Friday Five: March 28, 2025
It's another New Year.
We made it to the end of the week, consumers. Welcome back to the Friday Five, your weekly dose of joy and catharsis from across the digital universe.
Holiday: It’s not just Norooz! This weekend marks Nyepi, the Balinese New Year. My dear friend Melati (born and raised in Jakarta, currently living in Bali) put me on to the holiday — she is grocery shopping and prepping as I write this newsletter. Nyepi is known as the ‘Day of Silence’ — it’s entirely focused on self-reflection. There’s no working, no traveling, no entertainment, no shopping, and so on. People stay at home and don’t use electricity, and some abstain from speaking or eating in those 24 hours. The airport is closed, roads are closed, beaches are closed, and one major telecom provider even shuts down internet access. The only people who are allowed to be out on this holiday are the ‘Pecalang,’ traditional Balinese security officers, who work to ensure everyone stays inside and adheres to the rules of the holiday. Melati was saying that she loves how the Balinese are so disciplined in maintaining their traditions and I agree — I also hope that the vast throngs of tourists and ‘digital nomads’ there respect these important traditions.
I’m amazed and inspired by a holiday so focused on introspection and reflection, which incidentally has a majorly positive impact on the environment. I started looking at research papers on Nyepi and carbon emissions — on average, during Nyepi, the island of Bali saves 4 billion megawatts of electricity from this holiday! From 2015-2019, Nyepi reduced emissions by about 12,000-14,000 CO2e, with the concentration of air pollution in the atmosphere decreasing by 47.07 percent compared to regular days. Also worth noting: statues of evil spirits and demons parade around town before being ritually burned before the holiday. There is even an interesting kissing ritual! I could write an entire Consumed about this holiday but I think all of us would benefit from 24 hours of silence and self-reflection.
College Basketball Star: McNeese State is a small school in Louisiana with tiny odds of making it to the March Madness College Basketball tournament — they beat the odds but sadly are already out. While we didn’t get a Cinderella story, their student manager Amir Khan has become a breakout star and is so beloved by the team. Breeze through the first video for some of the context and enjoy the second where his teammates call him AURA and hype him up. This is making me think of Nate Shelley in S1 of Ted Lasso but better. We need more love for student managers!
Video that deserves to be Viral: My friend
shared this last week and I can’t stop thinking about it. Publix is an iconic grocer that’s mostly in the Southeastern US, their slogan also happens to be “where shopping is pleasure.” I know this to be true based on the quality of their submarine sandwiches alone, but not until this video I did not know that they had a bar and served alcohol, or that they had happy hours with a bangin’ playlist. I am longing to go to a Publix happy hour but maybe more to live inside this video. “Man we living SIMS at this point 😂” is one of the comments — I see it and I love it.
Childhood Journal Moment: I share bits from my childhood journals on social media, which often reference boy bands that I loved and Kumon class (this one references both in one go, now that’s what I call range):
However, this isn’t about me, it’s about ‘hot dog landlord’ and their NSYNC journal. No commentary I write will make sense here — I’m grateful to consumer Afsy who sent it to me with the message “this is giving me little Roya vibes” because it’s the unfortunate truth. Also NSYNC was my favorite boy band of that era and I would spend my life savings on tickets to a reunion tour.
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