Cranky Birds

Um, I've been playing Angry Birds. Like, a lot. For the last 3 days or so, I've been going back to the first three layers to get 3 stars on all the puzzles, which gives the dubious reward of a golden egg level. Each layer had 1 nearly impossible puzzle that made me even crankier. 1-5, 2-17, & 3-5 were all devilish.

I didn't like the 5's because they were both puzzles that could almost never be solved at all and trying to get 3 stars was essentially doing the same maneuver over and over to hit one bird at the exact right pixel at the exact right angle and hope that things go well. If this first bird didn't clear the screen, it usually left it in a state that was unclearable. On 2-17, even hitting the targets dead on didn't guarantee success - each result was variable and didn't always result in pig destructions despite the exact same hit doing it the last two (hundred) times. The board could even be cleared, on occasion, with 2 birds and it still wasn't enough points for the 3 stars. I solved it the 3 ways shown on the web and ways I made up myself, and it was just doing those sequences roughly 80 times that probabilistically eventually stacked up to enough destruction to get the last 100 points or so I needed for the third star.

In general, the puzzles that can't be advanced if the first bird is off by 2 pixels are not good fun. Even if some particular pig is hard to get, getting practice on clearing the others is fun. After the repeats, one has the ideas that will solve the level, it's just a matter of getting them all right in the same game. These are good games. The puzzles that can be solved multiply ways are the most fun, especially if the high point and lower point versions use quite different strategies. The pigs that get whapped and don't disappear, but just balance a giant load on their piggy faces are the worst. I think if a pig is trapped under, say, 5 or 6 things, it should get crushed. Take that, little piggy.

Anyhow, I think there's a good reason I don't own an xbox or wii - because I would play them while the place decayed around me. It's bad enough when it's a series of 60 second levels or geometric shapes that fit together or random websurfing, or reading that can suck up hours of my time. But interesting games? Real danger. Like for chips, I have no off switch. The phone turned off on its own most nights or I might not still be employed. So.

I'm trying to vow to Be a Better Person and slack on the Angry Birds some. And blog more - I have at least 5 topics saved up from before I started this crazy game playing stint (including the word anagramming thing on the kindle during which I wore the letters off the keys). Things like the ex helping me build stuff, a house guest, the Oscars (I/we saw all top 10 films), feminine hygiene product comparison update, an upcoming houseguest, snow in the local area, and my current reason for not joining facebook yet. Some of these things even made me happy!

For today let's celebrate:

• my golden egg for getting 3 stars on my first 3 levels.
  
• I may have made progress on a tool problem at work. I really, really hope so.
  
• I made an executive decision without debating it to death regarding an issue that could get annoying if not done well, but is very likely only of interest to a few of us, so deciding it is better than debating it to death.