Rewatching old shows

I have access to multiple streaming services and I have a pile of Blu rays I could watch, yet despite all that I often find myself rewatching old shows. Shows that I’ve watched several times before, from start to finish. Shows with multiple seasons. Shows where I know the storylines and characters like I know my friends. Some feel like old friends.

I think I rewatch them partly because they are entertaining, obviously, but also because the story, characters, and ambience of the show is a known entity and is often what I need at that point in time.

So despite there being a lot of new shows I could be watching, on occasion I like to fall back on the well worn classics.

Do you have a go-to show?

Being remembered

There is this human obsession with being remembered. Leaving a legacy behind so that you are remembered by those still living.

Why?

If you think about it, you don’t really care because you will no longer be here. It’s not as if being remembered keeps you alive in some way. A memory yes, but not one you can take part in. Yet so many of us become obsessed with leaving a legacy that will make people recall that we existed, once.

Why not just enjoy the life you have and not worry what other people think? Live your best life. Travel, have fun, meet new people, enjoy the now. Not worry about making sure people remember you when You’ve gone. Who really cares? Only you care that you existed. Those who loved you will miss you but that fades after a few generations when the stories and photos fade. Everyone is forgotten eventually.

So live your best life and Don’t worry about legacy.

Daisy-chaining AI

I heard about this guy who was daisy-chaining AI. He was using one AI to refine prompts for another, then feeding the results into another AI for analysis and further refinement until he had a prompt that perfectly gave him the results he wanted.

I started digging around YouTube and found other instances of this practice. Someone was using ChatGPT to refine prompts for image and video generating AIs, then feeding the output into a prompt analysis tool for further refinement before feeding back into the image and video generators. It was a cyclic process that they kept at until they had something that looked very real.

The prompts were really long and descriptive. Naming the equipment, context, and styles in great detail. Whereas the prompts I’ve used to date contain less than thirty words, some of these prompts would fill the first chapter of most books. For a human to create these prompts would take a long time, but using AI it was taking minutes.

I hadn’t thought of using AI with AI.

Adventure is calling

Looking out to sea watching the cargo ships come and go I think back to the many ships I have sailed on. Travelling from port to port enjoying both the journey and the anticipation of the destination. With each new country came sights and sounds,  places to explore, culture and communities to immerse yourself in, food and drink to savour, new people to meet.

The thrill of adventure. Never knowing what’s around the corner or over the next hill. Castles and historic houses, kingdoms of old, deserts, mountains, rivers, and beautiful beaches. Music, laughter, walks, exploring. Sleeping under the stars, swimming in lagoons, sailing through swamps and bayous.

Adventure is calling.

My garden is me

You can tell a lot about a person from how their garden looks. If it looks unkempt, neglected, with weeds growing everywhere, it can be a sign of how they treat or view themself.

Discarded objects and general untidiness may indicate an untidy mind. Long grass, overgrown shrubs, and weeds between paving stones, could be a sign of laziness. Whereas a neatly trimmed lawn, tidy borders, and containers and hanging baskets all colour coordinated and in their place could be a sign of an organised mind, or someone with a lot of time on their hands.

You can tell a lot about a person from how their garden looks.

Extreme minimalism

I read an article about hoarding and how it can reach a point where a person’s home becomes so full of stuff that they cannot move. It’s classed as a disease.

This got me thinking about the opposite of hoarding: minimalism. The art of Reducing what you have to the minimum amount that you need. In my case this often becomes extreme minimalism.

I love tidying and organising, but sometimes it can get to a point where I am throwing away stuff that I might need in the future. I’ve even thrown, or given away items that I later regret getting shot of. Buying replacements or copies at a later date. Is this too a disease?

I hate clutter and feel the urge to tidy, to organise, to neaten and arrange. A clear area is calming. Clutter free, organised, everything in its place. Each item with a purpose, a need, a location.

Extreme minimalism.

AI allows you to release your inner diva

You can’t sing. You can’t play any musical instrument. Yet you know there’s a great song inside you just waiting to get out.

Cue AI. Giving you the ability to make great music even if you can’t sing or play an instrument. Just tell it what you want to create then refine refine refine until it matches what’s in your head.

AI: the new lip sync and air guitar hero x10.

Release your inner diva.

The calming sound of the waves

I’m working by the sea again. A short walk from my desk to the beach where the waves relentlessly caress the sand, back and forth, over and over, whatever the weather. That relaxing sound that calms my mind and allows me to switch off for a while.

I’ve started setting off earlier on my daily commute so I can head to the beach. To listen to the waves against the shore, the gulls calling to each other, the smell of the sea. There’s a bench nearby under a roof. It offers respite from any wind or rain. The occasional morning jogger, fast walker, dog walker, and fisherman nod as they pass, if they notice me. I keep listening to the waves.

Ten minutes is all I need. Better than any coffee, breakfast, or shower. I’m ready to start my day with a relaxed mind. Focused. Calm.

The calming sound of the waves.

Old colleagues

I keep running into old colleagues. People I’ve worked with five, ten, twenty years ago. At events like parties, weddings, wakes, and networking. When you’ve worked all over a particular region for the best part of three decades you are bound to run into people you’ve worked with on occasion.

How are you doing, how have you been, what are you up to these days, do you remember so-and-so? The obligatory small talk questions. You are caught-up in minutes. Years refined down and summarised in a few sentences. I’m fine I’m retired I make jam and sell it outside my home. Or I’ve had some health problems but I’m fine now. I took redundancy from my last job and I’m semi-retired now doing the filming for the occasional wedding.

I was surprised by how many were retired. Many younger than me. Others had changed careers entirely following their passions, usually after receiving an early pension or large redundancy payout. After calculating how much they need to reach their pension they declare themselves semi-retired and make their hobby a part-time income source. They seemed much happier.

Others are still in the game. Their words. Rising up career ladders, making a name for themselves in their respective fields, making money and investing in property, businesses, the next big thing.

All have stories. Over a coffee or chilled glass of wine we catch up. Has it really been X years? We each throw out names of people we worked with. Names long forgotten. So-and-so left company X and is now a postman. Someone else started their own plumbing business. Another died of a heart attack. Some I remember, some I don’t. People I worked with side-by-side for days on end, for months, years.

Time moves on. We all have lives with unique paths. I received a summary, a snippet of some of those paths second-hand as I slowly drained my glass.

Old colleagues.