FootGaming! More than just playing Footsie...

A bunch of us techie types gathered at our local McMenamin's brew pub the other night to listen to Judy Shasek talk about her latest invention, FootGaming. I said wow, and cool and this will change the world of casual gaming, in a good way. Plus, we got lots of good shoe pictures out of the entertaining evening, too.


We are a game geek family at our house. The husband was a video game designer for years, until he figured out the biggest game of all, the stock market. He began applying the speed, accuracy and kick-ass user interface skills he learned in the game world to create software based on behavioral finance theory and modern portfolio theory, to help you figure out your 401K. He makes it look way easier than beating the boss at the highest level (patent pending, available soon, commercial over, but feel free to contact me if you want to invest!)

So anyway, our kids got the game gene, and spend far more time than their mother deems necessary in front of screens absorbing flickers of light through their eyes, which are controlled by their hands. I know their brains are activated, but their bodies just sit their, quietly while they stare at their games in a trance like state. They probably burn more calories in their dreams. But if they're dreaming of video games? Argh.

Thank goodness for Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Fit, and Eye Toy, all games which get them up and moving, and help ease my mommy guilt somewhat. Of course, I say all of this as I sit here typing on my screen, when I should be running up some hills outside. The guilt is alive and well, everywhere.

Judy gets this mommy guilt, and she gets the bigger problem too: we are all getting lumpier and lumpier while we sit and stare at screens all day. Judy is an educator at heart, she spent years in the classroom, and years doing research on how kids and adults learn. Turns out they learn better when they're active. Something about blood flowing to the brain and movement connecting the learning dots. What a surprise. Who'd a thunk? It's like rocket science, I tell you.

Judy and her resident geek guy now hold the patents on FootGaming technology, which let's people turn their hand mouse into a foot mouse for playing games.

So, instead of sitting in front of your game, you stand up on this pad, and you use your feet to move the mouse to play games. You engage your brain in a different way, and you burn more calories, too. Kids, adults, and old people can all use this technology. It's easy and fun.

Judy says "Everything a mouse can do the FootPOWR pad can do. In addition, it can log your steps, translate your moves to calories used, miles "walked" and even deliver extra FootGaming points to your favorite casual games. Imagine really "walking, running or flying" using whole body activity while in Second Life. Imagine kids exploring Club Penguin or Webkinz while logging the equivalent of miles walked. Bejeweled, Peggle - even Solataire - become calorie using opportunities with FootGaming. Comments or questions? E-Mail us."

This is cool stuff. Judy's going for first round VC funding now, and hopes to take this to the masses. She's already partnered with Clearchoice Health Care and other folks interested in getting FootGaming into the schools and the work place for better health and fitness for students and employees.

Check out FootGaming, and use your feet for good, people!

New Best Derfwad Friend

It's not that I'm too lazy to write my own post today, it's just that this one is so much funnier than the Chubby Mommy Goes Bowling post I was planning on writing.

Mrs. G over at Derfwad Manor is my new best middle-aged mommy friend. I met her online. She read my blog, so I read hers. I love her. She's a crack up, as in she cracks me up. Talk about Laugh Out Loud, Mrs. G has the patent on LOL, I swear.

Read this post for her take on peri-menopause, called Bigger Love Episode 41, the HBO version.

Thank you Mrs. G, and I was wondering, can Johnny Yum-Yum Depp come over and play?

juliejulie and the Cupcake

Check out the sweet little article about me and my cupcake friends, written by Anna Sowa, in today's Bend Bulletin. You'll have to actually buy a paper, you can't see it online. It is quite a silly arrangement, we know, since most of you don't live in Bend, Oregon. Perhaps I can clip out a hard copy and mail it to you. Send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope please.

Sigh. Let us not waste precious blog space talking how small town, traditional newspapers are having a hard time adjusting to the brave new world of online media. That would be silly. It would make us roll our eyes and frown. We do not want to waste any time frowning today.

Let us, instead, focus on this lovely chocolate cupcake with orange icing from our favorite cupcake shop Le Cakery. It was such a fine summer day in the park, and a nice day for a meeting with my WoTech posse and friends.

Yum.

Cupcake memories are the best kind of memories.

Who's Shoes?

Many companies are represented here via these shoes. A few government employees, who'd rather not be identified. I think they are spies, but they will not admit it. Send me your shoes, and will tell the world who you are, unless you would rather remain top secret.

Meeting Fawn and RunGeeksRun

I met her, in real life. I met Fawn, the "real" runner who reads my blog and talks of things with "K" on the end, like 5K and 10K, while I speak of cupcakes and vodka.


I was scared of Fawn for awhile, because she wanted me to start a real club, and I was feeling lazy about all the running that would probably happen in a real club. But a few friends said maybe we could just walk instead, so I agreed and we got regular with our walking, and it is fun.
But Fawn has a busy life with a baby and a husband and a new job and hasn't been able to walk with us, so she has remained elusive and mysterious, hidden behind the internets. Until Friday, that is.

A bunch of us met downtown for lunch and a melding of bloggers and tech women and various and assorted friends welcomed Fawn to our table with open arms. Well, I hugged her at least. And she hugged me back. We are friends now, I'm sure of it.

Turns out Fawn is taller than I envisoned. Plus I thought she would be really quiet and shy, maybe because she's named Fawn. But she seems quite outgoing and funny and sparkly, which is always nice. I adore quiet people, I live with a few, but sometimes I just need some other wacky people around so I don't dominate the lunch table every minute. I think Fawn has a wacky gene, which is about the most fabulous kind of gene to have, in my opinion.

By the way, have you ever had wacky cake? My mother-in-law makes it with my kids. We tell them it makes them more wacky. But I digress...

So I asked Fawn to volunteer for this new little running "club" I've volunteered to help facilitate. It's called http://www.rungeeksrun.com/ and it all started on Twitter and FriendFeed one day when a bunch of us were trying to convince Robert Scoble, a roving video journalist at Fast Company, to go running.

Several geeky strangers bonded right then and there in cyberspace, and we decided to start a club. Fawn and I are members in the RunBendRun group, so check us out, and join us. We're thinking of putting on a little 5K run for charity in November with a few corporate partners who are happy to support casual runners and walkers like me, along with serious runners like Fawn.

Stay tuned, and join us in Trying Not Crying, and making new friends.

Chubby Mommy Cupcake Club

Here's our friendly, Chubby Mommy Running Club friends up against a wall. We went to lunch yesterday, with some other FOJ's (friends of Julie's) where a reporter interviewed us about cupcakes.

Unrelated, anyone who wants to attend Cathy Sassin's nutrition lecture today at the Bend Athletic Club, I'll see you there at 10:00 a.m. It's free! I don't think she'll have cupcakes there, but if she did, they'd probably be mini-cupcakes with a dash of protein powder discreetly mixed into the frosting.

Today I am guest blogging on the Karen SugarPants blog Please check out my little ditty about Sugar and Pants, and my new hero, Frances Kaszubski.

And stay tuned for another post here. I met Fawn. I actually met her in real life, and I have the pictures to prove it, and I'll tell you all about it!

It's going to be a good day, I can tell already.