My blog n'at

Mike Pound shows you that even a Browns fan (I won’t hold that against him) can get ready to watch the Steelers in style.

Come on Mike, you know that black n gold felt good on.

Today I bought my first Terrible Towel in decades. My dad had given me my original one when I was a kid and when he passed in 2006 I gave it to him for the ride upstairs.  Lushie said while at the store that I can’t watch a Super Bowl w/o a towel and dad would have kicked my ass if I did so.

cheers!

** Lushie came to me wanting to rant.  This is it…**

Well as you know,  for the AFC Championship game WTAE decided that “BREAKING NEWS” was not only the score of the Steeler’s game but also a bar tour of the local drunks to get there oh so insightful reactions.  I, of course,  was one of many that complained to WTAE and ABC news that this was abuse of the term “BREAKING NEWS” and was rude to those of us who either did not want to watch the game or recorded the regular shows while we watched the game.  Now after a backlash of complaints WTAE printed an excuse in the Post Gazette later in the week.  Like I said, this was an excuse not an apology, because they planned for this breaking news event, there were reporters at many locations to give a live local reactions.  As commented by WTAE in the paper this was important to the residents of Pittsburgh.

Well here the facts:

1.  The game was televised on a local station.
2.  Anyone that wanted to watch the game or see the score had local access
3.  Breaking news is not and never will be the score of a sporting event.  Breaking news is a tragedy like a fire, accident or missing child.
4.  WTAE stayed in the Breaking News until 11 pm when they started the news with guess what,  THE STEELERS.
5.  Yes the game is important to most Pittsburgh and Pa residents but not everyone. Now forgive me Steeler Nation but some people do not like football and yes some people who live here are fans of other teams.

Well now that I have said that spew here is my next.  Yes, we are all happy that our team is in the Super Bowl.  I will be watching the game in my Steeler clothes, with all the football food, the Terrible Towel and of course my Steelers blanket.  So don’t even think of bashing me for not being a fan and yes I have watched all the games the same way so I am not even a fair weather fan. However,  the constant coverage from the 20 minutes of news on when they landed to what they are eating and the charge sound effects prior to every song on the radio is overboard.  This is a great thing for the city and for us as fans, but it is not the end all be all of our lives.  Life will go on after the Super Bowl and if we don’t win, yes I will be upset.  I will not die if they lose. However, I do believe that some news anchors and radio DJ’s will have to be put on suicide watch. This will make the police work harder to patrol the bridges so maybe it will be good for the city all around, win or lose.

If you drive an SUV or an oversize vehicle and drive on Parkway North there is a very good possibility that I don’t like you. In fact you’ve probably been on the receiving end of the bird from Lushie for being an idiot driver.

Yesterday Pittsburgh was pounded with a winter storm that went snow/rain/ice/thundersnow. Yes, thundersnow. It took me 2 hours to drive to Downtown Pittsburgh and back. A drive that is normally 40 minutes round trip. Granted the roads were slick but PennDOT actually did a good job clearing I-79 and I-279, the problem was the idiot drivers. I spent 45 minutes going from Vets Bridge to Perrysville exit not because of snow or accidents but because of illiterate drivers (like that pictured above) who haul ass in the far right lane that’s ending so they can zoom up and merge. There are signs saying “Lanes End in 1500ft. move the hell over.” Apparently these signs don’t apply to dumbasses. Better yet, since everyone is taking shots at the mayor for his and Dan Onorato’s most excellent adventure to Tampa, lets call these people “dumbassenstahls”.

The numero uno reason for traffic backup yesterday was a collection of dumbassenstahls who would get out of their lanes and race up 279N to this merge point and and then force their way into traffic. Here is a concept to comprehend. If YOU speed up and screw up traffic, you are causing a chain reaction in dumbassenstahl-istry. Since I had plenty of time to sit back and watch this in traffic I can say with confidence that a dumbassenstahl drives some form of BMW, Hummer, Expedition, Yukon or a truck that should be kept on the farm.

