DDR for Life, Yo!
DDR = Dance Dance Revolution for those of you not in the know.
First, some time back, I read this article on bOING bOING about how certain health insurers are participating in a study to reduce obesity in children. Via Dance Dance Revolution. No, that is not a joke. And, trust me, when I had a PlayStation 2 with the low-rent DDR controler at my house, I tried it. Once. Damn thing nearly made my heart explode! That is one serious game. But, beyond the game aspect, there was an included program to tell you how much game-play you needed to burn off a certain amount of calories. Yes, a video game with a calorie counter built in to it. Crazy!
Now, for those of you who want to do this, but don’t want to shell out the clams for an official DDR controller, you can build one yourself. The folks over at InventGeek.com have a “dancepad” project that takes you through the steps, so to speak, and helps you build your own, custom DDR controller. Cool, isn’t it?
Yeah, well, I thought it was cool. And, no joke, Dance Dance Revolution is a heck of a workout. Besides, I’ve been stuck in front of a terminal at work all week, working extra hours, so I haven’t been able to scour the Internet for better links or work on my NaNoWriMo novel, which at my current word count, isn’t much more than a long short story. Ah, well, maybe next year!