AI for Moms: Helpful Hacks and a Deepfake Scandal – Ep. 289

Shanna

Hi, welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. On this week's episode, we have our weekly check-ins, we have our special segment, Internet Insanity, where we get into the topics of deep fake drama and AI absurdity, and we wrap it up with our weekly BFPs and BFNs. Let's get started.

Laura

Hello, Shanna Micko.

Shanna

Hi. I don't usually use your name in full like that. It feels so formal.

Laura

I know, I know. Well, I am wearing a black tie dress right now, so.

Shanna

Yes, I'm wearing a floor length gown as we record, so let's keep it formal.

Laura

It's my typical podcast attire, truly.

Shanna

Yes.

Laura

We always get dressed up.

Shanna

JK, I'm wearing my blanket hoodie because it's freezing in here and my sweatpants. So yeah, let's dive right in. Okay. What is going on in your world this week?

Laura

Okay, so this week we actually hit a milestone. We had an event happen in our lives.

Shanna

You have been hitting a lot of milestones lately.

Laura

True, true. This one is a bit delayed. This one is definitely a later milestone. My children were behind on this one, and it's my fault. I kept them behind. I held on to their babyhood as long as I could. But what happened this week is we took the boys to get their very first, as Augie would put it, professional haircuts.

Shanna

Uh, it's so cute how he says it. And oh my gosh, that's exciting. Where did you go? Why did you take them to a professional finally? Tell us everything.

Laura

So as you know, I've been cutting Augie's hair since he's needed haircuts. He really didn't need a haircut until he was, I want to say like one. Well, okay. He probably needed a haircut at like nine months. And we didn't give him his first haircut till he was a little bit after one. And of course, that fell right in the middle of the pandemic, or at the beginning of the pandemic, I should say, and we weren't about to take the kid to a salon to get his hair cut.

Shanna

Right.

Laura

So out of necessity and stubbornness, I decided I would figure out how to cut his hair and To be honest, when he was one, it wasn't that hard, right? It was pretty thin. It just needed a little bit of a trim. But one of the things I did do and started a precedent for when I first cut his hair was he got to watch the iPad while he got his hair cut. That's how I bribed him to sit still. This has carried over into all of his haircuts that I've done at home. And as he's gotten more used to screen time, like when he was one, watching Sesame Street on the iPad was like, whoa, this is very exciting. That doesn't cut it anymore. And Augie's almost five world, right? And Sebastian too, like he's grown up with the TV on all the time. Like we never restricted screen time for him because he has an older brother and it was the pandemic.

Shanna

Mm hmm.

Laura

So we've been doing that while he gets a haircut up until now. And he's always excited. Like he'd be like, oh, it's haircut time. And he'd like rush to go get into his seat. Like we use our Stokey or Stokey. I don't know how to pronounce it. Triptrap chairs. So he loved haircuts, but they would take forever because his hair has gotten thicker. Right. He's still squirmy. It still takes some time. I could never get the front straight because he'd always be like dodging around me to look at the TV.

Shanna

Little Sebastian with a ponytail on top of his head that's sticking straight up in the air about three inches, giving me troll vibes. Okay, so that's some long hair.

Laura

Yeah, kind of Cindy Lou Who in the original Grinch. Yeah. Yeah. And the next photo is how he came home because he would not let us take it out. He loved it so much.

Shanna

At the table with his little bony. Oh my gosh. And a little wisp of bangs have fallen out of the ponytail and they're definitely grazing the eye area. It's getting long.

Laura

It was long. It was well past his eyes. And I kept saying, well, if you're going to leave it up, at least let me fix that. And he was like, no. So I was like, all right, it's time. I'm going to book you guys a haircut. So I was able to book them a haircut online, which I love by the way. I love not having to call someone and negotiate something. Yes. So I booked them an appointment at the same time at this place that came highly recommended for toddler haircuts. It's not far from us. It's in Montrose, which is just north of Glendale. And people said that it was a great place to go get your haircut, especially because it's like custom made for toddlers.

Shanna

Does it have like cool seats and TVs everywhere and balloons and stuff like that.

Laura

Yes, it is exclusively for kids and they have normal kids salon chairs, but they also have like four car salon chairs here. Hold on. Let me just send you some pictures.

Shanna

Oh, yeah. Sebastian sitting in a bright yellow Cadillac salon chair convertible or something of the sort. Very exciting. That's a taxi cab.

