as a blossoming professional puzzler, one irritant that's worth voicing about the NYT Connections is that the final category rarely gives solvers an "aha!" moment. leaving your solvers with a residual feeling of, "Oh, okay. That's annoying." isn't compelling puzzle design.

if I had a million dollars: every year I'd coordinate a week-long vacation in a multi-bedroom exposed-beam thatched cottage on the water with all my friends & install a wide-radius signal jammer that encompasses the premises

Artemis II has brought me to tears every day they've been out there. Safe travels home, friends.

coming to terms with the milestone of learning, several weeks after it happened, that your parent(s) have experienced an injury or health-related incident & neglected several opportunities to mention it

more than once I've missed a hold pickup window & every time I pay the $1.00 fine, I am fraught. the librarians have assured me they don't care and they're happy to see me again. pillars of society

weather app showing me new symbols I've never experienced before. 2026 Weather DLC

paying mortgage & income taxes is good. it's good. we have to look at the long game. it's good. it might feel like -$13k in 3 days but it's actually good. we have to look to the future. it's good.

the work is mysterious and important (writing cryptics for my strava entries as I start running again)

I don't typically pay much attention to fashion, but I am absolutely enamoured when someone is wearing an entirely benign outfit paired with the most fun and unexpected socks.

it can't possibly be that hard to cut my own bangs

you can always tell when a baddie is nearby bc their uggs are scuffing along the winter salt all the way. schoof schoof schoof schoof that's a 10 coming up on your left, show some respect

the most efficient way to burn a candle is from both ends, really

motorists will see a safe stopping distance and ask is 'anyone going to swerve into that' & not wait for an answer

If we're going the same direction, we might as well go together.

it was so easy to buy avocados that I almost completely missed that both the superbowl and the olympics are happening right now

an hour of Strange Antiquities has me curled up and yawning at 7:30pm and it's only when the heater turns off that I realize the background music is soft lulling piano and a gentle thunderstorm

battery backup for the computer in this office losing power, intermittent inconsistent beeping. going to overstep my role and get under the desk like a mechanic to disassemble it with my bare hands.

Eva is short for Evarything To Me

I want to hang out with a cat for a weekend but the 5 cats I know personally are owned by my beautiful friends who are convinced that their cat has unique feline travel anxiety and will hate visiting me :(

there is no rooftop high enough nor could I ever shout loud enough to express the sheer love and respect I have for crossing guards

it's getting to the point where I'm excited for -25⁰ (feels like -32⁰) because I can blamelessly and shamelessly cancel all my plans that involve leaving my house

she star in my valley till I dew

my mod team asked me to take on the role of Task Master (affectionately, Submission Mistress) to ensure all the research tasks were completed. 94/95 (98.9%) tasks have been completed, with the outstanding one on-campus and out of my locus of control. This is fine. Why wouldn't it be?

Cardinality did such a beautiful, good job of MITMH this year. I've been doing tasks and quests for two days. I'm in my bliss like never before.

living with a bunny has illuminated for me exactly what it would be like to have Navi follow me around, if she were an oval who was always a little bit mad at me

I keep saying things like, "unlocked a new level of cozy" & think I've peaked but then I'll have a day like today and realize the cozy I've yet to experience is a beautiful sprawling range of mountain peaks ahead of me. I'm also napping in all the valleys too

new tier unlocked: recognized by the staff at the humane society

simmering my new years resolutions on low heat until they caramelize

it didn't work

this morning I confiscated ant poison from a squirrel, and opened a fortune cookie for 8 sparrows. the fortune read, "Be cautious of the next turn."

I could pick a card, any card, from a standard, freshly opened 52 deck and still somehow pull Temperance

why is it that laundry has a final boss phase after wash and dry. and why does it take two weeks to do a final knockout blow that costs me less than an hour of my life

🛡️ ⚔️

well. it's time. how do i set my tree up and bunny-proof it against little wandering angels who long to consume wires at any cost

We’re ready for your on-boarding, @officialpax.bsky.social ! Why not start your workday with a visit to the Puzzle Room (118C)?

A 1:1 supervisor to employee ratio at the greatest company in the world. Now hiring puzzle solvers: only at Pax Unplugged.

packing for Pax Unplugged as if I'm going to Australia for six weeks, not two states down for four days

all I have going for me is my wit, charm, confidence, and familiarity. unfortunately this will not be enough to prevent me from being fed to the wolves, who have sensed my lack of ease and my facade of nonchalance

finding out that all the emails I ignored from my building are actually about a full day water shut-off actually resulted in a very productive catch-up on dishes and filling 10 mason jars with drinking water

what does it mean when you light a candle with the intention to unwind and shortly thereafter the candle jar shatters? was the candle acting in self-defense or did my stress resonance break 550Hz?

messages that you could receive from a lover, a therapist, or a swim instructor

the early bird would get the worm but I'm out there even earlier, picking them up off the sidewalks and depositing them back into the grass

surely having to watch a second baseball game is sufficient penalty

local creature ♡

yes it's a crime but have the authorities considered that it's extremely cool to have successfully pulled off a jewel heist from a famous museum in broad daylight

if i had known i was going to be up until 1am i would have lit a candle. not in mourning or anything, just because it's time for my apartment to smell like autumn

the Muppets have been real quiet since the Louvre heist

desperately trying to remember who told me kale could be added to a smoothie because I only now realize they are my sworn enemy and architect of all misery