A bit of a revelation

I guess I have never really understood the Rock-Paper-Scissors game as a strategy game. It was a bit of a revelation to me that one actually thinks in strategic terms to try and win in this game. Not that I play the game all that much it is such a "boy' thing as far as i am concerned.
This morning I am starting my day in a leisurely manner browsing my emails- not many of them to browse at this stage of the morning as most people in Australia who may communicate have already done so and gone out for their Saturday evening or gone to bed. Gone to bed early? On a Saturday night? I do have an aging group of friends given that I am also ... aging ... and getting past going out late or even needing to go out on a Saturday night. Actually I have never really been in the mode of having to go out on Saturday night... you know the response you'd get "You're not going out on Saturday night?" asked in that shocked tone people use when you are contemplating an evening spent pottering around , watching TV, playing scrabble and generally lolling about in a slothful manner.
In amongst my emails was the New York Times "Today's Headlines"- just scrolled done through them- the  mayhem and the disaster and things going on in the world which in the case of the NY Times is far wider than that of television news who have stories so US centric that when they talk of "And now to the world news" we hear stories of what's happening on the east coast as opposed to what is happening here on the west coast.
In my scrolling through the paper's headlines I came across a headline just after the quote from David Chang, " a New York chef and restaurateur, one of a growing breed of food purists who scorn substitutions, special requests and other accommodations to patrons' tastes".

"The customer is not always right."

The quote itself had me thinking about all manner of things including that that must have been what the flight attendant on my return trip to LAX was thinking last Saturday. She was particularly unpleasant and unsympathetic and was not into empathic listening. Although she was very attentive to the needs of the two blokes sitting to my right in the same exit row I was sitting. I certainly didn't appreciate her snarling at me and telling me that she was "serious about safety" in the tone of a self righteous prison guard as opposed to what would have worked better in my case. It would have helped if she noticed my qualms about being able to fit me feet, let alone my legs, in the space by the wall. Even seat guru doesn't prepare you for the first view of 33A "how the heck am I going to fit into that space for 16 hours?".
I also kinda agree with David Chang (without having read he article mind you) it is sometimes annoying when fellow patrons dissect the menu completely and rearrange the items on it taking forever to decide and then asking interminable questions of the waiter and then not wanting anything or asking for "toasted snow" as a side order.
I did however get over all these thoughts and to the article itself Rock Scissors Paper: You VS the computer. "Test your strategy against the computer in this rock-paper-scissors game illustrating basic artificial intelligence." It wasn't that it was an interactive game that caught my eye it was the use of the word strategy. I never use a strategy in playing this game- probably why I always lose. I didn't even know it was a strategy game, I just thought it was a game where I'd always get my knuckles thumped by one of my brothers- Damian in particular. I headed to the website and played a bit with the computer. We tied more than beat each other, mainly because I played in novice mode- perhaps that was a strategy on my part , thinking that I'd have more of a chance.  Reading what the computer was "thinking" made interesting reading... poor lamb was looking for a pattern in my thinking- trying to find something predictable about it- good luck computer! And so I have had an early Saturday morning lesson in strategy games and have seen how this game I thought was a punishment is in fact a strategic game. Thinking about it all I hope it wasn't trying to prove that I have artificial intelligence.