Online word games and other distractions
Wordle is a global hit, and there are other games like it
I have it on good authority that the days will get quite warmer, even hot, which means that you’ll be lolling around waiting for the summer activities to commence. You could while away the time by updating your Facebook profile or finding out what Elon Musk is doing with Twitter, but instead you could spend some time online challenging your mind, being creative, or discovering interesting places. Here are a few activities to consider.
A couple of months ago I wrote about the latest internet sensation, a word game called Wordle (tinyurl.com/2p92wh9k), which is still free despite being purchased by the New York Times. The object is to deduce a five-letter word within six tries and you can only play once per day. I’ve become hooked on the game and make time every day to play it.
However, one of the hallmarks of the internet is that success breeds imitation and shortly after finding Worldle, I was informed of Canuckle (canucklegame.github.io/canuckle). It’s exactly the same concept but the answer is a word, place, or Canadianism related to Canada, and a fun fact is displayed after you play. I actually found this harder than Wordle.
Then I got an email from Lifehacker, the entertaining and often bizarre online magazine, that presented a slide show with descriptions of the 10 best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty (tinyurl.com/yfj3s5na). The concept of Wordle has now morphed into variations such as a very simple word arcade game called Wheeldle (wheelsrpgs.itch.io/wheeldle), Hurdle (arkadium.com/games/ hurdle) wherein you have to solve five word puzzles, and Waffle (wafflegame.net) which is called the Rubik’s Cube of word games. Check out the Lifehacker article, and take a try at Antiwordle, antiwordle.com) which apparently is impossible to solve.
If you are not into word games, then test your knowledge of geography by identifying countries. Worldle (worldle.teuteuf.fr) has the same concept of five tries once a day but you have to try and name a country by its outline and various clues. You may be tempted but don’t give in to the urge to use Google Maps as an aid.
Google is known to most people as a search site with numerous other utilities such as Maps, Translate, and Calendar, but it’s also a source of plenty of games and diversions.
Google encourages its employees to work on personal projects and morer than 1, 600 of these hi-tech creations are on display at Google Experiments (experiments.withgoogle.com/experiments). You could wander around the descriptions for most of a day looking for something interesting, but I suggest that on the main page you click on Collections and go to Chrome Collections, which also includes the Chrome Music Lab (musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Experiments).
Here you can experiment with creating music, images, and all kinds of computer graphics within the Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser. Try Song Maker, where even I, a non-musician, was able to produce some pretty good tunes, or at least I thought so.
Google is also the home of Google Arts and Culture (artsandculture.google.com) which is stunning in its diverse treatment of humanity’s creative output. You can explore art from around the globe, delve into genres and artists, and use the Museum Explorer to take street-view panoramic tours of hundreds of museums, including the Louvre and the MOMA in New York.
However, the Arts and Culture site also has plenty of fun and interesting games to help you spend some quality leisure time. On the home page, click on the word Play at the top and you can immerse yourself in some amusing but sometimes quite difficult games, such as the Cultural Crosswords which I found very challenging.
If you’re thinking of taking up travel or want to virtually visit fascinating places, then make a visit to 360 Cities (360cities.net) which has 360 degree videos and images of numerous places in the world, including some nice panoramic shots of Peterborough’s Lift Lock and Lang Pioneer Village. You can either search for a place or click on Explore and use a world map to find where there are videos or pan shots. RAY SAITZ, A PETERBOROUGH RESIDENT AND TEACHER, WRITES A REGULAR COLUMN ON THE INTERNET. EMAIL RAYSER3@COGECO.CA AND LINKS TO HELPFUL WEBSITES CAN BE FOUND AT RAYSER.CA/ONLINE.