I first discovered the joys of lying about my ability to access the internet when I went to one of those little cabin places that encourages you to unplug. They suggest that you put your phone in a lock box, and they provide a landline in case you need to call 911. Before I left, I told everybody that I didn’t expect…
Elden Ring is a massive game. You can spend hours exploring the map, engaging with enemies, and progressing through the storyline, all without giving a second thought to your save file. After all, Steam automatically backs up your save files to the cloud. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, a lot. Save file…
Not to brag, but I go on a lot of first dates. But this point, I’m familiar with navigating all the unspoken rules of the game. Will we split the bill, or is that too platonic? Should we acknowledge the fact that I obviously stalked you before showing up tonight? To hug or not to hug?
Sometimes, when I want to feel mad, I read about the crap the internet tries to pass off as weight loss hacks. Because they are all so, so bad.
Articles about weight loss hacks never actually include hacks, but the headline always swears they do. A recent example: this Telegraph article titled, and I swear I am not…
Mashed potatoes are important, and I take them very seriously. The epitome of comfort food, a bowl of roughed up spuds is the easiest way to turn an otherwise “healthy” meal into comfort food.
When you start a new romantic relationship, there are so many exciting things to look forward to: the honeymoon stage, planning your Instagram debut, learning all about each other, and feeling overwhelmed with happiness and possibility. Some of the fun stuff happens outside the relationship, too—telling your friends…
Long gone are the days of playing console video games online for free. Switch owners need to pony up for Nintendo Switch Online, Xbox users have to sign up for Xbox Live Gold, and those of us loyal to Sony have to pony up for PlayStation Plus to play against friends and strangers alike. But things are chancing at…
There are plenty of external monitors on the market, but many Mac users (myself included) naturally gravitate toward the aesthetics and features of those made by Apple: a high-quality display, excellent speakers, ease of use, and, of course, an aesthetic that aligns with the rest of your Apple products. So yes, A…
If you’re like a lot of folks, it’s probably been a minute since you needed your grown-up wardrobe. Many of us have been working remotely for the last few ... years? Has it really been years? Holy moly. You might break out the dress shirts for a Zoom call, but otherwise, we’re living in a permanent Causal Friday,…
At this point, we’re all used to receiving spam texts: Messages purporting to be from your carrier offering you a “gift” for paying your bill, or from “Netflix” asking you to open a link and “update your subscription.” These attempts to rip you off aren’t unusual. What is unusual is when these texts come not from a…
Did you know you could use dishwasher tablets in way more places than just your dishwasher? Turns out, we’ve all been sleeping on the lesser known uses of these compact cleaning agents. Since they’re designed with bleach and enzymes to remove stains, combat hard water, and eat through grease, those little pods can…
Protein is an important macronutrient. If you lift, you need it to build muscle. If you run a lot, you need it to keep from losing muscle. If you diet, it helps to nourish your body even when you’re low on calories, and if you eat foods that don’t naturally have a lot of protein, supplementing is one way of ensuring …
Onion dip and potatoes are a winning combination. The classic pairing of a thin, super salty potato chip and creamy, umami-packed onion dip is a top-tier snack, but I’ve also been know to mix store-bought dip into mashed potatoes, to excellent results.
If you’ve ever listened to someone, like, pepper everything they say with, like, a never-ending litany of likes, ums, or ahs, you know it can be distracting and—whether fair or not—can diminish what they’re saying. We all occasionally lean on verbal crutches, or what academics call “disfluencies” when we’re nervous,…
I was recently on a flight home from visiting some family, and the guy sitting in the aisle seat a few rows up from me refused to let anyone past him. He dozed in his seat and slumped into the aisle, preventing the drinks cart from moving through, and the flight attendants had to physically shove him upright to get…
There are three inevitabilities in life: death, taxes, and software updates. Programs like Chrome can never be perfect, and security flaws will inevitability be discovered—the goal is just to squash those flaws with an update before bad actors can take advantage of them. Today, Chrome and Edge users find themselves in…
As many houseplants and flowers mature, they outgrow the original pots and containers they called home and need to move into something bigger. And while reusing the pot is a great, sustainable option, it’s important to make sure that it’s cleaned thoroughly before moving a new plant in and having it set down roots.…
Along with puzzles, knitting, and baking banana bread, backyard astronomy was something a lot of people got into at the beginning of the pandemic. Two years later, there may not be the same enthusiasm for checking the weekly night-sky forecast and adding upcoming meteor showers to your calendar, but it’s an activity…
Windows has always had a bloatware problem (even if Samsung has recently claimed the crown in that department). Bloatware is an umbrella term for apps, services, and programs you don’t need, and never asked for, and Windows comes preinstalled with a boatload of them.
Everyone lies sometimes. Toddlers, kindergarteners, fourth graders, tweens, teens, and yes, even us—the mature, sage adults. We’ve all sugarcoated the truth at one time or another to spare someone’s feelings, get out of an onerous task, or save face while bailing on previously laid social plans.
In a perfect world, we’d all eat seasonally available local produce that we’ve purchased directly from farmers (or farmers’ markets). But that’s not an option for everyone (especially since there are entire neighborhoods that don’t have access to affordable fruits and vegetables).
