Week 1 was brutal folks, my fatness precedes me yet again. Thursday was day nine of owning the Wii Fit- I know this because the thing reminds me every time I log in: “You’re on day 9. You haven’t worked out in 4 days! Here’s how much you’ve gained since last time. You’re overweight.” Thanks, I think I’ve got it now!

Yes it’s true I hadn’t worked out in 4 days. I really had planned on doing it every day but I went from *nothing* to working out 5 times in the last 9 days- I consider that a bit of progress. Yes, it’s also true I’ve gained weight every time… except today - I believe I lost .02 pounds from my last weigh-in. Nice…

Now, I’m no scientist, but a little bit of math tells me that if I continue to lose .02 pounds every 4 days I should hit my mark in just under 11 years. Not too shabby. I’m starting to think that if I had just continued being lazy I would have seen better weight loss results through muscle atrophy.
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And so it seems the overwhelming urge to amplify my opinion has outweighed the turmoil of depressive realization that nothing I say ever really matters…

This blog has been, for the most part, inactive for a while. The initial cease of posts came about when humbled by the genius of a podcast called Radio Lab. A friend strongly recommended I check it out, and I urge all to do the same. This interrupt- the time I took listening to all the back-episodes of the show, impacted a number of my habits: gaming, podcasts, reading. I actually quit World of Warcraft and went without gaming for several weeks (I did manage to check out Assassin’s Creed on PC in DX 10 and SSB Brawl for Wii somewhere in there).

That all said, during my hiatus I DID manage to gain a good amount of weight, and start drinking some very nice beer (blog to come); then by chance today, I picked up a shiny new object called the Wii Fit.

I showed up to a Best Buy in northern New Jersey twenty minutes before the store opened, six people were ahead of me in line. By the time they opened the doors, there were probably an additional fifteen or twenty people lined up behind me all waiting for the Fit.

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The time is upon us, ladies and gents - 2008 awaits with glorious, enticing new titles abound. This may be, dare I say, the year of the Wii!

Maybe a bit late, after all, Nintendo Wii has been out in the U.S. since November of ‘06 - but we have been waiting *patiently* for an influx of good titles. I’m not talking about crappy ports from other systems, I’m talking about the meat and potatoes, the REAL reason we all live, breathe and die video games- the good stuff. If it has to come in the form of Wii-exclusivity, so be it, we’re better off I say; the only way good games are going to be made for Wii is if developers truly focus on design and interactivity for the individualistic nature of the system. I have been very content with Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy, and I’ve heard great things about a few other titles (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, MOH Heroes 2 come to mind); however, it is now time for the fastest selling console to catch up with the expansive list of titles from the competitors. This is a great time to be a gamer, and an even better time to own a Wii - so much so, that even this disgruntled, sad sack (yours truly) can only bask in the sunshine and gumdrops of the year to come…and it almost makes me ill to be this happy! So yes, this is the post where I squeal like a whiny fanboy… more anger to come at a later date.
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My wait is over. I finally picked up an EVGA 8800GT [Spec sheet: here at EVGA.com] and I am extremely happy with the product. Easy install, easy overclock with ntune, powerful, stable, and quiet. This card replaces a BFG 7950GT OC 512, a substantial upgrade to my current rig:

Enermax Chakra Case
Asus P5N-E SLI Nvidia 650i
E6600 Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 Ghz
OCZ Powerstream 600W PSU
EVGA 8800GT 512
4GB Corsair DDR2 PC6400 800MHz @ 4-4-4-12
400GB SATA Seagate HDD
500GB SATA Samsung HDD
80GB IDE Western Digital HDD
18X Samsung SATA DVD RW
40X TDK IDE CD RW
Gateway FPD1975W 19″ LCD @ 1440 x 900

So the 7950 is pouting over in the corner, and here I am trying to enjoy the majestic bounty that is the 8800GT. Now… my WoW framerates went up to an ungodly 100-200fps, and that’s even after overriding the game settings for the highest quality results. But that only goes so far before the novelty wears off- I want a swing at the big leagues…So where’s a DX 10-ready gamer to go?
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Ladies and gentlemen, we have broken the threshold for tolerable stupidity. The latest news in the media pilgrimage to cut down the gaming industry comes in the form of two teens allegedly practicing moves they learned from the game Mortal Kombat, inadvertently killing a seven year old girl. From Associated Press:

Lamar Roberts, 17, and Heather Trujillo, 16, were charged as adults on one count each of felony child abuse causing death…According to a police affidavit, the teens were baby-sitting Trujillo’s half-sister, Zoe Garcia, on Dec. 6 while the girl’s mother was at work. Zoe lost consciousness and stopped breathing after the teens hit, kicked and body-slammed her, imitating moves used in the video game, the document said.

Trujillo and Roberts tried reviving the girl by putting her under running water and attempting CPR before they called her mother and 911, the affidavits stated. The girl died at a hospital.

An autopsy showed she had a broken wrist, more than 20 bruises, swelling of the brain, and bleeding in her neck muscles and under her spine, the affidavits said.

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