Winter (programmer)

Last updated
Winter
Born
Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.

(1972-03-20) March 20, 1972 (age 52)
Chicago, Illinois
Other namesJohn Winter Smith
OccupationSoftware programmer
Website Starbucks Everywhere

Winter (born March 20, 1972, as Rafael Antonio Lozano Jr.) is a freelance software programmer and consultant. [1] He was previously known as John Winter Smith, but reported having legally changed his name to the mononym "Winter" in 2006. [2] He is best known for his goal to visit every Starbucks location in the world, [3] visiting as many as 29 locations in one day. [4]

Contents

Background

Winter was born in Chicago, Illinois, with his family later moving to Houston, Texas. [5] He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he graduated with a double major in philosophy and computer science. [6] Winter works as a freelance programmer. [7]

Winter also is a competitive Scrabble player, with over 7,000 tournament games under his belt. [8]

Starbucks

In 1997 Winter began visiting various Starbucks locations, expressing the intent to visit every Starbucks location in the world. [5] To minimize the amount of Starbucks locations, he eliminated any licensed stores to focus solely on those owned by the company. [9] For each location to "count" he would drink "at least one four-ounce sample of caffeinated coffee from each store." [4] He would also take a picture and post it on his website. [10]

Winter has estimated that he has spent over $100,000 on the project, [11] drinking an average of 10 cups of coffee a day and once spending $1,400 on a plane ticket to purchase a cup of coffee from a Starbucks in British Columbia before it closed. [12] As of November 2021, Winter reported having visited over 16,000 global locations, including over 13,000 in the United States and Canada. [13]

Documentary

In 2006 Winter was the focus of the documentary Starbucking. [14] [15] Starbucking was directed by Bill Tangeman and premiered at the 2006 Omaha Film Festival, [16] with the DVD released in April 2007. [17] Tangeman filmed about 40 hours of footage over a one-year period of Winter traveling to various Starbucks locations and interacting with people, [18] including a woman with whom he had been romantically involved. [19] Critical reception for the film was mostly positive, [20] with DVD Talk writing that although the film "doesn't offer much repeat viewing value", it was "highly watchable". [21]

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References

  1. ↑ Rem, Kathryn (Sep 10, 2008). "Closures kick Starbucks quest into high gear". Seattle Post Intelligencer.
  2. ↑ "IN A RACE AGAINST TIME, HE'S FUELED BY CAFFEINE". The Tribune. April 7, 2006. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Donahue, Bill (August 29, 2004). "Chain Reaction". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  4. 1 2 Parrott, Les (2008). 3 Seconds: The Power of Thinking Twice . Zondervan. pp.  165–166. ISBN   978-0310272496. starbucking winter.
  5. 1 2 "Winter 14 yıldır Starbuck'lıyor bu hafta sonu 10 bin rekoru kıracak". Hurriyet. January 15, 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  6. ↑ Roth, Daniel (July 12, 2004). "Seeing The World On Ten Coffees A Day". CNN Money. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  7. ↑ "Skurrile Rekordjagd Auf Kaffeefahrt im Starbucks-Reich". Spiegel. 2009-07-28. Retrieved 29 December 2012.
  8. ↑ "Winter - Career Tourneys - cross-tables". cross-tables.com. Retrieved 6 August 2019.
  9. ↑ JARGON, JULIE (May 23, 2009). "A Fan Hits a Roadblock on Drive to See Every Starbucks". Wall Street Journal.
  10. ↑ "Man on a mission to visit every Starbucks in the world". London: Telegraph. May 29, 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  11. ↑ "Caffeine High: Texan on Road to Visit Every Starbucks". Fox News. August 7, 2002. Archived from the original on May 11, 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  12. ↑ "First Person: Winter". Financial Times. May 15, 2009.
  13. ↑ "Starbucks Everywhere" . Retrieved May 19, 2018.
  14. ↑ "'Starbucking' star aims to visit every Starbucks". Las Cruces Sun-News. March 29, 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  15. ↑ "Documentary captures man's quest for caffeine". Tampa Bay Times. August 14, 2005. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  16. ↑ "That's a lot of lattes Man who's been to more than 5,500". Daily Herald. January 12, 2006. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  17. ↑ "Collecting Starbucks visits, one cup at a time". Star-Telegram. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  18. ↑ "WHICH RAISES THE QUESTION: IS HE OFF HIS BEAN?". Palm Beach Post. January 21, 2007. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  19. ↑ Gibson, Caitlin (October 25, 2009). "Whatever Happened To ... Starbucks Guy?". Washington Post. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  20. ↑ "Review: Starbucking". DVD Verdict. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  21. ↑ "Review: Starbucking". DVD Talk. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
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