Life Lately: Small Discoveries Edition

I can’t believe it’s already the third week of December. How come?! This year feels like just a few sleeps, and then—bam—another new year incoming!

Even though this year has moved so quickly, I’ve learned so many new things. But let’s save that for an end-of-year reflection, shall we? In the meantime, here are a few recent discoveries that have been rocking my life in surprisingly different ways:

LinkedIn puzzle games. Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Who installs LinkedIn just to play games?”

… Me. I do.

LinkedIn puzzle games are so much fun. There are six mini games, and we only get one chance every 24 hours to beat our connections’ records (if they’re bored enough to play).

I’m quite proud to say that I play them consistently every day. I’m even prouder that I’ve successfully made my boyfriend just as addicted as I am.

The puzzle games in question:

1. Zip — Complete a path by drawing a line from the smallest number to the largest, without leaving any square empty.

2. Mini Sudoku — No explanation needed. It’s a freaking Sudoku.

3. Tango — SO much fun. You have to complete each row (both horizontal and vertical) with three full moons and three half moons. You can’t place more than two of the same type side by side. There are also “=” and “×” signs to spice things up.

4. Queens — Place one crown in each color. The challenge? No crown can be in line with another crown from a different color.

5. Pinpoint — LinkedIn gives you five clues to guess an underlying theme. You get one guess for each clue revealed.

6. Crossclimb — One of my favorites. You guess words based on clues, then rearrange them until they form a ladder where only one letter changes per line. 

Apparently, Bento Thai dried octopus should be dipped in cold, iced water before eating. This was brand new information to me. I’ve been eating that snack wrong my entire life. Ouch.

P.S. It still doesn’t make sense how dried octopus snack suddenly becomes crispy after being dipped in cold water. Where is the physics?!

Health-related facts are way more fun when illustrated. Recently, I discovered a TikTok account called Dr. Healthcare. It shares daily health tips using simple illustrations. After watching a few videos, I felt strangely… educated (and also more motivated to live healthily), because I really don’t want my body parts to suffer the way the illustrated patients do.

But the account has had one odd side effect.

In the videos, body parts are personified (examples: the stomach gets happy when you eat vegetables, or a “guard” stops urine for inspection because protein levels are off the charts). Watching them has made me imagine my own body parts talking too.

…

Well, I guess that’s not such a bad thing. I am more educated now, after all.

The Kindle Paperwhite 12th Gen is insanely responsive. Before my old Kindle Paperwhite 10th Gen broke, I had been using it for almost half a decade. I was so used to its slow responsiveness that I didn’t even find it annoying—and honestly, I didn’t expect much from the upgrade.

But wow.

What arrived in the mail completely exceeded my expectations! This new Kindle is so fast and responsive it almost feels like a smartphone (or… a smartKindle?). Huge improvements. I’m genuinely amazed. I promise I’ll talk about it more on my next post.

If you like this post, you might also enjoy Apparently, I’ve Been Wrong About These Five Things and Ramen, Rizz, and the Rise of Assertive Me.