In today’s world it is incredibly easy to procrastinate, it is even easier to let your goals and aspirations fall to the wayside in the torrent that is everyday life. That is why planners are so important. But lets face it, planners and organizers that you buy at the store (while cute!) don’t seem very personal, smartphones are awesome ways to keep track of things you need to get done, but they can be clunky or cumbersome to deal with.

I’ve had several Filofax style planners in my time, but for some reason, they never quite had what I wanted, and it was always far too expensive to customize them with the different tabs that I would need for my day-to-day life. Refills for them are also incredibly expensive, and they come with almost zero empty note sheets (which are a big deal for me, as I am constantly writing down notes or story ideas). So after stumbling upon iHanna’s blog post about making your own planner while browsing Pinterest I couldn’t help but think to myself: “Why haven’t I ever done that?“

Finding Inspiration

After becoming completely obsessed with the idea of creating my own planner, I began bouncing ideas off of William (who by the time I had actually started making the planner was at his wits end regarding my bouncing enthusiasm) and scouring the internet for inspiration. I had a basic idea of what I wanted out of my planner: Calendar, Blog Post planning area, lots of note paper and a section for work. I jotted down ideas and daydreams and goals for my planner, and even sketched out several possible layouts for my pages. I was excited to find that there were several websites already pre-loaded with layouts and ideas, and my imagination went completely haywire as I kept revising my planner over and over again.

One of the most awesome stops on the internet that I found was Crystal Wilkerson’s 2012 planner download page, which is where I decided to purchase a 5.5″ by 8.5″ binder for my planner instead of building one from scratch. I wanted something that would be able to withstand a bit of punishment, and I also wanted to be able to change the outside as my mood or the seasons changed.

Building the Planner

The most time consuming part of the planner making process was designing my individual page layouts and then later punching holes in them, the majority of my pages that I had designed pages for (ironically) ended up being switched out with blank pages from several of my old journals that I had collected over the years. (I always knew I kept those things for a reason!)

I made my dividers out of scrap-booking paper that I found at Michael’s for about 20¢ a sheet, and used some cute cardboard labels I found for $1 at Target for the each divider’s title. (The pictures don’t have the titles and subtitles on them I’m afraid, I have to get my hands on my Mom’s old typewriter to get them just right.)

The daily pages are actually a modified version of the time-sheets we use at work, heavily edited to give me a checkoff for each of my four daily goals, and allow me to track meetings and appointments on an hourly basis. The daily pages were a requirement for me, as I have a packed schedule, and have several checkoffs each day that I attempt to accomplish.

Luckily with the size of the binder, half sheets of normal copy paper fit perfectly, so when I went to print out my pages I was able to condense 4 days into a single sheet of paper by printing on both sides, which also minimized how much space they would take up in the binder itself. The monthly calendar was a bit trickier to print, as I wanted to use card stock and have them printed at the store in full color. Finding pure white card-stock of the right weight and thickness that I wanted was a bit of a pain, not to mention tweaking the calendar’s layout on my Netbook with the help of a very patient Office Depot attendant to make sure that when the calendar actually printed the way I wanted it to.

I was actually a bit sad when I started cutting all that pretty paper!

Cutting the divider pages was also a bit of an adventure. The only thing I did not try to make from scratch was the little Ziplock holder for odds and ends, and thankfully it came with this perfectly sized piece of cardboard that I used to measure out each side of the divider. I used the large bits of material that were left over from the top to create the tabs for each of my organizer’s sections, and the scraps were used to later decorate the front, back, and spine of the organizer. Hardly anything was wasted in the building process!

The Final Result?

"Notes" Section of the Organizer – Re-purposed Journal Pages!

I learned a lot while building my organizer, and I still have a bunch more tweaks and changes to make along the way. In all honesty it isn’t 100% where I want it to be as of yet, but I can make changes to it as needed without having to go out and spend $50 on a new organizer (which was the main point of putting this together in the first place!)

