Reveal Your Darkest Secrets

Awhile back, Tammy posted something about guilty pleasures. You know, the thing that you enjoy but wouldn’t want your neighbor catching you doing. I couldn’t think of any at the time, but it recently occurred to me that I have one: Yu-Gi-Oh! (Exclamation point theirs.) The card game and the cartoon; I’m hooked on both.

It all started back when we adopted the older boys. The older one, who is now 14 (and thus shall from this moment on until next year be referred to as ‘14’), had a deck of cards. I didn’t pay any attention to them at first, but then the second oldest one (11) wanted some of his own for his birthday. So we got him some. I still didn’t really care, but then both boys started leaving cards lying around all over the house, so I came up with a rule: any cards that weren’t put away when they were done being used became mine. Although 14 was quick to learn and stopped leaving his cards lying around, 11 wasn’t – and still isn’t – that wise. Before long I had a deck of my own, made up of the leavings of the boys’ decks.

It was a poor deck – the strongest card was a 4^th level warrior with 1600 attack points (as a point of reference for all you non-Yu-Gi’s out there, 14’s strongest card was a 7^th level dragon with 3000 attack points) – but I was still able to beat both boys three out every four times because I had an advantage: I actually read the rule book. Eventually 14 read the rules too and improved his game-play. I don’t think 11 has read the rules even yet, but he’s been trounced enough times that he’s picked up the general idea. Poor 6, incidentally, is still learning to read, so even though he tries, he can’t figure out what any of his cards are supposed to do.

Even more embarrassing than being a Yu-Gi-Oh! player is admitting that I watch the TV show. It’s poorly written, badly drawn and animated, has excruciatingly bizarre plot lines, and is filled with enough stutter-stops to re-explain what happened in previous episodes to make a soap opera seems fast paced. The duels are over-the-top displays of grandstanding and ridiculous taunting, and every card needs to be explained in detail whenever they’re played. But for someone who plays the game, watching the duels is really quite fun. I watch the previous night’s episode every morning before going to work.

There, my confession is over. Glad I got that off my chest.