Wii Fit came out last week and it was sold out within hours at all major retail outlets. Toys R Us had a shipment come in on Saturday but when I got there early, there was a lineup and it was sold out before the store even opened.

Yesterday, I acted on a tip from a friend and visited Toys R Us again during the day before going to school. I figured it was a Monday and most people would either be at work or at school so I had a decent shot at picking one up for myself. Lo and behold, I walked in and there were boxes full of Wii Fit sitting in the corner. Oddly enough, Toys R Us limited it to 2 copies per customer so I snapped up another copy because I figured there’d be someone out there interested in getting one. In other words, I have two copies of Wii Fit lying around and I’m willing to part with the other one at cost plus some odd percent.

Why not hit the gym?

I’ll be honest. I am not a big fan of the gym. I don’t like going by myself but that’s because I’m too self conscious. I’d rather go with a few friends or something. I could do a few laps around the block but I don’t have the motivation for it especially with the rainy weather in Vancouver. I do have free membership to the SFU gym but it’s all the way up the mountain. If I had a car it wouldn’t be such a big deal but as such, I’m a public transit user. To carry textbooks, my Macbook and a change of clothes going up and down the mountain is too much work.

Enter Wii Fit

I’ve been playing video games since I was 7. Chip’s Challenge and Gizmo’s and Gadgets ruled the day back then. I was probably the youngest kid in my class who understood what the concept of simple machines were. Naturally, a console game that encourages fitness piqued my interest and I had to pick it up and try it out.

Setting up the whole thing took about 15 minutes. You have to enter your height, your birthdate and all that jazz. After that, you step on the balance board and it weighs you and tells you what your center of balance is and proceeds to scare you into using Wii fit more by giving you all these facts.

So how did I check out on day 1?

Weight: 223 lbs
BMI: 31.89
Wii Fit Age: 31

Ouch.

Obviously there’s been a lot of skepticism over the Fit.

• Does it actually work?
• Is it real exercise?
• Can it cause some weight loss?

So just to set the records straight, I’m going to try it myself and see if I can shed a few pounds. I’ve set a goal for myself to lose 7 pounds in 30 days. You can do that in the game and it automatically tracks your progress. It might not seem like much to most people, but for a guy like me to take such an approach is something of a surprise I’m sure.

The plan

I get up alarmingly early every morning. I don’t know a lot of other University students who wake up at 645 AM (willingly). I plan to do several of the activities between 30 - 60 minutes per day. The first week I’ll stick with around 30 minutes worth because I haven’t done any kind of PE related stuff since Grade 10 (remember Grade 10?).

I’m also going to make a more determined effort to watch what I eat. Thankfully there aren’t a whole lot of birthdays or other events in June so I won’t be eating out as much. This means a reduction in red meat, pop, pasta, desserts, etc and rice (which is going to be close to impossible being Asian). At the same time, this means an increased intake on greens and fruits. I keep saying these things but I never follow through on it. I’m going to follow through on it this time because I have motivation:

She’s Asian, in my STATs class, sits on the far right near the back row and has legs that can kill.

But it is not going to be easy. If I ever ask you to go out for all you can eat or something else that you feel is going to be against my game plan here, feel free to stop me.

How do I like it so far?

It is fun! You start off with a limited amount of games and activities at first. You can only unlock more as you progress throughout the game by logging more minutes.

I started with the Balance games. I wanted to start myself off easy and I found out quickly that I have horrible balance. I missed 7 flags on my first run through the Skiing. I had a hard time on the soccer head butting game because I kept overextending myself and falling off the balance board a few times (use your legs, not your head dummy).

The yoga aspect is much more interesting (in the closed confines of your own home with the shades drawn). There’s a breathing exercise that you start off with first which helps you develop a rhythm. The screen flashes based on what you should be doing (inhale or exhale) and you can pick your personal trainer (male or female). It would’ve been nice to have access to other trainers. Just imagine what Bowser would have done.

I got rocked by tree form. It looks something like this:

They make it look so easy. But geeze, it’s hard to stay balanced. It scores you based on how well you balance on both legs. I scored 0 on my left on the first try. I have a lot of work to do.

I redeemed myself by nailing the Warrior form with ease, scoring 100 points after my 5th attempt:

After Yoga, I gave the muscle conditioning activities a shot. Here’s an example of the Lunge. It’s one of the few exercises on the box of the Wii fit:

After about 30 reps, you can start feeling the burn. But I’m a WoW player remember? So its more apparent to me then everyone else.

