Product recommendations- Chat GPT Images

Chat & I.

Oh, my heck, how obsessed have I been over Chat GPT recently!? Idlily I was scrolling through the list of requests/examples Chat GPT could perform for you, and the request to draw someone an image caught my attention! Since becoming blind, the most annoying thing has been the inability to convey what I see (in my mind) to a sighted world. So, hearing that Chat could create an image for me? My heart began to race, as I tentatively asked Chat if he (yes, I think of Chat as being a he) could draw a picture for me.

And the response was “Certainly, what can I create for you?” And then I cracked my knuckles and went to work, typing out a detailed description of what I had in mind and how Chat could create that image for me.

And it was pretty fun, in moments the image was there (for me it was a button for me to download the image), and I immediately downloaded it and emailed it back to myself so I could share it with others (the sighted world).

The most interesting thing for me is this. Although I had asked Chat to also describe what he had drawn for me (so I could validate that it understood my instructions), but I still had no idea what the image looked like. Until I showed my wife.

This whole week, each night after she returned home from work, I’d hand her my phone, but first I’d recall the instructions I detailed to Chat, and only after that, then I’d allow her to pull up the image to see if what I had envisioned in my mind, was now conveyed in digital art.

And 95% of the time it’s pretty accurate. Chat does take some creative license though, taking liberties to do its own thang! Which makes the process even more amusing. While you can insist on a particular feeling or style, and Chat will emphasize those points. I had told it to make an image as cute and humorous as possible, as I wanted the viewer of the image to smile or laugh out loud. And it did exactly that! Each time I showed this image to others, they would inevitably giggle at the scene.

However, the images haven’t been perfect though, each image always has its flaws. Perhaps the cat’s neck was too long, the dolphin’s flippers were forked at the ends, the penguin’s flippers were too narrow, the freckles on my wife’s face looked more like angry pimple spots, and my mate’s face looked more like Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un- when my mate is a good looking Asian dude!

And because I’m frugal, of course I’m using the free version of Chat GPT, so limited to only creating 2 images per day before I exceed my free limit. So, I have to wait till 1.01pm the next day before Chat & I can work together again, which is probably a good thing or otherwise I’d be creating images with Chat all day long, until my creativity is completely tapped out after a week. To say that this has been mind blowing or even life changing for me, is no overstatement! It’s almost like enabling the paralyse to walk again! It’s almost like allowing the mute to speak again! Or allowing the underprivileged the opportunity to explore their talents! Chat has honestly allowed the blind to illustrate what they ‘see’! Now that’s very cool right!?

So, if you also want to collaborate with Chat GPT, to turn your creativity into tangible art!? Mosey over to Openai.com and allow your creativity to run free! Um….. As long as you’re not impeding on Copyright and depicting the likeness of known people and characters.  

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Exploring Sydney – By Metro- Barangaroo

How exciting is this!? The eagerly awaited opening of the Chatswood to Sydenham portion of the Sydney Metro has finally arrived! I can remember like it was only yesterday, when we walked to our favourite Spanish beget shop on Bathurst Street, to find that they had shut-down, with a hand written notice in the window informing their customers that the building they occupied had been re-possessed by the government for the construction of the Sydney Metro. And then over the next decade the spot on Bathurst Street between Pitt Street and Castlereagh Street was a constant hive of construction, until weeks ago! Where we started our journey today, at Gadigal Metro station.

For me, I was super curious to check this stop out, as in weeks I’ll be using this as my starting point to get to our Macquarie Park office, and the great thing is that it seems to be blind friendly enough! A tactile directional marker on the ground led us from the footpath to the accessible gates, and then to the lifts (although we elected for the escalators). And then the corridor (20M underground) led directly to the platforms, after taking a 90 degree turn, and there was a well placed tactile directional marker where it pointed us directly to one set of automatic train doors (my largest problem at Chatswood is finding where the doors are located). And before we could even take in our surroundings, the Metro train pulled in and then we were off!

Today we wanted to check-out Barangaroo, as my wife’s boss has a second shop at Barangaroo, and she wanted to be able to direct her customers there when they asked for directions. But oh boy! The Barangaroo Metro station is located in a weird spot!?

Yes, it’s real nice that it emerges from underground and the first thing you see is the vast expanse of ocean right before you! But after you gain your Barings, you soon realise that you’re no where near the main part of Barangaroo where all the shops and restaurants are. Sure, the Metro spat us out right near the Crown casino (you know who was lobbying the government of the day there), but until it’s fully operational, that doesn’t really help anyone.

