Hiya, welcome back to Monday. Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was okay, I could have… used a little… more… sleep… zzz… zzzzzzzz…

Have you ever played Tetris for hours on end and seen blocks when you closed your eyes? Or played Duck Hunt until the wee hours of the morning, and then heard that dog laughing at you when no one else did? Our minds do weird things when put in virtual worlds for long periods of time.

I solemnly swear these have all happened to me at some point– I played one of these games for hours on end, usually when I first got them, and they messed up my real life world somehow:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004: I think I can play golf (not true).

Virtua Tennis: I think I can play tennis (ditto).

Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit: (while driving) Did that cop just look at me weird? Maybe I should run for it…

Civilzation III: Watch little soldiers fight each other in my sleep.

Gran Turismo: If somehow I got enough money together to buy a hot sports car, I could totally drive it around a track at 120 mph without crashing (probably not true, although I’ve never tried).

Quake 2: Find I have to check the corners of every room I enter.

Grand Theft Auto III: (also while driving) Traffic lights are irrelevant. Also, that pedestrian is totally asking for it.

Goldeneye (N64): Find myself humming the da-duh-daa-daahhh of the Bond theme (I died a lot).

Jet Moto 2: Man, I sure could use a Mountain Dew right about now.

Amplitude: After playing for a few hours, I look around the room and my eyes try to roll upwards into my head.

Half Life, Doom 3: Can’t sleep, headcrabs will eat me. Black and White made me lose sleep, too, but I have no idea why.

F-zero, Ikaruga: Random twitching.

Have any more?