Laura

He was at the taxi station.

Shanna

Taxi, taxi. Yes. Oh, that's really fun. This reminds me of the place where Elle got her very first haircut when she was like three and a half. Yes. This kind of environment is very exciting for the kiddos.

Laura

Yeah. And so they were definitely more amenable to it because of that. There were also little screens in front of all of the station so that kids could be distracted. So, they managed to be patient for the haircut. We got a scissor cut, because I personally like them better than clipper cuts for the boys' styles for their hair.

Shanna

Oh, there he is. There's Sebastian getting his haircut with a very cute little cape with pizzas on it. Oh, and Augie. He looks pretty happy. Big smile. Very cute. Oh, and ice cream afterwards. Of course, you must get a reward.

Laura

Yes. The point of this picture was to show the after of their haircuts. Oh, right, right, right. Yes, the hair is much shorter. Okay, good. But we did bribe them with ice cream after. There's actually a really cute independent ice cream store right next door. So we went and got ice cream there. And that was very fun. I will say that like, I wouldn't say I have regrets, but I was a little bit critical of the after result. I was like, no. cut the front two short. Like I had opinions, right? Because I've been doing their hair for almost five years now. And I was just like, I think, you know, I would have done this more. I think the back's too blunt. And Corey's like, you need to let it go.

Shanna

I like the idea of you walking in there and you're like, listen, ladies, I know you cut hair for a living, but I've done it seven times in my life. And let me give you some feedback.

Laura

Exactly. I did not do that because I'm not a jerk.

Shanna

Good. Yes. No. I think Sebastian's hair looks good. His bangs are a little like wispy cute. I do see that they're short. Kind of on one side. I don't know if it's just the photo. Augie, Augie looks good. His bangs are very straight. I could see why you might think that's a little short and maybe a little bowl-ish. Maybe you might do it a little more stylish.

Laura

Yeah, maybe. But, you know, I think I'm just looking for things to be critical about. I just realized I didn't send you the before photos, so let me do that real quick. Okay, actually, I'm just going to send you a picture from Legoland that we took with the whole family and you can see how their hair was before the cut.

Shanna

Let's see, oh my god, it's a bastard with his little smile. His hair is so shaggy, it's totally in his eyes. Aw, same with Augie, very, very shaggy. Well, they cleaned up very nicely.

Laura

Yes, they sure did. And I'm thinking like, I don't need to necessarily take them to a professional cut every time. Like I still do some maintenance in between and then just do it every once in a while. Because, you know, it is more expensive.

Shanna

Yeah, definitely. And that's why I still cut my girl's hair.

Laura

Yeah, so. But yeah, that was our big milestone for this week.

Shanna

Aw, that's very fun. And overall, did they like the experience or what did they think of it?

Laura

Yeah, they liked it. They kept talking about it on the drive home. They kept practicing the word professional. Like, I think Augie at some point said, I got my first confessional haircut. And we're like, no. He's telling the barber all his secrets. I mean, that's what I do when I get my hair cut.

Shanna

Yeah, I mean, he's not wrong. When Elle got her first haircut at a kid's salon like that, she's had one professional haircut before the pandemic and they gave her a certificate. Oh my gosh. A lock of her hair in an envelope taped to the certificate and a balloon. It was really over the top. Did your boys get anything like that?

Laura

This place offered that as like a package, like a first haircut package. I thought it was a little overkill because they've obviously gotten their haircut before, you know, by me and also it was more money. So I just went with the normal. The normal one.

Shanna

Well, we had an eventful week. Well, we had an eventful morning that I'm going to tell you about. Okay. So, you know we drive the Nissan Leaf, right? Our beloved tiny electric car.

Laura

Yes, the one you had to turn around and bring back home when you were on your way to your mom's retreat weekend because you were afraid it was going to run out of electricity.

Shanna

Yes. Yes. Okay. So the lease is up with that car. Oh, really? Yes. Yes. We've had it for, I don't know, a year and a half, two years or something like that. And this week, it was due to be turned in on Wednesday, Tuesday morning. We all pile into the leaf to drive it to school. Like for the last time, you know, because the girls love the leaf. And it's like, it's the last time they're going to ride in it or whatever. And Steve comes for the ride, too. And I'm driving them to school, and we stop at this intersection that we go to every single day. And we're waiting at the red light to turn right. And all of a sudden, this red Mustang comes screaming through the intersection, coming the opposite direction. It starts swerving and coming towards us. Oh my god. And I'm like, what is going on? Like that moment where you're just like, wait, is that car taking a really wide turn?

