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…

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!

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.

Pictures and more video coming soon.

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!

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.

click here for the full gallery

Unfortunately Teaspoon will never see a Pens game at the Mellon Arena, since this the last season before moving to the Consol Energy Arena across the street, so I was psyched to get him down there for season ticket holder family picture night.

Teaspoon was in awe. First it was the lights and banners, then it was the ice when I gave him his first skate and finally going in between the pipes like daddy used to. The real test came when he sat down for a chat with Iceburgh. In his mind he was probably thinking “whoa a big toy”!

The night was incredible and some of these pictures will be used for our first family Christmas card. I’m glad that the Pens have given us this chance to hang out at the arena on a non-game day. I know he won’t remember any of this and someday when he’s looking back in the archives of this site he can see the proof that he was there.

I’m looking forward to the day when I can share more hockey with my boy.