Share a hobby you’ve picked up recently — what got you into it?
I’ve had hobbies much of my life, and I switch between them. Toys, then reading, then video games, hobby robotics, currently international travel. I have recently gotten into blogging (my HETTY website), and AI generation. I’ll explain why.
So, I’ve been country hopping since early 2025, and while I have an income, long travel is expensive no matter how frugal one is. I’ve been traveling to countries with lower costs of living, but I have stubborn debt I’d like to pay off as quickly as possible.
So I have been looking into side gigs, and long story short, decided on a blog. I have education with studying Information Technology, food service and cooking, and English technical writing. I thought the blog based on my education and experience could generate some extra income through donations, but so far nothing. I most likely won’t renew my WordPress by November, but I’m still posting articles and writing for now.
AI generated content is more complicated, but one of the reasons I’m dabbling in prompting articles, images, and short videos is again money. I’m fully aware of how controversial and troublesome AI apps are. The technology is currently causing problems around the world, and will cause more problems in the future. I fully agree that AI apps need to be heavily regulated, if not banned entirely.
However, I’ve been exposed to AI content online for around 2 years. It’s increasingly difficult to avoid AI related content at this point short of staying off of the internet. I gradually used different AI engines over time, with a writing generator, then image and video creation apps.
I use Gemini to ask questions about different topics when I’m curious about something, or I’ll write prompts on other AI apps to generate images and videos I have to visualize ideas I have. I’ve gotten fairly good at writing prompts over a short period of time.
So far, I paid for 3 subscriptions to different AI apps. I’m still trying to figure out a way to make extra income with the content I prompted, but I’ll post short videos and images on social media to see if I get a reaction. AI isn’t popular with many people, and currently for good reason.
Some of the videos and images I had generated are safe for work, others aren’t.
I’m currently participating in the AI generation bubble, cuz I missed out on the Information Technology bubble in the early 21st century. I’ll continue to experiment with different apps, and maybe some day it can lead to something lucrative or profound.
I make sure to label any AI generated content that I post online as such. I’m using AI, but try to have standards and integrity in using it.
HETTY 