T-bone Stew

I've been playing a lot of Tetris recently to keep my stress levels manageable while the term winds down (we're on the quarter system, so this week is already finals).

For those of you who don't know, I'm a Tetris fiend. I've played so many games of Tetris that I really don't play anymore—I just kind of glaze over and do Tetris. It's all reflex now, which is why I find it relaxing, unlike, say, chess, where I have to puzzle and fret over every move. I speak the language of Tetris, fluently.

But I have a new challenge. Since setting up the Nintendo to play, Dave and I have noticed that for whatever reason the connection between the box and the TV is kind of moody. There will be sudden short bursts of static where the screen scrambles and the sound is drowned out, but the game keeps playing as normal. We paid attention and have narrowed it down to when the heater kicks on or the refrigerator hiccups (and, for some reason, whenever Tom is in the bathroom).

It's a little nerve-wracking to be playing a game based on quick thinking and reactions, a game dependent on precise vertical arrangements, a game where you can never know more than one move ahead, knowing that at any moment you might be blinded for one or two seconds. A lot can happen in that flash of static—a perfect tetris setup can be completely destroyed for one, and if you're playing upwards of level 16 it can mean the whole game. It makes it interesting.

It kind of reminded me of this story.


In other news, I got a triple tetris this week. That's when you've built up a huge stack, and then three wishbones come in a row and you send each one down the shaft for mega points.