My blog n'at

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…

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.

If you can finish that lyric of who I’m mocking you are one bad mofo and we should have drinks.

Last night was the crazy insanely hugely successful Tweet-up organized by Uncle Crappy at Vietnam’s Pho. In attendance (christ I hope I get all these right from what I remember on where people sat) – @Techburgh and his lady, @Beth910 and The Boy, @psylum, @douglasderda, @Bobtv and his girlfriend, @colindean, @illyrias, @ilikesleep, @pgha, @jamilbroom, @mrscrappy, @unclecrappy, @andreadisaster, @shanlin1022, and  @shadow.

The Dinner – Don’t even ask me what everyone had cuz that’s not happening. However I do recall @shadow taking a bath in the chili sauce. You know he was shooting fireballs about later, he just wont admit to it. You know you have a friend like that. No matter what they eat its not hot enough? That’s @shadow.  One of these days I’ll make him cry from heat. Lushie may need to break out her home made wing sauce that cleared a high rise with tears.

The Pho - I dined on an appetizer of Goi Cuon (Spring Roll w/shrimp, pork, vermicelli and fresh veggies rolled in rice paper with a peanut dipping sauce) and finally caved for the Pho Dac Biet (Beef Round Eye, Flank, Tendon, Tripe, Brisket, Beef Balls and noodles). You read that correctly, tendon and tripe. The tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and the first three chambers of a cow’s stomach. Thankfully the Beef Balls were these and not these as I feared.

The tendon was a mess as always so I just picked most of it out but the tripe was mind blowing. You have to get past the mental fact that you’re eating part of a cow’s stomach and dig in. It takes on the flavor of what its in so it consumed the beefy goodness of the broth. The Beef Balls were an odd texture but tasted decent. Kinda chewy and what i would expect heart to be like. Everyone else around me seemed to have been won over on their dishes which secretly really made me happy. I think more people need to open their minds and give this a try as you can order a simple dish of broth, meat and noodles to enjoy. Work your way up to the big boy stuff !  Our final bill, $170.  that’s right, 20 people ate full meals and drinks for $170. You can figure the math

Highlight was also finding out that it is BYOB and with a few growlers of East End beverages in hand I think a Pho-king-beer tasting will be coming up shortly.

Dare I say the Pho was spiritual? On the drive home I thought I saw God and he was eating a bowl of Pho also and drinking a beer.

Here are a few other pics

cheers!

The Pho jokes just never stop around here. You may recall that back in July I had my first bowl of Pho while contacting in the Strip. Since then it’s grown to an addiction that finally consumed my dear friend Uncle Crappy and spawned what will be my first official “tweet-up” attendance… I think. There’s a good chance I was a part of a tweet-up and didn’t know it.

If you’re in Pittsburgh, join us for a PHO-DOWN!
1. Show up at Vietnam’s Pho.
2. Eat.
3. Go home happy.

I never said these things were difficult. Complete details are at http://pittsburghtweetup.ning.com/events/pho-down

Would a fluffy guy like myself says something is good, you should probably listen.  Come be one of the Pho-king cool kids in Pittsburgh tonight!

July
Began the month with recording at the BeerDependence Day celebration at Bocktown. Attended the Penguins Stanley Cup DVD Release Party. Started a contracting job at EDMC that would become the longest month of my life and that’s all I’m going to say. Enjoyed my first ever bowl of Pho. Rocked the Beer on the Bay festival in Erie which the videos are epic and may never be released. End the month being interviewed by KDKA for the Craft Beer Summit.

August
Won a 2009 Mustang! Bees invade our bathroom (landlord still has yet to remove the dead bodies). I got a full-time job in social media/web dev that has turned out to be freaking cool plus I’m on a rockstar team. Threatened Lushie with divorce after she gets rid of the Back to the Future marathon channels.

September
Attended “Best of the Burgh” at the Warhol with sickpuppy, PittGirl, Woy and Rachel. Go big time and hosted Beer School at the Cabaret downtown to a sold out crowd. Teaspoon hits 17lbs.

October
Hosted 2 sessions at Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Should I Drink That passed 500,000 download mark. Pens start defending the Stanley Cup. Revised Google Maps errors. Celebrate 4 years of marriage with Lushie. Lay the smackdown on poor fact checking by the Post gazette about Erie. Teaspoon goes pumpkin farming.

