Explore the Concrete Beach

As a Pens fan I am kinda of confused and happy about this. I know another player was seriously injured, but according to current NHL rules it was a legal hit as should to the head is allowed.

Honestly, after I saw the replay (which you can see below) I thought Cooke would be out for 5 games as he was suspended once before for an elbow to the head earlier in the season.

So what’s your take?

55…yes, 55 that is what the temperature is suppose to reach today. It’s about time! It’s March and so that means temps need to warm up.

I know we’ve had snow in March, April and May before, but after the disaster of a month February, :shudder: I can’t even say the name of the month without shivering. was for snow. I would like to forget last month ever happened. I need warmth, as I hate being cold. There is still snow on the ground here in Pittsburgh, but my yard only has a few patches which I hope will be go by next week. My yard gets a lot of sun so the snow melts fast, unlike my neighbors’ across the street whose yard still looks like a winter wonderland and an unnecessary reminder of last month.

March also is the beginning of the end of hockey season. I went to watch the Pens on Saturday, they won 6-3 over the Dallas Stars and then won again on Sunday 2-1 against the Bruins. At the moment the next game I will be seeing live at the Mellon Arena will be the last regular season home game at Mellon Arena on April 8th. That will be a sad day. That building is full of memories, but I can’t wait to see the Consol Energy Center.

Hope everyone enjoys the nice weather!

This weekend I went curling. If you’re asking yourself, “What’s Curling?” then you probably haven’t watched any of the Olympics in the last 17 days.

So, where in Pittsburgh can you go curling?

Well that’s they easy part! You can learn to curl at the Robert Morris Island Sports Center on Neville Island, which is home to the Pittsburgh Curling Club. It was an open house for anyone who had an interest in curling to get the basics down and find out more information.

Not RMU but this is what the rink looks like

I will start by saying this Curling is a lot of fun, harder than many people think and you’ll discover muscles that you never knew existed and they will be sore days later, but it’s extremely fun!

After saying that I will say, “HOLY CRAP that’s a lot of people.” This was my thought when I walked into the Island Sports Center. There were lines everywhere, which was really confusing because you had to buy a wristband at the front desk to actually curl for $10, which to me was cheap so no big deal there.

After you waited in line for the wristband you had to join another line to sign a waiver at the Pittsburgh Curling Club booth, luckily I all ready had one printed and filled out so I got to skip this line. The booth was right inside the front entrance causing a traffic jam for anyone walking into the place, but due to the limited area it was probably the best spot. After waiting for a few other people we got into the last line which moved slowly.

We waited in the third last line for TWO HOURS, yes TWO HOURS. Remember I arrived at 5 we didn’t leave to almost 8:30. There were some people who just gave up and left and considered their $10 a donation to RMU.

Yes, the thought raced through everyone’s mind to leave, but at the point of wanting to leave we were near the front of the line. The members of the curling club were walking up and down the line with bowls of candy trying to keep people happy and answered questions, which did help calm parts of the crowed.

Finally we were let in. What was the reason for the long wait? Well, they were only able to take about12 people at a time. There was limited room and they really didn’t expect 600 people to show up, but that’s what happened, which was great for them, but they were really overwhelmed.

Once our group was lead to the arena we were taken through a series of stretches off ice and were told basic rules and techniques of curling, then it was off to the ice to actually throw a stone and learn how to sweep.

"SWEEEEEP! HARRRRDER!" You hear that a lot!

Now this was the fun part. While on the ice we were taught how to throw the stone, which despite what you see on TV is a lot harder than it looks. The ice is different than hockey ice as it is beaded, which we learned was to make the stone curl. It also made it easier to walk and run on. After we each practice a few times throwing (Yes, I wiped out on my first try) we played an “End” which is like an inning in baseball.

Let me tell you sweeping is hard for two reasons. 1) You’re on ice and you got to keep up with the stone, which may require running and it’s a little un-nerving on ice. 2) You have to push really hard on the broom to really sweep the ice, it’s a workout and you don’t realize how far down the “house” is from the starting area (the exact name escapes me).

