My blog n'at

We’ll call this one a draw…

Since the Pittsburgh Magazine article came out I’ve had quite a few notifications of new followers. Most times I’ll follow back because I’m always up for a good conversation and try to keep up with everything going on through the day but lets be honest, you can’t follow all the time (just like it can’t rain all the time).

This morning I tweeted that I was psyched to see Anthony Bourdain was coming to Pittsburgh to talk. This is a must for me so I told Lushie we need to make plans for it. Shortly afterwards I had a reply from TwinmamaTeb saying “@douglasderda clearly you missed all my tweets about the presale and gettting 8th row seats. heh.”. That’s when I thought, how many conversations am I missing?  Granted most tweets are people spewing random nonsense (I’m guilty myself) but what else have I missed out on? I decided it was time to checked my stats.

As of right now I have 1,250 followers, I’m following 987 back and I’m on 112 lists. Those 112 lists can be summed up in the following categories: beer, hockey, Pittsburgh.  If I were to die right now that is how I could be summed up in 3 words. I love craft beer, I love hockey and I love Pittsburgh.

The most popular question I get from people obsessed with Facebook is “Why do you tweet?”  I gave it some though and here’s the deal on how/why I use Twitter. I’m connected to every user. Because of tags such as “craftbeer” I have been introduced to a community of people that I may have never had the chance to meet besides the degrees of separation on FB. I use Twitter because it’s about the conversation. Over the past day I finally started watching the #craftbeer tag on Twitter with TweetDeck and have met some incredible bloggers, fans from all over the world and a few brewers.  I’m able to buy and sell hockey tickets and chat with other Pens fans during games. I have been invited to events I may not have known about before and helped plan a few of my own. All in under 140 characters. I can ask questions and people, while sometimes smartasses, answer. I can get traffic updates from not just the networks but from people out on the roads.

From the 1250 I’m not following 263. Odds have it you’re selling me a service I don’t want, you’re a spammer or I really have no clue what your deal is. Now there is the margin of error since Twitter is notorious from un-following people without warning and if you’re one of those let me know.

So now I’m reaching out to you. If you’re in the rest of the 987 and read this blog (which hopefully you do because you follow me on twitter and obviously wanna get to know me ) leave me a comment. I can say that I know MAYBE 2/5 of you personally from beer events or social media but if we’ve never met before I want you to say hi. If you wanna keep it personal then shoot me a message on my contact form.  Spoon wants know who you are! If you’re in the Pittsburgh area and want to meet others check out Pittsburgh tweetup!

I should probably tweet this…

You’re seeing that correctly. In what could be labeled as our worst kept secret ever, we grace the pages of the March 2010 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine. I was flattered when I first learned that Jonathan Wander wanted to talk to me about the show and since it was around Podcamp Pittsburgh time I figured he was a curious fan. That’s when I found out about his intentions to write the article which left me stunned. We’re talkin USA scores with 26 seconds left in regulation of gold medal game Canadian stunned. I’ve done many interviews with beer trade magazines but never with anyone outside that realm and I honestly didn’t know how their readers would take to us.  We do carry an explicit tag but also we’re genuine on there and not some corporate bullshit. People tell me they dig that so that has to put some odds in our favor. This past January Jonathan and I talked over the phone for a solid 2 hours about the show, my life, growing up in Erie and followed it with a photo shoot at Bocktown on a Sunday afternoon. The rest was up to his creative hands.

The article is incredible and I admit, when I first saw it in print at Giant Eagle, I blushed.  Oh hell I was glowing. Only a few select people know how much work I really put into this show behind the scenes and to see it on a stage like Pittsburgh Magazine just blows my mind, even more than when we appeared in national publication DRAFT. In a way it seems like the show was validated. When you hit local there’s something even more meaningful about it. Now if someone back in my hometown of Erie calls, oh lord I’ll never shut up.

The magazine will be seen by over 250,000 readers in 10 counties (Erie included). If you can’t find it at your local Giant Eagle, Borders or Barnes & Noble you can read the online version here

Thankfully with the show I have been able to develop skills that I never thought twice about and it turned into getting my butt employed. Should I Drink That has treated me well and with the plans that I have in mind for this year, should make the experience even more amazing.

