That Word
There's this game that I play on my phone called That Word. The objective is to use the six given letters to guess the words before the time runs out, and you need to get at least one full six-letter word correct in order to advance to the next round.
The amount of words on the board is normally like in the screenshot, but sometimes there can be so many words that you need to scroll down to see them all.
Mostly I play it before sleep to distract myself from buzzing thoughts. I play as many rounds as needed until I'm ready to doze off. I like it because I do need to use my brain, but the pressure is very low. In true geek fashion, I also like that I can tap on a word after a round to look up its meaning. The one thing I would complain about has nothing to do with the app itself, but it's that my current phone is much bigger and way less ergonomic than the one I originally played the game on. I miss palm-sized phones a lot.
The story behind how I got the app may be a bit more interesting. Circa 2011, back when skeuomorphism was in vogue, there was an app that would showcase other apps that you would normally need to pay for but could download for free for a limited time, and the list would change every day. I used to look forward to seeing what was new and managed to try out so many cool things other than games. Most of those apps can no longer be downloaded on newer phones now, so I did a happy jig in my mind back when I saw That Word was updated, as it was one of my favourites. Another app that both Aliff and I still benefit from today is called insTuner, for instrument tuning. He claims that it's the most accurate one out of all the ones he's tried.
I think it's fair to say that I've been playing That Word for years, yet it's not noticeable if I've had a repeat board to solve. One thing that catches me by surprise all the time is when there's an uncommon word that I could guess easily. Seriously, I'm not trying to show off, but wait, how did I know that word?? I can't even explain the meaning of some of them. It amazes me that I must've absorbed these words in my childhood and dug them out of some dusty memory capsule. It's the same feeling as when playing piano after a long time; I can feel the synapses and neurons connecting to turn on the light where it was pitch-black before.