The more things change

I can't believe it's March again, and I am sick once more with the cold that never dies. What the fuck did I do to deserve this? In the grand scheme of things, it's not the end of the world, but I'd like to feel normal for weeks at a stretch, instead of "eh, I don't feel completely craptastic today."

In other news, I'm loving Mass Effect 2. What was I doing last year at this time? Loving Mass Effect (1). I think I'm also due to start reading something by Richard Russo right about now.

Worked over

I finally tried my new Kinect game, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved, last night, and it totally kicked my ass. I wasn't expecting a whole lot from the game, just to get a decent workout. I barely got past the training portion before I was in pain. I'm know I'm not exactly in tip-top form now, but come on. I figured the only way to move past the tightness was to play it again tonight, but going for the more gentle Zen yoga/tai chi/breathing class. Um, yeah. What's with the plie-move, bitches? Because you can French it up all you want, I recognize a squat when I see one! And it hurts.

But I did get a couple of achievements, so clearly I'll be sticking with this one. And hopefully burning a few more calories along the way.

Necessity is the mother of great gifts

So, whilst I was in Boston for the holidays, my cell phone died. Well, it didn't die exactly, so much as crap out in a kind of interesting way. I could still make calls (to J.R. because he's the only one I programmed into my speed dial), and I could still receive calls (from anyone, though I had no idea who was calling unless it was J.R. because he had a special ringtone). Since my screen was black (or occasionally a creepy gray with a strobe effect), texts were out of the question. All in all, exactly what you want from your phone when you're traveling and don't have old-fashioned things like address books around. Bygones. The point is this: When I got back, J.R. gave me an early birthday present: a shiny new Windows 7 phone. As I am new to the smart phone world (and an admittedly reluctant entrant), I chose the LG Quantum phone, as it has the slide-out keyboard.

I have to say, I pretty much love my phone. I had some minor issues getting my Gmail account to sync up, but J.R. fixed it (and claims the problem was due to my having a massively ancient Gmail account). I was able to connect to my Xbox Live gamertag without effort, and I snagged the two free games immediately (ilomilo and Flowerz). I then proceeded to play them posthaste to grab some achievements. (Yes, I had achievements before I connected to Facebook or Twitter.) On the whole, I've got no complaints. Camera is good, keyboard is good, and I'm even getting use to the touchscreen. If you'll excuse me, I have to go find some more games for my phone. Now, if only there were some way to gift Xbox games for my phone ...

Kinected

We got the new Kinect for the Xbox 360 (because really, why wouldn't we?), and I have to admit, it's pretty fun. I don't get frustrated with it the way I do with the Wii (because I can't seem to get the arm motions right), though to be fair, we only have Kinect Adventures to play with. I'm hoping to get one of the workout games, because, let's face it, I am a total achievement whore, and I will do anything -- even work out -- to get gamer points. Bygones.

The point is this: the Kinect is pretty freaking fun. And even though it's just a "play" title and not a specific workout, I actually do work up a sweat playing Kinect Adventures (though that may just be a sad commentary on my out-of-shapedness). My main criticism would be how much space you need to play it correctly. We've just barely eked out enough space for one-person playing, and I think the real fun in the Kinect will be in multiplayer options. We're going to reconfigure our TV area (and buy an attachment so we can put the sensor on top of the TV), and hopefully, that will give us another foot or two of playing space. On the whole though, I give it the thumbs up.

I don't know art, but I know what I like

Since Rock Band burst into my life, I've gotten pretty into my XBox. It is one of those things that I feel I have to "admit," and almost always sheepishly and with some sort of dismissive shrug. But as much as a game may take over my free time for several weeks, it's not like I've abandoned more worthy pursuits -- I still watch a lot of TV, and frequently, bad TV meant for teenagers. Also, I read books. See? I'm being defensive again. Perhaps I should just make my peace with it: I like video games. Though, much like the author of this review, I have a hard time reconciling gaming as an art form.

