Our copy of Wii Fit arrived yesterday, so naturally we couldn’t resist giving it a go. I had read quite a few reviews of just how effective the exercises are (by those lucky few who got an advance copy) which seemed mixed at best so I didn’t really have expectations. As it turns out the system is a pretty good fitness guide, though even some of the starting exercises are a bit on the tough side for someone who hasn’t exercised often (or ever.) The balancing activities were especially tricky, but the one that especially surprised me was the push ups. It does tell you beginners are allowed to do a modified version (on knees rather than toes) but holy crap. I’ve been doing sets of 20 push ups once or twice a day for a couple years now and it was tough for me. It really expects you to have some upper body strength to start with. Thinking back to when I started doing push ups, I couldn’t even push my body off the floor once, let alone 6-10 times! There are going to be some *extremely* sore people out there today.

The most fun activity ended up being the 2-player short-distance run, strangely enough. The system instructs you to put the Wii remote in your pocket and jog in place behind a “guide” (another Mii) who runs at a pace you are expected to maintain (and who turns around to wave at you every 10 seconds or so!) The activity definitely gets your heart rate up, and there is a progress bar at the bottom to show you how far you’ve gone. The thing that made this stand out above the others is the fact that all the other Miis you have created on your system are out for a jog in the park. I really love the idea of a world where Alf, Miss Piggy, Darth Vader, V, Napoleon Dynamite, my mom, Jules, Wacko Warner, ET, Drew Carey, and Jack Skellington are hanging out together outside.

The dialogue is all very positive and encouraging, and lets you know where you can improve. The tone is very lighthearted and quite cute, which makes it a lot of fun. It keeps very detailed statistics of how well (or poorly) you are balancing on the board, and how accurately you are doing the activities. It can tell if you’re cheating! Not that I did, of course, but when you’re trying to figure out what you’re meant to do, mistakes are made.

All told, I think I did about 45 minutes of exercise last night, and I do feel it this morning. I hope I don’t grow tired of it because I can definitely see the potential. It’s fun and it works.

Just one gripe, though…the female trainer pronounces the word “leg” like “laeg” (like a certain someone I know) and her boobs look like baseballs in a halter top. I haven’t tried using the male trainer yet, but that bugs me enough that I might.

Recently I’ve been lamenting the fact that I am remarkably gifted with powers of observation but fail miserably when it comes to applying these observations to anything useful. My strongest suit is basically mimicry, which in and of itself is neither good nor bad. It means I’m brilliant at copying or modifying something that already exists but poor at coming up with original ideas. I have been fighting this my whole life, feeling that I can never do anything useful with a talent that relies so heavily on other people’s ideas, but I think I’ve finally come to terms with it.

Now that I’m finally in a position to start thinking about my financial future rather than figuring out how to get out of debt I have begun reading about the options available for retirement. I’m interested in learning more about investment, so I’ll probably read up on that some more, but more importantly, I have decided that I’ve wanted to run a business for long enough that I will probably go that route. I have always wanted to make and sell my wares, and I think I have come up with an idea that could be sustainable. It will give me a chance to work collaboratively with Jules, doing things that cater to our strongest points and having fun at the same time (and hopefully, eventually, making some money.)

I will share more details later once I’ve had a bit more time to mull this over.

The weather here is absolutely gorgeous. It is very warm, sunny, and cloudless, which is amazing for Seattle. The entire weekend is supposed to be this beautiful so it should be a lot of fun. :D

This week was a mixture of exercise, movies, and video games, as per usual. After watching Jules play a bunch of GTAIV I played a bit myself (quite badly I must admit.) We played a bunch of Boom Blox, the Wii game that Steven Spielberg had a hand in. It’s really fun and cute. And Pixel Junk Monsters Encore for PS3. We saw Iron Man (highly recommended) and Speed Racer (not recommended.) Also The Orphanage on Blu Ray. That was fantastic! An excellent ghost story with great acting, incredible sound and beautiful cinematography.

Tonight is crappy ’50s horror movie night. We’re going to BBQ some chicken wings and hang out with friends. FUN!