People, stop being dumbassenstahls. Wait your turn before one of these days someone with less patience than me puts you into the ditch.

I, like so many others I read online yesterday, thought the NHL All Star game has taken a long walk off a short pier. A waste of time. The NHL All Star Game will take a break next year for the Winter Olympics so they have 2 years to fix some serious problems that I saw over the weekend and would like to share.

1) Take the voting away from the fans until they can play nice – This is supposed to be the BEST of the best. Instead some jagoffs from Montreal spammed the ever living hell out of the voting so it would be an all Montreal team. Pens fans came out in forces to get Sid selected but Caps fans failed to get Ovechkin starting. Slackers.

SOLUTION: Until integrity can be restored to the game have the players, coaches and GM’s vote.

2) Make the game mean something – There’s no hitting, no defense and not effort to make plays. It’s become a lackadaisical spin off of what hockey is or what the “hockey is too violent” freaks want wrapped up in a hug. What I saw Sunday was 3 periods of watching pre-game skating without the drills. Do some skating and fancy moves then shoot.

SOLUTION: Follow MLB’s style and have the winning league get home ice for the cup finals. Some may bitch that it’s not fair when teams work so hard during the season. Try playing 162 games and then playoff games to not have home field. MLB can do it, suck it up buttercup. You fought to play in the game, not to host it. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy then get rid of the All Star Game completely or move it to the end of the season like the NFL when no one cares.

3) Fix the Skills Competition – I don’t think the clock for timing players skating around the rink has ever worked. The trick shots (which should the equivalent to the NBA Slam Dunk and MLB HR Derby) was harder to watch than SlapShot 2 sober. The only saving grace was the accuracy competition which is as exciting as watching someone pitch a ball through a tire hanging from a tree.

SOLUTION: Find players with actual skills to do trick shots. I saw MAYBE 3 decent shots while the rest were sloppy puck handling, unmotivated, drunken Stars on Ice quality attempts. You want accuracy? Put Randy Quaid in net and be the ball. Speed skating should hire the people who time trials at the Olympics.

4) Versus needs an upgrade – WORST.CAMERA.WORK.EVER!  The game was decent but the skills competition was a mess. It was like someone with A.D.D. was working the boards. You’re watching the net, then the skater, then the far end of the ice, then from the stands, from the men’s room, WOOHOO NACHOS, from outside, a fan laughs, back to the ice, over to the goalie, overhead shot! All within a minute. That’s what it felt like.

SOLUTION: Talk to the guys at NBC. They don’t have much coverage but they do it right. No matter what happens don’t let Fox take over. I can’t deal with a glowing puck or robots fighting.

Let me know what you thought of the weekend. What would you keep or change?

go pens!

P.S. – Check out this sick goal Malkin made. Just about the only highlight from the game

OK I don’t own the community but it’s one I belong to and this weekend I was left seriously impressed.

There are 2 groups. People I have met personally and people I only know online (IM, twitter, plurk, whatever…). Those of you I know personally have become really great friends and I trust them when it comes to a time of need. In the Pittsburgh area we’re one big family. The craft beer podcasting/blogging circles I run in are basically the same. We need something and there is always a person who offers help.

Then there was this weekend. 2 people whom I’ve never met and only have spoken with online offered to help me out thanks to Twitter.

XM Antenna – My XM Radio was dead in the water and I have a hard time living without it. After troubleshooting with support it was determined that a new antenna was needed. I posted on Twitter what happened and within minutes I had someone from out of town offer me their old antenna (a new one is $40). Fortunately I was able to pick one up elsewhere for free but the fact that someone I had just started following was being this generous was amazing to me. I’d say who he was but I don’t need the vultures after him

Dressers – The baby’s room had some extra furniture and I don’t own a truck. I had 2 options, give to someone or pitch to the dumpster. Granted I could have donated to Goodwill but that is a whole different mess. We didn’t want any money, we wanted to give these to someone who would get use out of them so I posted on Twitter (and this site).  Within 2 minutes I had offers. They went to Megan who’s future brother in law was in need of dressers and had a truck. Sunday afternoon he shows up and takes them away. I have never met her before but we’ve chatted on a couple formats.  Again, social networking coming to the rescue. It was brought up to me that I could have posted on Freecycle but I wasn’t comfortable with a complete stranger coming to my house. Granted that I had never met Megan but I knew enough that it didn’t bother me.

