Books and ebooks

I’ve got several started on my K3 but as I was cleaning last week, I found three hardcopies that I haven’t read yet. Once upon a time i would have told you there was NO WAY I’d enjoy an e-reader because I love books. I loved the feel, the smell of the pages and all the sounds associated with reading. Now I look at this tiny pile of books (three, actually) and wince. The idea of having to lug one around, keep my place… it’s just a hassle.

It was noticeable last night when I was plowing through Deadline. No hand cramping, no pages lost when I got up to let the dog out. I clicked through those pages so smoothly and quickly that it still impresses me how much they improved since the last gen. All of that is just to say it’s official – the Kindle has utterly converted me away from carrying text and preferring my e-Ink. Technology win.

K3 also gets extra bonus points for currently holding a couple hundred books on it, guaranteeing that I’m NEVER reading something I don’t want to be.

Additionally, I’m considering a new skin for the K3. My netbook skin arrived and has been inspiring (thanks, Decal Girl!).

Netbook, ahoy!

I picked up a netbook for several reasons:

1. My laptop has eaten another battery. I figured if I was going to replace a second one, I might as well get a new device instead.

2. Clearance price. I got this little sucker for less than $200 (after tax), which was the only thing that made it plausible.

3. I’d been thinking it would be nice to have something I could take with me to work, so that I can write during my lunchbreak. The netbook is small enough that it fits in the tiny work lockers.

4. Last but not least, surprise money.

And here she is:

I’m calling her Shortcake since she’s tiny and cute and peppy. These things have very little logic. It’s an Acer D255E-13639 (which you can see in the photo) and I’ve already changed the wallpaper.

The stupidest thing about Windows 7 starter is that you can’t change the desktop wallpaper or themes. Me? I don’t give a hot damn about themes but there was no chance that I was keeping that standard background. I suspect this was the plan of the evil TechNOverlords to annoy the average joe into an $80 upgrade [jerks]. Doing a very quick google search (have I mentioned how much I’m liking the latest Chrome?) I found Oceanis to change the background. I’m not linking the site because it tried to install malware but my AVG Free/ZoneAlarm free caught it. Anyhoo, thanks to hackers everywhere I’ve got a set of nifty background images that I can rotate through as frequently as I’d like.

As to the REST of Windows 7 Starter… I’m not noticing much of a difference from Home Premium (which I have on my laptop) probably because I didn’t get Shortcake to DO those things. This is not the machine you’re looking to stream movies from Netflix and get great picture/sound because it’s got a 10.1″ screen, for crying out loud. I’ve installed a couple of writing programs to play around with, the keyboard is comfortably sized and I haven’t had any issues getting the machine to do what I want. The hard drive is the same size on this as it is on my laptop (250G) and I’ve already used dropbox to add music to Shortcake.

In peripheral news, they have come a LONG WAY in wireless mouse technology. I love that this has a multitouch pad but I grabbed a wireless ($19 at Target) because sometimes it’s nice to have one. The usb interface is very nearly flush with the edge of the netbook, making it the tiniest usb input I’ve ever seen. Go you, Logitech!

I haven’t had any luck locally finding a sleeve that isn’t too big, but Office Max does stock a couple of TINY backpacks perfect for this.

This is probably where I should also do an endorsement of the free AVG and ZoneAlarm products, as in all of the years I’ve had PCs I’ve never gotten a single virus or trojan. Go free software! It also helps to download from cnet, as they make sure your programs come malware free.

A new skin from DecalGirl is already wending its way to the mountains. You can use DECAL10 and get 10% off right now, or like their facebook page and get a one-time only code. I’ve used their service for virtually all my devices in the last 4/5 years and I’ve got nothing but great things to say about them.

So yeah. Spouse has been at a work thing and I’ve been nerding out with my new toy ever since I got home this afternoon. There’s a solid chance I may even install Linux on this one. I haven’t touched my phone or looked at the television but I guess he’ll be relieved not to hear me TALK ABOUT ALL THIS since I’m just putting it on the internet.

