As the political pundits and marketing people were calling it, mini-Tuesday has come and went, and now Pennsylvania is about to be thrust onto the national spotlight.  A few thoughts: first, Wyoming’s primaries were next, but as I’ve said before, the state doesn’t exist.  It’s cool to think that Pennsylvania is going to be in the national spotlight, hooray for being relevant!  I’m not looking forward to the seemingly endless campaigning, the inevitable traffic tie-ups and the barrage of ads we’ll be seeing.  And of course, I don’t get to vote (unless there is some sort of referendum or something, but as of yet, I haven’t heard anything.  Last primary I got to vote on a housing issue, but that was it), so I’ll wait until the general election.

A report came out discussing the pay of the bloggers at Gawker media.  For those that don’t know, Gawker is a network of blogs, covering tech news, celebrity news and all other sorts of stuff.  Lifehacker is one of them, and by far my favorite in the Gawker media network (too much emphasis on celebrities, but I guess people like to read that kind of stuff).  So the bloggers are paid based on how many views their articles receive (which led to some interesting situations, or really, some bloggers trying to exploit the system by stating outlandish lies to get reactions from CEOs and get media attention…as reported by Ragan).

I believe that they get $7.15 for every 1,000 views, and their benchmark is to get 650,000 views a month.  If they hit their benchmark, it works out to something like $60,000 a year, which for blogging is good money, heck, for just about anything is good money.  I don’t know how often they hit their goal or how close they get.

Oh, in fun, related news, in January, I got enough traffic at my website to almost use all of my bandwidth!  It was pretty cool actually, it died down a bit in February, but I blame that on the short month and my lack of posting due to the leader guides (they eat away at my life!).

And lastly, a story from my commute this morning.  I’m driving down past Mercy Hospital and there is a stop sign.  Now, at these signs, you stop.  As the sign says to do.  So I stop, but the lady behind me, in a rush, decides that I shouldn’t have, and she start flailing about and yelling at me.  So, being the courteous driver that I was, as we entered a few blocks of one-lane, one-way streets, I went about five miles and hour (granted, we would have had to stop anyway for the red lights, so she really didn’t lose any time).  She peeled away from me on fifth, only to have to stop due to a fire truck.  Karma is wonderful!

I had a nectarine the other day with lunch, and it was very nice!  Almost felt like summertime again!  It reminded me of when I was at Advancement Camp at Twin Echo (the second time, in 1999) and one of the kids in my patrol had never even heard of a nectarine.  Every day at lunch I would have to remind him of what it was called, but he loved them, and so do I!  The one I had was harder, and I typically like them riper, when they’re really juicy, but it was still good nonetheless.

Microsoft hired CP+B for a new (rumored) $100 million, consumer-focused ad campaign for Vista (at least I think it was Vista, it might have been more general though).  CP+B is probably my favorite ad shop, mostly because do such awesome (and creepy) stuff, and really promote themselves and their corporate culture.  CP+B are the ones who brought us The Burger King by the way.  Will this mean we’ll see some creepy or post-modernistic advertising from Microsoft, probably not, but it will still be interesting to see, and to especially watch the media buy.

Westinghouse CEO Steve Tritch is retiring.  I worked very close (in terms of proximity) to Steve when I was at Westinghouse, and I really did like working with him.  Once, he even congratulated me on doing a really good job (the remote control car race), so it’s sad for me to see him go.  Aris is taking his place and he’ll stay on as the chairman of the board, but we’ll probably see him involved in the area somehow, I don’t think he’ll be one to remain sedentary in his retirement.

Monday I had lunch outside, and it was wonderful!  It was really windy, and the sun was shining, the temperature was great and it was so nice to not be cooped up inside.  I took my lunch out to a little half wall we have in front of the building and the flag poles, and I ate as I watched the people and cars go by.  I’m thinking I’ll just stow my camp chair in the back of my car to have with me for when the weather gets nice again.

Briefly, I felt I needed to share this: at the end of Weekend Update on SNL, Seth Myers waved a terrible towel!

I hope everyone had a great leap day!  And of course, since it is now March, I celebrated with a Shamrock Shake!

Now, let’s play a game: Guess how long it took Mike to get home from work yesterday:
a) Just under two hours
b) Around 115 minutes
c) One and a half CDs, and a bunch of random songs on the radio
d) Long enough to make Mike want to stab himself in the eye over and over and over and over and over again with a rusty spork

Hehehe, yeah, that blew.

It looks as though there will be a Family Guy spin-off, "Cleveland."  Check out the news here.