So, overall I have a new found respect for Curling. It is really fun, harder than it looks and probably with a little (or a lot) of practice you can become an average player and it’s great for any age. Even though it was a 2 hour wait to curl it was absolutely worth it in the end. I had a good time and will go back for another go at some point to play again. I actually signed up for more info on learn to curl session. They also have a league and mini-leagues too.

For more information on the Pittsburgh Curling Club or general questions visit their website http://www.pittsburghcurlingclub.com/

As I’ve been talking to people on Twitter and at work everyone seems to be wrapped up in the Winter Olympics and this includes myself. The Winter Olympics > The Summer Olympics any day for me. I just enjoy the winter sports more, hockey, the sledding events, skiing, speed skating, snowboarding and many others, I enjoy watching them all.

So I decided to have fun and imagine Pittsburgh would host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. First off why 2022? Well the bidding process for the 2018 games is all ready closed and only three, yes THREE countries submitted bids and none are from the US since the US Olympic Committee put everything behind the failed Chicago 2016 bid. Denver was going to submit a bid.

Little known fact: Denver was awarded the 1976 winter games but declined. Ya, I know how odd.

So let’s imagine Pittsburgh 2022 (BTW I hated this slogan from Pittsburgh 250 and found many things wrong with it and that whole 250 celebration, that’s for another day though.) the Olympic committee is on a kick with making the games “green” and affordable for cities, and it does cost a lot so let’s use as many existing areas as possible.

Here are the some venues:

Heinz Field- Opening/Closing Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies- This is a given as it’s the largest space we have in Pittsburgh to accommodate a lot of people. Extra bleachers can be added to bring up capacity to the middle 70,000 (BC Arena in Vancouver can hold 55,000).

7 Springs/Hidden Valley- Skiing events- This would be tough because of traffic, two ski resorts would have to share the wealth, and it’s an hour away. But in comparison Whistler is 2 hours away from Vancouver. Each would have to put a lot of work into creating courses suitable for international competition, but this is all pretend anyway.

Consol Energy Center – Hockey Medal Rounds/Figure Skating/ Short Track- I know why just the medal rounds for hockey, well hockey is the longest tournament in the Winter Olympics and the ice can’t have all the hockey markings for figure skating and short track. Since those two sports are held earlier in the 17 days there would be enough time to hold the medal rounds there.

RMU Island Sports Complex- Hockey/Curling – They would host the bulk of the hockey games to be played, which may also be shared with either a temporary venue or an existing ice rink. And since the Curling Club is housed there why not let them have this? It makes sense in my head at least.

David L. Lawrence Convention Center – Speed Skating- I know your thinking “how?” Well it has a ton of floor space so why not build a temporary speed skating rink on the site? If now a new venue would have to be constructed because typically these venues have to exist 2-3 years before the games begins. But it’s reusing what we have, I also thought about PNC Park, but the whole outdoor thing here wouldn’t work.

New Sledding/Ski jumping venue- This would have to be constructed somewhere and it would be permanent. It most likely would go out in the Laurel Mountains to keep all of the “snow” events out there.  

The Athletes Village- While I have no location in mind to put it I do know these apartments would be great affordable housing after the games were over. Well that’s the plan at least.

Olympic Cauldron- This one has me torn. I though well a cauldron above the fountain at the point would make sense. I also keep thinking the top of Mount Washington makes sense too as it can be seen anywhere in the city, but the Point just makes sense so I leave it up to debate as it doesn’t matter it’s not real.

There are other things I thought of, like an outdoor winter village where guests can play in the snow ride down ice slides, watch concerts etc…

In the end though Pittsburgh can’t even clear snow off of streets so the Winter Olympics are far out of reach, but its fun to dream and imagine the possibilities. The games would cost too much and there is all ready enough political red tape on the City, County and State levels that would need to make improvements to roads and transportation needed to host the game impossible.

It’s fun to dream.