THAT was unexpected

Today at work was shittier than usual, mostly due to a large number of incompetent people whose shortcomings all bumped up against each other TODAY and caused ME to do more work. When I came home I checked the mail, as per usual, and found a couple of envelopes. One was complete junk and the other was a check from a class action suit that I was opted into.

WHAT?!

I know, right? When you get those pieces of mail you always think they’re bullshit but apparently the system occasionally works. It’s not a huge payday but there is a very sweet, incredibly inexpensive little netbook in my future thanks to the check and the clearance shelves at Target. w00t!

Thanks to the boys at the 404 podcast, I’m re-evaluating my mistrust of Chrome. The latest release didn’t wow me as it didn’t have a lot of the extensions I’ve grown to love in Firefox but the speed is gradually winning me over. In addition, they HAVE added some more extensions that increase the functionality for me. If only I could get the GD import and sync features to work…

In unrelated news, I thought the Glee finale was maybe the worst episode of the season. Am I the only one?

Podcasts, books and my DroidX

When I got my new DroidX, I began soliciting podcast suggestions from my friends. There were a couple of reasons for this: 1. Drive time. I’ve got a good chunk of it. 2. Faster processor. I loved my Eris but it didn’t manage podcasts well. I had previously had podcasts on my Zune, but who really needs a podcast when you’ve got 90 gigs of music, right?

I upgraded the memory card on the DroidX (from the 2 gig it came with to the 8 gig from my Eris, now to a 16 gig class 6) and combined with the 8 gig internal memory, it means way more room for media. Here’s what I’m listening to:

The Bugle. God DAMN is this podcast funny. Sadly, I’ve had a bitch of a time getting it to sync with WinAmp AND DoggCatcher, so I’ve resorted to putting it in my GReader rss feed subscriptions. If you like The Daily Show, you will like this podcast.

this WEEK in TECH. Kind of the standard nerdcast about tech stuff. Interesting, though not necessarily humorous.

Buzz Out Loud. First of two cnet podcasts, this is longer and has a chick on it. I kind of think of this as Attack of the Show, but audio. Frequently good for chuckles.

This American Life. As with the NPR radiocast, it’s hit or miss for me but worth having.

Doug Loves Movies. Dude, this thing makes me laugh out loud in the breakroom so that people give me the crazy eye. If you want to start somewhere, grab the Adam Carolla, Jerry O’Connell and “Bald” Bryan Bishop ep.

The Nerdist. This is an odd tech-but-not-tech, comedy-but-not-comedy podcast. Not a variety show but it tends to have interviews that lurch wildly from topic to topic. Consistently entertaining.

The 404. Oh my god. This is the second cnet podcast, about 30 minutes long and featuring 3 dudes pretty close to my age group because I get ALL their pop culture references. This show slays me, every day. See show 820 for an awesomely hilarious, dystopian version of The Game of Life. I snickered about that ALL DAY.

The Moth. I just added this and I dig it. It’s like short form fiction standup.

Stuff You Missed in History Class. I think the title is self-explanatory and I’m a history nerd.

You’d think there would be a lot of overlap in my tech podcasts but it’s broken up by the different viewpoints. Where Buzz Out Loud was all worked up about the Android unsecured wifi exploit, the 404 guys were like “Uh, isn’t it ALWAYS a bad idea to get on unsecured wifi?” If I could only recommend two, I’d tell you to get The 404 and The Bugle. Number three is Doug Loves Movies.

On to books. According to GoodReads I’m three books ahead of my ’55 books this year’ schedule. Let me clarify, that means 55 books worth telling people about. I read various amounts of crap and sundry that I don’t count against my ‘real’ books goal because I’m not going to talk about them even if you ask me, because they’re crap and sundry. Not even braincandy. So yeah, I’m looking for 55 books I’ll admit to having spent time with and/or provoke enough thought that I want/need/am interested to discuss.

