106 - 2023 Resolutions

Jamie: 0:32

what's the coffee of the day,

Kurt: 0:33

sir? Yeah, well yeah, thanks for, thanks for that. Actually, I, I'm sticking to my guns as far as supporting my local roasters. So Rootless coffee out of Flint, Michigan. And, and I, I, I know you've ha I've, I've shared some, with you in the past and primarily right. We, they, they started out, they came out of the gates with damn fine cup of coffee, which is our fun reference to Twin Peaks. But I have to say, Now they have, a variety of flavors that are out there. I believe my favorite is the one I'm drinking right now. And I, I did this thing in the, if you can watch my hand, I did this thing when, when buying it, I was going like this, hovering over damn fine. And this one called Berry Kiss. And I was like, this oh, oh, oh. Like, and I selected the berry kiss because it has this really interesting aroma. I mean, it's very fruit. Fl like scented, like, like tart semi, semi tart berries. I don't even know what to call. And then the first few sips have that flavor in it. And it, and, and I actually asked, I think I talked about this before, but I've asked Sean. And, and the, the guys at Rootless, do they actually do something with fruit to make the beans taste like this? And, and, and it's just a process of the roasting, somehow the characteristics of the coffee they use in it results in this sort of fruity, kind, kind

Jamie: 2:20

of pulls that, that, that flavor to the, to the top, so to

Kurt: 2:23

speak. Yeah. And I had, it's kind that, that chemistry is kind of always in, sort of surprising to me. But anyway, so that's, that's what I'm doing. I, I just, I selected that, I'm going with it for now. And it's fun. I'm gonna have to send you some, I, I have probably, you probably haven't had any yet, so

Jamie: 2:41

I haven't, I haven't had that one yet. And and I was gonna say like, two things on that is like, you have two hands, right? So you could, you could have by both, you could have hovered and. And gone for the treat. But well, as you were describing, sort of talking with the, the, the rootless roasters there and it, it, it made me realize that one of the things that I still have on my, like, list of things I would like to try and do or try is and it doesn't necessarily need to be here in Austin. It could be somewhere else. I mean, there might be a better, better location for it. But there is one coffee location here in Austin, and now of course it just like, just right outta my head. But they do, they have like almost like a sommelier where they, they kind of walk folks through. the process of the roast. I mean, and I've been, I mean, I've, like you, I've worked on Austin Java's, one of Austin Java's locations. And so, I know that you've worked with the Rootless folks on mm-hmm. on their equipment from an architecture side mm-hmm. So, been there, seen, seen all those kinds of steps, but certainly didn't get into it from a, a flavor profile and things like that. But like you're talking about with them. And, and I think that would be really interesting to similar to going, I guess to a a distillery, for a whiskey tasting or a winery for a wine tasting. there is coffee tastings. And sort of learning a little bit more about that kind of coffee process and from the folks who, who do it and and are experts in it, I think that would be really interesting. And maybe, maybe that's, maybe that's our, like, Guy trip, maybe we need to go, we need to add that to like a guy trip thing, in 2023. So just put that

Kurt: 4:26

out there. That's a good idea. My wife would probably appreciate that versus say doing like the whiskey trail,

Jamie: 4:34

I didn't say that it had to be the only thing, but, you

Kurt: 4:37

know. Excellent. Good concept. I'm, I'm in. Okay. 2023. So what are you drinking then? What are you putting on the,

Jamie: 4:45

I am, as much as I would be supporting the, the local coffee scene, just as, as you do and I try to as best I can. I got enticed in this, in the, in the, the super marshe. And I, I saw it on the top of the shelf and it was like a lonely bag. And I was like, am I seeing that? Am I, am I tripping here or something? Because. I, I was like, I, how could that be here? And I don't know if it was like a plant, because later on there's a story to that. Yeah. But that can, yes.

Kurt: 5:24

Yes. Do you don't have Tim Horton's down in Texas Do

Jamie: 5:29

Well, funny you should say that

Kurt: 5:32

Does it, does it remind you of Canada

Jamie: 5:35

It, it does. I mean, I mean, I mean, the, so many times when you call home and you talk to an aunt, uncle, cousin they're like, oh yeah, well, we just came back from Timmy's and, had a, had a coffee and da da da da da and whatever. Or we met up with so-and-so, and had a, had a, had a cup of Timmy's. And it's like, okay. so, it's always sort of in the back of your. Sure. And it is very emblematic, of, of, of Canada and, watch a hockey game. It's on the boards, of course So I saw it in the store and I was like, oh man. Like, and there was, and the beauty of it, there were two bags, so of course bought one for myself and then bought one for my folks. They thought it was the, the, it was like I was bringing gold to their house. I mean, yeah,

Kurt: 6:25

that's, that's awesome. But,

Jamie: 6:27

but as you ask about, like, do we have it down here, apparently, like Tim Horton's is like, like maybe like trying to sneak it into stores or something like that, because apparent, I read a newspaper article about a week after I bought this bag or these bags, and literally they are trying to expand into the Texas market. With actual locations, physical locations. And I was like, that's crazy, but alright. well, maple syrup. It is. So here we go.

