Automation Blueprint • Notion + Make + ChatGPT How I’m Automating My Entire Creator Workflow (So My Eyes Don’t Have to Do the Heavy Lifting) If you’ve ever spent 45 minutes hunting “the thing” you already made… welcome to the cure. ✅ Notion = Brain ⚡ Make = Conveyor Belt 🧠 ChatGPT = Draft Engine 🛡️ Approval = Safety Jump to a section Open ▾ 🎸 Blues albums Music at the top Start here Why this exists Big picture What we automate Step 1 Notion database Step 2 Triggers Step 3 Clean inputs Step 4 Make scenario Step 5 ChatGPT instructions Step 6 Guardrails Step 7 Packaging Premium next upgrade Where this goes next Creator desk Tools I use Additional reading More like this Next steps Subscribe + listen 🎸 Listen to O...

Ultimate Travel Prep Checklist: From Passport to Paradise If you’ve ever scrambled at 2 a.m. the night before a trip searching for your passport—or worse, realized your sunscreen somehow ended up in the kitchen drawer—this post is for you. Preparing for a big vacation shouldn’t feel like assembling a NASA launch crew. Here’s a complete, step-by-step travel prep checklist to help you glide from your driveway to the departure gate like a seasoned pro. --- 1. Six Weeks (or More) Before You Go ✅ Check Passports & IDs Your passport is your golden ticket. Make sure it’s valid for at least six months past your return date. If it’s damaged, expired, or nearing the limit—renew it now. Keep a digital copy (photo or PDF) stored in your email or cloud drive. ✅ Review Entry Requirements Different countries, different rules. Check if your destination requires visa forms or entry declarations. Many Caribbean and Latin destinations (like the Dominican Republic) now use online e-ticket ...

MID-WEEK MAGIC: OUR 269 NIGHT DATE NIGHT IN KALAMAZOO There are two kinds of date nights: The ones you plan months in advance, with impossible dinner reservations, candlelit booths, and whispered conversations about “being fancy adults”… …and then there’s 269 Night in Kalamazoo, where the beer is $2, the wings are $6, and the seats are orange enough to wake the dead. Guess which one we picked? Welcome to our mid-week date night on the cheap, written from the perspective of a Mid-Michigan couple that firmly believes romance should come with warm smiles, cozy sweaters, and the unmistakable sound of a hockey puck smacking plexiglass hard enough to remind you you’re alive. This is the story of how a Wednesday night became the perfect date night adventure — affordable, hilarious, loud, and just the right amount of cozy. --- WHY 269 NIGHT? BECAUSE INFLATION IS RUDE Let’s start with the truth: date night shouldn’t require a small loan. We wanted something f...

11 Days Until the Winter Solstice: Living in Mid-Michigan’s Giant Fridge Out the window: a solid, lumpy layer of Mid-Michigan snow that looks like it signed a six-month lease. On the calendar: a small red circle around December 21 , the winter solstice. On the driveway: you, a shovel, and the growing suspicion that your lower back should be listed as a historic site. And hovering on the horizon in our cartoon is that tired little sun — the fridge light of the sky — finally trying to turn itself up. That’s what the winter solstice really is, once you strip away the science jargon: the official moment when the universe says, “Okay, fine, you’ve had enough darkness. Let’s slowly crank the dimmer back toward ‘not depressing.’” So… What Is the Winter Solstice, Really? Astronomy version: the Earth tilts, our hemisphere leans away from the sun, and we get the shortest day and longest night of the year. After that moment, the North Pole starts tilting back to...

!-- FTC / Affiliate Disclosure --> Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some links may be affiliate links; I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. 🎸 Listen to Our Blues Albums Three full albums — hit play below or open on YouTube. Album 1 — Smokey Texas Blues Jam Album 2 — Smokey Delta River Blues Album 3 — King of the Delta River Blues Direct links: Album 1 · Album 2 · Album 3 Eight Low-Cost Habits for a Happy Retirement (No Yacht Required) Retirement isn’t a vacation. It’s a rebuild. Here are eight low-cost habits that replace what work gave you for free: stimulation, routine, and people. We all know the classic retirement plan: save money, pay off stuff, cross fingers… and then stare at a Tuesday like it owes you an itinerary. But here’s the sneaky truth: plenty of people do the money part “fine” and ...

Retirement Strategy Lab — Using ChatGPT to Explore Your Options A practical, real-world way to use ChatGPT to test retirement strategies, compare tradeoffs, and build a plan that matches your life (not a generic spreadsheet fantasy). Clear Practical Audit-minded Travel-friendly 🎸 Listen to Our Blues Albums Three full albums — hit play below or open on YouTube. ``` Album A — Smokey Texas Blues Jam Album B — Smokey Delta River Blues Album C — King of the Delta River Blues Direct links: Album A · Album B · Album C ``` What this post is (and what it isn’t) This is a playbook for using ChatGPT like a retirement “strategy engine.” It’s not financial advice, and it’s definitely not a promise that any plan will work exactly as modeled. What it is : a way to think clearly, test scenarios, and squeeze real advantages out of the rules wi...

Giving an Old Track Photo a Second Wind with AI Every once in a while you find a photo that stops you cold. For me, it was a sun-faded snapshot from a high school track meet. I’m mid-stride, shadow stretched across the lane, surrounded by teammates, parents, and that particular golden haze every 80s and 90s photo seems to swim in. The picture was soft, scratched, and starting to lose the details that made the moment real. So I did something that would’ve sounded like science fiction back when that race was run: I handed the picture to an AI and asked it to help me save the memory. This post is the story of that restoration—what was actually done to the image, how ChatGPT 5.1 Thinking fits into the process, and the exact prompt you can use to clean up your own “shoebox photos” without becoming a Photoshop wizard first. The tone and structure follow the same kind of narrative-plus-how-to style I use for my other Deep Dive AI pieces. Why Old Photos Look So Rough Toda...