Yesterday I finished Mockingjay, the last book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I know you’ve heard a lot of hype about these books because JESUSwhohasn’t? That said, the hype is well-deserved. I can’t think of a better executed, more ambitious, sweeping, engrossing and engaging series in recent years (and I’m including other series books I LOVE like Chelsea Cain’s Heart series). It’s brutal and honest and awesome and inspiring and discouraging and real. Not only that, each individual book is fucking great. As a series, you’ll finish Mockingjay and then immediately want to start the series over so you can remember what it was like before you lost your innocence. What I’m saying is that if you haven’t read these books, you need to read these books – immediately, if not sooner. Here’s where I give a plug to booklending.com which is where I borrowed Mockingjay and raced through it in about 4 hours. Gripping, y0.

In related news, if you’ve got book and/or podcast suggestions SHARE THEM! I can use all the audio distraction I can GET at work…

Success, tentatively

I’ve been feeling a weird generalized anxiety lately. I’m not sure what it’s about, but I can tell you that watching the Sunday morning newshows doesn’t help. Lindsay Graham has the singular ability to jack my blood pressure into the roof.

Checking the LJ and rss feeds shows that my journal import has NOT in fact crippled the flist/feed. I’m really glad because it means all my yoga posts have returned. Now if only I could figure out what I was using to crosspost to wordpress.com, it would be amazing to have the same backup but I guess I can widgetize an alternative.

My only weird consequence is categories. I suddenly have a bajillion more categories than I’ve been using since the blog reboot and I haven’t sufficiently researched a way to condense them. Instead I’ve treed them under the reboot categories and just disabled the drop-downs so as not to clutter the page. Yay for tag clouds!

I’m reading God’s War by Kameron Hurley, which I first heard about in a Scalzi Big Idea post. As soon as I read that entry, I thought ‘That sounds awesome.’ Alas, when I went to add it to my Kindle wishlist, it wasn’t available in format. Insert frownyface. So imagine my delight when Books on the Knob announced that Nightshade was giving free ebook copies for a book club! I haven’t used calibre in a while, so I re-downloaded/installed and when the e copy arrived I converted it. So far I’m enjoying it as much as I hoped I would.

Speaking of enjoyment and Scalzi (I kind of was, right?) he gave up Coke Zero for Lent and I’m pretty sure it was the picture in that post which convinced me to try Coke Zero. No lie, it’s delicious. So I guess I’m going to take up Scalzi’s Coke Zero consumption for Lent and make sure Coca-Cola doesn’t lose any market share.

In Netflix movie news, I watched Chloe last week and I really enjoyed it. Not your typical psychological thriller but pretty fantastic nonetheless, with stunning performances all around. 4.5 of 5 stars

Last night we watched The Social Network (which means we might be the last people, ever) and I enjoyed it more than I expected. In fact, I found the Zuckerberg character to be kind of hilarious and Eduardo – I’m pretty sure he was intended to be sympathetic – to be a bit smarmy. After all, it cannot POSSIBLY be in dispute that had Zuckerberg NOT gone to Cali and hooked up with Sean Parker there is no chance Facebook would be what it is today. Also, Winklevi  = fail. Especially given that you settled for $65 mil and then sued AGAIN because $30+ mil A PIECE wasn’t ENOUGH? REALLY. All the win goes to Zuckerberg and I hope to Christmas his depositions were in fact that awesome because those scenes SLAYED me.

Unrelated, we watched Zach Galifinakis host SNL and it was funnier than I’ve seen it in a while. The musical act was a bit odd, so I googled/youtubed and was pleasantly surprised to find Jessie J has a great voice. I’m a bit sad that I’ve missed out this long probably because I don’t listen to popular radio but her album drops next month and I’ll definitely be picking it up.

NOLA is quickly approaching and I am EXCITED. Not just because I’ll get to wear shorts and blind the local population with my reflective fishbelly white skin but because FOOD. Food, y’all. It might as well be the sole reason I travel.

Post-holiday weekend ennui

I suspect it will lead to a series of top 10 posts.

I’m thinking Top 10 books I read this year, Top 10 albums I listened to, Top 10 films I watched, Top 10 gadgets Top 10 TV shows. I know. Scintillating.

