January 26 - My birthday

As well as being Australia Day today it's also my birthday and I think it was very clever of me to arrange to have a public holiday for it every year. This was especially a challenge at the time as I was born in Finland and had to arrange this as a long-distance task.

As well as sharing this birthdate with Paul Newman I also share it with two Finnish actors - Viljo Kervinen and Irja Kuusla, both now deceased.

This morning I went to the State Library of Queensland to visit their Game On exhibition. It's a history of computer games and most of the gaming consoles are available to be played with/on. The first computer game I played was Space Invaders and they had a number of different consoles on which to play it at the exhibition. I was interested to see whether it would seem very slow given the speed of current technology but it didn't seem to be overly tardy, although the controls were not as responsive as I'm now used to. I also learned that it's one of the most succesful games ever.

I'm a fan of Douglas Adams and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and I found out that he's developed an online, text-based, game of the book. It's obviously been popular as there's now a second edition. If you're interested in the quirky you can play it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml

Gaming has moved into a whole new world now with the Nintendo Wii system. It's apparently being taken up by a generally older audience than previously. The Wii Sports and Wii Fit programs lend themselves to being used in Old Folks Homes for exercise programs and I believe they are also being used in a few gyms as a supplement to personal training. I use the Wii Fit system at home and was advised to use it by my physiotherapist for improving balance.

The page I've done for this day includes the Game On brochure from the libary-