Post departure

So to catch up since Dad pulled out..

On Friday afternoon I started on the unfun task of pulling down the Christmas lights outside.  Putting them up took several hours of work.  Taking them down took less time although I still probably put a couple hours into the project.  At first I was trying to be somewhat neat in the light storage process.  I worked on wrapping the lights in an orderly fashion around pieces of cardboard.  However as time went on my patience was wearing thin.  By the time I was done I didn’t give a shit if the lights were a tangled mess, I’ll straighten it out next year.

On Saturday I ripped down a good chunk of the indoor stuff while Ali was out.  When she got back we finished up, ripping down the tree and everything else.  I discovered that it is physically impossible to put an artificial tree back in it’s original box after you remove it.  So the tree now is in three different garbage bags propped up in the garage until we can get a big bag or something.  I didn’t find myself being as depressed as I have been some past years during the de-Christmatizing process.  Yea it was a bit of a bummer but there is always next year.

I also went to Best Buy on Saturday to spend some of the gift cards I got over the holidays on some Wii stuff.  One of the things I grabbed was Wii Speak, an accessory for the Wii that allows voice communication with other Wii buddies.  After I got home I opened up the box and groaned.  There was no Wii Speak.  All that was in the box was the plastic bag and instructions.  Someone ripped off the actual device, great.  Instantly images ran through my head about how much of a pain in the ass this was going to be.  I’d have to take to Best Buy, a store that generally sucks when it comes to customer service and explain to them that I bought a box that was empty.  I pictured them not believing my story.  I decided I didn’t want to go back out to handle it the same day.  I’ll go back on Sunday instead.

When I went back I explained to the gum chomping, chubby girl at the counter what happened.  She instantly had to call the manager on duty who was an older little woman that sort of looked like a garden gnome.  I again explained that although the box was closed, when I opened it the device was not there.  She looked me up and down presumably evaluating if I was shady or not.  She told me with a sigh and a frown “go, get another one…”  Once I retrieved it I asked if we could open this one just to make sure.  I figured it would make me seem more “legitimate”.  This box did indeed contain the Wii Speak.  Even though I did nothing wrong, the experience made me feel dirty, just because I knew the gnome thought I could be bullshitting her.

Saturday night we went over to our former neighbor’s new place to hang out. We had a good time with him and his new partner.  A lot of beer was consumed on my part and we played a lively game called Bullshit.  It was cool because we brought Nicki with so she got to see her dog pal Zoe. I drank enough that Ali drove home. 

Wow how about that Eagles game?  I knew the Eagles could win, hell they kicked the Giants ass a month prior.  However this was when it really matters which is a time I am used to the Eagles falling apart.  The game followed a similar pattern as the Vikings game.  It was back and forth for about 2/3 of the game and then the Eagles D closed the door while the offense made enough plays to win.  Eli Manning sucked.  You would think he wasn’t playing at his own home stadium and wasn’t used to the gusting winds.  He was constantly throwing lame duck passes that were getting knocked down by the wind.  Donovan was struggling as well for most of the game but connected on some big throws late. 

The game was won however by the defense.  The two 4th down stops against the Giants were HUGE and broke their back.  The defense also caused a couple turnovers that proved to be big as well.  It was a GREAT win.  I was surprised and disappointed when Donovan pulled the picking up the phone stunt on the Giants sideline after the outcome of the game was decided.  It was a low class move that I would expect from an asshole like TO or Chad Johnson.  In his post game interview when asked about it he admitted that it was probably poor judgement.

 Regardless the Birds are now lined up against another team whose appearance in the championship game was highly unlikely, the Arizona Cardinals.  The Cardinals SUCKED during the last third of the season, including a spanking they received at the hands of the Eagles on Thanksgiving night.  Somehow they have managed to turn things around during their first two playoff games, beating teams that I was sure were better than them.  It would be easy to say the Eagles should spank them since they spanked them before.  I’m making no such assumptions.  I’m hopeful but not confident.  This entire post season has just been icing on the cake.  If they would happen to lose to the Cardinals the Birds still would have accomplished far more than I imagined was possible.

After the game we went out to another Best Buy to grab a game the Naples store did not have, “My Fitness Coach”.  We have had the Wii Fit for around 5 weeks and during that time I have been able to further access the game’s strengths and weaknesses.

