I have had access to Sora for a week or so, the app from OpenAI that allows you to make 10 second videos of just about any scenario you can imagine. I have made some pretty silly clips as you will see below. Yes this is the fun and playful side of AI. However have no disillusion about the dark side of the coin as well. Depending on the person pulling the strings AI can be harnessed for much more nefarious tasks. Hell imagine if a sitting president posted an AI video of him flying a jet while wearing a kings crown dumping feces on a crowd of people below that are protesting his actions? Oh wait……that already happened. We are doomed.

I had a great weekend. Friday after work I got to take in another sunset at the beach, something that will be much more difficult to do once the clocks change in a couple weeks. The weather was near perfect, the water looked like a lake and all seemed right with the world for a few minutes.

I kept myself busy on Saturday doing a bunch of different tasks. I had been having some annoying issues while doing video editing. I decided to throw a new video card into my computer which is now over four years old, probably closer to five. The card has a significant horsepower boost although since I don’t do cutting edge gaming I don’t know I will notice that much of a difference. I just want these long pickleball videos I have been editing lately to go smoother.

Saturday night I went to see the Halloween lights at Victoria Park, something I had not done in a year or two. It seemed like there were fewer houses decorated than I remembered but the ones that were were pretty cool. I wonder how these people store all of these Halloween and Christmas decorations on an annual basis.

Sunday morning was my first ever pickleball tournament. My partner Brian and I had never played one before. This was a “mini” tournament where the only divisions were skill level which were gender and age blind. We played the 3.5 skill level. The division only had a total of six teams including three female teams.

We won pretty easily all of our pool games except the last one. It was against two women whom probably would play 4.0 in a female only bracket. They had good hands and made a lot of smart plays. If we made a mistake they more often than not made us pay for it. We were barely ahead 8-7 when one of the women had a very bad looking ankle injury where it got turned 90 degrees. She was down on the court for awhile while people attended to her. She got wheeled off the court so we wound up winning that match by forfeit.

In the playoffs we played two mens teams we had beaten pretty easily in pool play. Both playoff games were much closer. Brian and I were getting a bit tired and the other teams played better than the first go round. I believe the scores of the two playoff games was 11-7 and 11-8 in our favor. It was a fun morning and made me more interested in playing more tournaments in the future, something I have not done in many years since my old beach vb days. I recorded all of the games but one.

I had lunch with Brian and his wife afterward which was nice. It felt good to escape the heat and replenish my energy with some quesadillas. I watched the beginning of the Eagles/Vikings game at the bar and listened to the rest at home. I did not realize former Eagles QB Carson Wentz was playing for the Vikings right now. Hell I didn’t think he was still in the league. He had a very Carson style day where he made some great and awful plays.

Jalen Hurts had a big day statistically and the Birds managed to escape Minnesota with a win that they were fortunate to have. In many ways the Vikings outplayed the Eagles IMO. I am not quite sure why the offense can no longer run the ball. Barkley had over 2000 yards last year and seven games into the season he hasn’t even had a single 100 yard rushing game. It seems the offensive line is the problem but maybe all of the fame and fortune that came after Saquons monster year last year has taken a little edge off his game. It’s clear that this team is still struggling to find any sort of consistency, despite a 5-2 record.

Earlier this week I received a Flipper Zero a device that has “interesting” capabilities. I had seen these advertised for awhile and I found them to be pricey but cool. It’s basically a small piece of tech that has the ability to clone/emulate a number of electronic security devices/remotes, easily. In the wrong hands it could be used for malicious activities. I don’t have such intent but I was curious about what it could do. It was not a cheap toy as it costs a couple hundred dollars.

I have only scratched the surface so far but I have been able to emulate an infrared remote very easily. I also was able to clone my RFID employee badge and use the Flipper to get into a badge protected area successfully. It was very simple to do. It has antennae / chip sets to read/emulate a number of things. I am looking forward to seeing what else I can do. My hacking hat will remain red, not black.

On Sunday I will be playing in my first pickleball tournament ever. I have always wanted to play a tournament ever since I started 3-4 years ago but it just never happened. It will be my first competitive tournament of any type I have played in well over a decade since I played my last beach VB tourney. I am looking forward to the event and am curious how it will compare to how I felt when I was playing volleyball. I used to really invest a lot of myself emotionally into how well I did in a tournament. We will see how much of that remains at 57 years old. I am playing 3.5 doubles with a buddy of mine whom I also play volleyball with. He is easy going yet competitive so I think it should be a good mix.

