the art of wiing, or in other words, getting our ducks in a row.

Wii. Get it? Wii-ing?

It could be an exclamation of joy, but in our case, it is Virtual Reality Resort Recreation (VirReal ResRec... just kidding. I just made that up).

Our instructors: D and N.

Our mission: Paddle our virtual canoe across the duck pond (virtual pond=clean pond), stay within the yellow buoys, and guide the baby ducks to Mama with our trusty canoe.

Easy, you say? Wii beg to differ.

Did you know:

Angle of your tilting controller determines the side of virtual canoe when you paddle. It doesn’t matter if you actually put the controller on that side. One could, in fact, paddle with a casual flick of the wrist while lying on the couch, as long as the angle is correct. (Physics genius or not, that is messed up.)


Did you know:

Ducks aren’t programmed to be caught and guided to Mama. This is also true for ducks in real life.


Did you know:

There is a breaking point even with fake canoeing. There is only so much turmoil a person can take while chasing ducks around that don’t want to be found. Not to mention the angst you feel when you tilt your paddle consistently at a wrong angle and crash into yellow buoys. It's surprising how a virtual world can still produce fake, real emotions.

Anyway, had anyone looked at us paddling furiously with little white control things in the middle of the living room, I would have been mortified. Out of context, we looked ridiculous.

So, tragically, the escape button was accidentally pushed before we finished, much to the disappointment of our teachers, who disapproved.

We could have done this business in the real duck pond by our house. The kinks are almost out in a daring mission to “rescue” a duck or two. (However, real pond=disgusting pond.) Anything is diverting at college, and relocating a quacker to a rival apartment's shower is hi jinks worthy of a blog post, at least. I'm told that all it would take is a little NyQuil and a cold front, since ducks (like humans) don't like to expend more energy than necessary, they use all their energy to keep warm and not a lot of energy to run away. And it's not really that hard. Though real ducks are a little twitchy, I’m told (information courtesy of the G sisters), “They squirm a lot," regarding relocation to the shower, "but they secretly like it…”

art of blogging

I've been skeptical about Blogs since first reading about them 4 years ago; the word "blog" is ridiculous sounding and doesn't seem to have much street cred--But the appeal of a project, coupled with easy access to readers made it difficult to resist the pull (plus I found out blog stands for web log. Who knew?)

As you can read vaguely in the Explanation Section, our project (there are two of us--A and L) is that we determine what interesting things people know how to do, and they teach us a bit of an introductory course.

First Project: Blogging. Intro to the art by T, N, and Ty.

L interjects:

"I thought blogging would be fun. Actually it was ridiculous. Who knew that there were so many stupid formatting parts to a blog; who knew that it would take 30 minutes to decide whether we needed white or black words; who knew that there would be a process..."

I (I'm A) actually spent all day getting ideas and help from tons of people around me, asking their ideas and for hints. I felt weird without L, who for different reasons couldn't make it. I think she feels a little like this first blog isn't really collaborative.

L again:

"But I'm kind of important to this process, 'cause I light up people's lives. And we need a lot of light in this blogging project."

We did it though, even if we threatened peoples lives to help us finish posting this first one. The night is waxing, and we need some sleep. Good Blogging, People. Thanks for the Art form.

Here are L's last words...

"Dear S,
If you get this message then that means that I am no longer with you. I've been taken captive by an alien ship BloggerDotCom. It's a horrible journey. Know that I am aware of your suffering, but I have suffered more. Don't cry too hard for me, but just a little for my loss..."

Well, who knew you could actually say whatever crazy, random thing you wanted. You will find a little of that here, and a little crazy, random things we do, or new things we try. Read, enjoy, and volunteer to teach us something new!