Mine Sweeper

One of the great things about the computer game Mine Sweeper (MS), is that you can have your game interrupted, but you can return to it and continue playing without really having to worry about "now, where was I and what strategy was I using?" I think that Free Cell falls into the category of needing some sort of sustained concentration, which is not ideal when you keep getting interrupted.

Which is to say, I've been playing a bit of MS while my students have been working on their assignments. I'm available for questions, but am keeping myself 'busy' in the mean-time. I should actually be working on cleaning my room, filing papers, etc. But the less time I spend on my feet these days, the better!

I enjoy playing the 'expert' level, where one is trying to clear out 99 mines. I usually just start out by doing a bunch of random clicks until a reasonable space opens up, and then I start clearing away.

What annoys me about the game, though, is that sometimes I just have to guess as to where the mine would be. Is it in Spot A or Spot B? Could be either, and no amount of logic will find the answer. Having a game killed because I'm forced into a 50-50 guess is annoying.

I'm lucky if in a given day I actually clear all the mines and win. A part of that is due to the 50-50 guess. Part of that is due to just moving too fast and not actually clearing the mines that I'm supposed to.

It seems I'm spending too much time and thought on this. But it is such a lovely, quick and easy game!