I don’t know why I am amazed at this, but Heinz unvailed a new type of ketchup packet today that I find genious. It’s called the “Dip & Squeeze” and I feel dumb for not thinking of this.

Let’s take a look:

Pretty niffty if you ask me. You can peel back the label and dip your fries this is kinda nice if you are eating in the back of the car.

or you can tear off the top and squeeze out the ketchup

The best part is each packet hold up to 3X more ketchup! That’s what makes me excited since I use at least 10 packets for fries.

You can read more about this new ketchup packet and another new product called Simply Heinz, which is made with sugar at Heinz’s website by clicking HERE. This will open a new window.

Here’s so generic footage Heinz released from Business Wire:

Heinz Dip & Squeeze Ketchup Packet

So what do you think of this new ketchup packet?

Today, I do not care about an animal seeing its shadow; I care about what’s inside a smoke monster or more specifically what it is as today is the beginning of the end of one of my favorite TV shows, LOST!

On Twitter people are quoting lines from an awful Bill Murray movie and think they are being wacky and funny, but it’s a little annoying and just needs to stop, because no one cares that much and is Bill Murray even relevant anymore?

Didn’t think so?

So, previously on LOST we saw Juliet pound the hydrogen bomb with a rock and we got a white screen left to wonder, if the plan worked. Did the hydrogen bomb reset the timeline for our castaways returning them to their rightful place in time? Did the bomb not explode? Or did something else entirely happen? Well if you saw the first 4 minutes that were “leaked” (BTW folks ABC totally leaked that for you) you kind of know the answer to this.

The first hour was premiered in Hawaii the other day and based on the Tweets from the premiere the first hour sounds like it’s going to be a blast. There are spoilers out there for the first hour, but I refuse to read them though an annoying co-worker keeps going around saying “I know what happens on LOST tonight. Do you want to know?” I now know that co-worker has the mind of a 7 year-old, a really dumb 7 year-old with no social skills.

Anywho, I know not all of the questions won’t be answered for me in this final season, but here are a few questions I want answered by the end of the season:

1)      What the hell do the numbers mean? I mean they constantly use these numbers, so it has to have some meaning right?

2)      Who or what is the Smoke Monster? Is it another form of the man in black, can’t be because that’s the fake Locke, right? Is it another form of Jacob? Please tell me what it is

3)      Who were the Adam and Eve Skeletons? Were they someone the castaways knew?

4)      I know everyone hated Nikki and Pablo, I sure did, but if the timeline was reset I would like to know what happened to them. Because if it was reset did all the people that died really die? Charlie, Doc Artz, Boone (who was confirmed to be coming back)?

5)      Richard Alpert? Who is he, and what is part in the island mythology?

If those 5 questions are answered then I will be happy with this season. I’ll let the rest of the unknown answers surprise me.

If you are a true LOST fan then I know you probably read Doc Jensen and his ramblings on EW.com. If not Doc and Dan Snierson premiere their first episode of “Totally Lost” today, you can click HERE to view.

So what questions do you want answered in this finale season of LOST? Let everyone know in the comments section.

            The U.S. has some odd rules in its history and some states do too. We’ve probably all have read on of those “crazy, but true law” books, read them online or had someone tell us on and responded, “that’s not true,” to just be proven wrong. The best example I can think of is in the state of New Jersey you cannot pump your own gas, which to everyone around here in Western Pennsylvania can’t wrap their minds around that, maybe because it seems lazy to us, but it’s true, you can’t pump your own gas in New Jersey.

            Well the U.S. seems to have problems revising some laws as a 1938 law is preventing one of the best candies from being sold in the U.S. That candy is the Kinder Egg.

            The Kinder Egg, also known as Kinder Surprise, originated in Germany. It’s a chocolate that hides a capsule inside that contains a toy, usually one that needs assembled. Think of it as a Cadbury Crème egg with a plastic mini-egg inside instead of cream. They are delicious and fun. People collect the toys that remind me of old McDonald’s happy meal toys sometimes.

