Tag: cool

AI images: San Diego 100 years in the future!

What will the city of San Diego look like 100 years in the future? I was curious how today’s generative AI might picture it.

I used the prompt “San Diego 100 years in the future” with the AI Drawing Assist on a Samsung Galaxy phone. The images that were produced were rather startling!

Futuristic buildings, exotic elevated walkways and new modes of transportation…but how realistic is it to believe such radical transformations could be made in only one hundred years? (Um…anti-gravity?)

Nevertheless, this is pretty cool!

I see identifiable aspects of the present city skyline are incorporated into images, as well as San Diego Bay. Notice how certain recognizable buildings are arbitrarily positioned or weirdly altered by the artificial intelligence?

I love how lush green vegetation sprouts everywhere including the roofs and sides of many buildings. I love how curvy and absurdly complicated some of the conjectured architecture is!

(Earlier this year, I performed a similar experiment. I used the term “Balboa Park at sunset” to produce generative AI images in the same way. The results were bizarre. This is what I got!)

Okay–now for today’s experiment. AI draws the future of San Diego…

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Lowriders depart, so that Ferraris can arrive!

Half a dozen lowriders exhibited at the San Diego Automotive Museum have begun their departure. The exhibition was called Low and Slow: A Celebration of Lowriders. But now room on the museum’s floor is being made for fast, shiny Ferraris!

The new exhibit, opening on August 30th, 2025, will concern the evolution of Ferraris–from street to track. I learned sports cars to be displayed include a Ferrari 360, 550, 430, 308 and more!

I love how the San Diego Automotive Museum frequently changes vehicles in their 17,000 square foot exhibit space. Every time I visit, I find something new!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Students speed paint at Comic-Con Museum!

Super cool! These great comic book paintings at the Comic-Con Museum were created by students from Westview High School!

Students of Westview art teacher Keith Opstad produced these speed paintings during the San Diego Comic-Con Museum’s First Annual Educator’s Night in 2024.

These really are speed paintings? Made while teachers from around San Diego watched? Wow–that’s truly amazing!

Iron Man, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Batman make a splash on a wall inside the museum’s second floor Makerspace.

I noticed that today, in the Makerspace, guests could use beads to create a starry sky and constellation, then tell a story about it! The activity is called Constellations Across the WHOniverse. Why? An epic Doctor Who exhibition is now showing at the Comic-Con Museum!

UPDATE!

During my next visit to the Comic-Con Museum, I noticed Superman had appeared, too!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

New model train fun at the La Mesa Depot!

Look what has arrived at the old La Mesa Depot. A super cool model train layout!

During my last visit to the La Mesa Depot several years ago, Station Master Timothy was building a new layout in the historic depot’s baggage room. It has been replaced by a detailed, fully functioning HO scale layout with small town charm and mountain scenery!

Will kids love it?

Yes!

The La Mesa Depot, which can’t be missed at the corner of Spring Street and La Mesa Boulevard, is free to the public. Its doors open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm, and on Saturdays from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.

There’s plenty to explore inside the depot, including an old telegraph, ticket window and the passenger waiting room. Outside, visitors can walk around the depot’s steam locomotive, refrigerator (reefer) car and caboose at any time.

Many years ago I walked around the La Mesa Depot and took photographs. Apart from the cool new model train layout, it appears little has changed. You can see my past photos of the depot here.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Sunday walk around San Diego Comic-Con!

Enjoy another collection of cool photographs. I took these while walking around downtown San Diego on Sunday morning, the final day of Comic-Con 2025.

Yes, Comic-Con on a Sunday begins to wind down. I noticed this year that an offsite activation or two had already disappeared overnight. The remaining offsites close earlier on Sunday. Time for many out-of-towners to call it a Con and start heading home.

The cool thing is, local San Diego families love to come out on Sunday to enjoy the fun sights, cosplay and remaining offsites. It’s like a free visit to a sprawling amusement park. There’s still is a whole bunch of excitement!

Anyone at all can participate. That makes Comic-Con very special. It’s one big reason why so many in San Diego love Comic-Con.

You might notice from my photos I circled the San Diego Convention Center a couple times. As always, I’m reluctant to see another Comic-Con vanish. It goes by much too quickly. But there’s always next year to look forward to, right?

To everyone I met, you were awesome! Perhaps I’ll see you next year!

Now it’s time for a few days rest–then onward to more Cool San Diego Sights! Stay tuned!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Creative fun at San Diego Comic-Con!

San Diego Comic-Con in 2025 is just as fun and amazing as ever. Everywhere you go, unbounded creativity. That’s probably what I love most about it.

Human creativity absolutely blooms at Comic-Con. Cosplayers imagine what they can be and become it. Actors play roles that can be utterly crazy. Visitors easily step into fantastic, imaginary worlds. Artists imagine what might be and make it real, right before our eyes.

