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Following the explosion of ChatGPT-based content, I thought it’d be fun to write prompts for ChatGPT and try using a large-language model (LLM) to rival or mimic things I write about in my free time. If you haven’t already tried it, check out their website. I’ve also interspersed the plays with AI-generated art related to these prompts generated by Stable Diffusion and DALL-E models, simply as an exploration of the applications- certainly it seems the day is not too far that an AI can generate an entire picture book.

Like a lot of soccer fans my age, I looked up to Lionel Messi as a kid. I honestly became a Messi fan before I became a soccer fan: the Barcelona teams played an iconic brand of the beautiful game and Messi was its posterchild. Fanboying Messi, 90% of which was debating why he’s better than Cristiano Ronaldo, was a pastime for me in my early teens, to the extent I voluntarily made a PowerPoint on the topic.

A Big Deal The most recent election has at once been incredibly disheartening, incredibly relieving, and incredibly exhausting for a lot of people. Yet due to a variety of factors, the state of American government is still far from certain. As you may know, I am from Georgia, the state which incredibly swung blue for Joe Biden and is going to not one but two Senate runoff races that determine whether the next US government is characterized by gridlock or progress.

Biryani is a rice dish from the Indian subcontinent that is delicious. A well-made biryani is a symphony of flavor, with a melody of distinctive spices and a harmony of perfectly textured cooked rice and meat. In my personal experience, it’s a difficult dish to prepare correctly, such that no spice or scent overpowers the whole, the rice is done just right, and the meat is juicy and tender. If all of this is completely foreign to you, I probably can’t say more to describe what has to be one of my favorite Indian dishes, you just have to try it, preferably before reading the rest of this.

Several times a week, Cosmo lives under the overpass along Roosevelt Avenue near 48th Street. Containers of food and clothes are scattered with various baubles and trinkets and musical instruments, next to a bike with bags of stuff hanging from it. Cosmo has deep black eyes and a scruffy, graying beard, and the wrinkles on his face fit with his sagacious outlooks- he is a man old enough to have gained great wisdom but young enough to still want to impart it.

Anybody that knows me knows that soccer is one of my greatest passions. Tomorrow, my club Tottenham Hotspur will face Liverpool to play for the most prestigious trophy in club soccer- the Champions League, formerly known as the European Cup. On this occasion, and before I celebrate or mull about what the actual result may be, I want to describe what is something of a spiritual journey for me.

One of the books I read this summer was Barack Obama’s 2nd novel The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, which was published in late 2006. In his characteristically flowery but accessible language, the then-Senator vividly breaks down his ideas on contemporary issues in and out of the political arena drawing upon anecdotal evidence as well as a litany of researched statistics. In my opinion, the novel is much more than a mere political manifesto- though he discusses political plans of action extensively, Obama is vocal about his own biases and the possibility of better alternatives.

As many hip hop fans know, today, the rapper XXXTentacion was shot and killed. Born Jahseh Onfroy, “XXX” was only 20 years old. XXX was a polarizing figure for the public- a promising artist with undeniable creativity and a depth of thought uncharacteristic of his youth, his adult life and short career were besmirched by violent confrontations and feuds with other rappers , the worst of which involved the battery of his pregnant girlfriend.

Ahead of his final match in a Barca shirt, a tribute to a player who delivered some of the most incredible moments of my childhood as a soccer fan. So many moments of unmatched class and brilliance. …THAT goal against Chelsea in 2009… …and an unforgettable World Cup final goal in 2010, paying tribute to the late Dani Jarque. A champion I had the privilege of watching every week growing up.

At my age, people don’t really think too much about the aged. I don’t even have a job to retire from, so what do I need to know about a Roth IRA? In America, life expectancy is almost 79 years, and most people retire around age 65- I’ve got plenty of time. Of course, that’s natural and probably for the best. There is, however, an argument that my generation is increasingly disconnected with seniors.