            So why is this little piece of heaven not available in the U.S.? Well the 1930 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic act prohibits placing anything “non-nutritive items in confections.” Sad, but true, thank you 1938. It’s not like they haven’t been sold in the U.S. before though. Import shops use to carry them until 1997 when the Consumer Product Safety Commission deemed them unsafe for small parts that little kids may chock one. Mind you Kinder Eggs came out in the 1970s and it took over 20 years for them to be completely banned.

           Nestle had  a product called the Nestle Magic, it was very similar to the Kinder Egg, except it was completely round in shape. It was covered with a thin layer of milk chocolate and had the plastic ball underneath, which contained a figure form one of Disney’s many animated films.

         Due to the 1997 Consumer Product Safety Commissions recall they were quickly pulled, which was unfortunate because they were a really great idea. In 2000 Nestle revived the Magic as the Nestle Wonderball, same concept but install of a plastic ball with a figure, it was hollowed chocolate ball with Disney characters in candy form, think SweetTarts flavor meets Flintstone Vitamins shapes that came with a collectible sticker. Not as cool as the collectable character.

            You can find some of the Nestle Magic toys on Ebay. If you search, it was so short lived they are pretty collectable. You can sometimes find a Kinder Egg in the U.S., but the store might not know, or the may, that it’s illegal to sell them. The closest place you can find Kinder Eggs is Canada. It’s sad you can’t find them here. Don’t get all, “well kids can choke on the toys” on me. Use common sense and don’t by little kids these and let them put tiny things in their mouths. Just like don’t stick marbles up your nose, gold star to whoever gets that reference.

         Has anyone ever had a Kinder Egg, or remember the Nestle Magic? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Sometimes I get fascinated with a concept I become borderline obsessed with it then my ADD kicks in and I move on to something else. I’m like a little kid who can be distracted by shiny objects at times, but then 6 months to a year later I pick up on it again. I use to do this with video games. I would play one game for months no matter how many times I would beat the game then I would get so bored with it I would just toss it aside and be all, “This game is so boring. Why am I even playing it?” Though it did entertain me for a good long while, I was really over it.

I wouldn’t call it a habit, but it still happens today. I will be so involved in a game, project or something around the house (like remodeling my bedroom) then I will just stop, I want to continue but for some reason I just can’t. I do this when I blog. I have so many ideas written down on what to write about and when I got to write, I say to myself, “I’ll write this tomorrow.” Then I never do. I get distracted with other minor things and then it just sounds like making excuses for not writing, but I just can’t. It’s hard to describe. I get everything ready from pictures or a YouTube video and then when I go to write the post that I have been formulating in my head from hour to days it’s like my mind let’s out a giant brain fart and poof their goes the desire to write and post.

Yet, when I am at work I want to write and post things. I find articles and other things I share on Twitter and people will respond to them and I feel like I should expand on my Twitter comment later when I get home so I can pull the images and videos I need since my job pretends to like communication and sharing thoughts and ideas, yet blocks the tools to do so, and then I just don’t do it. I don’t know what prevents me from doing so something just clicks in my brain and is all like, “Nope you’re not going to do it, go play Mega Man 3 on the Wii, Dr. Wily awaits. Look at the flashy screen the fast moving colors…what was I going to do again oh yeah Mega Man 3?” Evil laugh from my brain :Mwahahaha: because it clearly won again.

There are so many videos I want to make and projects I want to do but I don’t know what’s preventing me from accomplishing these things. I start working on them then poof. This happens when I have to do things like update my resume because it hasn’t been done in months. I think I look awful on paper, but I tend to way tougher on myself then other people are to me. This probably sounds awful, but I laugh at my resume, not because I think it’s bad but how random it is.

I have a B.A in Journalism only because my concentration was Advertising and PR, and I never claim to be a journalist and find most people that are “journalists” annoying and out of touch with the people they write for. I have an MBA in Sports, Arts and Entertainment Management. My work experience includes a long stint at an amusement park, then a radio station, retail and the banking industry. The plus side to all of this is I know a lot of random crap. It has its positives and negatives to knowing randomness.