Creatively I know where I want this to go and how the whole process should flow. Does it happen that way? Hell no. In fact getting an episode of SIDT together is a huge pain in the ass but one I like to have. When we started it was “lets go to the store and see what we can buy” and now there is a dry erase board that I plan out the next few shows on. Multicolored markers too cause I’m spiffy like that. I think once Studio B is purchased and wired I’ll have a better understanding of what it is I want but until then we’re going with what’s worked.

I want to thank everyone who has supported the show.  When I was starting college I wanted to get into radio and that dream was quickly shot down by my fam. Then again they also said I would never make a living in computers and look how that turned out  Without you, my kickass friends, I would never have moved forward with long lost dream and this thing would have been over with years ago.

Thanks everyone!

cheers!

15 years ago was my first formal dance in college and what would turn out to be the last at this venue. It was on this night that UPT will be slapped with a lifetime banishment from any future events and can only be describes as “Semi-formal 1995 – We Destroyed the Holiday inn Oil City”.

I can’t recall much from this night besides a few details that I get to relive in photographs so if any of you have pics from that night let me know. There wasn’t much to Oil City and quite frankly the Holiday Inn was about as nice as we were going to get.

I went with my friend Stacy from Erie and had a corner room double bed. Why? Her boyfriend was bringing my girlfriend Michele down from Eire. Make sense? Yeah I dont really remember why either. The dance and dinner wasn’t bad but no one cared since the 4 of us spent most of the night in the room playing drinking games along with Drew whom joined us with a bottle of Citron.

At some point the state police showed up and stood guard outside our room with guns drawn. They were searching rooms (apparently someone tried jumping into the pool from the 3rd floor) and when they arrived at ours everyone hid in the bathroom except for me and Chele (we acted like we were sleeping). Being the clean freak that Drew was our place was spotless so that helped in our alibi.

I did post these on Facebook along with a few others and stories are starting to trickle in. Like the reason why our room was suspect would be due to the 2 cases of empties the guys next door planted.

Now I was hoping to share all of these great pics with you but a few parties involved are now professionals so out of respect I wont put them on here but I will share this one.  I give you me and Stacy on that fateful night.

In case you’re scratching your head, grain alcohol was still available then and was indeed involved that night. We may have been a prime example why it was banned in PA. Probably a good thing, kids today wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Its good to be the king!

Teaspoon, I’m not quite sure how to sum up this past year besides saying it was amazing and educational. You came to us 2 months early, weighed just over 3 pounds and were born shortly after 3pm but we wouldn’t get to hold you until 9pm that evening. The nurses kept telling us you were a fighter and that there was something special they could see in you. For the next 28 days your mom and I spent every possible hour by your incubator in the NICU as you fought to get stronger with feeding tubes and wires monitoring your heart and lungs.

Now 1 year later you’ve lived up to the fighter title. Coming in at just under 21 pounds, you’ve proven to be a healthy and vibrant young bald headed man. You have 8 teeth already, can speed crawl and have almost mastered walking on your own. I’m proud of you son and can’t wait to see what you have in store for us next.

love,
dada

and I’d do the same thing.

I don’t see what the big deal is and people, give them a freaking break. They busted their asses for years preparing for this one event and they came out with the gold. From all reports I’ve read this was after the fans have left and the media remained. There is absolutely no harm in celebration 30 minutes after the fact and just because it was smokes and beer over probably champagne and some other boring ass dried up tradition some people are having a fit. You’re not disrespecting. You’re celebrating the moment and when the fans are gone who cares, you’re not breaking any laws (well maybe the girl was is 18 was) and not being lewd or crude. You’re having a beer and smoking a cigar. If you’re worried about your kids you should stop watching professional sports and get a grip. Is your issue the fact they drank and smoke or that they came back out on the ice… when everyone was gone?

Granted I would never drink that Molson crap but its the beer of Canada so whatever, fire it up girls you deserve it!

My 34th birthday was Sunday and overall my weekend was pretty uneventful which is kinda how I wanted it. Most people have the 25 freak out, me its 34. I’ve always dreaded that age because when I was growing up I remember thinking how old my brother seemed at that age and now I’m there. What do you expect, I was 16 at the time so in perspective it’s similar to my nephew/godson Ben right now.