November
I blogged the whole month. Seriously. Bought a X-box. Teaspoon’s first Thanksgiving. Wonders of fatherhood and a kid who grows like a weed. Craft Beer Dinner with Lew Bryson, Education on the Pittsburgh Potty. Making your own Bacon. BEER AT GIANT EAGLE! Yinz Bowl 2.o

December
Still living it for 5 more hours. Remembering dad on his anniversary. Hosted a Christmas beer sampling at Bocktown. Saw KISS in concert. Teaspoon’s first Christmas. Finished the school year with a 3.65GPA. SNOW!

So what do I have to look forward to in 2010?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

I have to admit that this has been the most life changing year of my life. Some good, some bad and some mind blowing kickass. Here’s a quick recap as I reflect before tonight’s festivities start. I’m splitting this up into 2 sections because lets be honest, no one will scroll through 12 months.

January
Reflected on the first beer I EVER drank and yes, I kept the bottle. Prepare for the end of my 10+ year employment at ForeSystems/Marconi/Ericsson. Bitched about the weather and yinzers inability to drive in snow plus dumb ass snow removal by my neighbors. Both of those still hold true today. Got ready for an unbelievable run to the Super Bowl

February
Steelers won the Super Bowl and became the first ever 6 time champ thus giving every knock off t-shirt maker starry eyes at the potential of “6 pack” shirts. Punxy Phil said 6 more weeks of winter. I was officially laid off, was interviewed for a Post Gazette story on unemployment moments after i was laid off (that never was published), Pens started to turn it around and the biggest shock of them all… Teaspoon arrived 2 months early making me the happiest and most terrified dad. Came in at 4.1lb, dropped to 3.2lb and would leave at 5 in March.

March
It was the month of Teaspoon. Lushie and I spent every minute we could at the Mercy NICU while he got healthy in an incubator. 28 days later he came home. Also witnessed the stupidity of some Hill District parents who think its a hotel in there and the joke that is unemployment system in PA.

April
Went to my first ever Rugby match and got addicted to watching Claire and the girls kick ass. Missed my first opening day of Pirates baseball since 1984 (watched it on TV with Teaspoon and started a new tradition with my boy). Bought a Wii. Enjoyed the greatest comeback in Pens Playoff hockey that I have witnessed as the Pens turned the series around with 1 fight and the Max Talbot shhhhhhh! Saw Beer Wars the Movie with hundreds of other craft beer fans around the world and baked an incredible beer ham for Easter.

May
Should I Drink That turned 3. Pens defeated Washington and Carolina to earn a second trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for a 2nd year. Bought a Blackberry. Joined Sadie’s Soldiers and took some Great Strides. KDKA reads my “tweet of the day” which I WISH they would bring back. The great personalized jersey debate. Meatshield welcomed his first child (i swear it was the year for kids to be born) and we had a cookout with some family. Bowling league ended and we were the undisputed champs.

June
Teaspoon’s first trip to the ER. Coming out of golf retirement after 3.5 year for a day with Yinz Teamer’s Woy, Lokay and Shireman at Cranberry Highlands. The Clarks release Restless Days after 5 years. Pens win the Stanley Cup in 7 games vs Detroit. Pittsburgh floods… again. Unemployed Utensil makes his first appearance as a way to help me get through not working. My first Father’s day and Pirates waste of talent Ian Snell cant take negative people.

up next… July through December.

(photo from onlyinpgh.com)

I’ve heard rumors of this existing but have never seen one myself. If I have then I blocked it out for obvious reasons. While house hunting today I came across the following amenity listed “walk out basement with pittsburgh commode”.  You’re reading that right, they’re showcasing a toilet in the basement.

Why would there be a toilet in the basement? Is there a problem with the water pressure up stairs? Are the people too lazy? Do you sometimes get the urge and say “you know what, I’m droppin pants right here!” Do they even wear pants? Do they have a thing against walls. bwwahhhhhhhh I need to know!

Don’t think to hard about that or your ears will start to bleed.

So I went to the one place that I knew an answer could be found… The Twitter!

Within minutes I not only had the answer to my “WTF is a Pittsburgh Potty” quest but I was sent pictures, the history and even a video!  One thing is for for sure, Pittsburgh love their history especially when its as unique as a toilet.

Here were some replies

I love yinz. Everyone who entered to take my free stuff I say thank you and hope yinz get good use out of it. I’ll ping you about pickup/shipping.

