Author Archives: Steve Mays
“If you’re watching this video…”
Every blog has a final post. Today I had a flash fantasy of what mine might be and asked ChatGPT to write a short story based on the following scenario:
An elderly man has been posting to his blog for more than twenty years. More than 6,000 posts. It was a very personal journal and very few ever visited or read his posts.
Before dying he wrote a post he recorded a video saying he had hidden one hundred thousand dollars in cash somewhere in the world… and a clue to the location was hidden somewhere on his blog. In a single post, perhaps… or one some combination of posts. Or within one of the many videos or audio files on the blog.
Before his death he shared this information on a number of social media sites with no idea if anyone would notice or believe the story.
As these things sometimes do, his story went viral and his blog was deluged with people from all over the world, searching for clues to the location of the fortune.
Prior to his death he set up a trust to cover the expense of maintaining his blog.
This could be a story about one person’s search or the story-line could follow a number of different people. Lots of ways to go with this. Good luck.
George Carlin on Religion
The Good Life
I asked ChatGPT for a little story to go with this photo:
The fireplace crackles with warmth, casting a soft glow across the room. A Christmas tree, adorned with colorful lights and ornaments, stands proudly in the background—suggesting the holiday season is in full swing.
In the center of it all sits a man with a gentle smile, nestled by the fire with two golden retrievers at his side. One dog lies comfortably on the rug, a red toy resting near its paws, while the other sits upright, leaning into the man’s touch. They seem calm and content, reflecting the quiet companionship shared between them.
It feels like a moment of peaceful reflection—perhaps after a long day of holiday preparations or simply a quiet evening at home. The setting invites a sense of gratitude and the joy of simple pleasures—good company, a warm fire, and the unconditional love of loyal dogs.
Blog-worthy in 2024
I’ve been thinking about a “things-Steve-put-on-his-blog-in-2004” post. With 252 posts it could quickly get out of hand and become one of those endless Xmas letters people send out and almost nobody reads. (Much like this post) It seems unlikely anyone would want to browse all 252 posts but this link will pull them up.
- If one topic dominated throughout the year it was Artificial Intelligence. Mostly ChatGPT/DALL•E and Perplexity. Fifty-two posts (20% of all posts).
- Fell and broke my arm in early February so did lots of reading this year, passing 1,000 books in my LibraryThing in March. (I only read about 50 books in 2024)
- I created and posted a fair amount of video in 2024 and I started playing with the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 camera in April but found it had almost too many features so it set on the shelf for much of 2024.
- Had a lot of fun with the Jeep this year and drove it topless for most of the summer.
- My meditation streak (2,288 consecutive days) ended in July when I just forgot. Less traumatic and more liberating than I expected.
- Not sure about a date but I moved from Google’s cloud to iCloud this year in anticipation of Apple Intelligence with came late in the year.
- Barb and I killed three Copperhead snakes last summer and I dispatched an armadillo and a possum.
- After ten years I finally broke down and got an Apple Watch. Don’t know how l got by without out one. Yes, I’ve become one of those annoying Apple Watch people.
- Started letting my hair grow in the fall and don’t plan to cut it as long as Keith Richards is still alive.
- Around the end of October I started using Apple’s Journal app.
- In December I got to try Sora, an AI-powered platform that generates videos based on text prompts, and Apple’s Image Playground
See what I mean? Just like one of those Xmas letters that nobody reads. But this is blogging in its purest form