Explody

Tonight I should have gone to bed.  It was a long day at work, and tomorrow – another double shift – promises to be equally long.  Longer, because it’s the second double in a row, and we know how THOSE just seem to get longer and longer the more deeply you stack them.  So I should currently be sleeping.

Three days ago, though, I made a promise to write daily, so here I am, writing.  One may notice that I didn’t write in my BLOG yesterday or the day before, but that wasn’t the rules – the rules were just to write.  I don’t even need a computer, I can use a notepad if I want.  Or stone tablets.  Chalk.  Whatever.

But two days ago I wrote a page of dialogue, and yesterday I turned it into a one-act play, and today is a blog day.  Tomorrow might be a book review.  If I’m really wiped out, it may be a haiku.

So instead of sleeping, I’m writing, because I made a promise.

Thing is, I could have been writing half an hour ago, but half an hour ago I was playing Minesweeper.

If you don’t what Minesweeper is, look in the Games folder of your computer, and you’ll almost definitely find it there.  Look at your own risk.  Maybe finish reading this blog first and then go look.

What is it with Minesweeper?  How is it such an addiction, and such a time suck?

There, just writing about it, I got the urge and went to play another game of it.

Maybe it’s the racing-the-clock thing.  Maybe it’s the Zen logic-zone I get into when I play.  Maybe it’s the direct simplicity of the goal.  Could just be the clean lines and pretty colors of the game.  One way or the other, I’m hooked on it.  I open the game, and I can’t close it till I’ve won at least once.

I hear my father has a similar addiction to Freecell. 

I can tell it’s bedtime when my stupid-mistakes ratio gets too high.  By that barometer, I shouldn’t go to bed for at least another hour.  But I need to maintain my strength and my health, for the festivities at the end of the week - and the week of vacation to follow.  So, off to bed I go.

Just one more game, first.

~ by joshkauffman on June 24, 2009.