Swine Flu appears to be Tempest in a Teapot

No surprise there.  Now if only the Anthropogenic Global Warming meme would die too!

Shorts, legs, and the white tube socks

I became an engineer.  I say this because it’s:

 

1)  The opening line to John Hersey’s book, A Single Pebble

 

2)  Background to this post.

 

Obviously, fashion is not going to be my strong point, although I am getting better thanks to the internet and to the fact that I married an intelligent woman!

 

However, I’m struggling with this post by Joanna Van Vleck of Trunk Club – and if you haven’t checked them out, do so!  It’s a way to buy clothes for guys that doesn’t involve suffering through being in a store and having no idea what you’re doing, being waited on by a minimum wage paid girl that could care less.

 

Joanna says that white tub socks are a no no at the gym – even if you “scrunch” them down.  Okay – but I’ve always worn them at the gym.  Egad!  And worse, she says that ankle socks are what you should wear!  This disturbs me on two levels:

 

A)  When I think ankle socks, I think of the ones girls wear with the little balls on the back,

 

And

 

B)  Gadzooks!!  White hairy male legs!  Yikes!  Pollution!

 

She doesn’t however, address whether they’re okay under jeans with sneakers (tennies, to us Pittsburghers).

 

So what do you think?  White tube socks okay or not?  When?

What I’m Reading – The Tides of War

So right now I’m reading Tides of War by Stephen Pressfield.  It’s about Alcibiades in the Peloponnesian War.  Pressfield is a damn difficult writer to read, but I imagine he’s easier than Thucydides, the author of The History of the Peloponnesian War, from which Pressfield gets much of the story.  The History has been recommended by many strategists and politicians and bloggers about the same, such as Ryan Holiday.  Supposedly Rumsfield was a big fan and that was part of what led to the Iraq invasion in 2003. Opinions differ on whether the USA is represented by Athens or Sparta (Sparta being located in the Peloponnesian peninsula, and thus the name).

I’m only part way into it, but I will note that he takes a charismatic but flawed leader and runs through his rise and fall.  Conn Iggulden does this with Julius Caesar and Genghis Khan in what I have to say is a much more readable fashion.  Pressfield wrote a book called The Hot Gates about the battle of Thermopylae – this was before the Movie “300″ – and it was a struggle to get through it even though the subject itself is fascinating.  I mean, three hundred and something pages for one battle?  So he fills it with training and childhood and all that character development stuff.  It’s told from the point of view of a Spartan slave who survives the battle.  And it’s said he writes awesome battle scenes but I think Bernard Cornwell blows Pressfield away here.

This book is told by Polemides, a fictional character made up by Pressfield that was a good friend of Alcibiades but also his assassin, in the end.  There’s a whole lot more to the story but seeing as how I’m only a third of the way through it I’ll leave it to later to talk more about it.

I’ll say this – it’s a shame we didn’t read the classics in school.  I’ve been reading Aurelius and Herodotus and Thucydides and even a better version of Homer these last few years and these guys are good.  I’d rather read these than Wuthering Heights or Great Expectations.  But who knows, at this rate I may end up enjoying Shakespeare too…

John C. Wright has the election money quote!

John C. Wright:

“The American dream is no longer to own land, build a house, raise a family, start a trade, to stand or fall by one’s own gumption and effort, with no leave asked of any man. The new American dream is to be given free health care, and to police the language to censor occurrences of the word ‘niggardly.’”

Source: http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/007350.html

Scenes from a coffee shop

Most days, if possible, I leave the cubicle and go to Caribou Coffee at lunchtime, to get a break from staring at the same three walls.  Usually I take a book and my Moleskine journal with me, so I can write and pretend I’m not a corporate flunkie for awhile.  The women who work there know me by site and we’ve gotten to the point where I can just order “the usual,” an iced chai latte since I’m not much of a coffee drinker.

 

I usually sit at one of the high tables right by the window.  Today was gray, a typical Fall day in Pittsburgh.  But across the strip mall parking lot, the railroad tracks, and beyond the new condo development is the Allegheny River – regretfully out of sight, and on the other side of the river the trees on the hills are a riot of color, in yellows, browns, and reds.  The occasional green marks a tree that didn’t get the memo that winter is coming.

 

Inside Caribou is all greens and browns, with a big stone fireplace.  It reminds me of a hunting lodge, or at least the one I’m used to.  They even have a carpet, which is more than Starbucks can say.  Along with free wireless that doesn’t require a card or a subscription.  The tea is even more flavorful.  There’s none near where I live though, so the only time I’m here is when I work.

 

There are regulars there every day, and though I don’t know any of them personally, I recognize them immediately.  First there’s the guy with long red hair and a sparse goatee.  He wears glasses, a ballcap, and most days camo pants.  Oh, and tennis shoes (sneakers for all of you not from Pittsburgh).  I think he’s dating one of the girls, but I’m not sure.  He sits in one of the armchairs with a Macbook that has some kind of label on it – his name? A music group?

 

The second is a tall girl, athletic, I’d bet based on the fact that she wears Nike shirts a lot.  She always wears those shorts that come just past the knee, and tennis shoes.  Her hair is a light brown.  She uses a PC instead of a Mac and is always studying a huge stack of books.  I’ve no idea what the subject matter is, but I’d be willing to bet it’s medical-related since there’s a hospital nearby and a lot of the nurses come in here.

 

The last regular is a big long haired guy with dark stubble to match his black clothes.  He too seems quite familiar with the staff and I sometimes wonder if he is a manager or something, although I have no evidence for this.  He brings a leather binder every day that has a folded copy of the newspaper – folded so that the crossword puzzle is showing.  He usually brings his lunch with him and eats it there.  Sandwiches always; Subway usually.

