This one will be a story, within a story…where’s Christopher Nolan when you need him?

I wanted to make some martini one night, and I didn’t have any vodka.  Deirdre and Jordan were out and planning on coming over later, so I asked them to swing by the state store to pick up some vodka for me.  They wound up at my mom’s house, got distracted and lost track of time, and the wound up staying late enough to miss their chance to stop at the state store on their way home.  They mentioned their predicament to my mom, and she said that she thought she actually had a bottle of vodka that they could have.

The fact that my mom had a bottle of vodka was unusual alone, but as we would find out, this bottle of vodka was no ordinary bottle of vodka.  She went into her bedroom and pulled a tall blue box from her closet.  This box had been in her closet for about 10 years, when it came from my grandfather’s kitchen, where it had been sitting for another 20 or so years.

As the story goes, when my parents were living in Maryland, near Washington, D.C. in the late 70s,  my grandmother had gone down to spend some time with them around Christmas.  While she was down there, they went to the mall, and in one of the stores, my grandmother found a lady’s purse with a wallet in it.  My grandmother took it to the counter, but with her faith in humanity, she decided she did not trust the clerk not to take the cash, so she decided she would take the responsibility to return it to its owner herself.  They went home, looked up the person in the phone book, and the lady on the other end was delighted to know she had her wallet!  The lady gave her address to my grandmother to return it in person.  As they approached the house, they realized this was The USSR Ambassador’s house, and the lady’s wallet was the ambassador’s wife.  In exchange for the good deed, my grandmother was given this box of vodka, straight from the U.S.S.R.

And here it sits; unopen and slowly becoming a part of world history as an product of a country that no longer exists.  I was flabbergasted that my mom would just send this 35 year old bottle of vodka up and expect me just to crack it open and drink it.  This is a unique item!  this is an heirloom!

When I bought my house in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, my roommate, Jordan, and I noticed that there were always people huddled around this building at the corner of Wylie Ave and Erin Street.  We were unsettled, but also a little curious as to what was really going on there.  Jordan asked my neighbor, Sonny, what the deal was.  Sonny simply answered, "That’s a jitney station."  That didn’t help us much, and I think he could tell by the look on our faces. 

He went on to explain, if you don’t have a car, you walk to the jitney station and someone there will give you a ride.  It’s like an open market taxi service.  People use their own cars to delivery people where they want to go.  So some of the people that congregate there are people that want a ride, and some are people waiting to give people rides somewhere, and the rest are probably people that just like to be around other people.  If you have spent any time in the Hill, you know how much truth there is to the latter.

That’s part of the culture of the Hill District; The people.  Even the jitney by essence exemplifies the focus of people interacting with people on their own accord.  It’s funny how…let me phrase this properly…whites…caucasions…suburbanites?….sheltered people…people who are scared of the Hill are scared of the unknown…but that they’d probably end up being more afraid of how congenial and engaging people are.  It’s crazy to witness how far out of the way someone will go just to make sure the person they went to high school with 20 years ago hears them say "Hi!" to them.  Everyone knows everyone in the Hill.

August Wilson wrote about the culture of the Hill District in his plays.  That’s probably where the term "jitney" has gained most of it’s popularity.  August’s childhood home is a couple blocks from me, in a state of much disrepair. (here’s a pano from Steve Mellon – http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08105/872496-429.stm )

It’s sad to see how much importance social interaction is in the Hill District and how much culture is valued, but how little is actually being done to preserve it.  It’s almost a paradox way of life.  How can you value both the present day person as they grow into the future, when they identify so strongly with staying connected to the past.  Certainly a deeper question than what I wanted to cover in this post, but it’s there.

More on August Wilson and his plays – http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10127/1056192-325.stm?cmpid=newspanel0

So, I’m trying to transition over to itunes (version 9) after being a hardcore winamp user since the late 90s.  Winamp’s keyboard shortcuts are the cat’s pajamas though, and I’m missing them tremendously.  Specifically, the shortcut to jump to a song.  Hit "J" and just start typing in a title or band and it dynamically searches for you.  It’s great when you can’t remember who sang a song and you just remember the track name or vice versa.  Nothing like that in itunes, and surely not as simple.

