My blog n'at

Lushie, Teaspoon and I pulled into the McDonalds drive-thru this morning and it wasn’t until I saw on their sign that there were new menu items. I’m not a big breakfast meal person so I usually just cruise by the fast food places while eating a breakfast bar. I’m always up for new items so I gave that a shot plus ordered food for the family. Normally I’d let them starve but I was feeling generous today and Lushie was buying.

Lets start with the food first. The Steak Egg McMuffin (not on website or I’d link) was a pleasant surprise. The butter was really pronounced on the steak but the meat was rather dry sitting on top of an overcooked egg and between chewy muffins, yeah not good. Overall as a meal it wasn’t bad but the dryness was a bit much.

OK, now with the fun part. As I pull up to the cashier she asks if I would like to fill out a survey and in return get $5. I figured taking an online survey would be fast and an easy $5 Lushie could use when she’s out with the kid. That’s when I got this…

That would be a NINE PAGE PAPER SURVEY! That’s right, its paper and there isn’t even an option to fill it out online! For a second I thought I was in a McDonalds Time Machine to 1995 and was waiting for my no. 2 pencil to arrive. If you click on the image you can see that I have 48 hours to fill it out and mail it (how on earth you’re going to do this tracking with snail mail is beyond me).

This is McDonalds, the overall king of fast food with innovative web marketing for its multi kajillion dollar company yet they’re making me fill out paper? Oh we’re not done yet. I start reading the questions and its like a tax form. There are codes look up for certain items, don’t fill out this if you answered A and B but do if you filled out C, your hair is brown and you like turtles.

I’ve taken the liberty of scanning this so you can see the insanity yourself. You can download the pdf here.

Now the kicker, at the very end they ask FOR YOUR EMAIL and it will take 4-5 weeks for delivery of the coupon. Needless to say I’m not wasting my time filling out 9 pages for $5. I’ve passed this along to colleagues who will most likely use it in their Marketing/PR classes for what not to do. The amount of money spent on this must be epic when you think about it. They printed up the survey, the envelope to give it to me and the envelope to send back PLUS paid for postage.

How do you handle this in 2010? Hand out business card size err cards at drive through with a surveymonkey link (I’ve done many forms online to know this would be no problem and really easy) and at the end of every day/week you run a report to get the info. Bam you’re done. You have instant feedback and can turn the reward around fast. Heck we’ve done shorter surveys with $50 itunes and $25 Starbucks gift certificates to hundreds of people.  $5 is just enough for a value meal, you could have given me a coupon to print out at the end and saved the postage.

If you want to find out more about how social media can save you from making costly (seriously, I’m just thinking about the money spent on printing and shipping and man hours to enter the data INTO A COMPUTER)  mistakes come to Podcamp Pittsburgh 5.  You can hear people like me talk and educate for FREE.

July 3rd, 1985 started an addiction that is worth having

I love giving things away. LOVE LOVE LOVE! So here’s your chance to win some kickass things!

1) Exclusively for yinz readers comes 2 FREE Carnegie museum passes courtesy of the leader in used cars in Pittsburgh specializing in drivers with a budget of less than $10,000, Pittsburgh Budget Cars. How do you win this? Easy, shoot me a message in the contact form and tell me what you love most about the Carnegie Museum! The winner will be picked at random by super random number picker of power.  Deadline for this is March 31st at 11:59:59 pm EST

2) Over on Should I Drink That we’re giving away

• 1 Autographed copy of March 2010 issue of Pittsburgh Magazine by Should I Drink That
• 1 year subscription to Pittsburgh magazine
• 1 $50 gift card to Piper’s Pub on the South Side – (Support your local businesses and craft beer at the same time!)

One entry per person BUT if you forward us the email you sent to your legislator (Copy/paste it in the contact form) that will count as 5 entries. To enter go to the SIDT contest page.  April 15th at 11:59:59 pm EST

There you go! 4 killer gifts you can win FOR FREE!

Spoony loves ya baby!

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!

I’m a sucker for helping kids out, you all know that. From my work with CF and MS to MDA and March of Dimes kids come first. Well this one is a serious emergency and we need your help!