There are tons of places around the internet to check out for more information and ideas to make your own organizer, and I wholeheartedly you take a look at a few of them and try it out. I was surprised by how rewarding of a project this turned out to be. The links listed below (across from the picture of my almost finished organizer cover!) have not only ideas for you to ponder, but also free templates and stock images to use for your own, so why not get started and get organized!

(Mostly) Finished Organizer!

Kinect Sports: Season Two is the sequel to the original Kinect Sports video game, and is not actually categorized as a fitness style game. If I had to pin it into any game category it would have to be Sports & Family. The idea of the game is to participate in sports, and through completion of games and scoring points you earn fans and increase your overall sport champion level.

KS: S2 is made up of six individual sports: Football, Baseball, Darts, Skiing, Golf, & Tennis. Each sport has its own single player mode (which consist of three separate levels of difficulty), a multiplayer mode (to play with people in the same room), Xbox live challenge mode, and two separate mini-games associated with it. There is also a scheduled DLC (downloadable content) for each individual sport, although what these expansions are meant to be are vague until their release, with only Achievement titles as a clue to what they may be.

Review of Each individual Sport

Out of all 6 available sports tennis was by far my favorite. I’ve spent more time on this sport than any other. Tennis is a fast paced game, and requires that you lunge forward, move backward and side to side, as well as throwing your arms about like a maniac. Like all sports tennis includes two mini-games, one where you whack mascots with tennis balls and another where you hit balls as fast and as hard as you can while dodging bombs.

By simply taking part in the game, you can get a light to moderate cardio workout by playing any of the games if you push yourself. You can also attempt to work your arms out a bit more by strapping on wrist weights. Resistance bands attached to a belt and wrist straps could also be beneficial, but the sudden movement might put unneeded pressure on your joints. In the mini-game rapid returner, try squatting to avoid bombs for a small leg workout.

Overall Impressions

• Playability: Each sport is easy to learn and fairly fun to play. This is a game that you can stand in front of your sensor and play for extended periods of time and not realize how much time has actually passed, and is an awesome way to get some time in with your family while doing something moderately active.
• Physical Stress: Games such as Darts or Golf aren’t going to get your blood pumping, but if you play games such as Tennis or Baseball and push yourself you can get a little bit of cardio out of it. Do not trust the built in calorie counter to track your exertions!
• Value: If you were to walk into your local game store and pick this title up it would cost you roughly $15 USD; however, each sport’s expansion pack also costs an additional $5 which will lead to an overall total $45 for your previously $15 game. Granted, these expansion packs are optional, but the announcer that starts talking every time you go to the game’s main menu to remind you that these expansions are available might actually cause you to buy all of the expansions so that the he will simply shut the heck up.
• Health Risks: Since sports always come with associated repetitive joint problems, playing each sport for hours and hours on end will of course come with their own individual risks. If you have problems with your knees and ankles, then this is probably not the game for you. If you have elbow and shoulder issues, then I would avoid the Tennis games.

Final Thoughts

Kinect Sports Season Two is a lot of fun to play, and you can certainly get a bit of a workout if you choose to do so. But like any other exercise routine you are only going to get out what you are willing to put into it. The game is not going to force you to work out, so the player will have to be willing to put forth the extra initiative to burn calories and work up a sweat. If you are looking for a game to get you ‘into the groove’ of being more active, 1 hour a day of this game will help you help prepare you for regular and more strenuous workouts, I would even recommend playing it on workout ‘rest’ days to slip in some movement, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you are looking for some serious exercise.

As far as general exercise goes, the game comes with a Calorie Counter, but Will and I both agreed that there was no way it could possibly be accurate. Without so much as a weight input to judge your average calorie burn how could it possibly be? Further testing proved that after laying 9 holes of golf (me hitting the ball and not much else) the game assumed I had burned over 100 calories in 15 minutes, where playing tennis burned roughly 16-20 calories over the same amount of time.

