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I think that’s because ‘Latin’ is a proper noun. My guess is they also won’t accept ‘Suomi’, but I’m going to try that as my starting word tomorrow, just in case they do.

In other news, I’ve had two 6-ers since my last post so my average is doomed.

[update] ‘Suomi’ wasn’t allowed.

[4]

Yeah, I started off not playing in hard mode but enough people on Twitter said they considered it cheating that I changed it to hard mode. But in all honesty they’re just two different ways of playing. I don’t see “hard” mode as any harder than “easy” mode.

I got today’s in 3. Been mostly 3s and 4s this week, so my average should be looking better when I calculate it tomorrow. is looking better.

No. guesses	No. of times	Points
1	0	0
2	5	10
3	17	51
4	28	112
5	13	65
6	7	42
	Total	280
	/70 days	4

I went for EPOCH on my 4th go and so on my 5th EPOXY was probably the only possible option. Luckily Facebook’s algorithm has been providing my with epoxy resin videos for the past year or so, so I’m familiar with the word.

Today’s (280) was a bitch. Got it on my 5th guess, undoing all my nice work the previous two days.

Wordle 278 2/6*

🟨🟨⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I got very lucky with my first word

Which was:

Spoiler

HEIST

[close]

â€"-

Holy cow just did 279 and…

Wordle 279 2/6*

🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I’m on a roll.

Just noticed today would be Ghost’s birthday. Happy birthday up there, man.

 â€œeeeeuuuuurggghh!”   

Yeah it’s disgusting. It’s surprising quite common in Japan too. Often while I’m washing my own hands, I’ll witness someone who’s just finished their business walk straight past the sinks without even looking. A few weeks ago it happened in a shopping center toilet and as this guy walked out I audibly went “eeeeuuuuurggghh!” to shame him. Haha.

Also I once worked in a junior high school here, and the Principle himself did the same thing. Which was funny because that school had a big thing about making sure the kids all washed their hands often.

[4.08]

I’m interested to know everyone’s average number of guesses. I’ve been calculating mine every 10 days, today is my 60th day and my overall average is 4.08.

No. guesses	No. of times	Points
1	0	0
2	3	6
3	15	45
4	23	92
5	12	60
6	7	42
	Total	245
	/60 days	4.08

I’d like it to be below 4. Before the New York Times bought it, I was averaging closer to 3, suggesting maybe it has got harder since the buyout (although I hadn’t been playing it for long).

I got 275 in 3 goes but I was also pretty pleased with how I got there.

I’ve just done 276 (it updates at midnight local time, so being in Japan means I get a bit of a head start). Took me 4 goes.

I also got today’s (272) in two goes. Got very lucky with my first guess

Wordle 272 2/6*

🟩⬛🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

It’s only my third 2-guess win in 55 tries, but I so far have 100% win record.

I generally mix it up with my starting word but it always contains two vowels.

People keep calling this Josh Wardle guy the “inventor” of Wordle. But I’ve been playing this exact game with my students as a filler activity for at least 5 years now. I can’t even remember where I got it from but I’m kicking myself that I didn’t turn it into a web app and sell it to the New York Times for several million dollars.

I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head.

It can be quite easy to assume a game is bugged when you are certain that you’ve exhausted every possibility. A recent example for me was playing Slasher’s In Search of Marina*. It’s only a short game with a few rooms so it didn’t take long to do a complete sweep, clicking every possible hotspot, trying every item on everything and exhausting all conversations with NPCs, but still I was stuck. I was this close to PMing Slasher to tell him his game was broken when something flickered and I realized I had missed a hotspot after all. And sure enough, clicking that hotspot triggered an important item to appear in another room.

This kind of thing happens all the time and I’m usually quite quick to assume it must be the game’s fault, rather than mine.

^{(*for MAGGIES. Please play the games and vote!)}

People who whisper. It’s not cool. It doesn’t matter whether or not you are actually whispering about the other person in the room or not. If you are whispering to someone else and there’s another person in earshot, then you are a monster.

I’m not a paranoid person (usually - though I have my moments), but today two colleagues whispered something while I was going about my business. When I turned around, they looked a little shifty. Were they whispering about me? Maybe, maybe not. I don’t actually care. The fact that they whispered loud enough for me to hear that they were whispering at all is just rude.

It sounds like they’ve rebranded Cheerios.

This might make me sound really old but one thing that’s been grinding my gears lately is this.



Once respectable brands such as Daedalic seem to be handing the keys to the social media accounts to any 12-year-old with access to a meme generator. Their page is full of this kind of thing. This is actually an example of one of the not-so-terrible ones.

https://m.facebook.com/daedalic/

Found myself listening to The Slits earlier.

https://youtu.be/pSq3-lE377Q

Yeah I’m also not very fond of Elon Musk. He’s certainly an interesting character but there’s something disconcerting about the number of people who swear by his every word. Most of what he comes out with is like Peter Molyneux on steroids (and LSD).

I honestly couldn't put a name to any of his songs either, but I know I've heard them. It's like... they're okay, but they're not most-downloaded-on-Spotify okay, or most-viewed-on-YouTube okay. They're just like acceptable-pub-act-when-the-T-Rex-Tribute-act-wasn't-available okay.

And the way he keeps popping up in films and TV shows is just cringe. He really should learn to say no. He's only in [the God-awful] Red Notice (referencing his own appearance in Game of Thrones, no less) because Netflix made that film with with an AI algorithm and his name was inevitably spat out. I genuinely watched that scene through my fingers and realised maybe 7 minutes later that the cringe was still locked on my face. In fact, I'm doing it again as I type this.

Sorry, I said no elaboration needed. Whoops.

[edit: also... I keep getting told by Japanese people that I look like Ed Sheeran and I really don't. For a start, he's better looking than me.

Ed Sheeran

People who leave me in anticipation for the elaboration of their statement. 

No elaboration necessary. Ed Sheeran grinds my gears.

Ed Sheeran