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.
Travel photos
I went on a vacation with my parents to a few places in Asia. Here are some of the pictures of the trip.
Singapore
Taiwan
China
Welcome to Sandal-ri Review
I got sick recently so I wanted to watch something while I was recovering. So, I opened up Netflix and remembered that a girl on a dating app mentioned that her brother was recommended “Welcome to Sandal-ri”1. I started watching the show and there were some familiar cast members. The main lead, Ji Chang-wook, was in a few kdramas I’ve liked in the past and similar story with a couple of the main supporting characters, Kim Mi-kyung and Lee Jae-won2.
The story is about a village in Jeju island called Samdal-ri and a complicated love story between a guy named Cho Yong-Pil and and a girl named Cho Sam-dal. Their mothers were best friends and they had both of the children on the same day. While chatting about the future, they promised that they would raise each other’s children as their own and that the children were soulmates bound to get married together. However, a terrible accident occurs that severs the the mothers’ bond for good.
The kdrama skips from present to past frequently, but it is mainly set in present day Korea where Cho Sam-dal is a reputable photographer that is preparing for an important exhibition for a fashion magazine in Seoul. A couple scandals emerge that rock her to her core, causing her to flee back to her hometown. The drama slowly reveals the pain that she and the two families have dealt with throughout the years and how Cho Yong-Pil and Cho Sam-dal work together to mend their families’ relationship and to clear her name.
I thought that this was a solid kdrama. The cast was well picked. I thought that the girl playing the younger sister of Cho Sam-dal was so pretty. There were a bunch of great shots of the ocean and the sky and the landscape. I’ve seen at least a couple kdramas about Jeju Island and this one had similar focuses – a focus on protecting the environment, a focus on haenyeos, a focus on fresh seafood. One thing I appreciated about this kdrama over the others was how the story kept tying back to this Jeju Island village. I feel like the others touched on a surface level or snorkeling level of Jeju Island culture, but this one went a bit deeper. I thought that this kdrama would be a bit more funny and lighthearted, but there were a lot of heavy topics. Perhaps that is part of the reason I was so invested in the story and why I finished the sixteen episode series in two days.
- Now that I’m looking at the receipts, the brother actually recommended “Castaway Diva”, so that might affect the review haha âŠī¸
- Now that I’m looking at these actors’ IMDb pages, I mistook a bunch of the actors. I thought that Ji Chang-wook was the guy from “The King” kdrama, but that was Lee Min Ho and I thought that Lee Jae-won was the guy from “It’s Okay to Not Be Okay”, but that was Oh Jung-se âŠī¸
Singles Inferno Season 3 Review
Seasons 1 and 2 were entertaining, so when season 3 dropped, I had to tune in. The people in this season were very attractive, and some of them had really fun personalities. One of the guys, Gwan-hee, basically carried the entertainment value of the whole show. The other guys had some love interests, but they were rather straightforward, liking one or two of the girls. Gwan-hee was weighing his options between basically all the girls until the very last episode. Even though he got on the girls’ nerves, he was charismatic and effortlessly bantered with the girls. Even though he was the main character of this season, I think that Jin-seok and Min-kyu were my favorites out of the guys. It was unfortunate to see Ha-bin and Won-ik get so little air time. I’m sure they are good people and what not, but it seems like they got overshadowed by the other members of the show and was not able to develop a strong connection with any of the girls. Maybe the production crew did them dirty, but they seemed more boring than I would’ve thought.
In this season, I think each girl had a good amount of air time and developed a love interest. It’s too bad that there were multiple girls going for the same guy, but I feel like in dating reality TV shows, that’s bound to happen. I was surprised to learn that so many of the girls were Miss Korea contestants.
With this season so entertaining, I find it hard to believe how the producers will be able to top it next season.
Superpower idea – putting food in your stomach
I’ve had this idea for a while, but wouldn’t it be cool if you could put food in your stomach without having to eat it or use a tube. You grab the food, and then open your belly like a locker room locker, and then put your food in. Maybe this power should be called having a locker in your belly đ¤ˇââī¸. Anyways, it would be pretty convenient for eating faster or just storing things in general
Jeffrey's Thoughts 