justplainbil

Just Plain Bill

Congratulations!

I recently received an unexpected message on my cell phone – a word of CONGRATULATIONS (yes, in CAPS).  I had completed 2,000 games of solitaire on my cell phone! My first reaction was of surprise – had I spent so many hours on what some might say was a wasteful trivial pursuit? Then shame followed surprise as I had to admit to myself that I was addicted to this somewhat skill-free game.

In addition to the emotions identified above, I was somewhat embarrassed that I found myself appreciating this unexpected stroke – most likely recognition of my tenacity, as well as my slovenly attachment to this simple past time; no complex rules and a simple routine. (My version has an option to ask for a “hint” and allows me to “undo” previous moves which, my grandkids say is “unfair”.)

I had noticed that over time, my relative skill in playing this game had improved, a conclusion based on a non-scientific measurement of success, winning over a third of the games I had played.  Wow.

Then I recalled the following: I realized that my relative success in winning at solitaire was controlled and had been pre-determined by some programmer somewhere that had invested his or her time in coding hundreds of thousands of iterations – most designed to insure my failure in solving the algorithm.

Finally, I had to admit that the “stroke”, while technologically generated and randomly originated without any regard for who I am, was in fact, appreciated.

Am I easy, or needy, or what?