Just another manic Tuesday...

[elfs]

So, anyway, Tuesday after work I wandered over to Yamaarashi-chan's house to pick her up. She's really gotten into Dance Dance Revolution (yay, a physical activity), and man if that isn't a humbling game to watch: she's pretty good, but after finishing up a level the meter at the bottom read, "You burned 18.3 calories." Great. What does it take to actually lose weight?

I stopped by the house and picked up Omaha and Kouryou-chan and took them out to a Japanese restaurant, where Kouryou-chan chanted "Ewww" when I ate raw octopus slices. The girls dug down on deep-fried ice cream. We wandered over to the bookstore but didn't buy anything; money's tight this month. I wish I'd remembered to bring the stack of books to give to Half-Price Books, since they'll give me a cash card good for their books, and I've developed a sudden interest in T. Coraghessan Boyle's work.

I've also revived my gum habit, now that I've chewed my way through a twelve-pack of pens. In a moment reminicent of Calvin & Hobbes, I must say that Hershey's can't make a stick of gum worth chewing. All of their line has a mealy and unpleasant texture compared to Wrigley's. And why the heck do so many brands have phenylalanine in them, anyway? There's no reason for JuicyFruit to have it.

Since I can't write with my laptop (and I tried one of those PDA keyboards-- too small, and no Dvorak driver for it, not good for my wrists at all) I've taken to driving in to work more often. If nothing else, it gives me study time and books-on-tape.

I also made it all the way through the introductory course in Japanese, all four CDs. I'm rather pleased-- I've never made it to the end of a lesson pack before. I suppose having a private study space has made a big difference in my attitude towards the material. Now I have to decide if I'm going to finish the long course-- all 70 lessons worth.

Current fiction book, e-type: At The Mountains of Madness, by H.P. Lovecraft.

Current fiction book, paper: Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters.

Current non-fiction: Modern Japanese.

Comments

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

The calorie meter in DDR is horribly inaccurate. It bears little resemblence to reality.

[shadowfey.livejournal.com]

Really? Which way does its inaccuracy slant? In the user's favour or against? (Ie, do you actually burn more or less than what it claims?)

[lucky-otter.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure the answer is "neither". Think about it. The only information it has is when buttons are pressed. It doesn't know how hard you're working to press them. It doesn't even know how much you weigh! It can't possibly be accurate with that limited data set. I guess it could possibly always overshoot or always undershoot, but based on the values I've seen from it, it's neither. I've seen someone get hundreds of calories for a *single song*. You can't use 300 calories in 3 minutes. I've also seen someone work their butt off, fail the song horribly, and get a calorie rating of around 5.