The Wii Fit - Day Zero

I have, in my posession, a brand new, highly desirable, Wii Fit. Thanks to an extremely generous Christmas gift giver, I'll be giving it a spin with this blog as the record of everything.

So, here are a few things, for research purposes.

Current Information:
Height: 6'8''
Weight: 250
Current time spent excercising daily: n/a (Just had surgery, so I haven't been able)
Diet: Includes fast food, soda, beer, and snacks (chips and things of that nature)

Projected:
Weight: 230
Time Spent Excercising Daily: 30 - 60 min
Diet: No fast food, no soda, occasional beer, and healthy snacks

As I start working out with the Wii Fit, I'll start updating more stuff, like BMI, heart rate, and things of that nature.

I'll also do a before and after photo. The current plan is to do the regime daily for 3 months, recording the results every step of the way. I might adjust the amount of time, either by adding more, or less, depending on how things go.

Having just had surgery, I'll have to take it pretty easy at first, so I won't be able to do anything that is too hard on my body. That said, I'm sick of sitting around, waiting to heal. I have to become active somehow, and this is the best way, I think.

My range of motion is a bit limited, and I'm still in a lot of pain, so for now, I'll do what I can and just skip the excercises I can't do. I'll post results from the ones that I'm able to complete, and worry about the other stuff as I heal.

The Great Debate

Read an article earlier about copy protection and the argument for it. I tend to be extremely opposed to it in all forms, but it was interesting to see the other side present some decent evidence. Still, the conclusions the article reaches are all opinions based on the numbers, which ultimately mean nothing.

What I don't understand is why demonizing copy protection is a bad thing. If enough people get upset about it, they will have to change things. The Wikipedia entry for SecureRom, one particularly nasty form of DRM, has been edited ad nauseam, and one only need look at the incident with Spore on Amazon.com in the comments section to see the power of the internet rumor mill at work. If only people were so vehement about protecting constitutional rights and keeping our country out of the hands of greedy politicians.

And, regardless of how many actual pirates copy protection is stopping, if even one legitimate customer is negatively affected by it, it has utterly failed at its job.

Imagine if American car makers decided to require several redundancy checks every time you started your car. If you had to wait for authenticaion transmitted from your car key up to an activation server which would then be beamed back so that you could open the door. Then, when you started the car, you would have to wait again while it checked to make sure you were not a vagrant. You paid for the car, right? So you should be able to unlock it.

Well, this logic works for physical goods, because you cannot copy them like electronic media. The argument could also be made, however, that once you buy an apple from a store, you have the seeds that apple provides in order to plant new trees. No one could tell you you can't plant those apple trees, because they're your seeds, right? But that isn't how electronic media works. How do you assign something value if it can be copied infinitely and shared for free? Rather than go the other direction, and provide customer incentives and better service, companies have decided that Copy protection, or DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the answer.

Copy protection, in theory, is a great thing. But the regular software buyers who are affected most by it are not the ones they're trying to stop. They're trying hardest to get rid of the casual pirates. Because they have to know that no matter what, the game will end up cracked and leaked only a few days after release (and sometimes, weeks before).

So they've entered a very strange middle ground. On one side, you have the hardcore who know what ISOs and torrents are, and know where to get any game or program they want. On the other, you have the average consumer who buys software from the store and expects that he will always be able to access that software whenever he wants. These two groups should not overlap, but the people in charge of these decisions see the overlap as this hulking thing. They believe there is this enormous, magical number of software pirates out there simply waiting for them to release a new game so that they can pilfer it and share it with all their pirate buddies.

The truth is far more simple: there are software pirates, there are casual software pirates, and there are regular people who buy software. There are people who will always pirate software, because it can never be fully protected without serial keys and online verifications. Even then, the smart crackers can get in and make it free. So they accept that there is this lost sales demographic and move on to the next level up.

What about those people who don't know much about computers but who don't like to or can't pay for software? In other words, the poor college student. Maybe a friend explains the process to him and he tries it out by downloading Crysis. He wouldn't have bought Crysis, because his computer can't run it anyway, but since it's free, he decides to give it a shot. When it doesn't work, he deletes it and gives up, because he perceives that the process is too difficult.

I'm of the opinion that the majority of piracy is in that category. Sure, there are the hardcore, but they've always been there.

Then, there's the regular consumer. The one who paid for the software. The one who has to put up with calling tech support because the online verification servers aren't responding. Or put up with getting a new license for the program because his computer got a virus and he had to reinstall windows. This is the largest majority of consumers.

