You may be aware that I draw mazes. You may be aware that I have some maze books out, and that you can get my mazes printed on stuff to wear, hang, or sit around the house. You may be aware that I have a bunch of mazes posted here for free. In my never ending quest for World (and Lunar) Domination, I’m moving on to your phone, tablet, laptop, PC, and there’s probably somebody out there with a Raspberry Pi enabled potato or something. Maybe the DOOM fruit fly can solve a few?
While, it’s not ready to roll out to a full-ass audience yet, my buddy Jason has put together a way to solve my hand-drawn mazes on your phone, tablet, or computer. You can use your finger, a stylus, the control in the bottom left corner, the arrow keys, the WASD keys, or a mouse to move the cursor to solve the maze. You can change the ink color, erase, or “snap back” to get to the solution. You can pick the difficulty level & keep playing through to that level or all the levels if you’d like. You can also share your stats to social media or via text.
Screen shot from my laptop.Cropped shot of being zoomed-in to solve the maze on a laptop.The start screen where you can pick your difficulty, ink color, how you want to play, and type in a user name.Solving the skull maze on the phone.
So, my buddy Jason is helping to make my hand-drawn mazes solvable on a screen. This is a 5x-ish sped-up playthrough on my phone. Looking for people interested in testing functionality & providing feedback. That you? Might blog about it later. #maze#mazes#puzzlegame#apps#AiXeLsyD13
So, we need some people to test this out! What is working? What isn’t? What’s intuitive? What’s not? Tell us about the functionality, and even if you like the idea. Sometimes, I feel like it is difficult to find maze-solving enthusiasts. Share this with your people who may like to do such things!
I’m not sharing the url for the test phase super wide right now so just reach out to me via email, social media, via comment here, or my contact form if you’d like to test the game out and tell is what’s working & what’s not. To quote the infamous Jimmy Pop, I’d appreciate your input.
If people dig it, I’ll add more & draw more! Do you think it’s something that you or someone you know would enjoy?
Also, if you like movies, you have to check out this other game that my buddy Jason made! In FlashFrame, you guess the movie title by a screenshot or poster/promo image from 4 answer choices. You go in to rounds of 10. You can play against other people, or do solo practice. You can pick your genres and narrow it by decade too if your cinephilia has highly specific interests.
I have gone head-to-head in movie naming competition with my kids, and with Jason himself. It’s a fun way to test your movie memory!
I like to narrow in on 80’s sci-fi, comedy, & action films. What would your decade & genres be?
It’s definitely fun and worth your time to check out. A few rounds go by super quick and you might surprise yourself with your movie knowledge!
Also, the more people who play, the more fun it is. You can invite your friends to play head-to-head battles.
I “know” Sid from a Facebook group or three, and James Gunn not only crushes it on making movies and TV shows with crazy needle drops, but he also has no problem setting the record straight on DCU projects directly to the people. I have written about his move from Marvel to DC and his Creature Commandos Playlist before.
So, how cool is that? An-Die DysLeXiC introduced me to the cinematic masterpiece that is Tromeo & Juliet featuring one of the most unhinged car crash scenes of all time.
The soundtrack is banger after banger, and knowing that Mr. Gunn chased down every one so it could be included is incredible. “Mr. Superlove” by the Ass Ponys is awesome. Same with “Math” by Supernova, “Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe” by The New Duncan Imperials, “Drink That Whiskey” by The Wesley Willis Fiasco, and… “Sacrifice” by Motörhead!!
I still have this CD, and I’m gonna need to pop it in. I love the inside baseball on making movies and music selection. I’m reading You’ve Got Red On You about the making of Shaun of the Dead right now, and it’s fascinating about all the stuff that has to happen to get a project done.
I love Thanksgiving. It’s coming soon. This is some Turkey Day attire that you can relax in. Wear it under a nice cozy flannel. It appears to be on sale at both my TeePublic and RedBubble shops currently. You should take advantage of that if you’re so inclined.
You can get this design on an apron, a coffee mug, a tote bag, a hoodie, a blanket, a pillow… or all kinds of stuff really. You can change the clothing color with a bunch of options & styles at each site too. Poke around & see if you can find something you like!
Also, you can print this out & try to solve it for free. Or do it on your phone/tablet/whatever. You can post it on social media & tag me@AiXeLsyD13.
