Week in the Life in New York City + Home Office Setup Upgrades

You? You haven't even introduced yourself yet. Look who it is. What's good my guy? What's good? Hello, Sadie. Matthias Geisel, who is the board member, head of marketing and sales. We came here from Germany for this event. Matthias, please join me on stage. It's only Monday. Typically, I don't go to coffee shops to work until later in the week because it's so easy to get off track when it comes to my nutrition plan and paying for coffee and food, like out to eat. So I'd rather push that off to the end of the week. But it's just such a gloomy gray day. I figured I might as well go to a coffee shop. Honestly, I'm just going for an hour or so. I want to do some sketching, some journaling. Some weeks get away from me. I don't even leave the house unless it's for going on a run. Or maybe I have an event like I did at Mercedes last week. Hello. Spring is here. Like you guys just saw the weather. And it's going to be 70 pretty much every day the next 6, 7, 8 days. So it's time to bring out the Super 73. You know what I'm saying? Super 73. I have to grab the battery. And I need to charge it because I haven't charged it in a while. And why be on feet when I can get to literally wherever I really need to be in a matter of 20 minutes. So every time I take my do-rag off, I get this middle part. And I keep forgetting to reverse my do-rag. But I haven't had a braiding style in probably like a month. So I'm not really sure when this middle part is going to disappear. But my hair has already grown. Not quite a bit, but it's grown a little bit. And it's been about 2 weeks since I cut my hair. And I really like this new look. It's just so clean and just effortless. I no longer have to get my hair braided. That costs a lot of money, especially in New York. And it just feels so fresh. I don't know. Maybe it's because it's spring and it's a new season. So the combination of a new haircut, new season, has me feeling like this was the right decision. I know some of you guys have asked me about my eye. And it's just scarring. This black spot that you kind of see around my eye is essentially a scar from the eczema that I have. And I get a flare-up once every few months. This time it was my fault. I used a black spot remover for my nose. And I ended up getting way too close to underneath my eye. And it ended up flaring my eczema up. So just whoever who's experienced eczema, just be careful with products that aren't just a moisturizer and a cleanser. I try to have a more simplistic facial routine. I have been using Aquaphor to heal my eye. And I think it's done a pretty good job of brightening that spot. So I'm just using this Advanced Therapy Aquaphor. It's probably not going to focus. But it's fragrance-free and for dry, cracked, or irritated skin. Oh, I see that somebody's happy. Are you happy? You got your food? It's so good. Alright, time for the big reveal. Man, that looks good. Very Mediterranean. With a side of sweet green fries. I cannot wait to try these. Guys, this bowl. This combo. French fries. With this quinoa and steak salad. Bustin'. We used to be sweet green regulars. And then we stopped going. I think they got us back on the hook. Alright, so we are on our way to an event with Sony. This should be exciting. They're releasing a new audio product. I have no idea what it is right now. But by the time I post this video, I'm assuming I can actually reveal what it is. Such a beautiful day. I'm telling you, everyone's energy is so much better when the sun is out and it's warm. You need perfect weather in order to be grateful for the day. But coming from winter and having gray, gloomy, dark days. Makes you so much more grateful for days like today. Alright, just got a chance to see a couple of my friends running the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Extremely proud of all of them. And I'm on my way to try to meet them at the finish. I'm glad I didn't run. I think it's best for the health of my legs and Achilles. And having so much fatigue. But nonetheless, happy to cheer. It's my first time really doing this. Since the New York City Marathon. Super 73 is essential for me on a daily basis. Specifically between the months of April to October. When it's warm and not too windy outside. Getting an e-bike has been really life changing in terms of my commute around New York City. I can just get around to the city so easily. Because with all the different bike lanes, bike paths. It's been one of the best purchases I've ever made. It wasn't cheap. But considering I got it maybe 6 to 7 months after my lease ended for my Jeep. This was a steal. This view is actually insane. One of the reasons that it's going to be really hard for me to move from New York City. I'm looking at the East River. Freedom Tower. Parts of Brooklyn. This waterfront is actually insane. And then Midtown. It's one of the best views of New York City. It's a great view. Got the ferries. Passing by. I'm like am I on an island? I mean we technically are on an island. But then you also see this insane view of the skyline. Bro my phone. Post workout. Malcolm. How you feeling bro? I'm cooked. You're cooked? Low key I am too. We did 4x1 miles at basically half marathon and tempo pace. Yeah even faster probably. Even faster yeah. But it was a good workout. One of those workouts