It sounds like a dream: lazing in bed until eleven, having sex in the middle of the day, scoping out your city’s best happy hours in the early evening with your man. This is the life of those unemployed and in a relationship. But there’s a dark side, a very dark side, and it’s called the Wii.

My friend Veronica (not her real name) is in the middle of such a slacker paradise. She’s temporarily living at home until she can relocate with her boyfriend to an as-of-yet unknown locale, she was recently laid off from a job she hated anyway, and she’s one of the only people I know who doesn’t freak out in a situation like this. But as someone looking on at her life and her relationship from a slight distance, I’m freaking out on her behalf.

Her boyfriend recently bought a Wii, that addictive gaming console that lets you bowl or play tennis by swinging a white remote around and looking like a moron. I love my friend, and I love that she’s so comfortable with her boyfriend that she can hang out with him in her pajamas, and I love that he finds her sexy even when she doesn’t shower. But I think there’s a fine line between being comfortable with your other and being stuck in a rut.

Veronica and her boyfriend have long been turning into the same person. First, it was their jokes, sometimes funny, sometimes offensive, as if they were nudging each other on. Now, it’s their attitudes towards life, a blasé, things-will-work-out-on-there-own attitude that seems to magnify the longer they are together. This may sound as if I don’t like them together, but that’s actually not true. He’s a good person and he treats her well, and I wish I could be as relaxed and go-with-the-flow as she is, but I’m not, so I worry.

The risk of the slacker dream is real. Read More »

For a group of twenty-something young lads, the guys of Panic at the Disco have made quite a name for themselves. Their first album, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, went double platinum. Before they were even 20 years old, the guys were blowing up the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards. And now, three years later, Panic (no more exclamation point) at the Disco is touring the world with Pretty. Odd., their wildly successful new album.

CollegeCandy got to sit down with Jon Walker, Panic’s super hot and talented bassist, to find out the secrets behind the music, how the band is handling all the success and just what a group of guys does on a giant tour bus. (Well, CollegeCandy was actually lying on the couch, but we assume Jon was sitting down on the other end of the line…)

CC: So, you guys are back on the road again. How is the tour going?
Jon: This tour right now is actually really fun. The Hush Sound is a really great band and Phantom Planet is out on tour with us right now, as well, and they’re also a really great band. We’ve been on this tour for about 2 months now we have about three or four shows left. That’s pretty exciting.

CC: And what do you guys have coming up next?
Jon: We are wrapping up this tour and going over to Europe. That’s our main focus right now.

CC: Wow. The tour never ends. What do you like best about being on the road?
Jon: Just playing shows, I guess. It’s fun to be able to travel around with your friends and hang out everyday, but some days it’s not always that fun until you get on stage and remember why you are out here doing this.

CC: Yeah, I am sure being cooped up on a bus all day isn’t always so glamorous. What do you guys do all day to pass the time?
Jon: Well, luckily Nintendo recently came out with Mario Kart for the Wii. That’s really pretty much what we’ve been doing . We’ve been writing a lot as well on this tour and we’ve been trying to demo some songs. In between Mario Kart and demo-ing songs and sleep… that’s pretty much the top 3 things we do on the bus. Read More »

I enjoy exercise. Jogging, cycling, badminton and even the odd hula hoop are my preferred method of bum-firming and serotonin. I also enjoy videogaming. A lot. And an increasing number of people of all ages are merging these two seemingly opposing interests and turning to the one media previously chastised be the media for nurturing a nation couch-potato children; they are turning to computer games.

The Nintendo Wii has revolutionised the way we play, entertain and now how we keep fit. Forget a pricey gym membership and soggy tracksuit bottoms as you jog through endless muddy puddles, the most convenient – and fashionable – way to get fit is to get Wii Fit. There has even been a blog set up by an enthusiastic gentleman, dedicated to discovering the possibilities of weight loss in conjunction with daily exercise from the comfort of his living room.

Upon its release in various countries, Wii Fit has sold out in record time, much to the frustration of those who are in desperate pursuit of a copy. Despite the slightly steep price tag, the supplied board and range of mini-games coupled with fitness routines and personalised health information have proved a winner with individuals you would normally never find in your local games store. Read More »

Thank the good people over at Scanner for alerting me to this.

Gone are the days of MarioKart, Zelda and NBA Live ‘95. Instead, today’s hottest video game title features people peeing on cats. The newest Wii title in Japan is called Super Pii Pii Brothers. Just insert your Wiimote into the underwear-like harness (included of course) and start pissing the night away.

Your goal: aim for the three toilets on the screen. Kittens and other creatures pop out of the commodes and you earn extra points for dousing them with your stream of urine. You can pee in different locales and environments, but get too much on the floor and you lose…so does the custodian.

I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to pee standing up, but never enough to want to simulate the experience in a virtual setting with my closest friends and/or family. Call me old school, but whatever happened to Cranium? Too clean?

Super Pii Pii Brothers may seem too ridiculous to be true, but check out the game in action. If you want to play yourself, the game is available in through ThinkGeek.

I have eight roommates: three boys, two wide screen TV’s, two Xboxes, and one Wii.

When I first moved in, I spent a lot of time watching the boys play game after game of Halo, while I longed to throw the video game systems out the window and watch Vh1. They even competed against each other from different rooms. Headsets were involved. I had no idea how I would last.

I appreciate video games, I really do, but I’m just no good at them. I didn’t play them growing up, except for one or two games of Mario Brothers at a friend’s house (I always died on the first level…those darn mushrooms!). I simply lack the hand-eye coordination and the patience to be good at them.

One day, I came home and stumbled, literally, into a mass of boxes, packaging, wires and…is that a drum kit? “It’s Rock Band”, my roommate exclaimed proudly. “It’s like Guitar Hero, but with bass, guitar, drums and vocals”. At that moment, my life changed forever. Read More »

My boyfriend and I decided to live together- crazy idea, I know! When we weren’t at classes or work I would be cleaning and doing laundry. He, on the other hand, would throw in a big dip and attempt to master Halo 1, 2 or 3 - like I cared what he was playing. All I knew was he was always shooting at things and the game never seemed to end.

My lack of interest completely frustrated him to the point where we took a field trip to the Game Stop. He told me I could choose a game for us to play, and so he bought me whichever ones I had shown the slightest interest. I know he was hoping to bring our relationship to the next level, true love, XBOX-love. I chose some stupid car game and pretended to like it for all of a day and then went back to cleaning and bitching on my days off.

In December, my boyfriend began talking about Nintendo Wii, lucky ME!!! Now, I of course already bought his present and surprise- it wasn’t a Nintendo Wii. Naturally, all I heard about was this Wii each day until he finally ordered one from Amazon.com. Read More »

Maybe I’m not the norm.

I like (okay, love) video games. I admit it! I think it goes back to childhood when I was forced into playing (but, mostly watching) them with my brothers. But let me tell you, after a good 15 years of playing everything from Super Mario to the underrated (and hilariously ridiculous) Burgertime, I know a thing or two about gaming.

And yes, while there are certainly hundreds of games that feed into the typical male shoot-‘em-up mentality, trust me, there are games for the girls that will blow your mind.

Like what, you ask?

Wii Fit! I know, we’ve mentioned it before, but it’s totally worth another discussion. It’s not scheduled to be released until 2008, but Steve and I got to play a demo of it yesterday and my inner-geek was overjoyed! Read More »

I hate working out. Why? The biggest reason is that simply, it’s boring. Running with a partner proves to be useless, as I hate speaking while I’m gasping for air. Watching TV while running on the treadmill? No thanks. The screen bouncing up and down makes me nauseous.

My solution of abstaining from exercise really doesn’t keep those muscles toned, either.

Lucky for me, and anyone who would rather play video games then run around in circles sweating profusely, Nintendo has just introduced the world to the Wii Fit. The Wii Fit comes complete with a Wii balance board to stand on top of, which has the ability to measure your BMI as well as a number of other body related statistics.

The game lays out on screen instructions and the “player” exercises along with their virtual Mii, all the way to a fit body outside of the virtual world. The game keeps track of the progress of “players” showing the variance in BMI over the course of a number of workouts. Read More »