The game is fun, although a few of the sports and mini-games can be more than a little frustrating. It will get you off the couch and is low impact enough to keep you moving for extended periods of time, but if you are looking for an end-all game to get you into shape, Kinect Sports: Season Two will not give you what you are looking for.

I’m not entirely sure why I find the series so fascinating, other than the fact that I find the psychological study of each hoarder incredibly interesting. The show also manages to give the viewer an interesting mixture of shock, pity, horror, and confusion. Between the stories of both the hoarder’s and the families involved manages to capture my interest in a way that Reality TV shows have never managed to do before, and I find myself really rooting for the hoarders to win against their disorders.

While watching my roommate has often stated: “What the heck is wrong with these people?” The real problem is that Hoarding is actually categorized as an obsessive compulsive mental disorder (see the OCD Foundation’s explanation regarding Compulsive Hoarding). Many hoarders realize that there is a problem but are unable to do anything about it (either because parting with things causes some kind of emotional trauma); or in the worse case scenario they don’t believe they are doing anything out of the ordinary, and that living in an uninhabitable amount of filth and debris is fine, and that it is everyone else who thinks that the state of the hoarder’s living conditions and are trying to help is out of line.

I recommend the series simply because it is interesting at a base level, but also because hoarding can generally begin after some sort of emotional trauma (such as the death of a parent or loved one) and slowly spirals out of control as hoarding can be used as a defense mechanism against depression. In most cases it starts out fairly innocent (collecting things in your early to mid 20s or living in a cluttered home), and then becomes worse with time. Also, as hoarding is often categorized as an almost ‘silent’ disorder, where friends and family generally have no idea that there is a problem, & watching the show might help others become aware of warning signs, or find help for someone that that know who is a compulsive hoarder.

For those who want to give the series a try, A&E actually offers free streaming of several full episodes of the series. Hulu also offers a few episodes for free online streaming as well, but they are rotated out on a regular basis with other episodes. For readers who use Netflix for their video streaming, you can stream three out of the 5 aired seasons to your TV, Wii, Playstation 3, or XBox 360 at your leisure.

So this year I decided instead of one really big goal such as “Quit Smoking” (Which I won’t for at least another two years) I decided that I would start doing little things to improve my overall health. I figured since I am already running around every day with the Kinect in an attempt to get into shape, I might as well try to do small things such as eating healthier, and watching my calorie intake.

One of the reasons I held off on writing this post for a month, was to see if these changes would be something I could implement in the long-term, and see how different these changes made me feel on the whole. After only a month; however, I have to say that with making a few small changes to to my diet and daily routine have made me not only feel better physically, but I also feel incredibly more productive, which makes me feel even happier at the end of the day.