Lushie calls me last Wednesday to say that the ceiling in the kitchen is falling in. I get home and see our beloved vagina ceiling which I’ve now named Betty White. We both agree that her and Teaspoon should go to her mother’s for the weekend since the landlord said he would be over to fix it. Friday morning arrives, they leave and I wait… and wait…. and wait… and well you get the picture. I burned 2 vacation days to wait for repairs that never came. I love this guy.

Once late afternoon rolled around and I realized I was stood up there was only one thing I could do; buy a case of beverage. If you’re unfamiliar with my birthday treat I present to you the Weyerbacher Big Beers case ($54/case)

You may be scratching your head as to why I selected this one. When I first started ever performing beer reviews this was my first case which was purchased with Griff. The smallest AVB is 9% in this variety case.  In it you will find Old Heathen(10%), Double Simcoe IPA (9%), Blithering Idiot(11%) and Merry Monks Ale (9.3%).

Dinner Friday night night was; bah who am I kidding it was a Friday during Lent… I didn’t eat. I got word that our big surprise for SIDT was happening that day and not a week later so after catching my breath and checking a few things made the decision that I wasn’t going to spend my first bachelor birthday weekend doing any work. I’ll have time for that this week.

Saturday was spent with 2 things on my mind, NHL10 and BBQ. One of those two took me down for the count and it wasn’t the video game. I went to Smokey Bones for a rack of ribs and would soon find out this would be an epic fail.  You’re gonna have to wait to find out why though. Its worthy of its own post.

Saturday night was me, curling and chatting online until almost sunrise. Damn you west coasters but thanks for the birthday wishes and great time

Sunday, the birthday, was pretty mellow and I chilled at home, visited some fam and then the house was packed once again with Teaspoon craziness.

So there’s my recap. I have plenty of posts coming up when I’m dodging falling ceiling.

1 year ago today my 10+ year career came to an end at ForeSystems/Marconi/Ericsson and since then life has been most educational. I don’t think anyone ever knew how close I was to packing up the family and moving out of state. Thankfully I said no and now have an amazing job doing something I love.

There isn’t much to say about the last day. I came in at 9am, turned in my laptop at 11 and was unemployed by 11:30am. I left immediately because, and this you probably didn’t know either, went downtown to meet with Dennis Roddy from the Post Gazette. He wanted to do a story on me about unemployment and how I was going to handle being a dad-to-be and jobless. The story never went to press (at least not that i know of) but he did take some incredible video I heard. Hey Dennis, still have it?  It was an emotional interview and he was smart getting me moments after I was let go.

So now we’re here 1 year later and on the eve of my 34th birthday. I have a great job, a fantastic family that I would do anything for even when Teaspoon beats on me while I sleep and I have a giant vagina in my ceiling. Eh, 2 outta 3 ain’t bad.

I have a vagina in my ceiling. That is what it has been aptly named by quite a few of you so we’re going with that. In fact twitter has named it “Paris Hilton” or “Tila Tequila”.

That’s the latest damage in our house. I’m working on the splash screen for videos so you can see first hand how we got to where we are today. Needless to say I’ll be staying home today.

I’m beside myself. Rational thoughts at this point is amusing to me. If you follow me on Twitter there’s no doubt that you know of the destruction that the Pittsburgh snow storm last week laid on us. In case you missed it it went something like this: it snowed, it snowed more, kept snowing, started to melt, massive water damage.

I had to get on my blog tonight for a few minutes just so I could forget about the water world around me.  I will do a full recap this week to get everyone caught up. First of all you guys rock! I have some of the greatest friends in the world! The outpouring of support has been incredible and while ppl want to dog Pittsburgh I have to say yinz have the biggest hearts and I thank you.

I appreciate all of the help with tips and legal support and as great as it would be to “sue the fckers”, as I was told many times, there is a process for everything and as always we have a plan. I can’t go into details just yet but when the time is right I’ll flash the bat signal. The dining room (you know it as the pregnant wall) is starting to have issues where the window pictured above won’t open or close. We are safe for now and just hope the rest of the ceiling doesn’t come down.

Pictures and more video coming soon.