In My Write Mind

My duties as a "phone operator" at my job are held in kind of an overflow capacity - i.e. if others are busy/unavailable, then it's my turn to pick up. So Yesterday, I took one such phone call in the afternoon. It started out pretty normal, and I answered the phone with my standard greeting: "This is [ name of business ], how can I help you?" The gentleman on the other end of the line thanked me for taking his call (usually a red flag for an impending sales pitch), and then abruptly launched into his entire family history. His father got sick and passed away about a year ago. They had mended their relationship some in that time while his dad was still alive, but there are still some unresolved feelings he would like to work through. It's been an especially difficult time... On and on he went; I couldn't have gotten a word in edgewise if I'd wanted to. At first, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and waited as I tried to connect the dots between what...

After starting to play The Witness back in March/April (see my prior blog post here ), I quickly lost momentum and let it fall to the wayside. But I hate not finishing things I start, and the long Memorial Day weekend afforded me the opportunity to pick it back up and see it through to completion. My plan started out with this kind of cheerful enthusiasm: ...But it ended kind of like this: Actual screenshot from the game. This guy looks like he hates his life choices. I feel you, bro. The Witness will do that to you... In my original review, I wasn't bored of the maze puzzles yet. Once you get upwards of about puzzle #300 though... they start to get really old, and there are diminishing returns on the " Aha! " feeling after each successful puzzle completion - especially when you compare it to the frustration each time you feel stumped (which becomes a more and more frequent occurrence). Toward the very end, the puzzles get nutso-crazy hard: You can't see it in this...