Kurt: 7:03

People just don't know what they're missing. Yeah, that's

Jamie: 7:07

all good. Yeah.

Kurt: 7:08

The for me, growing up on the East Coast it, it's sort of the, the Dunking Donuts is kind of like the, the, the soft spot for me. However, dunking Donuts is pretty widespread now. they have'em here in Michigan and, but so I'm gonna say that it, it, it's different back home. Gotta go to the Duncan at home on the east. Right. Versus say, and I'm not, I'm not saying that, having a Tim Horton's pop up in Austin is gonna be less than

Jamie: 7:44

Right. But but you might, but you might find me there is what you're saying,

Kurt: 7:49

That's right. Oh, that's, that's awesome. Well, that's cool. Good find. Yeah. It, it pays, it pays to look yes. To look around a little bit. Just a little Should we test our, our screen share capabilities?

Jamie: 8:04

Yeah. So I think it's time to screen share and maybe, maybe talk a little bit about resolutions or maybe our word, our word for the year if we're doing words.

Kurt: 8:12

Yeah, I'll, I'm gonna make you go first with that because I, I, I will have a word, but I do have a, a resolution concept, so, The rainbow hands. Yo f fyi, we got our first chat except it was like a, a spam Yeah. So does, does that mean we've made it?

Jamie: 8:33

We've made it. We've got bots tracking us now, so that's good.

Kurt: 8:38

So here's our mural, our new mural space. Hopefully you can, if you can see it and actually I

Jamie: 8:44

totally can see it. Oh,

Kurt: 8:47

this is working. there's nothing like a little pressure to force Kurt to figure out his tech problems, cuz up until there it goes. I spoke too soon. Can you hear me?

Jamie: 9:03

I can totally hear you. So what happened? What

9:07

happened

Kurt: 9:07

there buddy? That is the problem that I've been having is I share a screen. And it crashes. So

Jamie: 9:23

I saw it, it looked good. And,

Kurt: 9:27

So there's, there's strike one, So I know when, when I've done this with students is perhaps you could share your screen and see if that won't crash as I, so what I was saying, I don't know how much of that will, will still get, cuz it's all still recording and seems to be still streaming, but somehow my share capabilities just overwhelm and I wonder if it's somehow I'm not using my computer to its optimal potential. all the, all the money I've spent on this machine and maybe my hardware is not being to mind divvying up the resources well enough, but I've been in Zooms where if someone else shares, it doesn't crash. So if you don't mind popping it up there it still should work just fine if you, if if I can, if I can put that responsibility on you.

Jamie: 10:40

Yeah. You just, you just didn't want to like, have to deal with it. Can you see that?

Kurt: 10:44

Yes, I can. And actually this might work out good because if, if you're if you're what, what am I trying to say? If you share the mural, then I can. Monitor the, the chat. And that way we're like using two screens at once. So, so far so good, right? You can still hear me

Jamie: 11:15

every, yeah. No, can you still hear me? Yes, I can still

Kurt: 11:18

hear you buddy. Remember, remember what we said about technology, just throwing it all at the wall and seeing what sticks. Yeah. So, yes. There we go. This is, this is that day. So we fir had our first glitch, but that's okay. Thanks for, for sharing. Maybe, this might be a good here's a, here's a word. Now I, I've got a word now.

Jamie: 11:37

Okay, good. Well good, good. Because then I can, then I can, I can do what I'm doing. My

Kurt: 11:42

resolution word is delegation. Oh, is, is now Jamie's gonna have to do some of the tech lifting. In order for us to make this happen. But on a, and that's not a joke, it's a little bit of seriousness, let's share the, share the, I know

