Hey friends! It’s another lovely Monday here in Tennessee.

How are y’all doing? Ready for February?

The time for saying “Happy New Year” is just about over - we’re now in the thick of it.

I’m finally over (as of last Tuesday) this awful respiratory nonsense that I had since like THE MIDDLE OF DECEMBER.

I recently found a fantastic author here on Substack - Dennis writes a blog called “Food is Stupid” where he plays with insane ideas - like deep frying a truffle.

DEEP FRYING A FRESH TRUFFLE FAM

Food is Stupid

Deep-fried whole black truffle

Hello, clowns! Something magical happened this week. After I posted about eating a whole jarred truffle, someone (who wishes to stay anonymous), informed me that they could get me a fresh black one. I didn’t think it would be that easy, but sure enough, a few days later, I was staring at a big black truffle cradled in a pint container of rice…

2 months ago · 22 likes · 8 comments · Dennis Lee

Read it and weep with mirth. It’s amazing.

Did you hear that MoviePass is officially back? Now it’s some kind of credits system - and the cheapest plan (25 a month) translates to 1-3 movies a month or so according to Cnet’s article.

I’m curious to see how it does this time around. Hopefully they don’t pull any of the insane crap they did last time.

This issue - I only wrote about two topics because I was beginning to run out of “fit in the email” space - so as a consolation prize I included two extra “Land of Random” links and my first Aliexpress review.

I really just “YOLO’D” this first Youtube video, so please don’t be too hard on me haha.

Well, let’s jump in!

💰Starbucks Odyssey

I know many of us are mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially exhausted from the world of NFTs.

They were a fun rush (and there are certainly still projects that are still in the fight) - but now it’s AI’s time to shine.

However - I’m still curious to see if NFTs have any long-standing resilience in the mainstream, and so, I’ve been looking forward to getting into the Starbucks Odyssey beta.

Starbucks was wayyy ahead of other restaurants in the app game years ago.

Can it pave the way with nfts?

I got access to the Starbucks Odyssey beta yesterday - and wanted to share a few details about how it works.

There’s 3 key pieces.

Journeys → Stamps → Market

You must complete journeys to collect stamp nfts, which you can sell on a custom Nifty Gateway market.

The journeys are pretty cool - and aren’t as easy as you might think. Here’s the Coffee Heritage journey.

The others won’t take you too long - but that “Try our Signature Drinks” mission will take you 5 weeks to complete. You have to drink one signature Starbucks drink to complete this part.

Once you complete a journey - you’ll earn enough points to get a Stamp NFT.

You can check out the Nifty Gateway marketplace here.

Looks like there’s only 5000 editions available of each - so only 5000 people will be able to complete journeys and earn stamps.

People are actually buying and selling these stamps for QUITE A BIT OF MONEY.

I guess if Odyssey works out long-term I suppose there could be some collectors value. like the Starbucks merch that people collect?

I’m gonna try and complete the Coffee Heritage Journey, get the stamp, and sell one if I can.

From a marketing perspective - the journeys could be a great way to create deeper relationships with Starbucks fans. If people want to sell them externally on Nifty Gateway - why not? At the end of the day - Starbucks has convinced 5,000 people (per journey earned) to learn more about them and buy coffee.

I’ll have to dig into the polygon contracts - but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a kickback for Starbucks every time one is sold on the secondary market.

We’ll see how it goes!

If you want to get on the Odyssey waitlist - join at the link.

Starbucks Odyssey

🗺️Search The Metaverse

Don’t worry - we’re not talking our ole pal Zuck’s metaverse.

I’m talking about all the cool 3D digital spaces that people create - and then ya got to go out and hunt for them.

Everyone talks about the open metaverse - but it’s more akin to going on a Geocities / Neocities adventure.

The Open Web has always been a dream - people create fun little tools all the time to try and foster it - but they never get proper adoption . . .

Metadocs, that dead Relay Chat project from last week,

A site called Lighthouse is hoping to enable YOU to find all those cool 3D spaces out there, and create friend groups too!

Our mission is to support adoption of the open metaverse by simplifying access to and discovery of the experiences it powers. We want creators to build great things, users to have fun, and virtual worlds to thrive — all with the ethos of openness and interoperability that birthed the internet . . . We see a near future where landing places increasingly replace landing pages. In this future, navigating across spaces is as frictionless as using hyperlinks to navigate across webpages today. Lighthouse intends on being a gateway for these bridges between worlds, regardless of the ecosystem on which they are built - opening up a new primitive for mobility in the metaverse. (source)

It’s a very ambitious mission - but one that I haven’t seen a lot of competition for yet.

Lighthouse enables a lot of metaverse discovery too - with recommended places right on the homepage.

I hopped in - and started exploring places like this Mozilla Hub town.

Or various spaces in Voxels.

Or this interesting dark and stormy land in Mona.

Best of all - this moody Cyberpunky style space.

3D spaces feel a lot like Geo/Neocities at the moment. There’s creativity happening, and cool ideas . . . but there aren’t a lot of people exploring.

Hopefully Lighthouse can change that!

Get out there - and start exploring.

Explore the Metaverse

🐙 The Land of Random

Random Time! Random TIme!

Liam’s Website

Liam is a UK based designer with a fun minimalist website. It’s primed to show off various cool website functionality - my favorite part of the site is the footer. Scroll to the bottom - and wait a second or two!

Liam's Site

Cat on a Climbing Wall

Cat masters climbing wall. Cat is a climbing wonder. We all wish we could be like Cat.

Watch Cat Climb

Kevin is back on Youtube after 11 years!

Are the ancient Youtubers making a comeback? Julian Smith is back too.

The Punkt Phone we Never Got

Did you know that Punkt made a really cool Androd Qwerty phone but never released it?

Aesthetic Qwerty

Cellphones are getting Satellite Superpowers

Apple started the satellite wars with the new iPhone feature - and it looks like everyone else will soon be joining the war. It’s great for consumers who like to hike and adventure in remote areas without cell service - but don’t like spending a grand on a satellite phone.

The Satellite Question

What Can Your Font Do?

Have you ever asked yourself - what features do my favorite font have? This cool website will answer that question!

What does my Font Do?

Windows 93 - the missing OS

Wait - you never used Windows 93?

Check it out

So Many Menus

One woman’s hobby - one Earth’s historic collection. A fascinating tale about Miss Frank E. Buttolphwho collected over 14,000 menus!

What a Legend

So the NY MTA used to have an Armored Train?

Yeah - they used to have an armored train to transport $$$$ - and it ran until the early 2000’s.

The Armored Train

🎥Aliexpress Haul 1

I got my first Aliexpress haul in the other week - Here’s my thoughts on the first 3 items I got - and all for under $10. Yes - the thumbnail might be a touch lame. Haven’t done any research on YT thumbnails yet. I just pulled a “Canva fast one.”