Tomorrow I’ll give the aerobics activities a try. Those ones are a bit more fast paced. I’ll also post up a quick picture of myself. Can’t do a self study without a before and after photo, right?

My only worry is that one of these days when I’m standing on the skytrain, I’ll mindlessly go into tree form without realizing it while holding onto the bar. I guess it would be a plus if I can pull it off without holding the bar on a moving skytrain.

Baby steps, Matt, baby steps, right?

Taking some time off. Don’t know when I’ll be back. Good luck, have fun, make pokemon.

I got offered a position as a freelance columnist on one of the top World of Warcraft news sites (WoW Insider). It’s a paid position which offers up to $200 a month. This requires four 500-1000 columns on a weekly basis about the "Priest" class in WoW. It’s a pretty cool gig and I’m still mulling it over. It doesn’t help that exams are coming up within 3 weeks and I have a paper due next week. I have no problems at all coming up with ideas or executing them. Throughout high school, I’ve always loved to write and I’d write about the strangest and weirdest crap at times. If I take this position, it means I lose a certain degree of creative flexibility. Heck, my blog alone has over 300 subscribers and it’s only going to go up higher. Obviously what I write for WoW Insider isn’t going to have much of an impact on my blog. I allot a certain amount of time during the week for school, WoW, writing, and sleep. It would only be a matter of restructuring my time management schedule.

Pros

I get paid to play and write about WoW legitimately. It does NOT get any better than this.
Exposure for my blog. It’s almost guaranteed that my visibility will go up more.
Looks good on the resume. Whoa, you wrote for a blog that gets 5 million views per month?
Women (Maybe).

Cons

Deadlines. I hate deadlines. But it shouldn’t be a problem. I usually build up a weekly buffer of posts on my blog anyway.
Potential backlash. Oh the flame wars will be numerous. I will constantly be attacked as a writer for my opinion.
Quality goes up. I set a very high standard of quality for myself. By going for this gig, I’m only going to scrutinize myself even more so.

When I first started blogging, I did it for fun and mostly to teach players to become better players. I always had ideas about writing for WoW Insider and for their head guy to come out and actually e-mail me is a tremendous surprise for me.

Maybe I should pursue this. It’s definitely safer then law enforcement. But ugh, freelance writing can be stressing too. For now, having a source of income is better then none at all.

In high school, we were never taught how to properly deliver presentations or give good talks. What the heck is a discussion question and why did we have to come up with one? I’m going to share with you some of the secrets and techniques that I have learned throughout the years. Remember that there was no public speaking course. There wasn’t a Powerpoint seminar. Public speaking is a good skill to have in your life especially when you’re in school and 20% of your mark comes from the presentation.

My goal here is to be brief. I will expand on these topics in the next couple of days or weeks even. Heck, I just might make presentations the main focus of my blog.

Be Yourself

: Have you ever stopped and observed your own behavior? Compare yourself around the comfort of your own friends. Then look at yourself again when you’re giving a presentation. What changed? You were a nervous wreck because you tried to be someone you are not.

Be Prepared

: We all get the jitters before giving our speeches. It’s only natural. You don’t want to screw up, you don’t want to look like a moron, and whether or not you get that $5000 grant rides on your ability to sell yourself and what you are doing. The way I see it, the main reason students get scared and nervous going up there is because they’re afraid. Why are they scared? Because they are scared of the unknown. If you practice and rehearse repeatedly, you maximize the amount of control you have. The more in control you are the less scared you will be because you know what to expect.

Connect with your audience

: For us, it is our peers. The one thing that drives me crazy after watching some of the presentations on stage is that I don’t have a reason to participate. We have a line in our prerequisites of the presentation assignment that goes something like this:

“Come up with a discussion question involving your topic.”

More often then not, it’s something bland like “What do you think about X?”

That is not going to work. Why? I guarantee you that none of them will know about the theory as much as you do. You’re the one giving that presentation and force feeding them that information. Your mark rides on their discussion and their feedback. If the class doesn’t participate as much you are royally screwed. So here is my advice to you: Pick a question that not only relates to your topic but applies to your audience.

