Bacon, Bonuses, and the Women that made it all work
I snatched $2900 in bank bonuses, made an AI podcast, loved Rt 66 in Oklahoma, lost weight w Fitia app, drooled over Japan's World Expo '25, binged CB Strike, and asked "What makes life worth living?"
Well, hello!
Welcome to Mappy Monday, where you may find your next travel adventure, try a new self-experiment, learn an AI tool, or a money-saving hack, and discover random things you didn’t know you needed to know. I’ll also tell you what’s new at my MappyEverAfter website—because, well, someone has to.
New on MappyEverAfter: Chandler Bing Had It All Wrong - Route 66 in Oklahoma
AI Shenanigans: Two Strangers Are Discussing My Stories… and They’re AI
Experiment / Health: Fitia App vs Bacon
Travel: Health, AI, and Sustainability at World Expo 2025 in Japan
Money: USBank + Chase Ink = $2,900 bonus
Watch: British Series ‘CB Strike’
Read: Mason Currey’s ‘Daily Rituals, Women at Work’
Mind Hack: What Makes Life Worth Living?
Just because: Decipher a Mysterious Manuscript
Note: I will always tell you if I’m getting any referral bonuses and how much they are. There are two this month: I’ll get 20k referral points ($200 worth) if you apply for Chase Ink card with my link and a month of Fitia app premium if you get the premium version yourself (though honestly, the free version works just fine).
New on my MappyEverAfter website - Route 66 in Oklahoma: Chandler Bing Had It All Wrong
Crossing into Oklahoma, we met Harley Russell—the Redneck King of Route 66, an old legend in jean overalls and a guitar. Then came the 168 glowing chairs of the Oklahoma City Memorial, the Tulsa surprises: Frank Lloyd Wright home on sale, a trip into the belly of a Blue Whale, and The Gathering Place—a park so great it spoiled me for all other parks. Turns out, Oklahoma isn’t just a punchline in Friends—it’s a plot twist in the best way.
Read on for an audio version.
AI Shenanigans - Two (AI) Strangers Are Discussing My Stories
I pasted my Rt 66 Oklahoma blog post links into Notebook LM, Google’s AI-powered research assistant. It turned them into a great-sounding podcast.
Let that sink in. These are not real people, and I gave no instructions. I just pressed an “audio overview” button, waited a couple of minutes, and boom! A podcast! It’s amazing. And eerie.
I’m playing with the free version (you know me), which generates up to 3 podcasts a day and you can feed it up to 50 sources to draw from. Watch Tiago Forte explain the uses of NotebookLM and see in what ways it can be useful to you.
Other AI toys I’m playing with:
AI studio (good explainer video here) phone app can see what you point your phone at, and answers questions about it in real time (like…What button should I press now? I think I’m lost, can you tell me where I am and which way to go? Does my butt look good in these pants?)
Finally, some image generators don’t scramble text: updated ChatGPT, and Ideogram
Experiment / Health - Bacon vs Fitia App
Fresh off a 6-month European trip filled with Kaiser rolls, halušky, and bacon (and still carrying those 'souvenirs' on my thighs), I watched the hubby drop weight and get buff. He, the ultimate anti-planner, started weighing and prepping his meals using Fitia app.
So, I gave Fitia a shot. You plug in your stats: age, weight, and goal, and Fitia spits out your daily calories and macros—protein, carbs, fats. Then comes the fun part: logging every meal.
It’s annoying at first, but the app remembers your foods and has an amazing barcode scanner. Soon, it’s second nature. I log everything at night, so by morning, my meals are set—no guesswork, no questionable last-minute decisions, no staring into the fridge hoping for inspiration.
Two months in, I’m 9 pounds down.
The best part? Cheat day. I give myself one glorious, untracked day a week where I eat whatever I want. That helps me stick to the plan.
The free version does the job, but if you want the premium features, use this code to drop the yearly price from $59 to $39:
Discount code: 6YWP or use this Fitia link.
Fitia makes you think of calories as a finite resource, just like time and money. Spend them well.
Travel - AI, Health, and Sustainability at World Expo 2025 in Japan
Wanna sneak peek into the future?
World Expo 2025 in Osaka is just a couple of weeks away! Running from April 13th to October 13th, this Expo will be packed with futuristic inventions. The first couple of months will be dedicated to AI, then the focus will shift to health, and later on sustainability. The last time Japan hosted an Expo in 1970, it introduced the moving walkway—so who knows what innovations this one will bring.
Expect AI everywhere, from virtual animals that feel real to the touch, to an artificial beating heart, and glowing plants that can light your house.
Ticket options range from day and night passes to full-season access ($26–$200), and if you’re planning to go, don’t forget that flights and hotels can be booked with U.S. credit card points—time to put your stash to good use or start collecting!
Here’s a great overview from “Uncharted Japan”:
Money - How We Stacked Bank, Credit Card, and Referral Bonuses to Make $2,900
This deal sounded too good to be true, but it worked—twice! First, I ran through the whole process myself. Then, the hubby repeated the same steps, and we doubled our earnings. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how we did it.
