Went back home today.

The travel was great, went fast. I was just on TikTok the whole time, pretty much.

Ate decently well, on arrival. A bit too much though, I was a little excited. My little brother isn't here for the weekend, which sucks, but at least I have my grandma.

Feeling good.

I'm tired...

I'll be going home tomorrow. It's a holiday here, so I'll be going much earlier than usual. I'll have lunch there, save some money.

That's about it, for now. Not thinking straight.

Watched a livestream today, again. Had lots of fun, as per usual.

Did some Bitcoin things as well, fixed my wallets and whatnot. There's still so much I don't understand about these systems, I feel half-blind. Learning is hard!

Still, I think things'll work out.

My right hand gets colder faster than my left hand, for some reason. It happened yesterday, and it happened again today. I can think of reasons

other than there being something wrong with me

for this to be happening, but it's still upsetting.

Now, to the title.

I'm not a proponent of AI, necessarily; I think AI art is weird

both morally and aesthetically

and I don't think AI can be trusted to make huge decisions yet

think medical diagnosis, legal analysis, research. Moreover, I find the idea of a general artificial intelligence utterly terrifying. As a scientist (and I do consider myself a man of science), I can't help but marvel at the possibilities, but as a person? It's horrifying. Just because something is scary, doesn't mean it's bad; still, this kind of thing is extremely dangerous and unpredictable, so I think it's best to be sceptical and increasingly cautious.

What I'd like to talk about, though, are AI search engines; or rather, AI as a search engine.

I use ChatGPT (and Perplexity) extensively when I'm looking for specific information or for something to bounce ideas off of. I think they're great tools for that. It's still important to be careful, to double check what it says (it's often wrong or inaccurate), but these tools provide great jumping off points.

More and more, browsers are adding AI features. At first, I was sceptical, but more and more I welcome this kind of change, as long as it's optional. A big problem I have (chronic) is that I hate bloat. I hate when my browser has or does things that I don't want or need it to do. Here's a screenshot of my Firefox as I write this:

Rather minimal, right?

This is what I'm talking about. I want my stuff to be what I want, and nothing more. Very GNU of me, I know.

Do I want an AI assistant? No.

Do I want an easy way to reach an AI? Yes, actually. I do want a button or a shortcut or something like that that I can use to just ask Perplexity or something. Is AI integration the best way to do this? I don't know, I'm not a software engineer (not that software engineers know, either, but I digress).

I'm looking forward to seeing how technology changes.

Did another session of tutoring today. It went much better than last time. I'm rich! Not really, of course, but this one hour damn near paid for my food for the week.

Listened to the new Tyler album. Amazing, of course.

My hand is freezing as I type, it's actually hard to move my fingers.

NBA was OK, but I ended up falling asleep before the game I wanted to watch... Also, Curry got injured :C that really sucks, I was looking forward to this season.

I think I'm a very food motivated person.

This might be because I'm not very materialistic

despite my constant thinking about buying stuff I don't need lol

so I see food as a valuable reward. It's weird, in a way. I value long-term purchases: my backpack, I bought some chopsticks recently because my old ones were getting all yucky, I have a wallet with life-time warranty, stuff like that; and yet the one thing that I love the most is a consumable. Something that doesn't even last 30 minutes. That's funny.

If I had to come up with the things I want the most right now and for the next year, number one would definitely be obnoxiously large sums of capital. Number two, though, would probably be food. I've been thinking about this one pita place I know that's just so incredibly delicious. I don't really have access to it right now, which kinda sucks, but I might actually eat some this weekend, or even Friday.

I often think about opening a restaurant. I used to say that my dream was to work at a cafe, actually. It was because I found working at a cafe to be a very romantic profession, but I did end up going on a different path. I'm not a great cook, either. Regardless, food has always been on my mind. I love food so much.

I feel I'm not making much sense...

I'm watching the NBA, by the way. The Warriors play too late for me to watch, but I'll at least catch a few interesting games. The Hawks and the Thunder play tonight, that's gonna be sick.

