Today I did my daily ritual of playing Wordle – which if you haven’t heard of it – it’s a word game where you try to guess a five-letter word in six tries. There’s a new word every day. What makes this game fun is that you can share your results – so you can humble brag when you get a word in three tries or even two – which I have done twice now.

The New York Times purchased Wordle for seven figures. So, yes, they spent over a million dollars for this viral word game. When a New York Times spokesperson mentioned the buy, they alluded that it was in the low seven-figure amount. Well, that’s practically a bargain price then if it was a low seven-figure number.

Wordle was a pet project of software engineer Josh Wardle that he actually started in 2013 but finished in 2021 launching it in October. I had heard that it was a quarantine project and immediately felt like an underachiever as my quarantine projects included such things as buying groceries, putting on real pants, and returning my Mom’s phone calls. These were my accomplishments while Josh is busy making a game that would make him a millionaire.

I told my husband that we need a million-dollar idea and he said that everyone has one. My problem is that I will never finish all of my projects and I bet one of those unfinished ones is my million-dollar idea. But this does give me encouragement to finish some projects no matter when it was started. It could still be a hit.

Some of my best ideas come to me while in the car. I had a great idea for a game that is similar to Wordle in that it has one puzzle a day. I would play it so I plan to do a proof of concept at least and see if any of my Facebook friends will play and give feedback.

Anyway, Wordle is still free for now. I wouldn’t be surprised if the NYT puts an extended version or something like that of the game behind their paywall. Keeping it free might be a really smart move as it will bring a bunch of web traffic and who knows – maybe convert some of it to readers.

Now I’m off to wait for tomorrow’s puzzle and to start on hopefully my million-dollar idea.

Today my husband received a message from a former girlfriend. It was a picture of her newest grandchild. She has two. Such a nice milestone to hit when your kids are grown and start having kids of their own. We are not there yet but it’s coming. Ready or not, it’s coming.

This news seemed to motivate my husband into writing his novel – saying something like “I’ve got to write my novel.” You realize that time is always passing – whether you want it to or not. How and what are you doing? Are you doing the things you want to do? If not, why?

My biggest issue with my passion projects is I have too many – therefore I know that not all of these will get done and can’t decide which ones I really want to see come to fruition. At the end of the day, I really need to evaluate what brings joy and what doesn’t. I’m going to Marie Kondo my way into finding my passion.

I really like to draw. I suck at it but enjoy it. I want to continue drawing but I don’t want to feel pressure to do it. It is strictly a hobby and I’m not sure if I even want to share what I do online. It’s just really personal to me. I had started sharing some of my drawings in an attempt to give my mind a reason to do it. Now I think I’m past tricking myself into doing something. If I want to do it well that is reason enough. There doesn’t have to be a bigger purpose.

One other passion is writing. I love to write. I’m mediocre at best but I love conveying information. That’s why I love being in television news years ago. I left the business and have yet to find a career that is as satisfying. Better paying, yes but not satisfying. This is when I think about just blogging and writing which I know I would enjoy. Something holds me back. I’m not sure what. Fear? Confidence? I don’t know but this is truly where I feel I can ‘shine’ – not to sound braggy or anything.

My biggest problem with writing is solitary. I’m social. I like to check my Facebook feed and talk to my husband. I can’t stay focused long enough to get into the zone. This is something to work on though. Maybe baby steps? Write for ten minutes and go from there. I do have a few book ideas of my own. They aren’t going to write themselves and as we know – time is not waiting. It keeps marching on. There is no better time than the present to start.