Ben Benner’s Blog

It is a cliché to make resolutions at the beginning of the year, but hey why not.

It goes without saying that I could stand to lose a few pounds. I have been meaning to actually make an effort to exercise. While watching TV, Gina and I both had he same reaction to the commercial for the EA Active ‘game’ for the Nintendo Wii. We both thought it was a really good idea.

I have had gym memberships before and well have just never used them. I had thought about getting the Wii Fit before and the EA Active looked to be quite interesting. We got a $100 gift card to Land’s End from work for x-mas. There wasn’t anything at Land’s End that we wanted. However, we were able to use that card at Sears.

Sears had both the Wii Fit (board and ‘game’) and the EA Active. I opted for us to get the Wii Fit board vs the EA Active. We might get the EA active later, but the Wii Fit board used up all but $2.59 cents of the gift card.

I did about 25 minutes on the Wii Fit tonight. I found some of the Yoga exercises quite challenging and some of them were not challenging but felt really good. I did some of the strength training routines as well, again some challenging, some just felt good.

The Wii Fit software is pretty good, intuitive and encouraging. I have to agree with some of the online reviews that I have read, where folks disagree with the ‘Wii Age’ that they get assigned. The system gave me a Wii Age of 49, which feels horrible, given that I am 31. This felt really horrible, when Gina got a Wii Age of 31, her real age.

Given that I don’t exercise on a regular basis, I am certain that I will manage to lose some weight by doing some Wii Fit exercises regularly. I also want to work in some REAL exercise, being going outdoors and running/jogging. But I will say this, I did the ‘Run’ that is within the Wii Fit and it was quite a workout to run in place for what I believe was two minutes. It was intelligent enough to know if you were ‘running’ too fast and makes you trip and fall (it detects and interprets the motion of the Wiimote to gauge the speed of your run) .

Gina and I both setup our profiles and set our goals. Hers are a bit more aggressive than mine, but the software allows you to change your goals up every two weeks.

I am going to try and get in at least 25-30 minutes of Wii Fit in a day/night. I would like to try and get in a run/jog in twice a week and use the office gym at least once a week.

I have talked about stuff like this in the past, but never really tried to plan it out. I hope to be able to keep this resolution and reach my goals.

I would like to make some other resolutions as well.

1. Exercise Regularly
2. Keep Baking Bread Regularly (including using my own starters not just active yeast)
3. Salad For Lunch 3x Week (including weekends)
4. Blog Regularly (not daily, but several times a week)
5. Take a real vacation, i.e. not in Michigan or Tejas.
6. Make dinner more often.

I think I have cooled down sufficiently from my ‘workout’ and am definitely ready for bed.

Laterz

bdbenner Wii, exercise, video games ea active, exercise, nintendo, Wii

“See the bay and buy a Wii!”

So last year Gina and I saw that the Traverse City Meijer’s had several Nintendo Wii video game systems. We didn’t buy one when we saw it, stating that we were planning to be back in Traverse City the next day and if they still had some we would buy one then, because then it would be kismet.

However, we did not make it to Traverse City the next day, and therefore did not purchase the Nintendo Wii at that time.

This past Monday, we went to the Traverse City Meijer’s with the intent of purchasing groceries for the bbq tomorrow and some other foodstuffs. Before we set out on the trip north Gina and I had stated that we would need to check to see if that Meijer’s in Traverse City had a Nintendo Wii available, as there have been NONE available in Austin. (They sell like hot cakes, or are secretly diverted off to eBay.)

Well, they did have a Nintendo Wii available, two of them in fact. We purchased one, it is still in the box. Since they were having a sale we also purchased a second Wii-mote, that came with the latest Wii-Sports game disc.

I asked the clerk if they get regular shipments of them (Wii systems) delivered. She told me that they get a delivery about every 3-4 weeks, and that they usually get 20 units. However, this last time they got 50 units.

From what I have been able to get out of some (ToysRUs, GameStop, etc) clerks down in Austin, they get a shipment every 1-2 months and only a handful of units (5-10). So 20 units being shipped to a Meijer’s in a town that is a decent size, but known for being a resort town seems to be a little off.

But as I tried to say with a straight face to Gina, “It is a by-product of attempting to have an equal distribution of product across a chain of stores without taking into account the the regional demographics.”

I said that mouthful before I found out that the latest shipment had 50 units, of which they had already sold 48, err 49 with our purchase. So regardless of Traverse City’s reputation for being a resort town, that Meijer’s can sell some video game systems. The clerk informed us that one lady purchased three systems. Leaving the store and returning each time, therefore fulfilling the “limit one per purchase/visit” policy.

So I definitely think that given the trouble the tourism industry is having in northern Michigan, that Traverse City should do a promotional campaign and promote the fact that the Traverse City Meijer’s has Nintendo Wii’s available (fairly regularly) as a way to bring in more visitors to the city to have them see the Grand Traverse Bay.

Ok, time to shutdown and go to bed.

Laterz

bdbenner Wii, travel, vacation, video games meijer's, nintendo, nintendo wii, traverse city, vacation, video games, Wii