Today's Google Doodle features a card game that is incredibly compelling about defeating man's oldest enemy, the Moon

A wise man once said, "The Moon is disgusting." He forgot to add that it was also stupid. Strategically inept. It is a trivial matter to win a battle.

This is what I've learned from the Google Doodle today. I wouldn't normally write about the Google Doodle because it is just a Doodle. Today's Google Doodle has more than just a Doodle. It's a Google game that you can play, dude.

You can find a fun little card/strategy game on Google (google.com if you don't know the URL). It's a clever little game that someone from Mountain View probably created in the 20% of their day they had left over. It's based on the lunar phases and pits you against a perpetually chirpy, half-moon to earn points.

You ask, "How do I earn points?" You and your moon each choose three cards per turn (you get a different card for every turn). Each card represents the phase of the Moon, such as crescent, full, or whatever they call it if there is no moon. You must arrange your cards on the board so that they either match the card next it, or create a Full Moon when paired with the card adjacent to it.

This last option is the most complicated and also the most lucrative. If you can place a track of card that represents the complete lunar cycle (for example, a crescent followed by a half and then a quarter moon), you will get points for each one. The more complete your lunar cycle is, the higher the points.

It's pretty addictive. As you progress in the game, the boards become more complex. At some point, I was given bonus cards, which were only available once per playthrough. These cards allowed me to do crazy things like destroy two random cards on a board or destroy cards controlled by the opposing side. It's a truly engaging accretion in complexity that made me spend far too much time playing it before I began writing this article.

As I said above, my only problem is that the Moon is a fool. It's not difficult to fool the celestial fool every time. I had to watch it repeatedly miss obvious opportunities to fool me. It's not very impressive, but you can play it for free by visiting Google. I don't feel the need to promote it. It's also nice to know that I'm smarter then the Moon.