In the meantime, Dave’s dog is howling in my face which makes me think I should go to bed.

Mom has probably landed safely in Detroit (my phone is upstairs) and tomorrow is Hump Day. Saturday begins a new year! Isn’t there something about a year that starts on a weekend being lucky?

No? Fuck it. I say it will be.

Skins

Kindle 3 skin from DecalGirl

I think my favorite thing about various media devices is being able to customize them. I’m not much for hacks (too cautious) so skins are one of my all-time favorite things to shop. Shopping does not equal buying so I spend a disproportionate amount of time LOOKING at tons of them before I finally commit. DecalGirl had some sweet options so I actually picked 2. This one looks even better than I’d hoped, so I’m saving the other for a rainy bored day.

Let it Snow

First real snowfall has hit and like most mountain-dwelling Coloradans, I’m happy to see it. I’ve been looking forward to winter – something unique for me and definitely a result of our new locale. While I haven’t missed all the folk who can’t drive well in snow and the Nervous Nellies who make it more dangerous for all of us, during the drive home I got to see the wind shoving clouds over some mountain peaks at close range.  It made it look like the mountains were shaving off bits of cloud with each gust and it was just generally excellent. Immediately I was less annoyed about the painfully slow drivers in front of me and enjoyed the slow cruise home.

The last couple of posts were of the home improvement progress. With any luck this weekend will see us nearing completion on the project.

I’ve got new Kindle skin love rocking right now, too. Since I’m contemplating a NaNoWriMo stab next month I’m trying to wrap up Dreadnaught and not get sucked into any of the ridiculous number of books in my Unread folder.

Random TV notes: I’m still really enjoying The Mentalist, Medium, Castle, Criminal Minds, The Big C, Modern Family, Community and Gray’s Anatomy. I find myself fast-forwarding through Chuck more than I’d like and I’m still utterly on the fence with this season’s Supernatural. To be honest I’m rather wishing they’d actually ended it last season, as this is feeling a bit like Buffy season 7. Related, Lifetime has been replaying old Gray’s eps  (I discovered this as my DVR has its own brain and recorded them) and I had forgotten how much awesome used to be jammed into every episode. This season is feeling like that. I also have to credit the Spouse for making me watch Modern Family. Without fail it is laugh out loud funny in EVERY episode and will invariably leave me chuckling long after. I feel like an idiot for missing it so long.

In film updates, Splice. What a fucked up, creepy and skeevy film. It was engrossing, however, unlike – say – IRON MAN 2. What the hell happened with that? It’s like they decided in lieu of a plot to insert Mickey Rourke and 10x more guns than the first one. Oh, and a whiny nagging Pepper. Ugh. Spouse says: I guess we won’t have to worry about seeing the 3rd one. It’s the second major film disappointment in recent memory (up there with Robin Hood) but made me feel good about not having shelled out cash to see it in the theater. I am, however, still wanting to see RED on the big screen.

Kindle 3 redux

So my disappointment with the Kindle 3 (3G +WiFi) was primarily because they seem to have reduced the size/quality of the antenna, resulting in less 3G connectivity in my rural area than I received with the Kindle 2. Annoying. That said, when I purchased the Kindle 2 I also used it to check my email with some regularity. Since I’ve gotten my HTC Eris, I never use the Kindle’s connectivity for anything but buying books. My phone is my primary internet mobile device and I like it like that.

The Kindle 3 is definitely lighter – something that’s not as noticeable at first as it is when you’ve been reading for 20 minutes. Using the alt+top row shortcuts for number input has also solved one of my other tiny complaints. I’m still finding the five way controller to be a bit too sensitive but it’s a pretty minor annoyance.

I don’t travel that much, honestly. I mean I commute to work but if I’m going to download a book I generally do it from home anyhow. The WiFi connection is great and I haven’t had any issues with it. For travel purposes, it’s not like every Starbucks, McDonald’s and bookstore don’t offer free WiFi these days so I’m not too concerned about lack of connectivity. Along the I-70 corridor the 3G signal is very strong as I’m sure is the case for more urban areas. Even in my small town there IS connectivity, I’d just been spoiled by the K2. What I discovered through this experiment is that the WiFi K3 is more than sufficient for my needs.

