I have two serious addictions.

One makes me a super geek and rather sad. The other is really serious, so much so, my husband, when he hears the sound affects, will either mimic the sound or declare he's going to call my family and friends to participate in an intervention.

One addiction is my friend Ken's fault. The other, my own doing.

One addiction causes me to interact with random people whom I don't know. And sometimes those that I do, but usually not. The other, I'm a complete loner - and I like it that way.

Hi, my name is Janine and I'm a Superheroes-aholic and a Staries-aholic.

To explain myself. While I don't seek out competition, and generally don't care to compete, I do like to be the best at whatever I am doing, and, like the rabid gamer I'm turning out to be, I have to get all the super powers I can. Which means I have to target random people who have the super powers I need. Some days are better than others, but I'm getting there. My other goeal it to get a score in Staries at least in the 20K's.

So what does this mean? I play Superheroes all the freaking time. I'm constantly searching for people online who have powers I need and attacking them. I don't really care about the fun of it anymore (and it is fun because each power has a funny attack description, like turning someone's mom's tea to alcohol so his/her mom gets drunk). I just want the powers. I must gain all the powers.

So you'd think, me being me and liking to be goofy and whatnot, I would have come up with a fab-u-lous superhero name. Nope. I'm dumb and first picked Joe Bloggs (don't ask), and then picked Sizzle. My Superhero picture? Cousin Ben - you remember him, he went to Montreal with my husband and I and mini baking Mateo. So yeah. I've never been one for superheroes or comics, so I really don't know what to call myself, and that's not really the point, now is it?

I came across Staries a month ago. It's your basic video game - match up the same colored stars in rows of three or more by shifting rows left, right, up, down. At about level 4, certain stars get locked so you can't move the row until you somehow get the same color stars moved to the locked star. It's not not really complicated. I play this endlessly.

My goal? To get on the leader board. Why? Because I can.

I don't play this all the time because once you start a game, you really can't stop. So it doesn't work so well at work or when I'm watching Mateo. I usually wait until Mateo is asleep and then I'll play game after game after game. My husband will call me to come look at something, and I'll refuse. Because my stars will get locked. And. I. Can't. Have. That.

As stars are eliminated, the game makes a "zzziiing!" noise. This is also the notification to my husband that I'm playing Staries, and unless the building is on fire, I'm not moving.

So yes, I'm an addict. I'm pathetic. I'm a geek. I like my games.

Until I achieve super stardom and then I'll move on.