I'm a Hero!

I did two things this weekend. And for the purposes of this discussion, "weekend" means "Saturday through Monday", because I didn't write this until Monday night. Also because I took Monday off from work, and as we all know, the real definition of a weekend is "a day when you don't have to set your alarm clock."

Actually, by that definition, Saturday wouldn't count. Because I had to set my alarm clock pretty early to get down to Seahawk Stadium at 8:30 in the morning for a Walkathon. It was sponsored by the March of Dimes, and was opposed to premature babies. Well, opposed to premature births, I guess. I don't think anybody's doing big fundraisers in opposition to the babies themselves. The March of Dimes has been doing fundraising for years; you might remember them as the ones responsible for the most disappointing houses to Trick or Treat at on Halloween. On the other hand, they also claim to have been the ones providing money for Salk's Polio vaccine, so they do have that going for them.

Some people don't like them, and they have other reasons than that they didn't get any teeny Snickers bars. Apparently, the research they're doing is not animal-friendly. Or so this flier claimed. I think. I can't find it now. Right after the walkathon started, these guys rushed out and pressed their brochure into my hands. I didn't avoid them the way I normally would have, because I was filled with the milk of human kindness and also a good bit of smugness. I mean, I was up early to do charitable works! Well, allegedly charitable works. Really, I was walking five miles, and I don't quite get how that translates into helping the children. I got sponsored for like twenty dollars, and it seems like I could have raised that much without the walking.

So anyway, I was marginally less anti-humanity than normal, which is how I ended up with the flier that screamed at me that I should be boycotting the Walkathon because it was cruel to animals. I think it's because some animal testing is done at some point. Frankly, I didn't have time to read the thing because I was engaged in a walkathon already. It seems like you'd want to do your protesting before people are already committed to doing it. If I'd had someone telling me not to do it when I was hitting my snooze button, they'd have stood a good chance of getting me to go back to sleep.

I made great time. It's not a race, but on the other hand, I like to walk fast. I started with everyone else, and I was right near the front. Within a block, I was in front of the big mass of humanity and behind the motorcycle cop who was leading the way. Eventually, the cop slowed down because I'd separated so much from the pack that he had a choise to either lead them or lead me. It was nice having my own escort, but I understand why he chose the pack. Eventually, I caught up with the people who'd left early, and from that point on, the only people who passed me were either joggers or bicyclists. Or this one guy who was an Austin Powers mimic, but he was on a Segway. He annoyed me. Anyway, it was five miles, and I did it in 50 minutes, which is a very brisk (for walking) 6 mph pace. I didn't even do any powerwalking; it was also purposeful strides, which are more effort.

So that was Saturday morning: charity and exercise. That was balanced off by Sunday and Monday: playing a computer game where I'm a superhero.

See, there's this game "City of Heroes". It's not officially out until Tuesday, but some people (including me) got to start three days earlier. It's like Everquest in that there are thousands of people playing at the same time as you, but different because instead of being an elf fighting goblins, you're a superhero fighting zombies. Or ninjas. Or Nazis. So far, I'm enjoying it a lot. As you can tell from the fact that on Sunday (the first day where people were able to properly play it), I spent 14 straight hours at my computer. And then on Monday (which I took off from work, as you'd know if you remembered the first paragraph) I put in another ten hours. This puts me solidly in the category of "geek", but it also puts me in the much more important category of "people with fairly high-level superheroes".

My character is "Captain Valiant" on the Justice server. And that's really all you need to know, I think. Don't judge me!

I think I need to budget my time on it, though, because if I play too long, I expect my eyes will glaze over and I'll start hating it. There should be a happy medium where it adds crimefighting flavor to my life but does not define it.