I've always thought bottled water was dumb. Nothing annoys me more than someone who refuses to drink anything but their brand of bottled water. Many people are caught up in the marketing of bottled water; that it's cleaner, purer, better tasting than their local tap water. Dasani and Aquafina are basically Coke and Pepsi without the sugary flavour and carbonation, basically the stuff that sets pop (or soda for you Yanks) apart from normal water, and yet they still manage to charge a similar price for the stuff. It costs more for the bottle than it does the actual water going into it. So, are you getting your money's worth?

People will pay close to the price of gasoline for water of rather questionable quality and benefits. Is it safer? Generally, no. In most developed countries, the municipal water we get from the tap is of rather high quality. In the United States & Canada, it's regulated by the government and standards are set, met and carefully monitored. But in the U.S., water bottlers are not even required to test for E. coli or asbestos, among other contaminants. Still feel safe?

Some people like how bottled water is purer and has fewer chemicals in it. Well it might have less of the chemicals they're telling you about, such as chlorine. Water, being the universal solvent, will dissolve the bottle and pull chemicals from the bottle into the water which you then happily drink. Mmm plasticky goodness.

You really want better water than tap water? Who am I kidding? Of course you do! Statistically, about half of you don't even trust tap water. Solution? Get some sort of home filtering system whether it be a Brita filter or some other newfangled doohickey. You'll get guaranteed quality for pennies per litre. Much cheaper than bottled, eh?

According to Earth Policy Institute's website, global consumption hit over 150 billion litres in 2004. Imagine all the empty bottles that would produce?

So do us all a favour but most of all, do yourself a favour and tap that.

Did you know that Evian backwards is Naive?

Right Freakin' On

I'm having fun at the moment. Two levels in and I must say, it's pretty nifty. Very simple controls. 1 is bombs, 2 is shoot, up is your grapple. To steer is where it hits a speed bump. I chose motion controls at first and when you first try it it's clunky. Okay clunky doesn't really begin to descibe the trouble I had at first. After two levels and two bonus levels, I found that I had gotten much better with the whole motion thingy by using tiny jerks and resting my elbows on my knees so that I had some reference to where neutral was. Definitely difficult especially in the fast paced bonus rounds. Turning off the whole motion thing worked wonders which is good because the game keeps track of your high scores for each level so when bragging rights are on the line, you don't give yourself a major disadvantage by using these iffy controls. Oh and there's old school Smash Bros. esque bonuses at the ends of the levels too.

This is the first time this has happened to me, but while warming up for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Ranked Gaming Union's weekly game night, I came across some individuals who are apparently so desperate to boost their VR scores in Mario Kart Wii, that they are willing to sink pretty low to acheive it.

While enjoying a hefty lead on the third lap on DK's Jungle Parkway, I overlapped another player. "Poor chap" I thought to myself, "He must be new at this". Little did I know, he was quite the professional.

As soon as I passed him he kicked in his star power and managed to hit me twice before it ran out. Next item box he zaps us all. No biggie. Then at the bridge he was waiting again. I knew what was coming but I pressed on anyhow. Thanks to the narrow bridge and a Bullet Bill, I was beginning to fume. Before I could even start spouting the various and often humerous profanities inherent to MKWii, I was red turtled to death and wound up a dismal 6th place.

After the race, I confirmed my suspicions. The thorn in my side was the guest of the guy who eventually got first place. Four races in a row, he went after whoever was in first so that his buddy could place more favorably. While technically not illegal, it sure is a piss off to us honest racers. To me this is Douche-baggery of the highest degree.

Lucky for me, I had the last laugh. I placed first in the next two races and in the third, I hung back and picked off the guy trying to pad his stats. He finished ninth. They both left immediately after.