Tag Archives: Wordle

Warning Thursday Rundown

Posted on by
Reply

Did you have a good March? After a challenging start to 2022, this past month got my family back on track. Speaking of staying on track, today is Thursday so that means five random topics are coming your way…

Is It Cake? – If you have searched Netflix over the past week or so, chances are you came across the new cooking/game show titled “Is It Cake?” The premise is that accomplished bakers create cakes that resemble actual objects (i.e. a hamburger, purse, bowling ball, etc.) and then judges have to decipher between which is cake and which is the actual object. My take on the show? I think it is interesting to watch the contestants bake their cakes but I think the guessing part of the show is lame. The bakers are just too good. It turns out to be a crapshoot because the cake seems to always look identical to the everyday object, removing the skill of deciphering and promoting a 50/50 guess. In the end, it is a coin flip. Many of the show’s visuals are satisfying but it isn’t my cup of tea.

It i satisfying when the host cuts into the cakes and I do like watching the contestants bake but other than that I am not a fan of the show.

National Tater Day – Today is the ultra important National Tater Day and I immediately knew that I wanted to celebrate by bringing back the below chart. I first shared this in 2016 and, in my opinion, the chart remains a work of art in the world of fried potatoes. The encyclopedia of processed spuds, if you will. Although I still maintain that tater tots aren’t French fries and have no business being on this list, I think the other choices and rankings are pretty legit.

This list ranking french fries is pretty cool.

Warning – It is April Fools’ Eve so here is my heads up to be on the lookout tomorrow for pranks and social media gags. I have been quite vocal in the past about how I detest April Fools’ Day so please forgive me if I am stealing the thunder of any jokesters. Okay, this Brent PSA is over.

I am not a big fan of April Fools’ Day on social media.

Eric Church Controversy – I am a big fan of Eric Church. I went to a show when he was just starting to burst onto the scene and saw him perform live again later down the road. However, I am having a tough time with his recent decision to cancel a concert in Texas so he can attend the North Carolina-Duke Final Four game on the same night (he is a Tar Heels fan). I believe in work/life balance but his decision impacts thousands and thousands of people who made plans to see him in concert. I feel bad for the kid who was going to see her first show, the family that was traveling to San Antonio with airfare/lodging already purchased, and the guy that was going to propose to his girlfriend when Church performed a certain song they both like. I just think the decision negatively impacts too many people and was made too last minute.

I don’t think canceling a concert for a basketball game is a good decision.

Needed Wordle Rule Change – I have said it before, but I want to say it a little bit louder for my blogging audience. Wordle needs to treat non-word guesses as a missed attempt. Currently, if you insert a word that isn’t in the dictionary, there is no penalty. This allows the player to guess-and-check at will with no repercussions. I have benefited from this loophole on more than one occasion. Last Saturday with “epoxy” was a perfect example. I had no idea it was even a word but because I was able to test numerous combinations I eventually threw in the correct random letters and solved the puzzle. The freedom to do this needs to change.

Guessing and checking with words that you don’t know are actually words should be penalized in Wordle if in fact it isn’t a word. This is my game board from last Saturday with “epoxy.” I do realize the poor game move I made in attempt #5 with re-using the letter “P” at the front but I was distracted.

————————–

Alright everyone, that will do it for another Thursday Rundown. I hope everyone has a spectacular April. Enjoy the Final Four this weekend. Don’t Blink.

The 5 Questions That Sid and I Ask Each Other Every Day

Posted on by
1

Sometimes when you get into a groove with married life, you find yourself asking the same questions of your spouse on a daily basis. Enter Sidney and I. The other morning I was thinking about some of the guaranteed queries that we ask of each other on every day that ends in “y.” Here are five of them that kept coming to mind…

On a daily basis, we end up asking a handful of repetitive questions.

Did you do the Wordle today? – The morning usually is not over by the time one of asks the other if they have cashed in on their jolt of excitement for the day by attempting the Wordle puzzle. At that point, one of us usually follow it up with the following questions: Was it hard? How many tries did you need? How long did it take you?

Is the dish washer clean? – This question is always tossed by me at Sidney. In our household, she loads and I unload…it is like clockwork. Although we have a fancy dishwasher and you can never tell whether it is clean or not. We are going to order one of those magnets with a “clean” and “dirty” side but until then I will be bothering Sidney with the dreaded question on the daily.

