Don't Start Bioshock Infinite Unless You Have Time

Earlier this week, I downloaded a copy of Bioshock Infinite for my PS3. The artistic rendering of the characters made it seem interesting to me and so I started playing it. My oldest son had played earlier versions of the game and coached me through the first few minutes. He instructed me to spend time looking around and collecting items. It was good advice.

My son had to head back to his apartment at school and left me to play alone. It is a good thing I was playing at home on the TV in my bedroom. When my wife got tired she came in and told me to turn it off and go to bed. Had I been alone on the boat in the Bay Area, I would have kept playing all night long. When I did turn it off, I was half tempted to wait until my wife was fast asleep so I could keep playing. I knew better though because if she woke up and caught me sitting on the end of the bed playing a video game, I would be in serious trouble.

Bioshock Infinite is a great game for me. I like first person shooter games but have grown tired of the constant attention you have to pay to keep from getting killed. This game has a little bit of puzzle solving, a little bit of exploring, and a little bit of shooting. It all adds up to a fun game that I have enjoyed playing the last few nights. I think I am doing pretty good at not playing during the work day as that would be easy to do.

I downloaded the game to my PS3 from the PlayStation Network as it is free this month for PlayStation Plus members. This game alone makes it worth the annual fee for PlayStation Plus. I highly recommend it.

Spring Break in Japan

Last week was Spring Break for my youngest son who is a senior in high school. I had a trip scheduled to Japan and so I took him with me along with my wife. I spent my days at the office while they spent their days sightseeing and touring Tokyo. We had one day where they were scheduled to go to Kamakura but they were not able to go because my wife wasn't feeling well. Sixteen-hour time changes can really do a number on you physically.

We are back from Japan now and so I can finally post about the trip. Why wait until we are back? Because my empty house could become a target for thieves if they knew I was gone. As nobody was at my house, I also sent my ferocious German Sheppard to a doggie spa. She does a perfect job of keeping undesirable elements from even thinking about horking my stuff. For those that don't know, "hork" is a Canadian word synonymous with "steal." With my favorite burglar alarm gone, I kept quiet about being in Japan.

I made sure to wake up early every day and do a bit of touring with my wife and son. We would look for a place to eat breakfast and quickly grew fond of western-style coffee shops. They make great breakfast sandwiches that my son and I really enjoyed. As we would go on our morning walk, we noticed that the Japanese don't really lock their bikes. You have to love a polite society that respects each other's property. I wish it was that way in the United States. Then we wouldn't have to worry about keeping our vacation plans secret until we got back.

The point I am trying to make is that posting travel plans is something best done after the trip. Otherwise someone could hork your stuff. If you have good stuff that you like and want to keep, then don't tell everyone on Facebook that you are in some exotic locale. It might not be there when you get back.

Spring is in the Air

I took a couple days off last week so I could help run the last ski race of the season at Snowbird. I am responsible for recruiting volunteers and making sure they show up. As the requirements to be either a finish or start referee limits the pool of volunteers, I often end up being one of them. The start referee at a ski race is a thankless job that requires a bladder of steel as you are stuck at the top of the race hill all day long. Fortunately I had someone who wanted the job for all but one day. Even then, I had someone willing to stay at the top of the race course when I needed to take a bio break.

I switched off being the finish referee with my wife for the remaining three days. This allowed me to do a bit of skiing with friends from work. When I would get tired and need a break, I would head down to the race hill and relieve my wife. On Sunday, I took full-time duty as the finish ref and sat at the bottom of the race hill in a wet snowstorm. After almost 4 hours in the elements, I felt frozen and the need to go inside. It was at this point that a number of the boys came down the race course wearing helmets, goggles, gloves, skis, ski boots, their race bib, swimsuits, and nothing else. What a crazy bunch of guys. I couldn't help but laugh as I saw them go by.

This morning I got on a plane and headed to sunny California. It was so warm, I rode back to my boat this evening without a jacket and enjoyed the warm spring air. I'm not quite ready for ski season to be over but I am looking forward to not being so cold. As it warms up outside, take the opportunity to grab your laptop or tablet and see if you can spend more time outdoors. I have had the boat opened up this evening as I work on the computer and it has been wonderful. Of course I did have to put my sweater back on once the sun went down, but it felt good to be out in the fresh air.