I also miss the visualizations of winamp.  I loved having that in a mini window.  Infact, plugins alone are lacking dramatically in itunes.  It’s weak.  I want skins!  that’s one of the main reasons why I have a jailbroken iphone.  I don’t like your interface, Mr. Jobs.  LET ME CUSTOMIZE IT.  I AM A UNIQUE SNOWFLAKE.  I AM THE ALL SINGING ALL DANCE CRAP OF THE WORLD.

The another shortcut key I’m missing is queue.  In winamp, I could click a song, hit "q" and winamp would play that song next and then go right back to where it was on the playlist.  As far as I can tell, there is no way to do this.  That’s based on forum posts through google that date back to 2003, and Apple still doesn’t listen to their users.  How they crap do they have such product loyalty when they don’t listen to their users?  cough cough mindless droids  cough cough.

I feel like winamp was a baseball.  Intricately laced, tight, filled with strings and cool stuff and was pretty solid.  Itunes is more like a basketball.  It’s bigger, bounces better, but it’s filled with a lot of air.  I guess I’m the anti-michael jordan in this analogy?  Whatever, Apple is refusing to play ball regardless.

Note to self – Call off work the month of December.  You will not be able to get anyone to do any work, even if they are in the office, so just avoid the frustration completely.  That’s basically how I feel right now.  I had my first project fail last Saturday, and now I have to finish it tomorrow, when I was supposed to be off.  and when I say "have to" I mean, failure is not an option with this project.  I coined a new phrase with this project, "Screw dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s, I’M JUST GOING TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS."

How about that open mic that Ben and I were supposed to play last week didn’t happen.  The BBT, or Bloomfield Bridge Tavern actually had a fire back in October and they’ve been closed for repair, even though they still have shows booked on their site.  Oh well.  We ended going over to Jordan’s and just playing there for some friends.

Speaking of going over to Jordan’s, we had our first Beer snob Christmas party this past Tuesday.  I think there were 12 of us total, all brought a case of a micro brew or import beer and we went around swapping bottles to build our own mixed case.  Lots of fun.  I took a mix case of Left Hand Brewing.  I had an ESB at in philly and really enjoyed it, and come on, it’s a left hand.   You had me at "Hello."

I’m off to Kallie’s Mom’s place near Sacremento from the 24th until the 30th.  So crazy to be in a relationship where our families are across the country from one another.  It’s sure fun at times, but there are certainly downsides.  Not sure of any plans yet, just spending time with family in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and probably Lake Tahoe too.  I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Aside from that, I’ve been getting involved with a small group from Bellefield and going to the Open Door.  Probably look to get baptized (finally) in the new year.  Keren just got baptized last week, and it was a pretty emotional thing for sure.  I’m so blessed to have such a great family and great support structure.

Tim, Jordan, and I were down at Rock Bottom wednesday night and we were talking about facebook applications and their new found popularity and demand.  Facebook itself has transmogrified itself from the first incarnation as a Harvard thing, then a college thing, then branched out to include high school students, and now it’s just for everybody.  It beat sites like Linked In to their own idea probably just from the sheer size of their userbase.

I personally enjoy facebook.  I hate the phone, I’m always on a computer, and I have friends all over the place.  It lets me stay "close" to friends, and lets others do the same with me.  The problem that myspace ran into was ads, poor UI, and corporate saturation.  I’m not sure facebook will meet the same demise, but it’s coming close.  businesses are realizing the market(ing) opportunities that facebook possesses, and they want to tap it like a keg.  They want new applications written and added to the functionality of facebook, just like how every company wanted a web URL back in the 90s.  "You’re not cool unless you have a .com"  Now you’re missing out until you have facebook.  Take a look at Papa John’s new marketing strategy of offering a free pizza if you become their friend on facebook.  College kids will eat that up, literally.

