For my last weekend I spent it packing, going to Hoopfest, seeing a great comedy show and crying (as stated previously). Packing and cleaning are about as fun as anyone can imagine so I’ll let you all ponder how awesome it was for me on your own time. My family came out for the weekend for a special goodbye weekend to Spokane and as a surprise Father’s Day gift for my dad that my brother and I went in on – seeing Brian Regan live and in concert, but more on that later on to HOOPFEST! It was amazing. I loved watching all the three-on-three games and taking lots of touristy pictures of Spokane all in a tizzy. I listened to some live music, drank some cheap beer and cheered on random strangers to victory. I walked around with my dad, brother and a couple friends to watch all the festivities. It’s events like Hoopfest that make me glad I lived walking distance from downtown. I cannot imagine even trying to drive in that mess. I also got a little more familiar with North Monroe Street, which I had always avoided walking on before because of it’s proximity to the courthouse and the numerous bail bond and “antique” shops that lined it.

After Hoopfest my family and I went to the INB Performing Arts Center to see the show. It was great, Brian Regan is one of those comics who I’m glad I got to see live. I did get all fired up when during a bit about octopuses a girl in the audience shouted “it’s pronounced ‘octopi’” … no it’s not, it’s octopuses. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “octopus” is derived from a Greek word, not a Latin one, therefore it does not get a Latin pluralization. If you do feel weird about saying “octopuses” (as I sometimes do depending on the maturity level of  some of my friends) say “octopedes.” It’s a lot less common, but still more correct than octopi. Other than that, it was a great show.

This year James and I were Christmas shopping and we noticed a different trend than normal. James’ brother, a bar tender and part-time line cook, had asked for some high-quality cooking gear while his sister had asked for video games. I pointed out the gender reversal in his family and we had a nice chuckle over the reversal of gender roles in his family. But is it so stange?

James’ sister, Chelsea, had just purchased a Wii. She’s never owned a video game console before. Her next big purchase is going to be the Wii Fit. It’s so strange how this little plastic board has broken down the last holdouts in the video game world. In an industry that is overwhelmingly dominated by the 15- to 35-year-old male the Wii balance board and the Wii Fit have broken down the gates and more young women and older players have been looking into “this Wii thing” as my dad calls it.

The Wii and Wii Fit have been so popular that my family actually bought one for my aunt for Christmas. It may not seem weird to you, but growing up hearing how much she hated her sons’ video games it’s surprising that she has her own console. But what’s shocked me more is that my dad is now Wii shopping (with my assistance over the phone). This shocked me because my dad hated how much time my brother spent playing video games growing up. But he sees the Wii as a great console with games that people of all skill levels can play and he wants to get the Wii Fit because he wants to start doing yoga.

Now I’m not saying the balance board didn’t do it all by itself. The Wii already had a reputation for being accesible to all ages. A lot of girls and older people like it because the standard games were easy. Wii sports is the perfect game for anyone, vide game lover or not. It’s not a daunting console and it’s most popular titles are not first-person shooters, they’re games that any person at any skill level can play.

And just to prove my point, here are the top five Wii games being sold on Amazon:

1. Wii Fit
2. Mario Kart Wii
3. Wii Play
4. Active Life Outdoor Challenge
5. Wii Music

All of these games are family-friendly and – with the exception to the racing game Mario Kart – are game types that you can only find on the Wii. Two of the top selling games are exercise and movement focused games while the other three are games that you can play with your friends and family. They’re simple, quick to learn and are fun.

With all this momentum and first-time gamers being introduced to the Wii, I hope Nintendo takes this positive energy and release some really great things in the next year. Already more games are being planned that use the Wii Fit board’s technology (hopefully without all the harsh judgment that’s bundled in the Wii Fit game itself). But here is a wishlist of what I would like to see for the Wii in 2009.

1. Wii Fit 2, with more games and a way to make yoga routines instead of individual stretches.
2. Step accesories for the balance board that let you raise the board higher off the ground (like a step board in an aerobics class) so make the aerobics more challenging.
3. Improved Web surfing and fixing compatability issues on Opera.
4. Katamari Damacy for the Wii.

