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.

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]

You smell like a wet dog.

Not that that really matters, you’ll be covered in a blanket of snow tomorrow morning.

Still working on getting mobile uploading working, I’ve been posting a lot, but nothing is showing up, more soon.

With the Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations kicking off this weekend (I have to pull out my big hat), a few items that I’ve recently learned about Pittsburgh drinkers.

First, when you go to a bar and practically empty your pockets/purse onto the bar, that’s a Pittsburgh thing.  And I”m very guilty of this, I almost always have my wallet and cell phone on the bar in front of me, and typically leave them there (even if I go to the bathroom).

Also another dead giveaway that you’re from Pittsburgh: leaving a $20 bill (or some other denomination) on the bar and expecting the bartender to make change from it (and you’ll presumably pull out tips as well) as you order more rounds.

Both of the above items have tipped off bartenders in other cities that the people telling me these stories (bartenders themselves) were from Pittsburgh.  Thankfully, some people are kind enough that if they see you drop dow na $20 bill for a bottle of [insert your favorite beer here], they’ll make some comment about you being a Yinzer and then make change accordingly.  Asshats will take the entire $20 as payment and tip.

Be safe out there this weekend, enjoy the drinking!

The offical site of the Penguins (and Pensblog and That’s Church) is reporting that Sid is back on the ice, skating for about 15 minutes in full gear.

Great news to hear,hopefully he’ll be back on the ice for games sooner than I thought.

Check out the full story and video here.

Coming up later this week, I’m heading to East Liberty for a special preview of Quantum Theatre’s latest production, “Maria de Buenos Aires.”

Quantum has been gracious enough to once again reach out to local bloggers and invite them to a preview of their 2010-2011 season which features their neighborhood initiative.  I’m looking forward to it, and think I’ll be taking a few trips on the East Busway to do it this time, so I’m sure that will provide an entertaining post as well.

Check back later this week for (hopefully) some pictures and a write up of the East Liberty YMCA and Quantum’s latest production.

So apparantly there’s some basketball tournament going on…or something.

May I instead call your attention to an annual tradition of 96.1, the Freak Show Bracket.

Once again, it is broken out, not by conference, but by counties.  And I have to say, down in the Fayette County Division, I don’t see the City of Uniontown doing all that well.  This year also features contendors such as Charlie Sheen (you knew it was coming), Angry Brids, Ambassador Rooney, Geno’s Parents, Samoas, Julie Bologna and Brett Johnson’s Left Hook.

View the whole thing and vote in the first round here.