So remember how excited I was about Quarterlife: it got canceled after one show.  NBC is now as bad as Fox.  It looks like it will be heading to Bravo later this year, so that is something, and thankfully Dirt starts on Sunday, but I’m still ticked, it was a good show, and what gives, only one show before pulling it!

If you get a chance, watch this video, it’s really cool.  And also, it’s not a cross-shredder, but still, this is one of the coolest paper shredders ever!

I sent my Wii out for repairs (it was sounding loud for some reason), and being under warranty, Nintendo fixed it for free.  It is coming back this week (in time for Smash Bros.!) but I went online to check the status and this is what is is technically called:
"CONSOLE ASSY WHITE RVL"
My Wii has an assy!  I don’t know what an assy is!  Maybe it’s just a small ass, or a cute ass?  New word to add to the vernacular everyone: assy.  Leave a comment with your best definition of it.

Ok, I think that’s it for now, happy March, and I’ll catch everyone later!

Finally, a new post!  Sorry about the delay, I actually had a post written about my trip to Panera, but it’s stranded on my laptop, my wireless card died, and I keep meaning to transfer it on my flash drive but keep forgetting.  Anyway, enjoy the post!

Finally, a book that I’ve been waiting for is coming out in paperback at the end of April: Legacy of the Force: Sacrifice.  I didn’t want to buy the hardback, and consequently, am now four (I think) books behind in the series.  Oh well, I didn’t think it was worth the extra money when I just filled my reading docket with other books.

Speaking of, I’m reading The Wheel of Time Book 6: Lord of Chaos right now, and crap, all kinds of crazy things are happening!  Some I was expecting due to some spoilers I read a while back, but others still caught me by surprise!  Great reading (the books are good the whole way through, but usually pick up towards the end, which I’m nearing now), although now I’m  just waiting for the inevitable killing of one of the Foresaken, as that has ended every other book in the series so far.

Very sad news today, Myron Cope died this morning, which is strange, I was just asking about him on Saturday.  I’ll hearing him when I flip past the sports news, and I can say, the few times that I watched a professional football game, it was always better when we muted the TV and turned on the radio to listen to Myron.  I would like to read his autobiography, but last time I checked it was pretty expensive, so maybe it will come down a bit in a few months.

Other Pittsburgh happenings of note: the Boulevard of the Allies is under construction, it has been for a while.  No worries, except of course for the people who didn’t realize it was going to be closed (and then got lost because they didn’t know how to get to Oakland), or my new pet peeve, the people who decided that we should only use one lane and drive right down the middle, blocking traffic.  Yes, twice now I’ve been stuck behind people who have taken it upon themselves to cause major backups, because they feel scorned.  When I get onto the Boulevard of the Allies, I’m in the left lane, and I usually get over (especially since before the construction, my exit was on the right), but now, with all the back-ups, I use the left lane as much as I can.  I’m not on a medium, I’m not on a shoulder, I’m in a lane of traffic that we’re always told to “use both lanes until the merge point.”  If I  make a mistake and get caught in the right hand lane, I’ll stay there instead of weaving in and out of traffic, but people should not mess up the entire drive home because they feel bitter.  Freakin’ drivers need smacked upside their heads sometimes (and a lesson in being courteous).

I watched a new show last night called Quarterlife, and it was excellent, but then again, it’s pretty much geared towards me as a demographic, so if I didn’t like it (aside from tastes in genre, acting, etc), something would be seriously wrong.  And I realize the irony of me talking about the show here, and I’m sure bloggers all over the net (the blogosphere if you will) are making the same comments: I’m blogging about a show whose main character tells the story through her blog.  But I honestly did like it (and I want to go back and see the web episodes), the characters were believable and I felt that I was even rooting for some of them, and I really am excited to see it again next week.

It’s moving times though, to Sunday night, which may or may not coincide with the premier of Dirt (which I think will then move to its regular Tuesday night, but I haven’t confirmed that), so we’ll see.  But if you missed Quarterlife, basically it’s about seven friends in their early to mid twenties, figuring out what to do with their careers and other things in life.  Dylan, the main character, blog about them, and they thankfully find out about in the first episode, so we don’t have to go through that drama later on, and the writers trying to keep writing the show so the characters don’t realize they’re being blogged about.  Anyway, I recommend it, check it out, hopefully it continues to be a well produced show.

My life lately has been putting together the leader guides for summer camp.  When I get them done, I’ll be sure to let you know, and give you links to them, I think they’re coming together well, and if all goes as plan, they will be 10 pages shorter than last year (I was shooting for 20 pages shorter, but that will be a goal for next year).

