I read on the news a couple months back that there were instances where ChatGPT would hallucinate and make up “facts” that never happened, such as court cases and studies. I thought it would be interesting if these “facts” were actually real, but they were actually sourced from an alternative dimension. Like the Generative AI was so advanced that it was able to scour the internet across different dimensions to find the exact information you desired.
Superpower idea – historian
If it was possible for you to get a history of an object by touching it, would you want it? I probably would get information overload unless there was a way to turn the power on and off. It would be super useful in crime scene investigations and just understanding what happened in history.
I imagine that the experience is that the power turns on if I touch the object without gloves on or something similar to that. If I take off my gloves and touch the object, then I’ll faint and enter a dreamlike state where I’m reliving what the object has gone through. Ideally, I’ll be able to specify a time range, be able to fast forward and rewind – similar to watching a YouTube video. After I’m done watching, I’ll wake up.
Animal languages
You know how for people, language changes over time? Some languages rise and fall. People study languages in school. Communities develop new words, and old words are repurposed for the times.
I was wondering if the same thing happened in the other animals in the animal kingdom. Could a dog in the 1500s be able to communicate with a dog in 2023? How many different languages are there for a species? Perhaps body language is universal and is generally understood in any time period, but it would be interesting if the dogs, cats, fish, etc. developed slang terms and modified their language drastically as compared to a few hundred or a few thousand years ago.
Superpower idea – swap places
I think it would be a cool power to be able to swap physical locations with anyone in the world. Like if I’m in New York and I need to go to London, I’d find someone in London that wants to be in New York and then swap places. It would be really convenient for travel and the other person gets a free trip as well. Of course, you could use the power without consent of the other person, but that would be erring towards villain territory.
Story ideas – introduction
Over the past few years, I’ve come up with some story ideas that I think would be neat. I might end up writing short stories for them, but I haven’t put in the time to do so. Anyways, I wanted to share some of these ideas, so if other people are able to write a story about them, they can. All I ask is that you give me some credit if you do so.
Video streaming services thoughts
I’ve talked to a few people about the strikes that are going on about actors and writers not getting paid enough. I’m not sure how any of the deals are structured between the video streaming services and the production companies and between the production companies and the actors and writers. From what I’ve heard, residuals from TV shows and movies were a reliable source of income. But nowadays, less people watch TV and residuals don’t seem to exist in the video streaming services. After giving it some thought, I feel like residuals could definitely be implemented in the video streaming services.
For one, the music streaming services already have a model to pay out content creators based on how often the content is played. If that is too simplistic, then a different approach could be figuring out how much time a user spends on content and distributing a percentage of their subscription fees or ad revenue to those creators. I think that the video streaming services have the data they need to implement this type of system. If not, they could implement it if they desired. It would definitely be a bit more complicated than the current system and the video streaming services would not earn as much profit. But, it may be fairer to the people involved in the production of the TV shows and movies.
Scenario 1: I pay a $10 monthly subscription to Netflix and I watch 1 hour of Love Island and 2 hours of Indian Matchmaking for the month. After Netflix takes a $1 cut from the subscription fee, the Love Island production company would receive $3 from me and the Indian Matchmaking production company would receive $6 from me.
Scenario 2: I watch TV shows and movies for free, but they have ads. I watch 2 hours of movie A and 2 hours of TV show B for a month. Let’s say that there is an average value of an ad and let’s say that it is equal to $0.10. I get shown 2 ads in movie A and 3 ads in TV show B. That sums up to be $0.50 for the month. After the video streaming service takes a $0.05 cut, the movie A production company would receive $0.18 from me and the TV show production company would receive $0.27 from me.
I had a brief thought that I would start a video streaming service with this type of payout scheme, but then I thought that I would need to figure out a differentiating factor for the user experience. This would be good for the content creators, but I don’t think it would make much of a difference for the people watching the videos. And besides, who needs any more streaming services to subscribe to, amirite?
I wonder how YouTube and other video platforms handle payouts to content creators. I know that the content creators get paid based off of ads and other factors, but if the users viewing the content are on a paid subscription that doesn’t have ads, do the content creators get paid the same or a different amount for that viewer?
Are there people who are good at guessing how people look based on their voice?
Whenever I’m on the train or bus, I unintentionally eavesdrop on people’s conversations. There are numerous times where I’ve imagined the people looking a certain way by the sound of their voice, but when I later see what they look like, I’m a bit confused that there is a difference between my imagination and real life.
I realize this must be pretty similar to when you talk to a stranger on the phone or the Love is Blind dating show.
So, I wonder if people have developed a skill where they can accurately depict how someone looks based on their voice – that would be an interesting super power.
Barry’s Bootcamp Review
Through work, I got a complimentary class to Barry’s Bootcamp. I haven’t tried it out before, so I was interested in seeing how it was. I assumed that it would be a similar style to solidcore and my coworker mentioned that it was a bunch of running and some weights. Looking online, I saw that Barry’s is a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout class.