But Alan Wake may help with that. I've been playing it for the last week or so (after I convinced J.R. to bring it home from the Microsoft store), and I finished it last night. Well, I finished my first run-through anyway. It was pretty freaking awesome, I have to say. The game is like some bastard hybrid of Stephen King and Dean Koontz novels, and as such, it's heavy on the unexplained, really creepy shit. I freely admit that the game made me twitchy -- especially when I played it alone at night. The storyline was compelling and pretty well paced; the characters were interesting; and I appreciated the bits of humor sprinkled throughout. The actual game part wasn't too difficult, but I was playing it on the easiest setting. I have a feeling "nightmare" mode (if I ever try it) will truly kick my ass. Now that it's over, I'm kind of sad to see the story end. Not that it was a conclusive ending, mind you -- they left it plenty open for downloadable episodes, sequels, etc. All of which I will most certainly acquire.

Junk food binge

Not only have I been eating pretty consistently crappily since, oh, forever really, but I've been on a brain junk-food binge, as well. It started out all innocent and shit, just reading a few mysteries. And then a couple of romance novels. But now I'm all bloated and lazy, and I don't want to pick up a real novel that has heft, and substance, and I don't know, complex sentence structure. So, instead, I spent most of my weekend playing video games. Alan Wake, for the most part, though I threw in some Guitar Hero 5 and Lego Indiana Jones 2 for good measure. That certainly helped return my mind to peak form. Yeah. Brains are overrated, anyway.

Things I'm liking right now

Mass Effect. Parenthood (with Peter Krause! and Lorelei!). Life Unexpected. Paychecks. Mornings when the mountain is out (except for when it fucks up traffic). My Magic Mouse.

Things I'm not liking right now include, but are not limited to: Missing my friends. Missing my friends' babies who crawl and have personalities develop when I'm not around. Tiredness. Seattle's endless love affair with traffic for no discernible reason. Diets.

What the hell happened?

My mom never let me play with guns -- not that I ever wanted to, as I was primarily a Barbie/paper doll/let-me-read-my-damn-book kind of kid. Apparently, I'm enjoying my second, alternate childhood currently, because I am playing more and more XBox. And now I'm playing the boy games. (I started out all innocent-like with Rock Band and the Lego series.) J.R. bought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last night, with the idea that we could play on campaign together the way we did with Halo. Unfortunately, the campaign is solo only -- the multiplayer function is a little different, and since neither of us had played Call of Duty before, we didn't want to jump into it. Needless to say, we were a bit frustrated. And then, J.R. went to sleep early (he's a working man), and I ended up staying up far later than I should have, figuring out how to play the damn game. And now I'm hooked. Does this officially make me a gamer? I doubt it, but I do know how to use my fake sniper rifle now.

Who you gonna call?

The good news is this: I'm getting better at shooting games. And I have Ghostbusters to thank for it. The bad news? I play way too much XBox. J.R. even has me playing the new Halo 3: ODST now. And after I swore off Halo after my initial Halo 3 humiliation, wherein I hid whilst J.R. killed things so he could respawn. That's all in the past, people. Now I kill, too! I am way too excited about that statement. Bygones. For the casual gamer, I recommend ODST -- easier than Halo, but still really fun. And I highly recommend Ghostbusters, if only because you get to slime things. Heh. Slime.

By any measure

When one is lacking, shall we say, measurable career milestones, one seeks out achievements where she can find them. Even on her XBox. Even if it does mean standing there and using Indy's whip over and over until the little ping of victory goes off. I mean, finishing Lego Indiana Jones to 100 percent is an achievement, right? Not as good as making a million by 30, but bygones. I have done something today! I am accomplished (at Lego video games)!

Needed: Back up, company, inspiration

I can never sleep on Sunday nights. Since I rarely crawl out of bed before noon on the weekends, I'm not tired by my unofficial bedtime. Usually, I lay in bed, staring at nothing, willing sleep to visit me. Tonight, I decided to go with my sleeplessness and actually get stuff done. I finally backed up my old computer (and when I say "old," I mean my Mac Performa 636CD). The problem with backing up files that date back to college is you end up reading things you haven't thought about in a long, long time -- like e-mail messages from your first serious relationship and 25-page papers written entirely in Spanish (neither of which are decipherable any longer). You remember why games like Jewelbox and Seahaven Towers kept you from finishing anything before 5 a.m. And you remember when having a CD-ROM drive was the latest technology.

So, I switched gears and hit the new iBook for some company on the internet. But I've already read all the posts on all the blogs I normally read -- except for the lone West Coast blogger. Normally, I'm more than happy to be alone, but tonight I could use the company. Maybe it was reading all those old messages which seemed to exude joy. Maybe I'm just tired of being the only one awake.