Diet Related Challenges & Goals

• Exercise at least 4-5 Times a Week
  Even if it is only doing my recommended 15-20 minute workout with Kinect’s Biggest Loser game (Review coming soon-ish). Truthfully I started the year by playing Kinect for 1 hour flat every day (mixing up Kinect Sports: Season Two and Kinect Adventures) but on work days that 1 hour smashed my at-home time a little too much for my evenings to be relaxing. Once I brought The Biggest Loser into the mix and started doing real workouts I also started feeling that I got more done in that 15-20 minute window than I ever did with the original two games. Which helped me feel more accomplished at the end of my “workout time”.I’ve found that doing 4-5 workouts a week gives me enough workouts to be demanding but not so many that I can’t have some flexibility. If I come home dog tired on Wednesday and just want to lay on the couch and contemplate my existence and not work out I don’t have to feel like I failed my goals for the entire week.
• Drink at least 30oz of Water a Day
  I’m very guilty of surviving off of coffee as my almost only source of hydration. (Which is actually quite counter productive). After starting my current job, I had also started drinking soda’s again (ugh!), and ended up putting on some unwanted poundage. I found that by taking a empty Smart Water bottle and filling it with coffee in the morning kept me awake for the first half of the day, and filling it with water during the second half of the day kept me full from my lunch, and actually fought off the 3 o’clock slump.Ever since I started chugging water my waistline has decreased (since I am no longer retaining water!), my overall energy has skyrocketed, and I don’t feel as tired or groggy in the morning. Another wonderful plus is (Warning! Girl-Type talk coming up!) My period has been incredibly lighter and I’ve had next to no cramps whatsoever! Sure drinking water should be second nature, but I’m sure many Americans agree that half the time it is easier to grab a soda than it is to refill a water bottle.
• No More Fast Food! Period.
  Ever since we’ve started juggling school and work William and I have both become bad fast-fooders. I’ve managed to substitute my quick meals from the drive through with Lean Cuisine and Healthy Choiceinstant meals (we still cook more often than not though, but it is easier to run home and eat a ready-made meal during my lunch break than to come home and frantically try to cook, or make a batch of the same thing to eat for lunch for an entire week on Sunday).I was surprised by how many different things were available from both Lean Cuisine and Healthy choice, and since I started tracking my Calories and exercise on a daily basis through My Fitness Pal I can easily see where my calories are going and where I need to cut back. Sure instant meals aren’t as good as a home cooked meal, but some of them are actually quite awesome. One of my favorite snacks is the Lean Cuisine – Spinach & Artichoke Dip with Pita Bread. (Only 200 Calories! Yum!)

I’m happy to say that of the 3 above goals I’ve managed to keep up with all of them throughout the entire month of January! All my exercises, all my water consumption, and no eating out. (Well… I had a Bojangles Sausage Biscuit this morning, but it was more of a treat than something that I feel bad about.) I think that I have found a small routine that works best for me, these changes seem rather small, but they have already had a dynamic impact on my overall fitness, self esteem, and health. I can honestly say that I have about 50% more energy now than I did before the start of January, and I couldn’t feel happier.

Personal Development Challenges & Goals

• Keep a Food & Exercise Diary
  So far I’ve been doing this via My Fitness Pal (an awesome free site that has a almost inexhaustible list of food and exercises logged by other users) One thing I really enjoy about their website is that they also offer an Android application as well as an iPhone one in order to keep track of all of your calories and exercises. In the rare cases where we go out to eat now I can look up menu items via the app and make an educated decision regarding how many calories I have left for the day and if what I’m wanting to eat will exceed my carb or fat gram limit for the day.
• Stop Dropping the F Bomb
  In real life (at least at home anyway) I have a rather filthy mouth. When I am out and about I’m not so bad, but when I’m home and/or around good friends I tend to drop swears without thinking. In an effort to become more ladylike I’m trying to cut back on the cursing. I’ve been doing okay, but sometimes the words slip out before I can think to filter them. If I absolutely can’t help but swear, I do try to do it in Cantonese, although in my mind it still counts. Will suggested a “Curse” jar and then when it gets filled up we can go do something nice, but I pointed out that would basically be a reward for swearing. So I’ve decided to simply flog myself with guilt as a punishment.
• Dedicate (at least) 1 Hour a Day to a Hobby
  I recently took up Cross Stitching again, and I have been making little purses for myself and my friends. (Pictures to be added to The Gallery later). I find doing hands-on hobbies incredibly relaxing, and I tend to do them before bed or while sitting with William and watching a movie. Generally I get too wrapped up in other things (cleaning the house for example) to remember to keep up with my Hobbies. It wasn’t until Will had noted that I am a lot calmer and less antsy when I’ve worked on my cross stitching (or sketching, or spending an hour writing) at some point during the day that I decided to set an hour down to dedicate to my artsy-craftsy side. I have to admit though I certainly feel de-stressed now that I have the opportunity to stab a needle into something for an hour a day!
• Dedicate (at least) 1 Hour a Day to the Eclipsed Moon Network
  And despite the lack of blog posts I’ve actually been doing this! Mostly you can blame my Trading Post for eating up a lot of my time. (Online Trading Card Games are a bit of an addiction of mine, I can’t help but love them insane amounts!) Truthfully I spend closer to 2 hours fiddling, fixing, playing around with, or just poking at my website. I love my domain! And I love being a site-owner. And I really put my heart into Eclipsed Moon. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have my website as a creative outlit or place to play with.
  