I got out to see the new Tron movie last night, a sequel to the original that came out some 42 years prior. I vaguely remember details about the original other than it being weird as my then 15 year old brain would interpret things. I was actually much more a fan of the Tron video games the movie inspired. I remember playing one of the immersive arcade games that you sat inside of as you zipped around on light cycles.

The modern day version jumped on the AI bandwagon and depicted the internet, network hacks and anything related to it in a manner that would make any IT person laugh. Still I found the movie entertaining mostly as long as you didn’t care about compelling plots or academy award level acting. To be honest the main reason I went to see it was I had not been to the movies in a couple months. There just has been nothing in theaters that interested me enough to do so. I’d give Tron a B-.

Yesterday I had my normal 6 month check up with the dermatologist although I just got through the mess associated with my forehead skin cancer surgery a month or so ago. Part of the reason my last surgery was on as big of a spot as it was was because I put it off. I recognized I had a problem area for awhile and ignored it, resulting in the spot of basal cell getting larger, resulting in a nearly 3 inch incision on my head that was difficult to heal. I don’t want to replicate that going forward.

I have a spot on my neck that again has been a problem that I have not addressed. I also have a mole on my abdomen that became raised which can be potentially bad. Instead of telling the dermatologist I had no spots of concern I fessed up and had them look at them. He numbed and took a knife to both of them to get tested as well as a spot on my back. The absolute last thing I want is more skin cancer surgery but I would rather be safe than sorry. The doctor said they may just be keratosis which is basically just annoying and ugly skin growths that happen as you get older. I will have results next week.

I spent last night on the Naples Princess for a short two hour dinner cruise. I was on the boat previously but it was a long, long time ago with my mom. It was storming hard right up until the ship departed but luckily once we got out on the water the skies on the horizon started to clear. My girlfriend and I had a really nice dinner and enjoyed the experience. Once snowbird season hits it’s next to impossible to get openings on the ship so I was glad we got the unique opportunity to take in a sunset while on open water. It won’t be the last time.

I got home in time to watch the Eagles stink up the field, losing to the 1-4 Giants in an embarrassing manner. The defense seems to be a bit of a joke recently and Saquon can get absolutely nothing going so far this season. He hasn’t cracked 100 yards in a game yet. Hurts is not a throw 40 times a game sort of qb. At least the team now has an extended period to get their heads together before the next game. Some changes obviously need to be made.

My weekend is looking to be of the standard variety thus far. I like it that way, most of the time.

Yesterday I got access to Sora, an AI video creation app made by the folks that created ChatGPT. Access to the app is invite only, I gained access from a friend of mine that was already in who gave me an access code. It is sort of nuts.

To create your AI doppleganger is incredibly easy. The app has you look at the camera, turn your head left and then say three numbers, that’s it. With that little effort you can now create endless 10 second videos of yourself or other AI generated characters in any scenario you describe.

Yes it’s cool but it also demonstrates just how easily fake yet realistic content can be created now in a matter of seconds. It’s a dangerous world we live in where fact and fiction blur together seamlessly. I have no idea how that can lead anywhere but to dark outcomes and unintended consequences.

I had some free time last night so I decided to get a live stream in. It had been over a month since I last did so. In the stream various things were covered including the new wheel from Inmotion that supposedly has a top end of over 90 MPH, which sounds insane. It was roughly a two hour stream which was enough for me. I don’t have the desire to stream or create content as much as I have in other time periods of my life.

I made the call to Comcast/Xfinity today to cancel any and all services I have with them, a company I have been a customer of for close to 20 years. They have been a company that has annoyed me regularly over the years with the games they play. Their favorite tactic was getting you signed onto a seemingly attractive plan that had a limited duration. When that duration expires your costs increase significantly. They play this game betting that most people won’t take the effort to do something about it.

For a long time I did just that, every time my plan expired I would get on the phone and get put onto another plan, usually having to sacrifice something or agree to add something to the service to do so like a landline or wireless phone that I did not need. Again the intent is to charge you full boat for these services when the promo expires.

