Angry Birds

Perhaps you are familiar with the new personal game phenomenon Angry Birds. Honestly until Tuesday of last week I was aware of it, but happily not interested or involved in the game. On Tuesday last week, my husband, Mark, handed me his IPhone and opened up the game on his phone for me to play so that I would discontinue my comments about his driving in the insane holiday traffic by our local shopping mall.

This game if you are not familiar involves a variety of birds being tossed at green pig like creatures. The goal is to smash them or blow the green pig like creatures up for points. The tossing is done by a sling shot and each type of bird has a different skill. I only know this because I am now a part of the phenomenon. I have been pitching birds at pigs for about a week now.

The bar for my Angry Bird pitching was raised when for Christmas my husband gave me an IPad. I did not ask for an IPad nor did I ever think I wanted an IPad, but now that I have one I am growing attached. Of course the first App item I downloaded was Angry Birds this was the free App, and I am now proud to say I have completed the entire App and I am being coerced by my husband to purchase the more extended and complicated version of Angry Birds.

Here are some things I have noticed about Angry Birds:

1. Angry Birds creates angry frustrated people
   
2. Angry Birds is a time frittering game which parallels Facebook in wasted time
   
3. Once you start Angry Birds you are part of a quest that becomes as sacred and intense as the search for the ring in Lord Of The Rings
   
4. You find yourself questioning your gifts and talents based on bird flinging
   
5. Despite the downsides it is challenging and one good shot at a bird is as good as a hole in one in golf in redeeming the game for another day
   

If you are not familiar with Angry Birds, perhaps you may have seen the large red bird head and yellow bird head pillows in various stores, or maybe even the green headed pig pillow or the blankets and pajamas and all of the other money wasting items that are all part of this phenomenon. When it comes to this game, all I can say is "you can run, but you cannot hide" it is only a matter of time before some well meaning friend suggests that you try to play "for fun" and then you will be sucked in and unable to judge all of the time wasting Angry Bird players because you will be one too.