Mrs. Crappy is the new owner of the entertainment table IKEA thing

I expect something Ohio State to be painted on it next time I see it.

The wine/liquor decanters goes to reader Sunshine!

I know you’re going to use it for your plants because an innocent boy like yourself doesn’t drink. Oh wait, don’t give them to your dad as a gift either because where they originated would make it an all too funny story.

More stuff coming soon and we continue to clean out the basement. Anyone need old computer parts (kbd, cables, SIMMS. DIMMS). I have a boatload of those too. Even an old ZIP drive.

I don’t know why I agreed to do this again. Probably has to do with the way my world functions now with everything needing to be on my schedule. November is crammed full of appointments, craft beer events, meetings, family events and while sickpuppy settles into his new job, manage all things SIDT in a month involving Podcast Awards. Add to that I picked up a new toy over the weekend (more on that tomorrow), I think I just like to punish myself

The last time I did NaBloPoMo was 2007 and while I had a good time doing it, writing a post every day can get a bit challenging. I’m taking this up so I can commit to keeping this blog updated. OK who am I kidding, I have a lot of bitching to do and this is the place for me to do it. Just wait till you read what happened at Giant Eagle today and Teaspoon is a daily comedy act (as I type this I can hear him laughing in his bed).

I’m not sure who else is doing this besides Uncle Crappy. I finally opened my Google Reader and have close to 1000 new entries. Go check out his site and hey if you’re doing NaBloPoMo too leave a comment so I can go check yinz out.

cheers!

I love fantasy football with my friends because I talk a lot of smack. I won’t lie. The fact that I really don’t know wtf I’m doing makes it even more fun. I’ve said it before, I know stats so my draft usually sucks but I pick up a lot in free agency, trades and watching trends. This year has been rather good to me but yesterday the bottom dropped out and people are catching up. Here’s where we’re at so far with this week’s downfall.

Yinz Team: Capt. Geech (4-2) – I lost to Pitt Girl (Skippy’s Sluts) yesterday and Jeff Reed celebrated by getting arrested for being a drunken mess again. I’m not making excuses even though my top QB and RB were on BYE weeks and Willie Parker still has alien toe but I shall take the loss gracefully since she can only beat me when I field replacements  See you in the playoffs sweetheart!

Hop Heads Anonymous 2: Utensils (3-3) - Tom Brady, I hate you. Seriously, go play in traffic. In this league he racked up 84 points last night and I lost in the greatest landslide of our league 195-104 to Irish Car Bomb.

RMU Pick’m: CaptGeecj&ShrimpShackShooters (62 points) - This is a league where you pick the winners each week. I currently have a 2 point lead over ShruteFarms which was once 4. Philly and the Jets really biffed up my selections by blowing their games. Chicago, why did I even bother.

Yinz Team Pick’m: fatherspoon (61 points) - Another pick’m like previous but in this league i’m currently 4th. Previously I was 2nd and 1st. Every week this changes and the same results as above. I don’t mind seeing Uncle Crappy in the top slot since he’s a Browns fan and with Ohio State losing this weekend also I think he needs the good news.

Romo, Gore and Parker will all be back and healthy next week and I play Papuga. Bring it on lil lady!

That’s Creation Rex. He sits outside the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and attended Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Where were you?

Once again this gathering of social media minds was a huge success and for the first time ever the event was sold out! How do you sell out a free event? Easy, you can only fit so many people into one area

You’re probably going to ready many many many recaps of the weekend so here’s my short short version.

Meet n Greet

Erie Brewing was the beer sponsor with myself, sickpuppy and Paradox as your lovely bartenders. Beers for the evening were:

• Railbender
  (2008 Bronze/2009 Gold at GABF)
• Presque Isle Pils
• Mad Anthony APA
• Misery Bay IPA
• Derailed Black Cherry Ale

10.5 cases of beer and a case of wine was kicked in 2.5 hours. Attendance was packed but enough room to breathe. After Party was Jekyl and Hyde where Dox fell into a DFH120 coma and did shots of  Crystal Head Vodka with sickpuppy. Sometime around 12am we made it back to the hotel.

