"95% of this game is half mental"-- Yogi Berra

Have you played Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook?

I saw on FB that my niece had published her score, so I checked out the game. I blame her for the following.

I can't stop playing it. I'm addicted to beating my friend's high score of 111,900. And I can't do it! Not even to save my life could I score that high. I'm at 87,000. And I can't even beat that. It's very discouraging, but I keep playing.

It's how I imagine I would be if I gambled. (Dark room, false lighting, cigarette dangling from my lips, Diet Pepsi condensing at my arm) "Just one more roll....I know I can win!". Thankfully, there's no loss of money on Bejeweled Blitz...just time. And let's face it, I've got time to waste.

I get frazzled by the sounds...the pitch gets higher and higher the faster you go, and I tend to get slower and slower as the pitch gets higher & higher. It's counterproductive. And is there anything creepier than the BB voice telling you to "Go"? I always scream, "Go where?!? You GO!" Then "he" offers encouragement..."Good Job", "Nice". It's creepy. A little bit like the Jigsaw voice on the Saw movies.

The final blow-up at the 1 minute mark always bums me out. One minute is not long enough. I think my friend has super-human-BB-colored-jewels power that makes her score higher than yours truly. Or maybe I'm just not that good at it. That doesn't mean I'll stop. Oh, no. I'll keep trying to get over 100,000 jewels. Because once you start playing, you can't stop.

I know I can turn the volume off, but when I do that, it feels different. I'm not as into the game. It's like the voice, the pitch, the blow-up all make the game more stimulating, more anxiety-ridden, more fun!

So if you're looking for some time to kill, get on Facebook and play Bejeweled Blitz. It'll offer you hours of tension-filled, neck-aching, cat-ignoring fun.