Robin came up to visit and help me with some PHEAA stuff, so that was nice.  I’m going to meet her this week or next at Subway to go over some more of it, but it’s always nice to see her.

I think that’s it for now, no links this time, maybe next, I have a bunch to share, I just don’t have them with me at the moment, so they will have to wait.  Have a great one!

Whoa, three posts in three days…crazy! Anyway, Not a whole lot going on, but for whatever reason, I decided to write another post today, and here we are.

Anyway, check out this video. It takes a minute or so to get into the really cool stuff, but it would be an interesting art installation nonetheless, and could be reworked into some really cool applications.

There was a story on the noon news about the T-Rex coming back to the Carnegie, and I’m really excited to go and see it. I saw the new Dinosaur Hall in January (I think it was January) and it’s really well done (and lots of other cool stuff in the museum as well, pictures coming soon I hope!), and now, there aren’t time restrictions for when you can go into the hall, so I’m hoping it will be a little less crazy (granted, when the T-Rex room is first opened, I’m sure it will be a madhouse for a while.

Also, a quick badge, because I love 10 Items or Less (also, it’s funny because I was a stock boy at G. Thanks!)

Anyway, other than that, not a whole lot going on, hope you enjoyed the link, and for now, I’m heading out. Have a great one!

Here I am, back again. Pretty crappy day here at work, all kinds of things going wrong and I’m kind of caught in the middle trying to fix them. One of the many things that went wrong I feel like I should have caught, but the others, just happened to now be my “fault.” Oh well, goes with the territory I suppose, nothing we can’t handle, and besides, it makes life a bit interesting…

Remember the plane from yesterday’s post? The one that was flying through the halls? Well, it was given to me, and it’s now my mission to repair it and fix it up. Right now, it’s sitting in my storage room, almost like a trophy (I feel special!), hopefully I’ll have some time in the near future to see what I can do with it.

Remember last week how I was commenting on how I always forget and eat meat the first Friday in Lent? Well, I broke my streak and didn’t! Now we just have to see how the rest of Lent goes…

Also…Survivor update…I think I caught a glimpse of one of the production spotlights, and also, I’m still not convinced Johnny Fairplay is legit, especially with his track record, I just can’t buy this story about his daughter. I mean, I’m glad he’s gone, but he doesn’t get to go home like he wanted, he knows that they castoffs have to stay until production wraps. Something smells fishy…CBS marketing ploy perhaps?

Also, Joel (I think that’s his name, the Firefighter) looks a lot like my buddy Matt (although much bigger), the one getting married, not my roomate.

Happy V-D Day!  (Yes, I say it every year, why do you act so shocked?)  Here’s a No More Heroes themed valentine:

I think that’s it for now, short update I know, but for now, it will have to do (I had another thought, and I just lost it). Catch everyone later!

Hey all, back to a somewhat normal post, complete with an update and links (maybe just one, we’ll see what happens).

Things are going well, aside from transportation.  The roads were horrendous on Tuesday, and the weather was bad enough to close the office early and send us home at 2:30.  Going home I didn’t have any problems, but getting to work that morning I slid three times and ended up being 15 minutes late (even though I left extra early because I knew the road would be bad).

Today on the radio (both my station and my mom’s) they said the roads were even worse.  Which is strange, I thought they were easily 100 percent better.  Bedford (the road our office is on, ok really the hill our office is on) is never plowed and was again, a mess.

And I do have to say, as tough as a job as this can be (very intense and stressful at times, and always very busy), we do have our random outbursts of fun.  Case in point, a small airplane is being flown in the building and yesterday I was mock stabbed with a fork.  Good times.

In the world of advertising and media, readers will soon have lickable advertisements.  Yes, an ad in a magazine that you can peel off and lick.  How exciting, and gross at the same time, I can’t wait!  Also, the thought of all those potential paper cuts on tongues makes me cringe!

I have more pictures to put up on my site, more from SVC games, and my trip to the museum, so they will be up soon.  I’m going to Phipps again next week (my need to be cultural exactly once a month, any more than that and it would be culture overload for me), but I probably won’t be taking too many pictures (I think 200 was enough the first time), although I’ll probably take some since I’m going with different people this time.

Speaking of Phipps, the chandelier in the main atrium is going to remain once the show leaves, which is very exciting!  It’s not my favorite piece, but it will be a nice reminder.  Next year, I’d like to go see the Christmas show that they do, and in the coming months I’m hoping to go to the Aviary and back to the museum to see the T-Rex (maybe this time we won’t sneak into Dino Hall…whoops!)

Well, I think that’s it for now, catch everyone later!

