So the game determines your health by calculating your BMI from your height and weight (and another stat?). But, “BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used. A child’s BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit.” (Tam Fry)

Well you learn something new every day.

I still don’t understand why Nintendo couldn’t put something on the box or in the box stating that. I mean, I didn’t know it. Teen magazines have BMI articles in issues quite often, and I know 12- or 13-year-olds read them, so I had no idea that younger people shouldn’t use them. I thought it was perfectly acceptable. (I’m not blaming teen mags. I’m just saying, that’s where I got my info from, and I didn’t know it’s not meant for kids.)

Reposting article here because I know some Yahoo articles disappear after a while.

Wii Fit or Wii Fat?

Nintendo’s exergame wrongly labels kids overweight, claim obesity experts.

By Ben Silverman
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When a 10 year-old girl from the South-East of Britain stepped on the scale of Nintendo’s new game Wii Fit, she expected to get the blood pumping with some fun, casual exercising.

Instead, the game’s software told her she was fat. Understandably, her father wasn’t happy.

“She is a perfectly healthy, 4ft 9in tall 10-year-old who swims, dances and weighs only six stone (84 lbs). She is solidly built but not fat. She was devastated to be called fat and we had to work hard to convince her she isn’t.”

Obesity experts in the U.K. are working equally hard taking Nintendo to task for failing to warn parents that Wii Fit isn’t appropriate for younger kids. At the center of the debate is the game’s use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a means of judging the health of its players. After standing on the game’s innovative Balance Board peripheral and entering basic information like height and weight, the game doles out an overall BMI number as well as a label, such as “underweight,” “ideal,” or in some cases, “fat.” While the somewhat callous system is reasonably accurate in determining the BMI of adults, a child’s BMI can literally change from day to day. Experts have deemed its use in Wii Fit misleading.

“I’m absolutely aghast that children are being told they are fat,” said Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum. “BMI is far from perfect but with children it simply should not be used. A child’s BMI can change every month and it is perfectly possible for a child to be stocky, yet still very fit.”

Nintendo apologized for the terminology used to describe players, but stopped short of actually adding a warning to the game.

“Wii Fit is still capable of measuring the BMI for people aged between two and 20 but the resulting figures may not be entirely accurate for younger age groups due to varying levels of development,” the company said through a spokesman.

Nintendo’s exergame is already a bona fide international hit, selling out quickly in both Japan and Europe. The game releases in North America on May 19.

I was looking at this one mag, I forget what it’s called… It’s about (I don’t even know the word) modifying/editing/cutting up/accentuating/something your clothes. I was gonna buy it, but it’s $14. ACK! There was also this drawing magazine that looked interesting (despite my lack of drawing as of late), but that was expensive too, $12, so I didn’t get it. *tear*

(I have, or had, $60 allowance [four weeks' worth, since I won't be home for a while], I spent $16.08 on a CD with ten songs on it [but it ended up being worth it XD], and I still need to buy Christmas presents. I won’t actually need all my allowance, but I also want to go on a clothes shopping spree since I haven’t really bought anything since spring [tank tops absolutely don't count], and I’m thinking of spending my Christmas money on a GBA SP since the DS doesn’t play Gameboy games and I don’t like GBA games sticking out at the bottom and I don’t know why but the D-pad on the DS Lite doesn’t work for me. Either it’s too small or my thumb is too fat or maybe there isn’t enough height to it; I just find myself working a lot more to move around than I would on, say, the N64 D-pad. [I think my favorite D-pad would be on the Super NES uber-tastic controller, whatever it's called, the one with all the little switches on the top. I don't like the Gamecube's, just because you have to reach so far over to get to it.] Wow I’m being really rambly and long-sentence-winded. Too much caffeine! O_O But back to the original point of this parenthetical aside, that’s why I didn’t want to buy the magazines. Or what I’m mentioning next.)

After that I looked at the notebooks Borders has (no Moleskines, curse Barnes & Noble!). I really really really like journals … I remember the first one I bought. It was one of those cheap ones with a plastic cover and tabs for a lock to go through. (Apparently at that age, no one would think of just tearing the plastic tabs off.) The pages would fall out after a few turns, too. I bought it at a … thing, I forget what it’s called; it was at my elementary school, where all these cheap (but some nice) things would be brought to the cafetorium for kids to buy for the winter holidays as gifts, and where I would end up spending half my money on myself. XD;;

I don’t think I’ve bought a nice journal for myself since then. (I never used that journal either. I think I wrote a short entry on the first page, but lost interest after that page fell out.) I’ve bought boring notebooks at Staples or whatever office supply store. I bought a sketchbook at Michael’s (made from recycled paper, of course). Also bought a blank “Sketchbook” (with the big “S”) from Borders for a multimedia class (it was required for a journal, but I never kept it up *shame*).

Even so, I’ve discovered that I really like journals. I suppose I’ve said it elsewhere, but I just like the potential of creation that these things symbolize (to me). I’d love to buy a nice blank journal and fill it up with anything that I deem worthy. The problem is I don’t have anything I deem worthy of going in a storehouse of creativity. (“Anything” would be thoughts, doodles, sketches, poems, lines, ideas, anything.) So I don’t buy anything nice. :(

But, I think this Christmas, if I have any money left over, I’m just going to go to Borders and splurge on the start of my journal collection. And I’ll force myself to put something in them. Even just dots. Yeah. Dots are good. That’s what’s used in printing. *nod*

I saw this one notebook today. It has “Desire” on, erm, if not the cover, then on the inside. It’s lined, and it has quotes and pictures in it. I thought it was really attractive. :o Partly probably because of The Sandman and the Endless. XD I’ll buy that if I find it again. But I think the first notebook I have to buy is a Moleskine. Definitely.

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Went through Bloomingdale’s. Wow. Expensive. And I don’t even really like their clothes. ^^;; Looked in Express too. They were having a sale on some stuff. I saw a nice pair of pants for, what, 40% off $68? I was thinking of buying them … but I didn’t really want to spend that much. x_x *sigh* I really do need a job. hah.

Saw Closer. Eeeee! I liked it! Not as much as Garden State, but then again I like Zach Braff and I guess I just don’t understand all this couple stuff, finding the flawless person (as Mum said), hurting each other … meh. But yay! Natalie Portman! XD I liked her. Even in the strip scene. O.o But she didn’t really strip. I mean, she did, in real life, take her clothes off … but you didn’t really see anything in the movie. >b So nyeh.

Let’s see … woah, moment of dizziness there. Go to bed soon, yes. I spent about $20 at Michael’s. So I have … $93 again. *sniffleweep* Oh well. I don’t really want a DS that badly. :b I guess I give up on video games at this point and time. I’ll still play them … but I won’t really go buy new ones or anything. Hm. I want to go to the mall and buy clothes. o.o

I could also buy books. Waldenbooks is getting rid of their preferred reader program! Grrr. I already said that here didn’t I? Oh well. But I don’t really want to buy books … which is really really horrible. eek. I’d rather buy clothes. *shock* Something’s horribly wrong here. I don’t even know of any books to read! *cries* So stupid. So horrible. So AUGH. hm. I’m really tired now.

I also want to go to Mitsuwa in Torrance and buy Kera. I also want to buy Gothic & Lolita Bibles from fujisan. I wonder if they still have #5. o.o

So anyway. The main character starts out with Espeon and Umbreon. And I was remembering this one girl from the UPN boards who had a layout on her website of Umbreon (or maybe Espeon …? or both at different times ^^;). So I was thinking, no one else would have a Pokemon layout up … so voila! :D Hehe.

I kinda sorta finished cleaning out my closet. I should really find another place to put my Barbies so I could put a box where they are, then I could move more stuff to the storage area above, and have more space for clothes.

I don’t have any other place for my Barbies though. I think Auntie G keeps her in the garage. ^^;; We don’t have any space in the garage. Mum just spent the longest time cleaning it out, and it’s still a tight fit. I guess it doesn’t help that one car in there is a van and the other is a car bigger than mine.

I think I want to sell my Dodgers Barbie. I don’t like the Dodgers that much. But I keep thinking, ‘Don’t make money! Give it away!’ Then I think, ‘But who would want to buy a collectible Dodgers Barbie from the Dorothy Brown School?’ Or wherever we donate stuff … I dunno. ^^;;

I want to get rid of some of my manga too. I don’t really feel like giving it away, ’cause I don’t know who really would want to read it, but then I feel bad making money off it when … I don’t know.

I owe Daddy $15 for the hosting I bought. Which really really seems to be down more often than Endore (when they were good), and Endore only guaranteed 99.5% uptime. But then again, I paid $100 for Endore. ^^;; Then $50. I also owe Mum $32. Plus a portion of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, for Daddy for Father’s Day. Then I need to save up $200 more dollars to deposit in my bank account. Then I can start spending again.

I really need a new CD player.

And all the stuff that I updated/changed on my pages over the weekend … uhh, I can’t remember whatall I worked on, so it’s not being uploaded. ^^;; So there really was no point of me updating, was there? Oh well. Mainly I just made a fanlisting collective and added more photos to Elsewhere. The reason why I made a fl collective is so I can just change ONE page when I have to say something about all my fanlistings. >_>

AND I got two books on Friday on Mary Leakey, for my anthropology report. Yay! One of the books is over 600 pages long. *dies* I haven’t started reading them yet. :b Of course.

Last night I started playing Ocarina of Time on the GCN. ‘Cause I haven’t, yet. ^^;; No, I guess I’m not much of a gamer anymore … not that I ever really was either … *shakes her fist at her brothers who hogged the consoles all the time* I dunno how many games I’ve played, but the ONLY one I’ve ever finished is Kirby’s Dreamland. ^^; Yeah, when I beat it (a long long time ago … in a land far …), I was sooo happy! XP But I can’t beat the second game. >_> Stupid crystals won’t show up so I can find them.

Aaaaanyway. Yeah. Last night I played OoT. And I got stuck in the Deku Tree. >.>;;; I got the slingshot. Now I dunno what to do. ^^;;;;; I read the player’s guide, that thing sucks. I read a walkthrough, and that thing sucks. (Go left. Go right. Go up. Go down. >.<) I feel really stupid. ^^;;;;

Oh! I had a dream that I went with my brothers to a mall, and we went to this store that had DVDs and CDs and video games, and they were having a sale on their games, and they had Link to the Past for GBA and the Zelda bonus disc, which they had a high price on. And I magically had lots of money, but only enough for one game. ;.; So I walked up to the cashier with both games and my money, and he asked which one I wanted, and I said I didn’t know, so he rang me up, then asked which one I wanted, and I said I still wasn’t sure, so he opened up both games and popped them in and started playing to show me how each was. Then I woke up and I didn’t have EITHER game! *cries*

Speaking of a guy cashier at a video game store, I wonder how Kayura is, and her video game store guy … >.> I think I lost her e-mail. >_< Dang, I lose more friends that way. And she doesn’t get on aim anymore. *sigh*

Oh well. We can meet up again in Heaven. :) And now off I go to pull weeds with Mum in the front yard. XP

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Or I could pay for Diaryland (which I want to do anyway), and link it from here. I’d get to use the private/public entry feature. :D

But I don’t know. That seems like a hassle. I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

Today I played The Sims, which all went to pot because I ended up getting the family in a bad sleeping cycle (imitating life, I see ^^;) and got one person fired. Yesterday … no, Friday, the day I started playing with that family, I spent almost $11,000 in two hours. o.o I also lost about $5,000 because I forgot to install a burglar alarm. ¬.¬

Right now I’ve got this song stuck in my head, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Other Side.” Mainly just the “How long, how loOong, Separate my side I don’t, I don’t believe it’s baAad” part. ^^;; Last night I had Good Charlotte’s “Girls and Boys” stuck in my head. “Girls! Don’t! Like! Boys! Girls! Like! Cars and moneEeEey!” :b