Jamie: 12:03

I

Kurt: 12:03

share the lift, but anyway, so on, on the, I guess something that is definitely a hot topic right now, or it's probably been, so maybe for the past six months, at least in across my radar screen, but is, is ai right? so the, the concept of ar, artificial intelligence, and this will be fun segue because I know you and I talk a lot about our, our affinity for dystopian features and things like that. But, so at the moment, AI is all the, all the rage. Graphics, drawing, making drawings and images. So visual images. Now there's like, a text AI that I, I've also been tinkering with that chat. G P t I don't know if you've heard of that. Oh, yeah. But it's definitely making waves and we're not gonna talk about that really today. But actually I can't, most of the time I log into it now is like, it's too full. It's too many people using it. So So now it's, honestly, it kind of is creating a little disinterest on my end because I, I like to be able to tinker. If I can't tinker, then, anyway, so, so my, my resolution and, and is more, it's not to, not, to, not to dive into the deep end and make everything an ai integration. But for me it's, it's to kind of think about how, how does, how, how can we use AI and, and these sort of automations to improve our workflow and, and still create a little sense of authenticity. And I'm not knocking those that, are all in on the AI thing, but, there's something to think about from an architect standpoint, right? That's, that's kind of my, my angle on it. And and anyways, so the image on the left here that my image, not the drawing that Jamie's live sketching for us, but the, the, the sort of sepia toned sketch of a microphone and a pen and, and a, a little bit of coffee stains on the count, on the, on the ta on the paper is generated by an AI. Tool called Mid Journey and I ran through a few prompts kind of testing it out and, and just selected this one image out of Mid Journey. And it's it was just kind of surprisingly interesting of a sketch cuz I wasn't really sure how well it could render. I mean, this is the thing, it's like, I, I'm, I'm sure everybody's like, I don't know how that works, or some people probably do know how it works. But my point is I didn't know how it was gonna, if I told it, make it sketchy. Like how sketchy, how hand drawn looking would it look? And to me it, it looks pretty, pretty good. I don't know, I mean the, Jamie can be the, also throw his opinion in there, but at the same time, which has been most fun to watch is that Jamie's drawn his own version to the left, which is. although, not pen to paper, which is what Jamie is world renowned for for his coffee sketches, but because I forced him into mural he's using maybe fingertip to tablet screen in order to draw his own rendering of this. So it's, which is cool. So I appreciate you doing that while I talk. So anyway, so that's, that's my, my kind of take on it. I know the image, the other image is from you on the right. It kind of segues to to your resolution. But yeah, so that's kind of what I'm thinking about this year. I, I, I'm sure there will be kind of a lot of new things and evolutions of this AI and a tool and

15:51

tools

Jamie: 15:51

for. Yeah, I, I, I think it'll, I think it'll certainly be, something that we, we, we talk about more. and probably this year I think that there's as I know you're well aware, but I think it's I think it's becoming a debate of, the, the authenticity of this. does this do these technological changes, are these the innovations that phase out, the, the artist, is there, is this something that phases out the architect even? I, I've seen, quite a number of conversations where folks are, trying, trying to debate, the ability of and there's a multitude of different programs, the Dali and all these different ones who create renderings. and these sort of, a lot of them, folks were sort of playing with the concept of like, oh, and it's sort of this dystopian reality and, these kind of, mixed worlds and all this kind of stuff. But then people started to, to, dial it in a little bit and they were like, oh, well maybe I can just render this project and come up with 15 different versions and I'm gonna pick one or two or three, to show a client. And it's like, well, okay, so is that your work anymore? And then, and, and, and I think, some of the criticism of it is, is that, yeah, it's a pretty picture. Just like a rendering is. And, and you and I have talked about this too, is that the rendering itself is, is telling a story. It's convincing. It's trying to be convincing. Just, just like the sketch and I think the quality of a sketch you were sort of saying that what my thought was on the, the, the AI generated image, is it sketchy enough? And I I think it's, it's almost too, too sketchy. It's, it's trying, it's trying to be a sketch. And so, and it's what's funny about it too is that, some of the, the moves about it are, intentionally trying to make sure that, it's a sketch. the little bulbs that are kind of coming out of the top of the mic the intentional, drips and drabs of, of ink on ink on the page as opposed to crosshatching it or something like that. there's, there's an intentionality that it's trying to make sure, it's a sketch. And that the coffee, of course, it's picking up on the, the, the color, which I, I like, I mean, it's, it's not a bad rendering. But I think that is it a drawing? Hmm. Probably not. I wouldn't, I wouldn't consider it one. So I, I think that that's sort of the, the fine tuning that a lot of folks are getting into. And if you extrapolate that back out to what, what I was saying about, architects using this or, or designers using this to generate new work there's still a. I think there's still at this point a, a skill that needs to be involved and kind of an understanding of, of what you're drawing and, and why, and, and why. One is, and, and then at the same time also being able to critique it and why one is better than the other kind of asking those questions. do you, do you want a machine? and a machine learning situation deciding what's right and wrong. is, is is that, I mean, not saying that, a drawing or a design is right or wrong, but, to, to simplify it, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that. I think that as a tool, absolutely, let's figure out how to make it, useful. But I still think that there's a, a definite human creative component to all of this that is I think gonna, be a debate for a little bit longer.

