🎅Secret Santa Tech, Hacking Six Flags, and Crypto Music

The beats be meta

Nov 01, 2021

Hey everyone! How’s your Monday morning treating you? Did you have a good Halloween? Hope you got to see some good horror movies! We watched a good bit of the old IT until we realized that the remake is superior.

Ready to enter the Metaverse?

As much as we may be unhappy with Facebook - there’s no denying the truth that Zuck officially acknowledging the Metaverse is an extremely bullish step forward for the implementation of the Metaverse.

For years, VrChat has been the go-to Metaverse space - but that’s soon to change.

The literal BILLION dollar question is WHO will conquer the Metaverse? Will Facebook merely pave the way for better experiences like Myspace or Moviepass?

Only time will tell. At any rate, don’t forget Facebook’s fail with Messenger.

It never became the Wechat of America.

This could happen to Meta too. Dunh dun du . . . . *dramatic music*

But . . . in other news, Altura is going TO THE MOON, and i’ve also invested a few dollars into Cat Girl Coin as well. Could be the next Shiba.

If you’ve got any altcoins you think are going to the moon, always feel free to email me and let me know. I’d like to buy a house in the next few years . . .

Let’s dive in, shall we?

🎅Secret Santa Tech

There’s no denying it anymore - it’s time to start thinking about Christmas and the holidays.

Communities on Imgur and Reddit often participate in giant secret Santa exchanges. Heck, even Bill Gates has sent people gifts through them.

Outside of these communities - it can be tough to organize one without exposing people’s personal details and addresses. How do you keep everyone private?

With Jolly, you can now safely host a Secret Santa gift exchange without jeopardizing anyone’s anonymity.

I downloaded the app to check it out. There’s some pretty neat features!

You can make your party, set start and end dates, and do all that kind of stuff pretty easily. You can even set a party fee if you’d like!

The only downside to the app (without actually running my own party) is that it seems to pick gifts from some sort of specific list. I’m not sure if these people have a Warehouse - or they’re tapping into some API - but it’s a very random gift selection.

Here’s a few pictures.

Maybe they’re pulling stuff from some kind of Wish clone? Everything is just so random. Even typing in a keyword as simple as “book” gives you the strangest results.

This must be their workaround to keep the app as automated as possible. Allowing people to choose gifts from particular sites . . . . I guess that could end up creating a situation in which Jolly employees have to place orders.

With this solution - they control cost, product, and shipping.

However, a lot of these products make total sense if you’re going for the White Elephant totally random vibe. Here - here’s a Jurassic Park Stadium Cup.

But - it doesn’t make sense for a gift exchange in which you’re buying meaningful presents for others. For example, your anon friend from the Halo Discord would probably appreciate that Halo funko pop a lot more than the Jurassic Park cup.

It all depends on what you’d use it for! Go check it out, and see if it could work for your upcoming party.

Jolly

🐱‍💻Hacking Six Flags

Ever wish you could eat for free?

Well, one very smart guy did just that at Six Flags for years.

How’d he do it?

What you have to do is buy a season pass, which at The Takeout’s friendly neighborhood Six Flags (Great America) goes for $64.99. Then, under season-pass add-ons, you’ll find the dining options. Great America offers a pass for Two Meal Season Dining, which includes lunch, dinner, and snack, for $109.99. So for $174.98 a year, I could attempt this lifestyle as well. (source)

So . . . . basically free.

Dylan, a 33-year-old electrical engineer in Santa Clarita, California, is the one who figured it out. “You can pay around $150 for unlimited, year-round access to Six Flags, which includes parking and two meals a day,” he tells me. “If you time it right, you could eat both lunch and dinner there every day.” (Source)

That’s absolutely brilliant.

Now - I thought to myself - would it still be possible to pull off this stunt at Six Flags or another theme park?

The Takeout discovered that you can still take advantage of this deal at Six Flags Great America. It’s now an add-on to the Season pass.

That’s not a bad deal at all . . . especially when you consider you spend at least $10 every time you eat out. It would only take about two weeks to break even.

This is one of those life hacks that we never think of, but may be more realistic than we think . . .

For example, at Kings Dominion you can do the same thing. For around $200 (a Gold Season Pass + a Gold Dining Pass) you can get unlimited lunch and dinner.

You can do this at Hershey Park too - and it's a pretty decent price!

If you live close to any of these locations, you might be able to eat for cheap for the entire year if you play your cards right . . .

If you’re like me, and don’t live close to a theme park . . . other than a Panera coffee subscription, a McCalister Tea Pass, or a Taco Bell Pass in Arizona, we’re kinda out of luck.

Read more about Dylan’s culinary adventures in The Takeout’s article, or this one by Mel Magazine.

🎵Crypto Music

Do you ever use Bandcamp? It’s kinda like the indie version of Spotify or Apple Music. It’s where I share all that fun vaporware music from.

I think Crypto music is going to eventually rise to that kind of popularity in the next few years - and maybe challenge Spotify in the next ten.

Why? Well - when you can sell limited edition NFT’s of your music that you can earn royalties on forever - that’s pretty tempting.

Let’s say I make an album and sell ten thousand of them for $3 each. Let’s say that song gets popular - and the value grows to $50 apiece.

If the contract is set up so that I get 10 percent back on every future sale . . . I’m gonna make a TON of passive income that I’d never make on Spotify or physical vinyl sales.

Here are several websites that are worth keeping your eye on for the foreseeable future.

Catalog

Catalog feels like a minimalist version of Bandcamp, with some epic UI features. When you listen to a song, a little record spins. It’s very nifty! On Catalog you can buy and own one of one songs. Check it out

Audius

Audius feels like Soundcloud, but with a crypto emphasis. Founded in 2018, its attracted a lot of attention in the Crypto space, and has attracted artists like Rezz and Zeds Dead. Check it out

🐙The Land of Random

Random? You asked for it - you got it.

Electro Swing - Halloween Edition

Halloween may be over, but surely there’s time for one more dance party? Head to 3:27 for a really fun version of Spooky Scary Skeletons.

The Meativerse

Why enter the Metaverse when you can enter . . . the Meativerse.

Meativerse

Gifypet

Venture back to the olden days and make yourself a Gifypet. Works on mobile, but there’s really fun 8-bit music on desktop.

Gifycat

A Proper Halo Needler

It was at this moment that I realized I must hide my wallet from this beautiful Nerf Halo Needler. This is display level beautiful.

Halo Needler

Artflow

Generate a custom avatar from a text prompt. Here’s what I got from my text prompt “cthulhu man.” The site can be slow - but the results are worth it.