I learned this morning that the sophisticated calculations of fitness and overall health done by the Wii Fit and its balance board include, nay, depend heavily on BMI, or the "Body Mass Index".
See, now that's where they lost me. WiiFit has apparently already started telling little children that they're "fat" based nearly solely on BMI.
Let me just tell you right now that BMI is a deeply-flawed measurement. Muscle weighs far more than fat, and most, if not all, professional athletes would probably come up as "overweight" when measured by the BMI stick. That probably includes even sports like cycling, where no one in their right minds could look at those riders and say they were overweight by any stretch of the imagination.
See, when I was riding and racing before I had the baby, I was wearing a size 4 or 6. I would challenge anyone outside of Project Runway and America's Next Top Model land to call anyone who can legitimately fit into a 4 or 6 of just about any clothing brand "overweight", but my BMI at the time nudged me just out of "healthy" and into "slightly overweight".
It's just a flawed measurement, and it's bullshit to use it anymore. Especially when there's software out there spinning in a Wii with little girls standing on a glorified scale in front of it, already bombarded by retouched and 'shopped images of impossible women in the media, and they're being called "fat" when they could just as easily merely be committing the sin of being athletic. Lord forbid. I'm just as concerned about childhood obesity as everyone else, but name-calling kids who are playing a video game is probably not the most productive way to combat it.
And I really was going to buy that game, too. I think I'll buy a USB converter for my DDR pad instead and start playing that again. At least when DDR makes fun of me, it's because I legitimately missed steps, not because I failed against an inherently flawed measurement system. Tsugaru heavy, here I come.
Showing posts with label ddr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ddr. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Monday, January 30, 2006
The Wrong Way
I have gained three pounds since having the baby.
I don't know if you know, but you're supposed to lose weight after you have the baby. This won't do. I finally had to relent and buy two pairs of pants I can wear now, though I said I wanted to make things as inconvenient as possible as an incentive to get the weight off again.
Oh, I have a stack of excuses. I put on weight during the pregnancy because of the riduculous amount of stress we were under at the time. I was lucky to keep down any food at all, never mind if it was high in calories. Things, of course, are still sort of stressful now, and it's easy to justify a treat here and there (and everywhere, it seems) to compensate myself for lack of sleep or time. It's faster to order pizza or stick a frozen one in the oven than it is to make a healthy dinner.
Those are excuses. But one's body doesn't take excuses. The body does math, and that's it. Number of calories in, number of calories out, then add or subtract from body weight. There is no negotiation with the body's math, so it doesn't matter how justified you are, or how much you felt like you didn't have any choice.
It starts today. I'll jog if I have to. B's too little for a jogging stroller, but I can still DDR. And DDR I will. I had the frustrating experience of being able to read the steps in an eight-footer last night, but I couldn't make my body do them. Suck. This will not be tolerated.
I don't know if you know, but you're supposed to lose weight after you have the baby. This won't do. I finally had to relent and buy two pairs of pants I can wear now, though I said I wanted to make things as inconvenient as possible as an incentive to get the weight off again.
Oh, I have a stack of excuses. I put on weight during the pregnancy because of the riduculous amount of stress we were under at the time. I was lucky to keep down any food at all, never mind if it was high in calories. Things, of course, are still sort of stressful now, and it's easy to justify a treat here and there (and everywhere, it seems) to compensate myself for lack of sleep or time. It's faster to order pizza or stick a frozen one in the oven than it is to make a healthy dinner.
Those are excuses. But one's body doesn't take excuses. The body does math, and that's it. Number of calories in, number of calories out, then add or subtract from body weight. There is no negotiation with the body's math, so it doesn't matter how justified you are, or how much you felt like you didn't have any choice.
It starts today. I'll jog if I have to. B's too little for a jogging stroller, but I can still DDR. And DDR I will. I had the frustrating experience of being able to read the steps in an eight-footer last night, but I couldn't make my body do them. Suck. This will not be tolerated.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
DDR for the Lazy
OK, even when I was pregnant, I wouldn't have played DDR this way.
I am playing again, by the way. I'll be 1337 again as soon as possible.
I am playing again, by the way. I'll be 1337 again as soon as possible.
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Review: In the Groove
Take the whole review with a grain of salt; I'm pregnant and not playing to the best of my ability.
Well, there are pros and cons.
Pros
It's a new dance pad game, with lots of songs I've never heard and steps I don't already know.
The choreography has a different feel to it than DDR. There are some combos and patterns I can't recall really seeing before very much. I assume this comes from having a different team of choreographers, which is more than fine by me.
The songs are longer, at least, I think they are. Their level 5-7 songs have between 230-280 steps in them, which seems a tad longer than your typical DDR song. For some, this would be a con, but sometimes the songs in DDR feel too short to me.
I like the timing on the sixteenth notes better in In the Groove than DDR. This is because I seem to hit them better in In the Groove. Since this is a personal characteristic, YMMV.
