Wednesday, Jun. 25, 2003 | 1:32 AM

Lately I've been thinking that life is sort of like Super Mario Brothers.

You're on a level, and if you make a mistake you have to start that level all over again and you have to keep doing it until you figure out how to go about beating the damn thing. You can't just side step the level where the clouds with happy faces rain lobsters on you and go on to the world where you drop underground unless you learn how to deal with those fucking clouds.

It's like you keep making the same mistakes over and over again, winding up at the very beginning until you figure out how the hell to get out-- until you say "OK-- the way to deal with these happy cloud lobster thingies is not to pause in between the fire hydrants, but just jump right over them."

My point is, I think I finally realized that you can't fudge anything. Life will present you with the same lessons again and again until you learn them and you can't get from point A to point B without learning the damned lesson. Look at how people have the same relationships over and over again-- only the names and faces change. Look at how people just stay stuck in the same infuriating ruts.

Kinda like that Simpsons episode where Jasper has his beard caught in the pencil sharpener and Grandpa Simpson keeps trying the same tactic over and over to get it out but it just keeps getting more and more stuck.

So i've been making a conscious effort to try new tactics-- new ways of dealing. And I think that over this past year, I really have ascended several levels in my own personal Nintendo universe.

I just read an entry from exactly one year ago today.

Yep. I definitely finally beat those damned cloud lobster spraying thingies.