I am a member at Pogo.com, and they have challenges where people can play games and win prizes. Beyond that, if you complete the challenge, you get a "badge." It's not worth anything except bragging rights.

I have completed badges that took other people years to finish. I have done ones that others said were impossible. And this week, I've been brought down by bowling. Yes, bowling.

I cannot get over a 200. Please do not brag about your score here. I am homicidal right now. I cannot even express the white hot hatred I have for everything associated with bowling.

They think they are helping us out. The challenge was originally to complete 5 games with a score over 200. I think that made enough people cancel their accounts that they reduced it down to one. And then they paired this badge with one that takes something like 18 hours if you played it straight through and got a jackpot spin everytime (which are the challenge parameters). That one, thankfully, they extended for another week or so. I can't figure out why they didn't extend this one.

And they think they are being even more helpful. They realize that a big part of bowling involves putting some spin on the ball. So they let you put spin in either direction at any time. The ball is 3/4 of the way down the lane, and you can make it change course. And then you can change your mind and send it back the other way. But the price for having this "helpful" feature is that it promotes crappy game design. See, my hubby tried playing it. The first words out of his mouth were, "The physics are all screwed up." The next words out of his mouth were unprintable here. I know what he meant about the physics. I've had pins roll right through the bottom of three other pins and not knock them down. I've had several hit dead on with a hard throw, and nothing. And I've had a suspicious number of 7/10 splits.

It has had an unexpected side effect. People are nicer in the chats than they usually are. Of course, it has brought out the cheaters in droves. Just tonight I had someone offer to win the badge if I turn over my user name and password. Not gonna happen.

179, and I don't think I can do any better. My competitive nature is twitching, like an insect that's been stepped on, but not killed. I've just bowled a strike followed by two spares, and all I can think is that it's all downhill from here.