Finally, a dance game does what DDR should do in its next release. Color code the held steps. Don't make me guess whether I need to hit it with a quarter, eighth, or sixteenth timing. Just tell me by coding it appropriately. I don't know why DDR didn't do this from the beginning.
The backgrounds seem a lot less distracting so far. This could be because of a distinct lack of dancing bears and whatnot. Maybe I just haven't seen them yet, but I played about 30 songs and I don't remember seeing any.
The difficulty levels seem more advanced than DDR. Sevens are pretty darn hard. I only passed two of them on a sight read. However, I shouldn't really be doing sevens at the end of my first trimester, so perhaps my endurance is off. Lots of sixteenth patterns starting in the eights. This is a pro because I look forward to the challenge after I have the baby. More room to grow.
One word: mines. Neat addition. Every once in a while, they put a mine where an arrow should be and you lose life bar if you hit that arrow on that timing. It seems simple to avoid it, but the reflex to hit the direction if you see something on the screen is very strong after hours and hours of play. You really have to concentrate to avoid them, which is a good challenge.
Edit: Forgot to mention anything about the combos when I wrote this last night. ItG tracks combos across songs. If you end a song with a long combo and begin the next one, you continue the combo until you break it. I can't remember if the life bar started higher or not, though. It is neat to get really long combos and to be rewarded for being on a hot streak, so I like this.
Cons
LONG load/post-song times. I stared at a black TV monitor for long, long moments. This is a big, big drawback.
Songs aren't really memorable. Not, at least, to me. I turned off the game and found myself humming a DDR song that the last song I did reminded me of. Maybe I just know the DDR songs better, but none of the ItG songs really grabbed me.
The arrows are teeny tiny. Petite. The impolite way to say this is 'microscopic'. I have a hugemongous TV and my arrows were still tiny. Good luck playing on a smaller TV.
I found no way to bypass the credits after a set is done. This is tedious for the power ItG player. When I play, it's for 45 minutes to an hour. It sucks to make me go past your credit scroll six or seven times.
It is possible to avoid the pressing-start-past-the-credits issue if you play in workout mode, which is actually okay by me. I don't know about those calorie counts, though. I used to burn about 120 calories over a set of five DDR eight or nines. I did ItG workout mode (with an input of my weight, which should normalize the calorie counts) for fifteen minutes and it reported that I burned almost 500 calories. Considering that I only did about eight or nine songs in that time, it seems unlikely that both games are right. So, someone's wrong here, but I can't say which.
One word: hands. I am not a fan of this addition, but I do acknowledge that you can turn it off. ItG introduces three arrow combos, where you use both feet and one hand. I am not this coordinated, and I'm not sure that most home pads are up to it. I've tried to hit arrows with my hands when I was feeling cheeky in DDR, and it usually didn't register.
Edit: I originally forgot to mention the grading system. ItG uses some sort of Harry Potter OWLs grading system where A is some sort of middling grade. It keeps track of a percentage for you as you do the song, and then awards you a grade at the end which I assume is based off the percentage. I got an A+ with a high 80% score, and I thought, "WTF?" Then I did another song and had a 96.something percent, and got an S or an S+. S? What the heck does S stand for? "So good?" "S'alright?" Then I got a full combo on another song and got a star. I don't get it, and I don't think it's explained in the rulebook (although perhaps I missed it).
That's all I've got for the moment. I know there are a whole list of cons there, but all in all I'm happy with the game. At $40, it's an even better game than the list makes it appear. :)
Well, there are pros and cons.
Pros
It's a new dance pad game, with lots of songs I've never heard and steps I don't already know.
The choreography has a different feel to it than DDR. There are some combos and patterns I can't recall really seeing before very much. I assume this comes from having a different team of choreographers, which is more than fine by me.
The songs are longer, at least, I think they are. Their level 5-7 songs have between 230-280 steps in them, which seems a tad longer than your typical DDR song. For some, this would be a con, but sometimes the songs in DDR feel too short to me.
I like the timing on the sixteenth notes better in In the Groove than DDR. This is because I seem to hit them better in In the Groove. Since this is a personal characteristic, YMMV.
Finally, a dance game does what DDR should do in its next release. Color code the held steps. Don't make me guess whether I need to hit it with a quarter, eighth, or sixteenth timing. Just tell me by coding it appropriately. I don't know why DDR didn't do this from the beginning.
The backgrounds seem a lot less distracting so far. This could be because of a distinct lack of dancing bears and whatnot. Maybe I just haven't seen them yet, but I played about 30 songs and I don't remember seeing any.
The difficulty levels seem more advanced than DDR. Sevens are pretty darn hard. I only passed two of them on a sight read. However, I shouldn't really be doing sevens at the end of my first trimester, so perhaps my endurance is off. Lots of sixteenth patterns starting in the eights. This is a pro because I look forward to the challenge after I have the baby. More room to grow.