The water dispenser on your fridge is a modern convenience that many of us take for granted. Usually, it tastes better than the tap and it’s perfectly chilled. But sometimes, the dispenser can develop issues that cause the water to taste funky, even if the fridge itself is new. Here are some potential causes and…
Last week, I discovered that I can touch my toes (and maybe you can, too). In the past I never really felt like I got much out of stretching, and I know that it doesn’t do much to prevent injury or improve performance. But I practice what I preach when it comes to trying things you don’t like to see if maybe they’re…
We know communication is the bedrock of any success romantic relationship, and that includes how we communicate our needs and desires in the bedroom. So why does talking dirty seem so…awkward? As simple as it might look in movies and porn, in real life dirty talk doesn’t always flow off the tongue quite as easily as…
Searching for a job can feel like a full time job itself. It’s easy to feel defeated when it feels like you’re sending your resume out into the void and hearing nothing back the majority of the time. Maybe you’re graduating soon, or making a career pivot, or jumping back into the workforce after some time away—the job…
Funny, stirring, weird, embarrassing: There are all sorts of reasons to love an acceptance speech. The greatest sin one can commit in giving one isn’t, as some seem to think, forgetting to thank your agent: it’s being boring. We love to be moved and inspired by a speech, no question, but an off-color joke, a lost…
If you’re interested in spending more time in the yard this summer, but need to increase your shaded areas to make it more cool and comfortable, a shade sail might be for you. Unlike a roof, a shade sail is intended to let air circulate through it while providing a cooler spot. Shade sails are also removable, making…
Growing your own food is immensely satisfying—but only when you get a crop that’s delicious, plentiful, or definitely worth the effort. It’s a different story when you’ve spent all summer doting on a single eggplant that turns out to not even be that good. To know where to focus your gardening efforts, here are the…
I like to knit, sew, and do assorted crafts. So, for a long time, I was a big fan of the Jo-Ann flyers that would come in the mail. There would always be at least one really valuable coupon, giving you 40% off any full price item, which I would usually save for a big cut of fabric. But you couldn’t use it if your…
At the time of this writing, Elden Ring has sold more than 12 million copies, putting it in the rarified ranks of the top-selling video games normally dominated by massive mainstream franchises like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Madden. That’s an impressive feat for FromSoftware—a development studio whose…
Alcohol has its time and place. Most of former are with friends (although a solo wine night is dreamy), and most of the latter are in a glass or, occasionally, a saucepan. Yet while imbibing spirits and cooking with a splash of wine are wonderfully traditional, baking with booze doesn’t get enough attention. This is…
What is the United States anyway? Sure, it’s a nation made up of 50 states that covers a good deal of a continent. But as my fifth grade social studies textbook would have you believe, it’s also made up of a righteous people with a common history and a shared set of beliefs and ideals that include truth, justice, and…
Not entirely unlike Inside Out a few years back, the new Pixar film Turning Red stars a character confronting her own adolescence and the physical and emotional horrors of puberty. Without going into depressing detail, it has generated controversy for a number of truly dumb reasons.
If you’ve ever been around kids for any length of time, you’ve surely asked yourself: Why, why on Earth, would a person eat the inner contents of their disgusting nose? The most basic answer is: Kids are gross, and they do gross things. But more specifically, in the words of a child I know (I’ll never say who): “I eat…
Windows offers multiple ways to take screenshots, but if you’re someone who takes a lot of them, the built-in tools probably don’t offer enough—things like scrolling screenshots, fixed time intervals, and cloud uploads.
Rich people have financial advisors who profit only if their clients make money, but if you don’t have a portfolio worth $50,000 or more, you probably turn to the internet for advice. More than a third of Americans do just that, and 60% of them actually act on what they see online. But, man, it’s a jungle out there.
A slightly spicy radish, served with a smear of butter and some flaky salt, is one of my favorite vegetable-based snacks. Crisp, fresh, and rich all at once, it is a perfect springtime bite. The root is so delightful, it’s easy to forget about the greens up top, but those greens deserve your attention too, especially…
No matter your age, you’ve seen a lot of technological changes in your lifetime—not to mention changes in the natural world, like climate change. But sometimes things change without us realizing. Here are 10 things that used to be very different than they are today—and you probably never noticed.
It’s impossible for me to walk over a bridge without thinking “I’m going to chuck my phone into the water.” Luckily, I’ve never acted on this involuntary “intrusive thought.” And since I’m online all the time, I know I’m not alone in finding the humor in this sort of intrusive thought. It’s trendy to use the term to…
Every major update since Windows 8 has come with a major redesign of the Start menu, and Windows 11 is no exception. This time, though, Microsoft went rather radical: The taskbar is centered, the Start menu is devoid of live tiles, and there are only two sections—pinned apps, and recommendations.
Life is full of etiquette blunders—some small and inconsequential, some large and egregious. We were all raised differently, with varying ideas of what’s “polite.” We recently posted a story about a woman who was invited to dinner at her friend’s place and then received a surprise Venmo request for the penne alla…
You can be forgiven for not understanding human behavior very well. People are complicated, and it’s hard to understand why we do what we do, especially since the answer is likely due to a trick our minds are playing on us. Simply eliminating the variables necessary to test a hypotheses about the cause of even the…
iPhone and Android smartphones have made it easy to talk in emojis and GIFs. They come built-in to the keyboard with a dedicated button—Android even has GIF search built directly into Gboard. But when you shift to working on your Mac or Windows PC, you might think you lose out on that ease. But actually, both Mac and…
We may earn a commission from links on this page. Music documentaries are having a moment. In the last month, talking heads (as opposed to ...
