🖋️Draw a Crazy Polo, New Cool Tools, and Discovering an Egyptian Queen
so many mummies
Hellooooooooo and welcome to this week’s edition of The Land of Random.
It’s a chilly day in November - and I’m very thankful for warm jackets, hoodies, and hot cups of coffee. Last week my family was sick - I haven’t gotten sick yet - I think they finally got what I had the other week . . .
The Black Friday emails are coming thick and furious - and I’m trying to ignore them!
My last purchase was an Echo Show 8 - and I’m done buying stuff for awhile. My next major purchase is likely a phone - my Oneplus 7 Pro is still going strong - so I don’t need a new phone until probably the end of next year.
The Asus Zenphone 9 is definitely still my top choice.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with my 3D printer - learning how to do various supports for it. Supports are plastic towers that keep delicate printed parts like arms from falling off.
Supports are complicated! Go too thin and your printer can go wack because a support gives out - go too thick and it can get fused to your print.
Oh - I’ve figured out what I plan to add to the upcoming paid version of this newsletter.
It will cost $7.25 a month.
There will be 3 main benefits.
a Monthly Deep Dive into an interesting topic
You’ll be entered into biweekly 3D print giveaways
reviews of Crazy stuff from Aliexpress
There is also a founding members plan that costs $5,000 a year. For these founders - they will get all the benefits above anddd - a personal Christmas box full of cool stuff inspired by The Land of Random.
Maybe I’m crazy for putting in that plan but - all I need is 22 founders to help me take The Land of Random to the next level.
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving this week!
Let’s dive in, shall we?
🐎Draw a Polo
Lacoste isn’t really a brand I would wear - Personally, I’ll always associate it with the high school jocks.
Nothing against anyone who wears Lacoste. It’s a cool brand.
I haven’t worn a polo since 2016, and I intend to keep things that way.
However - they recently made something pretty cool called “Draw Your Polo.”
Once you’re ready, you just click the “Draw” button and draw different designs on the polo. For example . . .
All those different designs? Click on them - and you get a marker to start drawing. The web app is incredibly responsive and fluid - and I’m AMAZED at how well the design tool works.
It’s fun just to mess around with, even if you don’t plan to create and submit a polo.
After you’re finished marking up your polo, you can submit it for the chance to win - your very own creation and $$$.
People put serious work into their designs!
It’s a creative marketing tool to get people engaged with the brand. Honestly - I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer the polos for sale at some point.
If you spent an hour designing a polo for a chance to win - and were offered the chance to buy it for $100 - wouldn’t you be tempted?
All you gotta do is send out a little survey with a range of prices - figure out which one was the most popular, and sell the custom polo at that price.
It’s a brilliant little lead magnet.
Go design your own polo!
😎Cool Tools
Time for another batch of cooool tooools
NYM
Nym is a really interesting personal website tool that hopes to be the “open-source spiritual successor to Blogger & Wordpress.”1 On the surface it feels like "Oh - it's another Ghost competitor" but it seems like they're trying to tune into Geocities energy if this article is anything to go by. At any rate, it’s definitely worth exploring / keeping an eye on as it grows. At the very least, I hope there’s a lot more website-building flexibility than there is with Ghost. They plan to offer a TON of features like pages, AMA’s, messages, AMA’s, Newsletters, and more.
Poxi.Page
As an mmm.page user, I’m a tad biased when it comes to creative website builders. Poxi is remarkably similar (UI/UX choices) - and feels like it’s trying to compete against mmm.page. There’s a TON of features and i haven’t gotten the chance to explore it fully yet (I need to build a page) but it features website embeds, custom code, markdown, and multiplayer. The custom code and website embed tools are “killer features” that could really make it stand out in the “free range creative website builder” space.
Metadocs
Want to have a discussion about a webpage? Metadocs is a Chrome extension for having a Reddit style conversation on ANY webpage. It’s a really interesting concept - and it works very easily too. When you visit a webpage, just click the extension and the comments + highlights pop up. It’s really clean + easy to use, and I honestly hope this one catches on.
TinyWow
Ok - so we’re always searching for different file converters - whether doc, audio, or video ANDDD if we’re into OSINT (open source intelligence gathering) sometimes we’re scrambling to download videos too. Tinywow is one of those websites you should bookmark at the top of your bookmarks. It has SOOO many tools.
👑An Egyptian Queen
DID YOU HEAR THE NEWSSSS?????
They found the tomb of an unknown Egyptian Queen and HUNDREDS of mummies.
I first heard about this on TikTok . . . I was like WHAT IS THIS?!?!
Then I read about the meltdown as hundreds of ancient Egyptian Skeleton warriors began rampaging . . .
NAH - but hopefully the archaelogists don’t start mysteriously dying.
Funnily enough, the tomb was discovered on the 100th anniversary of King Tuts tomb being found.2
The latest cache of mummies likely contains the remains of Tut’s generals and advisors. Even more intriguing is a pyramid that experts now believe was dedicated to an ancient queen who is being identified for the first time. “We have since discovered that her name was Neith, and she had never before been known from the historical record,” Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, the nation’s former minister of antiquities, told Live Science. “It is amazing to literally rewrite what we know of history, adding a new queen to our records.” (source)
That’s absolutely wild! I wonder where Queen Neith fit into the era of King Tut?
Inside the coffins, archaeologists found the bodies of well-preserved mummies. Despite opportunities for decay and looting, the mummies remained untouched and in good condition. Additionally, inside the coffins and tomb shafts, they also found artifacts such as games, small figurines known as shabtis, and statues of the god Ptah-Sokar, who represents the cycle of birth, death, and resurrection. (source)
I found a bunch of possible tomb videos on TikTok (stumbled across via the FYP I should say) and they’re on some weird page that is using the videos for engagement bait.
Seriously - IDK if any of these vids are from the tomb, or if they’re from something else. I couldn’t find anything on Reddit or Youtube . ..
There’s not too much information out about the unknown queen - so we’re mostly limited to articles all basically saying the same thing. Check this one out for more info!
🐙The Land of Random
Random Randomness found in the Land of Random
Bubbles
Blow Bubbles, try not to pop them, and just enjoy the vibes
I think he broke it
Staple gun, but FULL AUTO
Are ALL TRUFFLES A LIE?
Not only did Nicholas Cage get his truffle pig stolen, but apparently a lot of those truffle flavoring oils are just lies.
Make Some Cool Terrain
Drag your mouse and make some chill landscapes, maybe some mountains.
Lofi + Game
Listen to chill music and play Breakout, Solitaire - or other simple fun games. It’s a fun twist on the many lofi sites I’ve encountered over the past few years.
Explore fun sites
Random link shuffler, but with many of them embedded within webroll. Neat!
Get Nostalgic - phone edition
This Twitter thread about weird phones is fantastic. We FORGET just how weird phones were in the 2000’s.
🎵TikToks You Can’t Miss
Yeah i’ll be honest . . . Spectral was a really good movie.
Fish Simulacrums? Huh. That’s interesting. I’ll have to do more reading.
I agree - all ads should be like this.
Straight facts right here. So many forums are dead too.
Grow your own Saffron?
🎙️Vybes
When was the last time you started toe tapping to some Electric Swing?
That’s all for this week! See you next time.
https://blog.nymhq.com/writing/long-live-personal-websites
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/egyptian-archaeologists-rewrite-history-with-the-discovery-of-a-tomb-of-a-previously-unknown-queen-2212542