Laura

Oh my God.

Shanna

And I was like, oh my God. I thought for sure it was going to hit us. I thought for sure, like the day before we're supposed to turn in this lease, we were going to just fuck up this car and like, you know, be on the hook for so much money or whatever. I could not believe it. And the girls are in the back seat and they've never seen anything like this before. Right? So they're like, what happened? And the car that was turning left like did a 180 in the intersection is like totally turned around. And Steve is the best Samaritan. He like without hesitation hops out of the car to go check on the driver in the middle of the intersection. It's this older woman. And I'm like, I'm a little bit more hesitant, a little bit more queasy. I'm a good Samaritan. I will help. But I'm always like, is there going to be blood? Is there going to be something I'm not going to want to see? I don't know.

Laura

Yeah, totally. I mean, super scary because you guys were seems like inches away from being actually involved in this accident. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. And, you know, at least be damned. Like, that's just scary, you know. And now you can say, oh, well, no one was hurt. So it's not that, you know, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but you don't know that in the moment, right? Car accidents can be really serious.

Shanna

Yeah. I mean, it seemed it sounded really dramatic. Her car spun around. This guy swerving towards us. It wasn't just like a little fender bender. It was like a close the intersection kind of situation.

Laura

Oh my God.

Shanna

And so I was like, well, gosh, what do we do? Do we stay here? And like, you know, say that I was a witness, but the kids need to get to school and they're like, you know, asking a million questions about it. What's going on? Is everyone okay? Can I tell my teacher about it? You can tell your teacher about it. I actually thought that they would be more scared. And freaked out. I was actually pretty surprised by how calm they were. They were more just curious than anything. And finally I was like, okay, well, I'm going to get out of the right hand turn lane so some traffic can get by. And I turned out, we were going to wait. And Steve's like, let's just take him to school and we can come back and check it on everyone. So we dropped him off at school and came back. Steve hopped out to talk to the victims of the accident and give him my information.

Laura

By the way, this is the dynamic. Every time I've seen any kind of accident or something, I'll be driving. And one time we saw a pretty bad one where a motorcyclist like he was doing something really dumb. He like cut into oncoming traffic and uh, was swerved and he ended up like flying off his motorcycle and hitting a tree. I saw the whole thing and I'm like, oh shit, Corey, call 911, call 911. And Corey's like, what?

Shanna

I pay attention to the world around me. Yeah. So Steve got out and gave the woman my number because from my perspective, the accident was not her fault. Yeah. And she had her little dog with her. It was just like, oh, I know. Steve came back and told me about a conversation he had with the driver of the red Mustang, who appeared to be about 18 to 20 year old young male. Steve asked him how he was doing, and he said, I'm okay, but my baby's dead. And Steve had a moment of like, what the fuck? And he's like, huh? And the guy pointed at his red Mustang. He's like, my baby's dead. My baby's meaning his car. Got it, got it, yes, yes. And you know, Steve's just like, and both of us like thinking about this, we're just like, dude, like then don't fucking try to run red lights. You know, like people, some people have actual babies in our car who risk for that kind of thing.

Laura

Yeah, that's ridiculous. I'm sorry. So I have very little patience for this type of thing because I live in Glendale, California, which has the highest car insurance rates of anywhere in, I think, maybe the country, but definitely in California, because we have so many fucking accidents here, Shanna. And it's nonstop. I am constantly on alert when I'm driving in this area. I mean, I'm on alert everywhere. But in our area, they're just constantly accidents on these like four-way stop signs near us because people just blow through them.

Shanna

Oh, my God.

Laura

And we're constantly hearing crunches like the other night we heard a crash and Sebastian, I was trying to put him to bed. You know, he's puttering around his room. I'm trying to corral him towards his bed. And then we hear like, screech crunch. And we like go to the window and I can't see anything. And he's like, what happened, mama? What happened? And I was like, oh, it sounded like a car crash, but it's okay. We can't see anyone. They're fine. I'm sure they're fine. And for like the next week, he's like, cock quash, cock quash outside. There was a cock quash outside. Oh, baby.