One word: mines. Neat addition. Every once in a while, they put a mine where an arrow should be and you lose life bar if you hit that arrow on that timing. It seems simple to avoid it, but the reflex to hit the direction if you see something on the screen is very strong after hours and hours of play. You really have to concentrate to avoid them, which is a good challenge.
Edit: Forgot to mention anything about the combos when I wrote this last night. ItG tracks combos across songs. If you end a song with a long combo and begin the next one, you continue the combo until you break it. I can't remember if the life bar started higher or not, though. It is neat to get really long combos and to be rewarded for being on a hot streak, so I like this.
Cons
LONG load/post-song times. I stared at a black TV monitor for long, long moments. This is a big, big drawback.
Songs aren't really memorable. Not, at least, to me. I turned off the game and found myself humming a DDR song that the last song I did reminded me of. Maybe I just know the DDR songs better, but none of the ItG songs really grabbed me.
The arrows are teeny tiny. Petite. The impolite way to say this is 'microscopic'. I have a hugemongous TV and my arrows were still tiny. Good luck playing on a smaller TV.
I found no way to bypass the credits after a set is done. This is tedious for the power ItG player. When I play, it's for 45 minutes to an hour. It sucks to make me go past your credit scroll six or seven times.
It is possible to avoid the pressing-start-past-the-credits issue if you play in workout mode, which is actually okay by me. I don't know about those calorie counts, though. I used to burn about 120 calories over a set of five DDR eight or nines. I did ItG workout mode (with an input of my weight, which should normalize the calorie counts) for fifteen minutes and it reported that I burned almost 500 calories. Considering that I only did about eight or nine songs in that time, it seems unlikely that both games are right. So, someone's wrong here, but I can't say which.
One word: hands. I am not a fan of this addition, but I do acknowledge that you can turn it off. ItG introduces three arrow combos, where you use both feet and one hand. I am not this coordinated, and I'm not sure that most home pads are up to it. I've tried to hit arrows with my hands when I was feeling cheeky in DDR, and it usually didn't register.
Edit: I originally forgot to mention the grading system. ItG uses some sort of Harry Potter OWLs grading system where A is some sort of middling grade. It keeps track of a percentage for you as you do the song, and then awards you a grade at the end which I assume is based off the percentage. I got an A+ with a high 80% score, and I thought, "WTF?" Then I did another song and had a 96.something percent, and got an S or an S+. S? What the heck does S stand for? "So good?" "S'alright?" Then I got a full combo on another song and got a star. I don't get it, and I don't think it's explained in the rulebook (although perhaps I missed it).
That's all I've got for the moment. I know there are a whole list of cons there, but all in all I'm happy with the game. At $40, it's an even better game than the list makes it appear. :)
Sunday, May 15, 2005
The Fragments Flu
Dude, I never even worked there and I still have fragments. It seems things may happen very fast from this point on, and we may not have much notice or time to get misty-eyed. Lots of people in my fragments aren't even here still, and were cast-offs from the big D in one way or another, or are still there and are therefore staying while we almost assuredly leave.
So here goes:
I remember meeting Tom in person for the very first time at the Dagobah playtest. Asteroid Sanctuary is almost entirely my fault. Let's just not get into why.
I remember meeting Hollywood on a plane from Chicago on the way to Vale, back in 1996. We scarred the boy then and the damage still remains to this day.
I remember the morning email club. I moved my Mac to a table right next to my bed in the old Northern Virginia condo for it. That was the best.
I remember the trip to St. Louis and meeting CK and LWC, and nearly screwing it all up with LWC from the beginning. Thankfully, she's a forgiving soul.
I remember CK showing us And Now Before I Kill You Mr. Bond in that hotel on Northampton Boulevard when they first got here after big D brought him in.
I remember BK introducing me to Final Fantasy when he brought over FF VII when we used to get together at Tom's and my apartment over on Shore. He let me press X for approximately a half hour to get through a bunch of storyline stuff he'd already seen. Tom started playing it right after that, and I tried, but found it frustrating (this is before I discovered guides). Tom put a chair in front of that old, ugly blue and white couch he got from his parents and I would lay on that couch and watch him play like it was a movie. And it was, only better.
I remember beating Hollywood in sealed deck 2/3 times lifetime. And once with one too few cards in my deck. I, of course, would never have a chance against him in constructed anything, and probably would have gotten my ass kicked in sealed if the planets hadn't been aligned funny.
I remember poor Tim agreeing to play Sailor Moon CCG with Tom and me. That's major points.
I remember putting Jason's undead (who we didn't know was undead) paladin asleep with a roll of nearly all 6's while I went through everyone's stuff. This was before the beast took over that game and turned it into a really unpleasant acid trip.
I also remember CK, LWC, Jason, BK, Evan, and Tee and popcorn and gaming night and trips to the 7-11 for candy and Whoop Ass.