Out of my personal goals, the only one I am having any issues with is my horrid attempt to cease swearing. I have other small personal goals (such as learning Manding from my roommate Daniel) that I also focus on, but they aren’t goals that I’m so invested in that I would feel bad if I failed at them.

A Happier More Content Me

I like my personal and health related goals list because while they are improving upon my physical and emotional health, they aren’t really changing anything about me. I’m not losing weight for vanity-related reasons, I’m exercising and eating healthy for the sake of healthiness, and I happen to be losing weight as a fortunate by-product of that. I’m not forcing myself to do one hour of hobby-related things just to get them done, I’m setting aside a parcel of time to do something I want to do anyway, I’m just making sure my time is budgeted appropriately so that I’ll be able to do all of the things that I want to get done, and still have enough time for the comings and goings of real life.

Reader Question: What goals do you have planned for the year? Not all personal goals have to be health related. Maybe you are planning on finishing your degree? Starting your career? What small steps will you have to take to reach your goals, both large and small? How hard are you willing to work for them? If you create a blog post about your goals, be sure to link me to it in the comments and I’ll add you to this post (Yay for free linkage!)

Before I wrote this post I spoke to my mother on the phone. During the call I asked her if she had ever taken part in a heated argument with another mother regarding her choices in how she raised both me and my brother. Her response was: “Of course not. It wasn’t anyone else’s business.” to which I replied. “Exactly.”

I’m going to preface this post by stating that I have no desire to have children. I like children, but I enjoy having them over there, you know away from me. I do not think lowly of mothers or those that do desire to reproduce, and if you are a mother more power to you! You have more patience and grace than I can ever hope to have. Children just aren’t my cup of screaming (but adorable) tea.

However, this does not mean that I do not have opinions about parenting. Oh, I can hear it now: “You can’t say anything about raising children because you aren’t a mother!” So I’ll repeat that I have my own opinions, and that I am entitled to them (even if they are wrong) just like you are. I respect all my reader’s rights to believe in what they choose, but imagine that your opinions are like your genitals; please do not attempt to shove them in my face or down my throat, it really isn’t going to make me like them any better, and quite frankly I doubt either one of us will feel particularly happy after the exchange.

I will state that my opinions are formed from three different forms of data gathering which are: Personal experience (the way in which I was raised); Observation (watching how friends and family raise their children); and research (reading about how others… well you get my drift). These opinions stem from a mixture of personal feelings, and what I have seen work with children, and parenting techniques that I have seen going horrendously wrong.  I’m not attempting to offer any parenting advice (because I will agree that as I am not a parent, I have absolutely no right to give out any type of parenting advice whatsoever!) but after reading about several different parenting topics, I have certainly formed my own opinions about some rather touchy subjects.

A nipple in the mouth is worth two in the… wait…

Lets use my stance on breastfeeding as an example. While many mothers agree that breast is best, most mothers are often told to stop breastfeeding their children at a very young age (several young mothers I know personally were instructed to cease breastfeeding at two weeks to 1 month by their healthcare professionals) I was shocked when I heard this. At minimum (according to the American Academy of Pediatrics) you should breastfeed your child for at least 1 year before considering weaning your child.

Despite the fact that breastfeeding is known to be best for infants, many doctors push new mothers to formula much to soon. These doctors don’t just toe the line when speaking to these mothers and giving half truths, they are blatantly lying by telling mothers that formula is just as good if not better than breast milk.

