AI Images and other Face Funnies

 

Derek spent a little time on MyHeritage.com (a site similar to FamilySearch.org and Ancestory.com) and traced his lineage back and found some ancestors that have a striking resemblance to him! It was amazing to find so many well preserved pictures, and with such a likeness in so many family lines! From a Viking forefather, to a Persian prince, a gladiator, a cowboy... Okay, just kidding, these are ALL Derek, worked over in the artificial intelligence time machine that My Heritage offers on their site. To get this time-treatment, you are asked to upload 10-25 pictures of yourself (3 full body shots, 5 upper body, 10 closeups and 2 profile pictures). The AI then takes all the data, mashes and matches to create these past portrayals. 

AI Art is all the rage right now ... although it's not without some controversy. In an article by the MorningBrew news site, it mentions that artists are upset about copyright concerns and devaluation of real-life skills. There are also privacy and ethical issues ... but it is easy to see the appeal of getting such pictures so quickly, easily and inexpensively. 

While not quite as realistic ... FamilySearch.Org offers a similar fun photo activity. With it, you can take a simple selfie to add and upload your face to preset picture poses. This was a Westra Family History Challenge back in 2021 with some great results! Many of the grandkids participated.

MyHeritage also offers an "animation" option ... upload a picture and bring it to life. This is especially unique to photos of long lost ancestors who have never been seen "alive" by current generations. There was a blog post featuring this fun option too ... Animating Ancestors. 

Jen went a little crazy with the #voila app in 2021, which could "Disney-fy" photos, creating cute cartoons (see some of Margie here).  You can check out some other funny faces on a Blackham Bunch Blogpost.  There are  fun filters, face swap apps and in 2021 Derek made this #refaceapp clip of he and Danielle in some starring roles ...

https://youtu.be/Vlbwaa3KryA

Silly technology!

Mug Memories

 

Oh the memories. As old artifacts are uncovered in the Westra home, often a picture is taken and exchanged over email ... most of the Westra kids remembered these mugs. No one was so sentimentally attached that they wanted to keep them forever, but they are deserving of a blog post before they find a new home ... via a thrift shop, or maybe there are some selling on Ebay and other auction sites (although these aren't in the most pristine condition having been used and loved over the years). 

Doing a reverse image search, several of these mugs popped up on the internet ... selling on auction sites, and with a few informational posts. Seriously, check out these articles for more images, videos and background. 

• Goofy Grape and Friends
• Funny Face Drinks Are More Fun
• Maybe These Pillsbury Drink Mix Mascots are Best Left in 1965
• Funny Face Evolutions

A quick recap ... the mugs were introduced along with a sugar-free drink mix, Pillsbury's attempt to compete with Kool-Aid. The crazy, animated faces were meant to appeal to kids, and they each had their fun names.  There was even a little book written about the characters; Freckle Face Strawberry, Jolly Ollie Orange, Loud Mouth Punch, With It Watermelon, Goofy Grape, Lefty Lemon, Choo Choo Cherry, Rudy Tutti Frutti, and Rah Rah Root Beer. Two of the original iterations Injun Orange and Chinese Cherry were deemed not politically correct and were updated/replaced. 

I don't know that we ever had the pitcher, but I do remember more of the mugs than the three that surfaced during the move in 2022. 

Check out the Timeless Toys post for more memories of other plastic Westra Classics ;) 

Drunk Chickens and Family Funnies

 

Florence Louise Erskine Regensheit is a 1st cousin three times removed to the Westra Siblings. Her father is Peter (one of the Biblical Brothers). In April of 1994 in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the age of 85, she wrote up memories of her grandmother, Ann MacFarlane Erskine (great-great-great-grandmother to the Westra siblings). One recollection was of the "Drunk Chickens" ...

Grandma told me the story of her chickens. One day when she went outside, she saw all the chickens lying on the ground in the backyard. They didn’t move, so she thought they were all dead. She decided she needed to save the feathers to make pillows, so she plucked the soft down feathers from all of them. Later, she looked out and saw the chickens running around in the yard. In the warm afternoon sun, they had revived. Grandma felt sorry for them having no soft feathers, so she knitted or crocheted little jackets for them to wear until their feathers grew back in. She later found out that the neighbor boy had hidden a bottle of home-made wine in her feed box. The cork had come off and soaked into the grain. That was the reason why her chickens had been unresponsive - they were drunk.

