Tag Archives: Wordle

Three Things to Think About

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Jolyn swimsuit for athletes

This is a photo of a diver from Jolyn’s website. Jolyn creates swimsuits designed for athletes.

FIRST THING:

Three coincidences happened over the weekend within one hour.

I was talking to our guests about Jolyn swimsuits after my friend asked about the Jolyn stickers on my Hydroflask.

I explained that when my daughter was in high school, Jolyn hit the scene in Southern California. Jolyn was immediately popular because the suits don’t come off in the ocean or swimming in the pool — yet they added some fashion flair. My daughter said their stickers were popular with her age group. Swimmers put the stickers on their water bottles, placed at the end of their lanes during swim practice. That was great advertising for Jolyn.

The minute that conversation was over, I was pinged a Jolyn ad on my iphone.

(My stickers on my Hydroflask came from birthday swimsuits from daughter. I asked her to order suits with their biggest behind coverage possible. I love my Jolyns.)

Next, my friend was baking my husband a belated birthday cake. We were all four talking about his age (which I won’t disclose.) Ping. My iphone sent me an article on how to celebrate a birthday of that particular age.

The final iphone thing was after I pointed out these two coincidences. The friend’s hubby said, “They are listening to your conversations. You need to turn off certain things on you iphone.”

Ping. Article popped up, “What Apple doesn’t want you to turn off.”

Those three things happened within one hour.

Coincidence? Or Not? What are your thoughts?

SECOND THING:

A text I received from my son. He introduced me to Wordle over a year ago and taught me his formula.

I texted this back at him:

Notice they are identical except my squares are black. It’s not a coincidence. If you want to know the formula, I’ll let you know.

THIRD THING:

Heart-shaped potato

This is a potato I discovered this weekend. I wanted to share it with Mama Lava from Mama Lava’s Back Porch.

This month she is posting 28 days of love that include uplifting messages, scripture and hearts she has found in nature. I wanted to post this potato on her blog, but WP wouldn’t let me place an image in her comments.

Do you know how to place images in comments? If so, please share.

What are your thoughts about my things posted above?

Strange weather day

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I saw these beautiful flowers at a neighbor’s house. I’d like this plant in my yard.

Does anyone know the name of this flower?

After feeling stronger, post Covid, I’ve been enjoying my morning walks. I’ve also spent time in my backyard reading and enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Sometimes we walk in the morning and afternoon. Yesterday was a very windy afternoon. Then this morning the temperature dropped to the high 30s. That’s after a few days in the high 70s.

Adding to the blustery cold temperature, my iphone told me the air quality is dangerous. That must be due to the particulate matter in the air because of the strong winds.

So, I am skipping my walk today.

I’m anxious for the weather to get back to normal — warm sunshine and no wind.

Random thoughts:

I stretched and did my crunches this morning for the first time since I was sick.

I broke a three-day streak of Wordle in three tries. Today it took five.

Yesterday, I got a pedicure and was shocked at the price. I paid $24 in Palm Springs, but I was charged $47 yesterday in Scottsdale. I did agree to a “deluxe pedicure” so there is that.

I’m trying to get a hair appointment because I don’t want to drive five hours to my old hairdresser. A neighbor recommended her hair dresser. I’ve been texting this new hair dresser for more than a week and don’t have an appointment yet. Apparently, she’s very busy and doesn’t usually take new clients!

I’m reading “Our Last Days in Barcelona” by Chanel Cleeton. I normally love her books, but this one is dragging. I liked “Next Year in Havana” and “When We Left Cuba.” It has the same characters, so you’d think I’d be enthralled, but it’s slow on action and long on dialogue.

What books would you recommend?

Have you read Chanel Cleeton and are you a fan?

What’s your morning routine?

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I spoted a Mule deer
A mule deer we spotted on our morning walk.

Every morning I glance at my phone to see what time it is when I wake up. I also check the temperature.

This morning an article popped up that caught my eye. “3 morning habits to help you be happier and more productive at work, according to psychologists” by Morgan Smith on CNBC.

I have an established morning routine that I have followed for years. I developed the routine while reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I journal three pages. It’s a brain dump consisting of everything that’s making me anxious, plus a to do list for the upcoming day. Then I use an app called Laudate and either read or listen to daily Bible readings followed by prayer. Last, I go for my morning walk.