Human milk is species-specific, and all substitute feeding preparations differ markedly from it, making human milk uniquely superior for infant feeding.¹

Don’t get me wrong though: I fully support a mother’s choice to not breastfeed her child at all. It is the miseducation of stressed out mothers who trust their medical professional to give them correct advice that I have a problem with. But the choice to breastfeed your child? I think that is entirely up to the mother. I don’t believe you are harming your child by not breastfeeding (I wasn’t breastfed and I didn’t turn out to be a murdering nut-job, my brain works fine, and I’m healthy as a horse) and despite the idea that breast is best, some children can’t handle breast milk.

My mother tried to breast feed with my older brother, but his stomach simply did not want to digest the milk properly and he wasn’t putting on weight, once he was switched to formula he was fine. So when my mother had me, she decided that it would be best to just forgo breastfeeding altogether instead of risking the health of her infant. Was she wrong to do that? Absolutely not! She made a choice regarding how to raise her child, and she made an educated decision. Did she know the benefits of breast milk vs. formula and take advantage of any research that was available in 1987? Of course she did, and she made a decision that was best for her and her family.

Not breastfeeding me has not made me detached or anti-social, and not having the ‘bonding experience of nursing’ never resulted in me not being close to my mother. I never had health problems while I was an infant/toddler (with the exception of a single ear infection), and I developed just fine.

Facing the firing squad…

A mother has to sit down and decide what is best for her family and her child. It’s a hard decision, I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like to have the lives of human beings held in my hands, and I certainly can’t begin to understand what a mother goes through when weighing the pros and cons of things such as CIO (crying it out) or sleep training their child. Being a mother is not only stressful, but it can also be lonely, and many mothers reach out to the internet in the form of blogs as a way to connect with others, share their experience, and discuss the trials and heart wrenching concerns they face.

And what are these mothers met with when they present a reasonable argument for why they make the decisions they do? Harassment, finger pointing, and rabid accusations that they are terrible mothers. In the linked post a mother explains that she has decided to use the Cry it Out method on her child, in increments of 15 minutes in an attempt to teach her child to self soothe and fall asleep on her own.  She states quite clearly that she isn’t neglecting the child (15 minutes of crying is not going to destroy your infant’s development), she is simply letting the infant get over a small tantrum on her own.

The baby has been fed, the baby has been changed, the baby has been recently cuddled and loved on and is then laid down in it’s crib and is upset at being put down.

Where is the child abuse in this scenario?

There is a drastic difference between leaving your 8 week old alone in a crib for 8 hours because you don’t want to deal with it, and leaving your 8 week old laying down for 15 minutes and establishing a understanding of “Just because Mommy is leaving for a minute does not mean she is gone forever. Laying by yourself isn’t going to cause you harm.”

And instead of lending a sympathetic ear, or offering at least a token of understanding, mothers with different points of view attack one another (in varying degrees of literacy) screaming about child abuse (when there is none) and undercutting any self confidence a mother might have about her decision. This happens so often that these exchanges have been titled “Mommy Wars” and apparently have become so popular that many parenting blogs are begging for them to stop.

In truth it is an age old argument. Women have been telling other women tips and tricks regarding the absolute best way  to raise their children even if the advice was never solicited in the first place. Everyone always knows exactly how every child ever should be raised because their method worked for them. What used to happen was a woman would smile, nod as she heard the advice, and more than likely discard it. But the exchange would have been a polite one.

Now we have mothers screaming at one another, throwing slurs such as “Refrigerator Mother,” and talking about how cruel and unfeeling a mother is because she made a hard decision for her family and has chosen to stick by it.

To all of the mothers who think they have a right to challenge another mother’s decision I have only one question: At what point did pushing a child out give you authority over the entire universe?

So here is where my overarching parenting opinion comes into play. If you can’t look at what another mother is doing and accept the fact that she is doing what is best for her child – even if it is something you don’t personally believe in – and then attack that mother, you are the one who is the bad mother. Simply because you are teaching your child to be a judgmental, close-minded bigot.

Which I guarantee you, will cause much more harm to your child in the long run than letting it cry for 15 minutes before falling asleep.