Shanna

Gosh. Yeah, definitely gotta keep your eye out for that stuff. You know the nice thing? I don't know. This just seemed like a nice little turn of events. We went to Starbucks right afterwards. We're like, we need some coffee. We need to treat ourselves. We go through the drive-through and we get up to the window and the woman's like, the car in front of you paid for your entire order. And I was like, what? She's like, yeah. And I was like, oh my god, that's so sweet. Like, we needed that. And I was like so flustered by the whole situation and overcome by the kindness of a stranger, just paying it back or paying it forward or whatever, that I was just like, well, thank you. And I drove away and then I was like, oh, I think I was supposed to pay it back to the person behind me. I think that's how it works.

Laura

Whoopsie. It's okay. It's okay. Yeah. You deserved a dose of kindness on that day. It's a hard thing to witness. And you were good Samaritans by going and checking on these people. So many people just drive away, you know? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, did the girls bring it up again? Or were they just like, this is life? They were pretty much like, ah, this is life.

Shanna

I picked them up later. I was like, did you tell your teachers about the crash? They're like, yeah. And like that was pretty much it. OK. Yeah. That's good. And we returned our leaf. No damage. Nothing. It was all good. Great. And we got a new one, so. So wait, do you have a new leaf? Yeah. Yeah. We have a new leaf. It's white now. Okay.

Laura

So the girls won't be too devastated by having a new leaf. Yeah. Okay.

Shanna

Pretty much an evening exchange.

Laura

Got it. Got it. Well, that was very eventful and I'm so glad you're safe.

Shanna

Thank you. Me too. Should we move on to our special segment?

Laura

Yes, we should.

Shanna

The series of tubes has delivered today. I came across a story about deep fake cheerleading drama.

Laura

What? Okay. Yes. And you're not slamming cheerleaders as deeply fake, right?

Shanna

Yes. Yes. So like doctored photos and videos that appear on the internet. Yes. So that is the story we've got here today. I'm intrigued. Okay, in Philadelphia, there is a competitive cheerleading team called the Victory Vipers. And in 2021, several of the members of the Vipers started receiving anonymous texts and calls from a blocked number that were very harassing. This escalated to the point where even the coaches were being texted videos and photos of the cheerleaders on the team in compromising situations, drinking, vaping, smoking, all things that go against the rules of the victory vipers. That's not good. That is not good. So the question is, where are these coming from? Who is sending these? What's the ulterior motive here? It's like gossip, girl. Oh, is it? OK, I never watched that. I don't know. Ooh, she sounds evil.

Laura

Okay, I actually never watch it either, but I think the whole premise is that there's like someone spreading gossip and they're anonymous and no one knows who a gossip girl is. But this is like more malicious gossip girl with photos and video evidence.

Shanna

Yes. Sounds creepy.

Laura

Yes.

Shanna

Exactly. So these videos are incriminating on the level that they could get these girls kicked off of their cheer team. So one of the videos of this girl at a party vaping, this girl just said that video is not real. That's not real. Like that has to be a deep fake because I was never in that situation. I never did that. And it's not true. So the mother of this girl went to the police because the harassment in the calls and the texts and everything was just getting worse and worse, including these deep fake videos that were trying to like ruin this cheerleader's life.

Laura

Yeah.

Shanna

So the police started investigating and a couple other parents came forward saying they're getting very similar type of messages. Someone is trying to sabotage these girls and this team. So investigators start to trace the cell phone activity and the IP address of where these messages are coming from. Do you have any idea where they might be coming from, Lauren?

Laura

Like I said, I never watched Gossip Girl, but I think in the end we found out that Kristen Bell was like the gossip girl. I don't know for sure. They're all coming from Kristen Bell.

Shanna

That's the big reveal.

Laura

Can you imagine if Kristen Bell chooses to leave her life of fame and motherhood to just be evil to some random cheerleaders in Philadelphia?

Shanna

That would just be wild. No, it wasn't Kristen Bell. It was the mom of another cheerleader on this squad. What? A 51-year-old woman named Ruffella Spone.

Laura

Spone, okay. Yes. Wow. I mean, this is pretty low. It's not as low as that one cheerleader mom who didn't, wasn't there like a murder in the 90s of like cheerleader moms? Yes, yes. It didn't go that far, but this is pretty bad.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

Okay. So they figured out it was this woman. Then what happened?

Shanna

So the parents press charges against Spone and she went to trial for this.

Laura

Wow.

