Wii Will Rock You

As I had suspected, my brother sent along a copy of the Blazing Angels WWII air combat game for my birthday.   After having given it a try, I have to confess that I much prefer my old Microsoft game.  For one thing, B.A. – at least for Wii – doesn’t have any cockpit instrumentation  – no dials or flap controls, for example.  And you can’t look anywhere but in front.  For another, the aerobatic capabilities of the fighters in this game seem to be virtually limitless.  And for a third, there is a long and boring narrative that goes along with the campaign.  The accents of the Brits especially are extremely dubious.

On the other hand, I’ve been exercising using the family’s Wii Fit for a couple weeks now and I have to say that I am noticing definite results.

What A Guy

I’ve spent the past day or two rereading Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy.  It occurs to me again that one of the many reasons I am so fond of these books is that there is much about their anti-hero Guy Crouchback that I see in myself.  Like him, I very often feel that I am not simpatico.

I’ll tell you a little story about this:  When I was a kid, I worked out an elaborate fantasy to explain why I always seemed to be on the outside of things.  Everyone is born not quite fully done, I thought.  After birth, each new baby is injected with something I called “Factor X”, a serum that completes their physical, mental and emotional development and turns them into what appears to be ordinary.

When I was born, however, the doctors determined that I was so close to normal naturally that any administration of Factor X would transmogrify me into some kind of superhuman.  Not wanting this to occur and thereby upset things, it was decided not to give me the injection, but instead to let me scrape along at the lower edge on my own inborn talents.

Probably not the healthiest attitude in the world, but there it is.  Thank Heaven I inherited Mom’s cheerful nature or I probably would be sunk in perpetual melancholy.

WTF?

I like this: “What the FOCA?” a catchy new website dedicated to rallying opposition to the truly horrid Freedom of Choice Act.  Go check it out.

I did my own little bit of duty against the thing by duly signing postcards to my senators and representative last Sunday, which postcards will be collected and delivered to the Hill in person by our Bishop.  I suppose that for my efforts I will be placed on some kind of black list.

The good news is that I read somewhere recently that FOCA doesn’t even have the votes to get out of committee.  I sincerely hope this is true.

A glass of wine with Damian Thompson.