One of the worst feelings in life has to be getting sick in the summer. Your head throbs, your nose is running, you can’t think straight… and it’s 95 frikkin’ degrees outside. If you don’t have Air Conditioning, you’re toast. If you do have Air Conditioning, you realize very quickly how uncomfortable you can still be despite having a controlled climate. You’re hot, then you’re frozen, then you’re sweating again so you crank the A/C up some more: what the heck do you mean it’s already 62 degrees in here, I’m broiling! 3 minutes later you’re under a blanket on the couch after donning a hoodie. But give it another 10 minutes, you’ll be wondering if the A/C is still working, because now you’re shedding all clothing down to your boxers and you’re once again covered in sweat.

Being sick always sucks, it’s not like being infirmed is some joyous event in any other season. Maybe it’s not only battling the outside heat but also just the feeling of true lost potential due to the fact that you’re sick when it’s summer. Let’s face it, while there admittedly is a lot you can do outside in the colder months there is much more that you can do when it’s nice out. In the winter, I’d probably be lying on my couch anyway since it’s so darn cold out there; I just wouldn’t be blowing my nose as much or have that tight feeling in my chest or have the raging headache. In the summer… I can’t even begin to list all the things you can do. On the perfect day, it almost seems like the possibilities are endless.

Recently I’ve been caught saying that the phrase “burning the candle at both ends” doesn’t nearly describe my activities as of late. It’s more like I stole the wicks off of a half-dozen menorahs, transplanted them all into the candle, and then lit all of them. I’m sure that now that I’m past the ACT my body is merely telling me that I’ve been pushing it too hard, and I’m not one to disagree. But I wish my body could be a little less obnoxious in its methods for getting the point across - maybe just a few days of “wow I’m tired, I need to go to bed early” would have done just fine.

Tournament this upcoming Sunday, fingers crossed I can kick this thing before then. I seem to already be on the upswing after only 48 hours, which is a good sign I think. Off to get another rare 8+ hours of sleep to continue on my road to recovery.

After playing enough of MKWii, I suppose it’s finally high time I got around to writing about it. First things first… I’m giving this game an 8.5 out of 10. That isn’t to say that I don’t completely love the game, because I do, but it has enough moments where you ask yourself just why Nintendo decided to do things the way they did that can really take you out of the game.

Let’s talk about the good. To many vets of the DS version of Mario Kart, Mario Kart Wii is almost going to feel like “more of the same”. Fortunately for those of us who liked MKDS, this isn’t a bad thing at all. Nintendo didn’t change the formula too dramatically, with the biggest changes coming in the form of motorcycles you can race in (to complement the karts) and the new steering wheel adapter that really does a great job of motion-controlled steering. Bikes are a bit tough to adjust to at first, but if you play the Grand Prix circuits the 100cc circuit is exclusively bikes in an effort to force the player to at least get a taste of them. Bikes can only charge a single level of sparks in drifts, which means they can’t get the same level of Mini-Turbo (MT) coming off a turn as a kart can after charging to the second level, but bikes gain a distinct advantage in the straightaways with the ability to pop wheelies for a small boost in speed. They also handle much tighter than any kart, which is great for tracks with tight corners but can very often leave you stuck in the grass on the inside corner of a turn (or facing the inside corner of a wall) for the inexperienced racer. Still, they’re a nice change to the series and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them stick around for the next installment of the series as well. Fingers crossed Nintendo just stays away from airplanes a-la Diddy Kong Racing.

For the most part, “the good” simply contains Nintendo continuing to do well what they have done well in the past with the series. A healthy number of tracks - 16 brand new and 16 “retro” revamped tracks, similar to what they did in MKDS - with GP’s across 4 race classes: 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and 150cc mirror where all the tracks are flipped left-to-right. On top of the GP’s, there are Time Trials where you simply race the clock with three boost mushrooms to last the full three laps. Similarly to MKDS, there are Staff Ghosts that come with the game so you can race against a saved ghost to try and better your time with a goal in mind. A new addition in this game are EXPERT Staff Ghost times, which will unlock on a track after you beat a certain time better than the original staff ghosts; these guys are tough, and I doubt most players of the game will ever beat most of these ghosts without serious dedication put into the game.

Online has been slightly re-tooled, mostly for the better. Pick-up-and-play has seen a vast improvement in MKWii over MKDS, with online matches supporting up to 12 players at the same time (and one console can bring 2 players online to play split-screen, also). When you attempt to find a game, you will more often than not be dropped into spectator mode of a session already happening online, where you will have to wait for the current race to be over before going back to the Track Voting screen. Personally I prefer this method over the servers attempting to find players who happen to be looking for a match at the same time all into the same game, especially when you do have the 12-racer limit. You may have a race with 5 people, and the next race will have a full 12 players on the track, which is really nice and also doesn’t limit you to a 4-race, Grand- Prix-style format either, since you can stay in one session and keep racing for as long as you want.

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Every fan of the ABC show ‘Lost’ should read this theory. Right now.

There are a few things in the writer’s theory that I don’t completely agree with, or some things where I think he took a few too many creative liberties stretching what we know into an “answer” in the theory. But overall? I think there’s some really good stuff in there and if nothing else it makes for a good read. Make sure you also continue beyond the theory and read the Q&A as well as the Rebuttals for further explanations surrounding different points presented in the theory.

Season 4 is making good strides towards giving us some answers… or at least leading us down the path towards answers by finally beginning to address some of the core questions. I will be sad when the show finally comes off the air after Season 6, but at the same time I’ll be happy to have most of the questions behind us and know what the heck was really going on. Next week the show comes back from the writers-strike-induced midseason break, and from there on out it’s new episodes every week until the finale. I’m psyched.