Cats and storms

(It's Sunday, and a storm is rolling in. It's dark outside, and we can hear thunder every few minutes or so. I am standing up playing Rock Band 3; Calle is sitting on the sectional. Josie comes around the couch, low-walking to where I am.)

J: OMG DO SOMETHING BIG LOUD NOISES OMG WERE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!
C: We're not going to die. Stop being such a baby.
J: CANT YOU HEAR THE LOUD NOISES? OMG OMG OMG ...
C: It's rained like this before. Now shut up. He's about to play Roundabout, and I like that song.
J: You don't care because you're old!
C: I don't care because I kicked cancer's ass. WTF is a storm going to do to me? Now go and hide under the bed. We all know you're going there anyway.
J: AM NOT. (Runs off to hide under the bed.)

Don't try this at home

So, the weekend before last, I was feeding cats for some friends. They don't live that far away, so I figured I'd ride up and take care of it rather than driving. It wasn't a bad ride – 5.5 miles round-trip, which is about 8.8 km for you metric folks – and on Saturday, I did it pretty quickly, as I may have mentioned before.

On Sunday, I made the outbound trip at 15.3 mph, which is about 0.8c on a hybrid. On the inbound trip, I met a snake.

Well, it wasn't really a snake, but it hissed, and there is never a good time to hear a hissing sound. I pulled onto the grass, hearing the hissing sound the entire time, and as I stopped, I also felt a hot breeze from behind me ... no doubt about it, it was a flat tire. I spun the wheel, found the offending object, and removed it. There was no point in digging up the patch kit because I had no pump; I couldn't remember if my friends had one in their garage, so on foot, I continued the journey.

Anyway, blah blah blah, I get home, leave the bike in the garage, and make a note to change the tube. Today was my next ride, so I headed out early to see if I could manage it. I figured that 20 minutes would be enough time ...

It turns out that a) it's extremely easy to remove a tube from a tire when it's completely flat. In fact, it's easy to remove a tire from a wheel when the tube is completely flat, or at least it's easy to remove my tire. I didn't need tools at all. The wheel is a quick-release wheel, so I popped it out, worked it out from the chain, put the new tube in, tried to air it up, lined up the valve better, aired up it for real, and that was that. Five minutes, tops. It'll never be that easy again.

So we went on our usual Thursday ride, except we went through Fort Ben instead of to the market. This was unfortunate, as it meant no mid-ride snack, and of course I had planned to eat at the market. Whoops.

As you can see, it was a slightly different path.


View 7/14 CIBA ride in a larger map

There were some more hills, but that was good: I needed the practice. I felt a little weaker without that extra energy, but it was a good ride, and we pushed hard at the end. 20.49 miles, 13.36 mph ... not bad for having ridden only 8 miles in two weeks.

Google "plus"

I wasted about five minutes today trying to figure out how to tell Google that its phishing sensor is messed up yet again. Of course, there's no option to contact Google, because they don't believe in providing customer support.

See, I'm on this mailing list, and messages to the list, as you might expect, are a) sent to everyone on the list and b) indicated as coming from that person to the list. But because a reply goes to the list, Gmail says OH NOES, PHISHING. Every time.

There is, of course, no longer a way to report the message as "not phishing", because too many people were pointing out that Google's filter was too aggressive. So every time I get a message from the list, Google puts a band across it that says "This message may not have come from relative@example.com." Really? You're a genius. I know it didn't come from them.

And that, my friends, is just one reason why I do not intend to fall for Google "plus". Other reasons are that I don't trust Google to keep my various services separate when I want them separate, and as far as I'm concerned, Google+ is just Facebook, except Google had a history of ignoring privacy concerns way before they got into this, whereas Facebook didn't expose themselves as wanting to sell every detail of your life to advertisers until after the site had been up for a while.

Riding here, there, and everywhere

figuratively speaking. That sounds much better than "I was lazy and then I got a cold or something and now I'm catching up."

So: the 23rd, we did the usual ride-to-the-market-and-back at a faster clip, 12.8 mph for 17.7 miles. Now, I did stop after the hill climb to let others catch up, so that could affect my overall speed a bit, but I doubt it'd be 0.5 mph.

The 25th was the N.I.T.E. Ride, a nighttime ride through downtown Indianapolis. Last year, this was the first organized ride I'd done, and it was pretty impressive: the sight of hundreds and hundreds of bikes streaming out of the area around the Velodrome and up the hill on Cold Spring was cool to see. We also did the Dinner Ride beforehand – a similar-length trip that circles through Broad Ripple so that you can stop and eat.

This year, the N.I.T.E. Ride started at IUPUI's Carroll Stadium (not inside, silly, it's not paved like the Brickyard), so the route was a bit different. 17.9 miles, about 11.2 mph, but we weren't really trying to go that fast anyway. It's a good thing, too, because our route took us along St. Clair, which has a stoplight approximately every 40 feet, and none of them are in your favor. (On the other hand, we didn't have to feel guilty about the car that couldn't pass us. It's not like they would have been going through multiple lights either.)


View Dinner Ride 2011 in a larger map

We went to Union Jack's for dinner; they have a decent-sized bike rack in the back, and we were able to lock pretty much everyone's bikes. (NOTE: Always take your lock. You never know when you're going to want to stop and leave your bike somewhere. I was surprised at the number of people in our group who had locks and didn't take them ... of course, it's easier to say this with a hybrid. I have plenty of space to loop mine around my head tube and keep it out of the way.) After a nice meal, we headed back to IUPUI to sit, watch people, and wait. Little did we know that that would be a recurring theme ...

If you've never been to something like Race for the Cure or the Mini, you have no idea what it's like to see a street filled with people waiting to start. I have, so wisely (I thought), I supported waiting in our comfy chairs in the parking lot for the bulk of the riders to get underway, and then we could swing to the back and join them. We didn't quite wait for the pack to move, and that was a problem.

The ride was supposed to begin about 11; because it was late and dark, we couldn't quite tell where the front of the group was, only that the blinking lights (you did remember your taillight, right? good rider) started to spread out a little more. What was troubling was that the rest of the pack didn't really seem to move much. 11:10, 11:20 ... still no real signs of movement. By 11:25 or so, we were starting to creep forward, but it was that uncomfortable middle ground where it's just fast enough that you don't want to get caught walking if it picks up, but just slow enough that you can barely ride before you have to get off again.

