I’ve had a wretched headache since sometime last night. But I hadn’t gotten on the wii fit and exercised since Thursday, so I didn’t want to skip another day. I went and did a few carefully-chosen exercises from the balance, aerobics, and strength portions, and then did entirely yoga for about 20 minutes. After all, the headache was centered on a muscle knot in the back right of my neck, and yoga is fantastic for stretching out the spine and the muscles around it.
Whaddaya know—headache mostly gone now. So the wii fit worked better than several rounds of Tylenol.
The latest book review is of Ad Hudler’s amusing and fun Man of the House, and I’m in the middle of reading Mercedes Lackey’s Foundation.
I did a new round of photographing items to go up on Etsy this morning. This includes many of the new wire-wrapped stone chokers, and some other new items like that. Also a cool surprise that our business partner had for us; I’ll post about that as soon as I have it up on Etsy later this week! I also just ordered supplies to make more bookmarks, since those seem to be the things people have been most interested in so far (speaking of which, I sold two more through Etsy at the end of last week!).
I have a feeling there were several other things I wanted to post about, but I can’t think of them, so they’ll just have to wait!
…for, “my cat just tried to ‘help’ me do the step aerobics program, but I successfully completed it AND didn’t step on her.” And it should give you some sort of bonus points on your score. ‘Cause let me tell you, that’s a whole ‘nother level of difficulty!
Speaking of cats, the latest book review is of Jane Seabrook’s Purry Logic, which is just plain cool! I’m sorry that was it for reviews this week; Monday was a holiday, and then I spent most of the rest of the week working on other things. We’re THIS close to opening that Etsy store; I made a bunch more of those cloth bags; and I kind of got hooked on playing with a fractal program and turning the results into pieces of art:
I’ve also spent a lot of time working on our upcoming level 80 designs for Cafepress; speaking of which, all level 70 designs are on sale—and we’ll be phasing most of them out eventually, so get ‘em while you can!
There are at least three upcoming book reviews, though: of a health care book, a cookbook for cancer survivors, and a pricing/business book for crafters, most immediately. In the meantime, here’s a random bit of fun: (more…)
I believe I mentioned that whole thing where I posted a bunch of texture images on DeviantArt. Well, hands down so far the most popular one is the hardwood floor texture, which has been downloaded 37 times in the past day and a half. This led to a wry observation on how popular our floor was.
I turned our slate porch surface into an interesting ‘window’ image, which I’m pretty proud of. I’m also playing with part of it to create an eventual banner for a possible craft-selling etsy store. Yeah, fine, that’s more than a little premature, but once I get an idea into my head I just can’t let go. And besides, I think it looks pretty cool!
Just to really pile on the artwork, here’s a new cafepress tabletop roleplaying design. It came out of some truly spectacular D&D fumble tales from the last few months:
Yes, it really does say “An arrow in the butt is better than a spear in the winkie.” Did I mention that our GMs have some particularly vicious fumble tables?
Here are the latest book reviews for you: Vicki Lewis Thompson’s Wild & Hexy and the awesome Jean Johnson’s The Storm.
The Little White Thing You Stand On (oops… I mean Wii Fit…) is WAY too much fun. We’re contemplating dropping our gym memberships, although we’ll wait to make sure that in the long run (say, a month from now) we still feel we’re getting an adequate workout with this. If that works out, it means the Wii and Wii Fit will have more than paid for themselves.
The aerobics stuff, like the running, is definitely enough to work up a good sweat and leave you out of breath. The strength training is surprisingly effective—it uses core conditioning techniques to pit you against your own body mass so you don’t need machines. The yoga stretches and balance exercises, of course, work perfectly with the balance board. Someday I hope they come up with a balance mat version that’ll allow a wider array of activities, but I think this works surprisingly well for now. There are quite a few benefits to working out with this thing, as silly as it may seem at first:
The ‘game’ format keeps things fun, challenging, and entertaining, not to mention less chore-like.
Since you can do this in your home, you can fit your workout easily in around chores, work hours, dinner, etc.
I find it easier to work out when I have the most physical energy and motivation—which for me is usually late morning. That’s a horrid time to exercise outside where I am, as I don’t deal well with heat & humidity, both of which are pretty nasty here. It’s also a time when I can’t get to the gym.
The workout pieces seem awfully short at first, but you swiftly ‘unlock’ extra reps and such, quickly building up to a level you’re comfortable with.
The board and program are surprisingly good at noting how you’re doing by measuring how shaky, steady, etc. you are.
Presumably they’ll be able to put out additional disks later with additional exercises on them—and there are already plenty to begin with.
The tracking and charting functions are so well-integrated that you hardly have to do a thing. It measures & tracks your weight, BMI, and exercise levels for you. No more having to remember to write that stuff down.
Because there are some easier exercises in there, such as one or two of the yoga poses and some of the balance exercises, I can imagine continuing to get exercises even on days when I’m tired, sick, sore, etc. That means fewer breaks in the routine of working out, which means I’m more likely to keep it up as a habit.
All in all, as silly as the concept seems, the execution is brilliant.
1. After reading an entertaining texturizing tutorial, I started seeing textures in everything around me and couldn’t help taking photos galore. So if you’re looking for some free stock textures available for unrestricted use, I’ve made a bunch available through my DeviantArt account. More to come, I’m sure. Please do show me if you use them for anything cool!
2. The wii is freaking awesome. A couple of great friends of ours (the ones whose wii we tried in the first place, thus getting hooked) found a wii and called us to ask if we wanted them to grab it for us. Boy howdy! (Isn’t it good to have friends?!) We got it home late Sunday night, hooked it up last night, and promptly got hooked on doubles tennis. It’s amazing how much of a sweat you can work up playing a video game.
3. I’m pathetic. Today I tried out the wii sports fitness test, which gives you your ‘fitness age.’ Dare I admit that my fitness age is twice my physical age? I think I just did. *hangs head in shame*
4. We gave in and ordered a Little White Thing You Stand On (aka wii fit) through ebay. It should arrive tomorrow. This is where I have to admit that it was actually the parody ad that made me want the dang thing:
