Globle: Capitals

I discovered Globle: Capitals when I was writing my post on Metazooa and Metaflora a few weeks back, and it immediately joined my regular rotation.

Capitals has, unsurprisingly, the same basic mechanics as the original Globle (post with those here), with two changes. One, you’re deducing national capitals instead of the nations themselves. Assuming the average person knows more countries than countries’ capitals, this is inherently the harder game. The second difference makes it a bit easier; an arc appears between each guess and the previous, and like the capitals themselves, the arc is color-coded! This is especially useful if the correct answer falls somewhere between your entries.

Unsurprisingly, I like Capitals for the same reasons I like Globle (and Metazooa, and Metaflora). It’s a low-pressure deduction game that teaches me more about the world every day! And this world is such a fascinating place.

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Metazooa & Metaflora

I’ve mentioned the game Globle before – a sort of Wordle offshoot centered around geography. I recently discovered that the same group behind Globle, Trainwreck Labs, also had an animal game! That game is Metazooa.

My favorite part of Metazooa is that each wrong answer gives you the common order, class, etc. that your answer and the correct one share, so each guess fills out a sort of family tree. From a game perspective, it’s useful to extrapolate what this isn’t more closely related to; from an aesthetic perspective, it looks cool; and from a life perspective, I’m garnering a much more detailed understanding of the animal kingdom than I knew before.

And the same is true for plants! Metazooa has a sibling game, called Metaflora, which is similarly fascinating. As it’s harder (for people who don’t study plants), Metaflora gives you 25 guesses, while Metazooa gives you 20. In both games, you can trade three guesses for a hint: the next taxonomic rank down. They also have practice games if the one plant/animal daily isn’t enough for you!

I’m clearly fond of both of these; if you love these branches of science, or just want to understand them better, then this is probably the fun, educational game for you.

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Unexpected Animals

We went to Kuipers Family Farm yesterday to pick apples, and what should we find but a wading bird, wandering its way between the trees!

It was such a strange happenstance that I went scrolling through my camera roll and realized it was not, in fact, an isolated one. Here, on an island in the road, is one of several deer having a leisurely snack at rush hour:

And finally, a raccoon at our bird feeder. This is, in and of itself, not that unusual; we frequently get after-hours visits from the raccoon, the skunk, and the possum, and on our most exciting nights we get them all at once. It is a little strange, however, to get one during daylight hours.

The moral of the story, I suppose, is that nature will always find a way to be as baffling as it is beautiful.

…and to have your camera ready.

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Solo Shots

Yep, more cat pictures! What can I say? They’re photogenic. These photos were taken in the spring, featuring:

Arwen, sprawled in the bay window and glaring half-heartedly at the camera.

Arwen’s contempt for photography when I could instead be petting her;

Zuko, napping on a fluffy grey blanket with his nose tucked behind one outstretched front paw while his other crosses under his neck to stick out towards the camera.

whatever this nap position of Zuko’s is called;

Diane, lying on the couch and staring in the direction of the camera. Meanwhile, a crocheted Totoro pillow stares into her side.

Diane, by far the most awake and cooperative;

Tortoiseshell paws, tail, and part of June's back stick out from under a purple blanket with gold sun and moon and white star patterns on it. The rest of June is curled up comfortably beneath it, out of sight.

and June’s best impression of the Wicked Witch of the East!

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Sweet Potatoes with Cranberry Sauce

Thus far, this has not been a recipe blog. However, this week I rediscovered a recipe I came up with in elementary school, made it for… probably the first time since writing it down, and found to my great delight that little Cassandra had excellent taste, so it seems only right to share! Behold, Random Geek Child’s first recipe, right in time for the autumn weather finally hitting the Midwest.

Ingredients:
2 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp butter
2 cups cranberries
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/8 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
Walnuts, optional (Little Cassandra didn’t specify a quantity of these, so measure with your heart)

Method:
1) Halve the sweet potatoes and microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.
2) Add butter to a glass baking dish (of appropriate surface area for your potato halves), put the dish in the oven and preheat to 350°F.
3) Add the cranberries, brown sugar, allspice, and orange juice to a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes.
4) When the oven reaches temperature, add the cinnamon followed by the potato halves – cut side down – to the baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
5) Serve the sweet potatoes with the cranberry sauce and, if you’re using them, walnuts.

Recipe serves 4. As a bonus, I’ve found the cinnamon butter left in the pan goes well with a sliced apple for dessert! Happy autumn, Northern Hemisphere.

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