Finally, by about 11:40, we approached the start line, and we saw that they were sending off riders in bunches. Seems somewhat reasonable, I guess, if you think all people are going to ride at the same speed ... if you don't bother to sort them out beforehand, though, it's pretty dumb. So we finally got to start: we got on our bikes, began pedaling ... and quickly caught up to the group in front of us. Eventually we got a little open space, but it wasn't too long before we were back to walking. WTF? What was happening?


View N.I.T.E. Ride in a larger map

If you zoom in on the map, you'll notice that we head south on West Street and turn left onto Orr Plaza, then head north on Senate. That's the problem. Instead of taking us straight down Ohio, which is fairly wide and built for traffic, they funneled us down a narrow street with stupid concrete objects on each side that was also under construction. Keep in mind that this is, I don't know, barely a mile into the ride. We spent 40 minutes waiting to get started and we can't even get up to speed. (The sad thing was that they had one of the volunteers standing on one of the obstacles, which was good, but trying to make light of the situation, which was bad. Don't make them take the blame for your stupid course design decisions.)

Finally, after that mess, we went around the circle (Indianapolis joke: the fastest I've ever traveled around Monument Circle was on a bicycle) and headed up Illinois. It was at this point where we noticed a significant difference between last year and this year. In 2010, pretty much all the intersections were blocked. Cars simply couldn't cross. This year, there were plenty of intersections where that was not the case. There were even a couple of times where cars were actually on the course behind us. (Note: this is not unusual for a daytime ride, especially a longer one where you can't really block off 50 miles of road. It is unusual for a night ride.)

Other than the crossing traffic and the locals (in one block, a couple of kids were literally playing in the street, and if you want to know where the mom was, it looked like she was reaching out trying to high-five rides, rather aggressively ... one of us actually got smacked by her), and the poor road conditions (Marion County is, of course, short on tax revenue, so the roads are a lot worse than in Hamilton County), and the fact we were about an hour behind schedule, that part of the ride wasn't bad.

We finally made it up to Butler's campus, where the utter darkness of some of the streets (not surprisingly, streets in residential areas are not necessarily brightly lit at all hours) was countered by young, possibly intoxicated[1] coeds cheering us on. Naturally, this was my favorite part of the ride. Well, that and when we were encouraging other people to drink every time they saw a bicycle.[2]

The good times came to an end, though, when we came up to another giant mass of people. The organizers put the SAG stop directly before the entrance to the IMA, which doesn't sound like a big deal ... except that there's a narrow bridge we cross that allows no more than double-file traffic, maybe not even that, so not only was traffic backing up from that, it was backing up from people leaving the SAG stop as well. At this point, we knew the rain in the forecast was closing in on us[3], and given that it was a short ride, we decided to skip the SAG stop.

We also heard a couple of riders talking about skipping the IMA and heading down Michigan. This is the part on the map where we squiggled: the alternative, we thought, was to head down to 38th and turn right. Not a great idea, but with heavy rain coming, we didn't want to get caught in it who knows where, so we headed out with them. Naturally, one of the volunteers told us not to go down 38th because it was dangerous. (Hey, we ride out this way, we know the risks.)

BUT ... someone else remembered that there was another entrance to the IMA, and it might be unlocked. It was, in fact, and so we did go through most of the IMA (thus the squiggle), only without the mindless bottleneck. Why wasn't this the normal route? I have no idea.

Finally, we shot down White River Parkway, back to Indiana and onto IUPUI's campus, just as rain was starting to fall. We looked at each other, considered our general lack of hunger, and mostly skipped the dinner at the end. (Fazoli's, last time: not bad, but not worth getting soaked at 1:40 AM.)

18.2 miles, 1:47 (does include some circling), 10.2 mph. That is not a misprint. Horrible, miserable ride ... and the worst part is that they do not publish the route in advance. I'll do the dinner ride next year, but I won't be doing the N.I.T.E. Ride. This was the worst organized ride I've ever done, and frankly I can't understand how you can have a recurring ride like this organized in such a way that it makes you wonder if the people who mapped the route have ever ridden a bike or organized a ride before.

ANYWAY, end rant. Throw in another Thursday ride-to-market (17.6 miles, 12.5 mph; that's an estimate, one rider blew out a tire – yes, literally – and I forgot to start My Tracks when we resumed the ride) and a quick trip to a friend's house to feed cats (5.5 miles, 14.9 mph), and that's a touch over 75 miles. Not bad for 10 days, but a far cry from last year. Ah, to be less busy again ... just a joke. I'd rather make money than ride my bike.

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[1] It's summer, a Saturday night, maybe 12:30 or so, and they're standing outside and cheering for people they don't know and probably can't even see that well. Draw your own conclusions ... (return)

[2] Note: do not do this. Now, if you drank every time you saw a tandem or a recumbent ... (return)

[3] Always travel with people in recumbents. They can do special things, like check the weather while riding. (return)

Old cats, new tricks

So recently, Calle has been meowing at me with a particular volume and frequency that means something. To a cat, the meaning is perfectly clear, but to me it means one of the following:

• Feed me!
• No, with fresh food.
• I'm bored, pay attention to me.
• I'm going to throw up, where should it be?
• There is a dangerous intruder in the house, ready to steal all of our tuna and catnip ...
• or maybe it's just a beetle.
• Open this door, I forgot what's behind it.

Normally, I ignore these meows so that they don't set any more of a precedent than they already have, but given that there was, in the past, a similar sequence that eventually led to I can haz cancer (warning: may contain weepiness), I figured I should investigate more closely.

I put fresh dry food into the bowl. I sit down and watch the cat eat. It turns out that she's eating, well, like I did when I had my braces on. Carefully. This is somewhat good (she has energy, so if the big C has come back, it's still early) but mostly bad (because normally cats that like dry food will eat it normally).

Next test: tuna. I get out two small plates, put tuna on one and broth on the other (for some reason, Josie is one of about four cats in the world who won't eat tuna). Calle's tuna is gone. OK, that makes it seem like wet food might be an option. (She's 16. I'm lucky her teeth have lasted this long.)