Most people do not pirate software, not because they lack the desire, but because they do not know how. The reason the music industry is having trouble is because of the trend Napster started all those years ago. Napster made sharing music easy. In fact, it made it so easy, the music industry has never recovered. And when it fell, it was inevitable that other programs would pop up to take its place.

The point boils down to this: All of these businesses, music industry included, must find new ways to get people to pay for their products. The current business model is a thing of the past, and sticking to draconian DRM because you believe piracy is the sole cause of a game's shitty sales record, is quite simply, lunacy.

Hey executives, how about this? Why not make games that people want to play? Why not give them incentives, like great, free online play which requires a one-time use CD key (Battle.net), or free game add-ons (Epic) to keep them coming back? Treat your customers like what they are: your bottom line. Because without them, you would be nothing. Your hulking corporation would be a bunch of guys in a building pushing paper into the land of dreams. It's our money, and we want to choose how we spend it. We don't want to spend it on games with two hours of content. We don't want to spend it on games that aren't fun to play. And we especially don't want to spend it on games that you might not even let us play.

On Writing

I've come to this conclusion about the profession of writing: lots of people want to be writers, and lots of people say that anyone can write, but most people don't like to focus inwardly for long periods of time. They don't want to force themselves to pour over their own memories for diamonds.

They don't want to constantly mine the human experience for good material.

But a good writer knows that everything is material. Every conversation, every memory, every word, and every experience is something that can be saved and used later.

While hanging out with some friends, I had this realization: some people don't like to be alone to think. They don't want to think about the things that bother them. They would rather spend time around people and things which make them happy than face the possibility of having to be alone with their thoughts.

And maybe that works for some people.

I'm not one of those people who can ignore the world around me and pretend it doesn't matter. I wish almost every day that I was. Ignorance is bliss, as they say, and it's probably true. Life was easier when you didn't know things. It was easier to believe in God than it was to believe we came from Evolution. It was easier to believe that the world was a good place because I grew up in a nice part of it. It was easier, and safer, when I didn't know anything about sex.

But part of enjoying life, part of growing up, part of the human experience, is losing that innocence. Some days, it hurts more than others. Like the day I found out I was no longer allowed to drink from a bottle. That one was rough. Or the day I found out it wasn't cool to sleep with stuffed animals anymore. Man, highschool was a bitch.

Then there are other days I wouldn't have it any other way.

Shempi, Upside Down Dogs, and the Japanese Space Elevator

My current musical obsession:



Ratatat is the band, "Shempi" is the name of the song. Interesting stuff. They also have an album full of remixes of rap songs which may be the niftiest synthesis ever conceived of by mortal music engineers.

Also, this might bring joy to your day.

This one is my favorite:




A friend of mine pointed this out as well. Apparently, the Japanese are building a space elevator. Holy crap, they're going to take over space. That is, if the Chinese don't do it first.

He also pointed out that Firefly would be a better way for things to end up, especially when faced with other... alternatives. Although, I do have to admit that I've always wanted a gigantic flying robot battle suit, and if Japan does start building them, and like, recruiting pilots to destroy the rest of the world (and the aliens, obviously), I would probably be first in line.

Either way, I'm thinking we should all start learning Chinese immediately.

Right now, I'm sitting here thinking about how neat it is that I might see the a new space race in my life time. And this time, we might do some things that no one expected would ever be possible.

What if, within my lifetime, you take a drive down to your local space port and hop a shuttle to the moon? Maybe that's still way far off, but one can always hope.

The View?

What the fuck, right? Why would I watch the View?

Well, every once and awhile, it's fun to watch a train wreck.

Elizabeth Hasselbeck is insane, everyone knows this. She fully endorses Sarah Palin, which is funny.

The hilarious thing about this, is that she breaks down during a conversation about the dreaded "n"-word. She gets incredibly upset because she doesn't understand why white people aren't allowed to say it, but black people are. She even says "we live in the same world," reasoning that we are all somehow immediately equal because we are all equally represented on billboards, commercials, and in films.

Elizabeth, I have some news for you: not everyone grew up in the middle class white America. Not everyone has that "unique" perspective on life, racism, equality. And you're forgetting to mention the other thing, the important one: White people don't want to hear the word because it reminds them of their guilt. And most white people, at least the normal, non-racist ones, do feel guilty for the past. They don't want to hear the word, because it makes them uncomfortable.