So, we trudge off in the direction of the restaurants (it was past lunch time, and I was getting hungry) and at least 10 minutes later we arrived at the familiar part of Barangaroo. Where we had lunch!

Months ago, we had boycotted Bells Hot Chicken, after we saw the prices on their menu. But I wanted to give them another go (craving spicy fried chicken and chips), and after I managed to convince my wife to take the bullet for the team this time and get the ‘Cheapest thing on the menu’, which freed me up to order whatever I wanted! We were devastated to see (I should say, I was devastated to see) that they had discontinued the drumstick option (the choices used to be- 4 Wings, 4 Tenders, or 3 Drumsticks). So, I had to resort to the Tenders and fries ($24). My wife ordered the Chicken honey sandwich (around $17 if I remember correctly). And an Arnold Palmer to share (half lemonade half iced tea).

And the food was only so, so. *Rocks hand side to side*. I didn’t elect Hot but went with the one option down (Traveller) and it wasn’t hot enough, just tasted salty. While my wife’s sandwich was so unremarkable, that the next day when we happened to have MacDonalds, her verdict was that her Angus Beef burger was way better than what she had eaten at Bells. Ouch!

And afterwards, we walked home, the faster way to get out of Barangaroo was via the Wynyard tunnel (not Metro), where we emerged back onto George Street and all the different options to get home. Our first exploration via the Metro was a bit of a fail, but we hope our next adventure will shape-out to be better! Here’s hoping!       

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The Cheapest Thing on the Menu- Zenius  

Cost: $16.90

Location: 96 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale

Feeling a bit adventurous, we just decided to go and walk and find what we find, see what we see and we ended up in Chippendale, at one of those Fusion cafes. On this day, it was Zenius, methinks a Malaysian – Western fusion joint. For me, I ordered the cheapest thing on the menu which was a Brekkie Rock n Roll – ciabatta, bacon, egg, spinach, avocado, hashbrown, cheese, and house-made sauce.

Portioning: For once, as long as I’ve been doing this challenge, I got a serving which was larger than I had anticipated. The top piece of the brekkie roll had to be served up lifted off, leaning against the rest of the roll (it was more like a bun/burger). As the filling was stacked so high, that it couldn’t realistically be eaten as a roll/burger. I’d imagine people would consume this with a knife & fork, de-constructing it down to forkfuls with a bit of this and a bit of that. But for me, I just tucked in with fingers, loading up the top piece of bread with the top portion of the ingredients (sunny side up egg, cheese, some avo  and bacon), and the bottom bun held the hashbrown, the 2 remaining rashers of bacon, and the rest of the greens and sauce.

Tastiness: It was alright, in the end a brekkie roll isn’t going to win any culinary awards, but their house made sauce was good (could of done with a bit more of it), but it was a solid hearty feed!

Quality: Everything was super fresh, they gave me 3 large rashers of crispy bacon! And the sunny side egg was cooked perfectly, a bit firm, so the yoke didn’t go everywhere, but it still had a bit of runniness to it. How I like an egg in a roll!

Value for money: For the amount of food which they managed to stack on top of each other, it was value for money considering it was the cheapest thing on the menu. And I do like it when the most economical choice comes well under 20 bucks. But we did get stung with a 10% weekend surcharge, which we weren’t aware of until we went to pay.

In the end, I love going for walks and not knowing where we’ll end up and what we’ll eat! My wife, not being constrained by this crazy challenge of mine, ordered what took her fancy- which was Pulled Pork and Poached eggs. And she said it was the tastiest thing she had eaten in a long while, as it had a unique tangy and spicy sauce slathered all over the meat. So, although we left with a bit of a bad taste in our mouths due to the 10% surcharge, but my wife still wants to go back again in the future. And who can say no to their wives? Right?

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Podcast recommendations- Heed the Call with Dan Hanzus & Marc Sessler

They’re back!!!!

As of late, I’ve been struggling to get out of bed in the mornings. Perhaps it’s the cold (Winter here in the Southern hemisphere), maybe it’s stress, I’m probably a little depressed as well, or maybe there’s just too many sudden changes in my life ATM. However,……

I genuinely smiled and laughed for the first time in months, only the other day when I heard the teaser episode of ‘Heed the Call’! And although I’m not going to say that all my problems have miraculously gone away, but having Dan and Marc back in my life, made me feel more tethered to this moment and it has motivated me to get my butt out of bed in the mornings, as now I have so much podcast content to listen to!