I found him–hanging out on the wall on a building across from Qwest Field. I’ve been meaning to take a photo of him for months but there is almost always a car parked in front or lots of people hanging around. And you know how paranoid people are these days of people taking photos near city landmarks throughout the world…

Last weekend Jules and I made a startling discovery while we were out shopping. We have gotten to the point now (already) where we own practically everything we want. We have all the furniture we need, a nice apartment (which is NOT about to be torn down to make way for condos), a new car, a GPS, all the current generation video game consoles, etc. As we walked around Best Buy we felt mild disappointment over the fact that there was nothing we absolutely wanted to get. Having never experienced this before it was a slightly confusing sensation–for both of us there has always been something to lust after. It sort of takes the excitement out of shopping! For so many years taking a trip to Best Buy was something of an event because I knew that there was an overwhelmingly good chance that I would walk out of there with something in my hands. The last several trips we’ve left empty-handed. I’m sure a lot of this has to do with the fact that we are doing most of our shopping online these days, particularly on Amazon where we get free two-day shipping since we have a Prime account, but still. It feels very strange.

Today our economic stimulus check showed up in our checking account. I know this is meant to be spent on something fun or useful since it’s supposed to end up back in the economy but my first instinct was to transfer it away into our high-interest money market account. I am very excited to have a positive balance in a savings account for the first time in my life, money that has been set aside to be untouched rather than hoarded until I need it for rent. (The economy will not miss me not spending that money on random crap since we have just purchased a brand new vehicle and thus will be tossing that money out there instead.) I feel this exhilaration whenever I check our balance and see we have had enough money in the account to actually earn interest on it! It has become a daily ritual for me, transforming into a minor obsession, to login to the account and see that money there, see the potential for growth, the beginnings of our nest egg. Will we save for a condo, a house, a nice honeymoon? There are so many possibilities. That money is ours, not a line of credit to schmooze from when things are tight. It’s real, it exists, and when we’re ready to spend it, there is no debt involved.

It’s coming up on a year now that we have been married. The time has passed so quickly, mostly because so much has happened in that time to keep us distracted. All things considered, I feel quite proud to be in the situation we are now, where we are finally settled and everything is stabilizing. (Sometimes it feels almost wrong to allow that to happen since the last 8+ years of my life have been spent moving on to a new place as soon as I was settled! Part of me thinks that we’re going to have to get a new apartment soon…I’m going to have to convince myself that isn’t the case!) I feel very lucky to be in this position, to finally be content with my life. (The only thing left to do now is to exercise more often! It’s a very funny thing, exercise–I feel strong and nimble afterwards and strangely I truly enjoy doing it, but so often I convince myself that I’m too tired or lazy. That needs to end now.)

Just outside the Capitol building in Salem, OR I spotted this beauty.

We visited our friend Mike in Salem, Oregon. As we walked around downtown I noticed their Macy’s resembled a blown-up .jpg complete with artifacts. Mike commented that he’d never noticed that before but now that is all he will ever see. Win. (Click on image to view in greater detail!)

It’s been quite awhile since I wrote anything about what I did recently without including a photo. I guess this has been something of a photoblog for awhile!

This past weekend was pretty incredible. Unfortunately on Friday I was developing symptoms of a cold so I’ve been doped up on DayQuil/NyQuil ever since. That aside, we ended up doing a lot of really fun things!

Friday night we went with our friend Whitney to see Young Frankenstein at Central Cinema on Capitol Hill, which is pretty much the most awesome thing in existence. You see, this place shows an eclectic mix of films which you can view for $5, and also brings out pizza, beer, wine, hotdogs, etc while you watch. We had a hummous plate and I got a salmon burger while Jules got a pig in a blanket (kosher hotdog in a pastry.) SO AWESOME. We also rigged up Whitney’s Wii using the candle trick as a sensor bar since hers was FUBAR. It worked surprisingly well once we realized it needs a visible open flame to detect properly. Such a fun night!

Of course GTAIV had just come out so we pretty much spent all our weekend’s down time playing that. I am incredibly impressed with the amount of detail in the game and how well the storyline integrates with the gameplay. The driving is a lot more realistic than previous versions and doesn’t suffer from the same ridiculous physics bugs that plagued Saints Row (and why would it?) It’s a bit disappointing that you can’t jump on the hood of a car and teleport inside it like you can in SR, but that’s the sort of charm you can only experience with that quality game.

