Dumbest. Game. Ever.

The local museum has a very kid friendly, craft heavy exhibit for the summer so we took the kids for a couple hours today. Kaylin enjoyed making all kinds of things out of paper while Logan built and destroyed block towers with a catapult and played with foam play dough. The museum also has a permanent children's area which kept the kids occupied while Gene and I played an insanely loooooong game of Mindball.

Gene was very eager to try Mindball. He found the thought of using brain waves to control a ball exciting. I played along to be nice. The actual game was anything but exciting... We followed the simple instructions and strapped the sensor headbands firmly around our foreheads, placed the metal superball-sized ball in the start position in the middle of the playing board and pushed the start button. The instructions said to clear our minds and that certain brain waves that occur when one is in a meditative state will cause the ball to move toward the opponent. A buzzer would signal victory. We could also watch our brain waves on monitors-the flatter the lines, the better for play.

We started the game and sat and sat and sat and sat for at least 5 full minutes before anything happened. The ball moved about two inches toward me. After another couple of minutes I sent it about an inch back. Then Gene moved it another two inches toward me and me an inch back. I never got the ball back to the center position (so never even on Gene's side of the board) but somehow would move it slightly. We probably sat there for AT LEAST 20 minutes before Gene finally got the ball to my target and triggered the buzzer. We ripped off the headbands, grabbed the kids and started toward the exit, relieved to be done with that stupid, pointless game.

Another family quickly took our place at the game and excitedly started. I was thinking "Poor schmucks, it's not fun." We left the gallery and walked about 100 feet when we heard the winning buzzer. WHAT????? They couldn't have been playing longer than a minute!

Gene and I decided they must be extremely dull people with no worries or stress in their lives to be able to flat-line their brain waves so rapidly. Whatever. I'm not bitter.