Chris decided to use this funny story as inspiration for the Weekly Westra Family History challenge on May 2, 2021. He wrote:

Congrats to Jenna last week for barely beating out her siblings by one minute for the speed award. Life is funny, and we all have funny situations in our lives. I’m glad that your great great great grandma Ann MacFarlane Erskine was not embarrassed to share the "drunk chicken" story with her granddaughter.  The family history challenge this week is to send me a funny story from your own life, or from the life of your mom or dad. I know you have lots! Then we can add that to your 2020 time capsule that you did last week. My funny story is down below. When you write yours, keep it safe somewhere and maybe next week we can have you add it into family history. But for now, just send the story to me. Chris

• Chris Westra: When I was in high school, my friend Glen and I were goofing around at lunchtime in the auditorium. We snuck in and played around with all of the lights, and raised the floor of the orchestra pit up and down. When the bell rang to go to class, all of the lights were out, and the orchestra pit floor was all the way down. But I did not know that, and so as I ran toward the lighted exit door, I fell into the orchestra pit and broke my leg. I yelled for Glen and he helped raise the pit and get me out, and walked me to class. My friends carried me to my other classes. So that wasn’t a lot of fun having to explain that for the next six weeks!
• Josh Jensen: My Chinese teacher loves to hand out candy, and she has a lot of chocolate kisses, so once when I answered a question correctly, I asked her for a kiss, but then everyone started laughing and it was very embarrassing.
• Keaton Blackham: When I was 4 or so, I was sitting in a booster seat attached to the kitchen table. One day, I was jumping around in it and pushing and shoving until eventually the seat broke off and I smacked the hardwood floor. I was crying because my arm was hurting so Mom took me to the hospital. I calmed down pretty quick on the car ride there and when we walked inside, Mom went to talk to the front desk and sign some papers. Curious little me, wanted to see the pretty lady behind the counter so I attempted to lift myself up there. Mom looked down at me kind of like, “why are we here? You look fine.” And then the pretty lady behind the counter leaned over to look at my arm and said, “oh yeah that’s definitely broken,” just as I’m trying to pull myself up using my arms. (Jen "corrections" ... Keaton was only two when this happened. We went to the Instacare, and we didn't get the "that's definitely broken" statement until after the x-ray. Everyone was pretty surprised because he wasn't crying anymore and hadn't complained at all as they moved it for the x-ray, which he was all alone for, as I was pregnant with Cooper and couldn't stay with him. They said he should have been screaming, instead of being the cutest and most cooperative little kid.)

• Rella Westra: When we were little, a guy was coming around trying to sell books to the kids in our neighborhood. We said we didn’t need the books, so he quizzed us about the information in the books. We got every question right, and he left quite humbled.
• Jenna Jensen: (Wendy had included this memory on her blog) Jenna was helping me do some work around the house and I said, "You are such a great little helper! (She beamed). Then I said, "You are my little buddy!" To this she exclaimed, "I am NOT your little buddy! Buddies are boys, I am a girl!"
• Jaiden Jensen: One time I was hanging out with my friend Emily Williams and Lizzie Bryner, and we were at Lizzie's House. we decided to drink some orange juice, and the brand of orange juice was more yellow than orange, and it wasn't orange at all compared to Lizzie's orange cup, so she decided to put some food coloring in it so it would be actually orange and match her cup. I then thought it would be fun to make my orange juice match my cup as well. my cup was pink! so I put tons of pink food coloring in my orange juice and then I drank it, and people say food coloring doesn't have a taste, but my orange juice was DISGUSTING!!
• Jared Jensen: When I was in middle school my friend and I decided that all we wanted to do was create as much chaos as we could. So what we would do every day is go out of our art class and go to the bathroom and scheme troublemaker things. One day we found a bottle of old rotten cologne on the ground and we took this and thought, “what should we do with this it’s so old it’s so gross, and it smells terrible”. So we decided to dispose of it properly by dumping it down the toilet. However when we dumped it down the toilet the smell amplified throughout the room and it smelled horrible to the point where our eyes were watering in the bathroom. The whole bathroom smelled like old cologne! It was terrible and so we decided to try to dispose of the spell the best we could by flushing the toilet. However flushing the toilet made the smell go through all the pipes in the whole hallway and so the whole hallway smelled like all the cologne. When everybody came out of their classrooms that day they were all whispering about what that horrible smell was and me and my friend’s eyes were watering because it was so bad. The theme of this story is to pay attention in your art class.
• Janelle Jensen: I few years ago for Easter I felt a little too old to participating in an Easter egg hunt, so I asked Jared and Janika (who were setting it up) if I could help set it up. They said no, so I just participated. I don't know why I didn't suspect anything.... After we got all of the eggs, they had us sit outside on garbage bags and open them one by one into the bag. And they filmed this. Yet it all went right over my head! One of the eggs I opened nothing fell out of, and so I looked in, and proceeded to throw it because there were indeed snails in it that my brother had hidden it was a really good prank, apparently they had hidden and kept an eye on who got the egg and it was me. It was really funny and a great Easter prank!