So I stop at the store, and among other things, pick out three different types of wet food. (These cats are picky; more than a couple of types of food have been rejected.) I come home, and the Meow Parade returns. I open one can, split it about 60/40, and serve it.

All gone

Yep, this one too

Yeah, so that's pretty much definitive. Yes, both plates are pretty much clean, which means yes, Josie ate her food too. (Also, Calle went back to both plates after I'd taken the pictures, just to make sure they were really clean.)

Sooooo ... I guess we'll be buying wet food from here on out. So glad I just bought a big bag of Science Diet ...

Another nice ride, must be the weather

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I think I see, where the heat is. Where it is not, is here, at least right now. It's getting hotter, but it's still in the metric 20s[1], so riding is not at all a problem.

We did sort of the same route as last week, to the Millersville Farmers' Market and back, except that apparently Mayor Ballard found some money for road repairs (most likely from the feds), and they're paving approximately 90%[2] of our normal route, so we changed it up on the way back. (Suddenly that unplanned practice on the unpaved Monon is paying off ...)

This time, the Farmers' Market purchase was Maggie Moo's. Sadly, there were no mix-ins, just plain ice cream. Yes, I ate some, no, I did not take pills, yes, that may be some kind of dieting trick (although not intentional), and no, you shouldn't have asked. Some people don't want to read about that kind of stuff on this blog.[3] Did I mention the music? Last time there was a guy doing passable Billy Joel covers (pretty much standard for a solo artist with a keyboard); this time it was a duet covering the Eagles, Cat Stevens, and other AM radio blasts from the '70s.[4]

Finished our snacks, back on the bikes, went back a slightly different route but still up the nice hill and got back in pretty good shape. ems will tell you that I "cheated" and "never stopped" prior to the hill: I say that the car coming from the right slowed waaaaay down (it did), obviously giving us a chance to build up speed. Not my fault that no one else planned for that.

Overall, it was about the same as last week. In fact, it was identical according to My Tracks: Slightly slower, 12.30 mph. Although the ride was shorter (17.01 mi), we took only slightly less time (1:23). Bonus fact: when uploading your data to Google Docs, My Tracks doesn't overwrite the existing workbook, but adds new rows below what you already have, so it didn't overwrite the combined totals from last week's ride. (There's no way to pause recording, so when we take a break, it splits the ride in two.)


View Thursday 6/16 ride in a larger map

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[1] For metrically-deficient folks, 25°C is 77°F. It's not that hard to go from C to F when you stay on the fives: 9/5 C (divide by 5, multiply by 9, so that's 45) plus 32 (see, 77). Still can't do it? Get some help. (return)

[2] Exaggeration. It was more like 40% ... it just happened to be most of the first 40%. (return)

[3] Which is too bad: someone almost literally shit a brick today at work. When I went into the stall to change, there was a fairly thick, um, log still in the toilet. I did my business and flushed. Still there. I changed, which meant two more flushes, because the sensor for the automatic flushing mechanism isn't centered (and thus you have to stand off to the side or else it flushes regularly). One more attempt and it was still there ... add in the one from the person who deposited it, and it survived at least five flushes. This guy needs either a doctor or a trophy. Maybe both. (return)

[4] I remember when New Kid in Town was released. We heard it at least three times on WTTS that night on our Sesame Street radio. No, it's not around any more, and yes, I'd recognize it immediately if I saw it. Google didn't turn up any hits. (return)

Not 95-degree weather

Yes, folks, today I went on a little ride and I did not sweat like an Ohio State fan awaiting the NCAA's verdict. It was a relatively short ride, from BGI North to the farmers' market at roughly 56th and Emerson IIRC, then back. (We took a shortmedium-length break when we were there for snacks. I had a white-chocolate-covered strawberry from Chocolate for the Spirit, light on the chocolate. I wanted pulled pork and such, but it was still in the 80s and we had about 7 miles to ride back.)

We rode at a pretty good clip on the way there, just under 13 mph by my phone's calculations, and a good bit of that uphill. The one good climb was on the way back, though ... my hill work on Tuesday did remind my legs of what to do, but we really couldn't build up any speed at the bottom (crossing Fall Creek, for one, and waiting for oncoming traffic for another), so I was doing my 100-rpm spin in 1-1. lol. Oh! Summary: 17.68 miles, 1:15, 12.48 mph. Max speed, 24.61, pedaling downhill. (I probably could have gone faster, but it's not good practice to run over fellow cyclists, especially on road bikes. They can catch you.)

The farmers' market was definitely worth it, though. Lots of interesting food there. We'll have to go some time when we can take some food back with us ... the Camelbak that I have is the slim 50-ounce kind, and when it's at capacity, if I have my first aid kit as well, there isn't really room for cargo.

It was good to get out in cooler weather and to ride twice in a week. Might do a longer ride at some point, or maybe just more hill work.


View BGI to Farmers Market in a larger map

Perfect riding weather

can be found in many other parts of the world right now. However, at this time of year, Indiana typically has two types of weather, heat and thunderstorms, so I figured I'd ride in the heat. (My evenings are much busier than last year, so I have to take what I can get.) The high today was in the mid-90s (mid-30s for my friends in Metricville), so it wasn't great weather, but I had my Camelbak, my helmet, shade along the way, and experience in heat, so that was good enough.

Goal today: hills. Actually, I mean "hills". In northern and central Indiana, hills are little bumps on the map. It isn't until you get to southern Indiana (Bloomington, Columbus, etc.) that you get hills that are numerous and challenging. (We do have hills here, kind of, depending on how close you are to a river.) So there are nice little inclines along 146th and up the Monon that I thought I'd do.

I started off at the Rohrer Road trailhead, conveniently forgetting that the 0.5-mile stretch to 146th was slightly uphill. Headed east across Meridian (btw, the pedestrian light at the entrance to Clay Terrace changes immediately when you press the button, unlike other lights that make you wait a cycle), around the corner to the Lowe's lot, and then back up the hill. Up to the intersection, around the corner, back up the hill again ... and at this point, I decided that perhaps smaller inclines would be a good idea. You know, a heat index nearing 100° and all that.