Of course, I have a buch of other Thanksgiving themed mazes too:
Hey, this pumpkin maze works for Halloween and Thanksgiving if you ask me. And, you can get two versions of it on all kinds of stuff too:
You can get the full color orange one on stuff at TeePublic and at RedBubble. You can also get the black & white one on stuff at TeePublic. I thought that might look cool on an orange T-shit.
I guess I never did update, lots of the listings are down or read as “Temporarily Unavailable.” I would like them to read as “⚠ 404 Page Not Found.“
I did get two short emails from the offender. Thank you to Jakob Mewes for reaching out! I never did hear back from Jakob after reaching out for further details. Did you Google AiXeLsyD and/or Gasoline Dion and find me here? I’d love to know!
I did get two emails from Mr. Heppke.
From: Kurt Heppke <mail@kurtheppke.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 30, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of My Artwork in Your Book – DMCA & Cease-and-Desist
To: Eric Carroll <red@acted.yo>
Dear Mr. Carrol,
I'm sorry for using your trademarked images and I really want to apologize for that. I took the images from Pinterest and did not check the license. I made a mistake.
I have requested today that the book be stopped selling immediately and will send you confirmation as soon as I have it.
I hereby give you written confirmation that I will no longer use your work.
I also confirm the immediate cessation of any further use or reproduction of your work in any form.
I am truly sorry for the trouble I have caused you.
I would like to make one more point about your WordPress post " Stolen Mazes! (Someone took my art.)". It gives the impression that I have flooded half the world with my books. No. I've sold the book 8 times in the last 3 years. So I think the damage is limited.
That's not an excuse!
Anyway, thank you for your patience and kindness and I will definitely change my behavior when it comes to checking licenses.
Best regards
Kurt Heppke
---
Kurt Heppke
Tel: +## ### ########
Mail: mail@kurtheppke.com
Homepage: www.kurtheppke.com
And, then this, referencing the photo below:
From: Kurt Heppke <mail@kurtheppke.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of My Artwork in Your Book – DMCA & Cease-and-Desist
To: Eric Carroll <red@cted.yo>
Dear Mr. Carroll,
I have withdrawn my book "Labyrinthe" from sale and would like to inform you of this, as promised:
Labyrinthe
Leichte Schwere und ganz ganz Schwere
ISBN-13: 9783756233120
Verlag: Books on Demand
Erscheinungsdatum: 30.06.2022
the German sentence:
"Wir haben Ihr Buch wunschgemäss für Bestellungen aus dem Buchhandel gesperrt. Auch die Listung für den internationalen Vertrieb und der E-Book-Vertrieb wurden damit automatisch ausgesetzt."
means:
"We have blocked your book from bookstore orders as requested. The listing for international distribution and e-book distribution have also been automatically suspended."
I would like to apologize once again and thank you for your patience and kindness.
Best regards
---
Kurt Heppke
Tel: +## ### ########
Mail: mail@kurtheppke.com
Homepage: www.kurtheppke.com
And this was in there:
✍️
I did not reply, as I am still salty about it. A little theft is still theft. I know Joe Wos sent something over to the effect of a Cease & Desist or DMCA, and Brian Hilbert commented on my last post. I never did get a comment from Sean C. Jackson. Not sure how many other maze artists were robbed. I never did track any others down.
I’m sadly still morbidly curious to get my hands on a copy of this outrage. Share your stories of art theft in the comments, or comment here if your stuff was also uncredited in this book!
So, I recently got an interesting message via my contact form:
I did write back, but have yet to receive a reply. I would like to thank you Jakob, for reaching out! Not sure how you found me, but then again maybe I am sure as the one stolen maze is kind of highly specific in subject matter, but we’ll get to that.
I did do some light Googling though, like a modern-day super lazy Sherlock Holmes (or at least Dick Tracy). The ever-so-helpful auto AI summary was actually kind of enlightening…
Yeah. That one past stuck out.
“He finds inspiration for his books by browsing graphic portals and libraries.”
I take that to mean “Bruh finds shit on Pinterest or Google image search and steals it to put into his books.”
Mr. Heppke has a website, and apparently several books. I know that print-on-demand can be looked down upon by “real” publishers, and these are considered “low content” books, but theft is theft.
