Tokyo Game Show

I am sitting in one of the first-class lounges at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Earlier I got off a flight from Tokyo and my connecting flight to Salt Lake is delayed by more than an hour. If everything had worked out, I would have been able to spend an entire day in Tokyo, cross the International Date Line and gotten home on an hour before I left Tokyo. Instead I will get home an hour into the day after a very important day to me. I am kind of upset that I won't be home on time but there is not much I can do about it. Just remember that when you need the airlines to be on time, they won't be.

So what brought me to Tokyo? Tokyo Game Show (TGS), Japan's largest video game conference. I had some important meetings and so I needed to attend. I just wish the show occurred a week earlier or later. Then I could be home on this special day.

I don't have official numbers but the show seemed larger than last year. I didn't see any surprises other than games that are popular in Japan but not in the US. I think the one big stand-out from the show is Resident Evil 7: Biohazard from CAPCOM. I'm not sure if I gave this game more attention because one of my co-workers from Japan really likes the game and so we spent more time watching trailers. What I do know is that it looks like a scary game that should be very entertaining.

I do have to disclose that I work for a video game company but no, we don't work on Resident Evil 7. Also, I have never played a Resident Evil game but have to admit this one does look interesting. I'll have to give it a try when it releases in January of 2017.

Troubleshooting an Internet Connection

I am in Japan this week because of the Tokyo Game Show. That means I am using Skype to talk to my wife every day instead of running up a huge phone bill. I went to call my wife today but couldn't get through to her home computer. When I used Skype to call her cell phone she answered and said that our home Internet was down. Naturally she was rather frustrated. I asked her to reset our cable modem to see if that helped. Nope, it didn't. There was not much else I felt I could do to help as I am over 5,000 miles away.

Later in the day I got a text from her saying that not only was the Internet down, but also the cable television connection. A few minutes later she said that the soonest the cable company could get to the house wasn't for 2 days. I thought about it for a few minutes and remembered a similar problem several months ago. So I called my wife and had her check a few things for me.

I used to get a really strong cable signal and then my cable company did something stupid. Since then I have to have a signal amplifier inside my house. That amplifier requires power and I had my wife check to make sure the power was still on. Nope, it wasn't. I had her check the circuit breakers and they were all set correctly. The power for the amplifier comes from a single outlet in the basement that is tied to a GFCI outlet in my main-floor powder room. I had her reset that and power was restored. Once the signal amplifier had power, the cable television connection started working as did the home Internet connection.

I'm glad I was able to help my wife get our home Internet connection restored without requiring the help of the cable company. I know I feel really stupid when they come out and it is as simple as a power connection.