So I headed back to 146th, crossed at the light, and headed north. The Monon is slightly uphill for the rest of the way, so I got some more slow-climbing practice ... until I crossed 161st, and I realized that they'd a) fixed the part of the trail that was under construction last year and b) extended the trail into Westfield.

Now, that sounds like really exciting news, but let me tell you this. If you ride a road bike, you do not want to ride this part of the trail. 2.9 miles on a gravel road – at least it was the gravel that you pave over and not a gravel driveway, or else I'd never have made it, not even on a hybrid. As it was, there were a couple of parts where the trail was a little soft and I slid a little, but I made it. However, there was a lot of bouncing (no shocks on this bike), and there were several parts of the trail where there was no attempt to make a smooth transition from one surface to another.

So, after my little 5.8-mile stretch of semi-off-road cycling, I got a somewhat-downhill leg back to the trailhead. Got in a nice little 18-mph sprint to 146th, about 17 for the half mile after that, and then it was time to get off the bike and get into a cool car. (Um, after I remembered to switch it from new air to recirculate, and from defroster/feet to face/feet. lol.)

Stats from this ride, nicely uploaded to Google Docs (thanks to My Tracks for making that happen) and to Google Maps (hopefully you'll see that below):

Just under an hour (0:59 riding time), 11.66 miles, 11.79 mph, 511 ft gain in elevation (cumulative, I suppose), top speed of 19.01 mph. That's actually pretty close to what my cyclometer read (11.87 miles, 12 mph even, 19.5 top speed).

Also, Chocolate Chip Creme Pies are tasty. I prefer them to Oatmeal Creme Pies, even if they don't taste that chocolatey. (Yes, that wasn't the best post-ride snack, although honestly it's not that bad for you, and anyway, you weren't in Kroger offering to buy me an expensive smoothie, now were you? No? Then hush.)


View Hill practice, Carmel/Westfield in a larger map

If the Pacers left, where would they go?

We were talking at a meeting tonight about the possibility of the Pacers moving and the cities who might consider stealing them. We didn't have any good candidates, but we knew that to take an existing franchise, a city pretty much needs a good base of population and an existing arena of decent size. Conseco Fieldhouse opened in 1999 and seats 18,165, so that's kind of a benchmark for our searches.

Criteria

We should consider size, both in terms of television market and population. TV markets are important because larger markets can mean better deals, which means more money, which means more money to spend on players or to fatten owners' wallets. Arenas are requirements, too, although an expansion franchise can be obtained simply with a promise of a new stadium. History is important as well, although less so: some cities are eager to regain teams while others simply can't keep them.

Size

Indianapolis is roughly 25th in TV market size. Fortunately, many cities above them have teams, but several do not, including Tampa-St. Petersburg (significantly larger), St. Louis, and Pittsburgh (both slightly larger).

In terms of city size, Indianapolis is much bigger, 12th overall, with only San Jose and Jacksonville both larger and without an NBA team. However, looking at metropolitan areas, Indy drops to 34th, with only five NBA cities smaller (Milwaukee, Memphis, Oklahoma City, New Orleans, and Salt Lake City). The three larger TV markets, plus Cincinnati, Kansas City, Las Vegas, and Columbus, are all larger areas. (Baltimore is also larger and separate from Washington; it's unlikely that a team could move that close to an existing team. The Nationals were in a different situation, having been ruined by an incompetent owner and in desperate and immediate need of a place to play.)

Arenas

The St. Louis Blues play in a multipurpose arena that can seat 21,000 for basketball. The Tampa Bay Lightning arena can seat 20,500; the Penguins' place holds 19,000, and the Shark Tank can hold 18,500. Kansas City has a relatively new 18,555-seat place with no regular tenant.

Cincinnati has an aging arena that seats 17,000 and is unlikely to be NBA-worthy. Jacksonville's new arena seats only 15,000, and while it's much newer, it's also small enough that it likely wouldn't be a viable place to play (especially in a city that can't fill an NFL stadium). Columbus has an on-campus arena that seats somewhere close to Conseco's capacity, but I'm not sure that's a viable option. Las Vegas still has the Thomas and Mack Center, but while its capacity is not an issue, there's a little detail that has yet to be resolved to the NBA's satisfaction.

History

St. Louis had an original NBA team and had another team that is still active, plus one that lives on in perpetuity[1].

Pittsburgh had a BAA team that didn't even make it to the NBA, as well as a short-lived ABA team, so there isn't as much history there, and of course Tampa has never had a team.

Ironically, both Cincinnati and Kansas City not only had an NBA franchise, but it was the same one, and it's likely to be on the move again.

The other cities never had a professional basketball presence.

Viability

Las Vegas is completely out until the gambling issue is resolved: after that, they'll be completely in, but I'm not sure whether the NBA wants to be the first one to embrace gambling. Jacksonville, Cincinnati and Columbus don't really have good places to play, at least not for an existing franchise. It's unlikely an owner would take an existing team and move it to a similar market with a worse arena.

Kansas City has an arena with no real conflicts, but I'm not sure there's much of a difference moving there (unless you count it as revenge for Indy taking the NCAA headquarters). San Jose has the size and an arena, but the Kings and Warriors have both been moving here and there during their California histories, and even the Clippers took a brief look around before settling into the Staples Center. There's definitely money in Silicon Valley, but perhaps not enough to support another team.

That leaves Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Tampa-St. Pete. The first two would be slight upgrades in TV market size and metropolitan area, but I'm not sure the interest is there (although they might help to pay back the city for helping to build the Penguins' shiny new toy). Even Tampa isn't an obvious winner. Although it's a much larger market, both in TV and population terms, it's also in a fair-weather state (meant literally rather than in sporting terms) with two existing teams. Florida isn't exactly supporting three NFL teams, it's not quite supporting two MLB teams, and there are questions as to whether any NHL teams can survive down there. A third NBA team is probably not a great idea.

So ...

There are a lot of options, there are a few reasonable options, but there's no obvious choice. Then again, the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City because someone wanted them to, and the Hornets moved to New Orleans because the owner was run out of townsomeone wanted them to. The NBA seems more open to franchise moves than the other leagues are, and if there is a lockout in the near future, there's no guarantee that current ownership will want to keep the team; Herb Simon might just decide to dump the team on the next billionaire he meets.

