I’ve mentioned before on here about my involvement with National Novel Writing Month.  One of the cool things about it, is how writers across Pittsburgh get together for write-ins.  These, along with our kick-off and Thank God It’s Over parties are put together by our Municipal Liaison, Jenn.

She has an awesome blog which I wanted to spotlight, called 101 Achievements.  The idea is her and her husband working on accomplishing 101 different tasks, many of which revolve around cultural and food events in Pittsburgh.  Be sure to check out, and you can track their progress by seeing which achievements have been linked on the sidebar.

My favorite achievement they’ve done?  Number 86: Celebrate something imaginary in a nice restaurant.  They get tons of points for the props they used:

Michael Andres

This is Michael Andres, missing since Thursday night from his home in Beaver.

I worked with his brother, Alex, who Michael lives with.  Police have not had any luck finding him in Beaver or any of the surrounding areas.

Come on Pittsburgh, don’t fail me now.

Description: White male, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 215 pounds, dark hair. Last seen wearing a green military parka, blue shorts and athletic shoes.

If seen: Contact Beaver police on (724) 775-1550.

Nerve is reporting on a new “study” by FourSquare about the rudest cities, and Pittsburgh comes in forth.  I put study in quotation marks because it is not clear how this was measured:

So really it reads more like a list of the cities with the most expletive-worthy locations — positive, negative or otherwise.

Well, at least we’re not $&#@ing Manchester.

Dan Shaughnessy from Sports Illustrated wrote an article, complaining about Pittsburgh being the host city for the 2011 Winter Classic.  Deadspin is all over it, make sure to read the whole thing:

It’s not that Pittsburgh is not a metropolis WE associate with hockey. It’s that Pittsburgh is not a metropolis YOU associate with hockey. Because you are from Boston, and Boston is the metropolis people from Boston associate with fucking EVERYTHING.

May I suggest that you follow the Pittsburgh Zoo on Twitter:

This also allowed me to use the “Charlie Sheen” tag.  I feel fulfilled.

What you’re looking at is the screen that greets the user when you open up iBurgh.  I’ve tried to use it before, but without success, however this morning, I successfully submitted unsafe sidewalk conditions.

It’s an extension of the city’s 311 service,  I’ve called that before to report a nasty pothole, and to their credit, a few days later, it was taken care of, so I’m hoping this has the same affect, although with the coming snow, I’m not sure.

Like I said, I’ve tried to use this app once before, but it seems to take the GPS a long while to find itself, so I hope that in a future release that gets worked out, or better yet, users are able to add pictures from their album.  Right now, you have to take a live picture and then upload it, or lose the picture.  That could potentially be unsafe.

The developer, YinzCam, also has apps for Heinz Field (you have to be inside to use it on game day) and the Penguins (news, videos and extra cameras if you’re inside the Consol Center).  They do really awesome work, make sure to check them out in the Android Marketplace or the iTunes App Store.

And I love it!

Whoever is in their social media department deserves a raise:

See the rest of the series here and my post about their awesome Twitter feed here.

Sadly, it looks like someone in a legal department had a hissy fit.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

The new manager (at least I think she’s a manger) working here tonight is really, really loud.  She’s at the far end and I can hear her around the corner and through my headphones.  Also, four of the five of you wearing jerseys are wearing 43, and that’s pretty awesome!

I wrote a few weeks ago about the awesome Pittsburgh app creator that made iBurgh, which has helped make my commute safer.  Today, I’d like to highlight an app creator that has added a cool fun way for businesses to interact with customers.

Levlr is based in East Liberty and crated the Levlr platform, which allows brands to interact with their customers and fans.  Their highlight application is Beerby (rhymes with Near by), and allows users to track and find beer.

Bars and restaurants are able to put their beers lists in the system (or patrons can add drinks and tag their locations as they drink), and players log their drinks and earn achievements, known as Badgers.

I’ve linked up with a couple friends, and it’s an easy way to discover new craft and micro brews by seeing what they’ve recently drank. I”m not going to lie, it’s always a fun rush to see your name at the top of the list of a beer.  I don’t have an xBox, so these are the only Achievements I can really work on!

The folks at Levlr are also really awesome, always adding special new Badgers, setting up meet ups around Pittsburgh and being amazing advocates for breweries large and small.

Beerby is available for both iPhone and Android, and the Levlr platform is in testing, but if you’d like your company to get involved with it, make sure to check it out!

A friend of mine put together this video (hopefully it will embed correctly) about the film tax credit.  It comes down to the fact that if the tax credit is not in the budget, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh specifically, is going to lose out on a lot of jobs and revenue.  Christopher Nolan has already been spotted downtown scouting out locations for the third Batman movie, but he’s gone on record saying that he won’t be able to film in Pittsburgh without the tax credit.

Please call the Governor and let him know that you support the tax credit.  Pittsburgh needs a hero.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcXZa41UysE[/youtube]