SimCity is the ultimate time killer.  Time is Nicole Brown Simpson, and SimCity is OJ.  I have played various versions of SimCity since before I was a teenager, when I got SimCity for the Super Nintendo.  It was like a drug; I spent the following summer in a SimCity induced haze, a friend and I baked on the couch in front of pixelated grids of streets and railroads and blocks marked with R or C or I. 

If the Super Nintendo version was pot, then SimCity 4 for the PC is crack.  I fire it up, and then all of a sudden 4 hours have gone.  Where did they go? I'm not sure - I was busy fine tuning my transportation network (needs more elevated rail!)  All I know is that I had lunch, sat down to play, and now its time for Judge Judy. Take that, vacation!

Here I have made the world's most dangerous skate park. Some teenager overshoots that right edge, and he's in for about a 75 foot fall to the pavement.

This is how poor people live.  The highway and the train tracks go through your neighborhood, but there is no on-ramp or station there.  All of the noise, none of the benefits. 

Don't try and tell me these pictures don't make you want to play SimCity.  You know they do.