💀RIP to Spotify CarThing,Hololive Baseball, and Meal Deals

America is not ready for Hololive

David Nichols

Jun 03, 2024

Hey friends!

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

Summer is around the corner - and so are the scorching temperatures.

Our garden is coming along nicely - we’ve even enjoyed a few small carrots!

The blackberries and raspberries are almost ripe too!

We’ve been getting LOTS of rain in Tennessee - which has definitely been helping.

Did you hear that the original inspiration for ALL Backrooms lore has been discovered?

It’s in a HobbyTown USA location.

Sadly the room was transformed - so there’s no help of a pilgrimage.

The Backrooms are so popular A23 is going to make a real series.

(Here’s some Backrooms watching if you’re interested. It’s great)

ON A SIDE NOTE - This has got to be the most creative way possible to play a videogame. Ever. Full on Tank simulation.

Let’s dive in - shall we?

🎶Rip to Spotify Carthing

Pour one out for the small niche beloved Spotify Carthing.

a wayback version of the Carthing landing page

It will cease to work on December 9 - and Spotify has only reluctantly started giving refunds.

On that day - it’ll become a worthless brick.

I do hope Spotify never says anything about “saving the environment” because the Carthing is a pretty epic fail: Thousands and thousands of devices bricked into useless chunks of plastic.

For people like me who have no “screen” in our car - it was FANTASTIC. I used mine every day.

A lot of people started using them as desktop music controllers too (including me).

It’s such a weird chapter in the music streaming chapter of history.

Oh - Spotify made a physical device for streaming, then they broke it.

Sadly - there are no proper alternatives - unless you want a Bluetooth button or something you can press play or skip on.

Your next best option is an Apple Carplay / Android Auto device.

The crazy part (and why I’m writing about this) is that even though it’s been hacked - it hasn’t been hacked into a replacement of sorts.

It’s been hacked into a Macropad.

It’s been rooted.

It’s been turned into an external monitor.

All of these hacks are fairly complicated too - not something the average Carthing owner will attempt.

As Hackaday points out in this article - a lot of the hacking happened when the device was released . . . and now interest is spinning up again.

Surely the hardware hacking community can do a bit better than that. As it turns out, there’s actually been a fair amount of hacking and research done on the Car Thing, it’s just that most of it happened a couple years back when the device first hit the market. Things stagnated a bit in the intervening years, but now that the clock is ticking, there’s far more interest in cracking open the gadget and seeing what else we can do with it. (source)

There’s r/carthinghax and r/SpotifyCarThingJBreak on Reddit.

Maybe someone will figure out a way to easily hack the device. We can hope, right?

👀Mainstream Anime

Anime is finally going mainstream in the US.

Shows like Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Attack on Titan, Delicious in Dungeon, or Demon Slayer have broke through the “aether” into mainstream attention.

However . . . until the last few years - I hadn’t seen any proper attempts at commercialization.

Over in Japan - everything has anime.

Even some Mcdonalds Commercials.

Here in the USA - the “anime” wheels are only just beginning to spin.

There’s a study from a few years ago that claims 44% of Gen Z watches anime.

Here’s some more data

In early 2020, a U.S. survey reported that 27% of American adults ages 18-29 have a favorable view of anime. The average anime fan is 24.4 years old. While the anime genre has different content that appeals to different demographics, the majority of people who are watching are Gen Zers. According to Grandview Research, from 2021-2028, the global anime market will grow by 9.7%. In the U.S., that increase is more substantial at 15.5%. (source)

With Gen Z becoming the target market (sorry fellow Millennials - we’re old and boring) it makes sense that businesses would try to test the waters with anime-related products.

Here’s some examples

The Bart Train in SF has anime mascots
G-Fuel has a Hatsune Miku collection
WcDonalds was an official thing earlier this year
Vans One Piece collection

These are all outside what I’d call the “niche” collabs we might see at Hot Topic or Box Lunch.

However - I’ve saved the best for last.

The LA Dodgers are having a hololive themed game on July 5th.

YES - Hololive. Here watch the announcement from the Hololivers themselves

I’m deeply fascinated to see how the average middle-aged American will react to the some of the following - particularly Gawr Gura singing.

Special announcements by Hoshimachi Suisei, Usada Pekora, and Gawr Gura will be used over the PA system in the stadium during the hololive night. Other features of the collaboration include a special photo spot with talents’ life-sized cutouts in the stadium, and a hololive night drone show. There will also be collaboration merchandise available for purchase at the Dodger Stadium. During the game at the bottom of the seventh inning, Gawr Gura will be singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. (source)

Twitter users are also quite interested.

This tweet below made me cry laughing.

Anyway, keep an eye out for more anime collabs in the USA. It should get pretty interesting!

If you live near LA and want to go to the game - here’s the link.

Hololive at the LA Dodgers

🍔Meal Deals

These days it’s nice to save a few bucks when eating out.

Groceries are all more expensive, and eating out has become more of a treat - Time to explore affordable options for family night or date night.

(Fun Fact - Little Caesars is now the most affordable restaurant chain)

It’s all about the art of finding the elusive meal deal.

For example - did you know Outback Steakhouse has “Walkabout Wednesdays” where you can get a steak and fries combo for $13.99?

Download the app and get a free Bloomin’ Onion too.

Or - that Chilis offers a “Three for me” starting at just $10.99? (appetizer, meal, and drink).

OR - you can get the Panera sip club for 3 months free?

or that Buffalo Wild Wings has a BOGO on boneless wings on Thursdays?

All of these deals (and many more) exist at TONS of restaurant chains.

The Trick is optimizing them.

For example - at our old apartment complex we had a Panera within walking distance. My wife and I both had sip club because it prevented us from spending money on other “fun drinks.”

Want a coffee? Go to Panera. Want a coke? Go to Panera.

Sadly - there’s no central app for figuring this stuff out. It’s more of a “do research” kind of thing.

Yeah - there’s lists like this one - but you have to always double check if offers still exist.

Check out this Kinopio board for my “Meal Deal” hunting matrix!

Find Meal Deals