Now, if there were any billionaires in Tampa who had experience owning franchises ...

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[1] No lie. $14.57 million per year simply for stepping out of the picture ... not that they made that much at the time, just that they bet well and won huge. (return)

SQL Server 2008 and ColdFusion 9: no problems, right?

Sure, once it's set up. lol.

ColdFusion and SQL Server talk to each other very well, except when they don't. In a development environment, like, say, your laptop, they don't talk at all by design: CF wants to connect via TCP/IP and SQL Server ships with TCP/IP disabled by default.

So, thanks to Adobe help, Ben Forta's post, and Marc Esher's post, I got it working ...

• Follow the instructions in Esher's post above to open TCP/IP services in your SQL Server instance (enable TCP/IP, click on Properties, IP Addresses, delete all Dynamic Port values, and enter 1433 as the TCP Port, assuming you do have it running on 1433).
• Follow the instructions in Forta's post as well (enable Windows and SQL Server authentication, create a SQL Server account for ColdFusion[1], and give it access to the database in question).
• In the CF Administrator, enter the username and password for the SQL Server account you just created[2], leave the server name blank, and enter the name of the database to which you want to connect.

That's everything, I think, although I probably skipped over some of the painful details. Anyway, it's more complicated than it should be, and it's not all on Microsoft: there are plenty of JDBC connectors that don't have this issue. Adobe just hasn't improved their built-in connector.

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[1] Unless, of course, you already have ColdFusion running under a separate user account, which is good, in which case you simply let CF log in using Windows Authentication. (return)

[2] Username and password are required only for SQL Server authentication; for Windows authentication, neither are required (because the user is already logged in). (return)

That's the end of that

Last season, Purdue struggled without Robbie Hummel in the lineup. They pulled out an 8-point win over Northwestern in the first round, but then took a 40-minute dump against Minnesota in the semis.

This year, the dump came one round earlier. While fellow possible #2 seeds Duke and Syracuse were playing tight games, Purdue failed to show up against Michigan State. The resulting loss not only secured the Spartans' spot in the tournament, but will likely drop Purdue to the bottom of the #3 line, hoping not to get pushed into a #4. (Now the Syracuse-Connecticut game needs to go the other way; the Huskies seem the most likely team to move up to a #3.)

It also begs the question of the chances that Purdue has to make a run this season. Gone is the glow from knocking off Ohio State and Wisconsin in the same week; in its place is the uncertainty brought on by losing to two second-division conference opponents in one week.

Matt Painter has his work cut out for him. He needs to get the problems fixed in practice the next few days, or one of the better teams in Purdue history is going to join some of its peers in the Disappointments section of the history books.

Purdue's #1 seed chances, Friday update

Recap from yesterday: no big surprises. Louisville crushed Marquette, so that sets up a semifinal matchup with Notre Dame that pretty much requires Purdue to reach the BTT finals. Looking at today's games:

• Purdue has to beat Michigan State, or else the rest is moot.
• A Duke loss to Maryland would be nice.
• A BYU loss to New Mexico would be even better; anything that prevents a BYU-San Diego State matchup in the Mountain West Finals is a good thing. (The winner could end up in front of Purdue no matter which one it is.)
• Connecticut is the team to support in the Big East. The winner of the Louisville-Notre Dame game will also be closing in on that fourth #1 seed.

Looking at the other side of the coin, North Carolina is up against a hot Miami team, but a team that just played a game last night. It's hard to tell exactly when that extra fatigue kicks in, but it could be tonight. San Diego State has only UNLV between themselves and a probable date with BYU; unfortunately for them, they're playing in Las Vegas. Florida plays Bruce "Dead Man Walking" Pearl's Tennessee squad, so despite possible consequences I'm rooting for Florida. (They're one of the three SEC schools that doesn't oversign in football – Florida, that is – so that's another good thing.) Texas plays archrival Texas A&M, and that might be just the type of game to end their Big 12 tournament run before it really starts.

No change from yesterday: a realistic seed for Purdue is the top #2; a worst-case scenario is the third #4. Updates to come later.

Purdue's #1 seed chances, Thursday update

Purdue's road loss to Iowa dropped them from a solid contender for a #1 seed to a possible #3 or even #4, depending on what happens in Indianapolis. Bracketology 101 currently has them as the last #2 seed, but they've still got a chance at a top seed if a number of things go right.

• Purdue must win the Big Ten tournament, most likely by beating Ohio State. It would help if they also beat Wisconsin so that they get two more top-20 RPI wins rather than just one. Doing it by beating, say, Penn State and Michigan will not help their position as much.
• Duke needs to lose in the ACC tournament, preferably not to North Carolina, who is right behind Purdue. If UNC wins out, they could conceivably pass the Boilers even if Purdue also wins out.
• BYU probably needs to lose once – none of their opponents, other than San Diego State, will do anything to help their SOS, and the loss of Davies may affect their seeding even if they do win the Mountain West. Their narrow escape against TCU today probably didn't help their cause.
• The Big East tournament needs to break properly. Notre Dame can't win it, because that will probably solidify their #1 seed. (Pittsburgh's loss probably didn't matter; they're reportedly a solid #1.) Syracuse can't win it, because that will likely keep them ahead of Purdue due to the strength of their conference. (Syracuse beat St. John's in the quarters; Purdue will draw Michigan State or RPI dud Iowa.) Unfortunately they're in different brackets, so Purdue fans need to root for Connecticut and the Louisville/Marquette winner (but see below).

If Purdue doesn't win the conference tournament, then they probably can't keep their seed unless their loss is to Wisconsin or Ohio State, and even then, they'll need North Carolina to lose at a comparable time. San Diego State can't win the WAC, especially if it means beating BYU. The Aztecs are in a shaky position but simply don't have many losses, and a marquee win might get them past Purdue if the Boilers don't also get one. Florida can't win the SEC: even though it's a weak conference this year, it's not like the tournament champion is going to drop a seed or two. Texas probably shouldn't win the Big 12, either.

Louisville could become a problem, especially if they knock out both Marquette and Notre Dame. That could get them by a Purdue team with a quarterfinal loss; if the Cardinals win the Big East, that might get them by anything but a conference champion Boiler team. Wisconsin is in a similar position: unlikely to come near Purdue unless Purdue nosedives or Wisconsin wins the conference tournament (which would probably mean a win over Purdue). St. John's is out (guess the refs worked the whole game this time), and Kentucky may be too far back to pass the Boilers even if the Wildcats win the SEC.

For now, a realistic seed for Purdue is the top #2; a worst-case scenario is the third #4. Updates to come later.

Sometimes, when things are darkest ...

the virtual world comes through.

Madden 2010, franchise mode, year 2012. The Lions are defending Super Bowl champs, and after going 15-1, we're facing the Patriots in the Super Bowl. (91 rating: Brady still at QB, Welker and Moss at WR, Sproles at RB ... very strong offense.)

I knew it was going to be a long game when, on the second play from scrimmage, Sproles put on the Madden RB cloak and broke free for an 80-yard TD. (Just as a reminder, RBs are ridiculously overpowered in Madden. For some reason, EA thinks we all wanted an arcade-style game where every RB can break five tackles per play.) No problem, we answered with a TD and then held New England to a FG, down 10-7.

But then the Maddening began in earnest. I threw a dumb interception and then was forced to fumble, and suddenly, it was 24-7. We intercepted a Brady pass and promptly fumbled it back, despite the fact that I was holding RB the entire time. We eventually scored two TDs to close the lead to 24-21 at halftime, but lost 96-rated Stafford for the game. Despite the injury, we'd receive the second half kickoff, so we looked to be in a good position.

However, Madden had other ideas. After two more forced fumbles, one by rookie QB Garrett Hoffman returned for a TD and one by Kevin Smith, we were down 31-21 and looking to fall behind further. However, Richard Marshall picked off a Brady pass inside the 10 and went the distance with it, and after forcing the Patriots to punt on a 4th-and-1 from the 31 (????? AI fail), we scored again to take a 35-31 lead as the quarter ended.

The Madden "magic" wasn't over yet. New England put a TD to go up 38-35, the injury gods took out Smith for a quarter (which meant the game, given that it was the fourth quarter) and Pettigrew for several plays, and after we punted, New England scored again. 45-35 with 6 minutes to play and backups at QB, RB, and TE.

The rookie found Calvin Johnson for a 9-yard score to make it 45-42; the defense forced a punt, and as the Patriots stepped up the pressure, Hoffman found Johnson again, and Megatron took advantage of the trucking bug to score from 50 yards out. Lions 49, Patriots 45, 1:47 remaining, and you know what that means ... yep, AI scoring drive. Another TD from Brady gave the Patriots a 52-49 lead with 16 seconds remaining. With two timeouts left and no star QB or RB, could we mount a comeback?

Just barely. The backup FB returned the squib kick to the 49, and two plays later, Garrett Hartley hit a 44-yard field goal as time expired to force overtime.

Now the injury recovery for Smith becomes more significant: he's going to come back during the overtime period, as Pettigrew will, if only we can keep the ball long enough. Sure enough, as the Madden powers start to wear off, we win the toss and receive the kick, but without Smith and Pettigrew, we get just seven yards on three plays. I line up to punt ... and picture the result. What are the odds the AI will let me stop Brady? Exactly. I call time out.

On fourth down from our 33, the seventh-round pick from Portland State (no, really – you can't make these things up) finds Johnson for a first down: we keep possession. Pettigrew and Smith return, and the running game starts to click. (Hey, I'm going to use the trucking bug to my advantage ... you bet.) We drive to the 11, when I can't chance it any more, and Hartley hits a 28-yarder to win, 55-52 in overtime.

Hoffman's numbers: 20-29-0, 264 and 2 TDs. Smith had 19 carries for 140 and 2 TDs, Megatron had 16 receptions for 255 yards and 3 TDs. Despite obvious and repeated attempts by the AI to hijack the game, I was able to pull it off.

It was a welcome respite from the week I've had.

Cabin fever

The storm is gone, my barren lawn
Is covered now in ice
My own driveway, as of this day
Seems to be coated twice.

I'd like to get to Kroger yet
(Although a Marsh is near)
To improvise a few supplies
Until the roads are clear.

I'll chip away again today
To try to make a lane
For car or feet to reach the street
Then store, and home again.

I've asked the sun to help me on
The place that needs it most
So I don't slide on my short ride
Into a mailbox post.

I've tried to chip so I don't slip
But it has been quite rough
To use a blade that was not made
For breaking through this stuff.

I sometimes stand, or use my hand
As feet slip out from under
I haven't bled or hit my head
Which, frankly, is a wonder.

I'd order cleats to reach the streets
And then around the block
But they can't get them to me yet
I haven't cleared my walk.

When next a cloud brings rain around
Or snow, I'll not think twice
I'll gladly play it any way
That isn't fucking ice.

Shoes

If you must know, I'm posting this because a) I don't generally post personal things, b) working normal hours means that I've put NFL Training Camp workouts somewhere after laundry and dishes, and c) I discovered an extra pair of boots last night.

I ordered a couple of pairs of shoes from Kohl's a couple of weeks ago – their shipping is painfully slow, almost like the experience you get when you shop at Sears[1] – and they arrived today. (Incidentally, I also got some gloves, neat little things with the things on the hands where you can connect some kind of warming device. That might be helpful ...) They're the black shoes that I wore when riding last year; basically, my workout shoes. The current ones have some miles on them, so I thought it would be a good idea to get new ones, take advantage of the current sale, and push the existing shoes down the ladder of uses.

I doubt most people do this, so I'll explain: for "normal" shoes, I have three categories: workout, normal use, and lawn use. When I get new workout shoes, the old workout shoes become normal-use shoes, and so on. Sometimes I get rid of the lawn-use shoes if they're in bad shape, and other times I save them for that one time in a year when you need shoes you really don't care about.

So. The two new pairs move to the workout slot (to be rotated), the old pair becomes a casual pair, and the old normal-use pair joins the lawn pile. I thought about all this, checked out my shoe rack[2] to see where they'd go, and then thought it might be time to do inventory again ... and while I was thinking that, I was counting. I counted the shoes on the top rack, then the bottom, then the ones underneath, and then ... boots?? Boots go in the closet (snow boots, not some other kind of boots). And yes, the winter boots were in the mud/laundry room, but these were definitely boots.

I don't remember buying them. They make sense, though. They're not quite winter boots, lighter, I think, so I could wear them with jeans. (Slacks, no. When it snows and I have to wear slacks, I just assume I will be stepping on the back of my pant leg and occasionally getting snow in my shoes.) They're in the walk-in closet[3] because they go with pants. Otherwise, they'd go in the hall closet.

Anyway, I thought you would be amused to know how many pairs of shoes I have. I prefer to have different shoes for different purposes, and while I do throw out worn (meaning holes, faded colors for good shoes, that kind of thing) shoes, I don't throw out shoes that aren't worn often.

Casual dress shoes (for Friday casual through business casual): seven pairs. Two brown slip-on pairs, two black[4] slip-on pairs, three brown lace-up pairs. (The lace-up ones are older and of slightly different colors. Naturally, there's no good way to get a belt the same color as the one you already have unless you happen to remember to wear it when you go to the store to get one.)

Dress shoes: three pairs. Not sure why I have the third pair. I think maybe the other two looked just a little scuffed.

Casual shoes: two pairs, the black New Balance shoes and a low-cut boot-type pair.

Lawn shoes: two pairs, the old pair (still in decent condition, not quite ready for the trash) and the until-recently-casual pair.

Sports shoes: four pairs, one for football (flag football, from several years ago), one for golf, one for bowling, and one pair of high-tops for basketball, a pair that could probably be retired given that I haven't played in many years.

Flip-flops: one pair, purchased with my carefully-acquired Pepsi Points a long time ago. (Wikipedia says it started in 1996, but I think it goes back farther than that.)

Slippers: one pair, carefully stowed away where the cat cannot get to them. (She forced me to get rid of my last pair. Some things do not go back on your feet.)

Boots: two pairs, as mentioned above, one for snow and one for not-quite-snow.

That's either 20 or 21 pairs, depending on whether you count flip-flops, which I wouldn't wear other than on a beach or to sand volleyball. Sounds a little extreme, doesn't it? But I don't like to throw things away if there is any use left in them, and a good number of the shoes come from changing dress codes or from infrequent situations. (Suits? sigh.)

My feet generate quite a bit of heat, which means it doesn't generally go well if I wear the same pair of shoes two days in a row ... thus multiple pairs for several different activities. The bowling shoes were necessary[5], as were the other sports shoes, I suppose. It does work better when you have the right shoes for a task.

So it all makes sense to me. Some might see me as either a hoarder or insane, but I prefer to think of it as being prepared for anything.

Well ... I don't have shoes for curling yet ...

---

[1] I don't know, I guess some people still do. Just pretend I asked them and they confirmed it for me. (return)

[2] What, most guys don't have shoe racks? Oh, right. And most probably leave their clothes on the floor, rather than sorted by type in separate hampers so as to assist in putting together compatible loads of laundry. Of course, if you've had cats long enough, you don't leave such things on the floor. Anyway, shoe rack = neatness. You know, fastidiousness. Raven. (return)

[3] Of course I have a walk-in closet. It's kind of hard to build a modern three-bedroom house without one. What am I supposed to do, keep my clothes in the spare bedroom because I don't have two X chromosomes? That's a bit much, don't you think? (return)

[4] duh. Black belts, black shoes. Brown belts, brown shoes. Srsly. Guys have maybe three rules to follow – the others being "don't wear stripes and checks/plaid" and "don't wear closely-matched colors"[6] – so of course I know this one. (return)

[5] because you've seen a bowling alley, and you've seen other people's feet. (return)

[6] Well, if you're a woman, that's how you'll think of it. For us, it reads "Don't wear the same color pants and shirt unless you are actually wearing a uniform." "Color" in this context means "the word I would use to describe the color." Doesn't matter if it's actually the same: if it's close enough that I might use the same word for each, then one has to wait for another day. (return)

NFL Training Camp, 60-Day Workout: Day 8

So I remembered that being at work for a full day kind of fills your schedule. Updates running a little late. This is Thursday's workout.

Why would you work out indoors in Atlanta? Do you remember Super Bowl Weekend?

Day 8, the start of week 2. We start moving up the coast, this time visiting the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Today's trainer is Michael Turner, yet another player who is similar to me only in height. I decided against working out with Matt Ryan mostly because of his nickname, which I find too dumb even to repeat here.

Torture with a smile.

This workout reminded me of one difference between a female trainer and a male trainer. If I were working out with, say, Jillian Michaels, while I was lying on the floor, unable to lift my arms or legs, as my vision dimmed, I would at least be able to look at an attractive woman, and my last thought before I died of exhaustion would be "She's smiling ... I think she likes me," while she'd probably be thinking "Srsly?" With a male trainer, my last thought would be "I wonder if he's going to tear out my liver and eat it?", and his reaction would probably be "I knew this was a bad idea. None of these guys are in shape."

I find it interesting that even a program can identify a specific workout at which you struggle and make you do it again and again. Upper-body weakness? No problem. Here are some shoulder presses. Now repeat them. Here, hold weights up while you squat. Do that again. Now pushups. Ha ha ha!

I had problems with three exercises. During the hammer curl, somehow the game was reading the sensor movement backward, so when I lifted my arms, it thought I'd lowered them, and vice versa. Basically, when this happens, I just try to figure out how long I'm supposed to hold the position, and then I do the reps on my own. If the game catches up, fine, and if not, I either go through the motions without the weights to get credit for the workout, or I just skip to the next one.

The reverse crunches failed again ... the only way it knew I'd lowered my legs is if I put my feet on the floor, which defeats the purpose of the exercise (to keep your abs working the whole time). I just did the reps on my own and skipped the exercise.

Finally, the QB Window Challenge was a disaster, possibly because I needed the Wiimote in my passing hand. Same problems as above: up was down, forward was backward. It's really disappointing because I like some of these exercises, but it just seems like too much of a pain to figure out how I'm supposed to be doing them.

Another workout tomorrow, then an off day, and then back-to-back workouts again ...

Humans and Their Ability to Live in Higher Gravity

I found this on my computer. WTH?

