We all do it...

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I was on the train the other day, heading back to Wapping, and a guy was talking on his phone.  Despite the fact that he was pronouncing Wapping to rhyme with "slapping", I couldn't help be continue listening to his conversation.  We all do it.  We would all like to pretend we don't, but if someone is talking on the phone on a train we do listen in.

So, he was telling whoever he was on the phone to that he was five stops away.  Everyone on the train at that moment threw a glance at the map and worked out what stop he was talking about.  You can't help yourself, it's just something you do.  

My commute isn't _that_ long but sometimes it can be absolutely horrible.  The days when I do find a seat or a quiet corner to stand in, I quite often lose myself in a game on my phone.  I'm currently playing one of those games where you have to fire the bubbles and burst them all before the time runs out. You know - pointless crap to pass the time.

But there's a thing which annoys me about many of these games, and it's how hard they are to exit.  Quite often, I'll be engrossed in the game and then realise I'm at the stop where I need to get off the train.  So I press the "back" button to try to get out of the game, and what happens?  Well it pauses the game, and then the next press on the "back" button goes back into the game itself.  You actually need to tap on the screen to exit. And then there are inevitably confirmation screens just to check you really do want to quit.  When all I want to do is close the game so I can stuff the phone into my pocket and change trains. I really don't see any reason to make exiting the game so hard. None at all.


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