zen and the art of meteos

I made a huge mistake yesterday--I bought 'Meteos'. It's a Nintendo DS game that reminds me strongly of 'Tetris Attack', although all blocks are moved vertically rather than horizontally. Also, since the Nintendo DS has a touch-screen, the blocks are dragged by your stylus, rather than flipped using the traditional controls. It is every bit as addictive as my previous forays into similar puzzle games (think 'Snood', 'Tetris Attack', 'Bejeweled', and the original 'Tetris'). The music alone is addictive, but the fact that it is full of intense rearranging can lead to hours of mind-clearing fun. I don't think that 'Meteos' can be considered a true meditative tool, but considering that my meditative toolbox consists of a) romance novels, b) fast drives through the foothills, c) the 'New York Times' online, and d) marathons of 'America's Next Top Model', 'Meteos' is a pretty solid contender for top spot in the toolbox. Apparently, I can seamlessly switch back and forth between the antithetical pariah-groups formed by romantics and gamers without causing my brain to implode, so I might as well embrace 'Meteos' and such classics as 'Gentle Rogue' and 'Brave the Wild Wind' with equal fervor.

I'm staying at Terry's place this weekend, but I'm currently wrapping some stuff up at the office before heading back there. Last night, I had an amazing dinner at Left Bank; the steak and fries, with wine, oysters, and a delicious molten chocolate cake, more than made up for the subpar pasta that I had at the Olive Garden on Thursday. The company, however, was pretty much tied; Thursday was with Claude, Vidya, Adit, Sri, and Stephan, while Friday was with Claude, Tammy, and Terry. Those groups are both equally insane, so the classiness of Left Bank was perhaps wasted on us, but both evenings were fun. Now, I'm going to go relax for the rest of the day--and by 'relax' I of course mean 'meditate', and by 'meditate' I of course mean 'play Meteos'. Yay.

Six days until the Olympics!!