Shanna

Okay. It was all over the internet at the time that Rafaela Spone is the deep fake cheer mom that she was like trying to ruin these girls lives by making fake videos of them doing promiscuous things. It really ruined her reputation, as you imagine it would. When the trial finally came about in 2023, they finally had some experts in deep fake videos analyze all of the videos and none of them were deep faked. They were all legitimate. They were all legitimate videos. Okay. So the girls were just lying about them being deep faked and the police were like, oh, okay.

Laura

I mean, it's still not cool what this woman did, but I can totally see a teenager being like, that's a deep fake. I'd never touched vape pens before in my life.

Shanna

Yeah, exactly.

Laura

That's actually a really good way to get out of something. Mom, it's a deep fake.

Shanna

Yes, exactly.

Laura

It's a deep fake. Adults don't understand that. It's true, though. The real red flag is that adults don't understand deep fakes. So how is this mom making deep fakes that are so convincing?

Shanna

Right, exactly. So she did not get prosecuted for doctoring videos, but she did get prosecuted for harassment and was found guilty. And she shouldn't have done that. She shouldn't have done any of it. But the whole deep fake element of it is just especially wild. It's a deep fake of a deep fake. Yes, ooh, so meta.

Laura

So meta.

Shanna

You know, we hear about sports moms, theater moms, moms getting too overly involved in their kids' extracurricular activities, but this is just taking it to the next level. This is just too much.

Laura

That is too much. It's also using deep fakes for evil, which I think everyone's afraid of, or not using deep fakes for evil, I guess, is what actually happened. But you know what I'd like to see? I want to see overly ambitious parents deep fake their kids like hitting home runs and softball.

Shanna

That's what I'm going to do. I'm sure, I'm sure that's out there. And if that, if that technology were available during the time of like the college admissions scams, you know those celebrities would have deep faked their kids like rowing competition, winning rowing competitions and stuff like that.

Laura

Oh, for sure. Yeah. You know what? It's probably happening. It's probably happening right now. It's getting harder and harder to tell what's AI and what's not. You never know. You never know.

Shanna

It's wild. Okay, Laura, what's your internet insanity?

Laura

Okay. My internet insanity has to do with this year's holiday cards. Ooh. All right. So, Shanna, this is a spoiler for when you get my holiday card. Oh, okay. But I recently, as overwhelmed as I am, was trying to figure out what I'm going to do about holiday cards this year because I've got some work deadlines. I've got podcast deadlines. I've got all of the holiday madness going on in the house. The kids are about to be off school for weeks. And I'm just like, I wasn't even going to do holiday cards. I was going to opt out of it. But then like my mom and my mother-in-law were both like, oh, well, I thought we'd get family photos this year in a, in a holiday card. I was like, oh, shit. Okay, I got to do it. You got guilted. But I was like, how can I make this easier on me? And I was like, you know what?

Shanna

Amazing. I cannot wait to see these. How did you prompt the AI?

Laura

Well, poorly, apparently, is the answer.

Shanna

Oh, okay. All right. Here we go. Okay. So you put into the program, can you design a 60s retro style Christmas card for my family leaving three spots open for pictures? All right. And it came back with a Christmas tree and a few picture frames on a wall. This is illustrated in reds and greens. And that Christmas tree has some ornaments the size of the globe. It's a very large arrangement of ornaments. OK, so I could see how this wouldn't work for you.

Laura

Yeah, I decided that wasn't my style. So I decided, OK, let's lean into the sort of digital aspect of it. And I asked for a 8-bit version.

Shanna

Oh, okay. You say, let's go in a completely different direction. In a three by two aspect ratio, create a holiday card for my family in the style of an eight bit video game. Oh, that's a cute idea. Okay, let's see. All right, it came back with a snowy scene with a cabin, some snowmen, some pine trees and three spaces for pictures, but then like just empty gray space on either side of it. So that's not gonna work.

Laura

Yeah. So I gave it some more prompts. We don't have to read all of those, but I was like asking for a winter scene. Then I was like, let's do more of a Southern California scene. And it was doing okay. Um, but then the part that kind of qualifies this as internet insanity is when I started to ask for like family characters to be put into it.

Shanna

So you asked it to put some characters into the snowy scene based on you, Corey and your two kids. And it gave you a scene of two adults, a snowman and three kids.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah.

Shanna

Okay, and I like that Corey is inexplicably holding a floating heart.

Laura

Yes. That's interesting. I mean, it is kind of adorable, but obviously not going to work because there's three kids.