1. Hambraeus L, Forsum E, Lo¨nnerdal B. Nutritional aspects of breast milk and cow’s milk formulas. In: Hambraeus L, Hanson L, MacFarlane H, eds. Symposium on Food and Immunology. Stockholm, Sweden: Almqvist and Wiksell; 1975

Long story short: In order to offer the information that you my darling readers have come to expect from me in an easier to view and navigate method, I am performing an early “Spring Cleaning” of sorts, which will include moving and merging (and in several cases deleting) several pages of “fluff content” from Eclipsed Moon.

These changes will not be affecting any content for either the Official Blog or Tumblog, so all prior links to existing blog posts will not be effected. The site will also not be going offline during this re-vamp.

Areas that will be effected will be restricted to the following, and these areas will be unavailable erratically as they are redesigned and reconfigured:

• “Pixel Art” section
• “Site” section
• “Writing” section
• and the “Me” section

I want to go ahead and apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause in the meantime, but I have realized that keeping up certain content that I created in the early 2000s out of nostalgia is silly at best, and a waste of space at worst.

I hope that everyone will find the new website topology easier to navigate and far more centralized in the future.

A different friend who I had allowed to move into my house (and I did not require him to pay rent) accused me of stealing $500 in video games, despite the fact that as soon as we were told that they were missing, William and I drove to every pawn shop in town to see if they had been pawned, and took a picture of the only person who could have possibly stolen them with us. We spent more time searching for his missing games than he did, and only after this friend moved out of my house did any of my games go missing also. Instead of letting him simply throw out the furniture he couldn’t take with him, I offered to buy it as a compromise and basically lost $200 on crap furniture.

Good things did happen this year; despite the rocky start. I procured a full time job in my field, and I actually enjoy my job immensely. I don’t see myself doing this job forever, but it is offering me valuable experience that I am more than happy to take advantage of at this time. I make relatively good money, and I have far more cash than expenses at this time.

I now own my home completely, and I have to pay absolutely no payments on the house. All I have to worry about at this time is the utilities associated with owning a home. William and I are discussing several different ideas regarding things such as paint, or small improvements that we feel would be beneficial (such as built in bookcases, adding cubbyholes in the attic to make storing and finding things easier etc.)

Right now my biggest problem is figuring out where I want to go to continue my education. I’m still relatively up in the air as far as making a final decision, but I have until summer to make my final decision, so I’m going to just keep doing research in the meantime.

Aside from my goals to get healthier in the coming year, I want to spend more time writing (both novels and on my blog), play some more with web design, and of course read more books. I currently have Stendhal’s The Red and the Black that I have been reading, but I also have a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five that I’ve been looking forward to sinking my teeth into. If anyone has any suggestions then please send them my way, I’m a rather eclectic reader.

Kinect Adventures styles itself as a family game. The general gist is that you are a member of the ‘Adventure Team’ and that you are traveling all over the world and completing challenges to become a famous adventurer. You are rewarded for your progress in multiple ways such as badges (think of Boy Scout merit badges); living statues (adorable creatures that you can control with your body movements and make videos); and avatar items.

The entire game is made up of five different mini games, that the player must complete in either a free style mode (where you play the same mini-game indefinitely) or in adventure mode (where you complete various tasks depending on the ‘theme’ of the adventure). As each mini-game is vastly different from another, I’ll explain each one and it’s workout-style impact on the player.

Mini-Game Roundup

Overall Impressions

• Playability: The game is fun, and you can grind out an hour of constant playing and movement without it feeling like a whole hour and work up a sheen of sweat if you play the game as intended (pushing yourself or the game would-of course yield better results for the player).
• Physical Stress: I don’t feel that it is the best workout a person can have (unless you play Reflex Ridge for an hour, in which case you deserve a medal). The games do get faster as you unlock higher levels. But for games such as Space Pop the speed won’t make much of a difference.
• Value: You certainly get what you pay for, Kinect Adventures sells at GameStop for $2 USD used. So even if you enjoy playing it for only a half an hour it more than pays for itself.
• Health Risks: I wouldn’t suggest this game for anyone with ankle or lower back problems, as Adventure mode will have you jumping a lot! If you have shoulder problems I might suggest staying away also, as you will be swinging your arms around quickly in order to grab points or hit dodge-balls.

