing the Creative Soul" posted on January 28, 2023. Where will it be in quality in the next 12 months? Who knows.

 

The really wild thing is, it took this AI to create all four images under a minute in a high resolution. Using just the single prompt mentioned above.

 

This AI really likes vampire's, they are definitely prominent. A nice spooky collection to start things off, I definitely say. Stay tuned there is more on the way!
 

 

 

Okay, one more from AI. But this time just using something local running on my machine, which by AI standards is very old about two years. I gave "Vision FX 2.1" a prompt to make me spooky theatre and after several hours and a few iterations one of the pictures it came up with was this one. Here is the prompt I gave the local AI:

 

"Using Halloween as the theme for the style, create the auditorium of the spooky 1940s movie theatre as seen from the back row. The auditorium slopes sharply down toward a massive screen displaying a black-and-white image of a horror movie with the castle and the lightning in the background. Make the weather windy and quite cold looking. Although it is a dismal image it should at the same time the intriguing to the viewer. As though reading a frightening story you still cannot resist turning the next page to find out what happens."

 

If you're like me, one of the fondest memories from Halloween's way in the past was playing around with the original fluorescent Black Lights. I think they may give off enough ultraviolet to give you a suntan and I know we were warned not to stare directly at the light for too long due to the specific wavelength of ultraviolet. It didn't stop me from absolutely covering my apartment with posters that would glow under ultraviolet. I kind of wish I had some photographs to share… While wandering around our local Spirit Halloween store I ran into several piles of modern black lights. They use LEDs and they do work, not quite the same deep purple glow though. Nevertheless I bought enough fluorescent paint with two black lights to crank up the bill over $200 Canadian in about seven minutes. So the photo below is me just goofing around. By no means a work of art, but a lot of fun.

 I am just beginning to get into AI as it pertains to doing full-motion video. Ultimately I would like to create a few sequences with the storyline to put on the computers downstairs in the lunchroom. As a matter of fact, last night I spent two hours creating a witch character.

I believe the experience thus far has given me the tiniest insight into the detail that goes into a movie or even a commercial.This image was created using Google Flow.

 

 

The following video clip was created using "Ideogram AI" which I have used to create all of the artificially intelligent generated images on the blog up until this point. Unfortunately, I can only afford to subscribe to one AI service at a time. So we will be using Google Flow moving forward. This in no way is a reflection of the quality of either service, it is simply a financial decision. This image has been compressed and rendered down a fair bit in order to make it appropriate for the Internet. Please let me know if you want the full resolution version. This is the complete clip. Totally spooky in my opinion.

 

My paper shredder filled up, and I was inspired. I thought "what if we get the AI to create an image of a jack-o'-lantern stuffing candies into a paper shredder only do it in the style of Norman Rockwell?" This is the result and I think it's marvellous. I'm quite aware that I've gone AI crazy in the last two weeks, but not to fear I will return to sanity after the Halloween season.

 

 

November 3, 2026:

That's the end of the 2026 live Halloween post. There will of course be another one in 2027.

I shall do a Christmas version of course starting in early December and will be adding to it throughout the month. So stay tuned for that post I have no idea what graphics I will generate or create by hand. Feel free to send me suggestions!

Take care Patrick

You Must Have Aspirations (at least one)

 

To my way of thinking "aspirations" are something one assumes everyone has… I have met a few people now however who don't appear to have any desires or goals to reach for. They take each day as it comes without any thought of tomorrow. I find this incredibly perplexing. Not only that a few of them literally don't want an aspiration. They appear to be quite content almost blindly going from one day to the next. This short-circuits my brain.

These people are quite young in their early 20s to the oldest being early 30s. You would think by that stage of life a person would have a few goals at the very least. Maybe it's because they are all in stable situations where most of their needs are met. (I'm talking here about the assisted living building I live in. So maybe this is particular to these kinds of environments.) I cannot recall a time when I didn't have a goal. Even as a very young child I remember thinking clearly "If I could figure out how a light switch worked I could take over the world." I kid you not that is verbatim what I used to think as a child, of about four or five years old. You can find it either amusing or perhaps a little disturbing :-). In either case however I had a goal, an aspiration. I think this attitude of mind frustrated both of my parents because I would come up with spectacular ideas and my parents would have to explain to me why you can't make a steam engine out of just a coffee can and perhaps some tubing.

