Here‘s a great article about Pittsburgh from an unexpected source: Cleveland.  It talks about How Pittsburgh is still growing in the recession, how companies like PNC Bank are still growing, the success of Giant Eagle, and all the riverfront initiatives that have been in motion.  Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is definitely making this place look younger.

And take a look at the Otto Milk Condos.  Their site rocks, you can see layouts and prices for every unit.  They also have a twitter account and pictures on flickr.  That’s what I call hip marketing.  The place looks pretty sweet once it’s done.  It’d be sweet to live in the cheap places knowing that someone with a 1.3 million dollar apartment lives above you too.

Paul Mawhinney’s obsession grew into the 3 million records that now fill the Record Rama archives in Ross (North Hills).  He’s starting the bidding at 3 million dollars.  Each row of records is longer than a bowling lane.  He’s got rare elvis, rolling stone, and led zepplin records.  What sets him apart is that he’s made this his life work, filing and keeping clean sorted count of every record as well as creating a digital archive of the entire collection.  Absolutely amazing.  It’s no wonder the national archives have expressed interest.  It really would be a shame to see this leave Pittsburgh, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it went to cleveland’s rock and roll hall of fame or some other museum.  Truly impressive.

here’s the link to the auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140206309501
Here’s the store’s site: https://recordrama.sslpowered.com/index.html

Wow, I’m down.  wasting away.  malnourished.  lethargic.  tired.  bored.  unmotivated.  lost.  a perfect time for a personal update entry…

work is slow.  money is slim.  someone is breaking into the estate and stealing copper and other crap.  rachel went back to cleveland.  no inspiration to play or write music.  no real aspirations to do anything right now.

nothing exciting happening this week or next.  Deirdre turns 19 saturday.  we’re all working at the estate this weekend to take out a whole bunch of stuff so people quit breaking in.

I’ve been working on a relaunch of legend of the green dragon.  we’ll see if i can get it back to where it once was with 1500 players from around the world.  that was fun.  I walked away from it in Feb 2006 once I got a new job and it just slowly died off due to internal drama.

I got a slot on the pa rock show, an internet radio show.  I’ll be playing friday, february 8th around 7:30pm.  I’ll send out a newsletter closer to the date.  I’d like to get a good CD mix before I play so i can get some regular rotation.  We’ll see.

No more school.  Might go for my MBA in the fall or next spring.  We’ll see what’s going on then.  I’d like to go to pitt i think.

back to wallowing in self pity and low self-esteem.  wallow, wallow, wallow.

As we reach the end of 2007, I’m going to cross that line into the cliche "here are the highlights of 2007 and here’s what I’d like to see in 2008" post.  Last year, I called it the year of "new things".  If I were to create a label for this year, I’d consider it a year of traveling.  I went to philly at least twice, crossed the atlantic for the first time to italy with my family and then to london for work, I went to vegas, I went to florida, took trips to cleveland to see rachel, took a trip or two to DC, stopped taking daily drives to work and started walking to work,  and i took a few other road trips as well.  I definitely enjoy traveling, and i definitely consider myself blessed to have the means, time, and friends that make it all possible.

So, I’m graduated with my bachelor degree in professional communicated and information systems from robert morris university…finally.  at least i finished before Keren.  Serah officially made me an uncle by giving birth on the 20th.  and I don’t really have too much to complain about at all.   But, I’ll share with you my new years resolutions and we’ll see how well I do with them.

• Call each sister at least once a month just to talk.
• put at least 100 CDs in the hands of strangers
• Pick up 1 new hobby. (haven’t decided yet…)
• READ ALL THE BOOKS I HAVE BUT HAVE NOT READ
• Compete in an urbanathon or some sort of race.

That’s all i got so far.  Should keep me busy.  I forget if the idea is to make goals specific so you know you reach them or not, or to keep them vague so that you don’t get frustrated and quit…oh well.  I’ll be off to DC this weekend to meet my niece, then back to ring in the new year.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I think i had my first, "When I was your age…" moment a couple weeks ago.  Colin and I went out to see Rachel in Cleveland and we went to see Underoath and Poison the Well in concert.  If you’re not familiar with them, you’re not alone.  I’ve heard a few of their songs, nothing really my taste, but close enough, and I will never turn down a chance for some live music.  Now, to reminisce, I was definitely a concert goer when I was younger, and I’d always be in the  mosh pit; it was my second home.  So, for old times sake, I get in the pit at this show too.  I’ve having a great time, I’m a little bigger now, so i’m certainly holding my ground.  Now, one problem I’ve always had in the pit was when people are crowd surfing and I’m facing forward, they’ll come flying into the back of my head since I’m so much taller than the rest of the crowd.  A minor nuisance, I just lift the person forward and carry on with my moshing.  Now this particular night, someone is literally tossed into the air and as they land on my head, I’m struck pretty hard and stunned by what I can only assume to be a camera, or more likely an effing cell phone in their pocket.  Needless to say, that guy got tossed to the front of the crowd a little faster than he was planning.  I was ticked, and I had a bump on my head.  A few minutes later, i was retreating to where Rachel and Colin were, with the thoughts of, "When I was your age, we didn’t have cell phones!  We went to concerts with some cash, a ticket, and that’s all we needed!  You kids these days…"

COLIN AND I WENT OUT TO CLEVELAND THIS WEEKEND TO HANG OUT WITH RACHEL AND SEE A CONCERT ON SUNDAY.  OVER THE WEEKEND WE HAD A FEW COOL IDEAS.

