Jeffrey's Thoughts

Finding unclaimed property

On social media, I saw a post mentioning that one way to get money is to look through your state’s database of unclaimed property and checking to see if anything shows up for your name. If there is unclaimed property for you, then you can claim it for free and they’ll send it to you. So, I checked the website for Virginia https://trs.virginia.gov/Unclaimed-Property and saw that I had unclaimed property. I put in a claim and it was approved. I’m currently waiting for the money to be sent over, but it seemed pretty straightforward and legitimate. I also read that there are other websites that can be checked that aren’t state specific like https://missingmoney.com and https://unclaimed.org that can help find money as well. I checked the websites for a few people I know and saw some matches.

If this post helps you find some money, please comment and let me know! I also wouldn’t mind a donation 🙂

Creating a video with Sora and Suno

I recently posted about creating music with Suno and I learned about Sora, the video generation app from OpenAI, a few months back. So, I wanted to create something that combines their power together. One of the first things I thought of was a lowfi music video, similar to the popular lowfi girl videos on YouTube. So, I created songs on Suno with a similar vibe and then created a clip of a lowfi boy and stitched them together in iMovie to create a video. I uploaded it on YouTube and I think it turned out not bad.

Suno – AI Music Generating Platform Review

I recently heard about Suno when listening to a business podcast and I was curious about how easy it was to create AI generated music. So, I installed the app and created an account using the free version. Within a minute, I was able to generate a relatively good sounding song with minimal effort. Here’s one of the songs I created https://suno.com/s/CAY55ggjXErbxD0r

I don’t think that platform is going to destroy the music industry, but similar to the other AI tools that have come out, it lowers the barrier of entry tremendously. Searching through some of the generated songs on the platform, it is clear that it is quite powerful. Like some of the songs sound very good. I’m assuming that the really good songs are using a good AI model plus good prompting and a bit of luck, but not sure. One thing to note is that in the free version, they say you can’t use the songs for commercial use, but in the paid versions, you can.

What book am I reading right now?

What book are you reading right now?

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Etsy

I am currently reading a digital book that I created called What do I want to be when I grow up?. This is a coloring book for kids and it has black and white illustrations of various different professions. The reason why I made this is because I saw so many online gurus saying that I should sell digital products to get consistent income, so I thought I might as well try. I used AI to create the illustrations and then used Canva to piece everything together. Please check it out and download it for your kids! It is also available to purchase on Amazon! #ad

Below is a sneak peek of a few of the pages in the book

Do I trust my instincts?

Do you trust your instincts?

My instincts are rather hit or miss, but one that was a hit was my decision to buy new shoes. My previous walking shoes were on their last legs and were causing my feet to hurt when walking to work. Then, I bought the Nike Revolution 8 Running Shoe off of Amazon and my commute is now a lot more enjoyable. The shoe is light and heavily cushioned. When I first put them on, my feet felt instant relief. However, the shoe is a bit tight for me since I usually buy wide shoes.

If you are looking for new walking shoes, seriously consider the Nike Revolution 8 . #ad

Pleasant surprise in urinal

I was at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport the other day and I happened to go to the bathroom. To my surprise, in the urinal, there was a soccer/football goal. I used the urinal like normal, but I also had an objective – to score as many goals as possible. I thought it was a funny, yet practical way to encourage me to aim into the urinal.

Here’s a link to the product sold on Amazon if you are interested in buying it for your business

WestLake performance in Hangzhou

I went to a performance at the WestLake in Hangzhou and it was really wonderful. There were 10 songs and there were a bunch of performers and singers on the water as well as a lightshow. The show moves between each song pretty quickly and all the performers were really good. It felt as if I was watching a halftime show for the Superbowl or something. This show was originally created for the 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit, but it was so well received that they continued to have the show for the general public. If you go, you may need to dress for the weather – it was pretty chilly when I watched it.

Scenery at the end of the performance as people started to leave

One thing that surprised me was a machine they used to add different scents during the performance. To me, it seemed like some of the scents were random, but some of them seemed to align with the music and dancing. This machine is built by Scentrealm and it is the first time I’ve used something like this before. It’ll be cool to see if adding special scents to performances will catch on in other places as well.

Scent Player machine used in the performance

What is good about having a pet?

What is good about having a pet?

There are tons of reasons why having a pet is good. For example, pets can be good companions. When I was growing up, my dog was one of my best friends. We spent a lot of time hanging out together. Pets can help build a routine and responsibility. I was one of the main caretakers of my dog, so I had to take him out regularly and clean up after him.

How do I manage screen time for myself?

How do you manage screen time for yourself?

I started using a screen time app timer, which is built into the mobile phone that I use. I only use the app timer for social media applications. I used to have a pretty strict timer, like 10 minutes, but I’ve increased the timer to 1.5 hours for some of the apps. So, you could probably say that the screen time management is not working that well 😅

What podcasts am I listening to?

What podcasts are you listening to?

My podcast of choice is the Morning Brew podcast. I like learning about what is trending in the news with a business slant. I’ve listened to other similar podcasts such as The Best One Yet, but I come back to Morning Brew. I usually listen during my daily commute or in the gym. A pretty light listen and good for some conversation topics. One thing that I don’t like is that there is so much information that I often forget parts of what was mentioned after the episode is complete. Or that might just be my short term memory.