Kurt: 19:13

Yeah. Excuse me. The, yeah, the, the funny, the one, the one funny aspect of this image that I, that kind of struck me was that this, this thing on the left kind of looks like a pen or a microphone. Like, it's not really like, the, the object down to the left. like if it was like a handheld microphone, cuz it doesn't really look like a pen. Like it doesn't really look like either, even though there's that old timey microphone to the right of it. it almost looks like there's a cable coming outta nowhere to like another microphone,

Jamie: 19:49

Yeah. There's a lot of cables and there's a lot of microphones in this image. And, and if you look even into the background, there's a whole nother mic, like, like a KGB mic or something that's like poking out from the bottom of the, the tablet there,

Kurt: 20:04

I, I, yes, I see that now.

Jamie: 20:06

and, and it's kind of like, well, who are we micing up

Kurt: 20:08

here? Goodness. But then, then it added like, I don't know why it felt like it added the picture in the background of a sketch of some person in a chair. Like, I don't know what that, it's maybe like entourage or, Well,

Jamie: 20:21

and, and, and did you catch though that the beauty of it is that it doesn't know that people sketch on paper? Like, it doesn't seem to know that like, it's like it's sketching it on a tablet. In the background. And that's, and that's the more, and that's the more completed sketch. It's like, hmm.

Kurt: 20:38

Yeah. The forward facing cameras that are kind of like poking out of there or something. right? Yeah. Oh yeah. So yeah. Thanks. I appreciate your feedback. I think, I always thought of, well, and I will jump to your drawing as it, but I think what a great tool that would, if they could make it work, is that if we could use our hand just, as we were trained in architecture to draw, and then that drawing is then say converted into the hard line construction, drawing set or something, so you can kind of use your intuition and that hand-eye coordination and draw something and then, It converts. Like, say your sketch on the left into something a little more hardlined that could be fabricated or built or construct. I don't, anyway, that's,

Jamie: 21:34

well, I think what you're, you're, you're sort of, des describing, I think, like, I think of the word augment, it's like, it, step one, Kurt comes up with an idea and starts to work through, a series of process sketches or drawings in the computer on a piece of paper, whatever. And then the collaboration ends up being with the ai, and it's able to augment your work. And then you're able to re, reengage it, as, as part of that process that's different, to me, that's exciting. That, that to me would be exciting. Because at that point you're, you're, you've got you're, you're tapping into a library of information, to help your work. And, and letting the machine learning, kind of go through permutations that, in a different way than, than you would. I mean, cuz like we've talked about, instinct, withdrawing and kind of a feeling, all of that is is incredibly difficult to describe. it's a creative process. It's creative act. if we dial it, dial it in to, to what you're talking about, you're, you're not losing that. You're, you're allowing the AI to, to augment your creative act. you have a different starting. Yeah. And typing, typing a couple words into a prompt isn't, isn't like, isn't a starting point in my, in my mind. That just sounds like a, a weird first year design project, Yeah. Design a, design a retreat for a poet, who lives on a mountaintop, and there's pine trees in the background. And like Dally would be like, and like, here's 17 versions of that, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you like that's the, that's the computer thinking right there, right? Right. Sound effects. Sound effects. We need a, we need a sound effects guy. Don't you have a brother or something?

Kurt: 23:21

Yeah. Sound guy. Yes, we, I do have a brother. I need to, I've always wanted to have like, Couple of, couple of can sound effects, but we'll have to we'll have to work on that. That did not get into the 2023 budget for copies. Gotcha. Okay. Next year we'll add it, add it to the, the wishlist. Let's, let's even memorialize it with a, a post-it note. Slap it right there. There you go. Sound effects. So how about this, the photo on the right is, is is from your feed, right? I believe, yes. It's a, I pulled it from there and it's a, it's not a Banksy right? It, but it's a, no, it's not, no. Kind of a, a piece of mural art that is, has some Banksy vibes, urban urban Like, say mural art integration with sort of found objects, from buildings, which I always kind of appreciate. how this, in this case, the snake is kind of tied to the pipe that's coming outta the wall, and then there's a little kitty down to, down, down there, standing on the curb or the sidewalk. But I, I I pulled this and, and thought it would be interesting to talk about only because in the winter break I was visiting, said brother and he lives out in San Diego and the Banksy Land exhibit was going on. The traveling Banksy land exhibit was in San Diego Right. That weekend. And so we went we got some tickets and went over to there. Just to check it out. And it was, it was, it was interesting. I don't, I, I didn't post any pictures yet. I took a couple of sketches, which I actually should take pictures of those, of some of the stuff I saw. But anyway, so I saw this on your feed and I thought let me grab that and then, kind of throw it up there. But how does that reflect on any of your resolutions?

