It’s late and I need to get to bed, but wanted to post something, so, being 2023, I asked AI to do it for me!
Here’s ChatGPT’s three-line bedtime story:
Once upon a time, in a far-off land,
Lived a tiny snail with a shell so grand,
Every night, she would dream of being a butterfly, soaring over the sand.
It’s more a poem than a story, but what does it know? Thanks, AI!
This is apparently a parallel dimension. OK! Photo by Mo Eid on Pexels.com
Years ago, I wrote an (unfinished) novel for National Novel Writing Month that involved a parallel dimension. I never had a good title for it, and used the clunky working title “Start of the World”, which sounds a bit like a bad translation. Then I thought, why use my brain to come up with a title when I can ask an AI chat program to do the mental lifting for me?
It turns out the answer is because it comes up with incredibly banal titles. Or maybe my prompts suck. In any case, I asked ChatGPT for 10 titles and #10 would likely to result in a call from Disney’s legal department1Actually, tittles can’t be trademarked, but try telling that to Disney less than a year after the second Dr. Strange movie..
Give me 10 titles for horror novels that involve alternate dimensions
“The Shadow Realm”
“Parallel Terrors”
“Through the Void”
“Twisted Realities”
“The Other Side”
“Gateway to Horror”
“The Fourth Dimension of Fear”
“Infinite Nightmares”
“Beyond the Veil”
“The Multiverse of Madness”
These are all so bland, I wouldn’t use any of them. Yes, even the one Disney actually used. Undaunted, I asked ChatGPT to give me 10 more:
“Dimensional Descent”
“The Darker Side”
“Alternate Realms of Horror”
“The Otherworldly Terror”
“Twilight Dimensions”
“The Doppelgänger Effect”
“The Abyssal Gate”
“The Haunted Multiverse”
“The Sinister Parallel”
“Terror from Beyond”
A few of these are not horrible, but they’re all still incredibly generic. I especially like the on-the-nose “Alternate Realms of Horror.” That’s a novel name that is very much “what it says on the tin.” Maybe the prompt itself was too generic. I tweaked it a little. Probably too little.
Give me 10 titles for a modern horror novel featuring parallel dimensions
“Interdimensional Nightmare”
“The Multiverse Horror”
“Parallel Panic”
“Beyond Our World”
“The Alternate Abyss”
“Dread Dimensions”
“The Parallel Paradox”
“The Multidimensional Menace”
“The Terrifying Twinverse”
“Portals of Horror”
These are also pretty uninspired, but I like the alliteration it leaned into, especially for “Parallel Panic” and “Dread Dimensions”. “The Terrifying Twinverse” made me laugh, so there’s that.
I’ll try this again at some point when I can think of a prompt that will at least produce bizarre results, if nothing else.
Once again, I consulted my favourite AI after the Master Control Program in TRON, ChatGPT, for 10 light blog topic ideas.
Rather than spread them out over 10 separate posts, I’m going to include all of them conveniently right here!
First, the topics suggested by ChatGPT:
“5 easy DIY home decor ideas”
“10 fun outdoor activities for families”
“Healthy meal prep ideas for the week”
“7 ways to boost your productivity at work”
“A beginner’s guide to mindfulness meditation”
“The benefits of practising gratitude daily”
“How to create a successful morning routine”
“The best books to read for personal growth”
“Budget-friendly date night ideas”
“The importance of self-care and ways to do it”.
And all 10 topics covered below, squashed into this one entry for your convenience and/or reading pleasure:
5 Easy DIY Home Decor Ideas
Don’t just put your kids’ “interesting” drawings on the fridge, paper all the walls of your house with them. You may need more productive kids or many more kids to really make this idea shine.
Take the plastic off your furniture. It’s time.
Get rid of your pets. They shed all over everything. Fish are OK.
Win the lottery and hire a professional interior decorator because let’s face it, you probably don’t know what you’re doing.
Paint the walls with optical illusions that make it look like each room of your home is actually just a shabby corner of some grand palace.
10 Fun Outdoor Activities For Families
Try to get the dog in the car
Try to get the dog out of the car
Lawn darts (note: I think this might be illegal now, so maybe check first to avoid getting arrested and/or having your kids taken away by the child welfare people)
Jumping in puddles in the rain. Works best if you are under six years old.
Count the ants at your picnic in the park
Run away from the bees
Go hiking around a lake, with trees and shit*
Abuse nature with your off-road vehicle
Visit exotic sand dunes, then relive the experience for the next week while you try to get the sand out of everything
Crash your neighbour’s backyard barbecue. You’re pretty sure they like you.
Probably some more vegetables, maybe in soup this time. But no salt. Sodium is bad.