What are you having for lunch? – This one is great. It might seem like a straight-forward, surface level question but there is some strategizing behind it. Although we are naturally curious about what the other person is going to eat, it is also a way to find out if the other person knows about something available that the other does not. But it is also asked as a courtesy as well. If I planned to eat the leftover spaghetti but know Sid might have her heart set on it too, I will ask her what are you having for lunch? If she says spaghetti, I will lay off the pasta. We eat lunch together six times per week so we have gotten pretty good at both asking it and answering it.

Are you in a meeting? – I work remotely four days per week and my at-home office is in our bedroom. Naturally, Sidney needs to enter my “virtual office” throughout the day whether to use the master bathroom to shower or to retrieve clothes and other necessary items. Whenever she does this, Sid will creek open the door and softly say “Are you in a meeting?” If I answer “no” she will walk behind me to do whatever. It says a lot about how polite and considerate Sid is on a daily basis when I am essentially taking up her space.

Can you get me a water? – Ah, saving the service question for last. We are both pretty reliant on having a bottle of water at our bedside tables during the night. However, it usually never fails that once we are in our room and just about to hop into bed that someone is missing a water. This results in one of us asking the other to embark on the dangerous 20-yard hike into the kitchen to retrieve a water so no one dies of thirst in the middle of the night. Of course it is likely that not one sip will be taken out of the water bottle the entire evening.

—————————–

Do you have any questions that you ask your spouse over and over again? If so, let’s hear it. Okay, that’s it for me. Don’t Blink.

Teenage Mutant Thursday Rundown

Posted on by
Reply

It is once again an honor to be invited into your computer or smart device. I hope tonight’s five topics don’t disappoint (although they probably will). Let’s get started with my latest Thursday Rundown…

Technology Hero – One thing I appreciated at the start of my career that I still appreciate at this point in my career are IT professionals. Many of us owe so much to technology brainiacs who have swooped in during our most critical moments of technological disaster and saved our bacon. Nearly a decade ago, I wrote about the stud IT professional that served our Grizzly Athletics staff who saved me multiple times and had a very admirable philosophy about working in technology while under pressure. Hope you are doing well, Aaron Heiner!

Aaron is a technology genius!

Turtles – My Netflix entertainment this past week was watching the two original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies from the early 1990s. I watched each at least 100 times as a little kid but I was a bit, how shall I put it, shell-shocked when I watched them just a few days ago. I didn’t realize how funny (or perhaps immature) the turtles were nor did I pick up on all the fabulous late 1980s/early 1990s pop culture references that are made throughout both films. It was a fun jog down memory lane while still gaining a new appreciation of how silly/awful those two movies really were.

It was a trip watching these two movies this week.

Wordle – I have jumped on the Wordle bandwagon. For those who don’t know, Wordle is a word game that you play on a website. A single puzzle gets posted each day and you are given six tries to solve it. I am yet to not solve a puzzle but that is probably because I have played it for less than a week. For someone like me who really enjoys word games such as Scrabble and Banana, this new game really appeals to me and I think it is genius how everyone is on the same level as everyone else (one puzzle, once a day).

My first ever Wordle puzzle…solved it with a couple guesses to spare.

RCA Television Set – This tweet just barely caught my eye because for a second I didn’t think an actual television screen actually existed on this thing. I mean if you wanted a snazzy wood fixture to display in your living room this might be cool but to watch actual TV? These days I think most of our iPhone screens are bigger than what you have here.

Just look at this thing!

Thank You Note Tip – I have mentioned before that my mom would stuff our Christmas stockings with thank you cards. This practice helped turn my siblings and I into dutiful thank you note writers. I have placed the same level of importance on expressing gratitude to my children. One tactic that has helped Sloan and Beau get excited about writing thank you notes (or at least signing the card that I write on their behalf) is by taking a photo of them playing with the item they were gifted. I develop the photos and place them inside the appropriate card. This gives my kids a better connection and appreciation of the gift they received and it also adds a little something special for the recipient.

This was a photo we took of Sloan holding the Sequence for Kids game she received. We developed the photo and included it in the thank you card we sent to her Great Aunt Debbie.

——————

There isn’t a special sixth topic tonight so it is time to sign off. Have a wonderful weekend and stay safe out there. Don’t Blink