It's the end of the year. Wow! What a year it has been. Let's go over things I did and worked on this year, changes in the work place that occurred, and some thoughts on happiness and wellbeing.
First, things I did. I worked a lot. I was promoted to full time cashier, got increased pay plus hours, so that's been a big change for me. For years I was only part time which meant I had a lot of discretionary free time to do whatever I wanted. Not so much these days. I work forty+ hours each week. Not only that, but the job has become more demanding in some respects because what with covid not going away, it has been nonstop busy even when the holidays aren't around.
Second, I worked on a lot of language learning. I've been learning a lot of languages ever since 2020 but I've become fairly proficient in Spanish, but I also know a lot of French, Italian, German, and a little Portuguese. These are the languages of the Hanseatic League, merchant guilds from central and northern Europe, going back to the 1400s. I'm the best at Spanish and French as my mother spoke some French and Creole around the house when I was a boy, and co-workers speak Spanish nonstop all day at work, so those two are fairly easy for me to pickup as I have heard it often.
My accents became better when I combined learning words from reading in the languages on Kindle, then practicing with audiobooks in those languages. It was a combination of both. I would say its easy to start learning but difficult to keep up your motivation and go beyond basic phrases. At this point, I can understand Spanish well, and the rest decently, although I can probably read all of them better than I can speak them. It's been an engaging endeavor and I look forward to learning more in the future. It's an ongoing enterprise.
Third, I've learned drums and piano. I started learning drums in August and I've become good. I can play rock and jazz styles primarily. On piano, I focus more on a jazz style, with lots of chromatic chord changes, a la McCoy Tyner. I even learned how to play a bamboo flute. There's always new things with music but sometimes I get in these lulls where I'm not playing live very often and not doing jam sessions at the house, so I stay engaged by learning new instruments. That being said, I've spent too many months at different instruments and will focus this year on guitar. At heart, I'm a guitar player.
Alongside music and writing, my other creative pursuit has been AI art. You can see my best works here https://www.instagram.com/jazzerrocker779/. I've had a lot of friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and more give me a lot of crap for using AI to create art. But the fact of the matter is that real artists are already using it, selling art with it, and making money.
The best AI art generator is called the DALL E 2, which uses openai.com's source code. You can buy from openai.com a low resolution image of your own creation for 8 cents, a better one for 16 cents, and an even better one for 18 cents. For that low cost even I could buy images if I knew I could make a return in my investments by selling them to others. Some artists are doing just that.
The openai team that created DALL E 2 just released openchatGPT, which is a huge gamechanger in the world of AI. I'll be using it in this blog.
I've been using a free AI art generator made by two guys who are using the Stable Diffusion AI art generator source code, it's called mage, you can find the art generator at www.mage.space. It's been so satisfying that I nearly quit playing video games to focus on reading books, music, and using mage to create art. My favorite thing about mage is that I don't have to actually have any art skills, I only need ideas. It works by having the user type in any words or numbers and it generates images based off that. Although I can't draw, I know the western canon, art history, and the Italian Art Renaissance period. So I can still can get great results. Take a look on my Instagram.
Fourth, a lot of things happened this year. In particular a lot changed in the world of retail grocery, my job.
"The retail grocery industry saw significant changes and disruptions in 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the major developments in the industry include the following:
Shift to online grocery shopping: The pandemic led to a significant increase in online grocery shopping as people tried to reduce their exposure to the virus by avoiding physical stores. Many grocery stores and retailers introduced or expanded their online ordering and delivery services to meet this demand.
Changes in shopping patterns: The pandemic also led to changes in shopping patterns, with people stockpiling certain items and shifting towards buying more pantry staples and frozen foods. This led to disruptions in supply chains and product availability.
Increase in demand for home delivery: The pandemic also led to an increase in demand for home delivery of groceries as people tried to minimize their in-store shopping trips. This led to an increase in the use of delivery services such as Instacart and Shipt, as well as the expansion of home delivery services by grocery chains.
Changes in store operations: In response to the pandemic, many grocery stores implemented changes to their store operations, including increased cleaning and sanitation measures, limits on the number of customers allowed in stores at a given time, and the use of face masks and other personal protective equipment by employees.
Impact on small and local businesses: The pandemic also had a significant impact on small and local grocery stores, which faced challenges in adapting to the changing market conditions and competing with larger chains that had more resources to invest in online and delivery services. Many small and local stores had to rely on community support to stay in business." [openchatGPT]
Lastly, although I've spent a lot of time logged in at work, I've also spent a lot of time thinking, learning, pontificating on the future. I've learned that I'm still happy despite losing friends, work getting tougher, people being more rude, and pay only barely improving. Of course, it helps to be the child who has his own. And not only that, but sometimes I'm the child who plays the Shakespearean Old Fool. And not only that but I also play the Voltaire Satirist Philosopher at Check Stand 9. All the worlds' stage. Life in its rich tapestry.
What will happiness be like in the future?
"It is difficult to predict what happiness will be like in the future, as it is influenced by many complex and dynamic factors, including societal and cultural changes, technological advances, economic conditions, and personal experiences and circumstances.
Happiness is a subjective and personal experience, and what brings happiness to one person may not necessarily bring happiness to another. Some people find happiness in material possessions, while others find it in relationships, personal achievements, or meaningful experiences.
In the future, it is possible that advances in technology and medicine could lead to improvements in physical and mental health, which may contribute to greater overall happiness and well-being. However, these advancements could also bring about new challenges and concerns that may impact happiness in different ways.
Ultimately, happiness is a complex and multifaceted experience that is influenced by a wide range of factors, and it is difficult to predict how it will evolve in the future."
"Happiness is a state of mind, with joy that we find." [openchatGPT]
image ai generated