Day 1 – Podcamp sold out at 500 people. (VIP’s and free guests)
11am – Grassroots Podcasting
This is the session that has become a staple of Podcamp Pittsburgh. Hosted by Should I Drink That and the Wrestling Mayhem Show, the premise of the talk is to discuss inexpensive ways to start and then promote your podcast. Oh yeah, and people get chopped, chopped, chopped and chopped. The tradition continued of another packed room of people with fantastic audience interaction. A few questions came up about how to make money doing what we do. And while some left as soon as we said this is a hobby (that’s right biatches, I saw you get up and bolt. you were there to find out how to get rich quick and leave. We heard you were floating through groups. Next time we chase you with a chair.), we saw the glow in the eyes of our people when new ideas were presented. I have to give Sorg a lot of credit he really knows how to promote and market a show. When he speaks you need to listen.

The plus side for myself and sickpuppy was the new business opportunities which arose from the talk for us. I decided to let it out that SIDT is expanding and well… you’ll have to wait. We’re gonna redefine media whores

Papuga Porch
This is the smokers lounge aka, porch outside AIP cafeteria. We have renamed this in honor of the great Dawn Papuga who was unable to attend this year because her pussy was hurt. Serious, her cat was in the ER.

1pm – Yinz Cam
Priya Narasimhan was on hand to present quite possibly the greatest sports app developed and it was created here in Pittsburgh. Yinz Cam will allow your cell phone the ability to watch replays, different camera angles and see things that not even the TV’s will show you all for FREE on your phone. Currently this technology is available in the Mellon Arena for Pens. I have seen it used and its hella cool. Also talked about was the iBurgh app (also free) which allows you to complain to the city electronically.  Have a pothole that needs fixed? Take a pic with your phone and send it to the city. The built in GPS of your phone will help tag the exact location. Yinz Cam/iBurgh are prime examples as to why Pittsburgh is a leader in technology and “e-democracy”.

2pm -  “We do a radio show… but not really.”
Mikey and Big Bob from the 96.1fm Freakshow hosted what turned out to be the funniest session of the day. I’ve hated Pittsburgh morning radio, that’s why I got XM, but from talking to these guys online and seeing how they’ve taken to social media I’m now a faithful listener. They showed 3 of their videos and what seemed like 45 minutes of self promo turned into a kickass education on how local media needs to accept and embrace the future. Through social media they’ve been able to create and host events that would never have been possible with the traditional phone calls and announcing on air. Its about instant media, feedback and reaching as many as possible in the shortest amount of time and cost.

3pm -Shutting down your blog “A case study of the Burgh Blog”
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this session going in. Most Pittsburgh bloggers and social media folk have been friends for awhile so we knew parts of the story and I had talked to Ginny a few times but never knew exactly what was involved with closing down the most popular blog in Pittsburgh history. Jaw dropping is cliche but true. Hearing how well executed Woy and Ginny did this was not just amazing but genius. This is a session you need to watch for yourself and watch you can do, soon.

Podcamp Pittsburgh broadcasted every session live thanks to the team at Vivo and will shortly be available online for you to watch. That’s right, you can watch Podcamp if you weren’t able to make it!

Day 1 After Party
Went to Red Star. Food was decent, beer was OK (best on tap was Sam Adams Oktoberfest) but Chris from Bocktown saved that and brought some growlers for us to drink (Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot infused with dates and other glorious flavors) and did the now traditional 649 shot which that night it was Tequila, Vodka and Razzmatazz.

(thanks to DahCheet)

Left there for Jekyl and Hyde where we stayed the rest of the night and closed the place. Drank many DFH120, Victory Wild Devil and, per sickpuppy’s request, all did multiple flaming Dr Peppers. Couldn’t find a taxi so the 3 of us had to walk from south side, across a river, through a tunnel and go downtown to our hotel. Stopped at Holiday Inn Express on South Side to use the bathroom, crashed a bachelorette party, told the desk clerk that we were staying there (we weren’t) so we got a shuttle back to the Marriott downtown. Dox went to sleep so sickpuppy and I took a 6 pack down to the front lobby and hung out outside. I think it was around 4am by the time we got back to the room.

Day 2

Got to Podcamp around 11:30am, just in time for free lunch. Stayed for 2 sessions and went home. We might have been a LITTLE tired.

So where can you catch all of the excitement online in pics and video? Easy, search your favorite sites for the tag #pcpgh4 or:

• Official Podcamp Pittsburgh Flickr group
• pcpgh4 on Flickr
• pcpgh4 on You Tube

Thanks for a great weekend everyone now take a couple weeks off then we can start planning Podcamp Pittsburgh 5!