As a general rule, I hold video and computer games in contempt. (Sorry, all my gamer friends out there.) But as I surfed through all the free apps on my phone, I conceded to take a glance at the available games.
Oo. Tic Tac Toe. Chess!
Once upon a time I was great at chess. Sixth grade champion at my school. Made the boys crazy (with frustration only, sadly). My sister always beat me, which pissed me off; but she's good at strategy.
I knew I'd grown pretty bad at it, so when I turned on the app for the first time I set the difficulty level to low and prepared to face the AI.
And I learned something.
I suck at chess.
I mean SUCK. Of course it doesn't help that it's only 2-D, but that excuse only goes so far. The trouble is that I don't strategize at all. I sort of wing it, go with my gut -- which is no way to win at chess (although it's worked a few times). It's fun, but this morning the suckage level had reached epidemic proportions and I was starting to feel angry and a little dumb.
I turned off the app, blew out a long frustrated breath and stared at the ceiling for a second. Then I grinned, tapped the Hangman icon and proceeded to kick ass.
It's not even about having a broad vocabulary (though that doesn't hurt). It's more about knowing how words are constructed, and remembering all the latinate prefixes and suffixes. Some of the words I've gotten I don't even know (which is awesome).
So...nyah nyah nah nyah nyah, chess.
1 comment:
This is the very reason I love medical terminology so much. Everyone should take a course. Once you understand the core prefix and suffixes you can understand just about any medical condition! Doctors begin to make sense. A whole world opens up!
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