Wheel of Lunch - another casualty in the death of the Web as we knew it...

A moment of silence please...

I like fun single-use websites. I've written about The Useless Web and other sites like it a few times, and they are fun and goofy. But there have also been a number of effectively useful single-use websites over the years that I've frequented. And right now I find it hard to believe that I've never written about my absolute favorite.

The Wheel of Lunch

Imagine you are with your coworkers or a group of friends and it's getting close to lunchtime. "Where should we go?" you might ask. And then a long discussion begins.

And here's what you should know about me. I am pretty open to most restaurant options, and don't have a strong preference. Basically, once we've decided to eat, I'm pretty agnostic as to the where. When the conversation goes on longer than 2 minutes, I'm politely ready to pick something at random. And for this exact reason exists the Wheel of Lunch.

The screen shot I've saved here does not do this justice. This website has existed since at least 2009. The original version that I was familiar with used Flash (R.I.P.) as a technology. It was later remade with <canvas>. But that was just the front end. The backend technology was pretty genius.

Loading the site at default would give a wheel with ~20 generic options for what to do for lunch (or dinner). You could spin it and get a generic result (like "hamburgers"). But optimally, the site had a connection to YELP, and if you gave it your local ZIP code, the best feature was triggered. Results for the top 20 local restaurants got loaded onto the wheel and then it would get a spin. If you were interested in a specific type of restaurant --for example, BBQ-- you could enter that as a search query and get a list of thosrestaurant types on your wheel.

This was great! Of course, you weren't forced to eat at the first random option. You can always spin again. In coworker groups, the list at least facilitated inspiration and quicker discussion on available options. It was fun for "hey, have you heard of this place?" New adventures could be had.

My wife and kids? Funny enough, they were not fans. They didn't want to trust the wheel for dinner, and they didn't like the clicking sound the wheel makes. And probably didn't want to hear me suggest the WHEEL. OF. LUNCH. one more time. But they are spoilsports who hate fun! 😝

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I guess all good things must come to an end. Tonight, I went to try it again when we were discussing dinner options and was greeted with the familiar wheel, missing the search options. On the left column was this note:

July 22, 2024

I am sad to report that after 15 years of The Wheel of Lunch, Yelp has decided to no longer provide free API services to the wheel. Yelp’s cheapest API plan is $230 a month! I can't afford that.

The Wheel of Lunch has always been a labor of ♥, and provides zero $ to me (I stopped running ads a while ago). I have no desire to “monetize” the Wheel.

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the Wheel, while it existed. It was from an older, friendlier version of the World Wide Web that was not exclusively about commerce. Many of these sites are shuttered now, and the Wheel of Lunch is just another casualty in the long march to the death of the Web as we knew it.

Have a nice day! :)

Oof. I felt that viscerally. And it triggers a nostalgic feeling for the early web 2.0 peak of the 2010s or thenabouts. I guess the Useless Web is still around, but I'd suggest we all appreciate it before it fades entirely.

Does the universe exist?

In case you've always wondered... Does the universe exist? The answer may surprise you.

I'm a fan of single-use domains like this one. There are a few more and I don't recall if I've mentioned this before.

• collection of jan aman, le duchamp .com by rafaël rozendaal, 2008
• EVERY DAY I'M
• Koalas to the Max dot Com
• GRANDPANOCLOTHES
• Blue Ball Machine
• www.purple.com

I know I've mentioned other sites by rafaël rozendaal, but there are a few completely unrelated goofy sites that are done just because they can.

Found via The Useless Web.

Common Connection, Thalimene and Animated Backgrounds for Stage Projectors at Concerts

I struggled to come up with a good title for this one, but there's just no generic description that fits. Read on.

There's a couple of cool things to talk about going on lately and I'll try and touch on a few of them. First off, I'm becoming more involved with the youth praise band at our church, called Common Connection. Both Reese and I have been getting more regularly involved with the sound system and praise band for regular weekly worship. And as that has developed further, I started to bring my trombone to join in with the musicians too. I could go on and on about how proud I am of these young men and women, but it will get all gushy and who really needs that? Suffice it to say that I enjoy myself whether I'm playing along on trombone or driving the sound board.

Common Connection has been hosting a monthly music worship night at our church, taking full advantage of the sound system. More recently, they've also hosted an after-party where a different local Christian musician or band is invited to come and play after. So far, there was one night with a heavy metal band called Thalimene, and a different night where there was a solo artist singer/songwriter named Benjamin Sommers.

This past Saturday, the thunderous Thalimene returned in full force and they had their regular drummer with them and were much better practiced and polished than their first time a few months back. Back in July, it was clear they had some serious talent. But this more recent show, they had really improved and the confidence showed.

For the worship music portion with Common Connection, they prepared the lyrics for the projector system and this allowed the crowd to sing along where appropriate. However, Thalimene did not have anything for the screen and there'd be no point in singing (screaming) along anyhow. I happened to be hanging out in the sound and projection booth during their rehearsal and got a tiny bit inspired. What could I come up with on short notice to put up on the screen that would heighten the performance, but not distract from it? I wanted an animated colorful background that was subtle and rhythmic.

I'll admit that my search and what I found is really what inspired this post in the first place, although the "backstory" is stuff I'd been meaning to share for a while now. I'm really having fun with all my music outlets at this point, and feel strongly that I contribute well to the music ministry at church. But enough about that for the moment, let's load up the visual aids.

Animated Backgrounds

The loose criteria I came up with was that the display had to work in full screen, be colorful and random but not too obnoxious and preferably have no sound. It also had to be confirmed appropriate for church setting with all ages attending. I also didn't want to go overboard with flashiness, as there's the concern for triggering someone's seizures. You might think there'd be a ton of these kinds of sites or videos or something I could use, but I came up empty a lot. I mean, how do you even phrase a search for something like this? By showtime, I'd only really found two and I alternated between them. But I am posting a much larger list now.

That night I actually muted the computer so that removed any surprise audio issues. I warn you that SOME of these do have audio, so if you are testing them out be sure to mute your stuff. Start with this one, then click one of the other links below.

falling falling .com | into time .org | future is uncertain .com | if no yes .com | if yes no .com | inner doubts .com | from the dark past .com

Stage with Wall of Light [YouTube] | Spaceship Dark Tunnel [YouTube] | Meteor Floating [YouTube] | Smooth Clean Lens Flares Background [YouTube]

I hope that's enough for now. I keep finding more of these but this should be enough to get started. My goal is to make this page useful for someone in the same boat as me. If you need some animated backgrounds to project behind the bands on stage, you should be able to find a few you like here. Just open any of the links in a new window and you should be good to go. At the end of that first night, I asked the boys from Thalimene if they minded the animation and they certainly appreciated it. "It gives folks something else to look at besides us." Well, perhaps so.

Full credit for creating most of these websites goes to Rafaël Rozendaal. I first discovered Rozendaal and the other sites via The Useless Web.