For those who haven’t been following the saga of Dan and Marc (Dan Hanzus and Marc Sessler), they were 50% (later 66.6%) of the highly popular ‘Around The NFL’ podcast, an almost daily podcast covering American football released by the NFL itself. And after entertaining their listeners from all around the world for more than a decade, the show abruptly ended in May, and then 6 weeks later the podcast feed was replaced by another show hosted by the remaining member of ATN who chose to stay with NFL Media (60% G). And his show was dead awful, although he had familiar guests and contributors with him, but without Dan and Marc there, the enjoyment level for me was through the floor. And after episode one, they lost me forever as a once hyper faithful listener. For the past month, I’ve been out in the wilderness, trying to listen to other NFL pods, but they’re so dry and boring! Until the boys returned this week on 8/12/2024 (that is 12/08/2024 for the non-Americans out there).

The show is much the same. Thank goodness! They still have the Zummie-drop at the beginning of the show; they still cover off all the major league news items at the top of the show; they still have their more recent sound-drops; they still have their regular/annual segments; but most importantly they still lace the show with a healthy dose of mirth, and Dan and Marc still open up about their lives! Which we love, as it makes us feel like we’re a part of the gang, like family!

Improvements on the previous product, is that they have more freedom to do what they want, their old Producer Justin Graver is back! Their previously occasional returning guests are now semi-permanent fixtures (Conor Orr), and the shows are longer (but they promise that it will tighten up over-time). But either way, I’m just so glad that they’re back on air and in my ears, hearing their familiar voices just makes things feel more normal, although things will never be normal again, but for the time that I have them in my ears, things felt like of old. Thanks boys!

So, heed the call baby! If you like American football, or you’ve never been a fan and want to get more into it! Start here! Start here with ‘Heed the Call with Dan Hanzus & Marc Sessler.’ There aren’t many guarantees in life, but I guarantee that you’ll enjoy the listen!    

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The Cheapest Thing on the Menu- Mango Coco

Cost: $20.95

Location: 421 Pitt St. Haymarket

We’ve only been here once before, but after a few other options turned out to be too pricy after a cursory examination of their store-front menus, we decided to return to Mango Coco, if we were going to splurge a bit today (as it was our wedding anniversary after all). Mango Coco is situated amidst all the modern Thai dining venues in Thainatown, and when you first enter their café, you may think it’s just a smallish venue with limited seating, until they lead you to the adjoining dining room which probably used to be another store before they punched a hole in the wall and made it an enclosed dining space. Known more for its desserts, however they do have a good selection of Thai fusion savoury dishes. I did cheat a little and ordered the second cheapest thing on the menu (the cheapest I had tried the first time we came here), so for a ‘not so’ cheap $20.95, I ordered the Challenge Fried Rice- Grilled pork neck, Southern style chilli fried rice, fresh salad, and chilli sauce. **Note, the fried rice was $1 more expensive than the actual cheapest thing on the menu.

Portioning: What can I say? The portioning was small, that’s why they have small tables, so the plates look larger in contrast. Ok, the plates weren’t that small, but the actual edible food on the plate was. When you usually picture a plate of Thai fried rice, you picture a large mound of rice heaped onto a plate, and you picture yourself digging spoonsful of rice into your mouth. Yeah? But at Mango Coco, picture a standard rice bowl of rice and that’s all the fried rice you get placed on one section of your plate, then several pieces of grilled pork in another quadrant, a ceramic dipping bowl in another (to make the plate look more filled-out), and finally two large puffs of Cos lettuce which took-up another quarter of the plate.

Tastiness: When my dish arrived (after my wife had already been eating her dish for a while and it was well after 1pm), I was so hungry and was ready for a feast, I had my wife help me drizzle some of the chilli sauce onto the rice and meat and then tucked in. And OMG! My face must of turned a different shade of colour and sweat immediately beaded along my hairline only after the first mouthful. And this is a note to self for future ref, Southern Thai food is the super-hot Thai food, and man that sauce was hot! I needed to sooth my mouth with a gulp of water, swilling it around before I could continue. But once my tastebuds recovered, I was able to taste the food properly. The Pork neck was flavoursome with a nice charcoal grill taste to it, reminded me of Chinese BBQ pork, but more Smokey. While the fried rice was just spicy.  