This weekend was a great example that the internet isn’t filled with the horrors that Chris Hansen wants you to believe. There are great people out there who may not know it but little actions like this mean a lot. I’m proud to boast that Pittsburgh and SW PA has a great community. In fact I hear on a regular basis that other cities wish they could have a community as tight as ours. Everyone I have encountered with online or IRL has a genuine soul. Either I have the ability to weed out the jagoffs or the reason why people get involved in social media is because they need an escape from everyday life and are good people. I see messages everyday online of people helping others through tools like Twitter and Plurk. Maybe this is the next step in rebuilding faith in humanity.

Thank you Pittsburgh.

Oh in case you missed them, here are the dressers

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

This was posted in the comments section by reader Chris and I haven’t been able to stop laughing since. The video goes perfect with the post from that day.

Lushie has a post coming up tomorrow, Tuesday or whenever she gets done with it. Apparently WTAE has caused much anger in this young one.

Dara Blumenthal, of Brooklyn, holds up a sign during a rally against Wall Street bailouts, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008, in front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York.  (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

I pay my bills and taxes on time, have no criminal record, have a full time job, I’m back in school and have a mound of student loan bills to go with my 3.67GPA that I’m paying for out of my pocket. Oh and I’m starting a family.  Where’s my bailout?

Seeing these crooks get thrown a life jacket makes you wonder if it’s worth being an honest citizen some days eh? If I ever mismanaged my business as some of these companies have or did that poorly on my job I can guarantee you that the only handout I would get is a pink slip.

I admit, I take pride in my snow shoveling skills. Many a winter I spent in Erie under my dad’s guidance learning when to shovel snow, how to do it with style and why you do what you do. When you get as much snow as Erie does you need to learn to accept and adapt to it. Moving to Pittsburgh has taught me that not only do people fear it but also they have no idea how to deal with it. I need to write Snow Removal for Dummies.

The picture above is steps that lead down to the parking area in my community. As you can see the steps are an abomination and the picture actually makes it look better. Late one day last week while I was at work one of the Mensa elite that live by me deemed it wise to shovel a single path from their door, across the lawn, down the steps and across the road to neighbors on the other side of the street. The effort put in was shovel down and walk.

By the time I came home and the temps dropped to single digits the snow had become ice. The issue now is that the steps are all ice and it’s too cold for salt thus making them a hazard for those who are, oh I don’t know, 29 weeks pregnant. When I’m up at 5am and outside shoveling I take the responsibility upon myself to not only clear my walkway but the neighbors all the way over to and including the steps. I don’t mind doing it but when you half ass shoveling that causes a risk to my family I get pissy.

I went out with my shovel and tried to clear the steps with no luck. My shovel almost broke when I tried to chip away at the ice so I knew it was a losing fight. So now not only am I irritated that the steps are a hazard but also at the slackass careless job. I understand it takes effort but if you’re one of these people take into consideration the others around you.

So here are my tips for you when it comes to snow removal:

• If you’re going out in temps under 32F, dress with a minimum of 2 layers. Neglecting this will cause you to whine about the cold and probably get sick thus making you worthless
• Watch the weather channel or some other radar system and shovel when the first wave is done. Yes more will fall later but in the later rounds you’ll find out it’s much easier and faster to clean up. Think of it this way, many easy small jobs or one agonizing shoveling resulting in sore muscles and long pain.
• Rock salt is your friend and it’s cheap. Use it generously.
• Cover your face. You may think your face is tough in the cold until you come into the heat and you scream like a little girl. Wind burn is not pleasant.

The temp finally went up on Monday so I went outside, cleared as much snow as I could and salted the hell out of the steps.  By morning I was able to chip away and make it a safe passage for Lushie.

