January 30, 2003
Stress Relief
GameWorks opened this past December in the new Block E entertainment complex in Minneapolis. This place has all kinds of video games, bowling, a decent restaurant, and a bunch of other fun stuff. I have been over there a few times, but not really to play video games. I play air hockey.
So, "Who cares?" you ask. Well, years ago, I worked for my friend Dan at Clockwork Internet. This was a great job. Despite the fact that some of the customers were sometimes not the proverbial "sharpest tool in the shed" we had quite a few good customers. The irritating ones, however, gave us an excellent reason to de-stress over lunch by playing Quake and Commanche III. Unfortunately, major corporations have network managers who don't like it when you play multi-player first-person shooter games (it tends to suck up the bandwidth), so we must resort to actual, physical exercise.
Join a health club? Nah. Not really my style to change into workout clothes and exercise in front of all the other people who are trying to stay fit during the business day. I try to do Jujitsu a few times each week. So, we walk over to GameWorks and play air hockey. It's fun, fast paced (especially when playing with 3 or 4 pucks), and definitely good for lowering stress levels.
I've decided that unwinding in the middle of the day is very helpful. Maybe not as helpful as a siesta, but wonderful nonetheless. I have a better ability to focus after I have unplugged for a bit, and done something completely unrelated to my job.
Now, if they could only install a few PCs so I could play Quake...
Posted by MEK at January 30, 2003 11:39 AM