I have to count myself among the few who openly admit how much I like The Polar Express.

At the time, critics, movie gurus, and specialists tore this movie apart. They criticized almost everything: the special effects, the plot, and the character development.

For me, The Polar Express is a nostalgic tribute to the innocence we’ve lost—a magical journey into the dream world of the child we used to be.

I’m not a film expert, so I don’t expect anyone to agree with me. 🥲

Andrew Burnet's 50 Speeches That Made the Modern World is the ideal winter read as the year comes to an end and the chill prompts introspection.

A motivational method to close out the year with a sense of purpose and optimism is to immerse yourself in the thoughts of great leaders such as Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.

This reward allows me to make my first post on Bluesky. 😎

My “perfect” social network would revolve around a lot of the aspects people have already mentioned here:

Privacy and well-being first:

No data collection, monetization, or tracking for ads. Digital wellness features, such as reminders to pause, are integrated to ensure a mindful, healthy experience.

No social pressure:

No visible metrics, like likes, follower counts, or ratios. Interaction is directed to substantive comments and debate, prioritizing content over mere validation.

No manipulative algorithms:

The content is shown in chronological order or arranged to suit the interests of the user at hand, and there are no algorithms that prefer engagement over quality.

For some reason, I believe that ChatGPT’s voice-to-text processor is more advanced than any other. I’ve used tools that convert voice messages into text, like the one integrated into Telegram. However, I’ve noticed that ChatGPT offers much greater accuracy.

When I’m unable to type, whether because I’m walking, feeling lazy, or for any other reason, I turn to this tool. In fact, that’s exactly what I’m doing right now to generate this text. This is one of the many resources that benefits me nowadays, especially in these times when time is such a valuable asset for me.

In Jurassic Park 3, Alan Grant has a dream in which a velociraptor is calling his name: "Alan". Quite an odd scene that the audience does not want to see as it is awkward and humorous when it need not be in the movie in the first place. 😑

A much better version would be to put Grant on an island covered in fog, being attacked by raptors. He hears their growls and sees only shadows of the beasts as they stalk him. He ends up screaming and sweating after the sequence. By doing this, many of the suspense elements will be maintained, his depth will be advanced, and the audience will be prepared for what is about to come.

When I think about how my music tastes have evolved, I have to go way back to the early 80s. I was just a kid, maybe six or seven years old, and my first connection to music was through merengue. Around 1982 or 1983, it was the most popular genre in the Dominican Republic, so it was everywhere.

But at the same time, there was this big wave of American influence, and of course, Michael Jackson was at the center of it. That was my first real exposure to English-language music. I vividly remember watching the videos for Thriller, Beat It, and Billie Jean. It was impossible to miss. I even had a neighbor who owned the Thriller LP, and he’d play it nonstop.

By the late 80s, my older brother was fully into music in English, and naturally, I started following his lead. By the early 90s, we were both hooked on La X-102, a Dominican radio station that mainly played English-language songs but also supported Spanish rock and local rock projects. That was when I really shifted toward English-language music, and honestly, it’s been my main focus ever since.

Then, in the mid-90s, something else came into play. A friend of mine introduced me to a Billboard music collection that focused on songs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. That was a game-changer. Through that collection, I discovered rock and roll, the music that defined the pre-Beatles era, and, of course, The Beatles themselves. It was like stepping into a whole new world, and it definitely shaped my taste during that time.

Fast-forward to the late 2000s, and my musical journey took another turn when I discovered francophone music. Artists like Lara Fabian, Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré and Georges Brassens completely drew me in. I got so into it that, for the past 15 years or so, it’s been a huge part of what I listen to. It didn’t replace everything else, but it added this whole new dimension to my music tastes.

Original text in Spanish, translated with AI software