Wii and Mii

July is birthday month so we got a gift we all can play with. We got a Wii and a Wii Fit to help us get off the couch.

You start by making a Mii, an avatar for you to play the Wii games with. Besides picking hair and eye color, you pick your favorite color for the clothing and can size your Mii. Here's Mii, short and chubby and accessorised with my blue glasses.

Wii Fit has yoga and aerobic exercises, core training and balance games. Wii Fit helps you set weight goals and keeps track of how you are doing on a daily basis. You get to pick a personal trainer to work the yoga and core training. I chose a male and call him Jack after the tv exercise guru of the 60s Jack LaLane. There's a female trainer, but looking at her cartoon figure in her tight and cute yoga togs made me feel like I was working out with a Barbi doll. As you do the exercise she exclaims "Picture your ideal body!" and I look at her tiny waist and grapefruit sized boobs and think that ain't gonna happen. So I work out with Jack.

The Wii Fit board can be cheeky. She has a child-like voice and when you step on her she goes "Ohh!" as in "Ohhh, you're heavy." or "Ohh, 6 elephants weigh less than you do." I don't think she's quite calibrated correctly as she chastised me for gaining 7 pounds in one day!

Still, it's fun. Like having a holodeck except the computer doesn't go haywire, the Miiples dont' go rogue and no one dies like a red shirt. Though one can die an epic death when trying to walk the tightrope in one of the balance games. Too funny!

You can create your own Mii to use as an avatar even if you don't have a Wii. Visit http://www.myavatareditor.com/ When you're done playing, export your Mii to your hard drive as a .png or .jpg