On Saturday morning we went to the mall to return some ill-fitting clothes and I picked up Folklore for PS3, which I played for about an hour. In that time I realized that it was one of the most awesome games I had ever seen, and I can’t wait to spend more time with it. My only complaint thus far would be their choice of in-game font, but hey, you can’t have everything. Nathaniel came over after that and we grilled some chicken wings for lunch (yay for outdoor BBQ!) and gorged ourselves so much that we could barely manage dinner when the time arrived. Despite that Nathaniel made some delicious onigiri for us (with smoked salmon and chicken karaage, OMG.)

Sunday we went to Ballard and checked out the farmer’s market on the way to Rudy’s Barbershop. Jules, Nathaniel, and I all got haircuts before we made our way over to Omni for D&D. My hair is now shorter than it’s been since I was 9 years old. I figured it was time for a change…so we’ll see how much I like it. Nathaniel also bought a pair of shoes that Jules had been eyeing for some time, so now he won’t have to worry about buying them anymore (since friends aren’t allowed to have the same things, right?)

Last night we had a Cinco de Mayo party at the office which was pretty fun. I ate way too many tortilla chips and far too much guacamole, but had just enough margaritas. With a sufficient buzz, Jules and I walked down to the Showbox and saw Elbow in concert. I had been so blown away by their show 2 years ago I wasn’t sure what to expect this time, but they succeeded in amazing me once again. The sound was properly balanced, which allowed us to hear (and understand!) the vocals, which really impressed me. The show was lively and upbeat, and Guy Garvey was, as always, extraordinarily charming. More than once I found my skin raised in goosebumps as his soulful vocals washed over the room. Even though it was late when the show ended I was sufficiently contented by the experience that I had no trouble staying awake and alert. Jules and I marvelled at our fortune in living in such a place where we can see practically any show we want and walk there and back at our convenience. We had arrived early enough that we were able to procure one of the coveted seats at a table near the second level in back. A perfect view and a soft, padded chair to relax in while experiencing one of the best English bands in existence. Ah yes, it is a good life.

Things have been good at work too. I finally got my Microsoft credentials so I can do my work remotely now without going on site at the client office or at Microsoft itself. This is handy because 1) I love my workplace and coworkers, and 2) it is so much less stressful. Also I can keep the badge in my wallet and pull the photo portion up over the pocket so my eyes are peeking out over the top and show it to Jules, which always garners a laugh. For some reason this is one of the most fun things to do when waiting in line at the grocery store.

These monstrous, 4-fingered hands are tethered to buildings all over downtown Portland. We went there last weekend with Christian and Miyuki since Jules had never been there before. I was a bit sad upon return to Seattle to find that the hands don’t seem to exist anywhere downtown, so that must be a local attraction.

Portland seemed considerably less exciting to me this time around. Last time I went with Jon, Will and Hiroko and it was far more thrilling, but I’m sure that has a lot to do with my life experiences up to that point. Back then I had never seen the west coast, and barely ever ventured into a big city. I was used to the un-hip, closed-off environment offered by the Midwest, and it was an eye-opener to travel to such a happening, liberal city. Now, though, I’ve lived in Seattle for nearly three years and can only see Portland as a miniature version of Seattle with less gentrification, fewer condos, and more bridges. The stores are identical, the people and attitude and general vibe is the same but without the sense of urgency that’s taken over Seattle.

I am starting to feel that Seattle is growing faster than it can handle and it is putting strain on just about everything. Developers are buying up every square foot of valuable space and transforming everything into high-density housing over shopping centers. Parking is problematic, buses are overcrowded, and places that were once quiet and relaxing when I moved here are starting to become trendy and overpriced or are disappearing altogether. I’m beginning to feel more like an experienced resident than a newbie who is still trying to figure things out, and it’s a bit strange. I’ve been here long enough to have attended some events two years running and feel like if I’ve done it twice or three times, there might not be much point to it a fourth. Back to the original idea though–Portland has a lot in common with Seattle but is not yet showing signs of the gentrification that is happening here. I hope it can maintain its culture and personality without falling victim to the crap happening further north. Seattle is a fun and exciting place to live (I wouldn’t want to live elsewhere really) but I can’t say I approve of the changes I have been observing lately.

I’m not really sure what to make of this. Multiple copies of this advertisement and assorted garbage were scattered around the dumpster behind the dealership where we bought our new car. I seriously hope this is not the message they are trying to convey.