Woke up in my clothes again this morning; Don't know exactly where I am

Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:21:40 GMT

And suddenly, just in the vein of work-related angst, opportunities have arisen on 3 fronts, all at once. I can't talk about any of them yet, although one is a matter of public record.

This could play out very interestingly, or I could be totally screwed. I'll share more when I can.

In a more mundane line of thought, next week I will finally get a look at the inside of the last area steel mill, something of an early birthday gift. One can only hope it won't rain.

I work from nine to five; Hey, hell, I pay the price

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:06:53 GMT

More for madrobin than others, but I alicelee might know...

When E-ZPass was adopted there'd been a proposal on the table for an anonymous version of electronic toll collection, which was rejected in favor of the Citibank-led non-anonymous proposal.

What (and who) was it?

And I was all out of luck

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:59:48 GMT

It's been a day. Between work and concalls, and letter-writing, I am toast. I found my old letters to Santorum earlier today telling him I thought he was crazy for his stands on certain things, and his replies where he talked around everything I said.

And Then I read this, and was amusing at the derision quotes around the outrage.

As I was driving back into the city from dealing with those errands, newly owning the car I drive so little anymore, radio piped in from Columbus told me Hillary was polled to have a better chance than Obama over McCain, but both were ahead. I can only hope for an Obama victory, but, hey. Who knows what will happen in the next 6 months. From the looks of things now, on so many fronts... "a lot".

So I cleaned out (redacted)'s freezer last night, and in it was one more piece of Soyrizo, in addition to a bounty of facon. And for various reasons I have bacon on the brain, so I think tonight maybe it's time to make these.
I'll tell you how they are.

You never changed the world

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:56:16 GMT

See, I was right all along. PETA does kill puppies.

Like a psychic radio

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:08:44 GMT

Some time ago, in 2006 in fact, I discovered Bluetooth A2DP, when it was announced that Softick Audio Gateway enabled Palm devices to use Bluetooth headphones.

I'd already had a Bluetooth headset: a
Jabra BT200. It never quite worked right in my ear, and people couldn't hear me.

The next try was a BlueParrott B100 which I made work get me because I wanted a real boom mic so I'd be audible. And I was... until the device simply stopped transmitting or receiving audio, despite being paired. (The base is nice; you can use it to attach to a real phone line and use any Bluetooth headset with it.)

So, sitting in the Beehive window that day as today, I tried to figure out where I could get some A2DP headphones quickly, and remembered there's a Radio Shack a few blocks away. They did in fact have one variety, the Motorola HT820, and I purchased them, assuming all would be well. Not so much.

They had but a small mic built into one earpiece, and so many callers couldn't hear me. The plastic band and earpieces were too tight. Worse, Audio Gateway didn't work on my Treo 700p, and MacOS 10.4 didn't support A2DP.

Fast forward a bit, and MacOS 10.5 prereleases became available. They supported A2DP. I became an early adopter for that reason almost entirely; Likewise, Softick fixed Audio Gateway.. but then I broke the HT820's band while in Sweden for work. Ok, time to start thinking again. I got a Scosche IPBCK for my car as a gift, and was able to listen to music in the car, but not anywhere else, at least without wires. So I did more research.

Boom mics are hard to find. Plantronics 590 headsets did have a voice tube, so, I put it on my wishlist, and soon enough my sister was nice enough to get me one as a birthday gift. The sound was excellent, at least to me. But work soon was complaining again that they could hear me. Finally, 2 weeks ago they were annoyed enough to tell me to buy something at their expense, and I did. I got the only thing I could find where the mic was not built into the earpiece: an Anycom BSH-100 headset. The sound's not as good as the Plantronics, but people could hear me. For the first call. Then, they couldn't hear me, and I couldn't hear *anything*, later.

Turns out these aren't being made anymore, or if they are, no one has current stock. The battery, which is replaceable, has horrid life. So, I've now *maybe* managed to order extra batteries. I hope they aren't also bad. But I revisited the research *again*, now that it's too late, and it really does seem like there are just no credible options.

It seems that people who make bluetooth audio gear assume no one wants to both talk on the phone and listen to music.

I don't want any pushing, and I don't want any shoving.

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 17:06:20 GMT

Last Wednesday, I took the day off. After failing to get a bus to stop, I walked all 23 blocks to the Station Square subway station, then walked in a light rain from Wood St to the History Center, and did research.