While the Chase Ink business card $750 bonus is ongoing, the $500 US Bank deal is ending the day this newsletter goes out. Keep checking for new deals in the future.
In case you’re wondering: Can I apply for a business account without owning a formal business? The answer is Yes.
Step 1: I applied for a Chase Ink Unlimited Credit Card using a referral link
Since the hubby already owned a Chase Ink card, he sent me a referral link. This earned him a $200 referral bonus when my new card was approved.
The Chase Ink card has no annual fee and offers $750 (in statement credit or travel points) after spending $6k in 3 months. That’s more than our usual spending, but I had a plan:
Step 2: I opened a US Bank Business Checking account
After my Ink card arrived, I applied for a US Bank Business Checking account. As part of the online application, I funded the account with $3,000 from my Chase Ink card. This appeared as a purchase, not as a cash advance on my credit card statement and helped me meet half of my Ink card’s spending requirement right away. If you want to be extra sure, set your cash advance limit to $0.
Step 3: I deposited $5k into my US Bank account and made 5 debit card purchases within the first 30 days
I kept these $5k in the account for 60 days. These steps were required to earn the $500 bonus from US Bank.
Step 4: I paid off the Chase Ink card
As soon as the $5k deposit appeared at US Bank, I transferred the initial $3k back to my regular bank and paid off the Chase Ink card in full to avoid paying interest.
Step 5: I used the Chase Ink card for everything
Over the next three months, I spent $3k on regular purchases, hitting the full $6,000 requirement. This triggered the $750 bonus from Chase Ink.
Then I sent the hubby an Ink card referral and he repeated the whole process.
Total Earnings (for the two of us):
$400 from referring each other for Ink card ($200 each).
$1,000 from US Bank bonuses ($500 each).
$1,500 in Chase Ink sign-up bonuses ($750 each).
Grand total: 💰 $2,900 in cash or travel rewards!
Here’s a primer on Travel Hacking with US credit card points
Watch - CB Strike
If you love a good detective story with complex characters and twisty mysteries, C.B. Strike is worth a watch. Based on the books by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. J.K. Rowling), it follows Cormoran Strike—a gruff but brilliant private investigator with a troubled past, and his sharp-witted assistant-turned-partner, Robin Ellacott. They tackle hard cases the police can’t crack and uncover secrets that people would rather stay buried. It’s gritty, funny, and just the right amount of addictive.
Read - Daily Rituals, Women at Work by Mason Currey
If your daily routine is a complete mess, you sleep till 3pm, sustain solely on baked beans, or have other weird habits, congratulations! You're in excellent company.
Daily Rituals: Women at Work is a great dive into the daily routines of 143 brilliant women, and a comforting reminder that even they had, shall we say, interesting approaches to getting things done.
Edith Wharton wrote in bed and ignored her guests until noon. Dancer and singer Josephine Baker spent 30 minutes every morning rubbing lemon onto her skin. Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama works from a Tokyo mental hospital she checked herself into 50 years ago. And Mary Shelley? She wrote Frankenstein while pregnant—some people nest by painting bunnies on nursery walls, and others by creating terrifying monsters.
This book is so relatable! It will make you feel less like a weirdo and more like a creative genius.
Mind Hack - What Makes Life Worth Living?
What makes life worth living?
That’s a big question. Maybe the biggest.
If we don’t have an answer, life tends to happen on autopilot—one thing after another, dictated by impulses and outside events. How can we prioritize what really matters if we haven’t defined it?
So first, we need to figure that out. What makes life meaningful for us?
Then, let’s make space for it. If our days are packed with everything but what matters, it won’t happen. We need to put it on the calendar, give it a time slot, and make it non-negotiable.
But even that isn’t enough.
Because when the moment arrives—when we’re finally eating that incredible meal, playing with our kids, doing the creative work we love—will we actually be there for it? Or will our minds be elsewhere, rushing ahead to the next thing?
Attention is the final piece. Without it, even the most meaningful things can slip through our fingers.
So here’s the real challenge:
Identify what makes your life worth living.
Design your days to include it—intentionally and consistently.
Train your mind to be present for it, so you don’t just go through the motions.
Meditation helps. It sharpens our awareness and catches us when we drift into autopilot—so when the most important moments come, we don’t miss them.
Just Because - Decipher a Mysterious Manuscript
Do you want to spend a few hours in a spiral of glorious confusion? Take a look at the Voynich manuscript—a mysterious, 500-year-old book written in central Europe, found in the library of Emperor Rudolf II. It’s written in a strange language, with even stranger illustrations of plants, bathing ladies, and diagrams. It has stumped historians, cryptographers, and conspiracy theorists alike.
Is it a secret code? An elaborate hoax? The ramblings of a medieval prankster? No one knows! The entire thing is available online courtesy of Yale Library. Happy decoding!
So there you have it. Bacon battles, a broody British detective, and a bunch of brilliant women who had weirder habits than you do. Makes you feel less alone, right?
Be Mappy,
Mags