I can tell you now, I really never have played Acquire again since that last time, when I won. I really am retired.
This one is the trivia group, BK, Jason, CK, LWC, Evan and Tee: Noodles are the best, no no, can't deny, taste better than water, but don't ask me why.
Also for them: I'm looking for some sailors. Have you seen any sailors? You guys aren't sailors at all, are you?
Also for them: Minnesota lottery tickets. Lillian Vernon. Shake a Hamster Band.
I remember Evan counting the points so fast for Union Pacific that I couldn't even tell whether he was making it all up. Although he must not have been, because who would make Tom win most of the time?
I remember playing DDR next to Evan and the two of us coming within a thousand points of each other over and over. I especially remember AA starring Tsugaru standard with 8 greats and then Evan nearly toppling it. After that, I remember being on the second mat the first time he passed a 9, Tsugaru Apple Mix. I remember Tee telling me to just shut up and come over and DDR when I was too shy to play with anyone watching.
I remember Hollywood and trips to Munden Point Park. And the buffet. And the century.
I remember Girard and the duo Blackfathom Deeps. Kyle and my first trip to Booty Bay. CK and about a million two person endeavors, much of that time spent as wisps. Disasters in the Stockades. Glasskey Spiders. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Uldaman.
I'm forgetting so much stuff and that's why this took me a lot less time to write than it took to live this nine years we've spent here with all the wonderful people who've been here with us. I know some of us are still together, but that seems so ephemeral now, along with my memories of people who are already elsewhere, that this had to come out of my head now.
So here goes:
I remember meeting Tom in person for the very first time at the Dagobah playtest. Asteroid Sanctuary is almost entirely my fault. Let's just not get into why.
I remember meeting Hollywood on a plane from Chicago on the way to Vale, back in 1996. We scarred the boy then and the damage still remains to this day.
I remember the morning email club. I moved my Mac to a table right next to my bed in the old Northern Virginia condo for it. That was the best.
I remember the trip to St. Louis and meeting CK and LWC, and nearly screwing it all up with LWC from the beginning. Thankfully, she's a forgiving soul.
I remember CK showing us And Now Before I Kill You Mr. Bond in that hotel on Northampton Boulevard when they first got here after big D brought him in.
I remember BK introducing me to Final Fantasy when he brought over FF VII when we used to get together at Tom's and my apartment over on Shore. He let me press X for approximately a half hour to get through a bunch of storyline stuff he'd already seen. Tom started playing it right after that, and I tried, but found it frustrating (this is before I discovered guides). Tom put a chair in front of that old, ugly blue and white couch he got from his parents and I would lay on that couch and watch him play like it was a movie. And it was, only better.
I remember beating Hollywood in sealed deck 2/3 times lifetime. And once with one too few cards in my deck. I, of course, would never have a chance against him in constructed anything, and probably would have gotten my ass kicked in sealed if the planets hadn't been aligned funny.
I remember poor Tim agreeing to play Sailor Moon CCG with Tom and me. That's major points.
I remember putting Jason's undead (who we didn't know was undead) paladin asleep with a roll of nearly all 6's while I went through everyone's stuff. This was before the beast took over that game and turned it into a really unpleasant acid trip.
I also remember CK, LWC, Jason, BK, Evan, and Tee and popcorn and gaming night and trips to the 7-11 for candy and Whoop Ass.
I can tell you now, I really never have played Acquire again since that last time, when I won. I really am retired.
This one is the trivia group, BK, Jason, CK, LWC, Evan and Tee: Noodles are the best, no no, can't deny, taste better than water, but don't ask me why.
Also for them: I'm looking for some sailors. Have you seen any sailors? You guys aren't sailors at all, are you?
Also for them: Minnesota lottery tickets. Lillian Vernon. Shake a Hamster Band.
I remember Evan counting the points so fast for Union Pacific that I couldn't even tell whether he was making it all up. Although he must not have been, because who would make Tom win most of the time?
I remember playing DDR next to Evan and the two of us coming within a thousand points of each other over and over. I especially remember AA starring Tsugaru standard with 8 greats and then Evan nearly toppling it. After that, I remember being on the second mat the first time he passed a 9, Tsugaru Apple Mix. I remember Tee telling me to just shut up and come over and DDR when I was too shy to play with anyone watching.
I remember Hollywood and trips to Munden Point Park. And the buffet. And the century.
I remember Girard and the duo Blackfathom Deeps. Kyle and my first trip to Booty Bay. CK and about a million two person endeavors, much of that time spent as wisps. Disasters in the Stockades. Glasskey Spiders. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Uldaman.
I'm forgetting so much stuff and that's why this took me a lot less time to write than it took to live this nine years we've spent here with all the wonderful people who've been here with us. I know some of us are still together, but that seems so ephemeral now, along with my memories of people who are already elsewhere, that this had to come out of my head now.
