Entertaining Small Children

This evening my wife and I have 4 of our 5 grandchildren spending the night. The youngest is just a hair too young to join the party and so he is sleeping in his own bed across the valley. The children are asleep now and I am free to share some of the wisdom I have gained from the experience.

The first order of business this evening included feeding the children. Anyone with kids between the ages of 3 and 7 know they are the meanest of food critics. Furthermore it is difficult to find a common meal they can all agree upon. Fortunately I had the foresight to know we had two choices: macaroni and cheese or pizza. We decided on a family-size pizza that is half cheese and half pepperoni. The kids loved it. For dessert we made a run to the nearby doughnut shop and picked out a dozen colored with different Holiday sprinkles. Kids loved them.

Next the kids had to decide between a number of different evening activities. Ultimately it boiled down to decorating gingerbread houses or watching a movie. The downside of gluing candy to fake buildings with nasty frosting is the candy. Children like to eat more of it than they place on the tiny structures making it nearly impossible to fall asleep at the end of the evening. I breathed a sigh of relief when they unanimously agreed upon the movie. Now the only decision laid in which movie to watch. My oldest grandson has seen "Home Alone 2" no less than 4 times this Holiday season and his dad is getting tired of watching it. He suggested this movie to his sister and cousins who immediately rejected the idea. He came to me almost in tears and I explained that he needed to do a better job of selling the movie and not trying to force his choice on anyone. It only took 30 seconds for the kids come to agreement and support my grandson's choice. He probably has a role in sales in his future.

We all sat down in front of the television and started the movie complete with popcorn and water bottles. My grandson loves the movie not for the talent of the actors but for the 20 minutes of the criminals getting the snot kicked out them by the young protagonist. My other grandchildren loved the slapstick comedy as well. Unfortunately this left everyone a little slap-happy and not wanting to go to sleep. There is also the effects that blue light has and keeping people awake when you really want them to go to sleep. I solved that with 30 minutes of light acoustic guitar practice to help calm everyone down. For the most part, it worked.

Should you find yourself trying to get cousins to try and sleep at the end of a fun day, remember to feed, entertain, and use music. Now I hope they stay asleep for the remainder of the night.

Murder-Mystery Dinner

My wife's cousin celebrated a significant birthday on Sunday and her close friends hosted a murder-mystery dinner. Naturally my wife and I were invited to a very fun evening as we tried to discover motive and the identity of the killer. Everyone came dressed up and enjoyed getting to know friends of the birthday lady.

Our invitation to the party came in a very ornate envelope via the US Postal Service. We get so little mail these days it was kind of fun to open a physical envelope filled with an elaborate invitation and two sealed sets of instructions. We were to read our own character details and be sure not to share them with anyone, including each other. I got to play the part of Stephen Goldring, a wealthy American traveling on the Orient Express from Paris to Istanbul. My wife played the part of Patty Hunt, a recently widowed woman with a shadowy past.

Upon receiving our invitation, we both had a number of questions and so I did an Internet search and found the game online. We got a few more details but didn't discover any secrets about our mystery. Should you be invited to the same event, I won't reveal any more specifics about our particular game. I will say that we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed ourselves.

We arrived at our host's house at the appointed time and and received more information about our characters as well as some instructions for the first part of the evening. We enjoyed the bar car (front porch of the house) while waiting for everyone to join. As none of the attendees drink alcohol, all of the drinks available were mocktails and added a bit of fun to the event. The host pressed her son and the sons of the birthday lady into service to take orders and mix up the various concoctions. One of the get-to-know-you activities included finding out everyone's drink of choice. My character enjoyed gin and tonic, which for me looked an awful lot like water, as that is really all I drink.

Next we moved into the dining car (dining room inside the house) where we enjoyed a spectacular meal. It amazed me that the host could accommodate all of the various dietary restrictions for around 20 guests. Nowadays it seems you can't get that many people in a room without 2 or 3 exceptions to whatever you prepared. The host did well and meal lived up to the haute cuisine one would expect on the Orient Express.

After dinner we moved to the sleeping car (family room) where we had a clue-finding activity after discovering one of the passengers had been murdered. The murdered passenger then switched roles to a doctor traveling in the coach car and provided his expert opinion to help with the clues. We also made sure to enjoy birthday cake and had a marvelous time solving the puzzle of the evening. Prizes were awarded to those that figured out the killer as well as a few other mini-games that made up the mystery. To me it seemed if everyone had a good time. My wife and I spent the ride home reminiscing about the evening and the fun we had.

Should you find yourself invited to a murder-mystery dinner, do not hesitate to go. If you have other plans that evening, cancel them so that you can attend. If you find yourself wanting to host such an event, I highly encourage you to spend the $50 to get a pre-packaged kit with all of the details necessary to pull off a spectacular evening. I know we had a lot of fun and they include a lot of tiny details that really matter when you try to solve a whodunit mystery.

E-mail Marketing

Like most people, I really hate getting unwanted e-mail. It clogs my inbox and instead of making me want to buy someone's product, it makes me hate it. In fact, every day I go through my e-mail and click the "Unsubscribe" link if it is trying to sell me a product for which I have no interest.

Every day I still get about 30 to 40 messages that I never read and just delete. The difference is that the e-mail comes from a place where I may eventually have an interest. For instance, I love playing the guitar and I get a message from Guitar Center and one from Musician's Friend every day. If you ask my wife, I already have too many guitars and so rather than be tempted to buy something that may get me in trouble at home, I just delete the messages without reading them. Every once in a while I discover I need something from a music store and so those are the first places I go to see what is available. Therefore I don't want to unsubscribe from them.