• Jase Jensen. Written by Ellen: When Jase and I first started spending time together he called me and asked me out on a date for the following Friday. The week leading up to the date, we ended up spending almost every night together watching movies at his friend Ky’s house. Obviously, we got closer and closer throughout the week and really enjoyed spending so much time together. We ended up sharing our first kiss the night before our first date, and Jase burped in my mouth while we were kissing! Luckily for me it wasn’t a gross burp (and I got him back further down the road). The next day Jase picked me up for our first date with a rose; and because we were in front of my roommates he waited to tell me until we’d left the apartment that the rose was actually an apology rose, to make up for burping in my mouth the night before.
• Janika Jenson: When getting to know Brandon, for our third date we went geocaching. I had never been before and was a little nervous because I didn't know what to expect. (For anyone who doesn't know, geocaching is where people hide/bury little trinkets or guest books or something for others to find and sign and document it on an app so others can find it.) We found a little guest book and Brandon handed it over to me to sign our names. My brain got a little panicked thinking "okay, do I sign his name first or my name first?" So naturally I accidentally combined them by writing my first name with his last name, then realizing what I had done, quickly changed the "on" to an "en" hoping he hadn't noticed. Don't worry, he did and took it home to his roommates somewhat freaking out over what it was supposed to mean.  Literally nothing, I really and truly just had a little brain mix up hahaha.
• Kadan Westra: When I was going to Snow College, I took trip back East to visit some historical locations with my honors history class. One day, we had been visiting some museums in Washington DC, and we were walking down the sidewalk headed somewhere. We were approaching an intersection, and I could see that the little signal to walk had changed, and was counting down. I wanted to make it across before it changed to the "stop" hand, so I started sprinting towards the intersection. I reached the intersection, and still had a few seconds left, so I continued to sprint across.. On the other side, there were a couple of traffic cones and a strip of caution tape blocking the sidewalk.. I didn't really think much of it, but knew I needed to get out of the street fast, so instead of finding an alternate route, I just kept sprinting and jumped right over the caution tape and landed on the other side... right in wet cement. I still had a lot of momentum, so I took several steps in the cement. That's when I looked up and realized the cement workers were still there, finishing up the edges of the new concrete they had just poured.. They were not happy at all. I apologized over and over as I retreated and slinked away, with cement falling off my now-ruined shoes. Of course my entire group had watched the whole thing, and I didn't hear the end of it. Now I always say I "left my mark" in Washington DC. (Although I'm sure they fixed it)

Mom/Grandma was inspired to share as well ...

Marge Westra: When we lived in Richland Washington (where Scott, Chris, Wendy, and Jeni were born), Grandpa LaMar was teaching Early Morning Seminary. One of the other Seminary teachers was hosting a pot-luck Christmas party for all the Seminary teachers and their wives. We got a baby-sitter and were in the car on the way to the party when I realized I had forgotten the invitation with the address. LaMar said "That's okay, I've been to his house before for a meeting and remember where he lives." We arrived at the party, were invited in, and handed our food to someone. As a little time passed, we realized we didn't know even one person there. We came to find out that the Seminary teacher had moved and these people who bought his house just happened to be having a Christmas party that same night. They told us where the Seminary teacher had moved to, gave us back our food and we arrived at the right party! Embarrassing situation, but funny after all these years!

Funny things happen, or are said ... and they are so easily forgotten. But not if you get them down in black and white. Mom/Grandma had been keeping a collection, of things overheard, or shared. They have been compiled here on the blog, and it's been added to. Check out "CUTE QUOTES" ... you won't regret it. There are a ton from little cousins to the Westra Siblings, from now to far in the past (they are in attempted chronological order). Wendy has many recorded on her blog, and Jen devoted a page on the  Blackham Boys blog showcasing the funny things they say and do. 

Wendy had a few more to share, she wrote:  Writing up the Funny/Embarrassing stories yesterday sparked a few more. You don't have to include them if you already have too many, but it is always good to have a few funny stories when the need arises! Just last week I was doing a spotlight on Janelle and they asked for a funny story and I had the hardest time thinking of one -- even though I am sure there are many!! (I will add these to Dropbox) Anyway, here they are...