Shanna

That's a choice. Okay, so then you try again. You said great, except there's three kids instead of two. Can you remove the oldest kid? And it's spat back an image of the same family, except the youngest kid is now a snowman.

Laura

And honestly, Cory looks like a kid.

Shanna

Cory looks like a 12-year-old. And you look about 16. Yeah, that's not going to work. And oh, and this one has an inexplicable floating candy cane just randomly in there. Oh, wow. Chat GPT. Come on.

Laura

Yeah. OK. So I pivoted. I was like, OK, let's do something a little bit different. So on the next one, I say, let's stay with the 8-bit theme and show a family of four in Los Angeles during the holidays. I'm thinking palm trees with Christmas lights on it. OK. Let's see what it gave you.

Shanna

It gave you a photo of you and Corey in front of the Twin Towers with three kids still.

Laura

Oh, and palm trees. I mean, they nailed the palm trees with the Christmas lights on it. Yeah. Still three kids. I don't know what's going on here.

Shanna

I think that the internet's trying to tell you something, Laura. Better not be. Oh. What?

Laura

Why won't it get rid of that kid? I don't know so on the next one they actually managed to get rid of the kid I said please redo this and remove one of the kids the toss child is not part of the family there should only be four people total.

Shanna

Good you're getting explicit learning to ask for what you want to see okay so here.

Laura

I look pregnant for sure. Okay, so I say, this is the right direction, but can you remove the mustache on the father and make the two boys much younger? They are two and four years old, because these kids look like teenagers, right? Or pre-teens. And I explicitly asked them to remove the mustache, and this is what came back.

Shanna

an even thicker mustache. Hey, that's starting to look like you though. It's got red hair and bangs. The boys are looking more like your boys, but it definitely looks like you're posing with Tom Selleck in front of a cityscape.

Laura

Well, it's funny you say that because read my next prompt.

Shanna

This is the right direction, but the dad looks too much like Tom Selleck. Please redo this and make the dad look like a cool hip dad. Oh, here we go. Oh, this is very comic book style. He looks very, very cool in hip. Suddenly you are very buxom and voluptuous. Wow. Okay. They made us really too attractive.

Laura

Yeah. They actually, the background looks really cool. It does look like Los Angeles. They even have like a red tail hawk flying in the background.

Shanna

That's a nice touch. And a Christmas tree taller than the tallest skyscraper. I like that detail.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. So here I am trying to like speed up my process and how many prompts have I done at this point? So many. This is taking so long. So I say, OK, this is funny, but we're not that attractive. Make us less attractive. They put a beard back on Corey. The kids are older. I'm like, okay, but no beard please. And then they do another one. Suddenly I have like a short cropped brown haircut. We're back to having three kids with bowl cuts. One of them is like at least 15. Cory still has a beard and is blonde. And I'm like, get rid of that older child. So they do it again, but now we only have one kid. So I'm just like, okay, this is so frustrating. So I decide to switch tactics, okay? So I say you keep adding too many people into the photos. Let's try a completely different direction. Can you make a three by two aspect ratio holiday card in action hero comic book style?

Shanna

OK. We just straight up have Superman flying. Yeah. There's no mom. No mom. Two teenage supermen flying alongside him without capes. And then Santa Claus flying.

Laura

As a superhero flying.

Shanna

towards the camera. Please tell me this is the one you used.

Laura

Yeah, spoiler. That's what we're doing. So I did more prompts. I was like, make it a family instead of Superman. And now I have like two boys and a girl. They just could not get it right. There's one. Check out the one where I am, the one where I say, OK, I love this one. Can you do another variation?

Shanna

OK, let's see. So there we've got

Laura

It's like a squirrel fox? I don't even know.

Shanna

Wow, what? And then for some reason, a jet airplane zooming through the air in the background.

Laura

Yeah, yeah. So there was a lot of fails. The next one, I asked to make it whimsical and it turned us into like a fairy family, like Cory's a wizard with a staff. And again, I have four children, it looks like anyway. I will say I did eventually use some of the stuff it came up with. I took one of the backgrounds, one of the 8-bit backgrounds that they made, brought it into Photoshop, took one of the 8-bit families it made and like Photoshopped out one of the kids and like made it really small so it worked. and did put together a quote unquote chat GPT generated Christmas card, but involved a shit ton of work on my part. And yeah, it's mostly a gimmick. So yeah, that's what you're gonna get.