Here are the positives.  The game is great for getting fitness novices off their ass and into some exercise.  The Wii Fit board is a fantastic device.  The ability to get immediate feedback on your weight and balance is very cool and helpful.  Setting a goal and having the system be able to track your progress or lack there of is great for motivation.  The game does a good job again at helping novices learn how to do different yoga and strength exercises.  It will hold your hand each step of the way.  There is a nice mix of different types of activities and some of the balance and aerobic games are a lot of fun to both do and watch someone else do. (hula hoop)

The negatives.  All of the hand holding and various screens that you have to go through before doing each exercise slows the entire process down.  In order to get a half hour of documented exercise time you will probably spend close to 45 minutes of actual time.  There is no variety in the environments or music that is used in the game.  It can get a bit maddening.  Same goes with the dialogue the trainers use, it is not diverse enough and gets very repetitive over time.  The way the game determines your Wii Fit age isn’t very sensible or accurate.  It has you do a couple balance exercises.  My Wii Fit age has fluctuated wildly from a low of 24 up to upper 40’s.

Enter “My Fitness Coach”.  If Wii Fit is exercise on training wheels, My Fitness Coach is exercise on roller blades.  I read reviews of the game that got me interested, supposedly it was much more intense than Wii Fit.  One negative about the game is it doesn’t have any tie ins with the Wii Fit board which is a bummer.  If the game supported the board it would be close to perfect.

The first thing you do is go through a pretty extensive fitness evaluation.  In Wii Fit it basically just asks you your age, height and weighs you.  In MFC you enter this information as well as taking tape measurements of your biceps, chest, waist, hips and thighs.  You also measure your resting heart rate and then the game has you do 2 minutes of jumping jacks to get an elevated heart rate.  You aren’t done yet, it has you do a rapid fire sequence of  body weight squats, push ups and crunches to see how many you can do.  Just doing the body test got me breathing as hard as I ever do doing a full regimen of Wii Fit exercises.

After doing the test, “Maya” the trainer recommends what your focus should be. I was surprised when she recommend I work on my upper body strength, which is pretty good already.  After that you set up a proposed work out schedule.   I decided to do a quick aerobic workout.  This is where you can really tell the game is real exercise.  You can set your work out time in 15 minute increments.  Unlike Wii Fit that uses much more real time than exercise time, MFC is one continuous work out, no constantly hitting buttons and pointing to go to the next exercise. If you want to work out for a half hour you get a solid half hour work out, no f’ing around.  You also get a count down timer on screen at various times to let you know how much longer you have to go.  

There is only one trainer available but her verbal skills seem to be far advanced of the few phrases the Wii Fit trainers know. Another cool thing is the game asks you what training devices you have like hand weights, a heart rate monitor, exercise ball or step.  If you indicate you have any of these items it will try to incorporate them into your work out.

There is also tons more diversity in location and music.  As you fulfill your fitness commitments more and more work out venues and music become available.  If in the middle of a workout you can’t stand the music that is playing you can stop for a second and change the music track.  The aerobic work out I did was very fast paced and high energy, almost a little too high energy for a guy with creaky knees.  There was lots of hopping and jumping around.  At the end of 15 minutes I was sweated through my shirt.  I can only imagine after a solid 60 minutes what I would look like.

There are only a few negatives I could point out about the game.  You need a LOT of floor space in front of your TV if you want to simulate some of Maya’s moves.  We are lucky to have that however many people may find they need to clear out some furniture to have enough space. There is not much hand holding when it comes to learning the moves, she just does them.  I found myself struggling at times to execute the various moves correctly. I’m sure that will get better over time.  The stretching/yoga poses are not held long enough.  It seemed she would only stay in one position for a few seconds before jumping to the next.

  The graphics are rough but that is to be expected with many Wii games.  You aren’t playing the game to look at pretty pictures anyway.  And of course like I mentioned earlier, the ability to use the Wii Fit board would have been a huge bonus. Unlike Wii Fit that can tell if you are doing movements based on the feedback from the board, MFC has no way of knowing if you are moving around or sitting on the couch eating a bag of chips.

All in all I think My Fitness Coach is great title for people that have graduated from Wii Fit and are looking for a more serious challenge.  MFC WILL kick your ass if you want it to.

At this point I will probably be using the Wii Fit to track my progress primarily and MFC to act as my virtual trainer.  More reports to come.