health & fitness 1 Comment

Wii Fit

My first impression: OMG, I’ve spent $90 on a piece of crap that I’ll never use. Go me!

I warmed up to it after a while, though, really. It just didn’t hit me as totally awesome right off the bat like Wii Bowling did, or like Dance Dance Revolution did years and years ago.

Things that made me a little doubtful from the get-go:

  1. The Balance Board is NOT an accurate scale. It shows me as being at my ultimate goal weight, some 30 pounds less than I am now.
  2. I took the initial Body Test twice (once before dinner, and once after), and it gave me two VERY different Wii Fit Ages. The first time, it said I had the fitness level of a 34-year-old; the second, 27. I’m actually 32. How can I be so unfit and then so healthy in the same day?
  3. The first activity listed is Yoga. While I understand why — stretching is important before exercise, and yoga is all over that — doing deep breathing, half-moon pose, warrior pose (a simplified version), and tree pose is not exactly party time.

What saved it for me was the aerobics. The Hula Hoop® is actually quite a workout (especially when you open up SUPER Hula Hoop®). Step aerobics are done much like DDR — step off behind or to the side, and back on, in time with Miis on-screen and simple, easy-to-understand footprint graphics. Running is actually fun, too, which I hadn’t expected, since you’re just putting the wiimote in your pocket and jogging in place (not on the balance board), basically changing the speed of your footfalls to keep up with the Mii in front of you.

I tend to think of the Wii as a party-game console, as many gamers do. This *could* be used as a party game, I suppose, if you hang with people who like to point and laugh at their friends trying to twirl a virtual hula hoop. Some of the balance games could be mighty fun, too… especially if you’re drunk.

Will I actually use this for fitness? I’d better, since I paid almost $100 for it. Seriously, though, some of the games and activities are engaging enough, while still being quite the workout. (I was breaking a good sweat after 10 minutes of Wii Fit aerobics.) It’ll be more fun than throwing in a 45-minute workout DVD, and I can decide when I’ve had enough without feeling guilty for ducking out early on Billy Blanks.

delicious

links for 2008-05-21

photos

Flickr’d!

First Morning in Hawaii | Nikon D50

The photos we took in Hawaii are now posted in a set on Flickr. If you go through the slideshow, it’ll take you about 25 minutes, assuming you don’t pause the slideshow and don’t skip through.

Next on the agenda: scanning the two photos we bought — one before the Orientation Breakfast (OMG cheesy!) and one before Germaine’s Luau (not really cheesy at all). Also, I plan to post some short videos (“moving pictures”) to Flickr, as I think some video we took will adhere nicely to that concept. I’m also going to edit together the 100 minutes of video we took into something a little more watchable.

For those of you who have asked if we’re planning a party to show off our pictures, here’s your Save The Date notice: June 21st, the first day of summer. Start scouring the local Goodwill for your aloha attire!

hawaii 2008 2 Comments

Hawaii Report #1

So, you’re probably wondering how Hawaii was.

Hawaii was fantastic. Gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery, fun things to do, good food, and Japanese restaurants and tourists out the yin-yang. There’s a lot to talk about.

This time, though, I’m going to do things a little differently, in the hopes that I’ll a.) get through my travelogue before summer’s over, and b.) not bore you silly with exacting details that you don’t need. As with last year’s trip to Tokyo, I wrote in my notebook every night all the notable things that happened that day. I think I’m going to just scan those in and comment on them as necessary, and add links to my flickr pictures for that day.

I’m going to try to put enough commentary on my flickr photos that the best way to find out about the trip would be to just do watch the slideshow. I don’t have all the photos up quite yet, though.

So, let’s go briefly through Days #1 and #2, shall we?
Continue reading →

hawaii 2008 2 Comments

Back From Oahu

Hibiscus in Waikiki

We arrived back in Toledo around 7:30pm today, with a little sunburn and a lot of good times under our belts. Rest assured that I’ll be sharing all the fun details and photos in the days (or weeks) to come. For now, I’ll just say that the highlights of our trip included two luaus, snorkeling, parasailing, and taking several tours. That’s only touching on the very basics, though.

Believe it or not, Aaron’s already in bed asleep, since I managed to sleep better on the plane ride home than he did. I still have a bit of juice left in me before I crash out myself.

A hui hou (until we meet again)!