I'm back to using the Kinect to exercise. My husband (He Who Hates to be Named = HWHN) got it for me over a year ago after a party at a friend's house where they introduced us to Group Kinect. We had a blast competing to pop bubbles and other silly stuff. At that time, he wondered if I'd like the Dance Central game. He thought he'd get one of the exercise/gym games. Anyway, we did, and I stuck with it long enough to learn the dance routines to "Pokerface" and "Funky Town." HWHN had me try the exercise game a few times, but in truth, my knees couldn't take it, and with the extra weight, the fatigue factor from the MS just did me in.

The routines are actually not bad, and HWHN had chosen a "coach" that was young, female, and curvy. I teased him about it, but he said he thought it would be easier to deal with a woman telling him what to do, since he's had lots of practice. (I threw a pillow a him) Anyway, it was only about six games later that he's yelling at the avatar. She even had the audacity at one point to refer to his performance in light of his age. I fell about laughing, and he said bad words. The next time he did the game, he called her The Witch. It stuck.

Eventually, discouragement and fatigue caused me to stop doing Kinect at all, and HWHN went on to other things like online racing.

Yesterday, we got out the Kinect again, and did the new adventure game we bought. It was great. We can play at the same time, and I am much lighter and in better shape generally, the MS being in remission. I remembered that the original exercise game had some good floor workouts, and one section that focused on abs, so I got it out again. Oh boy. After three sets, I wanted to commit acts of graphic violence on The Witch's person. Her perky, smug voice (enclosed in an impossibly perfect figure) says, "That's not quite what we were aiming for. How about if we take a break and try again? You can certainly do better." HWHN said more naughty words.

Argh!!! How totally aggravating. "This is not quite what we were aiming for?" How does she know? And, there's no way for the avatar to understand the actual situation, so she can't adjust how she offers encouragement or support. I know enough about technology to do the things I need to do, but what I know about the Kinect and its controllers is confined to inserting and ejecting the disks, and waving my hand to get the program started. But I was determined to do something about The Witch, so I fiddled until I figured out how to change her.

Next time HWHN goes to do his gym workout, he'll find The Witch has been transformed into a middle-aged man who looks suspiciously like himself... gray hair and beard included. Since I've already tried him out, I know that he says completely different things for encouragement, and he seems all enthusiastic that I'm even there, at nearly 50 years old, trying to get into shape. The perky little Witch is perfect for... oh, say, perky little witches.

And that would not be me.