The reason I decided to keep the Kindle 3 – not just keep it, but I grabbed a WiFi only version for myself and gave the 3G version to my husband – is because of the changes in clarity. Not only are there three font choices and additional options for line spacing, but the color gradient improvement is shocking. Black is much blacker, white is much lighter. Reading experience = vastly improved. I’m also tempted for the first time ever to actually utilize the .mp3 function on the Kindle.

Don’t get me wrong – I love my K2 and I’m tempted to keep it as a backup but it makes more sense to me to let someone else try the e-reading experience at a lower cost. I don’t have any doubt they’ll be converted.

Technical Difficulty

I got paid for my teaching gig and I thought HEY NOW, maybe I’ll pick up the Kindle 3 I’ve been lusting after. I can sell the K2 or maybe give it as a gift and I’ll have a shiny new (lighter! brighter! faster!) gadget. Since I was running some other errands, I ducked into Target and picked it up. It’s safe to say I was pretty excited.

Once home, I got it charged and then put a screen protector on it (because I am a nerd) and THEN decided to turn it on and use it. The contrast is definitely better than on the K2. It’s smaller, which for me is neither here nor there, and supposedly lighter though you can’t prove it by me holding it and the K2 in opposing hands. It feels about the same. The keyboard is a little offset because they moved the 5-way navigator, which is a little annoying but a small blip. More annoying than that is that they did away with the number keys. Especially if you have to enter passwords.

These are things I knew about though. I’ve read reviews and had an idea what to expect. I knew some of  these things would just be glitchy habit-breaking issues. Then I tried to register it.

Pretty much immediately it tried to access my wireless internet connection. Due to the lengthy password which involves capital letters (an epic PITA on the Kindle it seems) I thought I’d try to get it to access the 3G, which I obviously use all the time on the K2. No love. I go into the menu to make sure the wireless is on and that I’d bought the right Kindle (which I’d checked BEFORE I bought it but, you know…) Right Kindle, no access. Now I’m a little annoyed.

I turn on my K2 which promptly shows me 4 bars of access. I call customer service and then have to explain to the very nice man on the phone in India that I haven’t registered the device because the GD wireless won’t work*. When I mention that I might return it because it doesn’t work, he points out that it has global coverage so I can use it in Canada and the UK among other places. I politely tell him that I don’t give a shit about that if I can’t use it IN MY HOUSE. He registers it for me over the phone and has me restart it. When it reboots, it says EDGE and varies between 1 and 2 bars. My K2 shows full bars. WTF. He can’t explain it. I think maybe it will be enough or whatever so I hang up with the very nice support guy and go back into the basement.

The Kindle 3 promptly shows no wireless and wants me to connect to my wifi. My Kindle 2 still shows 2-3 bars. WTF.

Eventually the K3 shows up with EDGE again, but no bars. What the fucking fuck.

I’m going to give it another day or so to see if this resolves itself but then it’s going back. It’s too bad because I was excited about the new device but it’s useless to me if I can’t get the access I want where I need it most. What’s worse is that there doesn’t seem to be a logical reason for it: why would the earlier device work and the latest device doesn’t in the EXACT same place and time?

*Yes, it will connect to wifi. However, if I wanted to use the wifi I’d have bought the GD wifi version. I love the whispernet coverage, the wifi was just going to be a bonus.

For my birthday

Charter Communication gave me complete and utter FAIL as an internet provider. I haven’t had internet service for more than 36 hours. I’ve had to do crazy things like READ BOOKS, talk to FRIENDS, and go to sleep WITHOUT CHECKING EMAIL. I can’t believe I haven’t gnawed my arm off yet.

So I’m at Barnes and Noble, partaking of their not-so-free wireless and catching up on the 120 emails that accumulated yesterday.

