2006-10-03
In which I get a little more like John Nash every single day�
I love reading Defective Yeti. I especially enjoyed this post the other day. Not only was the post funny, but it linked to a game I�d never played before. And since I�m always looking for fun things to pass the time, I gave it a try.
The game is called Funny Farm. The object is to fill in the blank boxes on a flow-chart-esque game board. The game starts off �On the Farm,� where you have to fill in boxes with things found on a farm: farmer, tractor, cow, etc. From there you fill in things related to each of those items. For example, �cow� is related to milk, cowboy, mad cow, holy cow, rodeo, etc. Each time you guess a box correctly, it fills in and shows you what it is attached to. If you fill in all the boxes, you get clues to the meta-puzzle. Solve that and you win.
Sounds easy right?
Ahh, no.
This game is as addictive as crack and as frustrating as being a Democrat in the last election. Do you get the evilness that is this game? It�s awful. I can�t stop playing. I�m constantly thinking, �What do Penn & Teller and Las Vegas have in common?� or �What links a textbook with science?� It�s maddening.
I�m about two days away from printing Wikipedia articles about each of the vertices and posting them on the walls around my computer to look for patterns!Last Saturday, Geoff and I went for breakfast at Reds.* He was looking at the newspaper and I started explaining Funny Farm to him. I went through the whole convoluted explanation, including numerous examples. I then asked him to help me brainstorm the most frustrating question I�ve hit so far: �What the hell is two words (4 letters in the first, three in the second) and is related to a cow?� I said, �You can just talk through your suggestions with me and I can tell you if I�ve tried them already.�
He was quiet for a minute. Two minutes. Three minutes.
Then the conversation deteriorated into a pathetic rendition of �Who's on first?� like this:
- Geoff?
- What?
- What do you mean �what�?
- Can you repeat that? I didn�t hear what you said.
- Repeat what I just said when?
- Just now.
- You mean the part about the question in the puzzle or the part where words were coming out of my mouth?
- Ummm, yeah, the latter.
Clearly, I�m going to have to figure this puzzle out on my own. Maybe I should put A Beautiful Mind on my Netflix queue for research purposes.
*Best breakfast in Salem!