Monday, April 18, 2005
Taken, plus bonus DDR highlights
For those of you waiting with bated breath for the outcome of my job search, I took the job I was offered last Friday. I talked with the woman again today and she answered my last questions. I negotiated an extra week of vacation (which was a sticking point that I wasn't willing to budge on, and she took it good-naturedly enough that I suspect she was expecting me to negotiate a bit) and that made me happy enough with the offer to take it.
I'll be moving into purchasing and online sales management for a company that has educational accessory stores. I have the opportunity to grow the online side of their business, and it sounds as though they are really interested in supporting it. That is a good thing, as I think I could be into that.
Best thing, casual dress at the office. Everyone there was in jeans, including the president, when I had my interview last Wednesday. I was specifically told not to bother dressing up on my first day. Also, I will have one day off completely between jobs, which means...
LEVEL 40 World of Warcraft, baby! It's within my reach, especially if I beg G to drag me around a little bit more so I can play over my head a little. Mad EXP that way.
Now, for the promised DDR highlights, mostly because Evan just posted his and I feel the need to reciprocate:
1) Full combo on Jet World Heavy
2) New A record on Tsugaru Heavy, with 1 good and 1 boo
3) Passed (with a D, but passed nonetheless) V Challenge
4) Full combo, You're Not Here Heavy
I need to play more Max and Max 2, but I'm really rather addicted to seeing the calorie count the way it's displayed in Extreme. I hope they do it the same way in the next one. Anyone know when the next one is coming out? I could do with some new songs. There is the Red Octane game, In the Groove, coming out next month, and hopefully that will sate me.
Is that enough wandering rambling? Yes, I think so.
I'll be moving into purchasing and online sales management for a company that has educational accessory stores. I have the opportunity to grow the online side of their business, and it sounds as though they are really interested in supporting it. That is a good thing, as I think I could be into that.
Best thing, casual dress at the office. Everyone there was in jeans, including the president, when I had my interview last Wednesday. I was specifically told not to bother dressing up on my first day. Also, I will have one day off completely between jobs, which means...
LEVEL 40 World of Warcraft, baby! It's within my reach, especially if I beg G to drag me around a little bit more so I can play over my head a little. Mad EXP that way.
Now, for the promised DDR highlights, mostly because Evan just posted his and I feel the need to reciprocate:
1) Full combo on Jet World Heavy
2) New A record on Tsugaru Heavy, with 1 good and 1 boo
3) Passed (with a D, but passed nonetheless) V Challenge
4) Full combo, You're Not Here Heavy
I need to play more Max and Max 2, but I'm really rather addicted to seeing the calorie count the way it's displayed in Extreme. I hope they do it the same way in the next one. Anyone know when the next one is coming out? I could do with some new songs. There is the Red Octane game, In the Groove, coming out next month, and hopefully that will sate me.
Is that enough wandering rambling? Yes, I think so.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Urg!
So close! I came so close! 2 boos and 1 good. On this song, I think that's good. I've really been trying to get the transitions and the timing on the yellows just right.
What I did wrong was that I reversed one set of three steps, an up down up, and did a down up down instead. It must have given me credit for one of the steps and nuked me on the other two.
Oh, so frustrating. So much so that I switched to DDR Max for the past two days, and I'm starting to chip away at it. I even got a B on Candy(star), which was pretty frickin' hard. Had to use my asthma rescue inhaler after that. Heh.
What I did wrong was that I reversed one set of three steps, an up down up, and did a down up down instead. It must have given me credit for one of the steps and nuked me on the other two.
Oh, so frustrating. So much so that I switched to DDR Max for the past two days, and I'm starting to chip away at it. I even got a B on Candy(star), which was pretty frickin' hard. Had to use my asthma rescue inhaler after that. Heh.
Monday, March 14, 2005
WoW and Tivo and no time, oh my.
Lots of changes this weekend, two of which caused the entire Friday night through Sunday night period to blow through here on an express train...do not pass go, do not collect $200.
I have a ten day free trial with World of Warcraft. I was determined to stay in until I got a pet, at level ten. I'm now level eleven, and I'll be logging in there as soon as I finish this, in pursuit of level twelve.
Why do I do this? Time slips by hours at a time while other tasks (the bills, our taxes, the pine cones in the front yard, the laundry, vacuuming) pile up, as I spend my time killing spiders and big cats in a make-believe world where my hair is white and I have an ass-kickin' pet owl.
Then we go and buy Tivo (E, I put in your email address as a referral when I registered) and I have four hours of stuff on there already. When am I gonna watch that? I was afraid that would happen. Maybe I don't have the time to watch all that stuff about which I used to think, "Man, if only I had Tivo, I'd watch that." By 10:00 tonight, I'll have five and a half hours worth of stuff on there. And we hooked it up yesterday.
Oh, and I have a 25 mile time trial this Sunday that I have to train for. I am going to get my ass kicked, but it will serve me right for letting up on my training. DDR has really interfered with my time on the bike. (Worth it when I do those 9's, though, on second thought.)
