July 23, 2009

• Work Games

  Don't be silly, son, of course adults still play games like kids. The only difference is that our games tend to be a little bigger and a little more expensive. Let me see, what's a good example? Okay, instead of hide-and-seek, adults play a game called spot-a-place-to-park. Here is how you play. First, get a job at an office that has lots of employees, but only a few parking spots. Next, you arrive at work an hour late, and thus begins the game: you have to find a place to park. This isn't easy, since there are very few parking spots open, and there are others looking for the same thing you are. Often in this kind of situation, you will need to go way, way, way to the outskirts of the parking lot in order to find that one spot. Sometimes if you're lucky, and this is the really exciting part, you get to enter a lightning round. This is when you and another car turn a corner and you both see an open spot in the middle of the lane. In order to win, you have to accelerate oh-so-slightly faster than the other car to make it into the spot before it. It's a very satisfying feeling.

  Another fun game is like tag, only you don't actually touch anybody and it's called "phone tag". The way it is played is with a bit of information. Your goal is to get this piece from the person who has it. This involves picking up the phone and calling people until you find someone you can force it from. Until you do, you are essentially "it". This game can take up hours and hours of time while you wait for people to call you back or for people to get back from their meetings or holidays. You have to be careful, though, because sometimes the person you force the information from can alter it just slightly and then tag you back. It's like going through a haunted house: you never know when that phone is going to ring and you suddenly find yourself "it" again. It's very exciting.

  Speaking of telephones, there is another game that is a lot like the game you play "telephone". In the adult world, it's called "chain of command". Just like in "telephone," you start with a message. Your goal is to get this message to the upper echelons of the ladder intact. Of course, just like in telephone, after you pass on the message, you have very little control over what happens to it. As it moves along the chain, the message is constantly changed. Things are added, removed, edited, omitted, and so on. When it finally does get to where it needs to be, it is so convoluted and meaningless that it just causes laughter along the entire chain length. Ha ha, it's all very silly.

  No, I'm not bitter.

  • 4:29 pm
  • 4 Comments