So instead of getting the sunday coupons in the mail, we’ll get group invitations on facebook.  At least it’s paperless, right?

Broken seems to be the theme of the week.

Monday – surfing around on my PC and then it just shutsdown.  POOF.  I have yet to get it back on.  I checked the power supply, memory, motherboard, nothing.  Tim let me borrow a PC to frankenstein to figure it out.  That sucks though.

Tuesday – Went to go pick up Jordan at work and then watch the Pens game at his house, and I get into my truck and there is no key tumbler in the steering wheel and the face plate to my stereo is gone.  That sucks.  Looks like they’re going to have to replace the entire steering column.  WEEE.

Wednesday – can’t think of anything physical that broke wednesday.  I just know that I’m broke.  That’s before the PC and truck repairs too.  I’m making a strong effort to not eat out for lunch and less for dinner as well. 

Thursday – Had the conversion from microsoft exchange to lotus notes today at work.  I didn’t have email access or blackberry mail until about 12:30.  WEAK.

Let’s see what friday has in store…I can’t take much more and neither can my wallet!

I called off sick yesterday.  Ended up spending a lot of the time on the phone with family drama.  I’ll end there.

Deirdre’s in tulsa, OK visiting a friend while she has a few days off between her play, Alice sit by the Fire.  So i’ve been home alone with the 3 legged cat.  I’m totally bummed out.

I woke up at 7 today to make it in to work by 8, an hour earlier than i usually do.  I waited at the bus stop for 45 minutes with no bus ever coming, so I walked to work in the snow.  I was 4 minutes late.

A guy from the northpark clubhouse had emailed me back in January after he heard my music online and he wanted talk to about me playing a show for an event they wanted to have.  I talked to him twice over the phone, the second time he confirmed that we had the gig, but he just needed to confirm the date.  I told him I’d stop over on a Thursday to check out the sound equipment and such.  Jordan and I showed up, but they told me that he had to go to the hospital earlier that day because he was sick.  He hasn’t returned voicemails or emails for 3 weeks now.  I don’t know if he’s dead or what.

The project that i’m working on is turning into a department within a few months.  I do not have a position in the new department because I’m considered a borrowed resource.  I have no desire to go back to the helpdesk, but I also don’t have leads for a different position down here yet.

I updated the gallery software today, lots of cool new features to check out.  I also finally got around to uploading the pictures from italy and london and i also threw up the pictures from my recent jaunt to las vegas for my birthday.

2 more weeks of classes and I’m all gradiated!  gotta do some major work before that happens, but should be cool to finally be done with it.

I went up with jordan otto and tim mudrick to my uncle kenny’s studio and recorded come over and we’re going out with them playing bass and drums.  The tracks aren’t perfect, but there’s a heck of a lot of potential there.  I’m really excited about playing more with those guys.  They’re great people, friends, christians, minds, musicians, and company.  Can’t go wrong with that.  Hopefully we’ll play more together and play out.

one of deirdre’s cats got stuck in some western pennsylvanian hick’s trap and he lost his front left paw.  about $1000 to cut it off and save him, and deirdre was very willing to pay that to save his life.  the trade off now is that he’ll be moving in with me in the city.  I’m a little worried to have him living here in the city, because it’s a whole new world if he gets out on the streets.  But i guess he won’t be going far with 3 legs.  Really sad.  I’ll take pictures when he’s here.

not all that much else to report…serah’s about to burst out a pesce, rachel and i are at eachother’s ends in terms of our long distance relationship and that struggle, we got a nintendo wii, i have tons of beer left over from a party, work is slowly going along and no news of a permanent position, no news on j’aime’s kids, and that’s about it.  hmmm, wish there was something more insightful and deep to say, but i guess it’s just not there tonight…

I’ve been busy, alright!!?  let’s break it down….