This was going someplace, but I drank a Hard Black Cherry Zima while I was writing this and now I'm too light-headed to remember what the point was. Oops. Sorry for wasting your time.
I have a ten day free trial with World of Warcraft. I was determined to stay in until I got a pet, at level ten. I'm now level eleven, and I'll be logging in there as soon as I finish this, in pursuit of level twelve.
Why do I do this? Time slips by hours at a time while other tasks (the bills, our taxes, the pine cones in the front yard, the laundry, vacuuming) pile up, as I spend my time killing spiders and big cats in a make-believe world where my hair is white and I have an ass-kickin' pet owl.
Then we go and buy Tivo (E, I put in your email address as a referral when I registered) and I have four hours of stuff on there already. When am I gonna watch that? I was afraid that would happen. Maybe I don't have the time to watch all that stuff about which I used to think, "Man, if only I had Tivo, I'd watch that." By 10:00 tonight, I'll have five and a half hours worth of stuff on there. And we hooked it up yesterday.
Oh, and I have a 25 mile time trial this Sunday that I have to train for. I am going to get my ass kicked, but it will serve me right for letting up on my training. DDR has really interfered with my time on the bike. (Worth it when I do those 9's, though, on second thought.)
This was going someplace, but I drank a Hard Black Cherry Zima while I was writing this and now I'm too light-headed to remember what the point was. Oops. Sorry for wasting your time.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Things I learned today
A watched web page never updates.
Nervous salespeople make me outrageously uncomfortable.
When you hear the figure "30% off wholesale" and you know it's true, it makes you buy things. Even from nervous salespeople who make you outrageously uncomfortable.
When one of your friends forgets to do something and has to fess up to their wife that they didn't do it, it is a friendship test whether he chooses to unfairly throw you in front of the train to save a tiff in his marriage or not. On this particular occasion, count it as a failed test.
Some things are not do it yourself projects.
There is a good reason I wear a sports bra when I play DDR. If I forget it when I plan to play away from home, I should probably just not play.
Trust your instincts when the telephone rings. 90% of the time, some part of you knows who it is.
When you think to yourself, "I have to remember to do that later" at a time when you are perfectly capable of performing the task in question, yet you do not because you are too lazy and choose to procrastinate, there is a 100% chance that you will forget to do it entirely. You will realize it too late, and spend the rest of the day berating your lazy ass inside your own head.
If you go outside your sphere of people you've grown accustomed to and really watch the 'new' people around you, you will get the distinct impression that your average person is at least a little bit insane.
Perhaps the most annoying type of person is one who is poorly-informed in a particular subject, yet completely convinced they have it all figured out. In fact, they are so sure that they correct you, even though it is clear that you know more about it than they do. Double the irritation if it is your job to know the things the person is correcting you about. There is a disease running rampant, and it is 'know-it-all-dumbass syndrome'.
I love my laptop, but I hate that I have grown so accustomed to its keyboard that my right hand is naturally offsetting itself on 'normal' size and layout keyboards.
I currently own three more video games than I have time to play. Yet, I am bored a lot of the time. Someone explain that temporal shift to me.
I have made a shift. Until recently, if I was given a choice of reading a book with a fabulous plot and a so-so writing style, I'd take that over a well-written book with a so-so plot. I've made a complete 180 there.
I'm sure I learned other stuff, but I was probably lazy and forgot to commit it to memory.
Nervous salespeople make me outrageously uncomfortable.
When you hear the figure "30% off wholesale" and you know it's true, it makes you buy things. Even from nervous salespeople who make you outrageously uncomfortable.
When one of your friends forgets to do something and has to fess up to their wife that they didn't do it, it is a friendship test whether he chooses to unfairly throw you in front of the train to save a tiff in his marriage or not. On this particular occasion, count it as a failed test.
Some things are not do it yourself projects.
There is a good reason I wear a sports bra when I play DDR. If I forget it when I plan to play away from home, I should probably just not play.
Trust your instincts when the telephone rings. 90% of the time, some part of you knows who it is.
When you think to yourself, "I have to remember to do that later" at a time when you are perfectly capable of performing the task in question, yet you do not because you are too lazy and choose to procrastinate, there is a 100% chance that you will forget to do it entirely. You will realize it too late, and spend the rest of the day berating your lazy ass inside your own head.
If you go outside your sphere of people you've grown accustomed to and really watch the 'new' people around you, you will get the distinct impression that your average person is at least a little bit insane.
Perhaps the most annoying type of person is one who is poorly-informed in a particular subject, yet completely convinced they have it all figured out. In fact, they are so sure that they correct you, even though it is clear that you know more about it than they do. Double the irritation if it is your job to know the things the person is correcting you about. There is a disease running rampant, and it is 'know-it-all-dumbass syndrome'.