Let me give you an example. I had to give a talk about crimes and their evolution in society. My question to my class was why do you download music and not buy it from the store? Why download movies instead of renting? I framed a question that applied to everyone in class. It was something that I know every person had experience with. I chose a topic that was contemporary and applicable in society today. I only brought enough material for 10 minutes worth of actual presenting. I had to fill it up to 20 minutes. That class discussion filled up the last half of my presentation with no problem.

The next thing I’ll blog about is the presentation from start to finish as well as the delivery.

I found this great education blog. I’ve already subscribed to it on my Google Reader. It’s got some great tips and advice. The guy’s latest piece is on how to master hard readings.

This is something that many students dread. They work hard, they put in the effort, but yet still aren’t able to push the bar pass a course.

I checked my grades today and I found out I failed Cognitive Science. I picked up a pair of C’s in Criminology and English. There’s one more grade coming up that has not been released yet.
It’s an incredibly different feeling when you’re on the other side of the fence. Usually it’s my friends who are stressing and worrying about failing exams. I’m the one that tries to cheer them up and encourage them. They’re not going to fail the course because they’re just absolutely brilliant in many ways. The only reason they’re going to fail a course is if the prof makes a typo on your grade. Is it not ironic then that the person who is the most calm and collected about school ends up being the one who doesn’t make the cut and fails a course?

It’s not often that I don’t know what to do. First, I’m going to lie down and think.

Okay, I’m finished wallowing in my self pity. I just sat and laid on my bed for about an hour just closing my eyes and thinking. After that, I got up and walked over to my computer and started talking with some people.

What Worked

I know I did well on my assignments as a whole. I pulled a B on my paper for CRIM and a C+ for English. Obviously not the greatest marks, but not terrible either. I got an A+ on my presentation.

The course readings I kept up with as best I could. At worse, I would have only been behind one chapter (during midterm weeks).

Where I Choked

Exams. If there’s one thing that was consistent across all my courses this semester, it would be in finals and midterms. I failed my Crim midterm early on. I must’ve done poorly in my Cogs final exam (which was worth 50%).

An important lesson I learned in World of Warcraft is that when you have a problem, find out what it is and what you can do to fix it. It’s stupid to fight a boss doing the same things that got you killed in the first place. What’s the point of running into a brick wall when you know you can’t break through it, right?

Problem: Choking on exams.

Solution: I have no freakin’ idea.

Let’s see if I can devise one.

Environment:

There’s no way I can study at home. There’s a computer and a bed in my room. The kitchen table has food. There’s always a game being played on TV.

So what do I do?

I go the library. I like the downtown Vancouver library since there’s a Blenz conveniently close by. I’d sit there and read and write.

Study Buddies:

I’m very glad I met Alicia last year. Without her help and support, I doubt I would still be enrolled in SFU this semester. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t have any classes together this semester. But that’s beside the point because I cannot continue relying on others to help me do well in school. That’s a problem there that I’m trying to address. Friends are an incredible asset when you’re studying. They can help you focus and stay on track. If they’re not, then why are you studying with them? I’m used to having a friend around to study with that I may have inadvertently started relying on them for help all the time.

However, I still think you should make friends with the smartest person in class. You start picking up on their habits and studying regimens. You learn different techniques and you can help each other when there’s a topic you don’t understand. Instant messaging is no subsitute for face to face studying.

Flash Cards:

I’m going to try making extensive use of them when studying. Writing a term on one side and the definition on the other should help. I remember borrowing a friend’s set of flash cards during the summer for 220 and that worked well. I can’t believe I didn’t utilize them myself this year.

Ask Questions:

Asking questions is not a problem for me. It’s asking questions in front of 300 other students that gives me pause. Profs always encourage you to ask and speak up, but it’s still a little nerve wracking either way. What I’m going to do is set a time each week to visit a TA or a Prof and ask questions. If I don’t have any, I’ll come up with some on the spot to help clarify my understanding. The important thing is to come in there with the mindset that it’s part of the schedule and not optional. If I can force myself to do that, then I should perform a little better.

Highlighting

Have you ever seen textbooks where all your friends would do is highlight a whole page? What’s the point of that?

Alicia took it a step further and suggested that I start color coding my highlights.

• Green for formulas
• Yellow for terms
• Blue for concepts
• Pencil underlining for definitions

There’s a slight problem. I don’t have a set of highlighters to use. If I only had a set of highlighters then I’d be able to use them! As such, the only highlighting I’ve done is with this blue pen I got on career day. Christmas is coming up in under a week. I wonder if someone will get me a set of highlighters for Christmas.