I think a critical component of my early years was seeing my father build some small item on the floor with my sister and I watching. One time this was a simple electromagnet which she made by simply wrapping some wire around a nail and connecting it to a battery. My sister and myself may not quite understood what he was doing at the moment but we both perceived the sheer joy. And that I believe is key, aspirations involve great emotions and great emotions push personal evolution. That's overstating it a bit but you get the idea.

Now, society seems to be heading in the other direction, not finding the solution and thereby gaining insight to a question, we are now strictly focusing on getting just the answer. Maybe this is why I am beginning to see and meet so many people without ambition. On the surface one may think that "ambition" itself is unnecessary when you can go straight to the answer. To that I counter that a great deal is gained from the process of heading toward a goal. Very often the insights are yet very subtle and at the same moment profound for the individual. That is something you can just not get by going straight to the answer. Think back less than 100 years ago and people would routinely do high mathematics in their head. Or work it out by hand on paper. What a remarkable set of skills they gained and undoubtedly those skills would be applied to various situations throughout their lives. I can't help thinking that as we modernize we are losing the real depth and benefits of hard work and the rewards of aiming toward an achievement.

I will be doing a video for this post in the next few days so please return to the blog and let me know what you think. In the meantime however I hope this short bit of text has given you something to think about. 

Till then, Patrick 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.    

 

Who says the world has to make sense?… See it like a child for a day. Or more often if you like😃

I recently met a child of about seven years old, and the first thing he said was "You've got a big tummy." They were dancing around with blinking LED shoes when they said this. I thought to myself "What a joyful honest answer." I couldn't help smiling.

There was absolutely no malice in what they said, rather there was honesty and the simplicity of how they interacted with people. No judgements, no negativity, lots of playfulness and above all, simply direct. I don't's can learn a thing or two from this encounter between the old and the new.

As adults, perhaps it is time to look and think a little bit like a child. When you next open your front door, take just a moment and look around your surroundings as someone much younger. Not only will you go down memory lane, I'm betting you will realize just how many layers of complications and considerations grown-ups tend to put on themselves. Most of the time this is good, but if we begin to do it subconsciously without thinking there is a chance we can lose touch with the simple pleasures of life. Things need not be complicated. And it could be quite refreshing 😄

I'm reminded of a time when I was very young in Trail British Columbia when my brother had received a miniature working steam engine, complete with a boiler, and a flywheel. I was fascinated by this little gizmo. So I asked my dad if we could build one out of a coffee can. He looked at me and said "I don't think that would work." The more he tried to explain why this would not be a good idea, the more my young mind went wild with ideas on how to fix each of his stated issues. You see, he was looking at it as an adult, and rightfully so, but I was looking at it as a child and coming up with solutions, albeit based on the cartoon logic of the Coyote and RoadRunner" (Thank God I was exposed to those cartoons, back then). Even though we never built this steam engine. I have learned something very important from the experience and lingering memory. "Keep your mind open to the possibilities--Even If They Are Ridiculous. Because from that ultimately not so ridiculous answers may emerge."

Today's lesson then is to remember to think like a child on a regular basis. Just stick your head out the door, or a look around the corner with the attitude you had when you were five or seven years old. The world is about exploring and some of the best toys come from being open to the simple ways of seeing things. Take it a step further if you find this enjoyable. Do it regularly. Don't worry about limitations, details, or whether you may make a mess 😉....  If it puts a smile on your face then you have gained something magical.

Most of the really creative and free people I know stand touch with their childlike perceptions and frequently revisit their own mental playground. Leaving behind all the considerations and the judgements that adults have.

Is matter-of-fact I'm have put a few days on my calendar right now and if I can find a way to do this regularly I may go off and fly a lollipop and dunk it in my chocolate pudding!


Have a great day everyone.
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

Change May Bring Discomfort But...

 ...It Is Guaranteed to show you something positive you didn't expect.