I love my laptop, but I hate that I have grown so accustomed to its keyboard that my right hand is naturally offsetting itself on 'normal' size and layout keyboards.
I currently own three more video games than I have time to play. Yet, I am bored a lot of the time. Someone explain that temporal shift to me.
I have made a shift. Until recently, if I was given a choice of reading a book with a fabulous plot and a so-so writing style, I'd take that over a well-written book with a so-so plot. I've made a complete 180 there.
I'm sure I learned other stuff, but I was probably lazy and forgot to commit it to memory.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Congratulations are in order...
So, I know someone whose name starts with E who got some really good news today. We're all happy here about it too.
Um, and just to keep it all about me, I AA'ed Afronova standard and I'm three songs away from getting all A's or above on Standard in DDR Max 2. Making progress with Heavy, too.
What sucks is that I was talked into this expensive "natural ingredients only" shampoo and conditioner at the hair salon last Saturday, and whenever I sweat (you know, biking or DDRing) it actually tingles. Like there's menthol in it or something. It's not altogether pleasant. Why don't I have the moxie to take it back?
Saturday, March 05, 2005
New DDR Developments
Here's what I got this morning that I hadn't done before:
B4U Heavy: AA*
Tsugaru Heavy: A (had a B on it before)
Ladies Night Heavy AA* (kept eluding me, I would blackflag one step near the end and ruin it)
And one almost:
Nearly made it through V Challenge. Got about halfway through and my head went all blooey on me. Did pretty well after the bar was gone, although I was knackered and nearly did myself a mischief there. I think if I worked on it this week, I could at least get a C on it.
I was helping Cheryl through her first few songs last night. Brought back a lot of memories of swearing by myself in my living room that I would never catch on. She's got a lot more guts than me. I didn't even let Tom watch me until I could pass 4's.
B4U Heavy: AA*
Tsugaru Heavy: A (had a B on it before)
Ladies Night Heavy AA* (kept eluding me, I would blackflag one step near the end and ruin it)
And one almost:
Nearly made it through V Challenge. Got about halfway through and my head went all blooey on me. Did pretty well after the bar was gone, although I was knackered and nearly did myself a mischief there. I think if I worked on it this week, I could at least get a C on it.
I was helping Cheryl through her first few songs last night. Brought back a lot of memories of swearing by myself in my living room that I would never catch on. She's got a lot more guts than me. I didn't even let Tom watch me until I could pass 4's.
Friday, March 04, 2005
New Dance Video Game!
Hey! DDR freaks! Both of you!
Read this!
If it's half as good as their top of the line soft dance pad, I am so there. \/\/()()7!
(You all know that's ironic 1337, right? Gosh, I hope so. I am so the opposite of 1337 r0x0ring.)
Read this!
If it's half as good as their top of the line soft dance pad, I am so there. \/\/()()7!
(You all know that's ironic 1337, right? Gosh, I hope so. I am so the opposite of 1337 r0x0ring.)
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Feeling guilty
We're having a floor installed today. Two rooms of Pergo, because the carpet in one of the rooms was stained beyond repair (and not all due to the cats, actually, now that I see the rooms without any furniture in them).
The guy I assume owns the small flooring store I chose to use instead of one of the big box home improvement stores told me on Friday that they would start pretty early. I seem to remember times like 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. being thrown around.
Well, we arranged for my husband to stay home and oversee them. I woke him up at 7:00 a.m. It's now 8:30 a.m., and they're still not here. I avoided getting up to DDR (figuring I could do that or throw the bike on the trainer for some exercise after work tonight) because I didn't want to be DDRing when a bunch of burly flooring installers show up. It's starting to look like I should have plugged in the pad.
I guess all that Googling I did about an hour ago, trying to figure out if I'm supposed to tip them, was all for naught. If they're going to show up late without even calling to let us know what's going on, I'm not sure how tip-inclined I'm feeling. (grumble)
The guy I assume owns the small flooring store I chose to use instead of one of the big box home improvement stores told me on Friday that they would start pretty early. I seem to remember times like 7:00 or 7:30 a.m. being thrown around.
Well, we arranged for my husband to stay home and oversee them. I woke him up at 7:00 a.m. It's now 8:30 a.m., and they're still not here. I avoided getting up to DDR (figuring I could do that or throw the bike on the trainer for some exercise after work tonight) because I didn't want to be DDRing when a bunch of burly flooring installers show up. It's starting to look like I should have plugged in the pad.
I guess all that Googling I did about an hour ago, trying to figure out if I'm supposed to tip them, was all for naught. If they're going to show up late without even calling to let us know what's going on, I'm not sure how tip-inclined I'm feeling. (grumble)
Sunday, February 27, 2005
The Problem With 'Blogs'
Here's the trouble with blogs. Who's the audience?
I mean, I can't complain about my job if I'm going to someday let the address of my blog slip through my lips while I'm there. Not that there isn't a book I could write about the wackiness at my job, but isn't that all of us, really? Who wants to read about that, anyway? If you want to experience a job sucking, most of us just have to get in the car on Monday morning and drive to our own.
