dianec42

We picked up a copy of "EA Sports Active - More Workouts" and it's pretty good so far.

I have been getting a fair amount of mileage out of the first one -- it's got some good exercises, you can set up a routine and just go, and it only glitches out maddeningly sometimes. The trainer feedback is also considerably less annoying than on the Wii Fit, which is a big plus.

The new one is a sequel, not an expansion, meaning that you can't mix & match the old & new exercises. That part is going to be annoying. It does have some very nice boxing and step aerobics workouts. The water skiing feels an awful lot like the roller blading from the old one with different scenery. :P I'm going to try some of the stretches and ab stuff tonight. I still refuse to jog around the living room though. I have some dignity.

You can import your profile from the old game to the new one, but not much carries over. You have to customize your appearance again, choosing from what actually seems to be a SMALLER set of dorky outfits. None of your old trophies come with you. Since the new game doesn't include the old exercises, obviously any custom exercise routines you made up don't come with you either. It does show some more informative stats which is nice.

Will I sweat to it? You betcha. Will I grumble and curse at having to swap discs to do other exercises? Almost certainly. Will it have fewer random pauses when it decides I'm holding the Wiimote wrong? Let's hope so.

http://www.chromecow.com/2009/01/20/us-democracy-server-patch-day/

Patch notes for the democracy server.

We've scored a Wii Fit. Huzzah... I suck at most of the exercises slightly more than stuartc does. Who knew falling off a step was a competitive sport?

It also comes with the awesomest warning EVAR:

"Please note that while playing Wii Fit, others in the room may be able to see your age, weight, and BMI category on the TV screen."

25 minutes in the piggy bank, and I still have the high score on the ski jump.

This is a song parody which will likely only be funny to anyone familiar with Portal and who is also trying to buy Blizzcon tickets today. Yes, I know someone's already done a filk of this on the forums, but my brain was working on this first and I think mine is going to be better. :P
( Cut for the 2 or so people who actually care )

More to come...

This week I am mainly attending a class on how to write ridiculously complicated SQL queries for Oracle. I was somewhat surprised to find that this is a sufficiently popular topic to hold a class on, let alone regular classes, but apparently so.

The instructor is a mad Serb called Sasha who is energetic and rather enthusiastic about the subject matter, to put it mildly. I suppose this is good, as we'll benefit more from too much enthusiasm than too little. He has a disturbing way of asking "Are you with me on this?" before going on to a new topic. It comes out sort of like "Arjoowidmeahndiz?" and the first time he said it I just COULD NOT figure out what the hell he'd just said, and stared in helpless puzzlement for a long moment. Ironically, I had been with him right up until he said that.

Everyone in the class that I've spoken with has been very nice. I seem to be the most extroverted person there (apart from Sasha, obviously), which is exceedingly odd, and I am one of 2 or 3 people whose native language is American, which makes the whole thing rather entertaining. My heart sank when I saw that we'd be sharing PCs, but the guy I'm sharing with is very sharp and happy to let me type (as I can spell tricky American variable names with the greatest of ease).

It is very refreshing and liberating being out of the office. My lead only called me on my cell phone once today! And that was after I'd called her to see how things were going. So you could say I started it.

The only down side is having to get up Even Earlier. I am rather sleepy to say the least. At least the coffee there is free and not entirely abominable.