Final Thoughts

While to a 24 year old this game seems relatively low impact, after playing for a few hours and going to sleep William and myself were very sore the next day. Our bums, legs, and shoulders felt more than a little stiff. We were surprised, because although we did feel as though we played enough to be relatively winded and tired, we never thought that we would be so sore.

The game paces itself really well in that you can be almost out of breath from Reflex Ridge and then play 20,000 leaks (or god forbid Space Pop), feel a little less winded and then play a round of River Rush and then be kicked into a game of Rally Ball. The randomness of Adventure mode keeps you on your toes, and doesn’t let your heart rate get too terribly low.

All in all I would have to say that Kinect Adventures is in fact a fun game, but not the best idea for a workout or calorie burning unless you are willing to put in the effort to make it a workout.

After sitting down and filtering through the GameStop website, we have settled on 8 different Kinect games to review. Out of these eight, 5 of them are targeted for the ‘fitness’ demographic, where as the remaining three are targeted for dance/leisure, survival horror, and party/multi-player style gaming.

Eclipsed Moon’s 2012 Kinect Review-A-Thon Lineup

Quick Review F.A.Q.

We had a lot to do, between four Christmas get-togethers in two days, we had our hands full, but we still managed to squeeze in a few hours for just the two of us on Christmas morning to exchange gifts.  My most favorite gift by far was the jewelry Will bestowed upon me, the Shared Heart sterling silver collection from Zales was indeed a surprise! Even more amazing to me was when I found out that a portion of every Shared Heart purchase is donated to Autism Speaks, the nation’s largest autism science and advocacy organization.  Since one of my younger brothers are in fact autistic, i found this to be a particularly sweet touch.

XBox 360 and Kinect Bundle

Other interesting Christmas gifts include a Kinect that I bought for William. Since we already own a 360, I only purchased the sensor for him, which came with Kinect Adventures. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to work up such a sweat while playing! It has proven to be invaluable for working off our holiday calories.  Even more importantly it is super fun to play! Although I think we have traumatized the two cats with our constant jumping and arm flinging, Carnage (our puppy) just thinks Mommy and Daddy have gone completely insane, and he sits quietly and watches us with wide confused eyes. Will is planning on purchasing Kinect Sports tomorrow, and I want to get a copy of Rise of Nightmares to play around with.

I can’t help but wonder what Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would have been like if it had Kinect compatibility. Between walking through the wilderness and swinging your sword every 30 seconds I can’t help but think the average human being would lose about 5 million pounds of weight playing that game all the way through.

I’ve heard a lot of wining about people playing the Kinect and saying the motion sensing isn’t that good, personally I haven’t had a lick of trouble with it, it maps my movements just fine (granted you need to have a decent distance between yourself and the sensor), but I will admit that there is a little bit of learning curve when you start playing with it. But I find that every game you pick up has a certain level of learning required to become good at playing, every game has a different menu and fighting style that you have to get used to after all.

In other news William and I have decided that since we both have the entire week off work we are going to get out of town for at least a day and spend some time together, we are stuck between heading out to Pigeon Forge or Helen for two days, or heading into Atlanta to go Ice Skating and shopping. As beautiful as both of the tourist destinations are, I’m not sure how much more time I am willing to spend in the car, so we will probably be going with the latter. We already have a Disney Land trip planned for April to celebrate both of our birthdays, which will be uber fun! We will be staying at the Animal Kingdom resort, and we have a five day express pass to all of the parks to take advantage of. Will has never been to Disneyland, so I’m excited that he is going to have the opportunity to go. :smile: