Certain games of chance have a pleasantly addictive quality that keeps you on the edge until you realize hours have passed. Blackjack, for example. It's easy to feel that you're just on the edge of a great streak, and the human tendency to see the patterns we want in the chaos that is only makes it easier. Blackjack, for example, is a perfect example. A few of my friends go to Vegas every year and hit the roulette tables for fun. While I don't think that's inherently bad, I'm uneasy about it. I know how quickly I blow $200 at Borders. Put me in the well-oiled money-extraction machine that is a Vegas casino, and I worry.

Fortunately, I've learned how to deflate those easy, breezy notions of luck and numerical prowess. As it turns out, my PocketPC has a solitaire game that can track performance over the weeks and months that I play. While I may remember all the times I've won, Mister PocketPC is standing by to coldly remind me just how unlucky I am when it comes to games of chance. A quick glance at the running total is a nice bucket of cold ice to my "Maybe I'm Lucky, The Next Run Will Get Me Out Of The Hole" notions. Right now, with Vegas scoring turned on, I am $8975 imaginary dollars in the hole -- form solitaire. Solitaire, people!

I like to think of it as my personal sanity device.