It is always wise to remember that no matter who you are and how observant you are there will be many times in the life where one becomes, quite accidentally, a little too comfortable.

That is, in the absence of an external force acting on the human being, we have a tendency to stop our own evolution by becoming a little too comfortable with whatever the current situation is. This stops most people from developing further. That is until something comes along and shakes them up a bit so that they continue on the road of life.

Everyone falls into this trap many times over a human being's admittedly short lifespan. When people become content for a long period of time they inevitably stop evolving. Which  is a shame, because that is the very time to undertake something new and shake up the tree. To be clear I don't mean you have to do this every day, but I do you mean that it should be frequent enough that you are keenly aware of the benefits. And what might the benefits be you ask?… Far too many to mention, and for each person the list is unique. I can tell you however that it keeps you engaged with the very process of life. Allowing you to notice things you might otherwise have not seen. I bet you as a matter of fact that when you see something new especially if it's unexpected, there is always something deep within that feels a little uncomfortable. That feeling of being "uncomfortable" is an extremely important sign because it means that you are looking at an opportunity to change. You may not like what you perceive as the change, and indeed there may be a fair bit of resistance to the new concepts you are confronted with, but I promise in the end you will gain more than you lose. Usually in ways that are imperceptible to other people. But you know what has occurred.

Click picture to view / download full
resolution printable copy.

This artwork is hereby placed in the
public domain and is based upon material
in the public domain. Patrick Clark

So please don't allow yourself to become overly comfortable or complacent. You should always try to shake each day up a little bit. Because the only meaningful constant in one's life is "change itself".

 So go out and do something you were not quite expecting today. Shake up the day!

Feel free to let me know in the comments if you had any Eureka moments 😉

Take care Patrick 

 

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

 

Then Something Marvellously Positive Happened...

Sometimes, just sometimes, something happens that catches you off guard and make your day. As though the world was saying to you "Hey, here's a surprise, if you're quick enough to notice it." and in this situation it was a friend of mine would recently become a grandfather telling me about the child's name. It wasn't the name that caught my eye, it was the expression on his face. Absolute and complete joy!

I swear the guy lost 20 years in a split second and it was astounding to see this just instantaneously happen. To know that this was a regular at the end around the world millions of times a day doesn't matter. Nothing could discount this experience. I don't even know if he realized intellectually just how much joy he was feeling, and I guess it doesn't matter.

So the next time someone tells you or expresses an opinion that nothing good ever happens in the modern world or that everything is negative I want you to think about this short little post and video. It reminds us all that good things are constantly happening. We must however be open to listening for them. They are there, taking a multitude of forms, some short some long.
 

Hypothetical site, not real.

Can you imagine if there was an online service similar to Facebook but focused on posting positive or inspirational stories and events. That would be pretty cool. There probably is, somewhere on the vast Internet and if not, which is something I find highly unlikely, we must find out why. Maybe it's just the simple fact that we are conditioned on an evolutionary level to look for negative things first. It is better to suspect that there might be something hiding in the bush, then not be aware of it in the first place. Regardless however, such a service putting a positive angle on events would be a welcome and needed commodity. ("Commodity" is not the word I would use, but it is the word that came to mind as I write this text.)

In the video below, it is easy to see how pleasantly I was blown away by my friends expression as he told me about his new relative. I wish I had been able to get a photograph of his face. I am really not understating it when I say that he became 20 years younger. These really are the things we need to retrain our modern brains to pay attention to. That is to look for positive experiences, rather than the default negative.

 In the past I know that various people and companies have tried to start "Good News Networks" and that it is always been an uphill battle. I think the idea would be much easier to address if one would start small. That is pay attention to the small things that occur in life, then progressed slowly, up the ladder until you can start something like a positive stories network, or organization with the same goals in mind. The modern person has been conditioned, not to look for the uplifting things and therefore we have many negative behaviours to deal with and resolve before we can tackle the big projects. However as any of my readers know, I am an optimist and I keep seeing the beauty and life intermingled with a little bit of magic.

Feel free to start a competition with your friends to see who can come up with the most positive experience of the week. It may sound a little corny, but you never know, such a simple start may ultimately lead to a big idea.