Shanna

Well, that's amazing. I can't wait to see it, but it is not lost on me that your attempt to save time here really added a lot of work to your day. I mean, you sent me 18 photos of different versions of this thing, Laura. And that was curated, Shanna. I did not send you the whole thing. And I just commend you for your ability to talk so respectfully to this freaking computer because by the fifth one, I'd be like, dude, get rid of the freaking kid. But you're like, this is fun. Now, if we could just eliminate one child, you're so sweet.

Laura

Well, this is strategic, Shanna, because I have heard, so there's like a whole profession now that are called like prompt engineers. Do you know about this? No. They're people who spend their whole day just feeding prompts into different AIs to see what works. They try all these different variations and they've discovered that if you're polite and even if you offer to tip it, like, oh, if you do a good job, I'll tip you $100. It will do a better job.

Shanna

Wow. Well, really tapping into human motivation there, I mean.

Laura

But anyway, that was my semi-failed attempt at using AI to create our Christmas card. And I just want to acknowledge that AI is super controversial and I don't feel really great about using it to generate art. I know that it's stolen a bunch of art, you know, mid-journey which just came out with like a secret list of all the artists that they've stolen from. So I do not plan on using it for anything more than sort of tongue-in-cheek insider joke things Yeah, but it was an interesting experiment trying to keep up with the keep up with the times Amazing did you have chat GPT write your holiday message, too? I did and then I modified it a bunch I was just like I can't send it out just like this, but I thought it'd be funny to try I also had to prompt it like three or four times to come up with something funny so

Shanna

It's like our fourth child, Rupert, is really getting into ping-pong.

Laura

Yeah, pretty much.

Shanna

Oh my god, this is amazing. Can't wait to see it.

Laura

Yes. Okay. So that was my internet insanity. It may have driven me insane trying to do it. But I think that might be it for this segment. What do you think?

Shanna

Yeah, I think so. Let's move on to our BFPs and BFNs.

Laura

Okay.

Shanna

All right, we're back and we wrap up every episode with our weekly Big Fat positives or Big Fat negatives. Laura, you were up first and I want to know what you got for us.

Laura

I have a BFP. All right. And my BFP is that I finally got together with my mom friends from preschool for a like dinner and drinks situation.

Shanna

Aw, fun.

Laura

We have been talking about doing this since we went and saw Barbie this summer. And you know, we're like, oh, we should do this every month. We should get together every month. And that was, you know, five months ago or something. And we finally coordinated our schedules, picked a night where we could all escape, basically, and we decided we'd escape after bedtime. And thankfully, they all wanted to go to a place that was walking distance from my house. So I was like score extra score for me. And it worked. The BFB is that we did it. We all showed up and two of us ate dinner or the other two just had drinks, although they ended up gnawing on some appetizers. And it was just such a nice night because it was obviously so needed. And I say that because we shut the place down. You did? And granted, it closed at 10. So I think they kicked us out at like 10. 30.

Shanna

Mm-hmm.

Laura

Like a lot of times I feel like, oh, it's too hard to go out. I don't really want to see people. But it was just a really good reminder that I don't know if I'm a true extrovert. It's not that I need it all the time, but I do feel energized when I meet up with good friends and get to have good conversation. And it really compensated. You know, it was worth it to stay up late. So it was just a really good reminder of that. So that's why it's my BFP.

Shanna

Yeah. Oh, that's so great. And that's a great reminder for me to hear because, oh my gosh, I'm the same way, but I work from home. I live far away. I don't get out enough to do that kind of stuff. So it's a great motivator for me to get out of my little comfort zone and go do some stuff.

Laura

Yeah, and it's great when you find a group of people who have enough in common with you that you can just have a shorthand about things, you know, we all have kids the same age. And we all went to the same preschool. You know, now we've kind of dispersed a little bit, but I say that like, I went to this preschool. Our kids went to the same preschool. But you know, it's just, there's a lot of common ground there. So it was, it's just very natural and it feels really nice to talk to people.

Shanna

Awesome.

Laura

Yeah. But that is my BFP. Shanna, do you have a BFP or a BFN?

Shanna

I have a BFN.

