Something Different

Now that I'm pretty re-hooked on the internet via my computer, I realize again how much time can be wasted on it. Time I could be working in the yard (too hot), being at the beach (no excuse), doing my laundry (ugh), staring at the chickens (enjoyable, but with a time limit that doesn't last longer than washing my hair twice).

So, in the hot hours when the effort required to do much fails me, I'm trying to switch online time wasting modes from Facebook and Netflix to some of the following.

Following a few more links I get in my email. Like this article about Harold Burnham, who is one of the extremely accomplished recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship Award for his boat building skills, good enough to be considered a Master Boatwright. Thanks, Suzanne!

I'm not a big game player. I never had a farm on facebook. Well, I did have an underwater garden there for awhile, I admit it. It was for a good cause, but eventually it drove me insane(r), with its constant neediness, let alone my friends gardens that needed help as well. Maddening. Sorry, friends, I failed you and your gardens...and I'm only a tiny bit ashamed.

On the flip side, playing scrabble and doing crosswords together with my kids this trip was fun. Especially when I won. Well, you can't win at crosswords, but you can sound smart. Unless your kid is smarter. Damn them! But just in case any of this sounds like good time wasting activities to you, here is what I found that covers all the bases. Until the weather cools off.

Merriam Webster has a great website for all sorts of games to let you know you still have a brain. Or not. I thought I was pretty great on the vocabulary and picture recognition sections until I looked at the leader boards, where I found dust in my mouth. Hey, I'm way over in my age group, who ARE these people who are faster and smarter by a really big margin? I have no idea, but the gauntlet is now thrown down.

QUIZZES
Vocabulary Quiz 10 questions—see how your score compares.	Name That Thing The visual vocab quiz
Spell It The commonly misspelled words quiz	True Or False? A quick quiz about stuff worth knowing

And I haven't even started on the crosswords by myself yet. I get distracted by things like the banana quit that just flew in my window and out of my door. With all the noise a bunch of them are making, I'm wondering if a new family moved into my eaves while I was away.

Maybe this whole game thing is a passing fancy. Maybe I'm just reacclimatizing (10 points).

Have a try to think fast Thursday! Do something thorny.