ONE WOULD BE FOR A CAR COMMERCIAL.  INSPIRED BY THE RUMBLE STRIPS YOU GO OVER TO SLOW DOWN BEFORE TOLL PLAZAS, IT WOULD BE COOL TO PLAY A SONG USING THE TONES MADE.  FURTHERING THE IDEA, THE CONCEPT OF A MUSIC BOX CYLINDER CAN BE APPLIED, ONLY LINEAR, WHERE YOU TAKE A LARGE ROAD STRIP, MAKE SOME NOTCHES IN IT AT CALCULATED DISTANCES AND HAVE A FEW CARS DRIVE AT THE SAME SPEED OVER THEM, REPRODUCING A POPULAR SONG, SUCH AS SMOKE ON THE WATER.

THE OTHER IDEA WAS A THEMED MEN’S BATHROOM, WHERE URINALS WERE OBJECTS THAT MEN WOULD NORMALLY PEE ON, SUCH AS A TREE, BRICK WALL, AND SNOW.  FOR THE SNOW ONE, ALL YOU WOULD NEED WOULD BE A SNOWCONE MACHINE SERVING ICE SHAVINGS ON A CONVEYOR BELT OR JUST DUMPING NEW SLUSH DOWN AS THE REST MELTS.  THAT ONE SOUNDS THE MOST FUN TO ME.

BTW, IT’S INTERNATIONAL CAPSLOCK DAY.

Moved rachel out to cleveland this past weekend.  It’s only a 2 hour drive or so, so the distance thing isn’t really bothering me too much at this point.  Sure, i don’t get to see her everyday, but they say that distance makes the heart grow stronger…or is it fonder?  both?  I forget how it goes…but yes.

The Deirdre moved in with me this week too.  That should be fun.  Havent really interacted much yet, she’s going to be busy with volleyball in the evenings, but we should have a good time.

played out at another open mic last night by myself.  I was late, so i was the last person to go on around midnight, and half the people had left already, so it was only for a crowd of 20 or so.  Everyone was only doing 3 songs all night, but after i did my three, the dude running it asked me to play another.  It very well may have been because I was the last person, but it still felt nice not to be stopped after 1 or 2.  Afterward he came up to me and asked if those were all mine, and he seemed pretty genuinely entertained by them and told me to definitely come back.  I think i want to try at least 2 other spots before I go back there though. 

Almost forgot that my classes are starting up next week.  ugh.  2 classes for the first half of the semester and then another 2 for the second half and then FIN.  hopefully.   This fall is going to be so busy with all that is going on.  especially with me wanting to go to vegas and colorado for my birthday.

Work gave me some more responsibility.  I’m actually in charge of my own project now.  I’m heading up the project to upgrade every PC in the country to office 2003.  pretty daunting, right?  I have to come up with a plan of action, support, all that jazz and that’s on top of my current responsibilities.  I think i’ll be alright though…I just hope they arent judging me too harshly, I’m still a newb.

so as you can see, quite the plateful as of late.  I want to try and get new songs up before the end of next week as well…I should get started…

what’s up with the number 13?  just because the elevator in most hotels doesn’t have a 13 button, desn’t mean that there isn’t a 13th floor.  Seriously, is that really necessary??  I could see it being a cute little joke in vegas, but when i stay in a sheraton in cleveland, there’s no need to lie about it.

And just on the opposite side, the baker’s dozen.  13.  Why don’t people flip out like they are getting a curse when they get 13 of something?  I just bought hangers at walmart, and they come in packages of 13.  wtf??  i mean, you have to have that as a predetermined mark.  13 is such an odd number, as if 12 hangers wouldn’t be enough.  what the crap.  i want to see the cost analysis report on that one.  “Sir, if we ship out 13 hangers in a package instead of 12, we can save 5 cents per shipment.”

been a while since i posted a personal update.  jobs still going.  some days are easy, some days its rough getting out of bed at 3 am.  If i can’t get used to getting up in the middle of night, perhaps i can get used to having some good days and some bad days.

hmm, since last i posted, i went to cleveland, had a sweet time.  rock and roll hall of fame, hard rock, great hotel, nice city, crappy crappy zoo.  the metro parks zoo is so terribly laid out.  and there are like 2 animals there.  and there is a bridge that is losing concrete and you can see the steel reebar.  it’s ghetto.

still no guitar.  leaning towards not getting that HPL (cheap-nonwood) guitar.  I do want to get a martin though.  so either i have to comprimise what i want out of a guitar, the brand name, or my wallet.  all three are very unlikely to bend easily.

going down to DC this weekend for Brady’s wedding.  should be an interesting time.  I’ll be sure to get release forms from everyone so that i can post pictures online.   it’s either live forever through photographs, or get made into a gem when ever you die.

just got back from the metro parks cleveland zoo this weekend and thought about a new way to do the maps.  they should give you a durable plastic one with a gps tracker in it.  Then you can have a dynamic “you are here” light.  for large groups or families that split up, you could add their tracker to your screen, so that you know where they are all the time.  that would help coordinate meeting times, meals, and just supervision. 

 I was just thinking a static layout of the map painted on the screen, but maybe it could be more like a tablet pc, and the park can update if the animals are outside that day, if a new exhibit is open, the times of shows, etc.  Certainly wouldn’t be cost effective to replace maps, but maybe for $20 extra a group could use these, then i bet they would catch on.