Last Sunday, after some retail therapy at second book stores, I ate some scissors curry rice in Bugis at around 5.30pm. Everything was fine until Monday morning when I realised that I was feeling queasy and I had lost my appetite; then I emptied all the contents of my stomach, and I spent the rest of the day vomiting and getting diarrhoea.
I was so concerned about not being able to see the doctor without a diarrhoea attack I decided to install an app called Doctors Anywhere and used telemedicine to get my medical fix. The experience was really positive - I paid about $80, including medication (delivered in 3 hours), which included some non-essentials like electrolytes and probiotics. Still, even those came in handy for my recovery. The only downside I noticed is that the system does not recognise that I'm a CHAS orange card holder, which would have been much cheaper if I visited the neighbourhood doctor in person.
I imagine telemedicine to be handy for gout sufferers who struggle to walk 500m to the nearest clinic.
b) Enjoyed a night of Japanese karaoke in a micro lounge.
Another thing I did was to join some friends in a Japanese lounge in Shenton Way to understand why folks would spend $50-$100 a week on alcohol and some talking company. This act is way off my character, but I should also let my hair down occasionally.
For those who are unaccustomed to nightlife, this experience was quite educational. Folks who run nightlife establishments are expert small-talkers, and it's an excellent way to keep company over a weekend. Conversations are nowhere as intense as when I hike with other bloggers like RetireBy50 when I often regret not taking notes because of so many lifehacks I can pick up from them.
I will share the most family-friendly conversation snippet I can produce on this blog; for the rest, you need to ask me for a coffee or a long hike. We were talking about weird travel buddies, and someone was talking about heading towards a far-out location in Bangkok just so his weird friend could buy some watermelon juice. Apparently, this FOMO guy wanted watermelon juice because the seller had massive breasts. It was funny because I asked how a juicer with big breasts could produce better-tasting watermelon juice. I was also pretty sure that massive breasts can be found in other areas in Bangkok.
The funny thing is that I missed most of the conversation because I was singing almost nonstop for three hours on the Japanese Karaoke system, as we were the only customers there. The equivalent fee to do this in Cash Studio may be much higher for a dedicated device that serves Japanese songs.
Anyway, I wonder if this lounge can survive if all their clients are like me, I only drank Soda Water and ate snacks, and with a cover charge, I spent $44. $44 might be a little on the high side if you benchmark against buying beer from your nearest supermarket.
But I think if done properly, it should be compared with therapy. In such a case $44 is cheap.
c) My single focus: Generative AI for investment analysis
My illness earlier this week derailed a lot of momentum as I'm on a crusade to being ChatGPT into my Early Retirement Masterclass. The work has been extensive, and it involves taking Udemy courses at x1.5 speed, reading research papers, and then reading O'Reilly books like the ones above to create a set of prompts to assess the future performance of local stocks.
While it does give me little latitude to raise fees, the investment in picking up prompt engineering skills will allow me to create similar materials for the legal sector when I run Legal Technology classes next semester.
I hope to present some interesting results on this blog for investors to follow in the upcoming few days.
d) What's happening in geeks, games and comics?
More distracting than a bout of stomach flu is the impending launch of the 2024 Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, and plenty of new reveals are going on. As the new rules are revealed, the usual theory is being crafted, and the following ruleset is being complained about. People are already unhappy with the new Ranger without knowing how the new rules work. However, there will be a lot of excitement on the 1st of August as the NDA gets lifted, and game influencers will start discussing in detail how the new game will be played.
Of course, I can only update you by talking about how much the new movie Deadpool & Wolverine will rekindle the fortunes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's even bigger news that Robert Downey Jr. will be the next big bad, Dr. Doom.
It may not bode well for fanboys over the long term. There's a woke faction creating shitty stories like the Acolyte that may kill Star Wars eventually, and there's another faction that will never be happy unless you develop a lot of nostalgic fanboy service like Avengers End Game or Deadpool and Wolverine.
Can Disney create new storylines and characters to entertain the next generation of geeks and otakus?
I don't know. But at least I can watch The Boys on Amazon Prime.
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