UGH...

That said, there is one hateful-truth I should disclose to you at our exact juncture…

Some good long while after that dinner conversation somewhere around 2019 but before the conversation with my brother in January 2026…

…I was actually already using AI to generate colorful, “engaging” images for materials relating to my men’s mental health community.

At the time, I was using Canva, specifically.

I’ve also used Canva again for some of the images in this series - to save voltage for Kael.

A few of the images were generated in Gemini - a while ago. But the rest are from Canva.

Previously, a few of the men in my community even commented that the very use of AI for literally anything would put a lot of people off.

(And for good reason).

(Also: it’s about to get extremely awkward when I tell those exact same men what it is that I’ve been doing for these last three goddamn months… after I disappeared from the community… again).

The excuse I told myself for using the AI-generated images was that I barely have the funds to pay rent.

It’s not like I was in any kind of position to pay an actual artist regardless.

Judge that any which way you see fit.

It’s kind of besides the point - at least to some degree - for what we’re talking about here.

I’m just giving you the background…