I feel it’s better to know a lot of random things then just one thing. Because no one really cares if you can find a dangling participle, it’s something you don’t brag about, yet I know some people who are grammar Nazi’s and it drives me nuts. Instead of enjoying a funny story or column you get, “Well their comma usage is atrocious and their sentence structure isn’t perfect.” At that point I just sigh and say never mind, thanks for being a writing douche. I feel people write to share and if a person can’t lighten up and if the only thing a person can do while reading is criticize how something is written or if a comma is out of place, well then they got some issues. The funny part is the people who think they are the kings and queens of grammar can’t take the criticism when they make a mistake and I usually find their writing boring.

Well how was that for random post? There’s  probably two posts in this, but I don’t care. It’s what I was thinking and that’s what part of this blog is about.

If you watched the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien one of his first guests was Tom Hanks, who personally, I haven’t enjoyed in a movie since Big, but I find him funny in interviews like the one he had with O’Brien which he start calling Conan “CoCo” the audience loved it and people have called him CoCo since then.

In this “late night” TV ward where ever NBC show is hitting the Network hard with jokes about them (look at the SNL promos this week) it’s time to take sides. As you can tell by the title of this blog you know where I stand.

As a fan of late night comedy TV, I’ve enjoyed Conan since he took over the Tonight Show, sure some things fall flat, but it takes time to develope a show, look how long it took him to become popular on Late Night. So today I choose to side with Conan and really hope they fire Leno, because he’s not amusing, but still better than Letterman.

SirMikeOfMitchell.com has this image to download for your blog or Twitter. Clicking the picture will take you there.

Tonight begins the 9^th season of American Idol and probably the first season with a drastic change. I know they added a 4^th judge last year, but to me that is not as drastic as the loss of an original judge, Paula Abdul, the addition of comedian/talk show host Ellen Degeneres and the announcement this will be Simon Cowell leaving the Idol judging panel after this season to bring his British hi ‘The X Factor’ to America in 2011.

Good move for Simon, but I don’t think it’s the end of Idol.

Not yet at least.

Being a fan of the show since the beginning I can point to the bad, Wild Card Rounds, Katharine McPhee V.S. Taylor Hicks, Ryan Seascrest’s frosted tipped hair in season 2 and the good, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Adam Lambert (yes, his CD is really good), Melinda Doolittle, and if you can’t tell there has been a lot more good than bad in the past 8 seasons.

So, why won’t idol just go away after Simon leaves? The show pulls in 20+ million viewers an episode, and is a cash cow for Fox. It’s not going anywhere until something beats it in the rating and beats them badly. Secondly, the show is not about the judges for me. I tend to disagree with them a lot, they have been known to push certain people that are considered marketable, and they are not what the shows about. The show is about singing and I think many Americans forget that quite often, look at the Sanjaya fiasco in season 6, it was funny for a moment then it got old fast and yes better singers went before the screech fest that was Sanjaya was sent packing.

I hope Ellen actually judges. I know she was brought in to be the “nice” judge, but based on her appearance this summer on ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ I don’t have high hopes, but I will give her credit she can be entertaining, I hope her Idol judging seat doesn’t turn into an HBO Comedy Special like on ‘Dance.’

If there was one judge I would like to see go it would be Randy, who hasn’t had an original quote or though since season 2. I’m sick of hearing “you can sing the telephone book dog, but…” It’s old and over like his career. Randy in season 9 could you please be original and to Kara, please don’t ever write or co-write the winners song ever again.

Tonight starts with the Boston Audition round with guest judge Victoria Beckham. Should be interesting, but these audition rounds have lost their luster; let’s see if the producers can make them interesting again. They tend to follow people who make it past this round and tell their whole story during Hollywood week and then they don’t make top 24 and the audience is like ‘Why did you spend 6 weeks telling us their story?” Let’s find out about the contestants who actually make the show than ones that came close.

So another season begins tonight. I’ll be watching, but will you?