just how far apple has come in cornering the concept of cool electronica

(Cambridge Wii party. Not my arm. I did win the resulting match.)

The Wii party here in Cambridge was a rousing success despite having only six attendees. So much so, in fact, that the party was broken up by an annoyed knock from my downstairs neighbor at an hour I will not disclose here because as it would undermine my public presentation as a basically considerate human being. Eek.

The women did not dominate boxing as was the predicted and actual experience at the Madison Wii party. Also, strangely, while 19 out of the 20 fights in the Madison Wii tournament ended by knockout, only 1 out of the first 6 fights at the Cambridge party did.

Anyway, one attendee at the party who was very impressed by the Wii insisted on looking at the box before believing me when I said the Wii was not manufactured by Apple. And, after acknowledging this, the person did take the view that the Nintendo was basically copying "style" from Apple. As far as I can tell, the reasoning for why the Wii was copying from Apple was that it was (1) white and (2) cool. You know a company has really accomplished something when they lay an intellectual property claim in some people's minds to "products that are cool" and "the color white."

BTW, I bought the Wii trauma surgery game, although that'll have to wait to be a post of its own sometime.

BTW-BTW, I have a headache, as would be predicted from my effort to go tepid turkey on Coke Zero (tepid, not cold, because I'm just cutting back to one a day). I will persevere. I think.

there is no i in wii

Okay, I just set up my Wii and played a game of tennis. This thing is hilarious. I have got to get a second controller and invite you over.

My elbow is a little sore, though, and I just played one game (which is literally one tennis game--not like a set or a match).

Note: Apart from half a semester of graduate school lost to Tomb Raider II, and another half of a semester lost to Ultima VI as an undergraduate, and being astonishingly good at Gorf on my Commodore 64 in seventh grade, I am not a video game player.

Update: Given that my Standard Shorter Loop running takes me within six blocks of the Cambridgeside Galleria, I took a little detour and bought a second controller. So now we can play doubles tennis. They didn't have an extra Nunchuck controller in stock, though, so we still can't box. Anyway, stop by. Let me know if you need any frequent flyer miles.

wiinner!

Other than some additions to my Magic 8-ball collection, I've never been able to buy anything on eBay because of my fear of the winner's curse--the idea that the person who "wins" an auction is the person who most ridiculously overvalues the thing being auctioned off. But, I cast all that aside and bought the very first Wii I bid on, with the very first bid I made. I am not going to share the price, so I can remain ignorant as to the degree to which I overpaid. I didn't seem inconsistent with my brief inspection of prevailing rates, and was definitely efficient.

fun for all ages

So, I remember back when I was in my twenties I would have a crisis and say, "I'm having a midlife crisis" and it was a joke. Now, I've reached the point where I say "I'm having a midlife crisis" and it's a hypothesis.

I'm thinking about buying a Wii. Thoughts?

acquisitions update

acquisitions update, #10

(An indigo ink blue Corolla, albeit not an S series. Add a spoiler and a little more jaunty underbody design and you have it.)

I have bought a car. A "Indigo Ink Blue" Toyota Corolla S. I may pick it up as early as Monday, although a couple of things need to be done to it. I have the option then of accepting a $100 trade-in on my decrepit '93 Saturn. Received opinion varies on whether I should do this.

I believe that I did not get an awful deal. The only negotiating tactic I used was to not to ever look at all at a sticker price and to have the first thing I said after the test drive be, "So, what's the invoice price on this?" This resulted in the quoted price being about 3% over invoice and closer to invoice than MSRP.

I did have a strictly comparable color choice between indigo-ink-blue and black. I decided that blue seemed like more fun. I'm less sure about that choice, however, than the ultimate decision to go with the Corolla.

Key advice leading to the Corolla was given to my by my friend from Beauxbaton, who, while wording it more kindly than this, made the astute point that I seem to be sufficiently oblivious most of the time while I am driving that a substantial amount of the marginal increase in fun-of-driving between, say, the Corolla and Passat would be lost on me. So, I thought, even though I could afford the Passat, the difference in price could still probably be applied to something I would more mindfully enjoy. I did splurge on a couple of add-ons for the Corolla.

Click here to take a 360-degree tour of the interior of a 2004 Corolla.