DVIDS – News – The Virtual Review: Life hacks | #emailsecurity | #phishing | #ransomware | #education | #technology | #infosec

We’ve seen them. Social media is full of them. There are boards and blogs and videos attributed to them, but how many have tried them?

I’m talking about life hacks.

Life Hack: As defined by an internet search, “a strategy or technique adopted to manage one’s time and daily activities more efficiently.”

I searched “best life hacks 2021” and immediately recognized a few I already do, a few the kids have tried (mostly failed), a few that were obnoxious, and a few that intrigued me.

The funny thing is, some of these hacks were just things I was raised to do, like pressing the lid down on the tuna can to drain it or hanging a tennis ball in the garage so you can tell how far to pull the car in, whereas others are just bizarre.

Though the list to review is way too many to list, I’m here to share a few of the hacks that I tried that I love and worked and a couple that was ridiculous fails enough to know I wasn’t even going to bother trying but were hilarious.

Even if you don’t employ any hacks into your daily life but trust me, you will, these videos are worth their weight in gold. Most are sped up, use over-exaggerated actors with overly anxious, disgusted, or perplexed expressions, and are pure enjoyment when passing some time. Five-Minute Crafts is a combination of crafting and hacks.

According to them, most, if not all hacks, require straws, a hot glue gun, plastic water bottles, and iron—or some combination thereof. (I’m not exaggerating by much).

HACK #1: Doubling your drink.

Have you seen this one? It’s a pretty basic concept, yet how many people do it? It doesn’t require any extra equipment, just the ability to remember to give one specific direction.

No ice.

I tried this today. It would work with most liquid drinks, soft drinks, etc., not so much blended, or hot really.

I got a large tea drink, my fav, lemonade, green tea, raspberry, and asked for no ice.

I received a giant cup of tea, which without ice for some reason, looked even more significant than usual. I held my finger over the stopper, so it didn’t spill on the way home, but I was so excited to test the hack I could barely stand it.

I got a second glass from the kitchen and carefully poured out enough of my drive-thru tea drink into the second glass and added ice into the drive-thru cup to fill it up to the rim, about where it would be at a typical visit.

Sure enough, I poured out almost 12 ounces of tea into that second glass! I may have even skimped on how much ice I added, meaning it would have typically have been more than twelve ounces. I’m sure my family thought I had lost it, based on my (over) reaction, but obsessed with this now.

Pros: double my tea, the same price.

Cons: You can’t drink the drink unless you have a second cup full of ice and/or have to wait until you reach your destination to dump out the 2nd serving of tea in a second cup. Also, as we tried with a different fast-food drink, they charged 50 cents for a cup of ice or 25 cents for a plain old cup, so if you’re doing the $1 any size soft drink, you may be cutting off your nose to spite your face on this one.

HACK #2: Drilling

The drilling hack demonstration that I found explained that sometimes you want to drill or screw into a piece of wood or object only a certain depth into it, not through the wood.

Personally, I am guilty of over-drilling when I’m putting a wall anchor in, for example.

The hacker holds the drill bit to the item and marks the spot on the drill bit that she will want to stop drilling to the correct depth instead of going further into the piece than she wished to.

Drill/screw to the stopping point on the bit, and no further, done!

Eric tried this and it 100% worked! He said this is a hack he will undoubtedly use a lot!

HACK #3: Crisp masks

There are dozens of mask hacks, ranging from sewing to cheating on tests to eating, but one I found was super cute and practical. That’s if you wear cloth masks and have a flat iron.

After washing and drying your mask, hold your mask from the elastic end, hang it on a clothesline, etc. Fold the mask into the shape it’s designed to be in, whether that’s in half or like the accordion-style ones.

Then use your flat iron as a mini iron. Just move the flat iron up and down the mask as you flatten the wrinkles and crisp up your mask for subsequent use.

I don’t own a flat iron personally, but I had a friend verify the hack because it was so darned cute looking.

HACK #4: Folding

It may be almost time to put the puffier coats away, but I found a lot of hacks for folding. One, in particular, was a quick demo on how to fold a puffy coat so that it’s not all over the place.

Zip up the coat. Lay the coat flat on a table, then fold vertically in half, so the arms are on top of each other. Fold the arms down, so they are on top of the body. Then you actually take the now stack of coat, and from the bottom end, turn the stacked coat inside out which then self-contains the arms inside the newly formed package, kind of like a pillowcase, then fold the “case” in half.

This would be great for having to pack a coat for travel, or just any time you want to keep a coat contained without complete disarray, arms flailing, etc.

I found hacks for folding cereal box tops into a bag shape for food, rather than just using the flap-in slot method that often gets torn, and they look so cute too! It took me a little practice, but pretty proud of myself on that one.

Similarly, with chip bags, a quick hack will let you close up a bag with no clip at all! I’m still working on perfecting this, and some bags work better than others, but at the very least, the next person to open the bag will be in awe!

And finally, towels and fitted sheets. These for sure go into the ‘best of’ hack category for me. It’s impossible to explain the intricate steps involved but google it. This is going to revamp your linen closet, drawers or impress friends when they visit your powder room.

Fail #1: Condiment distribution

I mean, come on. One hack put ketchup in a child’s water gun. There is no good outcome to this.

Another used a cleaned out or new spray cleaner nozzle and put that straight into the ketchup bottle and showed how effective that would be! First, how thin would you have to make the ketchup come out of that little nozzle, and two, how many pumps would you have to give it even to have enough ketchup for one fry? Nope.

Fail #2: Peeling boiled eggs

Even though I don’t eat them, I frankly always liked manually peeling eggs, but this one was so ridiculous I actually tried it. With a still full fridge full of Easter eggs, I rolled one up into tape, as it demonstrated, cracked it all over, and then unrolled the taped egg. It was supposed to peel all the shell off with the tape, but I ended up making a huge mess and destroying the egg. Boo.

Fail #3: Lipstick on glasses

Honestly, this one was too intriguing not to try. The hacker demonstrated covering eyeglasses with lipstick and wiping it off to eliminate fog, whether from a steamy mug of coffee or a mask and glasses combo.

I grabbed the brightest lipstick I could find mostly because she did, but also I thought it would be easier to see if I covered the outside-facing parts of the lenses adequately.

Next, wipe off the lipstick.

Easier said than done and now Eric wants to kill me. Bright pink lipstick in the crevasses around the lenses, faint smell of lipstick, and even with about five cleanings, the glasses are still a bit foggy.

However, and this one is a tradeoff, it did seem to reduce, not eliminate, the fogging. So I’m still going to call this a fail for all the adverse side effects, but it’s essentially a push.

Search and try out some hacks. Let me know what works or what doesn’t. If you make plastic buttons out of straws, you are my new hero. But if ironing bottle caps into modern art or using hot glue to make a replacement cap for your toothpaste doesn’t pan out, I can’t say I didn’t warn you. Happy hacking!

What would you like me to visit virtually or try out next? Please email me at Michelle.J.Young10.civ@mail.mil and give me your suggestions. Your dedicated online review partner—Micki