It’s a routine that helps me feel grounded. I was curious what the article would say about morning routines and if my morning routine hit their three suggestions to be happier and more productive.

I’m missing the first step.

Set an intention for the day.

Your to-do list might be doing more harm than good, psychologist Jessica Jackson warns. 

Checking your emails, calendar or to-do list soon after you wake up “immediately starts the day off on a stressful note, and tells your brain to go into panic mode,” Jackson, who is also the global clinical diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging manager at Modern Health, tells CNBC Make It. 

Instead, Jackson recommends all of her clients start their day with an intention meditation: taking a few minutes to sit in silence, take a couple of deep breaths, and choose a single word, or sentence, to be their “north star” for the day. 

“You can tell yourself, ‘My intention for today is to feel successful’ or ‘I want to be comfortable today’ and think about what you can realistically accomplish in the next 24 hours to feel that way,” Jackson explains. “It can also be a single, powerful word like ‘gratitude’ that will guide how you react to and reflect on whatever happens throughout the day.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/18/psychologists-morning-habits-to-help-you-be-happier-more-productive.html

Step two I do with my morning pages. The suggestion is to set an offline ritual and stick with it. My morning walks also fit the bill.

Step three is to have fun. I thought I was missing that also, but I play Wordle every morning. That’s my bit of fun. We realize how important recess is for kids at school, the article explained. But what do we do for fun?

What is your morning routine? Do you hit all three of the steps in the CNBC article?

The Wordle Analogy

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Wordle in two!
Texts to my son to share my good Wordles. Funny I don’t share the five or six tries.

My son introduced me to Wordle during one of my recent trips to take care of my adult children. My son had shoulder and foot surgery this year and my daughter had COVID. She needed me to grocery shop, go to the cleaners and take Waffles the pug to the vet when he was throwing up. My son needed help with everything.

Anyway, I first wrote about the game Wordle HERE. When I began playing, I found it really difficult and confusing. Then my son taught me his strategy of having starter words. Now, I never miss (knock on wood.) And sometimes, the starter word is so good that I get the answer in two, like yesterday morning. Woo Hoo!

Once, I decided against using the starter word. Big mistake! The Wordle WAS the starter word. That would have been a hole in one.

You see, my son gave me the Wordle golf analogy. Four is par. Three is birdie. Two is an Eagle. If you’re not a golfer, you may miss the correlation. If you don’t play Wordle — you probably don’t care.

Let me know if you are playing Wordle in the comments. Do you play every day? Did you stop Wordle? Did you move onto another game? If you’ve found another game, please share what it is. I may want to try it.

A few random thoughts

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bright yellow blossoms
I saw this in a neighbor’s yard today on my morning walk. I’ve never noticed it before. It must be the blossoms that got my attention. Maybe it hasn’t bloomed since we moved here until recently.

Thursday was a busy day. I had coffee club and I swam in addition to reading and writing.

My son called several times yesterday. He asked me about Wordle. We both got it done in four yesterday. He said “Four is a par and three is a birdie.”

I think he’s correct about the golf analogy. Two is definitely an eagle.

Coffee club was fun. I’m glad I went. I’m getting to know a few women in my neighborhood. We met at a local coffee shop and had breakfast together and talked.

I am reminded of when I was in kindergarten and my mom was in the neighborhood coffee klatch. She quit and said it was a waste of time. Her favorite word back then was “highbrow.” I have a feeling she didn’t think the women measured up.

At the pool I swam 1,200 yards. Just think, pre COVID I was swimming 3,000. I started at the YMCA swimming three weeks ago. I’ve made it twice a week for three weeks. Yay for me. I began with 500 yards, bumped it up to 1,000 and then 1,200. I hope to be at 1,500 soon.

I’m taking barre class later this morning. I’m also doing that class twice a week along with swimming. I feel like I’m getting stronger and in better shape — but I don’t recover like I used to. I guess that’s due to aging and lack of activity during the shut down.

Consistency is my key. I don’t talk myself out of going — I go. No excuses. I’m sticking to this schedule for the next few weeks to see if it gets any easier. Then I may add a third day of swimming or another class.

