No lunchtime Kung Fu in Philadelphia

It's been nasty cold here in Philadelphia, and I've taken a hiatus from running as a result.

I've been looking for a place to learn Kung Fu for the last three weeks. Some advice for Martial Arts instructors in Philadelphia: if you want to get rich, set up a Martial Arts class in Center City, Philadelphia, at lunch hour. There are no Kung Fu, no Aikido, no Karate, and no Tae Kwon Do classes within walking distance of Chinatown in Philadelphia at lunch time. There is one place that teaches Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (http://www.maxercise.com) but have you seen those guys fight? They start by pulling each others' ears off! I still might consider that place, though.

We're also looking for a T'ai Chi Ch'uan (Taijiquan) here in Southern Philadelphia for both Sonia and me, but again, it seems there is a dearth of Tai Chi schools here. Which seems odd, because I thought people were getting more into this sort of thing, but I guess they really are just interested in Yaga and Pilates these days.

SQL Server: How to create a user login and give it access

This is just a script that I put together to create a user and assign it database access and roles. The login actually existed previously with the wrong roles, so the script starts out by deleting the login from both the database and the server. Here are the commands I entered and the server's responses:

-- Start up OSQL from the command line
c:>osql -S SERVER_NAME -d DATABASE_NAME -E

-- Set the database to the one we want to
-- grant access to
1> use DATABASE_NAME
2> go

-- Drop the login's database access
1> sp_revokedbaccess @name_in_db='USER_NAME'
2> go
User has been dropped from current database.

-- Drop the SQL Server login
1> sp_droplogin @loginame='USER_NAME'
2> go
Login dropped.

-- Add the SQL Server login with the
-- correct password and default database
1> sp_addlogin @loginame='USER_NAME', @passwd='PASSWORD', @defdb='DEFAULT_DATABASE'
2> go
New login created.

-- Grant database access to the login
1> sp_grantdbaccess @loginame='USER_NAME'
2> go
Granted database access to 'USER_NAME'.

-- Grant the login the "db_owner" role
-- to this database
1> sp_addrolemember @rolename='db_owner', @membername='USER_NAME'
2> go
'USER_NAME' added to role 'db_owner'.

This was for a login with "Standard" security-- that is, not a domain user name.

21:05 Southern Philadelphia

I rolled out of bed at 6AM for this one-- I've figured out that to run and meditate before work, I have to get up pretty early. It was nice to run down South Street at 6AM. No traffic, just a lot of different sounds: trucks loading, wind chimes in front of "Garland of Letters", a homeless guy mumbling. Knees didn't hurt, probably because I could run on the actual road.

45:00 Southern Philadelphia with Daniel

We have house guests (Angeles and Jerry-- the third series of house guests since Katrina!), and Dan and I had been horsing around playing Power Rangers all morning while the Spaniards sat and chatted. We got bored, so I whispered, "psst... let's get out of here and go running". Dan whispered back "okay!".

We got bundled up, grabbed the baby jogger, and took off. I meant to do about 30 minutes, but Dan nodded off about 10 minutes into the run, and I wanted him to get a little rest, so we kept going.

Down South Street to the end where it meets up with Front Street an back, then looping around a bit. The only drag was that I was running on the sidewalk the whole time to keep Dan out of traffic, and my knees hurt like tarnation after that.