Helping You Help Yourself #30

feature image via shutterstock

What I think we’ve all been wondering about: ways to save data while playing Pokémon Go.

How to keep your headphone wires from getting tangled.

My mom has made her official first foray as a tipster for this column! Hi, Mom! She wanted to share with you all this trick for “perfectly spotless stove grates.”

I believe that in previous installments of this column, I may have mentioned that someone had told me you could cut a hole in a cardboard box for your phone or tablet and rest it over your face to watch things while lying down. If your reaction that information was “please, tell me more,” today is your day.

Some sandwich tips, and a recipe for a hearty crowd-pleasing sandwich to share.

Tips to keep your kitchen sponge in good shape longer.

A guide to understanding IKEA names.

Five strategies to use to remember everything.

How to swallow a sword. It could come in handy!

I don’t know, I just thought that you would be into this: how to make a tiny vase out of a lightbulb.

lightbulb

From Rookie: how to be sober at a party.

How to pack a cooler to last all day.

One of my favorite things about Slack is that if you want to use an emoji in a message, you can start typing the name of the emoji, like this: :bug:, and it will autofill the emoji, because for some reason it’s challenging for me to switch from typing to clicking and back to typing. Anyways, if that also seems ideal for you, here’s how to set up something similar on your Mac.

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1142 articles for us.

11 Comments

  1. Your mom’s tip is great! Now I just need to figure out how to use ammonia on mine which is one giant piece and not 4 individual ones. :(

  2. To the Rookie article on not drinking when everyone else is – holding a glass of Coca-Cola throughout the night has helped me avoid having happy hour conversations all start with the person “Where’s your drink?” Which is basically a guaranteed way to not have an interesting conversation. People assume I have a rum and Coke and then get confused when I dance well and tell them I’m completely sober.

    Not something I do all the time, but it works when I need a break from alcohol but want to socialize with people, which in my world of graduate students in NYC means a series of bars and boozy BBQs.

  3. i can’t wait to train my body for sword swallowing using a metal clothes hanger, as this article recommends!!! :D :D :D

    • Happy, as always, to have my claim to fame is that I’m Rachel’s mom. You’re welcome for the tip!

  4. Tip on earbuds: I don’t have the patience to do this amazing knot thing, so I just stick my earbuds in an old Altoids tin and…it’s awesome.

    • I stick everything in old Altoids tins (with stickers! and washi tape!)but hadn’t thought of this. Perfect.

  5. Thank you for that headphone video. AMAZING!
    Plus the cover photo of the dikdik made my day. <3

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