When I ran out of pictures to look at, I walked out and got poured on as I caught a 54C to Oakland. Several more hours reading 1959 newspapers at the Carnegie Library, then a 54C to the South Side. Aside from my failure to bring an umbrella, not needing to drive worked out well. The next day I used a 54C to go to Geek Night (and a Zipcar at the end of the evening to go deliver someone's ebay winnings).

Friday morning I got up, and noticed something weird. So I looked harder. This (well, sans the jersey barriers, which were added around 2pm, just before this was taken) is what I saw.

By Monday night, this is what it looked like. The claim is in 2 weeks there will be something open again. I hope so. Heavy traffic plus crippled bus service in a season which is not overly bike-friendly is not much fun.

Started out in church and finished with Angelica

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:20:17 GMT

The problem with getting pressed for time is it really throws me off. I know I need some time off, but I can't take it now. Apple has publicly stated that MacOS 10.5 will be released this month, and the software I work on is going to support it when it is.

Anyway, after hearing a sermon about counting your blessings, I walked out and realized, hey, I'm not dealing well... what the heck do I do about it?

Playing board games, drinking and cooking made for a decent day. Now, if only I had time and a way to do the "bike the whole Montour Trail" this week. Instead, perhaps eichin's pointer to some truly tiny trains will provide the kick to
start building a model of the South Side.

And one more special message to go And then I'm done, and I can go home

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 03:31:06 GMT

ma3d and frskychik got married in California on Saturday, in a ceremony which was beautiful, short and simple; I got to see several friends I haven't seen in a while.

I do have to say that getting there was quite the adventure, flying through DTW is apparently less delayish than flying through MSP, and that getting off a plane, getting the rental car, going full bore north, getting changed and arriving at the ceremony just as the music was about to start was definitely in the category of "priceless".

Also, if you find yourself in Santa Rosa, East West Cafe is a great place to grab breakfast... especially on a Sunday after you've completely failed to adjust from Eastern time.

Now I'm going to have to try to learn to make a walnut basil aioli.

Some train pictures in various interesting scenery may appear eventually.

Maybe tomorrow is a lifetime away...

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:45:07 GMT

Wow.

From the Aznar/Bush conversation translation:
The Egyptians are talking to Saddam Hussein. It seems that he’s indicated that he’s willing to go into exile if they let him take 1 billion dollars with him, and all the information that he wants about the weapons of mass destruction.

I grabbed today's Post-Gazette off one of the other tables at the Beehive this morning. 42 billion dollars more for Iraq next year, or something like that.

Think 42 minus 1 is enough billion dollars to have rebuilt New Orleans? Maybe a couple bridges? Feed a couple hungry people?

This is what I get for reading news. I'll stop now.

Besides, I need to pack. ma3d is getting married on the left side of the country...

'Cause it's gone daddy gone

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:49:56 GMT

So um. I guess it's good I visited Bethlehem Steel when I did. Because a bunch of the things I saw aren't there anymore.

I got a sight in mind

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:37:04 GMT

In between other things, I've gone off to take pictures, a welcome moment of sanity in the insanity of life.

Here, the sun sets on Heppenstall Steel for nearly the final time.

Something else. In my quest for cupcakes a few nights ago, just before 8pm, I figured maybe it was worth a try to see if any of the places the Post-Gazette liked might have any. #1 and #2 were closed, but one of the tied for #3, well, of course it was open.

So I went, and I got some. Sort of a cop-out, but so it goes.

Anyway, when checking out, I encountered something odd. I was at the self-checkout closest to the doors. And it's omniscient. I pointed at the on-screen "button" I wanted to press, not touching it, and it registered anyway. I figured "must be a fluke" until it happened again. I keyed in my PIN without touching the screen either.

Just think, a touchscreen which knows what you're thinking! More seriously, though, how about one that stays free of those icky fingerprints?

The microphone explodes, shattering the molds

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 20:02:43 GMT

I guess they couldn't figure out how the shells worked.

Cause it's just you, me and this wire, alright?

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:06:30 GMT

I'm so massively deliquent in posting it's not funny.

I have actually started to go backfill shadow_concerts with short reviews of shows I've been to, though. And yesterday I visited the Frank Fairbanks Library for the second time (the first being when it was dedicated) for some research.

I really do need to find a good set of tools for putting together my South Side history project.

The sun beams down on a brand new day

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 19:35:10 GMT

In the last couple days, Kinoma Player 4 has finally learned to cope with Softick Audio Gateway, and so the Scosche Universal Bluetooth Receiver I buried in my car finally lets me stream radio via bluetooth A2DP in the car.