I say let us hear it. Scream it from the fucking rooftops, and then beat the shit out of us if we use it. Some people need to have their comfort zone rattled a little.

But again, this all goes back to one thing, and that is this: context. It's all well and good to say that no one should say a particular word because it offends your sensibilities, but what are you really saying? You're requesting that people stop using a word, a word, which intrinsically has absolutely no meaning. Who cares if someone wants to say it in the privacy of their own home, or even to a friend in public? It is the connotation of the word which matters, and the meanings of words change constantly. The English language is an enormous shifting database of words and phrases.

By spending so much time focusing on why words are bad, they are given the power to be upsetting. By focusing on not saying them, you have done precisely the opposite. You are announcing to the world that these words are taboo, which of course means that people will use them more often. Talking about them makes them part of our lexicon. Want a word to disappear from use? Just wait. Time is the only thing that does the trick. In time, language will change again, and fuck might not be the go to curse word for almost every situation.

The truth is that there is a double standard that people like Elizabeth don't understand. They don't get it, because they don't live in the same world we do. Hollywood is in its own fucking microcosm, and she has no clue how things work. My black friend can call me a honky, and I won't take offense, but you can be damn sure if I were to refer to him with the terrible word, he would be upset. And he should be.

We are not at a point in America where the race barrier has been broken. It still exists in an extremely pronounced way, and as long as it does, we have to continue to watch what we say. Obama has stated many times that this is not a white America, or a black America, but a United States of America where everyone is equal and awesome. That may be what he wants to achieve, but we still have a long way to go to claim that we are, indeed, a cohesive group of Americans united under the same principals and freedoms.

Tee Hee

I have some links to share.

First up is Mark Wahlberg. He's pissed because Saturday Night Live did a decent parody of his acting. Andy Samburg has always made me laugh, ever since the infamous Lazy Sunday, so I found it mildly entertaining. The impression isn't bad, and after suffering through Wahlberg's latest craptastic adventure, The Happening, I'm entirely fine with poking some fun at him.

I'm honestly not sure whether The Happening was poorly written, filmed, or acted. There are moments where it might make you laugh a little, which isn't neccessarily out of place in a disaster film. But something was lost in translation here.

Out the window is Shyamalan's signature tension building. Instead, we're thrown right into the "action," which is never terribly interesting, nor exciting. Some of it is even kind of funny and it shouldn't be, and when it wants badly to be taken seriously, say by taking out a character we met only a few minutes before, there is no emotional impact. How are you supposed care about these people when nothing interesting happens to them? Sure, there are people dying, and it's this terrible event, and everyone is scared, and the best friend of course splits off from the group and ends up screwed. This is nothing we haven't seen before, done better by a dozen other films. I'm starting to think M. Night struck gold with the Sixth Sense.

And there's no twist. Some people will die, some won't, but there's no twist. The plants are killing people. If there is one lesson it could impart, it is the following: when the wind blows, if you're hanging out with too many evil polluting humans, you will die a horrible death related to whatever object nearby can cause a sufficiently grotesque amount of gore.

And I'm not sorry if I spoiled it for you. Even if you were thinking about seeing it, you should just forget it. Save the money for something useful, like an ashtray, or a rocket launcher.

Let us shift gears to Sarah Palin. I do so enjoy hearing about her these days.

CNN spent a lot of time covering this story earlier. This guy who used to be a Bush Strategist says that McCain knows he fucked up bad by picking her. Says McCain knew he "put the country at risk" by picking Palin as VP.

Alright, so he's a Bush strategist. He could be wrong, right?

I mean, it's not like she inspires people to yell "Kill him!" in regard to Barrack Obama at her rallies. Oh wait.

She's got to be the one we've been waiting for. Finally, a woman who knows what it's like to be a regular old, joe six pack, racist, ignorant American. It'll be refreshing to have someone with so much experience in abusing power for personal purposes.

Have you voted yet? You should vote, dude.

Distraction

I'm supposed to be doing homework, but I needed a break, so I took a few minutes to read a little. While on a political blog, I came across this article. It's old, written in 2004, but it rings true today.

For those too busy to read, it has to do with the attack on intellectualism going on in our country. It was written at a time when Bush had just begun his second term in office, but it is even more relevant at the advent of the next presidential race. Here, we decide the fate of the United States. For better or worse, we send it barreling inexorably onward, but the key difference is how we get there. Is it with someone who believes creationism should be taught in schools alongside science as a viable origin for life? Or is it with someone who believes in the true principles upon which America was founded? Someone who believes all people should be allowed to practice their own faith. Someone who does not look down on other people's religions for being different. In a word, someone who is tolerant.

