I only wish the defeat was more meaningful! What happened:
Sometimes I play a couple of word games before I shut down the computer and go to bed. This helps me close shop on the busy things going on in my head and redirects my thoughts. I've found it therapeutic for helping me to fall asleep rather than laying in bed for hours with hundreds of ideas dashing through my head.
I like Just Words which for all intentions and purposes is Scrabble. I regularly kick booty in that game even in expert mode. I do well in most word games actually except one, and that would be Family Feud or any of the generic versions of it that various game sites run. I think it is because it isn't a pure word game but a game of figuring out what other people likely said in response to a question. It probably comes as no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I find myself very out of touch with how the average person thinks. 
So, last night after whipping the computer expert level in Just Words, I decided to play a game that operates like Family Feud. In that game you don't have a choice to play solo and have to play against another gamer. For the first round I came up against a player named Ziggy with a Hello Kitty avatar. Although I was encouraged by imagining who I might be up against, round after round Ziggy accurately guessed the correct answers at a rate far exceeding my ability. After getting annihilated I almost shut down and gave up the gaming. But then I sat here behind my desk and thought, "Oh come on, you can do better than that, just TRY to think like the average person and not like your self!" So I went for one more round.
For round two it took a minute for another player to become available and when the name flashed up it was Mohamed and I kid you NOT, Mohamed's avatar was the ISIS flag! I was stunned! I only had a split second to figure out what to do in this fast moving game where players are only given a few seconds to react to each question. In that split second the idea of should I report this person, if so who would I report them to and who would take it seriously ran through my head. But then it occurred to me that no there is nothing I could do except sign off or take this ISIS supporter on and I actually said out loud, "Dear God, please let me beat the crap out of him!"
Already thrown off by such an opponent in a game I lose with regularity I leaned forward and focused like there was no tomorrow, "Think! Think like everyone else! You can do it!" During the first round I batted all of my own responses out and filled my head with mundane replies. I missed one, and Mohamed missed two. Good start I was slightly ahead.
Round two, oh no, the question was vague and on a topic I knew little about. My mind was racing with "Just do it! You can do it!" You have to beat ISIS!" I took a few extra seconds each round to think outside of my own headbefore typing in the answers. Lo and behold I got them all right and a fifty point bonus for a perfect round. Mohamed missed two.
Round three came and by now my heart was excited to think I had a chance at it. The question was to name a vehicle used in the military. Geez, I thought Mohamed may know more about this than I do! Tank came easy enough, followed by Jeep. (Of course! That one was easy for me!) For the third answer my mind went blank. Submarine, I finally guessed before the time ran out. BEEP wrong! Jet, I guessed, BEEP wrong! Ok what if they have to be land vehicles I wondered. Mind still blank until the final seconds I guessed Truck, and that was right!
With the last chance to pick an answer clicking down in time, all of the images of war that I could imagine were playing out in my head when the famous star wars line "May the force be with you." came to me. Then in a flash I thought of the time my friend and I borrowed her neighbor's Humvee for a joy ride in the mountains of Kauai. (I'm sure he thought us girls would merely be taking a pleasure cruise down the beach when he said yes. He had no idea we were both Safari Women! lol) And, there was my answer, HUMVEE! And yes it was correct and I got another perfect round with bonus points.
Final Score - Me 1161 - Mohamed the ISIS supporter 361! I was ecstatic and I won't mention the things I said about it to celebrate this victory keeping in mind polite company might be reading this article.
By now I was feeling empowered and a little too elated to shut down and go to sleep so I went for one more round. Next up was Molly with a teddy bear avatar. She won with a perfect round every time and I never got more than two right.
I guess I had used up all of my thinking like an average person super powers against Mohamed, but that's okay. I went to bed thankful that having come up against evil, I was able to rise to the call.
Thanks to my friend's neighbor for allowing me to drive his Humvee through the mountains in Kauai thus allowing me to strike a blow against an ISIS opponent these many years later.