In the meantime, the dumbass who originally shoveled just made a straight path from his back door, across his lawn and to his car. My guess is that the steps were too slippy for him

I knew that would get people all riled up when I posted that on twitter and now I will explain because 140 characters isn’t enough space. I’m suffering from over saturation of the media. For the last 2 weeks it has been non stop SNOW SNOW SNOW! COLD! OMG WE’RE GONNA DIE! from all local news stations when the reality is that it’s freaking WINTER. Snow happens. Cold happens. Watching the news you’d think that this was the first time our climate has seen this weather. Now I’m entering into 2 weeks of Steelers coverage with everything from what Ben has for breakfast to every bad yinzer chant that makes filler space DVE. Again, I support the Steelers, it’s the coverage that’s excessive.

The icing on the cake, however, is today. I’ve never watched an inauguration for any president and have no intention of watching this one either. I cant even check email without getting forwards about the event. I get that people are thrilled about today but leave me out of it. I can’t take any more Obamaism.

I got out of the shower today to find on my TV people making out for Obama, some guy passed out in his own puke for Obama (imagine that tailgate party) and some fat guy ripping open his jacket to show his chest on CBS… for Obama.

If you’re excited for today because we have a new president, that’s fantastic. I think this is a historic day and hope that everyone takes a part of it with them. I’m not bitter about the fact McCain didn’t win (which some of you seem to believe) and I’m not spewing hate or whatever you think it is, I’ve just had it with extreme coverage.

cheers!

*gher er er* we aint got no Super Bowl!

keep crying Ray. karma is a bitch and Jesus hates you.

Send you an ecard from Tampa cuz we’re tech like that.

This was the pinnacle of the year for me. I know we still have the Super Bowl coming up but this was THE game. I hate Baltimore as much as I still do Cleveland when it comes to football. Cleveland hasn’t fielded a decent team in years so they’re just around to mock and make us feel good about the world. Baltimore, on the other hand, is filled with jagoffs. They’re like that kid who begs for mercy on the playground and when you let him go he says he’ll kick your ass and runs away. That’s the Ravens.

Next up is the Cardinals and 2 weeks of really bad “Pittsburgh’s going to the Super Bowl” songs mixed in with ones locals have submitted. Really hurts that my XM is on the fritz and I have to get it fixed.

Toss up for me on the game. Larry Fitz is a freakin machine and Kurt Warner is too busy thanking God for every snow flake in the sky. Steelers defense is tight, Ben still makes bad decisions and Steed somehow manages to play. Philly choked once again so there go my dreams of a PA Super Bowl.

cheers!

12:30pm – Penguins vs Rangers (NBC)
My first love is hockey so it’s only fitting that this is how my day starts. Pens (48 points) are barely hanging in the playoff picture while the Rangers (58 points) are dominating the Atlantic. Plus side is that when you think of it in other sports terms, the Pens are only 5 games out of first. Pens are sporting the powder blues which have been a jinx thus far. Come on guys start the day off right!

3:00pm – Eagles vs Cardinals NFC Championship (FOX)
Normally I am anti-everything Philly in sports but for this day our Pennsylvania brothers shall have my support. I want a Philly/Pittsburgh Super Bowl. Reality though, I think the Cardinals are going to win. Prove me wrong Eagles!

6:30pm – Steelers vs Ravens AFC Championship (CBS)
This game worries me. 2 strong defense systems but I think that this will be a mental cluster for Flacco. It’s in Pittsburgh, it’s snowing and Steeler Nation has been drinking since Monday.  I wouldn’t want to play there.

9:00pm – Big Love (HBO)
If you haven’t watched this series yet I suggest you start now. HBO has once again given me more broadcasting crack with Big Love. Big Love is an HBO television drama about a Mormon fundamentalist family in Utah that practices polygamy. The show is about family, drama and whack jobs still living on the compound. Guys, if you think this is just for the ladies, I’d like to point out that there is plenty of Ginnifer Goodwin.