👽Alien Shrimp, Cook with Rivian, and Preserving Worlds

Are those from Earth??

Oct 11, 2021

Hey friends! How’s your Monday going?

Last week our two little children were both pretty sick, but they’re getting much better! There’s nothing sadder than a 5-month-old who has a cold. 😭 They need so many cuddles!

I ordered this epic Dunkaroos hat last week. I’m gonna wear the heck out this thing, rest assured.

I’m not sure why, but out of all the great 90’s foodstuffs, I connected most with Dunkaroos. Fruitopia was pretty awesome too.

This week we can hopefully say that Facebook and its related apps are working. Honestly, the best part of last Monday was hearing that Telegram got another 71 million users. Hurrah!

As a long term Telegram user, well . . . .

If you’re one of those new users, welcome. Feel free to hop into The Land of Random chat

I’d love to hang out in there with ya!

👽Alien Shrimp

What would you do if you saw this in the water?

If I saw that, I’d probably be desperately searching the internet to make sure I hadn’t picked up the tadpole stage of a Facehugger or something.

Yeah, those things aren’t getting me.

Fortunately, despite its alien appearance, it’s an earthly creature and just a little Triops.

Following a torrential summer downpour in northern Arizona, hundreds of bizarre, prehistoric-looking critters emerged from tiny eggs and began swimming around a temporary lake on the desert landscape, according to officials at Wupatki National Monument. These tadpole-size creatures, called Triops "look like little mini-horseshoe crabs with three eyes," Lauren Carter, lead interpretation ranger at Wupatki National Monument, told Live Science. Their eggs can lie dormant for decades in the desert until enough rainfall falls to create lakes that provide real estate (Source)

I often forget that there are such a thing as dormant eggs that can last decades.

I’m really glad that shrimp don’t look like little horseshoe crabs, aren’t you?

Read more about these strange little creatures at Live Science

Alien Shrimpies

🍳Cook with Rivian

I wrote about the Rivian electric vehicle a while back . . . and I have to admit I wasn’t sure what to think of their pull out stove.

Since then they’ve really “pimped” out the stove. It’s a full-blown kitchen.

The automaker has made a number of changes to the kitchen since it first debuted, including the addition of two supporting actors: a foundational shuttle system that the kitchen attaches to and a dishware set from Snow Peak. (Source)

Wait. A dishware set? Wait, there’s more.

The kitchen, which has a Richlite (a durable compressed paper resin) surface, includes a 1,440-watt two-burner induction cooktop, a nearly four-gallon water tank with a pressurized pump, collapsible and removable sink and several drawers with cork inserts to hold the 30-piece kitchen set from Snow Peak. The set includes a nylon spatula, bamboo spatula, tongs, ladle, two knives, corkscrew, can opener, peeler, titanium cutlery set, tableware, stacking mugs, cutting board, two large pots, a coffee grinder, kettle and pour-over stand. (Source)

That sounds absolutely amazing for a wilderness adventure. Instead of that sad little bunsen burner, cook in luxury with burners, a cutting board, and a sink!

Sounds like a blast.

Imagine - going out on a picnic and cooking food hot and fresh on the stovetop.

If you’re interested in seeing what it looks like - watch this really cool walkthrough. The engineer shows everything, and you can see the absolute joy in her face showing some of the stuff.

After watching this, I’m not sure which car I’m more excited to see out in the world - the Cybertruck or the Rivian!

Go check out the Rivian to see all the cool features - they’ve added a lot more to the page since the last time I took a look.

The Rivian

🌎Preserving Worlds

The internet is a strange creature - composed of new websites, and old dying websites - in a constant cycle.

It’s the same with virtual worlds - from Star Wars Galaxies to Second life, there's a whole host of dying virtual worlds where the servers get smaller and smaller.

Yes - It’s a fantastic question - who chooses to live in old dying virtual worlds? What is it like to live in these?

There’s a documentary series from “Preserving Worlds” that strives to answer these questions.

Preserving Worlds is a travelogue that takes you through some of the most interesting and impactful online games and communities of the past forty years to see what it’s like to visit them today. Along the way, you’ll meet people who are working against obsolescence to keep the communities they care about alive and accessible.

Interesting, right?

I watched the first episode over the weekend - and it focuses on the ancient Worldschat platform that came out in the 90’s.

In it, we meet an archivist who tells us more about the “world” of worldschat, some of its creations, and some of the users that he’s met.

It’s kinda like VR chat - but with intense 90’s vibes.

It’s absolutely wild to think the servers behind this ancient world are still going - and that there’s still a few people who visit its realms.

The same could be said for a lot of other sites - like old social media apps / sites that are ghosts of their former selves.

Myspace *cough, cough*

Heck - is it possible that within our lifetime we could watch documentaries about survivng FB groups on the dying platform?

or documentaries about exploring ancient Minecraft or Roblox worlds?

It’s a fascinating thought to consider.

Go check out the Documentary page or start watching the episodes at the link!

Preserving Worlds

🐙The Land of Random

Let’s hop into the random shall we?

Websurfer

This website is dope - it’s a Geocities-style site that acts as a random link spinner to a bunch of cool places. You just gotta check out the vibe of this awesome site!

Websurfer