When you are looking to make a purchase, communication of any kind from a vendor that sells what you want to buy is seen as helpful. The rest of the time it is annoying.

A few months ago I received an e-mail from a company that provides a service to me and my wife. It announced that The Brian Setzer Orchestra would be playing in Salt Lake City on December 18th. As my wife and I are always looking for some fun Holiday activities I jumped at the chance to get early discount tickets to the sold-out show. My wife had never heard of them but agreed it would be fun. As we rode home from the show last night, she remarked about how much fun she had. I had to agree that it is one of the best Christmas shows we have ever seen. They even had an ode to the Nutcracker Suite at the end. I leaned over and asked my wife if that meant I could get out of seeing the ballet version this season. She said it counted.

Should you wish to sell your wares via e-mail marketing, remember that most people won't even bother to read your message. The exception is if they are looking to buy exactly what you are selling. Even then, that is questionable. So be careful and screen your recipients meticulously.

Keeping the Dog Company

It is a Saturday evening and I find myself alone at home in Utah with the dog. My wife is at her sister's visiting with her family and so I can do whatever I want. I find my list of choices almost endless. There is a large library of video games still in the shrink-wrapped plastic. I could also sit down and watch a movie without having to get consensus from the family. I have a $20 bill in my wallet and can even go out to see a movie if I wanted.

When I left the family gathering this afternoon to bring my daughter home so she could go to work, the first thing I did was pull out my guitar and practice it for 2 hours. I have never been musically inclined but thought that if I could play an instrument, I would play all the time. Now that I have taken up the guitar, thanks to Rocksmith, I do play all of the time and it is very rewarding. I only stopped to make myself dinner but that may be something I continue later this evening.

I also have a PlayStation VR that I have not really spent much time using. My youngest son enjoys it and often invites his college friends over to play. They love Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. One person will play the game while everyone watches. It is set up in small 15-minute mini games that work for a  group of friends. The person playing will get startled and jump, causing everyone to laugh. They can play for hours on end. I told my coworkers about this and they suggested I get Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. It is a party game that runs on Windows and Mac as well as the PlayStation VR. I have yet to purchase it, but it does sound like fun. In the mean time, I have about 6 or 7 other VR games I could play. Yes, some of them are still in the shrink wrap.

When you think about it, most of our lives today are amazing. It is a Saturday evening and my biggest concern is how to keep myself and the dog entertained. I am not sitting in a fox hole helping to fight some war. My next meal is already in the fridge and so I am not out hunting it or plucking it from the ground. When the house gets a little cold, a thermostat senses it and turns on the heat so I don't have to chop wood or keep a fire burning. Oh the choices I have for the evening and how I am glad I am not having to take care of one of the basic necessities of life.

Investing in a Video Game

Recently I finished playing a video game after about 40 hours of total game play time. I have to admit that I was sad when the game ended. It is not that the game had a bad ending. In fact, the ending made perfect sense and perfectly matched the game. After 40 hours of game play, I felt connected to the character I was playing. He was a part of me in that the choices made during the game were mine. I felt very invested in the character as well as the entire video game.

Once finished with the game, I started to think about where else I felt such a connection with a fictitious person. I love watching movies but they are usually only a few hours long. Sure there are sequels and prequels, but The Lord of the Rings trilogy maxes out at 9 hours, while the Harry Potter movies total around 19 hours.

Thinking about Harry Potter reminds me that the story started as a book series. My children grew up with me reading them the books at bedtime. The time it took to read those books easily surpasses the 40 hours of game play, yet I still don't feel invested in the characters the same way I do with those in my recently completed video game. With a book, all you can do is read about choices the author makes for the characters. My kids would often scream at the stupid choices certain characters in the book would make. With a video game, you get to make your own choices. As a result, you are much more invested in your character.

I am now ready to start my next video game adventure and picked up a dozen games at a recent clearance sale. I set aside 3 different games that came highly recommended and have them stashed by my video game console on my boat where I spend most of my weeknight evenings. Sure I could relax and read a good book or watch a few movies. Instead I plan to get wrapped up in another video game character and chart my own story. I'll let you know how it goes.

I Finished Playing a Video Game

One problem with working at a video game company is that there are a lot of different games to play. That makes it tough to actually finish one as I often get bored with one and move onto another. Well this evening I actually finished playing Bioshock Infinite. There was a driving force to finish the game as another coworker just finished it and wants to have a conversation about it with others who have completed the game. Everyone in the office has been waiting for me to finish so we can talk about the ending. I can't say I was surprised as I figured it out before I got to the end of the game. Tomorrow should be fun at work though as we can finally have this long-anticipated conversation.

Finishing a game comes with a huge sense of satisfaction. It also comes with a bit of sadness as now I won't know what to do with my evenings. I have replaced all television and movie watching with game playing. Now what am I going to do with my evenings when I am alone on the boat in California?

Fortunately there are a number of video games to choose from. My own library is quite full of games that I own. There are also a whole group of games that I have started but never had the patience to finish. There are also a number of games I have that are still in the plastic shrink-wrap. Then there is even a larger of inventory of games in the game library at work. Finally there is the video game I have been writing over the course of several years that is actually getting close to being done. Of course I could also take a break from video games and do other things.