Shanna

Usually I write it off as a phase. I'm like, yeah, whatever. It's just become super regular. And I think part of it is because I try to put them to bed early. You know, it's like I still want my evenings. So we put them to bed at like 7.30 and Elle's getting older, you know? And I just think they both need less sleep. And so they're making up for it by waking up hella early. And I'm just like, what do I do? Because I still want my nighttime. So I have just started telling them, whatever, go watch TV. So they get up if they come and get me. Mom, I'm awake. But I'm like, Okay, go watch TV. Usually we like, we don't lock the TV, but we use our Alexa to have a timer with the TV. So the TV plug doesn't come on. It didn't used to come on until like 6am, right? Because they were getting up like 3am and watching TV and stuff like that.

Laura

Ugh, that's tough. I do feel like they say kids need later bedtimes as they get older, right? Augie is still very tired by 7.30 or 8. Like, very tired. But he also doesn't wake up to like 6.30 or 7 most days. Some days we have to wake him up to go to school. So, I mean, I just feel like the writing's on the wall, Shanna. I feel like your girls need to go to bed a little later.

Shanna

Oh, for now, I've just been solving it by letting them wake up earlier and not bother me. I don't know. I don't know how long this will all go on. And yeah, I think I just need to suck it up and put him to bed later, but I'm not there yet.

Laura

Well, you know what Gia suggests is that you still take them into their room at the same time, but then you have a lights out time. So it's like you can go to your room and read and do whatever you want. But lights out is at eight thirty or nine or whatever it is so that you still get your time, but they're not actually asleep. Of course, this is very dependent on your children being capable of independence.

Shanna

I'm just like they will not like that. Maybe Elle because she's really into reading like graphic novels and and chapter books and stuff now. So she might if she's in the right mood. I don't know. I don't see CECE doing that at all. But you know, maybe if I train her and like just like give it a go in the first few days are hard and then maybe it'll become a routine.

Laura

Yeah. Yeah. Could be. But I don't know. I mean, this is just what Gia's told me. I have not tried to implement it.

Shanna

Yeah. Well, it's definitely good to keep in the back of my mind. I think that we might be approaching a phase like that.

Laura

Oh man, the four is too early, though. I don't blame you for being like, just go watch TV. Yeah. That's what I would do. I mean, there have been days, you know, Sebastian used to wake up really early all the time too, back before we fixed his ears. Poor boy. And I would just like take him downstairs and lie down on the couch and I would snooze while he watched TV. So I am definitely not judging you for doing that.

Shanna

Yeah, the good thing is that they're independent now for the most part. Like they can, you know, if they need a snack, I put snacks at like a lower shelf in our cupboard so they can grab like pouches and whatever they want. I don't know. I'll report back if anything changes.

Shanna

But I think that's it for our show unless you have a 5-star review to read.

Laura

I do!

Shanna

Yay!

Laura

Yes, this one is from Puglove94 on Apple Podcasts. It's titled, Like Having Coffee with Friends, 5 Stars. I love this podcast and I've been listening to it since before I even got pregnant. What I love about this is that it's not overly stuffed with quote, educational information like many other mom podcasts, which I often find hard to pay attention to. I relate this podcast to having a coffee date with other moms. You hear the fun conversations, the real conversations, and you get great tips and tricks along the way. From great baby products to helpful parenting books, I've already made up a list of things to buy slash read for this next baby. Even though this is my third pregnancy, things have changed so much since I had my last baby, and Laura and Shanna share all the newest trends for parents.

Shanna

I know. Thank you so much. Can we just take that and put that on our website as the description of our show? I know. So good.

Laura

Thank you so much.

Shanna

So, so, so appreciate that. And listeners, if you haven't had a chance yet to leave us a five-star review, could you do us a favor, please? And head on over to Apple Podcasts. Leave those five stars. Say a few things you love about the show or the community. It really helps new listeners want to become invested in our community. If you do so, we might read it on an upcoming episode. If you have any internet and sanities that you want to share with us, you know we would love to hear them. Laura, where can everyone find us?

Laura

We are on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook at BFB Podcast. We have a website, bigfatpositivepodcast.com. And if you want to send us an email, you can always throw a voice memo in there. We love those. Just send it to contact at bigfatpositivepodcast.com. And finally, if you want to join the coolest group of people on the internet, remember, our review said we were a great resource, so you should join. Just search Facebook for Big Fat Positive Community. It is a private group, so you have to request to join and answer those two membership questions so we know you're not a robot. But once you do that, it'll be sent straight through to all the amazing, wonderful conversations we're having in there.

Shanna

Our show is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. Have a big, fat, positive week. Bye. Bye.