where you feel proud of yourself for just showing up right? It's so loud in here but I got invited to play basketball at the Nike HQ. I haven't played since. I'm curious to see how this goes. The last time I played ball. So I was a shell of myself. It wasn't fun. You know my finger is still not fully healed. Which is why I've been taking a break. Along with the fact of not risking a knee injury because I prefer running. Let's go. Rhythm Zero has become easily one of my favorite cafes in New York City. I very much appreciate their unique aesthetic. A more brutalist interior. But also cozy at the same time. And for some reason I always find myself there on a more gloomy day. So the more monochromatic interior really pops. I can actually use a laptop. And I didn't realize that because before I would use my Pixel 9 Pro XL Fold. Because it essentially works like a tablet. Especially with the split keyboard. Plenty of screen real estate and able to multitask. But this time I was able to use my laptop. The only thing is I can never get there earlier in the day. So I only had about an hour to work because they close at 4. Alright what's up guys. We're back at the office. And I hope the audio sounds better. Because we've made some changes to the desk setup. Not necessarily aesthetically but more functionally. And I'm getting used to these changes. Because I prefer my desk countertop to be more minimalist. With not a ton of accessories crowding the space. But I'm learning that a more authentic realistic and relatable desk setup. Are the ones that are messy but curated. With a healthy blend of organization and personal style. In order to make the desk setup feel more personal if that makes sense. But before we talk about some of my desk upgrades. And my audio upgrades that I made to make my videos a better experience for you guys. I just want to quickly talk about why I chose Google Gemini to update my personal website. Which is live right now. You all can see the very simplistic website that I've created for myself. And by the time I drop this video I'm not sure if I add really any functionality. It's more just UI and the first phase for JocelynJ.com You guys have been following my channel for years. You know that I've spent so much time talking about making changes to my website. Redesigning it and actually never writing the code. The main reason is because it's so time consuming. Making a conscious effort for a new design. And then turning that new design into code. Now that's where Google Gemini came into play. So I had a really cool demo. But essentially I had a demo from the Google Gemini team. For their new canvas feature built into Google Gemini. And essentially you can use this for study plans. You can write blog posts. Write Python scripts so you can code. I'm just showing you all some of the prompts that I'm seeing right now. With Google Gemini opened up on my web browser. But essentially you can use it as your creative playground for really anything. And the demo I did was a 3D game. That it was able to build in a matter of X amount of prompts. This insanely dynamic and detailed layered 3D game. Or 3D world actually. And then I got a demo of a website. That it built where you can enter in a prompt. And it will give you 10 different avatars that you could choose from. Which was also crazy. So I was just thinking. You know ChatGBT is great. It actually doesn't do a great job. When it comes to crafting images. It does a solid job when it comes to writing code. But I wanted to see what it was like to basically build a website with Gemini. Because one of the more powerful parts of the demo. Was an example where essentially use Gemini as a markdown file. To write out all the content you want for a website. And then just ask it to build a website for you. Which I thought was really cool. On top of that the pro for using Google's Gemini. Is because it's built off of Google Gemini 2.5 Pro. And its strengths are reasoning, math, coding, and multimodal tasks. So essentially ChatGBT models are often favored. For creative writing ability, summarization, and a conversational flow. With some direct prompts. However when it comes to Gemini 2.5 Pro. It has an edge on more complex reasoning, math, and coding benchmarks. Compared to models like GPT 4.5 for instance. So I wanted to put it to a test and I did. And it only took me a few hours to build my new website. That is more UI focused for this first phase. Taking inspiration from the Northern Lights. And other beautiful websites I've seen. On some dedicated portfolio websites. And it just says hi I'm Jossie. With a cool statement about who I am. Which is an ex-software engineer. I guess I could just literally read it to you guys. But hi I'm Jossie. I used to build software. Now I create stories around the tech that's shaping our world. With this really cool like status bar. That says let's create something. With a green dot. Which means I'm always active to create something. But nonetheless I was able to revamp this website in hours. First I created prompts explaining the changes I wanted to make to my website. I provided screenshots of inspiration. Like literal screenshots of what I wanted my gradient blob to look like. And it did a solid job. It didn't do it perfectly. But I think did a good enough job for a good starting point for me to push the