There's the temptation to buy new headphones but I should resist, and pay debt.

I have shuffled most of my debt to lower-interest cards. If work would finally reimburse me for the last trip, perhaps I could pay off the last high-rate debt and then call and complain about the rate on the card. I moved a small part to a 0% for a year Discover card, but I may be able to get a Costco AmEX and do more about that.

The interest rate game is a pain, but it beats spending like 10% of my monthly income on interest.... which did happen a couple times this spring.

Of course all of this means a trip to WWDC had better end with no new toys, sadly.

Your mother calls us misfits; It doesn't bother you one bit

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 15 May 2007 17:46:22 GMT

I'll be back in CA for WWDC in June. My travel is booked.

Today, I looked at the Interpol tour schedule. They play Shoreline on 6/9. I arrive on 6/9... too late.

They're playing Chicago 6/3, which I could conceivably get to, except for the "sold out" and "I'm poor" parts.

So I guess you can add this to Arcade Fire, Snow Patrol, Muse/MCR (though I had a ticket for that, and they cancelled)...

I need to find a rich benefactor who takes me to shows. Or a similarly wealthy one with better timing than me (the Chicago show was $30 before it sold out)

*edit: I speculatively bought a $30 ticket to BFD 2007 at Shoreline, and if I can't manage to change my reservation I will try to fly standby that morning or change my reservation. Of course if I change it, I will need to figure out where I can stay Friday night, and if I fly standby, I have this problem of "where does my luggage go while I am at Shoreline"...

Sigh.

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:07:20 GMT

Double Wide Grill discriminates against indecisive people.

Take me out of these walls

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:40:23 GMT

In my "spare time" I am trying to understand the history of Pittsburgh's South Side. There's a family connection to the area, so to speak, but it was also the hub of the steel industry in the city as well as interesting in various other ways.

After some initial trouble finding information I've been finding things in spurts, including:

Various pictures of note which have shown up in the Pitt Digital Library.

The South Side file in the photo archive at the Carnegie reappeared.

A friend of mine told me his photos from when he worked in the steel mill are now at Pitt's Archives Service Center, and they're going to let me come peruse it in a week or so.

Google Books actually has government reports scanned. I downloaded one and would pick up a couple more that matter, except, they're blocking it. What. The. F. It's a government document. They're not asserting copyright precluding me from seeing a digital copy of a document from 1950. Obviously you have a mechanism to allow books to be downloaded if they're in the public domain. It's a government document. Fix your metadata and let me have the damn book!

In any case, I'm learning. I wonder if someday this will be fodder to write a book, and if so, who the heck is going to read it?

Couldn't walk down that line

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:35:44 GMT

The curse of being in flyover territory. Bloc Party and Snow Patrol are both going to be touring the U.S. this month. Neither is coming close enough to be helpful and basically everything is sold out so even if I were able to take the time to go elsewhere I probably shouldn't because I'd have to get above face value tickets. I'm rather frustrated by it all.

When I'm not working I've been fighting with GIS tools. I'm trying to overlay a map of J&L Steel's Pittsburgh Works over some Pittsburgh maps; It'd be useful to do the same with the PennPilot pictures. It's been done but with tools that cost far too much for me; Probably the only answer is GRASS but it would be helpful to find a forum to talk about this sort of stuff. I guess the issue is isolation, and I feel a bit of that in other sectors of life at the moment, too.

The road is gone, there's just one way to leave here

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 22:10:06 GMT

After so many months, I have finally started cleaning off my camera. Only a few hundred pictures to sort through. Somehow fitting, I guess then, that one of the newest is of a map-photo-collage I started working on to document for my own understanding the evolution of the South Side:

From Pgh Map

(The paper to its right is a large map of the J&L Steel Pittsburgh works which was scanned by a friend who works somewhere with a large document scanner; The maps and photos you see in the shot here are from the Pitt Digital Library, mostly.)

The pavement's cold and empty

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:04:45 GMT

I had been in Virginia (Leesburg and Ashburn) for the company meeting the last few days. As I made my return I decided to test the "Sprint data roaming on Verizon" theory by going via Cumberland and Uniontown. It worked. However, I also decided to follow the railroad for a bit, and did so, going from Hancock to Paw Paw, WV the hard way. Yeah. I should in fact wash the car now.

