Thoughts on playing blitz chess on chess.com

I've been playing blitz occasionally on chess.com since my wife got an iPod Touch and I can use it to play blitz while killing time. I've never been much of one for playing blitz on the internet. I have some thoughts on it. My rating is pretty sucky, somewhere in the mid-1400s.

1. I'm better on the computer than on the iPod. Fewer mouse slips and using the mouse is quicker, so I get in time trouble less often. I also see better. The difference is on the order of 100 points.
   
2. I was a little rusty and blitz knocked the rust off a little, but once that is done, I find blitz has no redeeming qualities except as entertainment. Which is important.
   
3. There are a lot of people playing the Philidor and 1.e4 2.Nf3 3.Bc4 openings. Sicilian variations involving ...e5 are also popular.
   
4. Sometimes people fall for amazingly transparent swindles. Including me.
   
5. When you're in the 1400s, going into the random pool usually means you're playing somebody rated beneath you.
   
6. It's a great way to blow off steam while waiting for responses from grad schools. There will be a lot of residual tension to blow off over the next couple months or so.

I might pull out some nice problems Rybka found from my games and post them here. Or things I successfully found. Or just interesting positions. There's no point in seriously analyzing blitz games, but sometimes the computer finds something interesting that is worth looking at. I've played approx. 100 games so far.

One other thing I'm doing with the iPod is playing skat against the computer. Not on the internets, as I usually don't have enough time to play more than a couple hands. The ProSkat app is very nice for that.