Greg Wiegand

The wooden bridge under construction at town run trail in Indy. I’m not sure what they have in store for this, but it’s right next to the old “drop-in” entrance.  Looks pretty cool as long as you don’t run off the edge!

Some pics:

Start of the ramp

Straight drop down the side of the hill

Not sure where the end will dump you back onto the trail.

I tried to send some updates and pictures of the Lucas Oil Stadium tour on Sunday 8/17/2008 via Twitter, but I was having a lot of connection problems. Apparently, AT&T has more bars, but little service with so many Colts fans jammed into one cell zone. So, I decided to just do a quick post with some pictures and thoughts.

Entrance

We entered through the north entrance, the Lucas Oil Plaza. My first reaction was geez, is it cold in this place! I mean really cold. I wondered why they would have it so cold when surely they were going to be opening the roof and window. Maybe they were testing the AC? They also have probably the biggest ceiling fans ever made on the concourses. They move some serious air. Again, it was really cold in there and I’m not usually cold. We wondered through the plaza and past the stage and looked out onto the field as in the picture below:

Now, we set out to find our seats. Along the way we ran into the media podium. I couldn’t resist getting my picture taken: like I would ever have anything newsworthy ever to say about the Colts, this was probably my only chance.

My season ticket seats

After finally locating the escalator to our section, we headed up. I like that we’re in the last row with no one behind us. It is on the upper concourse level, so no steps to climb at all. There is even room to go behind the seats, if needed. Here are the seats:

And here is the view from the seats:

A view to the north end.

I was actually pretty happy. The view was great. It was closer to the end zone and a little further from the field than my old seats, but all in all I like them so far.

The roof: to open or not to open?

After promising the roof would be opened at 4:15, they delayed it to 4:30. At 4:30, the north window slid open, but not the roof. About 15 mins later, they announced “there will be a delay in opening the roof. Potentially indefinitely.” Seriously, that’s what they said. However, about 10 mins later they opened the roof. And for the record, it didn’t take long for the warm air to permeate the building. All that AC, through the roof!

The view from the upper concourse:

Locker room and field tour

We decided to go ahead and wait in line for the Colts locker room tour and to get on the field. It took us about 45 mins to stand in the line, but they moved a lot of people through there.

The locker room

The lockers (very California Closet-like)

Entering the Colts inflatable entrance to the field

Section 537(my seats), from the field.

Final thoughts

They also set up a camera on the field that projected onto the big screens. Those screens, BTW, are very big, extremely clear, and way cool. Makes my 50” Plasma look silly. The only area we couldn’t tour was the suites. I guess I understand they don’t want 40,000 people traipsing through the expensive corporate playgrounds, but it sure would have been cool to see one. Really can’t wait until Sunday to see the game and the new stadium in action! Will it be as loud as the RCA Dome?

I spent Saturday, like most people in Indiana, checking TV reports to see all the flooding in Indiana. Although I live in Carmel, IN and we managed to miss the heavy rains on Friday night and Saturday morning, I also have a house on Sweetwater Lake in Brown County. Also, my parents and many friends and family live in Franklin, IN which got over 8 inches of rain Sat. morning.  I had heard from my folks on Sat morning that they had 2 feet of water in the road in front of their house, but managed to keep their house dry. I tried to call my neighbors down at the lake, but could not reach anyone. Could not drive down because the entire area was under a state of emergency and almost every road in that part of the state was under water and impassable. So, I just waited all day Saturday watching the news reports and hoping my house, boat, and little lake community had survived.

After a few calls we decided that maybe there were roads open that we could get down to the lake. We first stopped in Franklin, where we picked up my Dad and surveyed the damage to the area there. Many homes were under water and badly damaged, but thankfully, the water had already subsided. However, the yards and sides of roads were littered with wet carpet, furniture and other family belongings. Really a sad site to see. But there were people everywhere pitching in to help.

We pushed further south through Amity and US 31 was closed at SR 252. That was fine, as I usually turn there to head into Nineveh. We encountered Young’s Creek flooding through the SR 252 bridge:

Utility crews trying to clear trees off lines

Next we went through Nineveh, IN and had to skirt some road closed signs to reach Prince’s Lakes. This was as far as we could get on this road, the road was gone and they had it closed. We did get a few pictures of the busted East Lake dam and washed out road into the housing addition:

We turned around and headed back into Nineveh. Rumor had it that Peoga Rd into Peoga, IN then on to Sweetwater Trail may be open, so we tried it. It was open, but we could see the damage from the tornado that had hit the area a few days ago. This was the same one that hit Camp Atterbury and Edinburgh, IN. Here are a few snapshots of the Tornado area, looked a lot like someone just clear-cut through the woods:

Indeed it this route was all open all the way to Sweetwater Lake. We crossed the dam and had to drive through about 3-4″ water that was crossing the road on the beach side of the dam. Then up the road and down to my house.

I didn’t know what to expect, but fortunately, there was no major damage inside my house or out. A little water down in the lower level, but nothing major. I was most worried about the boat with the rising lake water. Since I don’t have a boat dry dock, I just tie-off to my dock and the boat floats. I keep it fairly close to the dock to keep if from bouncing in the wakes. However, when the water level rises, the boat is secured to the dock and essentially the boat gets pulled under water as the water rises. This was the case and the boat would be under water now if not for my neighbor. The dock, which normally is about a foot above the water level,  was about 3 feet under water. Joe, who lives down there full time, managed to untie the boat and let it pop to the surface, where it sits now. When we got there the water had gone down and was only about a foot above the docks. See the pictures below:

I will have some deck clean up to do as soon as the water drops to normal, but considering in the span of less than a week we had a tornado and almost 11″ of rain in the area, I think I am pretty fortunate. However, the weather forecast is calling for 1-3″ of more rain on Monday and Tuesday.

Who pissed off Mother Nature?

I’ve now had a couple of days to play around with the Wii Fit software and accompanying Wii balance board. So, now on to games. It’s going to be interesting to see what kinds of games develop that really utilize this new controller device. Skiing seems like the most obvious, but what other activities mostly involve your feet and/or balance?

We Ski
It’s pretty cool to be able to hit the ski slopes in Indiana in May. In fact, you don’t even have to leave your living room. My daughter and I have had a chance to shake out this game a bit and overall I would give it a thumbs up.
Just like most of the Wii games, you get an animated representation of skiing. If you’re looking for a realistic simulation of skiing, this is probably not it. However, it does do a pretty good job of simulating alpine skiing. You can use your own Mii to ski, but the options on gear are more limited.

The slopes
The layout of the game is pretty much what you would find at a traditional ski resort. You have trail maps and the trails are marked in similar fashion with green, blue, black to represent the difficulty of the runs. And, just like some resorts, you get some runs that don’t seem to match the coding. Some of the runs also have jumps, some are narrow runs, some have banking. I haven’t hit any with moguls, but we haven’t been through the whole game yet.

Jill tearing up the slopes!

How to Ski
The biggest thing to remember when playing this game is to ensure you calibrate the wii balance board for each user playing. If not, the skier does not react appropriately. Once it is set up for the user, it operates by leaning right to turn to the right and vice versa for the left. You can also use your wii remote and nunchuck controller to move your arms to use your ski poles. You can also do aerial stunts in midair jumps such as twists.

Sidebar rant: Speaking of the nunchuck controller, I just don’t get why this is wired to the wii remote. Everything about the Wii is wireless and makes for great fun, but that damn wire connecting the nunchuck controller is just cumbersome. I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten it caught on something while playing or even worse, have it fly up and slap me in the face. When pumping your arms to move yourself with the ski poles, that cord does some serious smacking. I really wish Nintendo would have figured out how to make all the controllers wireless.

Summary Overall, the game is well integrated with the Wii balance board and a good use of the device. Like most Wii games, you are an active player and after a while you feel like you’ve gotten a little exercise. I can’t wait to see what other games come out that take advantage of the balance board. Some obvious activities: surfing, skateboarding, skating, water skiing, motorcycle racing. I’m not sure how sensitive the board is or exactly how the interface works, but something like karate or kick boxing might also work. What other activities do you see coming to the Wii?

Well, last night UPS did indeed deliver my brand new Wii Fit from Amazon.com. In anticipation, I also hit Target on the way home and snagged a copy of We Ski, because a guy has to have a little fun along with his fitness!

The Hardware
My first impression of the Wii balance board was that it was a lot heavier than I had imagined. I quickly scanned the instruction booklet and got into the task of setting it up. It comes with “extension pads” that help set it up off the ground. Seems the board needs to clear any carpeting or mats to work best. Since I have pretty thick carpeting, I popped these on the four corners. In went the batteries and I set the board in front of the TV. The power button faces away from the TV/Wii receiver.

Synchronization
Just like adding a new Wii controller, the balance board must be synchronized with the Wii. I have to admit, I had a little trouble with this piece mostly due to not reading the directions closely. Make sure you’ve loaded the Wii Fit disc into the Wii and selected it from the Wii disc channel to start it. It will download some software updates for the Wii as well as prompt you through the synchronization steps. It just will not synch without the software running. In addition, to get the balance board to power up and stay active, you also need to have a Wii balance board enabled game started. Otherwise, the device goes right back to sleep.

Wii Fit Software
The program/game is really pretty clever. It has an animated balance board character that walks you through the setup and analysis. I’m not sure if this little guy will become annoying after several months or not. The first thing Fit does is go through an initial body test. Great demo of the test on the Nintendo site. Every time you begin a Fit session, you have the option to retest and review your status. It’s a great way to monitor progress and set goals. The big metric used is Body Mass Index (BMI) and that along with posture and balance tests it calculates a “Wii Fit Age”. Having actually taken the “RealAge test“, it is surprisingly close to the same results for me. My only complaint is that it seems to have taken my “Mii” and changed it to reflect my “over weight” BMI to something a little more chubby than I would like. Maybe that is a motivation thing…

The other part of Wii Fit is the training workouts. There are modes for Yoga, Balance, Strength, and Aerobics. Again, another great demo of the Wii Fit training on the Nintendo site.

Wii Fit Summary
My initial reaction so far is that this can be a fun way to track fitness levels and do some exercises. I don’ see it replacing my regular running, biking or eliptical workouts, but for improving posture, balance and overall body control, I see it as very useful. Not only that, it feels like you’re playing game and makes the workout fun. I give it an “A” for what it does and will update my progress in future posts.