Wii this is fun!!

I have never been a "big" gamer, but a few years ago I did buy the Xbox 360. If I have to be honest, there was no deductive reasoning prowess in that decision other than it was the platform that carried Oblivion (sequel to my favorite game ever - Morrowind).

That being said, I've had the Xbox 360 for a few years now and I don't play it that much. I'll get into a game or two and play hard for about a month maybe, but then it gets put down for 6 months. It's been that type of cycle ever since I got it.

I hate the "big" game mentality often times. The games that you have to relearn all the complex controls for all over again if you just put the game down for a week. I started realizing that the games I play most and enjoy most are short attention span, simple type games. The kind of games that are fun to just kill 30 minutes with mind numbing fun. I guess that comes with the territory for us 30 somethings as we aren't "kids" any more. I enjoy the complexity of a "vast" game now and then, but most of the time, I just want to have fun for a few minutes.

So I heard about the Wii Fit this year and it stated perking my interest. I was a little confused about the Wii though because of all the "packages" available. A Wii was $250. A Wii Fit was $90. But a Wii/Wii Fit bundle was about $600. I wasn't sure if all you needed was the console and the Wii Fit or if there was more to it. I thought there might be more to it since the bundle was about $250 more than the pieces needed separately.

Anyway, I found out the bundles were more extra stuff and all I needed was the Wii console and the Fit. I traded in my Xbox 360 and picked it up Thursday. I intended to keep it as a Christmas present and now break it out to show my girlfriend until Christmas. That idea lasted about 24 hours as I mentioned it the next night and we decided to hook it up Saturday morning.

Saturday morning had us setting it up in about 10 minutes and playing in about 12 minutes. OMG did we have fun with it. I LOVE the fact that you can do things "for real"...not just hitting buttons to make them happen. I can hold the Wiimote (just a simple remote control type object) just like a baseball bat and "swing" at the ball as it comes at me on the screen. That, by itself, makes it 10X better than most other video games in my book because it makes you get off your butt to play.

We had at least a few hours of fun playing the Wii Sports pack that came with the console: tennis, baseball, golf, boxing, bowling, etc...

We went out for a bit and came home to hook up the Wii Fit Saturday evening. It was like a whole new order of magnitude in coolness. When you first get on, using the Wii Fit game program that comes with it, the thing will test your standing balance/center of gravity and give you feedback on your posture. The thing could show me how I was putting more weight on the back of my feet and help me work toward better posture. I could TOTALLY see this being used by Physical Therapists to help people with their posture and positions.

Then we started playing with the "games" (fitness programs). There are "balance", "strength" and "cardio" sections to play. We first started with "balance" and did some yoga exercises. It not only demonstrates the stances to you, but uses the balance checking to help show you how to shift and balance better. We did three Yoga exercises and one (one leg balance thing) was particularly difficult.

Then we moved on to cardio games and did "hula hoop", "stepping" and jogging. The hula hoop and stepping ones were quite fun. It uses your balance and weight to determine your movements and when you step on/off. The hula hoop isn't "just" hula hooping, but they throw hoops to try to catch and keep going too. The step game has you going in synchronization with a whole group and tests your accuracy of stepping on and off. It reminds me of that dancing video game I've seen in public a few times.

The jogging was different. You didn't use the Wii Fit board, but just the Wiimote and jogged in place. It used your arm movement to determine your speed. You had other people around you jogging, like it was a park and a person in front of you that you were supposed to follow. It makes everything seem like you are with people which is very motivating.

The Wii Fit has a point system where it gives you points in a "fitness piggy bank" and the more time you spend you can unlock more games that are in there but hidden. Hope (my girlfriend) and I were very impressed with the whole thing. If you can afford it, I think the Wii Fit may be one of the most effective fitness tools ever devised.

Congratulations President Obama

I will make this short and sweet. No inaugural addresses required.

This is the first time, and I truly mean FIRST time I've ever felt like I had a clear choice for president of the United States. Every election I've voted in (1988 was my first) has presented me with candidates I truly despise. I've had to, every time, vote for the one that I disliked the least; the one I distrusted the least, etc....

For the first time in my voting history, I had a black and white choice (no pun intended) between the candidates. Now, the candidate that I clearly felt more confident about, Barack Obama has won the election. I'm happy for him and I'm happy for the United States of America.

This is a historic day in the history of the United States. We have leaped racial hurdles for a century or more to get to this point and I'm proud of my country. I'm proud that we can see the man and not the color of his skin. I'm glad to see that a man of color can run for president and not only does he have a shot, but he wins by a significant margin. I'm proud to be a part of this moment that will be remembered in history. Think of the wide eyed children 50 years from now who will look at your and say, "you were there when Barack Obama, the first black president was elected?" and you can answer, "yes, I voted for him".

Congratulations Mr. Obama. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have a dream", and on November 4, 2008, you gave him that dream.

The anti-vote system!!

I want to take a moment to put down in to words a new voting system theory I had in the last presidential election (Bush/Kerry 2004). The 2000 election brought about a new word to me - disenfranchise.

