Jessica's Friday Five: your emoji shortcut is hiding

Hi Reader,

Thank you to everyone who voted last Friday for where we should donate our Friday Five affiliate proceeds! The $257 from the last few months was donated yesterday to the Environmental Protection Network! We'll vote again in a few months once we've got another good amount to give to charity.

And happy Pride Month to all the folks who celebrate! I had a disappointing experience earlier this week that reminded me why it's so critical that we celebrate this month, but I was also so heartened to see so many folks I know well and am just getting to know stand up strongly to celebrate and protect all kinds of love.

Let's start your Friday Five with some goodies:

1. It's National Donut Day for those of us in the US today! - Did you know National Doughnut (Donut) Day started during WWI? If you wanna be a joy-bringer today (kind of like the Lassies), DoorDash delivers Krispy Kreme and Dunkin! If you feel like heading out to your nearest location, both Krispy Kreme and Dunkin are offering free donuts and donut deals in-store. Also, check with your local donut shop; they may have free treats for you, too!
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2. 14 personally-vetted-by-me Father’s Day gift ideas for you: I've personally given all 14 of these gifts to people in my life, and they've been received quite well, so this is not a huge list of random ideas, but instead a short list of ideas that I'm hoping help you gift well if you have any dads you'd like to celebrate in your life. Father's Day is in about 2 weeks. Some of these you’ll want to order soon to make sure you get them on time (especially that custom air freshener...). There's also one exclusive discount I got for us from my fave fun t-shirt company (look for the green badge).
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3. iExit App: I was texting with a friend earlier this week who is going on a long road trip in a few weeks, and I suggested some things I thought she'd enjoy - the first is the iExit app (free), which helps you figure out which food and gas options are coming up next on the highway you're on. The other is to put a box of these conversation cards somewhere in the front seat to create opportunities for interesting conversation during the trip. If you've got a road trip coming up, drive safely!
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4. Your emoji shortcut is hiding in plain sight: I just learned this (maybe everyone else already knows it?). If you're an emoji lover (hi, same), your Mac and PC have a built-in emoji picker you might not know about — no copying from Google required. On a Mac, press Control + Command + Space, and the emoji menu pops right up. On Windows, it's even easier: hit the Windows key + . (period). Either way, you can click any emoji to drop it instantly into emails, texts, docs, you name it — and it even remembers your most-used ones at the top for extra-speedy access.
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5. Grief and Loss IG: My college friend, Angie, shared this Insta account with me when my mom passed away, and I really appreciate it. If you're dealing with grief or know someone who is, check it out.

Bonus Sponsor Resource: Bioma: I have been using these probiotics for over a year now and am planning to continue for the foreseeable future. Other probiotics didn't seem to make much of a difference when I tried them, but these have had clear benefits for gut health and bloating. I really like them. I have a coupon if you want to try them too - JST10 gets you 10% off if you wanna try them. This resource is from one of my Friday Five sponsors - thank you to them for keeping this newsletter free for readers!

Last Friday's Most-Clicked Link: My buddy Brandon's description of how he used vibe-coding to get an ever-changing swim schedule onto his calendar. I also made this on a whim last week, and it seems to be working on my end - if you'd like to auto-color code your Google Calendar, try it out, and let me know if it works on your end or if there are any tweaks I might make to help more folks? Just hit reply, I'm seriously curious.