This feels like the right time for more salad
Eat out at that vegan place that curiously has no reviews after being open for four months
7 Ways to Boost Your Productivity at Work
Hire someone better than you to do your work
Put in long, grinding, soul-destroying hours
Sharpen pencils on your own time
Rig up one of those little dipping bird things to peck at your keyboard
Get ChatGPT to do all of your programming, writing or email. Basically, anything that you would type out as part of your job.
Encourage management to hire lousy slobs to make you look better in comparison
Redefine your role to best suit your limited skill set
A Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness Meditation
Remember to breathe, or you might pass out or maybe even die
Ignore the neighbours screaming and throwing things upstairs–it’s all part of finding inner peace
If your yoga position is causing excruciating pain, just remember: The pain is all in your mind
The Benefits of Practising Gratitude Daily
Gosh, this one is tough. I mean, I guess if you’re grateful for something, your life doesn’t totally suck, so that’s good! And being grateful usually means you’re happy about something, so you’re not thinking about how that rat you thought was your friend still owes you a hundred bucks. What’s their deal, anyway? Also, if you’re grateful, maybe you’ll enter an elevated state of mind where you come up with some super genius idea like cold fusion that works, or how to lick climate change. I mean, it’s theoretically possible.
How To Create a Successful Morning Routine
Get up while it’s still morning.
Do the things you need to do.
Repeat every day until the day you die.
You probably don’t need to do this as a ghost or whatever.
The Best Book to Read For Personal Growth
Any book with “growth” in the title that is not referring to fungal growth
Any book with “habit” in the title that is not about nuns. Or maybe a book about nuns is exactly what you need, sister!
“How to Influence People Through Hypnosis and Trickery”
Oh wait, I was only supposed to mention one book.
Fine, read The Handbook of Etiquette. Sure, it was written in 1860, but that probably means it’s free now, so you save money to put toward your personal growth. And it’s bound to have some decent advice in it. What’s really changed in 163 years?
Budget Friendly Date Night Ideas
Have your date pay for everything.
Stimulating conversation at the kitchen table
$10 bottle of wine and a $15 tent bought from Walmart, in the backyard. Make sure the dog is inside. The house, not the tent.
Watching the stars from a grassy hill. You may need to move to the Australian outback for this to really work now.
Charades. I’m kidding, you probably want a second date. Or to finish the first one.
Troll people on your favourite social media site. Make it a game you play together. See who garners the most angry responses or blocks!
The Importance of Self Care and Ways to Do It
First, if you don’t brush your teeth, it’s highly unlikely someone else will do it for you. So it’s important to do stuff like that unless you have extremely close and generous friends.
Taking care of yourself is best learned through watching endless hours of self-improvement videos on YouTube. There’s too many to list, but you’ll find them. Just watch them all for a few weeks. By the end you’ll be self caring like a mofo, as the kids say.
Also, avoid donuts. I know they are delicious, but they are bad for your teeth–which you have to brush yourself–and they probably contain chemicals that cause cancer.
If you find my advice useful, please support me through my Patreon.
I love stock photos. Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
I asked ChatGPT to generate ten exciting blog topics because I didn’t even write anything yesterday and felt bad. It came up with a list that’s way too ambitious compared to the kind of mindless frippery I usually post here. So I’m just going to paste its list instead and call this a success.
10 Exciting Blog Topics
“Exploring the Future of Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Society”
“The Rise of Remote Work and its Effect on Productivity”
“Sustainability in the Fashion Industry: How Brands are Making a Difference”
“The Science of Sleep: Understanding the Importance of a Good Night’s Rest”
“The Evolution of Virtual Reality: How it is Changing the Way We Experience the World”
“The Future of Transportation: Electric Cars, Hyperloops, and More”
“The Mental Health Benefits of Gardening and How to Get Started”
“The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare”
“The Future of Food: How Technology is Changing the Way We Grow and Eat”
“Exploring the Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation and How to Get Started”
Today, I weighed in at a high-for-the-month weight of 163.2 pounds. This is bad and I feel bad. I vow to do better, even though it’s December and it may seem like a hopeless battle.
I asked ChatGPT to write a haiku about gaining weight. It still managed to put a positive spin on it.
Gaining Weight: A haiku by ChatGPT
Winter has come,
Gone are the days of summer sun.
Now I must eat more.
ChatGPT also seems to have a liberal interpretation of what a haiku is, because that ain’t 5/7/5!
One more time, a haiku about getting fat:
Getting Fat: A haiku by ChatGPT
Layers of fat grow,
Once sleek form now soft and slow.
Winter indulgence.
That’s more like it! It’s also an actual haiku.
Now I’m off to eat nothing. NOTHING. Well, maybe breakfast. But then NOTHING.