I wonder if I do some sort of motivation system with food, I can work on the things I want more. Money is a huge issue for me as well, though... I don't know.

Fiverr is overflowing with bots and scammers, it's crazy! Most messages I get are clearly bots, but quite a few are actual people trying to get my email; it's crazy. It's really frustrating too, when it's an actual person that shows interest in what you're offering, but then turns around and just asks for an email. When you say no they sometimes try to push, but eventually just ghost when they realize you're not gonna give them any way to contact you outside of the app.

Now, the NBA! The regular season is underway. I haven't caught a single game

though I have watched a bunch of highlights ---, today will be my first game. Unfortunate that it's the Clippers (yuck), but hopefully Jokic makes it worth my time.

I ate at BK today, missed that, super delish as per usual. I considered going for the pita again, but decided against it. The pita is cheaper

on account of my membership card

but it feels like less food; and there's no refillable drinks. Is it worth the almost €1.5 extra for the BK? Now that I think about it, HELL NO! Yikes, bad move... Whatever. Next time (if there is a next time) I'll definitely go for the pita.

That's about it for now. Feeling a little peckish, as I usually do, but holding strong. Did all my laundry today too, and cleaned my room. Felt good. It feels much bigger now, without all the clothes on the floor. Also did some dishes I'd been putting off.

I checked my investments today... I really need to stop. I'd been doing good until a few days ago, when I got paid, but I've been checking it again. I won't check tomorrow! I need to keep my mind off it.

Oh also: I took a long walk today. Well, "long" for my standards. Just over 2 hours to "burn" the BK calories. No clue if I burned anything... I didn't get my heart racing, but I did sweat quite a bit. Regardless, I did it for fun and enjoyment. The problem with cycling is that I always feel like I need to be wearing a helmet and have my ears free. When I walk, I can have my headphones on; that's much more enjoyable of an experience.

OK, now that's it!

I've recently become enamoured with bonsai.

I think the thing I like about it is the time; it takes a very long time to grow a bonsai from scratch. It takes sustained effort and care, thinking ahead, planning, and waiting. Sitting on your hands.

It could be a cool thing to leave to the next generation; not that I plan on having a next generation, but just in case it'd be nice to have.

I ate lots of noodles today because the canteen was on strike. Extremely annoying, let me tell you... The menu sounded delicious too.

Better luck next time.

The Fiverr payment is gonna take 2 weeks to clear, and I've already spent about half the tutoring payments... If I keep with the tutoring, I'll buy a subscription to the tutoring website to see if i can get more students. That could be cool.

And with that, I'm off.

I've completed my first session of tutoring and have scheduled the next one.

This is great for me.

Kinda skipped lab today

not that I had much to do anyway

but felt a bit weird, considering I'm trying to improve my work ethic. Still, I was still working, just on something else.

Tomorrow and tonight I'll have to work hard on the python thing.

Let's gooo!

I've managed to make some progress in both my real work and my Fiverr work.

I'm so severely underpaid on the Fiverr thing by the way, it's not even funny! I have one more day to do it... But it's gonna be tough.

I need to review some stuff for the tutoring as well... Though I have already prepared a few things.

Feeling good.

Ate well today too. If I secure this money, I'll buy myself some falafel pita. I haven't had it in... Quite a while, at this point.

Almost forgot to write this today!

Close call.

Got a Fiverr request AND tutoring. That's gonna be €15 this week, with a possibility for €20 next week and beyond. If I score €20 a week, that's €80 a month. That's HUGE for my savings.

We'll see how that goes.

I'll have to work hard today and tomorrow to prepare for the tutoring and to finish my Fiverr request. It was a little more than I wish it was... I'm being severely underpaid, it's not even funny.

Still, it's fine.

I'll be listening to an NBA podcast and sleeping.

I'm struggling to stay focused on work...

It's OK though, I have a clear plan now, I at least know what to do. I'll get back up.