Wii Can't Believe This

Back in the day, I was quite the gamer. This life phase occurred sometime around my mid to late thirties. My platform of choice was the PS2 and my preferred genre was survival/horror. I had to spend more time than I liked dealing with condescending store clerks who wanted to make sure that this unsuspecting soccer mom understood she was purchasing a somewhat graphic game for junior, but it was worth it. I got pretty good.

I didn't spend my entire life in front of a screen clutching a controller. I never quite made the move over to being one of The Pale People. I had a life. But I was a player. I'm not saying I was great. I was, however, quite good. I took some pride in that fact.

Time passed, though (as time is wont to do) and one day I decided to revisit an old hobby. I picked up a pair of knitting needles, one thing led to another and soon I was spending more time wrangling the wool than saving the world from the zombie scourge. The PS2 was used more often as a DVD player than anything else. When I got the new TV back in April, it happened to come with a handy player already installed so the game console began gathering dust. I finally put it away. I wasn't ready to get rid of it altogether, mind you. I figured there was still some play time left in there should the spirit ever move me again.

This brings us to last Tuesday. I bought a Wii. I've been eyeing them for a while now. It is marketed to a pretty wide audience, including adults. Many of the games are designed to help people move along towards a fitness goal or two. Having become bored with my workouts of late, I found myself getting a bit lazy about the whole exercise thing. Frankly, I'm breaking more of a sweat trying to button my jeans these days than I am doing anything else. I figured the Wii would be a nice way to spice things up a bit. And besides, I'm a gamer...or at least I used to be. I could use this thing on many levels!

And so it is as a former gamer with a background in the slaying of all manner of ghouls, monsters and gigantic arachnids, that I tell you of my shame. How did it come to this? How did I become someone who prefers dancing for hours with a monkey in a sombrero? I used to be one of the heroes. I used to shoot first and ask questions later. Now I'm passing over the chance to explore darkened warehouses so I can go bowling. I'm horrified by this turn of events.

I'm blaming the whole thing on the need to traverse the learning curve. I keep telling myself that I should learn to manage the controllers before I go running pell mell into virtual danger. And I suppose that this is a very logical thing to do. But a part of me just can't help but cringe a bit when I get a mental picture of me playing golf. It's a short hop from there to shuffleboard. And I'm pretty sure that activity is available on the Wii Resort game that I'm picking up soon. It's only a matter of time.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

There is really no going back, I suppose. However, in an attempt to redeem myself (at least in the eyes of the knitters) I have cast on for another Invisibility Shawl from Charmed Knits. I knit one a while back and it gave me no end of difficulty. I don't quite know what the drama was there. It's not like it's a hard pattern. I suppose it's got something to do with the tinking difficulty that S1, K2, PSSO's present. One missed yarnover and you have to work back through a billion of these things, most of which are just dying to unravel on you. The final result, though, was rather lovely. Even considering the simplicity of the stitches, it just looked nice. I decided to do another one.

It has taken me three tries to get back into the groove with this pattern. But I've finally got it. Maybe it's all that dancing with the monkey. It is possible I've developed some rhythm over the past few days.

The red isn't part of the shawl. I don't really trim delicate lacy wraps in squeaky acrylic. Honest. I just like to really see my provisional cast on. Makes life easier later when I'm picking it out.

It's a small gesture, the knitting of a shawl in laceweight. Even if it's your own handspun laceweight. It is never going to make up for the fact that I've turned into the gaming equivalent of cream of wheat. But it's the best I can do right now.

Maybe I just need to bowl one or two more frames. Shake my maracas with the monkey a couple more times. Look into that shuffleboard game. You know, keep practicing with those controllers.

Then maybe I'll be ready to go back to that darkened warehouse...

SA