Thursdays, Maybe

Most everyone loves games, me included. They fill the times in between riding the subway, commuting in an Uber, waiting for a Zoom to start, or even trying to go to sleep. Today's crowd-pleaser is Wordle, and it is taking the world by storm. If you are living under a rock and aren't aware, Wordle is a game where you have to guess the 5 letter word through a process of elimination. It is a daily word, and you have 6 guesses each time it tells you if you have the correct letters and their locations. When you solve the puzzle, you can forward it to your friends as some weird form of a humblebrag. You can see my 'QUEST' to 'TEASE' you above! A whole cottage industry has sprung up around this game, including the best (and worst) starting words, older puzzles (typically not available), an algorithm for solving, even a dirty version of the game (Lewdle). While I like the game, it doesn't take up enough time. Therefore, I fill that void with the daily New York Times puzzle. To be honest, Wednesday's usually and Thursday's maybe!

This week's Loupe is dedicated to the pockets of time in between!

Blinkist
Books

Filling little pockets of time that are customarily wasted is a life-enhancing/optimizing exercise. There are other things to do than Worlde and Crossword puzzles, certainly better than droning through Instagram, Snapchat, or even TikTok. Don't get me wrong, these services are pretty entertaining, even addicting, but it is nice to get a little something back. Enter Blinkist, a company (website and app) that summarizes non-fiction books to its essential elements called Blinks. This is another huge time saver given the amount of superfluous information in most books. The succinct writers at Blinkist have condensed thousands of non-fiction books into 15-minute insight summaries. They have Blinked thousands of books and continue to add more titles every day. Imagine 'reading' 4 great books in 1 hour! If you like a book, you can buy it and delve deeper. The annual subscription will set you back ~$80; however, it's great value when you consider all of your (valuable) time saved.

MHZ TV
Entertainment

The other large block of available time is between dinner and going to sleep. I, for one, like to wind down with a little bit of television, usually live sports but sometimes movies and/or TV. I recently stated that I was literally done with the good content on TV. The pandemic had afforded me the time to watch everything. It was a brazen statement, and fellow Louper Nancy S. alerted me to Mhz, which focuses on International shows and movies. If you don't mind reading subtitles (without the bad dubbing, a la Netflix), there is a substantial amount of binge worth content here. Who doesn't love Italian detectives, Scandinavian crime thrillers, and Spanish love dramas? Watching comedies from other cultures establishes a deeper understanding of that culture. The truth is that there is a trend called Over the Top (OTT for short), which are streaming services that bypass your local cable provider. You know most of them, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney +, etc., but there are a variety of niche providers like Mhz, Crunchyroll (anime), CuriosityStream (documentaries), and more.

Ironically, I learned this week that Wordle was bought by the New York Times! I guess the competition for your downtime is fierce ... I assume Blinkist and Mhz TV will be next!