Looking To The Future

Background

This week I finally sorted out an issue with the new administrator of one of my occupational pensions. I wanted confirmation that my wife was the sole beneficiary. They repeatedly sent blank forms for me to nominate her, but I did this years ago. They should have a record of this.

The customer support was patchy. After yet another form arrived and the person on the phone could only say "the computer says no", I raised a formal complaint which was sorted in five days; in my favour and to my satisfaction.

What's this got to do with this august blog. Well, it set me thinking. I'm not getting any younger and I began to wonder whether I should save this blog for posterity? After all I've put a lot of work into it, especially this year.

Read on if you'd like to know what I've done.

Adventures In AI

Background

I'm sure you've all seen the media hullabaloo about Artificial Intelligence (AI). I'm also sure you've asked yourself: what has AI ever done for us (me)?

After some twelve months of dabbling and delving deeper into AI's capabilities, I'm pleasantly surprised at how helpful it can be. I started down this path because, although I know enough about how things work to ask the right questions, my coding skills are rudimentary. The AI is so much better and quicker.

To show what's possible, I thought I'd list the things I've been able to do with the help of Anthropic's Claude AI (mostly). I have only used the free service.

15 mm Byzantine Mounted Commanders (Donnington "Originals")

Introduction

As a change of pace I've painted two command bases for my "fantasy" Byzantine project. This time they are figures specifically bought for the project, not cheap figures from eBay.

In keeping with my "fantasy" approach to this army I painted one commander astride a white horse. Every wargamers knows that all the best commanders ride white horses (except for Alexander the Great of course).

My intention is to use these for the Byzantine armies of Justinian to Nikephoros a five-hundred year span marked by frequent changes in arms and armour. Accordingly, I’ve opted for models whose equipment is indicative rather than strictly historically accurate. Even so, I’m reasonably confident that each figure will be plausible for at least some point within that period!

I'm rather enjoying this flexible approach.