Anyway, a sign about "entering redneck country" along the otherwise-desolate not-quite-road I used past the one occupied dwelling (it's mostly summer cottages) reminded me of the bleak view of the future presented by Children of Men, which I saw last weekend.

The music definitely fit the mood of the film, from the use of Mahler in the score to the Beatles at a point where they fit well, and Lennon during the credits. Also, as I watched, I realized something about myself, or, more notably, my beliefs.

The government was offensive, but, I took that for granted, because I'm cynical. I didn't like it and I wasn't sympathetic to them. I just expected it. The opposition, on the other hand, was everything I hate about people I am typically aligned with politically. Yes, your cause is important. Great. That doesn't make it ok to force sacrifice on people. Depending on how far you go down this path, you become no better than what you oppose. The thing is, this thing isn't representative of a majority of such people, it's just enough to be a problem. It just pisses me off. In any case, I think I need to read the book. The world represented is horrific, and the people in it seemed numb to it. I hope we never get there, and again cynically I think to some extent we *are there*.

If you're real, you got nothin to worry about

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:20:38 GMT

http://www.pvponline.com/article/3072/sun-jan-07

though, um, I don't throw scones. And it's usually a pot of tea. Mango. Hot.

But when I awaken I must be mistaken; I'm on Third Avenue

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 19:45:58 GMT

It's almost February, and so it's gotten to be time for Henny Penny to tell us the sky is falling.

At the same time I'm reading of the proposed service cuts, Toronto transit blogger Steve Munro is talking about the lost days of their Always a car in sight streetcar service and how cutting too far ruins the value of the service. If staying late to work means you can't get home, and you have a car...

If you know me at all you know I believe good transit is important, and that I'm not one who would scream about spending to get it. I lamented before that Stockholm, a metropolitan area similar to this one in terms of size and population, has a system which has in this decade operated 24 hours though it was cut back to lay off around 2am not long after that, and where it's actually possible to use it to get almost anywhere every day even during the day or late in the evening. So, I'm not going to tell you not to talk to your legislator. You should. But you should also talk to Dan Onorato. Here are my thoughts on what to ask:
-As ridership has dropped, has the Port Authority trimmed its employment roster?
--If not, has use of overtime gone down?
--And if not, have wages also continued to grow at or above inflation? (I'm not suggesting pay cuts. Employees have the right to expect to be compensated such that they can support themselves and their families. But employing the same number of people at growing wages to move fewer people isn't reasonable)
-Have routes been shifted to go where people are living and working now? (Robinson/North Fayette, Warrendale/Cranberry, North Versailles...)
-Have redundant routes been restructured or removed? (Why do 41 series buses cover the same territory as the 42S and still come into town, instead of dropping at South Hills Junction, Fallowfield or Dormont Junction?)
-The state covers a fixed portion of the Authority's operating losses. Why has the county not made an effort to either fund its portion, or find a way to lower the loss to match what it can fund? Alternately, should the county consider a quarter to a half percent sales tax, a gasoline tax, or some other similar means of funding its portion of the loss?

By all means, also talk to your representatives at the state and national levels. I don't commute by bus, because my commute consists of a walk. But I don't want to be forced to drive everywhere and I don't think you should be either.

Sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 05:21:14 GMT

Looking over at the floor, I see this, and I am reminded of earlier crankiness.

I picked up this book quite a while ago, started reading it in the car, then put it down in the trunk at some point and forgot it. When I had the unfortunate SUV incident in August and emptied the trunk before I waited on his insurance to get an estimate, it reappeared, and so I took it to Mexico with me, and read it.

The author says he will present another side to the debate, the one less heard, and asks the reader's forbearance in forming an opinion. Fair enough. He then presents an argument based on the prniciples of libertarianism, which I can appreciate, and supported by statistics gathered by people such as Wendell Cox, who I can't. If Godwin's Law says invoking Hitler ends a debate, then Brashear's Law says if you cite Wendell Cox, you can keep your garbage.

In any case, he pans the Portland plan based on managed growth, higher density and public transit, saying growth has been pushed into nearby Washington areas. There may be truth to that. It doesn't suggest growth can't be managed, necessarily; after all, government's always-expanding hand could after all, simply expand. But that's not my point, and while he does briefly address my thoughts, he quickly moves away, without even dismissing them.

The cost of pollution isn't accounted for when you buy gas, and can't be given that every vehicle will carry more, or less, with that fuel. He suggests some libertarians suggest the use of pollution credits, and then says nothing more.