Jamie: 25:29

Well, I, I think it, it's it's a reminder and that's not necessarily my word but it's I, I think that I have to remind myself and just like anybody who, just like anybody I'm a creative, you're a creative. And, and there was going to be days and weeks and sometimes months or longer where you don't feel it. And you, and, and not just that you don't feel it, but you also question It's, it's a little bit like imposter syndrome, where you're, you're, you, you've accomplished some things and you're, you're proud of your work or, or what you do or what you like to do. And, and people seem to respond to it. You, it gives you joy but then, when you stumble or if you kind of get away from it or if you get distracted from it or if you get sort of self-critical about it you kind of have trouble reengaging it. And I think that that's a little bit of what I've been experiencing kind of at the end of the year. And so what I've. intentionally tried to do is you kind of give myself a little bit of grace. And, and I think that, that, that's sort of the word for me is, but I, but it's giving myself grace as a creative, as an artist and reminding myself that I'm an artist. I think that's the one thing that's been the hardest thing for me to trust and accept about myself is that, yes, I'm an architect and I'm very proud of, of that accomplishment. And, and I love architecture and I can't imagine not being in this practice or this profession. But at my core, I'm an artist. And, and, and I think that that journey is one that's really circuitous. And so, for, for me, I think I have to give myself a little bit of grace to, to stumble or to question. And on a walkabout in a small Texas town, seeing, a mural on the wall kind of in a little hidden spot, it immediately brought me joy and immediately made me smile. And that's the kind of thing that I need in my life. And knowing that that person did this work, and that's my reaction as the observer. I like to flip in and say, well, I do that for other people too, I think, and I do that for myself. I think. So I have to trust that, and I have to give, and I have to kind of give myself, the, the space and, and the grace to do it. And so that, that's, I think that that's where I there's gonna be a lot more art from Jamie this year

Kurt: 28:19

Sure. Well, I, I, I look forward to it. Thanks, thanks for sharing. I think I I totally appreciate that. The and I think you're right. a little bit of grace, in that, in on, from my end as the often observer of your sketches, I'm always appreciative. I always, I've enjoyed them. I'm, I, I'm sure everyone or all of our fans are probably aware that, that I, I'm a big fan. Hence why we, we pursue this thing called the Coffee Sketch podcast. But yeah, thinking at the, I I've been doing a little thinking too in the, in the winter break just about the fact that it is, Now season five as in, five years of, or the fifth year, I don't know how you wanna, you we're in our fifth year of doing this. Right. talking, recording, sketching, trying to share it with others. I mean, in general, we're both passionate about sharing what we know and, and not letting it, it sometimes can be a little rough around the edges, but not ever too, too precious or pretentious about it. just wanting to get, get, get our thoughts out there and share'em with people who could, could benefit from it. And especially in terms of architects or future architects and people that are interested in the process. So anyway, what are you trying to, I'm trying to figure out what you're. Figuring out there

Jamie: 29:46

I'm just, I'm listening and I'm trying to, and I somehow, I somehow made like a, a weird extra thing. It's like, oh, there you go.

Kurt: 29:55

Yes, part of the the experiment, experiment of using new tools, but yeah. So I'm, I'm looking forward to what you're oh. So, so I'll give you a little tip. So just click on the Post-it. You can type in the post-it.

Jamie: 30:09

Yeah, I did that and it, it made that weird thing. Oh,

Kurt: 30:15

No worries. But yeah, so anyway, so yeah, I think maybe we'll even see some impromptu mural art from Jamie similar to this cat and snake Well, yeah. But yeah. Oh, you grabbed a, yeah, grabbed a, you're, you're getting all the tools going on.

Jamie: 30:36

I'm just, I'm working on all the tools. So sorry. I'm just like at that, and it, with that, I think that that sort of brings us to the end of now, now we've both kind of gone into the tech rabbit hole, but no, I, and I just wanna say, yeah, I, I, I appreciate all the encouragement. the thing that sometimes you see the sketches before they're ever posted they're like a text message and it's like, Hey, what do you think about this? And so, ooh, that, that doesn't go go, that, that, that doesn't go unnoticed. So I appreciate it.

Kurt: 31:08

Yeah. You're welcome. Well, thanks. Thanks for our episode one of season five, season five.