For my birthday, Carly engineered a surprise attack on my yoga class by coercing/bribing my friends to all show up. Spouse was supposed to join them but he was BUSY ACCEPTING A NEW JOB. That’s right. My bestest birthday ever was capped by an out-of-state job offer. He gave his 30 days notice TODAY.

Now I just have to sell the house. Gulp. This will be further complicated by the fact that Spouse gave me Guitar Hero for my birthday. My need to move will be competing with my need to crush the video game. We’ll see who wins.

Now I have to catch up on blogs! Thankfully the twitching in my right eye has already subsided…

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Ah, the weekend

When everyone who is NOT me is NOT blogging. I got bored with blonde hair so I’m changing it up a little. I think Spouse likes is lighter, so I went with Light Reddish Blonde. We’ll see.

I’m also pretty sure I’m chopping my hair off this week. I’m going to put some pictures on my Zune so I can take them with me to see Markesa.

I decided that the next best thing to Guitar Hero will be a Tiger Woods golf game on our Wii. Spouse has had a chance to check out Wii Golf and I think he wants a little more variety. On the other hand, GUITAR HERO.

I have a competition issue with video gaming. Back when I was in junior high school, Mario Brothers 3 was all the rage. This was back when my parents were with the Crazy Church, so we couldn’t have anything like a Nintendo, but my friend Danielle had 4 older brothers (which means Nintendo). So I spent the weekend at her house and we hung out (probably discussing The Little Mermaid, The (new!) Mickey Mouse Club, and New Kids on the Block) and then she broke out the Super Mario.

We played for a while and then eventually SHE went to sleep. I stayed awake for about 36 hours until I beat that effing game. Every time I died, I just started over and over and OVER. Until I won.

She got up for breakfast the next morning and I was STILL playing and that was when i realized I had a problem. I’m not competitive with other people playing those kind of games, I’m competitive with the GAME. And I will play until I win. My sleep issues make it super easy for me to stay up a hideous number of hours without really noticing it (until far too late) and I will just. Keep. Playing. Until I win.

That was when I decided I should not play those games any more. Give me something like Tetris or Wii Golf/Bowling/Boxing and there’s no level that HAS to be reached. The goal is infinite (much like yoga) so I don’t feel pressure to GET someplace. Games with that set up don’t press THAT particular button in my head to KEEP GOING.

I’m thinking Guitar Hero will be AWESOME.

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Golf was hot. And slow.

Seriously? THREE HOURS for 9 holes. I wanted to shoot myself. I am a hot sweaty mess.

On the other hand, I had the best round of golf I’ve played all summer. BY TEN STROKES. For those of you who don’t golf, that’s a vast improvement. Even though you don’t care. Turns out that Wii Golf is good for something! It’s possible that today’s round is keeping Spouse’s LPGA dream for me alive. He would someday like to be a kept man and is mostly convinced the LPGA is the way to do it.

We golfed with some really nice guys, so despite the horrendous backup on the course we at least had good company. Not so much beer though.

Someone had the fantastic idea of ruining Lemon-Lime Gatorade by putting STRAWBERRY in it. Except instead of coloring it pink – as you would expect a strawberry beverage to look – it still looks like Lemon-Lime. I did not discover this terrible desecration of my favorite beverage until TOO LATE.

Lemon-Lime Gatorade is the only Gatorade I will drink, so why? Why ruin a perfectly good thing?

Today is the last day of WoYoPracMo. I’m pretty happy that I managed to post every day (and totally made enough posts to count for every day). Alas, the majority of my posts were not-so-yoga-related. I’m totally shocked that I’ve gotten more than a thousand hits this month. I found a lot of blogs I like reading (links to the left) and watched too much reality TV. I managed a couple new playlists for classes and also got them loaded on imeem (which was more of a challenge than I expected). I’m doing quite well in Anatomy and Physiology as well, so I guess my time management and Procrastinatory Posting haven’t been as awful as they could have.

Thanks to everyone who’s stopped by to read!