The usual tripe about "just buy everyone a car, it's cheaper than transit subsidies" comes out, veiled slightly. Great. When you're too old or too young to drive, who will drive you?

Likewise, yes, driving is faster, but I can't reasonably read a book, work, or anything else while driving. I may not be able to on transit either, depending on how I commute, but it's at least possible. And if you gut your transit system to rush-only trips you force even some people who could and would reasonably use it out, if they work even slightly odd hours.

So, for freedom of choice, we are to suffer without choices. It's ok to subsidize highways, infrastructure for more homes, but man, do anything to encourage people who wish to live in a manner which is sustainable to them (remember, not everyone *can* drive) and someone will scream about the money being taken from them.

If you want to borrow the book, ask. It wasn't worth whatever I paid for it.

What can I make myself be?

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:48:16 GMT

On Saturday, I visited the Andy Warhol to see the Squonkwerks film. Quite unintentionally this opened an opportunity to see the "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race" exhibit I wanted to see (on Eugenics, with a focus on Nazi Germany). It also meant a stop for lunch at the Warhol Cafe, which is a big Burrito dig. I feel compelled to point out that Campbell's Soup is not on the menu at the Warhol, and I feel this is a wrong which must be righted.

Leaving, jumbled in my train of thought was that of Andy's life: He apparently lived at 1342 Lexington Avenue which perhaps at the time did not mean making it as big as it would no doubt today... (and as a side note I want the Starts and Fits map generator. Hm.) but also the fact that he eschewed Pittsburgh, and now his effects had come back here for people like me to wander in and reflect on, hundreds of miles and in a considerably different atmosphere than the one he'd spent much of his life in.

Anyway, day turned to evening, and I finished the day at Ceremony for the last night at the Upstage. In the midst of a packed dance floor with the Clash blaring at me for a second or three I considered my life and the city I was in and was quite happy. That turned to a thought of "but when is the next time I will be in the middle of a packed dance floor with the Clash blaring at me, in this city..." and then I just put the whole thing out of my head, and enjoyed the evening like a normal person. (Bloc Party's "Banquet" was also a nice touch even if it seemed rather out of place)

You're all no doubt tired of me saying the same thing again and again, and thinking "just leave already". I did enjoy train watching at Berea Tower followed by a nice meal at the (probably now closed) all-organic Parker's Restaurant followed by a (sadly uncrowded) 80s night in Cleveland just last week. But, well, it just ain't the same.

In the grand scheme of things, I guess it is all very simple. At the beginning of 2006 I said "may it end better than it began." Last night I ended 2006 at a party with a hundred or so friends.

It did.

It's no secret ambition bites the nails of success

shadow+lj@dementia.org — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 17:43:53 GMT

While I have a jumble of thoughts from the Mexico trip, just now I'm not thinking about it. I *am* thinking about being around, and about getting around.

On Monday I saw Kasabian at Mr Smalls. Good show, but the thing that stands out from Monday was wandering into Dave's Music Mine to pick up my ticket, and seeing Dave.

I graduated from Central Catholic in 1991 with him, and probably haven't seen him for 14 years. We chatted briefly about music retail, and I do need to get back and have a drink with him. But the week rolls on, and I have a lot to do.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go out biking for a bit. It was lightly raining most of the way, but I made the best of it. I had not previously used either the Ft Pitt or Ft Duquesne Bridges while biking, but after a discussion the other day about the work being done on the Hot Metal Bridge to finally open the bike/pedestrian span and connect it to the Eliza Furnace trail, I had these connections on my mind, so I decided to try them. Starting from the trail access at S. 18th St, I rode up to the incline and over the Ft Pitt, then Ft Duquesne Bridges, up to Millvale, and then reverse. The Ft Duquesne Bridge has hints that the sidewalk is to be ued for bikes. The Ft Pitt sidewalk is narrower and offers no such hints, plus you must use about 2 blocks of sidewalk to get from the Station Square entrance drive to the point where the bridge ramp starts. Well, I suppose as long as it's not a busy day, it won't matter. 16 miles, but it does open many more possibilities. Maybe this will address that issue, and then a 30 mile or so bike tour along the rivers should be pretty easy.

And in the process last night of getting help from my brother when I found after blowing a tire that I had no wrench, it came out that he is the engineer on site for the cleanup of the mess in Kilbuck Township. There's a job I wouldn't want.