Neotextus

My darling wife Donna organizes a regular social meet up for British ex-pats in the Portland area, and tomorrow is our next meeting at the Moon and Sixpence on NE 42nd at 7PM.

Its a great opportunity for all us British and friends to get together, sample the local beers and have a chinwag about all thing British. Topics range from where the best places to watch the football in Portland to tips on where to get the best scotch eggs and sausage rolls.

Check out our meetup group and come join the fun

It’s a scary thought, but could gas prices be too low? This graph shows the movement of old (Brent crude) vs gasoline prices at the pumps over the last ten years (source: U.S. Energy Information Administration).

The data seems to indicate that the price of gas at the pump has lagged behind the increases in oil prices over the last year. The implication is that if the price of oil was to steady around the $125 per barrel price, then we should expect gas prices to continue to rise to $4.50 per gallon.

We almost never do it, but yesterday morning Donna and I were up at 6AM to go shopping! We were after the Wii Fit which launched on Thursday, and out local Fred Meyer’s were getting a deliver of about a dozen. So at 7AM we are standing outside the local Freddie’s in a gentle Oregon rain queuing with the dozen or so other hardcore Wii fans waiting for the doors to open. (I must admit that I really don’t get Nintendo’s business model - how can it be profitable to have so many customers waiting so few products?)

So what do we think of it? Well first of all a big warning - don’t buy the Wii Fit if you are over 330lbs! Although marketed as a fitness program, it will refuse to work if you are too heavy. Personally, I managed to work around this little problem by sliding a magazine under the balance board! - not a perfect solution, but it seems to work.

First impressions are that Nintendo have done it again. The balance board feels well built and the games are fun yet challenging. The next couple of months will show whether a video game can actually make a difference in fitness.