I'm usually a lot more fun than this. Let's start again.
I can't bitch about my life at home, because I intend to give out this blog address to people I actually know in real life. None of them would believe me if I complain about the husband, because he is, in all honesty, nothing to complain about and they all know it. What he's still doing with a snarky troublemaker like me is a mystery, truly.
You can bet that I'll be injecting talk about Dance Dance Revolution, and either celebrating or complaining about songs I can and can't pass. For many of you, this will be a paragraph to skip over while you shake your head indulgently at a 32 year old woman who spends hours and hours every week bouncing up and down on top of a padded mat in her own living room. Better for the floor to be padded than the walls, but there are no guarantees.
However, I have secrets. Don't we all, really? It's hard to remember all that if you plan to hand out your URL to people you have to look in the eye. I guess I'll have to though, especially when you consider why I would choose to contribute to the noise to signal ratio here on the internet in the first place.
This brings me to another point, actually...why start a blog right now, this very second. Well, for starters, as I am a modern, digital girl, everyone assumes I already have one, and I don't. I did actually keep one a couple of years ago that degenerated into the same two posts over and over: "I hate the people at my job" and "I hate the people who drive around me". Not very interesting, really. Sort of a whiny bitch sort of vibe to it, and nothing anyone who has to actually know me in real life should have to put up with.
The real reason to start a blog right now is that someone we've known for several years just moved out of town. (And by 'just', I actually mean, 'at roughly 1:00 p.m. today'.) A couple of years ago, another friend took a job out of town and had to leave, and at the end of last summer, a third friend of mine moved away to be closer to family, and I've struggled to keep in touch because I suck at making telephone calls and every email I open up sits there staring at me, blank, with its hand on its hip and its toe tapping impatiently for me to be witty or heartfelt or something.
Okay, so emails don't tap their toes. I used to be exceedingly good at them, though. Met my husband that way, although pretty much anyone who's likely to read this will already know that story, so why bore everyone again?
However, perhaps if I get a blog (although I don't really like that overused term, but what can you do?) then I can sweet-talk those fine, out-of-town friends into getting one, and we can stay connected in some small way by reading whatever it is that comes out when we're faced with the Big Scary Blank Text Field.
Is that so wrong, really?
I mean, I can't complain about my job if I'm going to someday let the address of my blog slip through my lips while I'm there. Not that there isn't a book I could write about the wackiness at my job, but isn't that all of us, really? Who wants to read about that, anyway? If you want to experience a job sucking, most of us just have to get in the car on Monday morning and drive to our own.
I'm usually a lot more fun than this. Let's start again.
I can't bitch about my life at home, because I intend to give out this blog address to people I actually know in real life. None of them would believe me if I complain about the husband, because he is, in all honesty, nothing to complain about and they all know it. What he's still doing with a snarky troublemaker like me is a mystery, truly.
You can bet that I'll be injecting talk about Dance Dance Revolution, and either celebrating or complaining about songs I can and can't pass. For many of you, this will be a paragraph to skip over while you shake your head indulgently at a 32 year old woman who spends hours and hours every week bouncing up and down on top of a padded mat in her own living room. Better for the floor to be padded than the walls, but there are no guarantees.
However, I have secrets. Don't we all, really? It's hard to remember all that if you plan to hand out your URL to people you have to look in the eye. I guess I'll have to though, especially when you consider why I would choose to contribute to the noise to signal ratio here on the internet in the first place.
This brings me to another point, actually...why start a blog right now, this very second. Well, for starters, as I am a modern, digital girl, everyone assumes I already have one, and I don't. I did actually keep one a couple of years ago that degenerated into the same two posts over and over: "I hate the people at my job" and "I hate the people who drive around me". Not very interesting, really. Sort of a whiny bitch sort of vibe to it, and nothing anyone who has to actually know me in real life should have to put up with.
The real reason to start a blog right now is that someone we've known for several years just moved out of town. (And by 'just', I actually mean, 'at roughly 1:00 p.m. today'.) A couple of years ago, another friend took a job out of town and had to leave, and at the end of last summer, a third friend of mine moved away to be closer to family, and I've struggled to keep in touch because I suck at making telephone calls and every email I open up sits there staring at me, blank, with its hand on its hip and its toe tapping impatiently for me to be witty or heartfelt or something.
Okay, so emails don't tap their toes. I used to be exceedingly good at them, though. Met my husband that way, although pretty much anyone who's likely to read this will already know that story, so why bore everyone again?
However, perhaps if I get a blog (although I don't really like that overused term, but what can you do?) then I can sweet-talk those fine, out-of-town friends into getting one, and we can stay connected in some small way by reading whatever it is that comes out when we're faced with the Big Scary Blank Text Field.
Is that so wrong, really?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
