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I'm Giving Up Kayaking

Ha, not a chance. But I did something almost as out of character: I started playing Pokemon Go. Not to brag or anything, but I'm already practically at Level 5. 

I've never been a gamer. Not even when I was publishing technical articles in Game Developer magazine (a lot of the information sharing technology for Internet games derives from work we did for defense training simulations back in the 90's, and I at the time I wrote some articles about some of our techniques). At one point I was considering moving over to the computer game development world, but the interviews never went well.

Interviewer: "So, what games are you playing?"

Me: "Well, my kids are playing Sammy's Science House. I don't really play games except with them."
Interviewer: "[uncomfortably long pause] ... Thanks for coming in."

But, Valerie and the boys are all into it. It's been great for Valerie - it's been getting her to go out and about a lot. 

Last night was a pretty nice evening and we didn't have plans. I knew that "hey, let's go for a walk" would be a tough sell*, and so instead I said, "Hey, would you teach me how to do Pokemon Go?" We wound up taking a nice walk through City of Falls Church, which is much more alive on a Saturday night than it used to be, what with The State Theater, Little City Ice Cream, Claire & Don's, and so on.. For me, beingoutside is an end in itself, but if having fun outside involves visiting Pokestops and catching Pokemon as they appear, so be it. 

Anyway, I'm just doing this to have an activity in common with Valerie. I'm pretty sure I won't get hooked and will never even fire up the game except when I'm with Valerie 

BTW, Sunday morning I caught a Magikarp Pokemon at Columbia Island Marina while I was loading up my kayak gear and detoured on my way home to visit three Pokestops to get more Pokeballs. Woo Hoo!

*I know this because I said, "It's a nice night. Let's go for a walk," a suggestion which was met with an immediate "No".
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Location: Falls Church, VA, USA

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