Look at all the pretty dots

I need an intervention. I've become addicted to a game on the Internet. I subscribe to an e-mail newsletter called Daily Candy. It arrives each morning with a write up for some store, product, service or Web site. Most days I glance at it and hit delete, especially when it's just a link to some site on the Internet. Yesterday's advertised a little game called Boomshine. I was procrastinating on working, so I took a look. Big mistake. Huge, giant mistake. Now it's all I want to do.

It's the simplest game in the world. You click the mouse and a dot explodes. This explosion sets off a chain-reaction of other little exploding dots. The goal is to explode a certain number of dots in each of 12 levels. I can get to level 12 without much problem, but that's where I get stuck. You need to explode 55 of 60 dots to win. I've gotten to 54 several times.

The trick to the game is that once you set the chain-reaction in motion, there's nothing you can do to guide it or control it. You just have to sit and watch the pretty little dots. I sit there and will the little dots to collide with the big dots, holding my breath in anticipation.

The killer was last night at dinner time. I broke away from level 12 to cook supper for the kids, leaving Lily at the computer. She had been watching me play and knew what to do. A few minutes later she called that the screen had changed and she didn't know what to do. I took a look and realized she'd beaten the last level and was being asked for her name to record her score. Holy )(*#*(@, my four-year-old daughter beat the game! Perhaps that's the secret. I'm overthinking it. I need to reach out to my inner child and let her take over.

If you're in the mood to waste some time, give it a try - http://www.k2xl.com/games/boomshine/. Enjoy all the pretty dots.