I survived my first real woot-off these past couple days. I didn’t get much, all the cool stuff I wanted to get sold out almost instantly. I did get a nice printer, though, which is good because I’ve been printerless for almost two years. But today when I checked the status of the woot-off I found that it had ended and this was the last item:

Go Cougsars [sic]. For those who aren’t aware, this was an Evergreen inside joke. And to Dan: I think there’s still some bacon salt in the ME desk (yeah I took one and hid it, wanna fight about it?).

In other weird things I found from the internet: Here’s pictures of a woman who rummages for grocery lists then makes characters out of them and performs in grocery stores. Neat.

I am officially in love with Netflix thanks to a recent discovery in their Watch Instantly section. While their movie selection for instant viewing is getting better by the day, there is one gem that has made me a Netflix junkie and that is their wide variety of exercise videos available to watch instantly on my laptop. Here’s where to find them:

1. IN Netflix click on the “Watch Instantly” tab.
2. Go to “Movie Categories” and select “Sports & Fitness”
3. On a sidebar to your right there are a number of sub-categories. Select the “Workouts” category and you’ll be directed to all their workout videos.

In the workouts categories you’ll find a number of great videos including the entire CRUNCH series, which has some of my favorite workout routines. It does, however, have a few videos I may never watch (like the “Hot Yoga” series.) My personal favorite is the CRUNCH Candlelight Yoga because it’s a great stretching routine to do after you’ve done some intense cardio. So if you’re in a workout rut and have a Netflix account I would definitely recommend checking this out.

During a bout of fantasy online shopping yesterday, I saw Old Navy’s new theme for the spring season: Urban Explorer. After watching their television ad, which inexplicably has four women driving in an open -top jeep through New York City I got to wondering, what is with the desire for safari themes? Is it supposed to make me look like a strong, independent woman, or is it supposed to make me look like someone who just really really likes khaki?

For example, their most prominent feature is he introduction of “Women’s Safari Rompers,” a one-piece khaki short-suit. This lovely piece of beige is something I would where nowhere. One-piece suits do not work for anyone over the age of 5 or larger than a size 2. What amazes me is that they don’t even give this piece a real number size. Instead I would be forced to decide on squeezing into a medium or a large depending on how I wanted to look, skanky or like an idiot wearing a safari suit.

Another thing I found laughable was their brilliant idea to put the word “safari” in front of anything they made that is in khaki or forest green. This can be seen in the “Women’s Button-Tab Safari Shirt,” which is the same shirt they’ve been selling for years.

But if for some reason you do like the safari theme. Don’t worry there’s a wide range of safari items for you to choose from like: safari shirts, safari shorts, safari shirt dresses and safari clutches.

There was one cute dress in the collection, but unfortunately it was made out of polyester, and I tend to look for fabrics that are a little more durable and not so cheap looking.

In my freetime tonight I decided to look up to see if there was any video of Japanese “ラジオ体操” or Radio Exercise. It took a bit of searching but I finally found a cute little video of a girl practicing in her apartment. This exercise was created in the late 1920s in Japan and is broadcast every morning on Japan’s public radio. Don’t worry about the voice in the background. that’s just the instructor telling you what to do next and counting off …

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Uh_miuBQE&rel=1]

This week at the Evergreen a number of the editors have taken on a fad diet for a special dieting issue before Spring Break. Today I started my fad diet: the Asian Food Diet. I can eat nothing but Asian food for an entire week. I thought this would be a great way to eating Japanese food regularly again, which I haven’t done since I lived in Japan four years ago. I haven’t even finished the day yet, but I’m already craving cakes, cookies, pasta and all the other foods I can’t eat. I’m already tired of sushi, which I made for lunch and dinner today. I try to But maybe I’ll drop a little bit of weight. Oh well tomorrow should be better as I get into better foods and get back into eating Japanese food again.

In the meantime here’s some simple Japanese food recipes:

Sushi Rice:

2 cups short-grained white rice (note: you will need Japanese rice for this recipe. American rice is not sticky enough) 2 1/4 cups water
1/3 cups rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp. sugar

1. Wash the rice continually with cold water until the water becomes clear.
2. Let the rice soak in the water for at least 30 minutes.
3. Put rice in a pot and put on high heat letting the water come to a boil. Let it boil for one minute.
4. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes.