Month: October 2007

Craig’s List Delivers!

I’m probably the last one to figure this out, but Craig’s List actually works!  I’ve browsed the list many times in the past looking for values of certain cars, bikes, etc.  I’ve even contacted a few people about some of these items before, but I’ve never actually bought anything or sold anything on the list…until yesterday.

LA Fitness built a gym near my house last year, so since I joined, I quit using my weightlifting rack that I had in the garage.  I’ve been meaning to get rid of the giant beast, but procrastination was the word of the day.  I wanted to get a good picture of it before I posted it somewhere…so I waited.  Yesterday, though, I decided just to throw up an add for it on Phoenix’s Craig’s List using a drawing of the product I found on the web.  Within 4 hours of the posting, I had two people emailing me about it.  By the 5th hour I was handing out my address to two people, had third person that wanted to buy it the next day, and a fourth inquiring about it.  By the 6th hour, there was a guy at my house handing me cash and this behemoth was carried away.  Most importantly, it was carried away by someone other than me.

What I can say, as someone who has done a little bit of “trading” on ebay, is that in our society that values instant gratification so highly, Craig’s List delivers!



And then there were five…

Last night’s long overdue loss by Southern Florida (which is in Tampa…not even near South Florida…go figure) leaves only 5 teams in major college football undefeated.  They include our beloved ASU Sun Devils, along with Ohio State, Boston College, Kansas, and (ahem) Hawaii.  Now, Hawaii plays in an awful conference and doesn’t play anybody until they play Boise State and Washington (the last two games), so I wouldn’t consider them a major player in the BCS (indeed, they are only ranked 18th in the BCS poll, which is great for Hawaii, but not great for a 7-0 team).  Even Boise State and Washington, while likely to beat Hawaii, are unranked teams.

That leaves 4 major undefeated teams with at least decent schedules.  That’s pretty good company for ASU to be in as they rest through the bye week, and then start the most difficult part of their season.  Over the 4 weeks (well, 4 and a half…there is a Thanksgiving night game against USC) following the bye week, ASU will face three top 15 teams, two of which are ranked higher (Oregon and California), along with a USC team that is hungry to prove they belong at the top of the BCS standings.  A game against UCLA rounds out that 4 week stretch, and the Bruins are a dangerous team even though two terrible losses to bad teams have dropped them from national favor.  What a season for college football fans!  What a season for Sun Devil fans!  Long live college football.

ASU Fans, you need to get to Sun Devil Stadium next Saturday night, wear gold, and be loud!  Go Devils!

College Football Poll Lunacy…Again

Sorry in advance for the geeky sports rant…but I can’t hold it in any longer.

From this weeks AP poll.  Huh?

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Okay, everyone knows that college football polls are a little looney, but lately, with every week bringing upset mayhem, the poll participants have completely lost their minds.  The only poll these days that makes any sense seems to me is the College Football News poll which is done editorially rather than by massive vote (it appears, anyway), and they justify the position, along with stating why the team should be higher, and why they should be lower.  They use common sense and analysis to make the picks about who is better than who right now.  Tonight, I’m not even going to touch what my friend Steve Roach, a huge BYU (Mountain West) fan, calls the football cartel (BCS)…I’ll stick with the ‘creative ranking’ even in the major conferences when it comes to the polls, just to keep it interesting and more challenging. [more]

Obviously, as a huge ASU Sundevil Fan, I come at this completely biased…but I’m not even most upset about where we are ranked…so maybe my analysis here can still be somewhat trusted.  Probably not, though.  So, that said, my beef is with the AP and the Coaches polls.  I generally put more credence in the AP poll; I think the coaches only really know the teams that they will play that year…so they’re probably less qualified than the geeky sports journalists all over the country who have nothing better to do than pontificate.  I know…that’s what I’m doing now, the irony is not wasted on me.  I would call what I’m doing more of a rant than pontification, though.  Settled.

So while the AP poll may be a little more reliable than the Coaches poll, the collective poll-ees have now lost it.  First of all, why is Ohio State numero uno?  Does anyone really think that Ohio State could beat every other team right now?  Isn’t that what number one is supposed to mean?  I realize that tradition dictates that if you loose, you drop.  I think tradition is sometimes really stupid though, and here is my best example of why, in this case, it’s silly.

Cal and Oregon play in arguably the best conference in football this year…and probably undisputedly at least in one of the top two conferences (yes…I already admitted my bias).  Its a tough conference to play in, they beat each other up.  Cal and Oregon are both good football teams.  Very good, actually.  They have the exact same record (both in and out of conference) at 5-1 (2-1 in the PAC 10).  So the question has to be asked.  Why is Oregon ranked 3 spots higher than Cal?  Is it because Oregon lost to a better team than Cal lost to?  It’s true, but the logic is absurd!  Oregon lost to Cal!  Doesn’t anybody realize how stupid this is?  Actually, I think the reason that Oregon is ranked higher is because Cal lost more recently; this is another of those stupid traditions of the polls.  Absurd.  I can’t even follow the circular logic of this whole mess without getting a headache.

So, let’s say it really should be all about who has lost more recently (which it shouldn’t) and about who is undefeated (see Ohio State comments above).  How do we explain, then, how there are 11 teams without perfect records ranked above 7-0 Hawaii (including a team with two losses, Florida)?  What’s that?  Hawaii doesn’t play anybody?  NEITHER HAS OHIO STATE!  When a team can claim Washington and Purdue as their stepping stones to the number 1 slot, something is wrong.  While I admit, to this point in the season, ASU has had a nice schedule for winning, we’ve beaten more quality teams than Ohio State…and we’ve got a much, much tougher schedule coming up with which to prove or expose ourselves.  Even so, we trounced Colorado, Stanford, and Oregon State in our path to 7-0.  Ask (then) top 5 ranked Oklahoma, USC, and Cal if these are patsy teams.  So why then, is ASU ranked 12th in the AP and Coaches polls while Ohio State is ranked 1st?  That leads me to my final “tradition”.  It matters where you start in the polls at the beginning of the year when nobody knows anything about anything.  Why is this?  Lunacy.  Just look no further than Notre Dame and Michigan to see that nobody knows anything at the beginning of the season.  Back then, USC already won the national championship, Michigan was a national powerhouse, LSU was unbeatable (except by USC), and Notre Dame was going to win 9 games.  Fast forward 7 weeks and USC has been exposed, Notre Dame is a joke, Michigan is a laughing stock (and shouldn’t be in the top 20), and LSU proved to actually be kids playing a game on a field with other kids…amazing.

So, let’s recap.  First, what everyone who knows nothing about anything at the beginning of the season thinks about your team has a huge bearing on where you end up, no matter what happens on the field (read it a couple more times…it’ll make sense eventually).  Second, when you win winds up whisking you inexplicably up and down the polls, regardless (or irregardless for my buddy, Todd) of who you win or loose against.  Finally, the inconsistency of when they apply these “rules” and to whom is incredible.

I can’t help it…the sarcasm is coming.  Ohio State has to be number one…they’re undefeated, and everyone else lost, right?  Well, ya, ASU and Kansas, and BC and South Southern Eastern Florida Tech Poly (what is it again, South Florida???) is undefeated, too…but, I don’t know, Ohio State started higher…and oh ya, they scored a lot of points and didn’t let their opponents score very many.  Someone should remind the journalists and the coaches who Akron, Kent State, and Northwestern are…nobody.

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That said, if you leave the logic up to the machines, we get a little more reasonable.  The BCS standings have ASU at number 8 (see screenshot above) which adds computers into the mix (analyzing strength of wins based on who has beat whom) etc.  College Football News actually has the Sun Devils at 6th.  Both of those seem more reasonable than the other guys.  I’m not saying that we should end there…there is a lot of testing to be done.  Over the next 4 games we will play Cal, at Oregon, at UCLA, and USC.  Like I said earlier, we will either prove ourselves or expose ourselves, but one thing is for sure.  It will become clear who the best team is in the PAC 10 is, which may translate into the best team in the country.  At least the most worthy to play LSU in the national championship game, because the way I see it, the winner of the PAC, whoever that might be, and LSU (unless they self destr
uct), will be the two best teams in the country.  It should be fun.

Go Devils!

Additional Note:

I still think there is a decent chance that ASU could meet Ohio State in the Rose Bowl for a rematch of sorts of the squeaker that got away from us in ’97 (’96-’97 football season).  If ASU takes second in the PAC-10 (and whoever takes the PAC goes to the National Championship Game) and Ohio State wins the Big 10 (but looses a couple of games, which I think will happen), that should match the two teams up again.

I should also call out that there is one journalist in the AP poll, from Georgia I think, that is voting ASU number 1 (their one first place vote).  His reasoning is that ASU is the only unbeaten team left in what he considers the best conference in football, so until they loose, they are number one in his mind.  At least there’s an explanation of logic behind this.  I don’t necessarily agree with him, but as a Sun Devil fan, I’ll take it.  We’re number 1, baby!

A Report from a First-Time ‘Almost’ Triathlete

I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago, but better late than never.  A few months ago, as part of my overall effort to get back into shape, I decided to sign up for the Kokopelli Triathlon in St. George, Utah.  I live in the Phoenix metro area, so its a good 7-8 hour drive to St. George.  My brother, Cory, convinced me to sign up for this one, as he was going to be doing this one as well.  Cory lives in Park City, UT.  The event was scheduled for Saturday, September 22, 2007.

I began training for my first full triathlon.  I was going to compete in the “Olympic” or “International” distance, which is a 1500 meter swim (about a mile), a 40 kilometer bike ride (about 25 miles), and a 10K run (about 6.2 miles).  I’ve competed in a triathlon before, but that was as a member of a team, so I only did the 40K bike.  This would be my first complete event.  My last tri was also over 7 years and many pounds ago.  My training was going well, except I didn’t really have enough free time to train as much as I needed/wanted to, but finishing the event wouldn’t be too hard, and as my first one getting back into shape, that was really my goal. [more]

As the day of the event approached, my family decided to accompany me, so we were going to make a weekend of it.  We rented a condo to stay in, and made some arrangements.  I was very excited, and getting a bit nervous as well; after all, I had spent a a lot of time preparing.  I checked in the night before for the race, and was ready to go for the next morning.  My brother and I had been talking about the severe weather that was forecasted to hit “sunny” St. George the next day, and how difficult the race would be in the cold, rain, and wind.

We had some difficulty getting to the race as well.  Suffice it to say we were quite late, so I was scrambling in the transition area to get my things ready.  The race was luckily delayed about 10 minutes because safety personnel weren’t quite in place yet.

My start was the second wave into the water, and literally 5 seconds before the gun went off, a lightning strike hit the hill across the lake…not a great way to start.  We knew weather was turning out to be a factor, but at the start, it was overcast and a nice, 70 degrees or so, with 75 degree water.  Good day for a tri.  I got underway, and was surprised to find my stress level very high…even after starting the swim.  I’ve done a few open water workouts, and felt pretty comfortable…but I guess adding in the competition stress, the sketchy weather (and waves), etc., my anxiety was much higher than anticipated.  That, along with swimming being my weakest discipline, caused me to gradually become part of the last ¼ of athletes in my wave.  During this time, I was surprised to find how difficult it was becoming to keep my heart rate down and relax and get into a rhythm.  Again…my problem wasn’t necessarily my fitness level (although that could be better), but my stress level. 

Anyway, I persevered.  About 300-400 meters into the swim, the storm/microburst hit our position directly, and it became, as my brother put it, “Like ‘Victory at Sea’ out there.”  High winds, waves, whitecaps, driving rain, etc.  All of this, of course, added to my stress level.  My thoughts started to turn toward…”Okay, Bill, just make it through the swim and you’ll be okay…” rather than, “Hey…this is fun.”  Add to that…about half of the people around me that were pulling up the rear of the group started bailing.  While looking up to get my orientation I was noticing that at least five-ten people were bailing out, waving their arms to be picked up by a safety boat.  This didn’t help my comfort level.  I knew I wasn’t going to quit, so I kept pushing, but wasn’t really having much fun or finding myself very comfortable.  Sometimes, while taking a breath, I was greeting with a mouthful of wave or rain which would pull me further out of rhythm.  I also found that it was very, very difficult for me to keep my orientation and continue in the right direction.  This is something I’ll need to work on.

I finally started to settle down a bit, and probably 1200 meters into the swim, was grabbed on the arm by a safety kayaker mid-stroke (that was jarring, by the way…wasn’t expecting that).  She informed me that the race had been canceled due to weather, and that I could catch I ride back to shore!  Evidently, the roads on which we were to ride were becoming little rivers, and they never even started the wave behind me (the sprinters) because of the fear of lightning in the area, etc.  A little fed up about my performance and allowing myself to be rattled by the conditions, etc., I asked if they would allow me to finish the swim portion, for my own benefit.  They looked at me as if to ask, “Why would you do that…can’t you see what it’s like out here?”  But they said that was fine, and as a matter of fact, many, many others decided to finish it was well (and some, like my brother who is a very strong swimmer, had already finished the swim and were in T1 when the event was canceled).  So, while I did get the whole swim done (not sure of my time…but I would guess a very slow 45 minutes or so), I’m not able to say that I’ve completed a whole tri yet either.  I was really disappointed.  I’m sure canceling was the right call (that’s got to be a hard thing to decide as an event organizer), I just wish we would have had good weather.

In any case, I’ve got a difficult competitive open water swim under my belt, and will learn from the experience.  Indeed, it is the ONLY competitive swim event I have ever done (never been a swimmer), so the experience can only help me.

I haven’t decided on which event I will do next, but I will do one.  We have some coming up in Phoenix, but I’m not sure my schedule will allow me.  It may be early next year before I get another chance…but I’ll try to be ready.

From the “Those Crazy Parrots” File

Snowball, a cockatoo, dances better than any bird I’ve seen.  This isn’t your standard head bobbing, either.  Check it out.


Funniest Dancing Bird Ever!!! – Funny video clips are a click away

I think this may be the original blog post.

I’m interested because of my own bird, Cosmo, who is a wild and crazy guy in his own way.  Cosmo is a caique, a species well known for its antics and athleticism.  Here is an old workout video from Cosmo to go along with the bird theme.

Blog Software Update

Well, I finally got around to updating my blog software to something a little more modern that .text .9.  I’ve been playing around a bit with BlogEngine.NET, and version 1.2 was just released, so I finally moved my production blog to this blog engine.  I also changed hosting providers because while GoDaddy is the hometown incumbent…they are just too restrictive, so I dumped them.

I also did some customizations to the Indigo theme that ships with BlogEngine.  It was a good start, but there were some things that I didn’t like, so I changed them.  I wanted to get my hands dirty a bit with theme-ing and get under the covers of the software a bit, so it made sense.  I moved quite a bit around, added a top level nav system, and changed the way the admin links work (when your logged in as an admin) to make it all a bit cleaner.  I will likely eventually adapt a theme that I like better, but this should do for now.  If anyone wants my updated theme, I’d be glad to share it…just let me know via the contact page.

So far I’m very impressed with the software.  It is fairly flexible, easily customized, and pretty feature rich.  The tag cloud is something that I didn’t have with my last engine, and I like it quite a bit.  It even supports BlogML updates now, and in fact I used this feature to migrate my data (with a little tweaking).



San Carlos Diving

Crystal and I just got back this past weekend from doing some diving in San Carlos, Mexico.  We went with Saguaro Diving and Sport on their last organized trip of the year to San Carlos.  While the bus ride was absolutely brutal (I’m not doing that again), we had a good time.  Eight hours on the uncomfortable bus seats down to San Carlos without stopping, and over 11 hours back with lots of border and drug checks, is enough to cure one of the need to ever see a bus again.

We went with our friends Melissa and Reed, and we had a great time diving and sleeping (a lot).  I’ve included a link to some pictures, mostly wet, from the trip.

Highlights included seeing and swimming with lots of seals, a medium sized green sea turtle, many tropical fish on the rocky reefs, including Angels, Damsels, Butterfly Fish, Puffers, etc.  We also encountered many moray eels, and some very interesting invertebrates.  Clicking on the pictures below will take you to the full gallery.