The long version:
The new xbox360 Kinect really truly absolutely rocks!

After watching the Kinect promo’s and tutorials that xboxLive has made available since E3 earlier this year, Lisa and I knew that the Kinect was a must have addition to our media center.  So, today being launch day, as soon as I arrived home tonight, we headed over to the local Toys’r'us (I had a gift card and cash to use, or I would have pre-ordered it somewhere) to hopefully pick one up.  With all of the hype over the Kinect, and the push to pre-order from just about everyone, we weren’t sure that we would be able to get one today.

As soon as we arrive we walk straight to the electronics section, that except for two employees, was devoid of all humanity.  The chipper young woman, who was actually a xbox employee, asked if she could help us, and when Lisa said “do you have the Kinect?”, she let out an excited “I’ve been waiting to hear that all day!”

She was genuinely excited to have the opportunity to ‘sell’ a Kinect, so she was probably a tad disappointed that there was no ‘selling’ needed.  Lisa and I knew exactly what we wanted/needed.  After speaking with her it turns out that this Toy’r'us received their shipment of Kinect sensors late this morning.  That meant that for those who had pre-ordered, and showed up first thing this morning to get the goods, had to wait to pick theirs up.  Lisa and I ended up being the second customers to walk out with a new Kinect today.

We rushed home and while Lisa cooked a great dinner consisting of huge turkey burgers I set up the new electronic goodness.  I had to reposition the speakers so they wouldn’t interfere with the mic built into the Kinect.  After dinner we went through the set-up process.  It goes fairly quickly, though until the set-up is complete, the sensor can get confused if it senses more than one person might be moving near the play space.

Speaking of the play space, Kinect does require a lot of open space for players to move around in.  We barely have enough space in our small apartment.  Once we had pushed the couch back far enough, we were back in business.

One of the most amazing bits of technology is the face recognition.  Once you activate the Kinect, it will recognize anyone who has created a profile for it if they are in front of the sensor.  Now granted, there are only two if us, but it was correct every time in choosing the correct profile.

We played a bit with the included game but quickly decided to move onto the ‘game’ that we purchased with it, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.  This is a fantastic bit of software that makes home fitness very fun and interactive.  This will probably become my new fitness regiment.  I’ll blog about my experience with it once I’ve had a chance to use it more.

All in all, the new Kinect lives up to the expectations, and we’re looking forward to exploring all of the devices features.

Cheers!

Enough complaining about the adverts, let’s talk actual voting!

Crappy, non-standardized ballots notwithstanding, I very much enjoy the voting process.  Just the opportunity to take part in democracy is a wonderful thing.  To add to the fun, Lisa and I filled out our absentee ballots together.  It was a blast discussing the different candidates and measures in a way that allowed both of us to have our own opinions.  Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we didn’t, but that didn’t stop us from voting.

One aspect of our voting process that not all countries follow is that our votes are anonymous.  The upside is that all registered voters can participate and not feel that they will be harassed or persecuted for their opinions.  The downside is that anonymity can lead to apathy as you don’t have to put your name on the line to back your opinions.  Where is the responsibility to make educated decisions if there is no personal accountability to those decisions.  It’s very much like comments and message boards on the internet.  Those who take part anonymously typically do so because they aren’t willing to be held accountable for their comments.

In that vein, I have decided to post at least some of my votes during this mid-term election.  For readers who don’t know, I am registered to vote in Ventura County California.  I am not affiliated with any party.  I lean Libertarian.  That means that I am a fiscal conservative, I’m for small government, and I’ll choose social freedoms over dictated morals.

Governor: Meg Whitman (R)
Lt. Governor: Gavin Newsom (D)
Sec. of State: Merton Short (Amer. Ind.)
Controller: John Chiang (D)
Treasurer: Bill Lockyer (D)
Attorney General: Timothy Hannan (Lib.)
Insurance Commissioner: Clay Pedersen (Amer. Ind.)
State Board of Equal. 2nd D: abstained for lack of knowledge
US Senator: Carly Fiorina (R)
US Representative 24th D: Elton Gallegly (R)
State Assembly 38th D: Cameron Smyth (R)
All judges: abstained for lack of knowledge
State Education Superintendent: Tom Torlakson

Prop 19: No
Prop 20: No
Prop 21: No
Prop 22: Yes
Prop 23: Yes
Prop 24: No
Prop 25: No
Prop 26: Yes
Prop 27: No

Yup, there they are.  My votes.  Feel free to comment, but any comments that are no more than “you’re wrong for that choice you stupid ignorant moron” will be moderated.

Cheers!

Clap.

Clap,
Clap, clap,
Clap,
Clap.

I spied our good friend ‘The Batman’ keeping an ever vigilant watch over the apartment of Lisa’s friends Mike and Natasha.