A definition that I like is this:
Disenfranchise - "deprive of civil or electoral privileges"

I thought that I felt disenfranchised in the 2004 election. I did not have my voting privileges taken away, but I felt like I was not given choices I believed in. Therefore I had a moment of genius (in my own opinion) and thought of a new voting system I call "The Anti-Vote".

I'll explain by what I see as current problems and the compare as to how the anti-vote system addresses them.

Problems with current system:

We are stuck with a two party system. The Republican and Democrat parties are the only parties with enough money and numbers behind them to have the power and resources to launch a major nationwide campaign.

We realistically have no other choices except the two main front runners - Democrat and Republican. Other people (independent or in other small political parties) who want to run either don't because they have no way of overcoming the strong party candidates. We, the people are given only two choices - two choices often in which we like neither candidate.

Solution:

The anti-vote. You still would have only one vote, but you can cast a normal (positive) vote OR an anti (negative) vote toward a candidate. If you don't like any candidate, then you can anti vote the candidate you distrust the most.

How does this help?

Now, the major party candidates will have many anti votes cast for them as well. This will bring their vote numbers down significantly. Not only will the United States citizen feel better for having the ability to vote their conscience, but the numbers could come down enough the small independent candidates or candidates from smaller parties actually may have enough votes to be a true contender in the election. If potential candidates with smaller backing have a better chance of winning, then as time goes on, more and more independent/non-Democrat/Republican candidates will run giving us a wider selection pool.

It seems a win/win situation to me. We, the voters have an outlet to vote our conscience and in the long run we will get a larger pool of candidates to choose from. With Republican/Democrat candidates not being "a given", they will have to work harder to gain our trust and possibly provide better candidates in the future.

What do you think?

Trip finally over and Hope is here!!

A quick "highlights only" version of my road trip across the country.

The plan

Fly out 2:30p, arrive 12:30a, sleep, get up early am and leave.

Quickly stop by to see my new niece and then be on road by 10am or so.

Then drive back to Seattle with only standard bathroom/food/sleep breaks.

Her two cats came with us. They would be kenneled all day in car and kept in bathroom in hotel each night.

Arrive Monday early afternoon, take Tuesday off as rest day, go back to work refreshed enough to function on Wednesday.


The reality

Flight out of Seattle delayed due to smoke on plane. Ended up sitting in Seattle airport for 12 hours before going which also delayed the stat of our drive. Instead of jetting by to see my new niece around 8am and being on road by 10am or so - I didn't get to airport until almost 12p. Went straight from airport to see niece and did not get on road for drive until 4pm or so.

AIR TRAN SUCKS!!!!!!!

Drive out of FL was very slow because we were going through very heavy rain courtesy of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Fay. Only made it about 60-70 miles in to Georgia 1st day. I started trip DEAD with NO ENERGY thanks to Air Tran's fun experience from hell.

Drive was slower going than when I did it alone last year, mostly because Hope's car does not have cruise control and struggles in the mountains.

On third night she let one of her cats out because she couldn't bear hearing her cry a bit in bathroom. It turned out not to be a big deal, Maggie (the cat) enjoyed exploring the room and did not fight in the morning to go back in to kennel. The other cat, Miles, was so freaked out he barely ate or drank the entire trip and even when locked in bathroom would hide in the back of the kennel.

That third night we stopped at a beautiful place (Canistota, South Dakota). It was a tiny little town with a great friendly "small town" feel and atmosphere. We almost turned around as it was further off the expressway than we thought and were afraid we may end up side tracking or getting lost, but it was fine. It was this beautiful old hotel built in like 1929 or so and still had the original working Otis elevator. It was only about $45 for the deluxe room which had a huge bathroom and even a recliner in the room. The lady that ran the desk was dressed like a Quaker but was real nice. In the morning we ate at the small restaurant in the hotel and they asked "are you the strangers that stayed on the 2nd floor last night?". Wow...talk about a small town.

Stopped and side tracked to Mt. Rushmore as it was only about 25 miles off expressway. No big problem travel-wise, I did the same thing when I did this trip myself last year. We also stopped for lunch and did a little shopping in Wall which is kind of an old town that tried to keep it looking like it was 100 years ago or so.

Last night was in Missoula, Montana. Hope (my g/f) thought the skiddish cat, Miles, was too afraid to run, so left the bathroom door open while doing food/water dishes. Miles darted out of bathroom and ended up being a free cat that night in room too. He was a bit difficult to catch in morning and Hope got some nice cat claw shaped memories on her arms and stomach because of it.

All was fine until Idaho (last state before home). It was raining and some older guy was passing me on the left (I was going slow due to rain on roads). He wasn't speeding, but was going the full speed limit (75 mph) on the wet, curvy, mountain-sloped road. He hydroplaned and lost control, spun around once or twice and ended up in ditch between eastbound and westbound lanes. I stopped to help. He was OK and car looked like it was probably OK too except for a flat tire. I left as help was coming.

Finally rolled into the driveway around 4:00pm on 6th day. Thankfully, the house/dog sitter was great and took good care of the dogs (Ammo & Solomon) while I was gone. The boys and the house were fine.

Hope and I chilled with pizza and TV for a few hours and I hit the sack about 8:30 or 9:00pm.

So much for the day of rest. I didn't want to take another day off, so I came in to work today. I won't be getting much done though - too tired.