Samorost

A friend told me about Samorost, a browser-based computer game that's available online. Samorost 1 is free, and so is the first part of Samorost 2. The second part of Samorost 2 costs $10. After playing the first game, I bought and played both parts of the second. The games are simple, gentle, and fun; the graphics are attractive, and the music is low-key. Together, they take only a few hours to complete.

The main character is a little guy who lives on an asteroid and wears what look like white pajamas and a sleeping cap. In Samorost 1, he climbs inside a funky old rocket and travels to an approaching asteroid, where you help him figure out how to divert that asteroid so that it doesn’t collide with his home. In Samorost 2, space aliens steal his dog and fly away to their asteroid, he follows them and crashes his rocket, and you help him figure out how to get his dog back and then find and fuel a space taxi to fly back home. There’s no combat, no mad adrenaline rush, and almost no need for hand-eye coordination. You don't have to travel hundreds of lands to solve the puzzles, and the solutions often have a quirky humor. To solve one puzzle in Samorost 2, you have to make the guy’s dog pee on a plant.

My kind of game.

Chomp

Once bitten, twice bitten, thrice bitten . . . back into the pit.

Taking Inventory

To use jargon I learned from my husband, who is a recovered alcoholic (sober now for over five years), one of the things I've been grappling with lately is learning how not to "take other people's inventory." I often have to remind myself not to mentally criticize people's reaction to BH's illness, not expect them to be stronger, braver, more compassionate, more self-aware. Not expect them to do more, spend quality time with him, enjoy him, slow down, listen. Not expect them to stop stressing out.

I have to remember that everyone has different ways of coping--or not coping. That there is no right way to get through these days. That everyone travels their own path.

I should take my own inventory, not theirs.

Oops!

New mantra: clamp, THEN remove.

Hot Weather

The seedlings in the garden have wilted, and the cats are lying around like bad toupees.

Heavy Brains

My arms hurt from holding up BH's head!

Lesson 7

It's not about me.

Addiction

There's a solitaire game on my computer. The name of the game is Josephine. It's winnable 25% of the time, which means that 75% of the time I end up losing. But I play it again and again and again, sometimes for hours. I play it even when I know I'm not enjoying it: just one more, and one more, and one more, and maybe I'll win. I play it even when I feel naseous about the fact that I'm playing it.

Delaying tactic.

Meditation in Motion

Lightly, lightly
Dump velocity

Mist on air