From the Compost Heap header. A pencil style illustration of a compost heap with flowers and plants growing around it. A bee buzzes by and a white rabbit hops by.

Not About TETRIS

Not about TETRIS zine cover. Purple pink and yellow TETRIS bricks.
Zine made imperfectly on my typewriter reads: Have you ever played TETRIS for so long that you see falling blocks in your daydreams? This experience is so common it has a name: THE TETRIS EFFECT It's a lot like having an ear worm. A song that pops into your head repeatedly. But more fun. Back in my early 20's (when lots of kids go out partying) I hung out with theatre nerds clustered around a desktop computer taking turns playing TETRIS. I think we were all seeing TETRIS blocks in our sleep. I was one of the best. My hand eye coordination is not that great, but I do have excellent pattern recognition (thanks autism) so I am a deft hand at TETRIS on PC. Or I was. Last year, I started playing TETRIS with my kid. Not real TETRIS. A mobile version where you place tetrominoes" into a square grid. No falling bricks No time limit. You play at your own pace. It's basically TETRIS style tangrams. You might have expected I'd be a bit rusty, but my brain immediately accessed endless hours of TETRIS experience & favorite strategies. BUT when you're taking turns with a 4 year old games become somewhat chaotic; you find yourself in situations you'd never have put yourself in. it wasn't long before I realized my strategies weren't working. *Yes, there is a real name for TETRIS pieces.
Green, yellow, purple and blue TETRIS pieces fall beside the following text (as if to pile up to a game over.) But it wasn't because of my Player Two... I was applying old rules to a new game. Classic TETRIS requires that you play from the top down. If you make a mess it takes up valuable space and is hard work to correct. Mess up enough and it's GAME OVER. This new game allows you to place pieces anywhere. And rows clear both horizontally & vertically. I was playing in one plane and suddenly there were two. IT may sound simple, but it was working against every instinct I had. My kid, not having the baggage of traditional TETRIS, picked up on this nuance much more quick ly... putting blocks thatt were "wrong" and clearing rows. Sometimes multiple at once. I was determined to wrap my head around the new dimensions. So I started playing by myself in the evening, My score grew higher & higher as I broke through mental blocks to see new possibilities.
This new TETRIS game isn't about perfection. It is about making the best moves you can with the blocks you have. Mess and all. This zine isn't about TETRIS. February, 2025 A KINDLE CURIOSITY ZINE

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