February 26, 1965

Hello, my name is Jo, and I am addicted to games. #memoir

February 26, 1965

Went to "The Potting Shed" tonight. It was good. Bobby, one of my counselors, was there. K, a real hood, was in it, and she was pretty good.

Tomorrow afternoon I'm going after a pattern for M. And tomorrow night - PERHAPS. I did a lot today. I did 1/2 the kitchen floor and 2 bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen fixtures and my room and read more of my book. See you tomorrow night - either in ecstacy or in tears.

February 26, 1997

Well [yesterday’s] list is pretty funny. 5 things to do and I didn’t do any of them. (Though the Baltimore van did take care of itself.) How does my life need to change? I need to resist the compulsion to play addictive games (Solitaire, Rayman) . That’s how I spent 3 hours yesterday!

February 26, 2023

Our kitchen floor and both bathrooms could use fifteen year old Jo’s attention.

But let me tell you about games and puzzles! Now that my tablet helpfully (?) tells me how long I spend on various apps, it is clear that my addiction has only shifted from game to game to game. It also did not start with computer games. Before Pong (1972), I never met a pinball game I could resist. We bought ourselves an Atari console for Christmas in 1977 and played endless Breakout. Our Apple IIe (1983) brought the wonders of Solitaire and text adventures (ZORK!!!). The kids arrived in the 80s, and by 1997 we had a Playstation, along with Rayman and Crash Bandicoot. 

Today I played games on my tablet for 90 minutes or so as I enjoyed my morning coffee, bagel and gjetost. Two games on a free puzzle app, a couple of match 3 games, Wordle (oh yeah), and the Washington Post mini and meta crosswords. Tried a new game, but will probably delete it as it is too addictive. I know the tricks they play to keep users playing “just one more”, and I prefer games that serve up a single “daily” engagement. Know thyself, as the sage advised.

Also: I miss Rayman and Crash, but know better than to go looking for them.