Purpose: To determine what effect, if any, higher gravity has upon humans.

Method: Examine a human performing a normal, everyday task, first at normal gravity, and then under successively greater gravity.

Details: Subject was seated in front of computer screen and given a simple task to execute. (Task appears to be called Zuma Blitz; further details irrelevant.) Subject was allowed to repeat task several times. Scientist C then approached to closely observe subject's motion. After establishing baseline performance, C aligned head with subject's arm so as to properly measure exertion under normal and strong gravity, gradually increasing pressure with each repetition to simulate increasing effects of gravity. After completing application of sufficient gravity, C left the subject and began thoroughly washing contact areas.

Conclusion: Humans are ill-equipped to perform even cursory tasks in stronger gravitational fields. Performance decreased as increasing force was applied. Also, Zuma Blitz is boring.

Random thoughts

• I make a quick trip to Kohl's to make slight updates to my wardrobe for my impending on-site contract. I return about 3:15 to find that cats are asleep on various pieces of furniture.
  
  Suddenly, Calle wakes up, and apparently this sequence of thoughts runs through her head: "mid-afternoon ... the car just pulled into the garage ... OMG HE'S TAKING ME TO THE VET!!!!" She jumps off the couch and does her stealth run (not at full speed, tail down) into the bedroom to hide in the corner. (Apparently it wasn't all-out avoidance mode, because she wasn't under the bed.)
  
  I went into the bedroom and found her, petted her for a little bit, and returned to the living room. Shortly after that, she came out to confirm that she knew all along I'd just been to the store and that this was no big deal.
• I love when the water company actually comes out to your house to read the meter instead of just estimating it and discovers that your "water usage" for the money is 0. (Once it was less than zero, and no, I didn't get money back. The variable cost is actually relatively low here compared to the fixed cost per month, at least for a single person.)
• I hold a very dim view of people who park on the street when they have four perfectly good parking spaces already, especially during snow season. Thanks to some jerks at one end of the neighborhood, we have a narrow one-lane road instead of a wide two-lane road. I keep hoping that someone will careen through late at night and scrape away half of the offending cars, but it hasn't happened yet; fortunately, I've also yet to see an accident between cars trying to squeeze through that gap late at night.
• About Brady Hoke: I don't know. He is not the person I'd have chosen, but then my job doesn't depend on the next Michigan coach winning 10 games and punishing Ohio State the way the NCAA ought to be.[1] Hoke does want the job, doesn't need a lot of money (yet), and did oversee improvements at both of his previous stops. Fixing defense and special teams should be easy – they can't get much worse – but if the offense undergoes a significant decline, especially if Hoke and Borges eschew the spread for an old-school attack, Hoke's tenure might be short.

---

[1] I may be wrong, but I don't recall the use of complementary cars being standard for all students at Purdue. Maybe I went to the wrong dealership. (return)

NFL Training Camp, 60-Day Workout: Day 5

Where are my back-to-back off days?

Day 5, the second of back-to-back workouts, followed by two off days. Sounds like the NHL. (I think the NBA takes four days off after back-to-back games.)

I have virtually nothing in common with this man.

Looks like the Detroit Field Trip of Dominance, otherwise known as Florida. Today's workout was in the last of three stadiums in the state, Everbank Field in Jacksonville. (Apparently it's no longer Jacksonville Municipal Stadium. Sorry, can't push those updates out to the Wii.) I stuck with Maurice Jones-Drew, partly because he's one of the few NFL players shorter than I am and partly because I wanted to ask him about not being able to play in week 16, possibly costing me a chance at the league title.[1]

New drills today: the WR Challenge and the RB Obstacle Course. The WR Challenge wasn't much of anything, actually, but maybe because I'm on Medium ... first you jog, then you're supposed to run in place or lunge toward a "cone" (imagine that you're standing in the middle of a six-foot square marked by four cones, one at each corner) depending on what the narrator says.[2] I didn't have to lunge at all, just run or squat and then stand back up.

Next was a DB test (huh? I thought we were on offense), where you lunge up, left, or right depending on what the narrator says. More jogging, then a route-running drill where you run in a straight line and raise your hands when he says to ... in theory, the speed at which you run affects how far you "run" after the catch, but either that doesn't happen in this part or the lack of a left-leg sensor meant it wasn't catching my speed effectively. Maybe I just need to raise my legs higher. Anyway, the effect was that I coasted through each route.[3] I think we ran at the end, but whatever. End of the WR Challenge.

The RB Obstacle Course started with a tire drill (left-right-left-right, slowed down of course as the WR drill was), then jogging, then running through obstacles: punch left or right to stiff-arm tackling dummies or jump to clear arm tackles. This one went pretty quickly, which makes me wonder about the WR drill.

After that, it was the usual selection of exercises and stretches, focusing mostly on the lower body. I was prepared this time and had the leg sensor strapped tightly to me.[4] I only had to "skip" one workout, so I got more credit this time.

Afterward, I found that I'd moved up into the 6th round, to pick 190 (30th pick in the round because we're ignoring supplemental picks). Hello, conference championship loser![5] Purchased the Panthers helmet, did a quick check of achievements, and then shut down the Wii for a couple of days. I'll be back on Thursday.

---

[1] I lost by quite a bit, and it wasn't MJD's fault for being unable to play through yet another injury. I blame the commissioner for requiring us to set our lineups prior to the first game of the week. (return)
[2] Yeah, the players never actually say anything. Another "drawback" to using low-density discs on the Wii rather than high-density discs on the 360 and PS3. Drawback is in quotes because really, do we need each individual player to voice the same instructions? No, we don't. (return)
[3] You may recognize this as the Randy Moss Exercise. (return)
[4] I forgot to mention that I jumped out of the sensor yesterday. Ha ha. Who says white men can't jump? (return)
[5] The rules are here. Non-playoff teams pick in reverse order of record, then teams are grouped by the round in which they lost and then reverse order of record, which means right now, 21 through 24 are KC, Indy, Philadelphia, and New Orleans. I could end up in Seattle![6] (return)
[6] Actually, I couldn't. The Seahawks would have a worse record than the other CC loser and would thus pick 29th. You may have heard something about their record somewhere.