I know I have pinned them in the past, so they may be floating around there too. There are probably about 100 people on the planet who have heard, saw, heard about, or remember my old punk band, AiXeLsyD. Why take that maze? Our logo is right there beside a terrible drawing of my 1986 Buick SkyHawk. Weird. Also, it name drops Sheetz & Wendy’s as places to not stop (as well as a nudie bar). They may have a harder copyright infringement case than me? 🤣 I’m sure the maze is much older than 2012. The quality of the scan & the coloring is BAD.
I have thought about collecting all my old stuff for a book… but the thought of checking to see if they’re passable & providing solutions is overwhelming, and now that I put out You Can See Yourself Out, I feel like I have a level of quality that I need to maintain. Drawing the mazes & posting them has always kind of been a creative outlet & stress relief for me. I think I’d need to re-scan the pile of stuff that I have, and the stuff that I just posted to social media with phone pictures if I were to do it right… and include solitions.
I’m not doing art to get rich, or even make a living… but if I can fund keeping this blog AiXeLsyD13.com, and buy some art supplies, that would be awesome. I have made tens of dollars off of my books and merch. That’s not a complaint by any means, but some dude across the globe shouldn’t be making money off of my art. (As an aside, check this shit out! Art theft is rampant, and following @kilkennycat_art on Threads has opened my eyes to it.)
I’m unsure of my next step. Is reaching out directly to Norderstedt Books on Demand and/or Kurt Heppke directly via email with some sort of cease and desist the way to go? Is that at all official? Is Google Translate even gonna get it right?
I don’t have any written verbiage here about my mazes being copyrighted, but I do have dated posts, and I think copyright is implied with any created works… no? I have no idea how any of it works really within the US, let alone internationally & specifically in Germany.
It also looks like this damn thing is available on more than a few sites:
At any rate, I implore you to by mazes (or any art) from the artist through their official channels… or enjoy the many free mazes that are put out there by all of us.
So, Cease-and-Desist email or letter? DMCA Takedown? Both? Lawyer up? I’m assuming there is not much to financially recover with print-on-demand sales. I just don’t want anyone making money off of my art other than myself.
Well, I’m on my old bullshit again. This is the part where I take an incredibly trivial thing that happened, and blow it wildly out of proportion. This is World (and Lunar) Domination. That joke is so old, the MySpace blog that initiated it is lost to time. I blame it all on my reading Idiot Letters.
I sent an email to Wendy’s the other day… via their customer service email. It was such a canned response, I got it twice. I used Gemini, ChatGPT, & Perplexity to help identify their executives and guess their email syntax, but I suppose I was blocked as spam for trying to email them all at once. And maybe for this attachment.
This is what I wrote…
From: Eric Aixelsyd<aixelsyd13(at)gmail.com> Date: Sun, Jun 1, 2025 at 11:11 PM Subject: Wendy’s, are you OK? (Bridgeville, PA) To: <customercare@wendys.com>, <kirk.tanner@wendys.com> Cc: <digital@wendys.com>, <compliance@wendys.com>, <mediarelations@wendys.com>, <privacy@wendys.com>, <InvestorRelations@wendys.com>, <customercare@wendys.com>, <abigail.pringle@wendys.com>, <liliana.esposito@wendys.com>, <carl.loredo@wendys.com>, <mary.greenlee@wendys.com>, <coley.obrien@wendys.com>, <john.min@wendys.com>, <lindsay.radkoski@wendys.com>
Hello Ladies & Gentlemen of Wendy’s,
I write to you today with great concern. Your location in Bridgeville Pennsylvania (which some locals on Facebook & Nextdoor will pedantically yet vehemently point out is in Collier Township and not Bridgeville proper) is in what could be fairly considered shambles. The dining room is not clean. There are no baked potatoes about ⅓ of the time when I try to order them. Wait times for orders in the app can be excessive. Earlier today, we stopped in for what we thought would be a quick early relaxing dinner after catching Karate Kid: Legends at the local movie theater.
We should have ordered in the app. That was my first mistake. We ordered at the register and I asked if I could have a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger, then a bacon & cheese baked potato. After a long pause, the cashier looked to the kitchen and yelled to ask if there were any potatoes. A disembodied voice answered “NO!“, so the cashier laughed, looked at me and repeated the rather rude “NO!” Another long awkward pause later, I guessed I would take fries and an Iced Tea. Well, my second surprise was that there is no more fresh brewed iced tea, but the swill that comes from the magical flavor selector Coca~Cola machine.
