Jeffrey's Thoughts

Perfect Match Season 2 Review

I was on Netflix and got recommended to watch a show called Perfect Match. I had not watched season 1, but season 2 just came out and it was getting promoted to me. So, I started watching instead of finishing the kdrama Queen of Tears.

I thought that this show was very entertaining. I liked that I recognized some of the cast from previous shows and was curious about others on the show. Of course all the people were attractive, but it was interesting to see that people were getting stereotyped based on the dating show they were on. For example, people from Love is Blind were seen as marriage minded whereas the others not so much. The challenges and the ability for the cast to go into the boardroom and choose who came onto the show was a neat concept. Like instead of the showrunners having to do the calculus on who would bring the most drama to the people at the house, why not have the people at the house do that to themselves.

Do I think that this show actually wanted people to find their “perfect match”? Not really. Do I regret spending the 10+ hours watching the show? Not at all. I was hooked and the editing at the end to reveal what actually went down at the cenote was the icing on top.

Spider man multiverse thought

In New York, my roommate and I accrued some experience with dealing with cockroaches. Fortunately, they didn’t appear that often, but each time we were able to either kill them or get them out of the apartment eventually. Recently, I killed a cockroach and I thought, Hmm, what if there was a spiderman cockroach? Like there was a spiderman pig in the multiverse, so a spiderman cockroach wouldn’t be too far fetched. Then, I thought that a spiderman cockroach would probably be pretty hated from the good guys and the bad guys.

Some food that I made with my girlfriend

Game idea – Emergency room

I’ve been playing Overcooked on the Switch for a bit and it is fun, but a bit hectic. I was thinking this type of scenario could be similar to an emergency room. Like you could be one of the doctors and then you get patients every so often and you have to treat common cases. And then there might be “boss” levels where they have a complicated case. I’ve played hospital / medical video games before, but I don’t think any of them were as fun and addictive like Overcooked. So it might be cool if there was a medical genre game with this type of gameplay.

Story idea – stories as currency

I would say that telling stories is an art and is already a type of social currency – people gravitate towards those who can tell a good story. Storytellers who write books, host podcasts, sell goods, and more can also make a good living.

However, for this idea, I was thinking more about daily life. What if I had to tell a story to the cashier in order to buy my groceries for the week. And if the story wasn’t “expensive” enough, I had to tell additional stories. Or what if I needed to tell a story to rent an apartment? In this world, maybe the more interesting and unique stories are worth a lot. Imagination or strong memories in addition to strong speaking abilities would be highly valued. Perhaps there would be a story trading system or perhaps people would be secretive with their ideas, similar to a great startup idea. The value of the story would depend on the person though – I might find a story about superheroes to be worth a lot, but someone else may value the same story to be worthless.

I don’t think I have enough stories to survive in this type of world, so there might need to be a fallback to the existing regions’ currency, like the US Dollar, Euro, etc.

Story idea – living clothes

What if I told you that clothes, like the shirt on your back, was actually alive? What if I told you the sock that just happened to get lost in the wash didn’t actually get lost, but ran away? If you don’t believe me, then you’d probably be right. But, if clothes were alive, just like any other animal in the world, then that’d be a pretty crazy world. What would I feed my shirt? What should we do about all the discarded and abandoned clothes? Would washing whites with colors be a form of animal abuse? What if my plain white tee doesn’t identify with being tie-dyed? I don’t think I would want to live in that sort of world, but I think if clothes were alive and revolted against humans, I think humans would have a difficult time winning. Wearing clothes is the social norm in most societies and who knows how many more clothes there are than humans. Also, clothes might have some parasitic abilities and might have the ability to take over their hosts. Perhaps nudist colonies are on to something. Perhaps all the talk about climate change, pandemics, the economy, gender wars, and so on are all a distraction and we should really be focusing on what to do when the clothes attack.

Story idea – kung fu movie

I had an dream about a kung fu movie a month ago after visiting some exhibitions of Bruce Lee and Jin Yong. The main concept was that the characters were in a world where physical disputes are illegal and enforcement is immediate. However, it is possible to bend the rules if the disputes start from an argument over food. So, there are two rival gangs that meet for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and they both are polite and start eating together. Then, at the “signal”, the henchmen throw some food at each other and then the gang fight begins. All the people at the table start fighting besides two people – one person from each gang. They are the designated “eaters”. If the food on the table runs out or if no one is eating, the police will crack down on both gangs. So, the two “eaters” need to ensure that no one is arrested for the fight. If they think that their side is winning, they may want to order more food to ensure the victory. If they think their side is losing, they may want to finish the food quicker so then the fight ceases. The “loser” of the fight not only loses the dispute, but they need to pay the bill for the food and damages.

Invention idea – transparent airplane luggage compartments

My default method of transportation when traveling to foreign countries is flying on an airplane. I only fly economy and each time I board the plane, I have to put extra effort to ensure that my carry-on luggage will be able to fit in the overhead compartments. Typically, there is just enough room for everyone’s luggage. However for the packed flights, the luggage tetris takes a bit of time to complete, with flight attendants opening and closing numerous different compartments to find a suitable spot. If it was possible to have the closed overhead compartments to be slightly transparent, then it might speed up this process. Perhaps it is not a big enough deal to worry about optimizing, but in a recent flight, I swear they spent at least five to ten minutes trying to find a spot. If people are uncomfortable with seeing the luggage during the flight, there could be a function to turn the compartments opaque.

Taxi drivers during vacation – March 2024

During my vacation in March, we took a bunch of taxis for getting from place to place. My parents enjoy talking to the drivers, so I was able to learn more about some of them

1. Retired sniper turned golf course co-owner, who works as a taxi driver on his free time

In Singapore, we met a taxi driver who served in the Singapore military and won a number of awards. One of the awards he was most proud of was awarded to just 100 people. He was trained to be a sniper and a demolitionist, and he didn’t see combat when active. He mentioned that he could shoot a coin from 300 meters away and that he once got arrested from a shooting range in Vietnam because he was too accurate and was a potential risk to society.

2. Taxi driver who listens to One Direction “Live While We’re Young” on repeat

When going to the train station in Taiwan, we got into a taxi with a guy who was playing One Direction. A few of the taxi drivers in Taiwan and Singpore played Western pop music, but this one in particular seemed to only play this song as it played at least twice during the trip

3. Taxi driver who is an extra cautious driver and left the windows open while it was raining

I’m not sure what this guy was thinking, but it was raining and he was driving really slow. This guy kept stopping every few seconds and took his time turning, changing lanes, and going straight. Thankfully, we did not get into an accident, but I did get a little wet due to the open window. I was thinking maybe the window was open to increase visibility, but all the other cars on the road seemed to be driving just fine.

4. Taxi driver / tour guide who met his wife on the street while riding a motorcycle

We hired a driver to take us to a few places in Taiwan, and during the trip, he talked about how he met his wife. When he was younger, he was riding his motorcycle and saw a beautiful girl walking across the street. So, he pulled up and asked for her number. She mentioned that she was a mother of three and refused. But, I think he was persistent and convinced her that if they run into each other again, then it would be fate and she should go on a date with him. Later, he teamed up with his friend to deduce which streets would be the most likely for him to see her again. He was able to see her again, they went on a date, and eventually got married. It turns out she lied about having three children when he first met her, but now they are happily married with three children.