From Friday through Sunday night I…
• Batted through 18 more "Professor Layton" puzzles and suffered a crushing psychological blow. I got stumped on puzzle #67 even after unlocking all three of the puzzle's hints. I pondered asking anyone else who had played the game for help. I thought that would be a purer way to retain a genuine intelligence-attesting total puzzle score.
But, dear diary, I cheated. I went to GameFAQs and got the answer there. Words can't express the stress I felt at not being able to solve this one puzzle.
I went through the Nine Stages Of Being Stuck In A Game:
1) Trying a solution, failing
2) Trying a second solution, failing
3) Trying the first solution again, convinced that the game just didn't register it
4) Blaming the game
5) Blaming the designers
6) Convincing myself I ran into a bug
7) Attempting to will myself into not thinking about the part I was stuck at, assuming that, like lost keys, a solution would only present itself when I wasn't trying to find it -- and failing to accomplish such mental self-trickery
8 ) Going onto GameFAQs
9) Feeling like a chump for having tried Everything But The Solution Mentioned In The GameFAQs Walkthrough
So be it. I am 94 puzzles in, with 94 puzzles solved, one of which I needed to cheat on. "Needed" to cheat? Well, that's debatable.
• Re-played the first few levels of "Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops" for secret reasons I can't afford to publicize for about a week.
• Collected 15 more stars in "Super Mario Galaxy." I hadn't played this game since November, even longer ago than I thought. I had picked it as a top 10 game of the year last year on the strength of the 20 stars I obtained in the retail version and other parts I had played or witnessed at press events. I've been nervous about that selection, but the 15 stars I've collected since suggest my judgment was sound. And I just found my first green star. I'm intrigued.
Next: This week will be very busy, with social events at night they may seriously hamper my playing. Monday's probably just a "Layton" day.
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