• Jenna: Jenna told her friend Anna "It took five-ever!!" (An expression that she gets from Janelle). Anna replied, "It isn't five-ever, it is FOR-EVER." Jenna retorted with, "Well, why does four always get to be the lucky number!"
• Janelle: Janelle and her friends were playing Jackbox at our house after her Senior Ball. One of the games is called "Fakin it," where everyone is secretly given the same instructions to do something -- except for one person (the faker) who has no instructions, but tries to blend in and copy the others so that they are not caught. The instructions said: "Make the face you would make when you are cuddled by a fire." The other teenagers in the group made a happy face of contentment as they imagined themselves cuddling with someone they like near a fireplace. Janelle also received the instructions, but took it literally as "a fire is cuddling you," which she thought was odd, but she proceeded to make the face of a panicked person in horror as if ready to be consumed by fire. Everyone assumed that she must be the "the faker." Either that, or she just didn't enjoy cuddling!
• Jared: I scheduled all of my kids for flu shots today this morning. Then I ended up with an interpreting appointment and so I asked Rick if he would take them. My appointment ended early and I was right by the hospital and so I called Rick and told him that I would meet them there. It was a good thing I came because Rick was getting frustrated because they were out of the shots and only had the mist. He was ranting about how the shots were out and the mist was a live virus and now everyone was going to get sick -- and what about Janelle and Jared who were already coughing -- sick kids couldn't get the shot anyway, could they? Then as if to emphasize Rick's point, Jared (age 10) gave a couple of fake coughs. I told him that I would take over and he could leave with the two youngest (who had their shots last week). My pediatrician assured me that they were fine to get the mist in spite of having a little cold and that it wouldn't make them sick. Janika volunteered first and then they each volunteered in order of age. They did just fine -- except for Jared. He faked a little coughing and then pretended to pass out on the floor! (Thankfully our pediatrician knew him well enough to know that he was totally faking!)

And a couple embarrassing/funny stories featuring Wendy:

• Back in high school, Glen (also featured in Chris's story up above) called and asked me to the Skyline Girls' Pref (preference dance). Matt Watrous and John were going with blind dates. I agreed to go, then I started to feel a little sick. I threw up, but then felt better. Well, it was fun, but I threw up at the dance! In the garbage can, how embarrassing!!! Later, at 7/11 I did again in their garbage can!
• I worked at Kmart in the domestics department (bedding and so forth) in the back corner. They had an intercom in the store to announce blue-light specials or to call more checkers to come up front. They would use the intercom to tell everyone it was time to go clock-out after a night shift. Well, I had to work on Christmas Eve and was in the back straightening up my area when I noticed that it seemed really quiet. I decided to walk to the front of the store and noticed the manager was starting to lock up the doors before leaving. He noticed me and remarked, "What are you doing here? Everyone has left -- you were almost locked in!" Apparently he had decided to let everyone go earlier than usual since it was Christmas Eve, but hadn't announced it over the intercom. This was way before cell phones and I wouldn't have had anyone's personal phone numbers -- only their work numbers. I was embarrassed, but very relieved that I didn't actually get locked into Kmart on Christmas Eve.
• When I was on my mission we were teaching a Deaf man about the law of chastity. The ASL sign for "sex" is very similar to the sign for "shave" (as in shaving a beard). We came back a week or so later and this man had started to grow out a beard. We commented on it and he said (in sign language), "Well, you told me that I wasn't supposed to "shave" until after marriage!" Woops! We then explained to him that he wasn't supposed to have sex before marriage -- shaving was perfectly fine!

With Wendy's first funny/embarrassing ... that brought up MANY barfing Blackham memories that are also only funny in retrospect. When Coop was in third grade, he was SO excited to go to the Jazz game. We had the tickets from his Junior Jazz, so his team would be there, and Gray was also bringing Landon and Colton (as Colton has his two team tickets too). Unfortunately, Coop came down with the flu, and threw up all over his desk at school. So he had to stay home, and Keaton took Coop's ticket. As they were at the arena,  Grayson was buying some concessions when he got a tap on his shoulder and someone asked "is that your kid?" and it was Keaton, throwing up into a garbage can right by him. So Gray brought Keaton home, leaving Landon and Colton to catch a ride home with a neighbor. Gray had just arrived home with Keaton when he got a call. Now Landon was sick. So Gray had to head back downtown to get Landon, and poor Colton had to come too, because Gray didn't dare leave him (I don't think Colton ever got sick ... that time. Easter of 2013 was another story, when all five boys got sick at the same time. We didn't have enough buckets!)

Fun Photo Activity - Family History

Last week, the family history project challenge was to find out how your face fit into your family tree ... and there were a lot of fun entries. This week, the challenge was to go to familysearch.org, in the "activities" section (the same place the "compare a face" challenge was located) but this week, it was "Picture Your Heritage" where you can insert YOUR face into historical photos. 

