6:34 AM (of Monday, June 10th 2024)
Today is Sunday, June 9th 2024, and because I had more free time from intentionally quitting both anime and video games (although I still have Waifu Zone Combat installed), I had a video idea I wanted to work on since yesterday, and so I did. I wrote a script for it yesterday, and recorded my voice reading the script out loud last night.
This morning I went to download a video editing program so I could combine my voice with footage downloaded online. I downloaded this video editor called CapCut, and it had an AI feature as well as a TikTok upload feature (but you had to pay for this). I played around with the AI feature first, I just copy and pasted my script that I already did a voice recording for, and let the AI feature do its magic. It produced a video with an AI reading the script and a bunch of stock footage to match what the script says, it also added automatic captions to the bottom.
This saved so much time because editing a video, even if it's just one minute long, could take an entire day to do, depending on how much of a perfectionist you are. Even though I had the use of AI helping me, this video still took me hours to edit and come up with the final result. When the video was done exporting, it said it could also export a TikTok version, but that it required the premium version to do so. I have never made a TikTok video nor a reel before, but I think it was time for me to start. So I went ahead and paid for the premium version, $10 a month, which I can cancel at any time, and tried it out.
After uploading the standard version to YouTube, I uploaded the TikTok version, which is just the same video but in vertical portrait format, into Instagram and TikTok. I actually first had to make a TikTok account since it was my first time doing that, but uploading it worked. It got 500 views within a few hours, a bunch of comments and likes. I'd later make another video in the afternoon, and after uploading that one, the first video and this new video stopped getting any views altogether. I think TikTok does this intentionally, they give you a lot of views, and then stop.
It's not really possible to search for videos on TikTok, I think, you just watch videos as they're recommended to you from the front page reel. So basically only a few videos really get shown to people at a time. My video was recommended to people for a few hours, and that was it. Its time in the spotlight was over shortly after. It's funny that they made it so you swipe up and down on TikTok, because I think Tinder has copyrighted the design of swiping left and right.
Uploading this video and having it gain all those views gave me a dopamine rush. This is how they hook you into creating and uploading new content consistently. They'll have you keep uploading videos in the hopes that you get your video on the spotlight for a few hours again, and get that hit of dopamine again. I'm not sure if I keep wanting to take hits, but it's also a good thing to create content, no? Anyway, if anything, this can just be for practice.
I needed to get my car tested and get a new sticker, something called a Marbete here in Puerto Rico. You have to do it once a year. I asked Eric if he wanted to come with me to a place to get my car tested, and he said sure. These places can be sketchy, so I think that's why it helps to come along with someone. I went to pick him up, and Acorn was there so she also came with us. We went to a place that said it was open, but turned out to be closed. Anyway, I just dropped them off again and went home.
At home was when I worked on that second video, and just did some random web browsing. It turns out when I'm not playing games or watching anime, I'd instead just browse the Internet, which is better I think, but still not that meaningful, and still not that productive.
Later Eric called me and asked if I wanted to do some activism with him and Strauss, I was down for it, so we did it. The video can be found on his channel. I talked with some Japanese brothers, some women, and a self-proclaimed biggest trader in Miami, who followed me on Instagram, he has 32k followers. Overall very cool day, and I experienced a lot. I don't know what I would have done if I hadn't gone live with them. Maybe I would have just been on Twitter, tweeting out random stuff? Or just eating food at home? I ended up not eating that much today because I was busy throughout most of the day.
Eric's channel is growing pretty nicely. I think he only had around 400 subscribers or so when I first met him, and now he has around 1100, with a lot of people tuning into his streams and watching his videos. My video that I uploaded today only got 6 views throughout the day. I could feel some jealousy, but I don't. I'm glad his channel is growing and I want it to continue growing. I have the same capabilities to succeed just as much as him, he's doing well, so that's great on him.
I have been an envious person in the past, and I guess I still have a tiny amount of that. I don't get jealous from strangers since I don't know them, so it's weird that I would only get jealous from people I know, which doesn't make any sense. It's weird how we can have appreciation for the infinite success of a celebrity that we don't know and will never know us, while we have jealousy from the minuscule success of someone that we do know and knows us.
We hung out at his pool and place after. I drove home and texted my friend Ami later that night. This is what ended up happening instead of me playing any games or watching any anime. He linked me a video of how phones are shrinking our brains and it was an interesting watch. I have become more mindful of my attachment to my phone since.
Anyway, that was my day today.
You must be signed in to post a comment!