MY LIFE IS JUST A BIG GAME OF TETRIS

Tetris - is there a more perfect video game? Ah the memories of my original GameBoy: the hours spent slotting the little blocks into each other, finishing the last level and watching the little band play and the rocket shoot into space.

If at this point, you have no idea what I'm talking about then:
a) What are you doing reading such a nerdy blog in the first place?
b) Take a minute to play a free version before reading on.

Even if you are an afficionado, you may not know that when you slot the long thin block into a perfect spot for it and clear four rows at one, the act of doing so actually has a name. It's called "a Tetris". Yeah the same as the name of the game. Confusing.

Anyway, I was at home the other day when I realised that there are heaps of Tetris moments in my day to day life. There are the obvious ones: read all the items in my RSS? That's a Tetris. Get my email inbox all the way down to zero messages? That's a Tetris. Wash all the dishes so that the kitchen is completely clean? Another Tetris. But my favorite is when I go to buy something that costs say $4.75 and have exactly the right amount of change in my pocket. It seriously always makes my day. In fact, I sort of see my life as a constant quest to have exactly zero coins in my pocket.

Why? Well, it's probably as simple as my brain liking to make order out of chaos. But the satisfying feeling you get from these sorts of things is something to keep in mind for all kinds of interface and game design.

As a side note, as I was googling "Tetris", I found some awesome stuff:

• If you've never read the history of the game, it's quite interesting. It was invented by a Russian game designer in 1984 who was susequently ripped off by all and sundry who stole and commercialized his game. Check out the Wikipedia entry.
• The inventor, Alexey Pajitnov, is still out there winning game design competitions, and secretly playing female characters in World of Warcraft.
• And it turns out it's actually really good for your brain to play: "What we found was a change in the brain after playing Tetris," says Dr Richard Haier, a neurologist who led the project. "The thickness of the cerebral cortex actually increased, by less than half a millimetre."

The popularity of the game suggests to me I'm not alone - so what are the Tetris moments in your life?