Here are the girls ... can you recognize who is who?

To give a little hint/help, here's who participated: Janika, Janelle, Jaiden and Jenna from the Jensen family. Derek's girls Aniston, Layla and Noelle. Shane's girls Adria and Rella. Kylie, Corin's wife sent a submission too (Grandma would love for the older, married kids to participate!) As just 10 names are listed, and there are twelve photos, someone submitted more than one. You can see that certain poses were popular!

There wasn't quite as much participation from the guys ... but there were some great shots!

Do you need names at least to guess who is who? Uncle Chris, and his boys Kaden, Corin, Camden and Cayson. Nope ... Kellin didn't submit one, but I sure thought he did! Calder, Keaton, Cooper and Josh also have faces featured.

This activity worked best using a phone or tablet. It needs to access your camera so it can fill in your face (unlike the previous "compare-a-face activity which also allowed you to upload an existing photograph). You can "see" your face fitting into the image, and then adjust the brightness to try to make it match the picture. 

I'll admit ... I didn't know WHERE to put this one!

Just in case you couldn't tell, that's silly Uncle Derek!

In addition to participation awards, there were additional awards for quickest submission, funniest, and most realistic. 

What would your votes be?

Should I re-post the pictures with the names attached, or make you go to the Dropbox folder (these are in the year 2021 folder, labeled with names). 

I tried out the challenge originally, but didn't submit any for the contest ... 

but it was rather fun to play around with. 

If you are signed into Family Search, then it will match your last name up with nationalities that match up with your name. You can choose to go through all the different cultures if you want ... or as Derek displayed, switch sexes too. There were photos for men, women, and even some other group photos, that give you additional picture poses to choose from.

This was a fun photo activity for family history!

Memorable Memes ~ Bountiful Bernie

 

Back in January, Derek posted this picture to Facebook. Showing off their new chair, and a certain special someone sitting in it. While it will likely fade into a forgotten memory, Bernie Sanders - sitting cross-legged with unique mittens on ... was the subject of MANY memes following the inauguration of President Joe Biden January 2021.

Here's just a small sampling of what was invading the internet ...

 

Photoshopping Bernie into classic scenes with hilarious results!

... and a few more!

Mitten memes ... until the next big thing comes along!

Chandelier

Mom/Margie and Dad/Lamar have a huge chandelier in the entryway of the Havenhill home.

Over the years, dust and dirt collect, and it's time for a cleaning.

Did you know there is a song called "Chandelier"? It's sung by Sia.

 Did you know that Derek has a Sia-type wig?

 

You Tube - Derek Cleans the Chandelier

Now you know ...

Mom wrote in an email on Feb 8, 2020 "Derek came yesterday and cleaned our big chandelier---the method worked well spraying it with a special cleaner with dropcloth below. Sparkles now!" I don't know if she was aware of the music video until a bit later!

Birthday Upside-Down Cake

 

In 2015, the Westra Clan was doing a good job of meeting each month to celebrate birthdays and just get together and enjoy each other's company. Westras and Waffles (you can see the waffles in the photos above). When there were birthdays, there was also cake. November birthdays are Adria, Margie, Jen, Calder, Grayson, Rick and Mitch. The cake from Sam's Club, white with buttercream frosting is a favorite of Mom/Margie's. Jen wanted to get a picture, and tilted it (just slightly) for a better camera view when, whoops! It slipped right off and fell upside-down onto the counter! You may have heard of pineapple-upside-down cake, which is something that it supposed to have an upside-down issue. The poor cake here didn't look so good ... but hey, it still tasted yummy ... ish. There was lots of laughter with the minor food fiasco.

Derek shared his view of the event ...

Mom had a couple other food mess-up memories ... she mentioned a time when she and Dad were living in Richland. She made a pumpkin pie and then accidentally dumped it upside-down on the open oven door.  Another upside-down upset had Aunt Lorrie's cheesecake right onto Grandma Norman's carpet (Mom/Margie had to claim responsibility for this one as well). 

What other food fiascos are out there in Westra history? Jen forgetting about the toffee cooking on the stove and filling the kitchen with smoke. The gingersnaps that Shane made that didn't bake ... leading Mom and Dad to buy a new oven, just to try and bake the dough to the same effect (it hadn't been the oven after all!)  If you have additional memories, write them in the comments, or text/email them to Jen and they'll be added in an update. You KNOW there have to be more fun food stories out there!

... and Happy November birthdays, even upside-down!