code. And I also had to basically create the image for me. And then we went back and forth. And then I finally said okay create this as an animation. Where it's almost like kind of breathing in the background so subtly. With a simple blurb about who I am. You can fail fast with AI in ways that you just simply can't with a freelancer you're working with. Or with your own self. Because I just can't work as fast as AI. And now I can multitask. I can work on YouTube videos. Write emails. Write scripts. Watch YouTube videos. While also chat with Gemini or chatGBT. And explain a major change I want to make to my website. And it built the code for me. Now once I got that code. Of course it didn't work flawlessly. I had to drop it in Cursor. And then had Cursor do it's thing to actually get the code working. Alright guys from a desk setup standpoint. We've made some changes. Specifically from a audio and lighting perspective. So on body we're still shooting with the A7S III. I know I haven't talked about camera gear forever. Because I haven't made any changes in forever. But we have the Sony A7S III. I have the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 lens. Which is my go-to. I do wish I had the G Master. Because this lens is heavy. The actual upgrades that we made from an audio standpoint. Is we'll start with a shotgun mic. That's on the camera of the A7S III. It is the Sennheiser 400 MKE shotgun microphone. I just wanted the best audio. And I've got some creator friends that use this mic. I consulted with the audio experts at B&H Photo. And they recommended this mic. They said it's the best one you can get. It has a somewhat small form factor. Pretty minimal controls. But off first impressions and experience. This microphone sounds amazing. I couldn't hear any background noise or wind. When I had my first test. A few moments ago in this video. When we were walking around Brooklyn. Now moving on to this microphone. This is the Sennheiser MKE 600 shotgun microphone. Just for some reason got hung up on a shotgun microphone. And it's because when I've done production shoots. These are the microphones that the big boys use. These are the microphones that they use. For those commercial ultra high quality production shoots. That I've done a few times. For this microphone I'm thinking long term. It was obviously a lot more expensive. Than going with a Rode or Shure podcast style of microphone. I'm envisioning myself. God willing in a studio space. And I want to make sure I have the highest quality gear. And not even just video. But audio. Because audio is just as important. If not more important. And I can use this thing with a c-stand. It'll make me feel like the studio space. Is a super professional set. And just I want to be proud of the work. That I put out there. And I've always felt like I've neglected my audio. I know I'm just yapping at this point. But from a lighting standpoint. We've got two new lights. That I'm still trying to decide. How to mount this Pavotube 30C 4 foot RGB LED tube light. Again took inspiration from a production shoot. That we had here earlier this year. And I just saw how versatile these lights were. And I bought the cheaper versions of these. From other brands. And they just don't hit the way these lights hit. Alright so you can see this light back here. So I was using the Amaran 60 or something like that. Softbox. Which I know you guys really enjoyed. And now we get questions about it all the time. But I made a change. And went with this Amaran Verge bicolor LED light panel. I just think it's way more clean. And just minimal. And the softbox was just way too big. Because my desk is only 60 inches. So I ordered this with a stand. In person at B&H. But they didn't have the stand in person. So it was supposed to be sent to me. But they never sent it. I don't know maybe it wasn't part of the order. I got to check the receipt. Nonetheless I really like this light. And the idea is I'm going to get rid of this C-stand. And I'm actually going to replace it with the stand. That way I can just move the light around. And it won't typically be on my desk. Because I don't have a ton of desk space anyways. Last but not least is the Rodecaster Duo. Now I am no expert when it comes to this device. But the reason why I got this audio console. Is because I wanted to be able to control the audio to a T. For the Sennheiser 600 MKE shotgun mic. So it's important to have an audio interface or mixer for your microphone. You need to be able to use this device in order to make changes. Customize your shotgun mic audio input and experience. Based on you know the room that you're in. If that makes sense. Alright guys so that wraps up today's video. I hope you all enjoyed it. This montage of my life. The last honestly few weeks. But either way it's a fun switch up. And change of pace to the tech videos. And I would like to post more of these videos. Especially during the summer when I have some more free time. Or not necessarily free time. But there's less tech drops. So it's easier to make these style of videos. Comment down below some videos you want to see this summer. Along with just let me know how you guys doing. I want to know how y'all are doing. I think this is a great way for us to catch up. And you know as always have a blessed rest of your week. I'll see you guys soon. Peace.