A New Way of Standing

For Chirstmas, my dad gave us a Wii Fit. The wife and I love our Wii, and it has given us hours of enjoyment over this past year.

As an exercise device, the Wii Fit is intended for the most grossly obese or most embarrassingly inactive only. Jogging in place for four minutes is surely better than nothing, but it doesn't really substitute for the 30 minutes of activity a day that is reccommended.

One thing that the Wii Fit does to well, though, is give you some good advice. One of the first things the little machine asks you to do is take a "Fit Test." Again, this test has little actual bearing to one's fitness. The Fit Test essentially tests your balance and measures what it calls your "Center of Weight." When I first took the Fit Test, it gave me a Wii Fitness age of 48.

First, that's brutally unfair. The Fit Test works on the Body Mass Index (BMI). I'm a little overweight, but according to Wii Fit, my BMI is 26.7, which makes me borderline obese. My little Mii (the user avatars on the Wii) looks like Uter from The Simpsons. That is just not how I look. Also, when I play Wii Sports (which in itself is hours of fun and can be a good workout), my Wii Fit age is a very nice 21.

Anyway, my Center of Weight seemed to be two inches behind the actual middle of my body. So the Wii Fit reccommended that I practice standing with more of my weight toward my toes. I can't say for sure that it's improved my posture, but I'm definitely more cognizant of how I stand.

I'm not going to become an evangelist for Wii Fit other than for fun (the Step game is particularly great). But I think that if a little piece of technology can convice you to stand differently, I think that's worthy of mention.

R.I.P. John Updike

I guess that this was inevitable, but The Onion A.V. Club is saying that John Updike has passed away.

Part of me is indifferent, because John Updike became a bit of a bore in the past 15 years, and is probably two generations removed from my own experience. Also the guy was 76 years old.

But it's also really sad, because the nation has lost maybe its finest living man of letters. Of Updike's novels, I've only read Couples, which is a masterpiece. I read a collection of his stories years ago that I think was called Problems and Other Stories. That was a solid collection, and was probably among the first 15 or 20 story collections that I'd read. Also, I was assigned to read The Centaur as an undergraduate, but didn't really give it a shot.

You can say a lot about Updike. Mostly he was kind of a dick, but he was an incredibly smart and sensitive dick who was a chronicler of the American Experience for 50 years. Couples was a remarkable book for me, and should be paired with Revolutionary Road as a reader of how life (and literature) was changed in America with the advent of The Pill.

With Updike gone, I wonder who replaced him as America's greatest living writer. I'm not really a Phillip Roth guy (because I'm a goyim). Who do you think would qualify? Part of me really wants to say John Irving, but I think that's just me.

If you're reading this and you haven't read "A&P," you really should follow this link. It's one of the best short stories ever.

First Day of School

I had my first class of the new semester this morning. It was way out at the Williams Campus, but that place is really cool. When I was wandering around looking for Campus Security, I found out that the school has a hangar (it's right next to Williams Gateway Airport), and there's a helicopter in there. Maybe I'll come early one day and take a joy ride.

I'm watching the Inauguration right now. It's pretty great. Also, I found my digital camera cord! I'm posting some pictures. Last night, when I was making beef stir fry for dinner, I cut the top off a bell pepper and look what I found inside. It's not the Virgin Mary, but it's pretty exciting.

I also got a haircut. Have a nice day.

Super Bowl Bound!

What a weird month to be me. I'm stunned that the Arizona Cardinals have won the NFC Championship and are headed to the Super Bowl. My dad and stepmom went to the game, so I watched it on TV with Leah.

I'm not going to say that there weren't some tense moments, but the Cards ended up winning. My dad sent me to the online retailers and wanted me to check prices.

Until I told him that upper level tickets were going for $1400+ apiece. Really, I'd rather have him spend that no a nice HD set that we can watch at his house.

I'm still a little shocked, and will surely have more to say over the next couple weeks. Man, what a great game. Go Steelers (more because I like the Steelers than I think the matchup will be good for the Cards)!

(Half) Marathon Man

My dad got tickets to the NFC Championship game (more on that in a moment), so he gave me his spot in the P.F. Chang's Rock n' Roll Half Marathon.

My dad used to race 10Ks and marathons when I was a kid. When I was at the peak of my fitness, I thought about running a 10K, but it never came together. So, without more than running 20 minutes at the gym 3 times a week for the past month or so, I embarked on a 13.1 mile exodus from Downtown Phoenix to Downtown Tempe.

My final time was 2:11:16. I couldn't believe it, but that averaged out to a sub-10 minute mile! It was a lot of fun, and I can't believe that I was running that hard. I'm still pretty sure there was something wrong with the telemetry equipment.

I'm really, really sore right now. But I'm going to find a way to get to the gym tomorrow. I think.

Date Night!

Leah and I went to see John Legend on Thursday night at the Dodge Theatre. We both love John Legend, although I probably like him better.

It was a really good evening. We got some gift cards to Fleming's Steak House and Wine Bar for Christmas, and so that's where we ate dinner. We shared a Cesar Salad and then Leah got the petite filet and I got a boneless ribeye. We shared the shoestring potatoes and some chipotle mac & cheese.

I always feel uncomfortable at fancy restaurants because I know the written rules (you use the utensils from the inside out), but I always worry about the unwritten rules. Like the shoestring potatoes weren't served with ketchup. So we asked for some ketchup, and they brought us a whole bunch in a gravy boat. We ended up dipping our fries in the boat, and feeling like rubes.



Estelle opened for John Legend, and she was really good and funny. John Legend has a really great voice, but it seemed like he was under the weather or something, because he wasn't really chatty with the audience.

The crowd is usually the best part of these things. Leah and I had the World's Broadest Couple in front of us. The man was maybe 6'3", 220, and his woman was broad-shouldered. The crowd was really good, though. Really diverse, with young and old, and lots of interracial couples, too.

The show ended with Legend playing "Are You Out There," which he premired at the DNC in Denver. When we walked out, there was a group of 17 year old white girls fishing their Parliments out of their purses and saying how "They hate Barack Obama so much." So weird.

Anyway, I have pictures, but I seem to have lost the cable for my digital camera. More to come!

Burning some time.

Just because you're a college instructor doesn't mean that you're not forced to endure some Michael Scott-level of meetings. That's where I am right now, and I'm really appreciating that tool right now.

I'm really, really excited about the Cardinals appearing the in the NFC Championship game on Sunday. I feel like I should be more excited than I am. I think I'm kind of numb. I'm going to be apprearing again on ESPN.com's Football Today on Friday, so I'm putting some quips together for that.

I'm pretty much all done preparing for the new semester. I posted all my on-line materials today, and I have a couple other things to do, but I feel like I'm in good shape heading in. Mostly, I'm just jazzed to meet a new group of students.

Ugh. Small group work. More next time...

Welcome aboard!

So... here's the first post on my new blog. I hope everyone enjoys it. I've been looking for more of a daily creative output and I hope that I can take the time to update this not obsessively, but at least regularly.

The intended focus for this blog will be a number of things. One is the usual goings-on of my life. The second will be my thoughts on my regular obsession, the Arizona Cardinals. I'm sure that I'll talk about more as I get comfortable with the form.

As always, comments will be appreciated. If you ever want to know my opinion on something, just ask.