But not just tolerant. Respectful.

The article is frightening, partly because it shows an example a certain type of person scattered all across the country. It's also scary, because it's true.

There are people who think that colleges have a "well known" liberal bias. While it may be true that people with more education tend to vote democrat (Hmmm), I find it funny that education has become a point of attack for the Republicans. From two fronts: No Child Left Behind (which actually destroyed our education system, hoorah!) and this anti-intellectualism, anti-challenging of indoctrination.

The person, the one I was referring to from the article, is one who warns his freshman friend not to learn too much. Yes, apparently you can learn too much. In all seriousness, it isn't funny, because he is serious. He tells his friend that 'you don't want too learn to much that might challenge your core beliefs, because you might lose your faith'. Well, yeah. That's kind of the whole point of an education. If you aren't challenging your own ideas, how do you learn anything new? How do you know you're right if your position is the only one you've checked out? How can you possibly claim that you know definitively that your way is the only way to go?

"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." - Bush Sr.

Now, as an atheist, I'm skeptical by default of any religion. But skeptical is not the same as disrespect. I support and respect all of my friends in their faith, and I find it deeply impressive that they maintain it despite life's curve balls. I think all of them, including the ones who practice non-christian religions, deserve a fair chance to practice whatever faith they choose, without persecution from the government or their peers.

The last thing we need from the government is more hatred bred from ignorance, which is all that this rhetoric ultimately does. When people who actually believe that atheists should not be considered citizens hear the leader of the free world say this, it gives them recognition. Acknowledgment that their way is the right way, the only way. It makes them believe that they would want to vote for the leader who speaks for the everyday "Joe six-pack" when in reality, that could not possibly be more untrue.

Why do the Republicans insist on claiming Christianity as our official religion when we are a nation comprised entirely of immigrants who came here to practice religion their way? Freedom is great, and no one loves it more than me. I just wish Americans would wake up. Education is the key, and all we seem to do is take steps in the wrong direction.

Why are we still arguing about Evolution? This is a theory that has insurmountable evidence to suggest that it has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen, yet there are people who refuse to believe it because it isn't written in the Bible.

To quote one of my favorite stage plays, Inherit the Wind, "The Bible is a book. A good book. But it's not the only book."

Americans ought to be outraged. At this moment, our government has failed us utterly. The people we pay taxes to out of every pay check have failed to prevent our economy from falling apart. The bail out will not fix it, and if it does manage to pass in some form in the near future, our problem still remains: our country is run by people who don't know what they are doing.

They played with our economy as though it were a toy, and this is the result. Widespread failure across the board. And it's going to get a lot worse. We're seeing the beginnings of a ripple effect in our financial sector that will eventually go far enough to effect the majority. Right now, it's people who had savings or loans with those banks in trouble. For the moment, maybe your savings is safe. But what happens when it isn't? What happens when the dollar collapses and you can no longer afford to buy gas and food. What if you're forced to choose one or the other?

The way America was going, it could not sustain itself. Sub prime mortgages are part of the problem, but credit is an even bigger one. The American lifestyle has snowballed into this ridiculous parody of itself, and it has finally begun to unravel.

The only truth is this: we have allowed the government to do this to us. They may be partly responsible, but we have stood by while they took away more of our freedoms, raised our taxes, and spent the money on destroying our economy and system of education. We've sat back and done nothing while they took apart our country, and now what do we have to show for it? A failing economy and a lower standing in the world.

The only issue any politician wants us to focus on is who can be blamed for the crisis, while we sit here watching the economy fall apart. The real question is not 'Whose fault is it?', but 'Who will clean this up?'

The answer is this: our generation. We will be the ones who face the consequences of corporate greed and a government outgrowing its purpose. We will face the future of the world in an America that has failed its people. We will be the ones who rebuild it.

This time is the most important, because it will require great leadership, and I honestly don't believe it exists anywhere in modern American politics.

Hopefully things aren't as bad as they seem. Hopefully, we'll weather this storm and come out on the other side relatively unscathed. Hopefully, the dip in the market that will continue during this week will be short term.

Hopefully, we won't have a President who knows nothing about the economy or what could be done to fix it, because I'm not sure America can weather three "unimaginable" events in a decade.