you've found..

the dles

not something i've been doing to channel him because i've been doing it way before he became my emotional support man, but definitely something that brings me closer to northernlion ryan (forgot we're on a first name basis after both coming out as loner alphas), i have a bunch of games i'm doing daily* and i'm gonna talk about them. my dles, if you will

* some dailier than others

this was a perfectly fluid and easy to follow sentence to read and write right? sure, we move nevertheless

it all started with the linkedin games. i dunno how they came on my radar couse other than just having the profile i do not use linkedin in any capacity, but they came on my radar regardless and i've been doing them ever since. what's ever since? uh

oh dear

it all started with the queens, tango, pinpoint and crossclimb. these stats are on queens (and they're the same on tango). i started doing the pinpoint nearly precisely 100 days later, then the crossclimb even later because it's my girlfriend's favorite and i eventually just had to take on my knightly duties. i've been avoiding it because i'm kind of turned off by games where you just have to know words since you can get just straight up locked out of a solution if you just happen to not know the word, i much prefer logic ones, but it's also really just not that bad. zip was introduced way later, and then maybe only a few months ago thy introduced mini sudoku. i did the mini sudoku for a while but i stopped since it's pretty boring, i'd much rather play an actual sudoku

my preferences are: tango > queens > zip > crossclimb > pinpoint >>>>> mini sudoku. i play all of these (sans mini sudoku) daily. i really like tango. once a week you also have a bonus expert level of the queens, tango, and zip, but you have to send an invite to three people for each game in order to unlock them. i've got a couple people i can safely annoy with these messages though

despite being on linkedin, you can play them without an account. i dunno if they'll track your stats however. also disclaimer that the first couple games they give you are beginner variants so if you're playing along with me but it's your first time these ones will probably be desynced

up next, another one i really like, the new york times strands

i started doing this one at about the same time i started the linkedin games. like everyone and their mothers i played a little bit of wordle during the pandemic but it was never my thing. this one turns out i really like though so i've been doing it daily ever since. it only took me like, a whole damn year to realise that if i make an account i can get my stats tracked

Strands #648
“Let me elaborate ...”
🟡🔵🔵🔵
🔵

these are the actually daily dles, the rest range from relatively frequent to if i even remember them

continuing with the new york times for a little bit more, sometimes if i'm really bored and feel like stalling i'll also do the pips. sorry i mean the pips. when i first discovered it i did it daily for maybe two weeks but eventually all these games add up and start taking time so i stopped

Pips #115 Easy 🟢
0:26
Pips #115 Medium 🟡
7:38
Pips #115 Hard 🔴
5:06

if i'm with my girlfriend we'll infrequently do the connections together. it's mostly out of some manner of morbid fascination with it because some of the themes can be sooooooo fucking egregious. it's just more fun to get upset at it together

not doing this one now, there's no charm to it if i'm alone. but hey, i'm flying home in a handful of days, i'll remember to do it once for the advent so look forward to that

alright, done with the new york times games. they have more i tried but they never stuck

up next, one i really like and i've started doing it almost daily in the past weeks, the foodguessr. there's two of them really, there's the actual foodguessr where you have to guess which country a dish originates from, and then there's plate-off where you're presented with two dishes and have to select which one is more liked (or yummed) more. the plate-off pisses me off sometimes, or i guess the foodguessr players piss me off, because the so obviously tastier and more interesting looking dish will have something like a 56% yum rate just because there's fish or vegetables in it or it just looks a little bit unfamiliar/foreign (and not east asian), then the alternative which is something like fried meatballs with salt will have a 98% yum. like, ok, i think it's time we put your bottle of ranch on the top shelf where you can't reach it man

I got 12,500 on the FoodGuessr Daily!

That's 3,071 points above today's average! 🎉

🌕🌕🌕🌑 3,500 (Round 1)
🌕🌕🌕🌕 5,000 (Round 2) 💯
🌕🌕🌕🌘 4,000 (Round 3)

Thursday, Dec 11, 2025
Play here: https://www.foodguessr.com/

I got 7/10 on today's FoodGuessr Plate-Off!

✅✅✅❌✅✅✅❌❌✅

Thursday, Dec 11, 2025
Play here: https://www.foodguessr.com/game/plate-off/daily

basically the same as the plate-off is the scrandle except its just scran which i've come to learn it refers to cheap hearty food, commonly served at football matches. it's also a bit more interesting because you have to take the price of the meal into account too. scrandle is an objectively funnier version of the plate-off but i basically never play it. i couldn't just not mention it though. like

you've gotta be fucking kidding me

🟥🟥🟩🟥🟩🟩🟥🟩🟥🟩 5/10 | 2025-12-11 | https://scrandle.com

this one's weekly but i'm counting it, the edhrec crossword. there's not a lot to say about this one but i enjoy doing it. i'll usually get stumped on some artist's names but at the point where they're the only ones left unsolved and i can't figure it out from context further i'll just look them up on scryfall. edhrec also has spellify which sounds like i should like it but i never did. i must've attempted it like three times ever

i haven't finished this week's crossword though so no time message for now

finally, there's the pokedoku. i always liked pokedoku, it's such a clever idea for a daily puzzle and i love that it shows you the most and least common choices and how common your choice was. it's really good, i rarely ever play it though. lot of the time i just kind of forget about it

🌟 PokeDoku Champion 🌟
📅 2025-12-11

Score: 9/9
Uniqueness: 109/77

✅ ✅ ✅ 
✅ ✅ ✅ 
✅ ✅ ✅ 


Play at: https://pokedoku.com/share/3RAg3wfmfpgf

i think that's everything of note. i did a little googling while writing this and i found a massive collection of dles to keep you busy or maybe develop a new ritual or two. routine can be a hell of a thing. this link would go so hard on my links page, maybe in 2026!

alright, sure, kind of weird that you're telling this to me two weeks in advance though. the last choc of this calendar is a full sized bar so it's very shareable, just gotta remember to it

oh, another one i just remembered, i used to play the kanye heardle some years ago until the website just kind of stopped working for me. seems fine now. kanye's been kind of off my radar for some time though, really everything after jesus is king just hasn't been that good. bad even. playing this game for a little now though, anything pre-donda i can still guess within the first 2 seconds. looks like some skills never rust away