I arrived to the class a little bit late, but was welcomed in by the people at the reception. I didn’t really understand their terminology about which spot I was supposed to take and the difference between Treadmill, Floor, or Double Floor. It turns out, the classes are broken into 4 sessions. 1 Treadmill, 1 Floor, 1 Treadmill, 1 Floor. If you are designated as a Treadmill spot when booking, you start on treadmill. Otherwise you start on the floor exercises with a couple dumbbells. Double Floor means that you just do the floor exercises for the entire class. Each of the treadmills and the floor stations are marked with numbers, so if you are on treadmill 1, you rotate to floor station 1 for the next session. I dropped my stuff off at a locker, the lady at the reception gave me a towel, and I headed into the class.
The floor exercises consisted of various exercises with the dumbbells and other legs exercises. Today I did lunges, bicep curls, chest press, rows, and a few more exercises. There are numerous types of classes which target different body parts, so the floor exercises probably vary per class. The treadmill workout consisted of varying different running speeds and inclines for short intervals. For example, 30 seconds at speed 7, then 30 seconds jog, then 30 seconds of sprinting, then 1 minute of recovery.
I found that Barry’s was a good workout. There were a lot of people attending this class, so it seems pretty popular. The class consisted of men and women, ranging from 20s to 40s. The peoples’ bodies ranged between an average body to a really fit body. I didn’t see anyone that seemed overweight or fat, but of course I’ve only attended a single class so it was a pretty small sample size. The instructions from the trainer was clear, but due to the fact that he was giving instructions to both the people on the treadmills and the floor exercises at the same time, it was easy for me to get distracted. In both the floor exercises and the treadmill, there were opportunities to reduce or increase the difficulty level, which was nice to see. At the end of the class, there was a short stretching session and the trainer gave some words of encouragement on how well the class did and how they can confidently face the work week. As I left, I dropped the towel into a bin and grabbed my belongings before leaving. There was a section of the building where you could buy merchandise and drinks and I noticed that there were a few people who ordered smoothies beforehand so that they would be ready right after the workout.
Comparing Barry’s and solidcore, I would say that both of them have a similar atmosphere. Dim lights, loud music, a trainer shouting instructions and giving encouragement. The main differences are the exercises performed in each class.
The one standout thing about Barry’s for me was the quality of the treadmills. I have never run on a treadmill that was so smooth as this treadmill. The changes of incline and the changes in speed were handled really well by the machine.
Like the other fitness class options out there, Barry’s can be a bit pricey per class – at least $30 per class.
My fitness goals have changed a bit since I started this blog. The various fitness advice videos that I’ve seen on YouTube has mentioned that sessions of HIIT are good complements to building muscle and losing fat. I may try to introduce more HIIT into my weekly workout routine, but it is relatively packed at the moment.
Etsy Store Setup Review
I went to a pet adoption event a few weeks back and I briefly talked to a person who fostered a dog. They mentioned that they created business cards for the dog and handed them out to people in a nearby park to encourage people to adopt the dog. I thought that this was a pretty neat idea, so I created a design on Canva and created an Etsy store for a pet business card. You can check it out here https://www.etsy.com/shop/jeffreydigitalshop/ .
This is my first time opening up an online store, so I wasn’t sure how complicated it would be. Thankfully, this process was really simple. In Etsy, they make it relatively easy. I had to think of a store name, enter some financial information, and set up my listings. Since I didn’t want to connect my bank account through Plaid, I had to wait for Etsy to deposit some money in my bank account for verification purposes. Other than that, the process would’ve taken just a few minutes to complete from start to finish. Each listing costs $0.20, so it is not expensive, but Etsy takes a cut of each sale. I don’t expect that this pet business card will really sell, but perhaps I’ll think of some more things to sell on Etsy in the future.
If you are interested in opening up a shop on Etsy, feel free to use my referral link https://etsy.me/3NpHjUm
Air (2023) Review
I watched this movie as part of a company event. The movie theater had a bunch of my coworkers, but I didn’t know any of them so I sat by myself. I’m not sure if watching movies at movie theaters alone has been normalized in our society yet, but it seemed perfectly good to me.
The movie was entertaining. The movie is about the journey in which Nike signed Michael Jordan. I skimmed some articles about beforehand so I knew things like the fact that the actor playing Michael Jordan did not show his face in the whole movie. The history about the basketball shoe industry was news to me. I read the book Shoe Dog, so I was aware of Nike’s story and how they made it in the running shoe scene. But I didn’t realize that they had a lot of trouble in the basketball shoe scene. I had no idea that Adidas and Converse were the top dogs in the game before Nike blew up with the Air Jordans. I also didn’t know that there were NBA rules about how much white had to be on the shoe. Nowadays, NBA players wear a ton of colorful shoes so they probably changed the rules. Additionally, I read that Howard White (played by Chris Tucker) was initially not going to be in the movie, but Michael Jordan told the director, Ben Affleck, that Howard was really important to making the deal happen. I’m not sure if this actually happened, but in the movie, Nike creating the Air Jordan prototype from scratch in a weekend. That’s pretty wild in my opinion, but I guess that’s what is possible in a scrappy, risk taking company like Nike.
The acting and the casting was well done. I’m not sure if they needed all the star power, since the story is already interesting, but the actors certainly delivered for me. The footage of old basketball scenes was a great touch and the dialogue flowed pretty well.
Jeffrey's Thoughts 