👀Crack Caffeine, WcDonalds, and LOR Changes

Want a caffeine bump?

Mar 04, 2024

Hey friends!

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Land of Random.

Do you remember my tales of spiders in our home a few years back? When we first moved into our home - we faced an onslaught of spiders.

Between glue traps and diatomaceous earth - we pushed them back to the point where I only see a spider once every few months or so.

HOWEVER - a new army has taken up residence. The boxelder bug, and ladybugs.

Fortunately - they don’t hurt anything, so their presence is much more tolerable.

I like to think that an elite group of boxelder bugs and ladybugs killed all the spiders - and the unspoken deal is that they’ll live in our warm house in exchange for protecting us. Some sort of dystopian Beatrix Potter story, if you will.

Anywayyyyy - we’ve been doing the Whole30 diet for a few weeks, and I’ve shed about 8 pounds so far. I’m hoping to keep it going until I hit 210.

I only usually cheat each day by putting a bit of honey in my coffee - I can survive the “carb flu” relatively well - but going without sugar is extremely challenging.

The corn syrup and seed oils call to me in my sleep . . . .

Before we hop into today’s topics - there’s one little thing I’d like your help with.

Could you fill out this short survey? I’d love some feedback on the newsletter.

I’ve been really enjoying the responses!

Of course!

👀Crack Caffeine

I have no shame in admitting that I’m a caffeine addict.

In my 20’s I’d drink a fair amount of Monsters, Nos’s, and other such energy beverages. Now I limit myself to maybe one every month or so.

I’ve tried caffeine gum, caffeine water, death wish coffee . . .

Caffeine in all sorts of interesting mediums.

SO - when snortable caffeine comes along - even I raise an eyebrow.

The brand is called “Want a Bump” and completely leans into crack cocaine imagery.

Which instantly brings this ancient video to mind.

Short of sending you a spoon - each bump comes in a little white vial, with promises of 400 mg of snortable caffeine.

How is this real?

When caffeinated simulacrums exist?

The idea of snorting caffeine up my nose seems rather uncomfortable, so I doubt I’ll ever try it. It might be entertaining to buy for a “when SHTF workday” but until then - I’ll be sticking to a cup of coffee or the occasional monster.

Want a Bump?

🥔WcDonalds

I don’t know who manages the Marketing Department over at McDonald’s, but it’s quite clear that they’re leaning completely into Gen Z.

The Grimace shake challenge must’ve really driven some sales for them to say “Yes let’s do it” to the idea of an anime collaboration.

To be fair - McDonalds has “unofficially” popped up ALOT in anime - one of the biggest appearances being “The Devil is a Part Timer.”

(Devil from another world is at rock bottom and works at a very obvious McDonalds lookalike. Hilarious show).

Here’s some of the characters from the official Wcdonald’s site.

WcDonalds is an official anime-style drop - with manga, animated shorts, and a pop-up dining experience in LA to boot!

Here’s the trailer.

I know - it’s allll marketing, but it’s fun marketing.

Between this and Taco Bell’s hilarious “Silicon Valley" style launch event - crazier collabs just keep popping up every year for fast food brands.

Soooo Pepsi - when are you recreating Pepsiman?

The time is ripe.

Check out WcDonalds at the link!

WcDonalds

🐙Land of Random Changes

The internet has been changing pretty rapidly over the past few years - sites like Product Hunt and Reddit continue to be filled with spam.

Product Hunt in 2021 was a lot higher quality than it is now.

The Dead Internet theory is about to get a lot more legs - thanks in part to engagement tools like this one.

I’m currently at 86 different sources for curation - with an average of 6 - 8,000 links to look through a week.

I’m probably going to double or triple my sources this year to continue finding good content.

As of this week - I’m changing “TikToks You Can’t Miss” to “Walled Garden Finds” - and I’ll be sharing things I’ve found from TikTok, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter - sites like that.

TikTok isn’t as interesting as it used to be. A few years ago it was hilarious, and I was always finding fun and interesting stuff.

It’s still out there - but there’s a lot more noise now.

I’m gravitating a lot more toward blogs and forums - and I think I’ll get active on Are.na

I still spend time on social media - but I much prefer to dig through old forums, blogs, and other such interesting websites.

One more addition this year - I’ll be adding personal notes from my Kosmik universe for further exploration. It’ll add some further links for exploration, as well as small personal musings.

🐙The Land of Random

Into the random we goo!

Invite Only Ship Life

So apparently there’s a cruise ship that people live on full time! You buy your very own condo, and you have to be approved by people to live onboard.

WHATT

The Microsoft Graveyard

The difference between the Microsoft and Google graveyard is crucial - I’ve never heard of a sizeable amount of Microsoft Graveyard. (what is Yammer???)

Microsoft Graveyard

Tootsie Pop Toggle

If only websites had more fun buttons like this. Keep toggling to see what happens!

TOGGLE ME

Nekoweb

Make a fun retro-style website with Nekoweb! There’s also an explore page full of fun little websites to check out.

Nekoweb

Moneep

You mean, you DON’T want to wake up with all your friends on a social alarm clock? Haha - this would have been really fun back when I was in college. As much as I want to try this, my wife would not be a fan.

Moneep