Everyone knows about what happened in Haiti this past week. What you may not know is this, Pittsburgh locals Jamie and Ali McMutrie run quite a few orphanages in Port-au-Prince. Brought to my attention from Ginny at That’s Church, is that these girls and the kids need to leave NOW! Over 100,000 people are dead so far, the orphanage is no longer a suitable living environment, water is contaminated and rioting will surely begin.  This isn’t just a plea to help some kids, this is a plea to help future Americans! They’re in the final stages of adoption and have families waiting.

Go to Ginny’s site for all updates and see what you can do to help. They need a plane and U.S. government help to get refugee status for the children so that they can enter the country legally.

If anyone has some kind of political pull I beg of you to use it. You can reach Ginny at virginia[at]thatschurch[dot]com

Thank you and God bless,
Douglas

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.

I’m celebrating tonight with an assload of homework, taking care of a sick 9mo old and enjoying the Pens beatdown of the Rangers again. It’s Monday night and I’m already looking forward to this weekend getting here.  Not really. I’m busy again and just annoyed at everything. I have too much work to do and not enough time. I must purchase MS Project because people have no concept of time and I need to bitchslap some Gantt charts around.

As I type this post it’s been one year to the moment that Ericsson notified all of the workers in Warrendale that we were no longer a “strategic location” and would be shutting us down. One month later I would receive notice that I was leaving in the first round and last day would be February 20th, the day before my birthday. Nice kick in the nuts eh?

I’ve never spoken of what exactly happened and how we were told so here you go.

I came in that day between 8-8:30am. I was wrapping up documentation on the Vista refresh that I had just completed and figured it to be an easy day. (I was the project coordinator for refreshing our North American locations from XP to Vista. Organizing collection and redistribution of machines plus transferring data and scrapping machines that couldn’t be used. Thankfully I had a great team working with me.)  An email arrives that there is a mandatory meeting on the manufacturing floor around 9:30. I figure this is for a bonus or something cool. It would turn out I was WAY off.

I walk down with my manager Mike and we’re all huddled together as rumors start surfacing that something is going down. Are we getting sold again? (We were originally FORE Systems, sold to Marconi and then sold to Ericsson). One of the upper management members comes in and we could tell something was wrong as he’s shaken up. He informs us that Ericsson has decided to close the Warrendale office and we will be all laid off or given the chance to work in another location. “WTF! i have a kid on the way and my wife turned in her notice for the end of the year! wtf am I going to do!” We’re then told that everyone must go to the auditorium for further instruction.

Walking into the Sansom Auditorium was like attending a funeral for the sudden death of a loved one. People were crying, others were angry and confused. I was in shock. I started tweeting and IM’ing from the meeting that this can’t be happening. It was starting to make sense though why the Swedes were giving us so much grief for being proactive and hauling more ass than the rest of the US but whatev.  There is a slide presentation but I half ass watch it. I don’t care what your reasoning is, you just stabbed me in the heart.

After the meeting we’re all told to go back to our desks and management would give us further instruction. We were told not to speak to anyone in the media, make posts or even speak of the layoffs. Naturally the local news media swarmed our office and wanted comments (this is where my despise for the Trib and WPXI stem from). I had decided to stay the whole day so I could start backing my data up when employees were swarming the windows. Those who did decide to leave at noon were being hounded for comments. People were in tears and the cameras kept rolling. Andy Gastmeyer was the absolute worse and to this day when I see him I get furious. He chased one employee from the door to his car and showed it on the news that night. I saw security come around the corner though not sure what happened.

The day ended and as I walked to my car a reporter from the Trib followed me from the steps all the way to my car asking for a comment. She would not go away and, I still hear this in my head “I’m a reporter, you owe it to me to tell your story”. I turned around with a few choice words on where she could put her tablet and walked away. Pissed me off enough I haven’t picked up an issue since.

I went home to have dinner with Lushie and a few beverages that night.  I still came to work Friday and waited to see what would happen next. In order to get my severance package I would have to complete a list of tasks which you’ll read more about in February when I recap the last few days.

To all my former coworkers out there I will raise a pint tonight. This marked the beginning of the end of an incredible 10+ year ride through the corporate world and little did I know just how crazy this was going to become.

cheers!

(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.