Xfinity was also one of the worst offenders of bill creep. Every few months my bill would go up a few dollars. When I used to inquire about why the answer was always the same, new fees/taxes for this and that. It was maddening. They stopped being as agreeable when it came to negotiating a new promo for existing customers as well. The savings got to be so minimal I stopped trying and resigned myself to paying $230+ per month for the last couple years, which is ridiculous IMO.

One of the things I like about my Quantum Fiber arrangement is the price is $105 per month, period. Unless you change your service level that is what you pay, forever. It’s a refreshing change from bill creep and bait and switch pricing that Comcast loves so much. So in total I will be shaving almost $270 per month from my budget by saying goodbye to Comcast/Xfinity since I also had an Xfinity Mobile line I was paying for. Good riddance.

One of the things I was less than happy about when my Quantum Fiber install was complete was my line speeds were not what they should be although the wifi speeds were very fast. My speedtest.net numbers hung right around 1gb despite installing a 10GB card in my PC to give me a fast connection to the router. Just for the hell of it last night I reran the test and got much better numbers, my download and upload speeds were well above 2GB. It’s still not at the advertised 3GB speed but maybe as they continue rolling out the service that will improve. It’s still lightning fast, especially on the upload side which is great for someone that is posting internet content like I do.

Hey the federal government is still shutdown. It’s a very bigly shutdown. People are saying it’s the best shutdown ever.

Saturday morning I played pickleball for the fourth time during the week, having sessions Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday as well. I only played three games Saturday but they were all long games. I had a unique situation where my last game was played with another player named Shawn, spelled the way I do. What made it more interesting was it was a woman. We won our game. If cutting volleyball out of my routine means I can play pickleball four times a week that is a trade I am happy to make.

During the day I went outside and reconfigured my exterior RGB lights to talk to the new wifi network. As far as I know it was the last iOT devices in my home I had to touch. I was confident enough in my work that I turned off the Xfinity router. I noticed no ill effects from doing so. Now I need to see if I can shave down my Xfinity account to the point where I only have barebone access that allows me access to their streaming app while dropping the internet connectivity. If they want to overcharge me for that I will just kick them to the curb permanently.

I listened to the Eagles game against the Broncos. It looks like the curtain was pulled back a bit on the team. I think the 4-0 record assisted by some incredible good luck they have had up until this point has masked some of the issues the team has. They allowed the Broncos to score 18 unanswered points in the second half to come all the way back from a 17-3 deficit. There was some pretty terrible officiating in the game from what it sounded like but regardless, they should win that game, especially at home. Oh well, my emotional investment in the team is nowhere close to what it once was so the lingering effects of bad losses is much more minimal.

I saw pictures on Facebook of my 40th high school reunion which went down this weekend. It was a relatively small gathering of maybe 30-40 people. I have never attended a high school reunion yet the idea of 40 years passing since I graduated is crazy if I allow my mind to dwell on it. Some people I could still identify from the pictures while others I had no clue who they were thanks to the effects of four decades of time passing. Perusing the pictures made the time, energy and effort I have put into remaining active seem worth it.

The other thing that impacted me was a list of classmates that have passed away. There were 17 or 18 names on the list. I knew about handful of them but most of the names I had no idea about. It was yet another reminder that you better appreciate the here and now because tomorrow is never guaranteed.

Last night I put out my sole remaining Halloween decoration, the Spidey Pumpkin. By my calculations it has been with me for over a decade. Last year I don’t recall doing anything at all for Halloween, I wasn’t in a great headspace at that time. I mounted the “pumpkin” on a spare trashcan in the entryway so it would be more visible to passers by. I flipped my garage RGB lights to orange as well. Sometimes simple is better, at least nowadays it is for me. With my old house there was a lot more decorating going on both indoors and out.

Back then I had multiple inflatables spread out across the front yard. I had two or three containers of them. Inside the house there would be Halloween things scattered around the living space. Ironically even with all of this decorating I NEVER got trick or treaters visit my place. I viewed the decorations as something nice for others that drove by to look at. Now I would view that amount of effort as mainly a pain in the ass and little else.

Speaking of the old house, it is still for sale. My old neighbor has been giving me some updates as we are trying to figure out why it is back up for sale. It appears there is only one person living there currently so it seems some sort of significant life course altering event has gone down. If you have a spare 682K you too can experience what I did living there for 22 years. Ten chickens are included for that price.

After my weekend in Orlando I am looking for a more “normal” variety this go round. I have plenty of potential things to keep me busy from both the work and fun categories.