So there you have it, my retelling of a short little experience which happened to me. It might be in short but it sure wasn't insignificant for either the grandfather or myself. Things are always happening in the world and it is not always one-sided.

Have a great day Patrick

** NOTE: The picture "Welcome to Good News" is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.

 

Where Will Your Magic Moment Be Today?

 

Somewhere, in the next 24 hours you will experience something positive. 

It will be amongst a flurry of other activity. The challenge will be to notice it.

We are also busy with activities and obligations, while at the same time, being not so subtly, attuned to the negative things that we frequently don't notice small moments of enlightening pleasant events. Now evolutionarily the human species is more attuned to the negative things. After all if you were in the wild you would want to be aware of that line hiding in the bush. Trouble is that advertisers and other influencers have learned to manipulate this trait and the things have gotten out of hand. We are absolutely bombarded with the darker side of life so much so that it takes some effort to see the more positive things out there. I promise you however they are there. Small little dots of pleasantness or calmness scattered about.

Make it a goal today to notice these little moments of uplifting insight. They may be very short, but don't discount them. Indeed, add them up and see what the average amount of daily positive insights there are. To this over a week and I'll bet you will be surprised.

One of the things that everyone has to deal with now days which is unique to our generation and those coming after us, is information is coming at us and an incredible rate. Everything is delivered to us almost instantaneously now. We don't even have to type in a query on a keyboard anymore, you can just ask the question directly and for the most part you get an answer. I find that amazing personally on one level, because I see the potential of this technology, however I wonder on average how this technology is used every day. It is used to uplift, or is it used to depress? Give me a moment, I am going to run off and ask "Gemini" this question right now. The question I posed and the answer will be posted immediately below this text.

The question: "Are there any statistics on whether questions posed to Artificially Intelligent services like yourself or chatGPT are of a negative nature versus a positive query?"

Google Gemini produced quite a response, a mini report on the subject. 

As always take everything produced by an AI system with scepticism. I have not verified any of the information contained in the report. Use at your own risk.

Having said that, it does appear to ring true to me. One thing I take from this output is questions to such systems I won't be as "flowery" in my queries.

 Google Gemini's response begins now:

The question of whether users are "nice" or "mean" to AI is a significant area of study for researchers. While there is no single, real-time "dashboard" for all AI queries, several large-scale studies and dataset analyses provide a clear picture of user behavior.

 

Generally, the data suggests that most interactions are neutral and task-oriented, but a small, vocal minority of users engages in highly emotional or "negative" querying.

1. The Majority: Neutral and Utility-Driven

Most users treat AI as a tool rather than a social companion. Analysis of public datasets like ShareGPT and WildChat (which contains over 1 million real-world interaction logs) reveals that the vast majority of prompts are:

●     Informational: Fact-checking or asking for explanations.

●     Productive: Writing code, emails, or summaries.

●     Creative: Generating stories or brainstorming.

A 2025 study by OpenAI on "affective use" found that while users do occasionally personify AI, the majority of users engage in relatively neutral ways. The emotional or negative queries typically come from a "tail set" of power users who use the AI for more personal or experimental reasons.

2. The "Politeness" Statistics

Interestingly, there is a distinct divide in how people frame their prompts. Some users include "please" and "thank you," while others use blunt commands.

●     The Accuracy Paradox: A recent study from Pennsylvania State University (2025) titled "Mind Your Tone" found that rude or blunt prompts actually resulted in higher accuracy (84.8%) compared to "very polite" prompts (80.8%).

●     Why? Researchers suggest that polite language often adds "linguistic noise" or "redundancy" that can distract the model from the core instruction. Direct, imperative commands (e.g., "Solve this.") provide a cleaner signal to the AI.

3. Negative vs. Positive sentiment

When researchers perform sentiment analysis on user prompts, they typically find the following distribution:

Sentiment Type	Characteristics	Estimated Prevalence
Neutral	Fact-based, coding, "how-to" instructions.	70% – 85%
Positive/Polite	Including "please," "thank you," or "good job."	10% – 15%
Negative/Hostile	Aggressive commands, testing "jailbreaks," or venting.	5% – 10%

4. Sentiment Mirroring

A phenomenon called sentiment propagation is often observed in AI interactions. If you are negative or aggressive, the AI may inadvertently mirror that tone (though safety filters now "soften" extreme emotions).