Hello everybody, and happy Chinese New Year!  Welcome in the year of the rat (which, incidentally, I was born in the year of the rat two cycles ago, I believe), and to celebrate, I went out and had Chinese for dinner. 

The Myst community is still going strong, at this point mostly fueled by extreme cautious optimism because of a comment made my Rand about Cyan running URU servers.  Will it be Until URU or MO:UL or maybe something else entirely, who knows.  This is the first we’ve all heard of it, so I’m a bit skeptical, but still cautiously optimistic.

So tomorrow if the first Friday in Lent.  Typically, every year I forget that it’s Lent (even though we just passed Ash Wednesday) and I eat meat (even though we just passed Ash Wednesday, a day where I did not eat meat).  Will the streak hold true?  I’ll keep you posted.

So I think I’m going to head up to Chill Out on Saturday, and then a group of us is going to Phipps on the 23rd, so lots of exciting things coming up over the next few weeks.

The Format broke up, in a very strange way.  I’m still trying to figure it out actually, but through a long and drawn out post to their Live Journal, and subsequently my RSS feed, I was able to determine (fairly confidently) that they broke up.  It’s a pity too, their first CD was great, and the one time I heard their second CD I was also impressed (although I think I liked the first better).  But as always, it’s sad to see a promising indie band break up.

Otherwise, not a whole lot to report on, I’m still feeling tired from having the flu, so I haven’t been doing a whole lot, but that’s ok, I probably need to take it easy for a bit.

As someone in my office said (as I’m sure was murmured countless times across the country…), happy super fat Tuesday.  Enjoy the pancakes and enjoy the exit polls, I’ll probably be skipping both.

And in good news, 18 and one!

And in more good news, the rumor is that the writers strike will be over very soon (like Friday)!

And from the good, to the bad:

Very sad news today, Myst Online: URU Live has been cancelled.  No more season two, no more Cavern, no more URU.  I sometimes think it could come back again, but after two cancellations, I really don’t see it happening, which is very sad indeed.  So much of URU has been like Firefly/Serenity, and it was wonderful to see both get a second chance, but a third is probably pushing it.

URU really is (for 60 days at least) wonderful, in a day where critics praise Mass Effect for offering something new to video games, mainly a dash of ethical decisions, it’s funny that never once in those articles are URU or the Myst series brought up, when they are packed with ethical and moral choices (pride, slavery, domination of an entire race, power, corruption), but who am I to say what game critics are right about?

URU Obsession will stick around, we never go away.  Although it will be a little strange to say the least (but then again, we’re all strange anyway).  I’m sure we’ll change and adapt, we always do, who knows, maybe we’ll branch out into other games (GRIMM and Sam&Max are up there for me, well, if I could get Sam&Max to run…), although chances are, Cyan will come up with something else for us to obsess over (and the pending release of Myst DS in the US, along with rumors of Myst Wii and Riven DS).  But of course, I’ll miss the people, seeing them in The Cavern, talking with them on my lunch break, working on promotional plans (Grassroots 2.0 is now dead in the water, sorry) and discussing the newest Ages over the Lyst (ok, so I just lurk, but I love reading every bit of it, even if I only post once in a blue moon).

And of course I’ll miss going into The Cavern, if only by myself.  I always loved sitting in the Great Zero, watching it spin.  And the new Ages Cyan gave us this time around, I loved the team-building garden Ages, and the sandbox area of Jalek (and the sandbox of Minkata), and it’s sad to think of how the Guilds will once again fall apart (if they hadn’t already, Messenger meetings made my head hurt).

We’ll still have the original cd-rom URU, but it won’t be the same, and we know that, but it can at least fill the void if we ever need it.  I’m going to try to fill out my URU Live gallery before the end (so weird to think we’re coming up on another end, that wait is always awful).

But in the spirit of Atrus, let us not forget that while this is sad and heart-wrenching (funny how something can get under your skin and bring people together to form a community), new things will come about.  I for one and excited and hopefully that we’ll finally get to see latus (I also still think that it’s some sort of GPS device, like a KI, that puts people in the game in real time, in real space), or maybe something completely different, I’d love to see what Cyan could come up with, maybe something more futuristic.

But for now, we’ll digress, we’ll discuss, we’ll mourn and we’ll stay close.  The next 60 days will be tough, going past the one year anniversary (party still going on as far as I know) and even harder as URU draws to a close.  Maybe we all sleep a little sounder knowing that we were a part of something new and amazing, something that pushed the boundaries over and over again, and ultimately, was a success, due to the content, the choices we faced, and the fans.  Enter The Growers.