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A day, with bullet points

• I did not have a smoothie today because I had to teach yoga this morning. Breakfast was a Nature Valley Oats n Honey granola bar and Gatorade. Breakfast of Champions!
• I SUCK at Wii Fit Slalom. So much so that I had to immediately do it again twice. There was improvement, but it is still embarrassing.
• I ROCK at Wii Sports Boxing. Also, Wii Sports boxing is BAD ASS.
• I also took my anatomy and physiology exam. I am optimistic.
• I did well on my lab practical.
• I did not cut open a cow heart because it was already cut open. And ENORMOUS. Like as big as my head.
• That was to make you think my life is not all about Wii Sports.
• I’ve gotten the best bowling and golf scores of my life on Wii. I am going to HATE the golf course on Thursday.
• I swiffered up almost an ENTIRE DOG of Piper hair. I didn’t even think that was possible. I need to shave this dog or something.
• WIPE OUT is on TONIGHT!
• So is Flipping Out! And Eureka!
• Holy crap, I need to get a life that does not revolve around video games and television.
• My friend Shane gave me a book about why the ultra conservative Christian Right is the best thing for the Republican party. He said something like, “I know it might make your head explode but I think you should read it.”
• I’m not sure why he thinks I have time for this book because HELLO anatomy and physiology, plus teaching yoga, plus TELEVISION. WTF? Where am I supposed to find free time?
• I think we’re having dinner out. And then coming home to watch TV. Because we are ALL LAME.
• It makes me feel better that I’m not the only lame one.

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Why am I posting instead of studying?

Because I am a WORLD CLASS PROCRASTINATOR. If I got extra credit points for the amount of time spent procrastinating, I’d ace every class. Alas, that is not how the education system works (thankfully).

Hello to anyone stopping by via dooce! There were a LOT of you yesterday but maybe not so many today.

I think the WordPress comment system is weird. It’s probably because I’m used to Livejournal, where everything threads together and you can tell when someone has commented on something in particular, but it took me a SILLY amount of time to figure out that in WordPress I have to go to the dashboard and look at “my comments.” It’s not an incredibly practical way to foster blog communication but I suppose it is what it is. Doesn’t seem to stop people from posting (or commenting) on WordPress blogs (thankfully).

My 80s mix went BRILLIANTLY last night. As predicted, just about everyone in the room cracked a huge smile when Final Countdown came on. LOVE IT.

In another fit of procrastination yesterday, I broke out the Wii and Wii Fit. I have to tell you, they are AWESOME. Wii golf is so much better than regular golf! Plus there’s bowling and tennis. My favorite Wii Sport is clearly the boxing. I totally worked up a sweat in no time. Of course I can break a sweat BREATHING, so I’m not sure that says much.

Wii Yoga is a little weird. First of all, when you start you only get access to like 4 exercises. That doesn’t make a LOT of sense to me, especially because not all of the yoga asanas are what I’d call ‘advanced.’ The difference between being on a yoga mat and the balance board is most obvious (for me) in tree pose. On your mat, there’s no one charting your center of gravity – you’re just worried about standing up (let ALONE standing still). I discovered that as soon as my gravity center was where I wanted to be, I started to wobble. Not really WOBBLE so much as the weight distribution on my foot went all wonky.

My BEEF with Wii Yoga at this point is Warrior II (Virbadrasana II). The Wii trainer has you put your knee in PRECISELY the position it SHOULD NOT BE IN. I can’t really come up with a good reason they’ve done this but it really puts extra stress on the knee joint that you shouldn’t have. They also emphasize the ‘heels should line up’ alignment idea of which I’m not a huge fan. Everyone’s hip girdle is slightly different. Some have a deeper acetabulum, the ligaments have limited flexibility (and not everyone’s ligaments are the same length), not to mention that everyone’s muscle and tendon structure is slightly different and the particular position they espouse can put pressure on the lower back as a result.

Um. Yeah. Otherwise it’s great.

*coughs* *removes yoga rantypants*

I really love it. It’s going to be fantastic for Spouse, who doesn’t really want me to ‘train’ him and doesn’t like going to classes. It is clear that we are all going to have a blast with it, especially once the beer gets involved.

Now I REALLY have to study before I teach at 9.

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