My Own Study Guide

I’m going to make my own study guide leading up to the exam. I just saw an example of one and it looked nice. It’s a collection of notes from lectures and textbooks all combined into one neat pdf that can be printed out. It’s a way of reinforcing everything you learn because:

1. You’re compiling it from source information in your own words
2. You’re reading it again to make sure it’s neat and makes sense
3. You’re reading it one more time to study off of it
4. It includes information that you think is relevant to the exam

Whew

I’ve got my goals all set for next semester. I’m below the 2.0 mark for my cumulative GPA. If I stay below that for another semester, I get kicked out of the University. One semester is all I have now and it’s literally going to make or break me.

It’s the holiday season and Christmas is almost here.

All of a sudden I’ve lost the desire to celebrate and go out partying.

And I’m putting it here for the record that I promised Alicia that I will focus and work harder.

Face it. Without geeks, your life would be over. You would not be facebooking or Wiiing or doing any of that fun stuff that came from bored geeks. So why not show a little appreciation for that one geek in your life?

You know, the one who braves snowstorms, hurricanes, and stormtroopers to fix your internet connection so you can hand in your homework that’s due in 20 minutes?

Or the geek who is the only one online who can listen to your relationship problems on MSN because he happened to be awake at 1 AM trying to finish leveling his Paladin on World of Warcraft?

1) Backlit Keyboard: This can be any brand, really. But you can’t say it’s not useful. It’s difficult to find a good keyboard these days. What you see here is a common affliction that all serious gamers suffer from. The letters on the keys are running out!

2) Deskpad Calendar: A common misconception is that gamers have no lives. Totally not true. Our lives are just as normal as yours except we’re much more efficient at managing time. The secret? Calendars. I run iCal on my Macbook and use Google Calendar on my desktop. But sometimes it helps to have a pencil and a large calendar to write down important dates (like online gaming nights or tournaments).

3) Transformers DVD: Best movie I’ve seen since Gladiator. Now you being the smartass that you are would ask “Well what movies have you seen since Gladiator?” To which I would respond “None!” All the same, I don’t think there’s a person in the world that would not agree that this would be an awesome DVD to own.

4) World of Warcraft 60 day Game Card: You saw this one coming.

5) Mario Strikers (Wii): Have you heard of a concept of gifts that give back? I was introduced to that idea this year by a new friend I met at school (Hi Amanda!) This would be one of those gifts because you can always play with them. Actually, there’s a bunch of great Wii party games out there that’s a blast to play. Another title you can add is Mario Party (awesome game with a full house)!

6) Check Facebook: Still don’t have a clue what to get them? Most geeks will have developed their facebook or myspace profiles extensively.

If all else fails, buy a giftcard from BestBuy or at a store which has electronics. They will love either way, regardless. Geeks are simple, sensitive creatures. They will not think any less of you if you buy them coffee or a coffee machine.

So it’s finally over.

Pickton’s been found guilty for six charges of second degree murder. I’ve talked to several people today who asked me a few questions about what’s going to happen to him. To be frank, they’re worried that he will be released on parole and could be walking among us within the next ten years. Second, they wondered why he was acquitted of first degree murder.

Let’s clear up the second question.

What is first degree murder?

In a nutshell, murder is considered first degree when it is planned and deliberate. The prosecution had to actually prove that Pickton drove out all the way from his farm downtown to pick up some girl, drive her back, and then actually kill her. It’s a bit of a tough stretch unless he’s stupid enough to leave maps and plans lying around.

There’s other things that automatically elevates crimes to first degree. For instance, killing a cop, killing a hostage, or some kind of terrorist activity.

If the defendant is found guilty, 25 years period.

Second degree murder is anything thing else that doesn’t fit the above.

Parole

Now using the same example from above, once that 25 year period has passed the individual would be able to apply for parole.

Parole doesn’t mean freedom either. I want to make it clear that a life sentence means a life sentence. If a person successfully applies for parole, he is required to continually report his activities to law enforcement at all times. He will always have someone watching over him. He is not a free person. There is almost always some kind of restriction or curfew placed among them. If any of their conditions are violated, then they are returned to prison right away.

So what’s going to happen with Pickton?