What random thoughts do you have today? What are you doing to stay in shape? Do you think the COVID shutdown affected your physical health?

My ears are ringing

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Summerland beach
This is where I was when the ringing in my ear began on summer vacation.

Actually it’s only my right ear. Sunday it started ringing so loudly I couldn’t function. I went back to bed and hid under the covers.

Monday morning I called the ENT and asked for an appointment or a prescription. This happened to me during our last day of summer vacation in August. As soon as we got home from our 10-hour drive, I called the doctor. The ENT got me in right away.

Here’s a health tip:

If you experience tinnitus which is ringing or buzzing in the ear, go to the doctor ASAP. I was diagnosed with sudden hearing loss of an unknown cause. The doctor told me that if I had waited more than one or two weeks — the loss of hearing would have been permanent.

The treatment is a heavy cycle of prednisone. It worked last time and the doctor called in a RX for me Monday. I’m literally crawling out of my skin right now, but a few days of discomfort seem worth keeping my hearing. The ringing has stopped. But I couldn’t sleep last night and I found myself listening to podcasts and playing today’s Wordle after midnight.

A friend’s daughter who is in her late 20s developed terrible tinnitus after her second COVID shot. That was last summer and it hasn’t gone away.

Have you experienced ringing in the ears and what did you do about it? Have you had to take prednisone before? How did you do?

Who cheats at Wordle — and why?

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Wordle from 3/7/2022
Yesterday’s Wordle. I used my son’s three starter words. Then figured out the answer.

I saw a series of articles from different news sources — from NY Post to CNBC — that said cheating on Wordle is on the rise.

Why? What’s the point?

To be totally honest, I cheated once. I couldn’t figure out the word. I had four of the letters so I googled “Five letter words with R U P E….” rupee came up which I didn’t know was a currency from India — let along a word.

How did I feel after I cheated? Like there was no point in playing the game if I had to look up the answer. I haven’t done that again. I felt like a cheater. We had a t-shirt for our swim team that had this saying on the back: “Cheaters never win. Winners never cheat.”

In the NY Post there’s an article called “‘Everyone is cheating at Wordle’ and these are most guilty states: study” by Ben Cost.

Here’s an excerpt:

These are Wordle’s biggest cheaters.
A recent study by data compiler Wordfinderx found that online answer searches increased 196% since the Times acquired the puzzle, in which players get five attempts to guess a new five-letter word each day.

“Cheating for the game is at an all-time high and only growing,” read the study.

Per the research, the US state that most frequently cheated was New Hampshire with the word “swill.” Coincidentally, the Granite State ranked third among US states with the most Wordle prowess, per a study last week by Wordtip.

https://nypost.com/2022/03/07/everyone-is-cheating-at-wordle-and-these-are-most-guilty-states-study/

CNBC’s article about Wordle cheaters by Mikaela Cohen was under the category “SUCCESS” and called “It seems like a lot of you are cheating at Wordle: Study.”

The jig is up — we know you’re cheating on your daily Wordle.

Or, at least, it would certainly appear that a growing number of people have been looking online for answers to the popular five-letter word guessing game — possibly to avoid putting a stop to a winning streak.

That’s according to a recent study by Wordfinderx, a reference website for word games like Wordle and Scrabble, which used Google Trends data to determine that Google searches for the answer to Wordle’s daily puzzle have nearly tripled ever since The New York Times acquired Wordle in January.

The study found that searches for Feb. 15′s “AROMA” and Feb. 19′s “SWILL” daily Wordle solutions reached a 100 out of 100 on Google’s search popularity scale, which compares search results on a topic and then rates them on a scale of 0 to 100 “based on a topic’s proportion to all searches on all topics,” according to Google.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/05/it-seems-like-a-lot-of-you-are-cheating-at-wordle-study.html

Why do you think more people are cheating at Wordle? One theory is that from the end of 2021 to today more people are playing, hence more cheating. But why does the cheating coincide with NY Times buying Wordle?

Have you cheated at Wordle or other games? Have you thought about cheating? Have you noticed a difference in Wordle since the NY Times took over? Do you have a strategy to play?