my young brain

i have a nintendo ds and one of my favorite games is brain age, which is weird because i never liked doing work in school, and yet when you present it to me in videogame form 5 years removed from real school, i can't get enough. for those of you that don't know, brain age is a game comprised of a bunch of different mental exercises and activities that were designed to help improve or maintain your mental capacity. it was developed based on the research of dr. ryuta kawashima.

these exercises consist of math questions, reading colors aloud (ex. the word "red" appears, but the font color is blue), keeping track of people entering and leaving a house and a bunch of other fun little mini games that are aimed at activating your prefrontal cortex. the game tracks your progress with the floating head of dr. kawashima offering you praise and/or suggesstions. once a day you can take a series of random tests to determine your "brain age", with the idea that the lower your brain age the better shape your brain is in. the ideal brain age is 20...and you can probably guess what my brain age is. the problem is you aren't forced to take the brain age tests, so when the perfect storm occured and i got my score down to 20, that was it, i was done testing. my brain age is 20 and has been since the last time i took the test like a month ago. if i take the test again, i know things can only get worse. it's nice for showing off to other people:

me: so dave, how do you like that brain age game?
dave: it's pretty fun and addictive. i really like that dr. k guy.
me: yeah, yeah, enough dilly-dallying, let's cut to the chase...what's your brain age?
dave: well i just took the test last ni-
me: my brain age is 20!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!
dave: well i only just started the-
me: 20? did someone say 20? that's funny...cause that's my brain age...
dave: well i have to sit down and kind of figure it out f-
me: well maybe if your brain was of a similar age to mine, then you could easily figure it all out.
dave: shut up, you're annoying.
me: i'm sorry dave...
dave: yeah, well sometimes you can be kinda insens-
me: ...sorry that you brain is real old...old like oldy olsen!!!
dave: why don't you retake the brain age test then?
me: i mean, i was just messing with you...my bad

so now i have a copy of the sequel, brain age 2. they changed the games on me and i am having difficulty. now they throw out either a rock, paper or scissors symbol with a statement of either "beat it" or "lose to it". you have to say out loud, the symbol that either beats it or loses it. it sounds simple, but it's deceptively tough and is making my brain show its age, which is currently at 32. i will figure it out and get it down to 20 and then have another quick discussion with dave.