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Active Minute No.6: Kill me Carney

I knew my work schedule was leading me into a whole mess of physical labor over this past weekend so I put off #ActiveMin for most of last week. Early on I was hitting Your Shape: Fitness Evolved and pumping things up with 5lb hand weights on cardio boxing routines. It felt nice to play Kinect with some kind of physical resistance and it also got my arms a pleasant shade of sore by Wednesday. I also, finally, topped the high score in hula hoop-ing; turns out those hand weights were just what I needed to keep the centrifugal force up and my hips spinning. On the downside of Your Shape, the Zen stuff continues to work against its design. By the end of the routine I’m always swearing at the screen, waiting for Kinect to register that, yes indeed, I’m doing the moves right!

A few days later I was surprised to see GameFly send an honest-to-god new release my way in the form of Carnival Games: Monkey See, Monkey Do. Three tweets later I was pretty much finished with its passable entertainment and excessive waits between scripted animations and belittling dialog. I did go on to write a quick review for Nerds on the Rocks (now on GameLuv too) so I at least got something out of it. I’m currently recovering from those 13 hours of shin-splitting work but I expect to be hopping around in front of my TV again by the weekend, if I’m not being too Active with IKEA furniture that is.

Though the logo may be heavy on Kinect, ActiveMinute is my attempt to justify all motion gaming peripherals I’ve collected over the years and get a little more physical activity into my day. Sessions last for only a few minutes and are chronicled on Twitter with the hashtag #ActiveMin. I’ll post a frequent recap here but feel free to follow along, comment or join in yourself. Just use that hashtag!

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