 

I see these people every day and notice when they aren’t there.

 

It makes me wonder, what do they think of me?  Do they notice when I’m not there?

Scott

The Sorry State of Pittsburgh’s Public Transit

Nineshift is an interesting blog that touches on future developments in work, life, and education.  Right now they are doing a series on post-petroleum transportation and link to an article by Neil Peirce in the Seattle Times on light rail developments in various US cities.  For example, check out the Purple Line being considered in DC:

 

 

So, let’s talk about Pittsburgh.  We just spent millions of dollars on light rail…to build a tunnel UNDER the Allegheny River to the stadiums.  Yeah, that’ll help commuters.  Whatever happened to the East Hills?  Or for that matter, the North Hills?  That’s right, we have buses…except that the number of routes have been cut, and money is being spent on expensive trips and gifts.

 

Maglev seems to have died a slow death, and there’s still no replacement.  So a two million plus population metropolitan area has few light rail options and nothing is in sight but vaporware.  But hey, we got a spur linking us to our shiny new stadiums!

 

And let’s talk about Route 28 a moment, shall we?

 

In his book Citizen Soldiers, Stephen Ambrose tells how in the beginning of America’s involvement in World War II they laid 200 miles of road in two months – roads, mind you, that had to bear the weight of Tanks!  The M4 Sherman, mind you, weight 30 TONS!

 

Now, it takes Penndot 2 YEARS to pave six miles of road on Route 28?  And Route 22?  And we won’t even mention the fact that they’ve managed to tie up most of the main arteries in and out of the city this summer – yeah, that’s visitor friendly…

 

Well, I guess that’s what happens when you go with the lowest bidders.  Anybody have any ideas on how PernnDOT could improve within the scope of their budget?

 

Scott

Partying with the Maniacs

 

 

Last Thursday night my wife, a friend of mine, and I all went to a launch party for Maniac Magazine’s annual fashion issue.  It was hosted at Eleven, a new restaurant in the Strip District.  The Strip is just east of Pittsburgh on the banks of the Allegheny River and despite it’s name has nothing to do with exotic dancers, despite what many of my company’s customers think.

 

Eleven was quite impressive and is definitely an upscale place.  It has two stories and for this night the VIP section for the party was on the top floor.  Our friend Viviana escorted us up to our own table, complete with gift bag and bottles of Absolut Vodka and Glaceau vitamin water.  There were also small cupcakes.  I’ve never been VIP before so I have to say we enjoyed it.  The view, towards the river, was beautiful and the weather was just right.

 

We didn’t eat there, although I’m told the entrees are quite good.  The appetizers certainly were; we tried mushroom pot stickers, mini-BLTs, and ricotta cheese bites.  I’m sure there are fancier names for them, but I’m not that upper class!  There was also an ice sculpture by Richard Bubin, and the man himself was drinking out of a lighted ice beer mug.  Mini of Pittsburgh’s  Bill Schmitt was there as well and the guests were able to have their pictures taken in front of the Mini Cooper banner.

 

The lovely blonde on their cover (see above) this month is Summer Wise.  She runs an internet business called Trendy Trousseau selling fashion items.  My wife introduced her to my friend and I early in the night, and then later had her picture taken with her.  My gorgeous brunette and a beautiful blonde – I’m looking forward to seeing that picture in the magazine!

 

The Maniac girls were there – April Hubal and Emily Geyman.  We also met some of the interns, including Whitney Meyer, Ashley Attisano, and Jackie Spyra.  Other members of the staff were there too.

 

The place was pretty crowded by 10:00 and it looked like quite a few people were enjoying themselves and the special Maniac martinis.  They also were flipping through free issues of the magazine, which features an interview with Jesse McCartney, a photoshoot of the B-94 morning crew, and an article on the House of Diehl as well as their usual columns and great coverage of Pittsburgh’s growing social scene.  Of particular interest to me was an article on the branding campaign for X Shadyside, a gym that always has eye-catching ads.

 

This was my friend’s first time at a Maniac event and he thoroughly enjoyed it, rubbing elbows with models and photographers and writers and various others.  We’re looking forward to their next issue!

 

Scott

This is why…

I’m not running an apology for not updating.  I was just wrong:

“Don’t forget to update.

It’s not that odd guilt that you might have for not posting anything. But, if you care at all about your audience, you have to post something that they’ll find interesting.”

Ouch.  More here.

My First Meme – Big Read

Gacked from Ravings of a VA…

I have some quibbles with the list – HP? Pullman??  No Hemingway!!!???  I’ve read other books by authors – do they count?  And finally, what about the ones I read and would love to get the time I wasted back?  Anyway…

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed. Well let’s see.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Put an asterisk next to the books you’d rather shove hot pokers in your eyes than read
5) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 and force books upon them

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen 
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling *********************************
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman ************************************
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller *
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare 
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34. Emma – Jane Austen
35. Persuasion – Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41. Animal Farm – George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown *********************
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50. Atonement – Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52. Dune – Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72. Dracula – Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses – James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal – Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession – AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom *
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94. Watership Down – Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Gen Y vs. Gen X

I like to think of myself as being pretty up to date with technology, but something happened the other day that showed me I’m getting old.

I was in the bathroom at work- a fairly conservative engineering firm – and I was done with my business and washing my hands, when I heard beeping and booping and music from the the stalls.  Then I heard the sound of a laser firing and a hit being made.

Okay, I admit that a lot of guys take newspapers and magazines to the bathroom.  Personally, I don’t get it because I don’t enjoy sitting there with my pants down and smelling the, uh, smells.  But whatever.

I gotta say, though, this is the first time I’ve heard anyone take a videogame into the bathroom instead!

Am I just getting old? Or is this pretty normal?

Scott