 

●     Positive Prompts: Tend to increase the "verbosity" (length) of the response.

●     Negative Prompts: Often lead to a decline in factual accuracy (up to 8.4%in some tests) because the model may shift toward more speculative or defensive language.

Summary of Trends

●     The "Venting" Factor: A small percentage of users use AI specifically to vent frustrations they wouldn't say to a human.

●     The "Test" Factor: Many negative queries are not "mean" in intent but are "adversarial"—users trying to trick the AI into saying something offensive to see where the boundaries are.

●     The "Directness" Shift: As users become more "AI-literate," the use of social pleasantries like "please" is decreasing in favor of efficient, direct prompting.

 End of Google Gemini's response.

 

Now let's get back to the topic at hand and that is being aware of the positive events that occur every day in your life and mine. Remember to when you're speaking with people to give them the benefit of the doubt and not to check everything so personally. If need be step out of your comfort zone for a moment and look at at the bigger picture. Even if your Magic moment isn't immediately apparent stepping back from an event often gives you some insights which can allow you time to mold your emotions and indeed see the magic which may be just around the corner.

As you can tell, this is how I tend to approach every day. Knowing that somewhere in the next 24 hours there will be something unexpectedly pleasant. Maybe very brief in duration, but it will be there.

Have a great day and don't forget to keep looking. Maybe make a journal of the events you are now noticing which you might otherwise have ignored. You may be very surprised. Let me know in the comments.
.
Patrick

What Are the Origins of Enthusiasm?

 

Some people become enthusiastic regularly. While others just never reach thier "Ignition Point".

 

I have noticed this to be the case in my surroundings, but I think it's true of the wider world as well. Once again, it boils down to a few simple differences in general outlook and expectations of life.

Enthusiastic people are:

1. Curious. They want to know why something works a certain way. They desire a deeper understanding and are enthusiastic about the undertaking of learning.
   
   
2.  "Change" is one of their favourite words as well as an action. They innately understand that the world and their life changes frequently. Usually in subtle ways, but sometimes in overwhelming ways. The key is that they welcome and accept this fact.
   
   
3. It is innately understood that the personality and perhaps the very person will change throughout their lifetime. Remaining static and holding onto the old ways is not one of their goals. This point is one of the most important aspects of their character. It is understood that nothing is permanent. Everything about life is in flux.

Unenthusiastic people don't share the above-mentioned points.

There is a false belief that they will remain the same, throughout life. That their character as it is today, will always be. Furthermore they actively will avoid change. Sometimes they will put quite a bit of effort into staying static.

They prefer staying "Comfortable", within known boundaries. This means that they eventually will become very frustrated because things naturally change around them. Yet they will profess a desire to experience or acquire new things. This is a contradiction, you can't avail yourself the benefits of new things unless you come out of your boundaries.

The result of these two behaviors , "staying the same" and remaining "comfortable" means that they don't grow and will retreat into past memories while limiting the negatives they perceive in the modern world. I think this condition has been brought about by the simple fact that in today's world there is nothing that really forces the human being to go outside of their comfort zone. There is no need to hunt, or seek shelter. 100 years ago this was definitely not the case, a person had to avail themselves of opportunities if they wanted to survive.

So, the message is clear. If you are sincerely seeking enthusiasm in your life. You must embrace change and acknowledge that the person you believe you are today will not be the person up tomorrow. You may not the comfortable with change but in order to grow it is a necessary fact which must be undertaken. Do this and the enthusiasm for things in your life will begin to appear.

Have a great day everyone and of course take care.
Patrick

** NOTE: The picture displayed at the top of this article is from the service Ideogram AI.  As a layperson, I have read their relevant "terms of service" and determined, to the best of my ability, that the image may be viewed by the public.  However before any reuse, please review fully their terms and if necessary contact the company for more information.

The use of said image does not imply any affiliation or endorsement.