Letter #43: Links and Loves Pt. 3

Links to interesting things from semi-recent memory!

Dear reader,

Hi there! I hope you’ve been having a nice month so far.

I figured I’d put a fairly quick read out this time around with some things I’ve been interested in recently across the Internet.

Here are some items of interest I’ve been liking recently:

I. Typing

This video from Atomic Frontier is partially about the history of typewriters and keyboards and partially about how typing data may be used to determine the best and worst keyboard layouts. I thought it was a neat watch!

Also, the locations the video creator films in are stunning! I love all the typewriters shown crammed into what appears to be a shop or garage towards the start of the video!

II. Assorted

I subscribed to Tom Scott’s newsletter several months ago and have been learning a lot of random new things from said newsletter. As such, here are some of my favorites so far:

1. 20 Words//20 Seconds (online game you can play in-browser on Itch.io, the same site where we put our first game as well): Oh my gosh, 20 Words//20 Seconds is HARD. It’s kind of like Scattergories, but you only have 20 seconds to come up with a word for as many prompts as possible. I kept messing up my first few rounds because I thought you just work with one prompt (like “words that start with s”), but the prompt changes after you fulfill that prompt so it’s a different prompt after each word. It’s a really neat game, but a bit anxiety-inducing, since you’ll immediately lose precious seconds and points if you mess up a spelling or can’t think of a word. (Which is maybe not the best for someone who’s already anxiety-riddled.) However, I would sincerely like to get better at it! I played for a while just trying to get past 8 words! I finally managed a top score of 163 after a bit and have not managed to get past that yet since going back every now and then.

2. How to Survive in Ancient Greece (article): This piece by Robert Garland was a very interesting read. Imagine you’re a time traveler and have found yourself in ancient Greece. This piece tells you roughly what you can expect life to be like as an interesting walk through history.

III. The War on Cockroaches

This one is not for the faint of heart, which is funny, coming from someone who screams when a bug comes near her. BUT, this post from The Atlantic about the war on cockroaches was still an interesting (albeit at-times gross) read.

IV. Year of the Dragon Writer-Themed Horoscope

A horoscope for the Year of the Dragon, themed for writers. I haven’t seen themed horoscopes before, which is why I was curious to see what this article was. I found mine very inspiring!

Want more? Previous links posts are here and here!

As always, happy reading and have a day as lovely as you are!

-Olivia