It’s entirely up to the judge. He cannot issue a sentence less than 10 years nor can he lock him up for over 25 years. Pickton must first apply for parole then be granted parole. I don’t think our justice system lets people out of the system that easily. They’ve been usually good about it.

One More Thing

Canada has a section in the Criminal Code called the Faint Hope Clause. Prisoners who are serving a life sentence without parole for 25 years can still apply for early parole after 15 years have been served. It’s called faint hope because there have not been a lot of people granted this leniency.

Unfortunately, anyone convicted of more than one murder in Canada (after 1997) has to serve 25 years before being allowed to apply for parole.

He’s almost 60 anyway. Pickton will be in there for a long time.

Sad, but true. After visiting the Eyeologist, it has been determined that I will be forced to wear some form of eye correction.

The crime? Too many video games
The sentence? Part time eyewear

After much sitting there, many lasers, lights, needles, eyedrops, and other such tools of destructive nature he was able to come to a conclusion. My right eye is -1.50 and my left eye is -0.75. I don’t really know what that means.

In Matt’s terms, there is nothing wrong with my sight when I’m looking at objects that are close to me. I can read the characters clearly on my screen. I can enjoy my Macworld magazine. More importantly, I can write an exam without the use of eyewear.

However, when it comes to things like reading overheads during lectures, that is when serious effort is required. Anything beyond the 4th row in a lecture theatre? Nadda. However, there is an easier solution for those of us who have problems reading lecture slides.

To all professors and instructors

PLEASE USE A FONT THAT ISN’T LESS THAN 20!

Just because you have a big frickin’ $5000 projector doesn’t mean you can get away with using a 10 sized font.

Sigh.

At least wearing glasses is only part time. I only need it for distance viewing and if I’m driving (especially at night). After the eyedrops he gave me, walking home was scary. My vision was blurred. I had to walk fairly slow through Metrotown. Everything was so bright! I took extra care on the skytrain platform. I didn’t want to make a wrong step anywhere. By the time I got to the bus, thankfully it cleared up some.

Exams are upon us! Competition is to the point where how we perform in an exam is dependent on what we eat for breakfast. I’ve picked up some nifty tricks over the years to make studying for finals that much easier.

1: Draw it Out

I spend more time managing my time then I do on being productive. Do you know how scary that is? It’s scary because when I’m trying to do things more efficiently, I ultimately fail. I worked out a pretty disciplined study schedule for myself since Saturday. I’d like to think that I’ve more or less stayed true to it. When you’re planning out your studying times, don’t cram it all on one day. It helps to spread it out over a series of days. Take it one step further and break it down by Chapters.

No don’t even do that.

The thought of studying a chapter a day scares me. I know it scares you too. What you should do is break it down by topics that are covered in certain chapters.

Here’s an example from a studying outline that I did for my Criminology 104 course. My prof explicitly stated many times that the exam would be heavily weighed towards the latter half of the year. In other words, everything post midterm would be examined. I set up my schedule accordingly.

Sat. Dec 1: Labelling Theory. Check
Sun. Dec 2: Conflict Theory. Check
Mon. Dec 3: Feminism (Blah). Check
Tues. Dec 4: Post Modernism. Check
Wed. Dec 5: Anything else. Working on it!

You know what’s bad though? It took me two hours just to draw everything out for all of my courses. I set specific times of day for when I would study which course down to the hour. It took me two hours to do that! But at the end of the day, it was well worth it. This way, I had clear and concise deadlines to meet. I knew how much time I had to allot for Cognitive Science and English, etc. My Crim midterm is tomorrow morning. We’ll see if this pays off.

2: Google Calendar

I’m a huge fan of Google Calendar. I’ve used it many times to plan out my days and weeks well in advance. If you need reminders, you can set it to activate popups or send you a quick email. Events can be easily organized (assuming you’re not using Facebook). Using it has been incredibly self intuitive.

3: Post its

Our favorite form of reminders is back and has been digitized. You can get yourself a copy of the Lite version of Post-it notes which is completely free. Just like the pen and paper version, you can scatter postits all over your desktop to helpfully remind you of things to do. I was introduced to it a while back by a friend and I still use it to this day. My MacBook has one even. They’re useful for taking down quick reminders or notes. In my case as a writer, I have one that keeps track of writing ideas.

Obviously you notice it’s finals season. I can’t spare the time right now to write at my normal post-a-day rate. But once finals are over, I guarantee this place will get much livelier.