My wife did the rest of the ordering for her and the kids, and somehow it turned into a debacle much like the famous Abbott & Costello Who’s On First? bit… with items being grouped weird, & lacking a cup for water as well as notes to hold lettuce, tomato, & onion on a Dave’s single. The shift manager had to be called over twice with an “I need your thumb!” while people behind us gathered & were wholly ignored. In this kerfuffle, an employee noted the homemade “We need your $1’s” sign scrawled on an 8″x10″ sheet of paper. The cashier adamantly expressed “We need that!” and a split second later, the shift manager angrily ripped it off the counter to the astonishment of the cashier. This sign has been a feature there and at the drive-through window since COVID. Who the hell pays in cash?
I think we technically stole a cup for water, but at total of $52.68 for four people, perhaps you can forgive us. I mean, at this point who is robbing who? If necessary, I will send a check to make it right. Do people still use checks? Maybe I can Venmo you.
Let me add some more context. We got our burgers, chicken sandwiches, and sad french fries. I chose Cherry Coke instead of tea, no big deal. Since I had to settle for fries, I tried to get ketchup. Both pumps were empty. There was what I can only assume was a store manager sitting talking on the phone at the table literally closest to the ketchup dispensers who made no attempts to correct the issue. I assume this was a store manager as he appeared to interview some poor unwitting soul who came in as I was trying to goad the last salvageable bits of sugary tomato sustenance out of their final home. My wife, who was waiting for the kids’ Frosty shakes, told the cashier that the ketchup pumps were both empty and she was literally thrown some ketchup packets. For the time allotted, it appears that the cows were milked fresh to create the ice cream. I didn’t know there was that much room behind the fryers back there. I commend your commitment to quality.
Now we get to the point that I just can’t get past. I can sadly yet honestly overlook all of the above and chalk it up to a standard fast food experience these days. What though, I’m sure you are wondering, could possibly have lodged itself so snugly in my proverbial craw? Cheese.
That’s right, cheese. How, my friends, does a restaurant that specializes in cheeseburgers… serve 4 sandwiches and not one of them has a slice of cheese that is remotely melted? American cheese too! If you look at American cheese too hard, it starts to melt. I could maybe even give you that the Asiago on the chicken sandwiches had a higher melting point. But, how tepid were those beef & chicken patties that it didn’t melt the cheese? Shouldn’t the buns also be toasted on the grill? Like cheese added to the burger on the grill and covered with a lid so it melts the cheese with steam? Shouldn’t the chicken have come out of the fryer so hot that the cheese melted instantly upon contact? Given the temperament of the employees, you can see why I didn’t dare complain then & there, lest I get cheese melted by being nestled in an armpit (or worse).
I really would like to know step-by-step what process you have for making burgers? It surely could not have been followed properly in this instance.
Also, are you OK? How is this permissible or even passable? Is no one from corporate checking on these locations? Is there no oversight or secret shopper type program? If there is, are these standards being met? If you peep the Google reviews, the people have spoken. It used to be that if a restaurant was out of something, they’d offer a discount for next time, a free item, or literally anything other than a blank stare. I am not looking for free food. I’m looking for a dining experience that matches the money paid, and this was definitely not it.
I have attached a maze for you. It illustrates my frustration while attempting to bring some levity to the situation. Perhaps while you try to navigate the correct maze path, you can contemplate the correct path to get this Wendy’s back on track. Do we need to call Gordon Ramsay or Robert Irvine? I really like a Wendy’s burger when it’s proper. It’s got a great beef taste and used to have consistent quality. The potatoes are great, but sometimes they too suffer from the cheese problem when the cheese sauce is topped with the shredded cheese. I miss broccoli as an option for potato toppings. They used to come out so hot that the steam could burn your face when you opened the container. I miss those days. Are customers too stupid now to avoid the steam?
I still just can’t understand how you can serve a cheeseburger without melted cheese at a restaurant founded on burgers. What happened? I remember the glory days of sun rooms, the salad & toppings bar. How did we come to this?
I thank you for your time, and I appreciate you if you have managed to read this far. I hope you find the time to respond, and I look forward to your thoughts.
From: Wendy’s Customer Care <customercare@wendys.com> Date: Mon, Jun 2, 2025 at 12:21 PM Subject: Wendy’s Customer Care [ thread::hsjDn4hRf3SLz4W3oE9RSDc:: ] To: aixelsyd13(at)gmail.com <aixelsyd13(at)gmail.com>
Dear Eric,
Thank you very much for taking the time to let us know about your recent Wendy’s experience.
At Wendy’s, we strive to delight every customer. When your experience falls short, we are committed to making it right.
The details of your experience have been recorded in our system and shared with the franchise leadership team in charge of this restaurant. We hope you experience the quality and service that we expect on your next visit.
We have added a We Got You $ off in-app offer to your mobile account to use at any Wendy’s location. This offer is valid for 30 days from the date it was added. To find the offer from the Home page of the Wendy’s App, tap the ‘Offers’ option on the bottom menu bar. Then scroll to the bottom of the offers page and select the We Got You in-app offer. We recommend you check that the offer is applied before completing your order.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us and for being a Wendy’s customer!
Regards,
The Wendy’s Company
And then, I had to write to them again! I went a few days later, to a different Wendy’s, in a different state, to get a breakfast sandwich with that credit. Again… NO MELTED CHEESE! What is going on here? Who would happily eat this nonsense? Who would make a sandwich like that and think that’s OK? Apparently, everyone, at every Wendy’s, everywhere.
I did the survey on the receipt, and got this:
From: Moundsville 391 <moundsville00391@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Jun 4, 2025 at 10:15 AM Subject: Following Up To: AiXeLsyD13(at)gmail.com <AiXeLsyD13(at)gmail.com>
Hello Eric,
My name is Ryder and I am contacting you on behalf of Moundsville Wendy’s. We got your feedback about a recent visit and just wanted to thank you for the feedback, we strive to serve every customer to the best of our abilities. We would be glad to give you a replacement meal.
Best Regards,
Ryder
I replied to that including my maze, and got nothing. I wrote about it to corporate again, and got THE SAME EXACT RESPONSE as the first email. I got $10 credit the 1st time, and $% the second time. I don’t want free food, I want good food. They won’t acknowledge the maze. Neither will their snarky Threads and 𝕏Twitter accounts. 🤣 No response from FB Messenger, either.
So, @Wendys, how do you get a burger where the cheese is not even melted? Some of your locations need help, or training, or something.@WendysCanada You melt the cheese right up there, eh? pic.twitter.com/1uB4Rm24Od
Well then, it’s finally here. I finished maze book number two! This one is better than the last one, I promise. The first was sort of a test run just to see how Amazon KDP works. I wholeheartedly appreciate everyone that bought that book, but this one just objectively looks better and much more time was put into its creation. It ought to be much more challenging and enjoyable, IMHO.
This book a collection of a bunch more larger mazes, and a few small ones that I have been drawing since late 2023. There’s no common theme other than most of the mazes have a silly vibe. A few have no vibe at all. There’s aliens, rodents, yard work, holiday stuff, rock n’ roll, a treasure map, food, retail aversion, gross stuff, & more.
You Can See Yourself Out: A Collection of Fun, Irreverent, Festive, & Wild Hand-Drawn Mazes (Front Cover)
I hope you consider picking up a copy for yourself, & maybe even one for a friend? If not, just sharing the link to someone who you think may enjoy it, or just sharing it in general would be awesome.
The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F9Y7SFXS and I’d love if you could share it, review it, favorite it or save it to a list… anything to help even if you’re not interested in a purchase. You could give me a good (or terrible) review or add it to your list on GoodReads too, if that’s your thing.
I had fun making a collage with punk ‘zine vibes for the cover. I busted out the mixed media, printed on weird paper, got two cutting, ripping, & coffee staining… and unearthed the leopard & cheetah print tape.
All of the mazes were hand-drawn, scanned in, edited (& “solved”) in paint.NET, & put together with Open Office. I haven’t stepped into the world of digital drawing yet, and I like my free programs. Someday, I’ll probably dive into GIMP a little more.
I love drawing the mazes, and it’s a great creative outlet like blogging or making music or playing out live. I’m sitting on a pile of old ones that I can convert into a book… but I need to make sure they’re all solvable and do the solutions.
Some are too big to fit on my scanner, and scanning with my phone has less than desirable results… so I’m gonna have to go somewhere like a FedEx Office store and hope they can help before they all disappear. I have a problem picking up any notebook that catches my eye and is the right price, regardless of size & paper type. I like the feel & the calming of pen on paper.
Because I have been excited about this, and I made a small collage with leftover bits, I popped up some new merch designs in my TeePublic & RedBubble stores with that new collage & the book cover images. I do have some older designs there with a few of the mazes that are featured in this book too. If you have an account & follow me on either of those sites, it may help my stuff get seen a bit more. I’d appreciate any form of liking/sharing/tagging if you’re so inclined!
In fact, check out all these designs from or inspired by the book, you can get them on all kinds of merch at each store! (I ordered a sticker, a magnet, a coffee cup, & a hoodie so I’m already in the hole.)
Teriyaki Stuff [November 19, 2023] Why I want this sauce.
La Choy Teriyaki Terror [December 8, 2023] · I sent a maze to La Choy (Conagra) to literally illustrate my fristration at not being able to find their sauce.
I have blogged about the song from Airheads before, just wondering about the recording of the Reagan Youth cover song, and never really uncovered much about the specific process or the whole change of lyrics & the arrangement, but I did get some replies from various social media from Paul Cripple, Rich Wilkes, & Sean Yseult. (Rich made a really informative comment on my post here. You should check out all of his work!)
There is, however, an incredible article from The Hard Noise about how the song came to be used in the film, & how the band eventually got paid a bit for it… Which is great to know.
So, who is with me? Social media seems to be on board if you read my comments/replies. Can we get a petition or something? Or the comments here going? Or a social media campaign? Let’s get Rich Wilkes the resources he needs to do a 2nd script and get it in front of the actors! Nostalgia waves are at an all time high.
Perhaps a stupid blog post can get the ball rolling?
So, I guess I had no idea that AI music was as advanced as it is. I assumed the stuff I saw on social medial was from paid or sophisticated programs. I have been monkeying casually with text prompts at ChatGPT or Meta AI, and image generators at DALL-E 2, Craiyon, & in the PicsArt app for a while. Luma AI even animates photos in the creepiest way possible. I have recently started messing with Google’s Gemini, too.
While the first two AI song generators that popped up when I googled did not require me to download an app or pay any money, I was able to have them bang out a song in less than a minute. The second one even let me insert lyrics, so I used ChatGPT & Gemini to write lyrics. Of course I chose punk rock, and the subject matter was just me poorly describing the blog. This stuff is wild.
The prompt was: “World (and Lunar) Domination” a punk rock song about drawing mazes and writing goofy letters.
For some reason, I can’t seem to embed these ones. 🤷
AI Music Factory automatically spits out 2 songs from the same prompts.
All of the songs are generic pop punk, street punk, and a weird attempt at some uncanny valley-ish horns. They are formulaic pop punk, of which I could certainly be accused of doing when I was actively playing in bands. The weird part is that is not all that dissimilar from my actual creative output. The lyrics have some interesting ideas & hooks too, if I’m being honest. Does that mean I am a terrible and generic songwriter? Perhaps my lack of commercial success in that area speaks to that. 😆
Self-depreciating humor aside, I feel like I have been involved in the creation of some fun, silly, & kick-ass music, and I was never really doing it for financial gain or recognition. It was an itch that I needed to scratch. I needed to make art via punk rock.
The above songs are derivative of a thousand different punk bands, but the one vocalist sounds oddly like Bad Religion. All of it is stealing from something though. Is it scouring the whole internet? Is it using Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, Apple Music, or Amazon Music? Is it creeping on hard drives in home studios or at record companies?
I feel like this is really close to having the ability to be passed off as a real band. It even reminds me of Crotchduster,
Is it theft, or inspiration? I would not have picked up a guitar and tried to write punk rock songs if I had not heard the Ramones & the Misfits doing what they did. Led Zeppelin’s entire catalog is arguably not entirely derivative of everything that passed through Jimmy Page’s earholes. (I mean, George Lucas did the same thing with Star Wars – it was just Flash Gordon, The Seven Samurai, The Hidden Fortress, & Dune.)
It can be argued that the music is soulless. I get that. I need music to move me in some way, in order to feel that connection. There are already lots of human generated songs out there that don’t really hit me that way. It’s terrible when a song evokes no emotion. I feel that way about Nickelback, even though it’s unironically cool to like them now. Ha ha.
In keeping with the theme of this post, I also used a bunch of AI image generators with various prompts about my blog, and got some weird weird wild stuff. None of them seem to accurately display text whatsoever at all… but the compositions, colors, & design choices are interesting. Is is stolen work though?
It was said that Robin Williams was notorious for stealing bits, but I have read/heard that he was always “on,” and just pulling in ideas and churning out jokes at a constant speed… he may not have realized that his thoughts weren’t entirely his own. But then again, were they? Everything we think, say, & do is a response to our own audio & visual input. (And, all the other senses.)
If AI is putting something out, and the way it “senses” is browsing the internet, what’s wrong with that? Is it stealing because it is not alive? Is it just a tool like a paintbrush or a calculator? Is AI song generation different than loops or sampling or guitar pedals that drastically change a tone?
Images generated by various AI image generators, with prompts pretty much just describing my blog.
🤘🐈⬛🎸
Because every single one of my thoughts also has an incomprehensibly tangential aside, I just did this as the idea came to me while blogging:
𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝖉𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖍 𝖒𝖊𝖙𝖆𝖑 𝖐𝖎𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓 𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖌 – I had ChatGPT write those lyrics a long time ago to be silly. It deleted the chat from the history as it found the content to perhaps be “inappropriate.” Luckily I grabbed a screenshot. I just used my last freebie at AI Music Factory to make this, and unlike with the other songs, I actually downloaded the mp3’s because I find it wildly amusing. AI plays guitar better than Kerry King.
“FEED THE KITTEN” album art by Meta AI“Feed The Kitten” by ChatGPT
So, did I just write a song? No. But… I had the idea for one. It, much like my own artistic output, was a silly idea. (I was always sad that Gasoline Dion never completed songs that we were working on, including but not limited to “667, Across the Street From the Beast” and the ever poetic line “Let me put my meat hook in your beef curtains.”)
I just let my 10yo daughter hear the metal kitten song. She laughed and said it sounds like everything else I listen to (she’s a Taylor Swift fan). When I told her it was AI generated in under a damn minute & that ChatGPT wrote the lyrics, her eyes got wide and was all “That’s not good…”
She immediately understood the implications. Anyone could make a hit album. We could all be Milli Vanilli. Even better, you could probably create a video avatar of an artist or band. I haven’t delved into AI generated video past the tiny Luma AI clips.
Would using AI as a muse, or to flesh out partial lyric ideas be “wrong?” Are we in an era like the early days of sampling where soon someone will figure out how to give artists royalties for music or artwork being fed into AI? I know there are already cases out there. I also know you can’t copyright AI images. Not sure about music, though? I know Mötley Crüe was accused of using AI to write songs.
Will commercials, social media, radio, TV, & movies forgo traditional composers and just make their own jingles, scores, & soundtracks?
It was fun to play with, but do I like it enough that I will pay for it? I doubt it. I can’t think of a practical use for myself other than making a fictional band or something… and who would want AI generated crap content right now? If I paid to put it on streaming services (if you can even copyright it), how would that generate income or even be sustainable? Live shows would be (for now) out of the question. I don’t think it would “feel good” to put that out, like it does to release actual music you created. Maybe kids will dig AI music in the future… or our eventual robot overlords might.
Because I can’t stop, Luma AI animations of AI generated images:
OK, I went back & messed with Udio again. I found where you could pop in the kitten lyrics from Chat GPT. I do not like the output nearly as much, but it’s still pretty wild:
So, what are your thoughts on AI generated stories, art, music, & video? Are we in the wild west? Do you use any of it? If you do use it, what sites/apps, and to what end? Please, hit up the comments!
Oh yeah, those sites automatically generated videos I could download too.
![🧩 AiXeLsyD13 just solved "Banana!" on A-Maze in 8:45.3.
This session: 2/3 solved.
🏳️ Red Brick! -- 56.0s
🏁 Jason's Test Maze -- 1.8s
🏁 Banana! -- 8:45.3
Think you can beat me?
[Lemme know if you want the test url! We are looking for feedback!]](https://aixelsyd13.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/wp-17898477231676215161113381469191.png?w=1005)
![🧩 AiXeLsyD13 just solved "Banana!" on A-Maze in 8:45.3.
This session: 2/3 solved.
🏳️ Red Brick! -- 56.0s
🏁 Jason's Test Maze -- 1.8s
🏁 Banana! -- 8:45.3
Think you can beat me?
[Lemme know if you want the test url! We are looking for feedback!]](https://aixelsyd13.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/wp-17898477232311167688969755553375.png?w=1008)
What happened? I remember the glory days of sun rooms, the salad & toppings bar. How did we come to this?
