<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=8947" rel="attachment wp-att-8947"><img class="size-medium wp-image-8947 alignleft" title="photo" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo3-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>What better way to kick in the New Year and The Year of Play than with a very special playdate!  On January 1<sup>st</sup>, I invited World’s Most Precious Niece to join me in my playful quest.  Since she’s a kid, she’s a natural at this sort of thing.

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I asked World’s Most Precious Niece for ideas.  When you ask a digital native for play ideas, there is a 99.9% chance that they will choose some sort of video game.

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“Just Dance 3,” was her suggestion.

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“What’s that?” was my obvious question.

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She then rattled on about a video game on Kinect where you follow dance moves, yada, yada, yada.

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I had limited Kinect knowledge.  I knew it was a streaming device, but what makes it different from Xbox, Wii, and all of those other streaming boxes/video game thingies?

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<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=8945" rel="attachment wp-att-8945"><img class="size-medium wp-image-8945 alignnone" title="photo" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo1-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>

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World’s Most Precious Niece explained that Kinect senses your body movements, and therefore . . . .  This part is still incomprehensible to me . . . . <strong><em>Your body is the joystick.</em></strong>

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Toto, we’re not in Atari-Land anymore.

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Even though the bulk of my video came knowledge stems from pre-1985, I am certainly (minimally) aware of changes in video games in the past 30 years.  In order to feel more hip, I like to keep my pinky finger on the pulse.

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<span style="font-size: medium; color: #800080;"><strong>There was that one summer circa 2000 out when my sister and I stayed up late every night playing The Sims. </strong></span> We spent countless hours locking grunting virtual people in their virtual rooms to see what would happen without virtual potty breaks and food.  How mature.

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A couple of New Year’s Eves ago I played Rock Band with friends.  I was the lead vocalist and was booed off the stage by a rude cast of virtual characters.  As a trained singer, I found this terribly amusing, although the virtual me was miffed.

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O.k., o.k.  So the real me was equally peeved.  Surly cast of virtual characters, <em>excuse me</em> for living and showing expression while I’m singing rather than popping out notes like a robot!

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And then there was that trip to Fiddlesticks last winter <a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/2011/01/01/day-94-i-play-a-real-guitar-but-i-suck-at-guitar-hero/" target="_blank"><strong>when World’s Most Precious Niece attempted to teach me Guitar Hero</strong></a>.  Young Brendan kicked my bootie to Foghat even though Young Brendan had never touched a real guitar while I own and play an acoustic.  Go figure.

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As you can imagine, I was more than a little skeptical about this Just Dance 3 nonsense.  My possible saving grace was that I’m a clueless dancer in real life, so perhaps I might bring it for Virtual Dance Fever.

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<span style="font-size: medium; color: #800080;"><strong>Makes perfect sense, right?  Good at things in Real Life = Sucky in Virtual World.  Sucky at things in Real Life = Fabulous in Virtual World.</strong></span>

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World’s Most Precious Niece and I took the virtual stage in my sister’s living room.  I watched WMPN wave her arms about in spazzy kid fashion.

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[caption id="attachment_8944" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="WMPN is deceivingly unspazzy in this photo, but my sis can attest to my perception in the comments section if you doubt me."]<a href="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/?attachment_id=8944" rel="attachment wp-att-8944"><img class="size-medium wp-image-8944  " title="photo" src="http://www.diaryofalatebloomer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/photo-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

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Video games may be child’s play, but it takes a controlled, seasoned professional to set the stage.

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I was mildly concerned when 10 year-old World’s Most Precious Niece wielded her arm to select the first dance selection of our Dance Off:  "Promiscuous".

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I turned to my sister.  “Promiscuous????”

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Sis shot me a mixed look of exasperation, disgust, and resignation.  I feel for the parents of today.  I really do.

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World’s Most Precious Niece blurted, “I know!  I don’t know what it means either!!!!”

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“Oh, I know what it means,” I muttered under my breath.

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The music started, and I was pleased to see that WMPN and I were assigned the more child-friendly alter-dancing-egos of "Happy" and "Jazzy".

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WMPN danced jazzily while I danced awkwardly.  However, I was indeed happy over the fact that I was sweating and elevating my heart rate after a week of Christmas gorging.  A video game that gets kids <em>moving?</em>  YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

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The next selection was my choice:  "I Don't Feel Like Dancing" by The Scissor Sisters.  Questionable band name, but waaaaayyyy over a kid's head, and hey -- you're rarely going find squeaky clean in the world of music.

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If a picture tells a thousand words, then a video must tell a million.  How did I do?

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Video of me and chloe set to scissor sisters.

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As you may or may not have noticed, I forgot to wear my belt that day and was in grave danger of revealing plumber's crack to the world.  Thank goodness for small New Year's miracles.

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Out of breath but ready for more heart-pumping moves, WMPN and I discovered a mysterious entry in the Just Dance 3 menu entitled "Freestyle".  It didn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out that for these selections, we could shake our groove things any which way we wanted.

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And here's what the tweeny digital native figured out in a nanosecond:  You can record it for future dancing!  You essentially create your own avatar!

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COOL!

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(Do kids still say that?)

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Ladies and 3 Token Gents, I present to you Happy and Jazzy.  If your feet just can't behave, feel free to imitate their tremendous dance moves while burning off those extra Christmas cookie pounds in the process!

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video of Freestyle.

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Have you ever played Just Dance 3 or something similar?  What did you think?

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