the victory is not in the game but over the game?  dude, take it from a fellow addict who’s logged over 11,000 (and counting) games of klondike on his PDA, i think you’re rationalizing your game addiction. :)

This entire post could lead to a catchy, feel-good pop classic called “Dan Bop.”

if it’s possible to feel good without the pop classic, I’m happy to serve as a role model.  A paradigm, even.

when you get bested at Spider, you can always fall back on Bookworm. There are no cards, but tiles are nice too, right?

I make Freecell harder to play: I make sure that the suits are in the right order in the stack above. I still suck at it, but now I have an excuse.

I know people that play the games sequentially, and have got up to 11k

ohdeargod.  i had to stop playing freecell when i reached over 200,000 games played.  and i cleared my stats.  so my family would have no evidence. 

now i play spider.  but i only play the medium level.  i thought at first i’d move up after i mastered that, but i cannot imagine ever “mastering” this level.  fuck.  you play the hardest???  i refuse to even try it yet. 

dan:  suggestion—try a pen mouse with these games.  awesome!

I just discovered Freecell. Ugh! :)

I love spider although I am a wuss and play it with one suit. I hate to lose!

I play Spider with two suits.  I highly recommend it; it’s hard to win at first, but since you’ll be able to progress farther into it, it might help you practice techniques that will ultimately help your 4-suit game.