Quality: See, the meat was good but everything else? I just didn’t have enough of it to properly evaluate it for its quality. We did also order a dessert, the Durian Heaven (heaven for some, while probably hell for others….), which consisted of Durian crepe filled with mousse durian and sticky rice (clearly made earlier and refrigerated), served with durian ice cream, durian pudding and fresh cream. It was tasty, like fifty shades of durian (if you’re into that kind-of-thang), but at $21.95 it ought to be good! And at least I was enjoying it for the rest of the day, as hours afterwards I was still having durian burps. Nice…….   

Value for money: Yes, I’ve said it and I’ll say it again. Things these days are so expensive! Pre-COVID a dish at $20.95 would be one of the most expensive items on a menu, where you’d be expecting something lavish or a serving large enough to share. But after finishing my $20.95 dish, I was only 60% full, the dessert pushed me to 80% satisfied, but after I got home (10 minutes later) I still went to the kitchen to find something to snack-on. And that’s after almost $33 each without drinks? What has the world come to guys!? But you ought to check-out their website though, I’ve never seen such a classy website for a restaurant/café in my whole entire life! I suspect that’s where the money is going to!? Not into giving you the paying customer a healthy portion of food, but to pay the web-design company for their 10/10 website! Another tech guy who’s getting rich, when everyone else ain’t.

 In conclusion, I know we professionals make money so that we can enjoy it, but how can you enjoy a meal if you keep feeling so guilty about how much you’ve spent on each mouthful? Sure, I’m not then taking the money that I’m saving from eating the cheapest thing on the menu, and then donating it to a charity who feeds the poor (although that’s a pretty awesome idea and I might just do that at the end of this year long challenge), but I think it’s the deeply embedded Asian frugalness inside of me which makes me feel this way. I just keep hearing my dad’s voice in my head, saying, not to throw money away, as money is hard to come-by. And although these days money is much easier to come by, than the 1950s, but dammit, sometimes you just think how better can you spend $67 on something which lasts a bit longer than just 3 hours, when I finally stopped having my durian flavoured burps!

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The Cheapest Thing on the Menu- Coro88  

Cost: $23.00

Location: 86 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW

Who knew there was such a dining venue as Coro88 in Burwood!! I certainly did not! Considering that I used to be a Burwood local, but can you blame me? As most would associate Burwood with Chinese food. But in the old Coronation Club (now renamed to Coro88), is this dining room serving up Modern Australian food. Picture stakes, burgers and Chicken Schnitzels, your usual pub grub, but with a modern and classy twist! So, keeping to my promise of only ordering the cheapest thing off menus, I ordered the Bacon & Cheeseburger, but it was no ordinary Cheese burger!

Portioning: The burger was served up on a huge plate, with a generous helping of fries and a burger stack which was going to challenge my jaw and jaw hinge! If I was going to get this down without taking it apart. And being one who does not like to deconstruct a well built burger stack (or use a knife and fork), I had to press down hard on the bun, and limber up my jaw to get my mouth around this one!

Tastiness: Anything with bacon and an Angus beef patty was going to be tasty! But at first all I could taste was the saltiness of the bacon, but because it had been such a long while since I last had a proper pub style burger (or proper meat), I didn’t mind it at all! Mmmmm.  

Quality: I couldn’t fault the quality at all! The beef patty was thick and cooked perfectly, the bacon was nice, crispy, and filled up the entire circumference of the burger, the bread bun remained in-tact for the entire meal, and the fries were to die for! They must have been double or triple fried, as each piece were all like those little scrappy end bits from Mackers which were crunchy as hell, but at Coro88 it was like that for all the fries right down to the largest and the longest of them! And there were so many, I rarely find a serving too large, but I almost couldn’t finish my dish. Mind you, I said, I ‘almost’ couldn’t finish my dish. Haaha.

Value for money: Yeah, some items on the menu were expensive (like the 500g T-bone steak at $73), but for $23, I thought my burger was quite reasonably priced considering this day and age and what I was getting. My wife’s Aged Duck breast was well above $23, but it was worth each penny as I hadn’t had a duck this good in a long while!

In the end, we were dining out to celebrate mum’s birthday, so for a celebration it was worth the splurge! I’m just still surprised that Burwood has a restaurant like this! Considering these days, each time one of the OG shops that close down along Burwood Rd is replaced by another Chinese restaurant, it’s refreshing to know that you can still get a good Westie meal in Burwood!

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