Wasting Time

Alternative post title:

How to pass the time when you feel like crap.

When I’m feeling dizzy, movement exacerbates the feeling so I try to sit and relax for a while. Sometimes reading is okay, but other times I want to do something a little more engaging. Thanks to Peak Oil Hausfrau, I’m now addicted to an Internet word game.

I’ve always liked words and word games. During vacation drives, I remember doing the word seek puzzles or playing the alphabet game with the family. The alphabet game can even be played alone on long boring drives. Starting with “A”, one must make it through the alphabet by finding words, or license plates, that begin with each letter. Sounds easy enough and it is, until you reach “Q” and “X”. When we’d play this as a family, only the first person to shout out “Q” for Queen from the Dairy Queen sign would get credit for the letter. This meant you had to get all the other letters before reaching that Dairy Queen on the drive. Not a bad way to keep the kiddies engaged.

The online game Hausfrau brought to my attention is somewhat like Boggle. You have to find as many words with 3 or more letters as you can out of a group of 6 letters. You can only advance to the next round if you find the 6 letter word. You only have 2 ½ minutes to do this.

Sounds easy? Well, let me give you an example but we’ll start easy with just 4 letters:

S A L E

Quick, how many words can you find?

SALE
SEAL
SEA
ALE
ALES
LEA
LEAS

Did I miss any?


Now, see what happens when we add one more letter:

S A L E S

This adds just a few more words.

SALES
SEALS
SEAS
ASS
LASS
LESS

Can you find any more?


Finally, here are all 6 letters:

S A L E S T

When just one more letter is added, the number of additional possible words explodes.

LAST
LEST
SAT
SATE
SATES
SET
SETS
STALE
STEAL
STEALS
TALE
TALES
TEA
TEAS

Chances are I missed some words in this example. (Yep: SET, SETS, LET, LETS...) Chances are you'll miss some in the game because of the time limit and the necessity to find that 6 letter word within each game.

This isn't a total time waster as it can increase your vocabulary. The online version has thrown in a few words I’ve never heard of before:

TED – to spread newly mown grass or cut hay to dry
TAM - a Scottish wool cap
RIVE – to wrench open or tear apart (as in lightning rived the tree)
HOVE – past tense of heave
EWER - vase-shaped jug

It also seems to have a limited dictionary because we've put in words that it doesn't recognize. Here are just a few of those:

BOT – larva of a botfly
LEK – a display courtship area for animals, particularly birds
ERNE - sea eagle, often used as a clue in crossword puzzles
CERE - fleshy area at the base of an eagle or hawk's beak
ANTSY – what I am right now
REPO – what’s happening to lots of car owners nowadays
BUTS – no ifs, ands, OR buts
SLUT – evidently it’s a moral game
MORES – but it doesn’t know it is
SHIT – let’s keep it clean, shall we?


If you barely made it to the end of this post because it was so uninteresting to you, then check the game out. You’ll soon grow bored and it won’t suck up all your time. If, on the other hand, you think this post has been fun, then you do not want to go play this game. You will get addicted. You will lie in bed at night thinking of six letter words and all the possible words within them.

You have been W A R N E D!

RAW
DRAW
WAR
WAN
WANE
WANED
WAND
AWE
AWED
WED
RED
READ
ARE
ERA
EAR
END
REND
DEN
DEW
NEW
EARN
DARN
NEAR
DEAR
DARE
WEAR
WARE
WARN
WARNED

ACK, make it stop. Make it stop!!!!