Work – the office 2003 project is rolling well.  I don’t think i’ve messed up yet, so i think people are impressed or at least liking my work so far.  I’m also helping out on an unrelated project just for this weekend, flying to philly to help out with support.  Should be awesome exposure and fun since they only expect a few hours of work from us.  There’s also talk of another project to move 5,000 people between all the different offices, so seems like i could be busy for a while, GOOD!

School – B’s so far in the first 2 classes of the semester.  I should be able to at least maintain that for the rest of the 3 weeks.  Then 2 more classes for the second half of the semester, and then FIN!  Bout effing time.  I’m tired of people assuming i’m going for my masters.

Music – Still playing open mics when i have some free time.  I’ve been trying to post new songs to the myspace page, but i just want to get 1 finished before i announce them.  3 new ones have been up for a week, and people are listening, so i’m totally feeling pressure to finish that 1 song!  put some new videos on youtube as well.  Jordan Otto is back in town, and we talk every so often, and I’d really like to get together with him and a few others and jam around.  we’ll see if that ever materializes.

Love – Rachel and I are talking pretty much everyday in one form or another, and i think it’s great.  We went to cedar point 2 weeks ago, but the new roller coaster, the maverick, was closed!  totally dissapointed.  Rachel is coming home this weekend, and i just found out about the flight to philly, and she is totally understanding.  She’s awesome when it comes to compassion.  Sometimes too much though, i’ve told her I wanted her to make really crazy expectations of me that I can’t meet, challenge me basically, and then get really mad at me if i can’t meet them.  she said that was a terrible thing to say…which may very well be true, but i’ve said worse. 

Home – Deirdre’s moved in, Alex is moved in, and the dish washer is running constantly!  those two use a lot of dishes.  Also tore up the front yard this past weekend.  I’ll try to get some photos up here soon.

Play  – Wow, booked a flight to vegas from november 14th – 17th and florida from dec 18th-20th.  Originally, J’aime was going to vegas with dan for a dental conference and i was going to hang out with her, but now that she has the baby, she isn’t going, so it’s just me and dan, and just me when he’s in his conference.  Not sure about why i’m doing that, especially over my birthday, but whatever.  I’m getting too old to care.  25?!?!  WTF.  Florida will be using the time share that Mrs. Marsh (step-grandmother) let me use down in bonita springs.  Rachel and I are going to go down.  Those are the only big vacations planned, but i’d like to go DC at least once more this year, definitely go out to see rachel a couple times, and whever else the road takes me.

well, got my cast off. I got this big ‘ol boot now though. It’s actually pretty nice though. It has a rounded bottom and lots of straps and it distributes weight load from my foot to my shin and lower leg. The doc said i should still stay off it and use crutches for another 2 weeks, but i vetoed that. What’s the permanent damage you speak of? I feel liberated! I probably will wear the boot for the rest of the month though. it’s still too swollen for shoes, and doesnt feel safe walking without added support.

UK trip for work is off. Found out that with my boss and his boss going, they were going to deplete the budget, so no trip for me. It’s cool though, i was prepared for it. I had made a mental decision that if i got to go, i’d be more dedicated to sticking around longer because they valued me. With another peer moving on to another department who has been in my position a month less than I have, which means he had to get manager’s approval, this after i was denied approval for a move back in november, i’m pretty sure i’ll be heading out sooner than later.

really behind on recording now. I don’t know when the next time i’ll be able to dedicate time to finish songs for this month. I have valentines this wednesday, have some plans for that in the works. I’ve never been one for valentines day, but that is usually because i’m expected to do something. With Rachel, it’s different. I know that she’d appreciate me if I did nothing at all, which makes me want to do so much more. heh. Hopefully the weather will hold out to make it an enjoyable night. I met her brother last week. Pretty cool dude. We had a lot in common. I don’t want to say he’s a geek, but he knows his IT, and that’s A-O-K with me.

Jordan’s moving out by the end of the month. Found a guy in chicago that seems nice enough who needs a place until april. So, it’s a band-aid, but it will buy me some time to find someone else, and also puts me in a better spot since people will be looking for summer housing.