Possumblog

Yet another way to waste time at home.

For some reason, I got on the computer last night. I usually don't, since computers are a thing of evil and all, and noticed right away that the kids (or to be more specific, Rebecca) had been using it. I had clicked on the Start Menu (since I have been now well-trained to do things in the most anti-intuitive way imaginable) and saw that one of the recently used programs was Internet Checkers.

In almost an instant, I deduced this had nothing to do with either Richard Nixon's cocker spaniel or Winston Churchill's family estate or an oddly-bifurcated fast food drive-through establishment or a rotund rock and roll singer or, or...what was I talking about?

OH YEAH, anyway, apparently Windows XP has a link where you can play checkers against some other weirdo retard out in the ether. It's not like real checkers where you get to slap people's hands, which is a drawback.

Anyway, I figured it might be good to see where this thing leads, so I clicked the icon (which is from a forgotten Russian Orthodox ritual) and found myself staring at a checkboard, and it even had a place at the bottom where you could "chat" with your opponent. Now supposedly there is someone else out there, but you have to figure it's really either a computer program or some crazed checker fiend you'd rather not have to talk to (unless she looks like Scarlett Johansson), so I turned that part off. No use messing up my gamesmanship by typing.

The first game started and in pretty quick fashion, I beat whomever or whatever I was playing against. Victory is addictive! I managed to beat 5 out of 6 opponents--the one time I got beaten was because of my own stupid mistakes, so I will throw that one out and say I was completely undefeated. Oh, sure, I was playing at the beginner level, but it was still quite exciting.

For checkers.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at August 31, 2006 03:05 PM