Video Games Can Keep You Up at Night

Last night I started playing a new video game and I have to say that it had me so engaged that I found it difficult to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. I kept finding myself wanting to kill one more bad guy. Eventually I had to save my game so I could go to sleep before a very important meeting today. I fell asleep just fine but then I woke up at 5:50 and couldn't get back to sleep. So much for getting the necessary sleep before my meeting. I got out of bed at 7am and headed to work after only 4 and a half hours of sleep.

Knowing that I would probably fall asleep if I held still too long kept me focused on my meeting today. I led the meeting and that allowed me to pace around as I directed everyone. I did admit to being tired and not getting enough rest. Fortunately I work for a video game company and so they all understand why I couldn't stop playing my game. I don't think I could have gotten away with that at some of my other jobs.

In Case of Emergency (ICE)

My most recent post has me thinking about emergency contacts and how I have them listed in my phone. I attended an emergency training meeting a few years back and one of the first things they had us do was create an ICE contact in our phones. It stands for In Case of Emergency and first responders are trained to look for that contact to use in case there is an accident and they find your phone.

If you don't have that contact in your phone, you should stop what you are doing and add it. Don't worry, I'll wait. It does not need to be a new contact. It can be one already in your phone. This small piece of information may be the critical piece of information that gets you proper and immediate help if something ever goes wrong.

The Call No Parent Wants

Knowing the identity of the person calling you is a very helpful tool. There are very few times that you don't want to know this important information. This week I had one of those rare instances. Tuesday morning I got a call from my son. I answered the phone and asked my son, "What's up?"

The caller responded, "Is this Dave's father?"

Right away I knew something wasn't right. Many years ago while still attending college, I got a similar call. This happened before caller ID became available to anyone but the call began with "Is this Rich's brother?" My brother had been in an automobile accident and I was his emergency contact. The incident happened a few miles from where I lived at the time and so I drove to the scene and helped take care of my brother and his young family. Fortunately everyone walked away from two very damaged cars.

Having my son's roommate call me from my son's phone Tuesday morning could only mean that my son had been in an accident. I told the roommate that he had the right person and was informed that my son had been in a bike accident and was in a San Jose, California hospital. Naturally I got the name of the hospital and drove there to be with my son.

I got lucky and my son will make a full recovery. He received a serious concussion, a broken nose, and several facial lacerations requiring about 50 stitches. For the first time my son appreciated that while I live in Utah, I spend most of the week working in California. San Mateo to San Jose is only 35 minutes and I spent the week working from his apartment helping him to recover. As I mentioned, I got lucky. My heart goes out to anyone who gets a similar phone call with more serious consequences.