Walk around downtown San Diego during Comic-Con and expect the unexpected!

I really get excited when I encounter artists who are striving to make their mark in the world. They put their art out there fearlessly. And the cool thing is, everyone loves it.

Local San Diego anime and digital artist Phil produces Umbridled Ambition!

Check out his cool comic by clicking here! Check out his Instagram here!

Manga and anime artist Thomas Fates is a Sketchin Hero! His goal is to have a career as an artist, to create and tell stories full time to give people something to look forward to!

Check out his work by clicking here!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Godzilla painted at BAIT for Comic-Con!

Check out this brand new mural painted at the BAIT store in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter! Godzilla has arrived just in time for Comic-Con 2025!

I spied the new artwork as I walked up Fifth Avenue this morning. As of this moment I don’t know the artist, or anything more about it.

I see on the BAIT Instagram they’ll have at Tokidoki brand popup at their store during Comic Con from July 23rd until the 27th.

Cool!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Cool graphics from Alien: Earth at Comic-Con!

I love these super cool graphics on the fence of the FX offsite at San Diego Comic-Con 2025. They promote the upcoming original series Alien: Earth.

It appears planet Earth is in serious trouble!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

More cool stuff outside Comic-Con: 2 days to go!

More and more cool stuff is showing up in downtown San Diego, with only two days to go until Preview Night of Comic-Con 2025!

I took another walk this Monday morning through the Gaslamp Quarter and around the San Diego Convention Center. Hundreds of workers are all over the place, preparing building wraps and offsite activations. A couple of offsites have newly appeared this morning, too!

Here we go!

The Fantastic Four/ Google Play offsite is becoming ever more amazing. They’ve been working on it for about a week. Whatever the heck it is, it will be sure to draw a crowd to the grassy area next to the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter!

Peanuts has begun moving into their usual location on Martin Luther King Jr. Promenade. It’s the 75th Anniversary of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and gang!

And right next door, the Doctor Who offsite promises to be amazing, too. I saw them moving tons of stuff from BBC Studios into this activation the other day.

Workers were beginning to set up an activation beside MLK Promenade at First Avenue. I learned it will concern Coca Cola and Star Wars!

I made my way behind the San Diego Convention Center.

The Abbott Elementary Block Party has made a tiny bit of progress since yesterday…

The King of the Hill offsite now has their water tower!

More activity spotted beyond the fence…

The Brawl Stars barge, location of Starr Park, is looking ever more cool. What’s inside Mike’s Mine?

A bit more activity at Adult Swim…

I’m afraid the FX offsite is almost entirely blocked by fences now. Oh, well.

As I walked to the Hilton San Diego Bayfront parking garage, some guys were having trouble hanging a long banner on the structure’s corner…

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…

The Harbor Drive side of the parking structure has a cool new banner! It promotes Digimon Story: Time Stranger.

Building wraps are now going up on Petco Park. I recognized ABC’s The Rookie…

This spot on the grass near the Omni hotel will feature a billboard, pointing fans to the Brawl Stars offsite behind the convention center…

I see MTS has most of the Comic-Con trolley wraps now on the Green Line, which passes the convention center. Here’s one…

With only a couple more days to finish the Disney+ offsite, Percy Jackson and the Olympians is busy transforming Gaslamp Square…

The Lounge of Paramount+ is also preparing for San Diego Comic-Con’s opening. I got a peek inside. Popcorn, anyone?

Lastly, Kaluú Restaurant & Bar on Fifth Avenue is being transformed into Alice in Wonderland: Down The Rabbit Hole!

Watch for more updates!

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Star Wars prop auction at Comic-Con Museum!

How would you like to own an original Stormtrooper stunt helmet that was screen-used in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope? It’s one of six known.

Or how would you like to own an original lightsaber hilt prop used for the portrayal of Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace? Yes, that double-bladed lightsaber that impaled Qui-Gon Jinn.

Or how would you like to own an original prop droid hand worn by Anthony Davis in his portrayal of C-3PO in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back? That would be undeniably cool!

These and other rare Star Wars props can be bid upon between now and July 27th, 2025.

The auction items are now on display at the Comic-Con Museum in San Diego’s Balboa Park. They’re part of an exhibition titled Echoes From the Galaxy.

Even if you have no intention to place a bid, Star Wars fans need to visit the museum just to see some important bits of cinematic history!

Want to learn more? Perhaps place your own bid? Here’s the Julien’s Auctions webpage concerning this special auction.

You’ll see a very wide variety of Star Wars memorabilia, from posters to patches to signed photos. And, of course, some amazing one-of-a-kind collectibles!

The live auction will take place at 10 am on July 27th, 2025, which is the final day of San Diego Comic-Con.

Some of the cool things on display…

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!