scrambled

I think there is truth to the theory that you can increase your mental capacity by exercising your intellect. The more you think, the smarter you get. Use it or lose it.

In other words, it is perfectly acceptable for me to park my bum on the couch and watch American Idol, as long as I keep playing scramble on the laptop.

I need this brain stimulation, because as I have mentioned before, I have a chronic and debilitating case of CRS, which is in very real danger of developing into full blown CRAFT.

I am relying on scramble to boost my brain power, which will not only help me remember dates and phone numbers and appointments, but will also enable me to help my kids with long division.

Do you scramble? It’s a highly addictive game on facebook. You choose a 4x4 or 5x5 game board, and then get 3 minutes to form as many words as possible. Longer words earn more points.

There is a whole competitive element to scramble that is alien to me. I play solo on the 5x5 board, I am too scared to go public. I know my high score (122), and facebook constantly reminds me of the high scores earned by friends similarly addicted. If I surpass someone, a balloon pops up to say “Congratulations!”

That balloon unnerves me. My poor, simple brain gets distracted from the word finding, and then I get flustered and can’t tear my eyes away from the dwindling numbers of the time clock. It’s stressful!

When the round ends, they show you all the words that other, smarter people found. I think most of them are made up – come on, seraglio? ravelins? As IF those are real words. On my last round, they claim that the highest possible score was 1594. I got 61. This smart game is making me feel kinda dumb.

My friend Mary is my scramble nemesis. We banged that high score back and forth for a while, one or two-upping each other just often enough to keep it interesting. But she must be doing some mental calisthenics lately, because she keeps raising the damned bar, and the pressure is building! She’s at 153 now, so I think I might have to break up with her. Anyone with a high score of 100 or less wanna be my new facebook friend?!

ps: yesterday might have been a square root, but today is a command