Explore the Concrete Beach

Yesterday was my hooding ceremony for my Masters Degree, woo! So things should start moving along here a lot better. It was an early morning as the ceremony started at 9AM and I had to be there by 8AM.

This is why:

Yep, water. Today I was volunteered for the Pittsburgh Marathon. I was at a water station in front of the Rivers Casino on the North Shore with a few people I’ve met on Twitter. After all these cups were filled with water and stacked two tiers high there was more water in the form of rain. Yep right as the first set of wheeled racers zipped by it started raining then as the day went on it went from pouring to a slow rain to pouring down again.

The runners didn’t seem to mind, a lot of them looked to be enjoying it. I could never do a marathon, or the half, maybe if I walked it…maybe.

I did get to see a lot of people I know so congratulations to them for finishing their race despite a bomb scare near the finish line. It was a good time and thanks to the location, I got to play some slots afterward.

             It’s a sad, yet happy day in the City of Pittsburgh. Today is the last regular season game in the History of the 48 year-old Mellon Arena. Trust me when I say their will be some misty eyes and man tears tonight as the city says farewell to the oldest arena in the NHL. (more…)

Finally a concert people are going nuts about before tickets are even available.

Lady Gaga will take the stage on the new Consol Energy Center September 5, for her Monster Ball tour.

Honestly, I think I might buy tickets, because I just like a spectecal and it’s at the new arena. Though I know it won’t be the first concert, but it will totally overshadow whomever performs their first.

As more information becomes available I will post it here. Ew.com is reporting tickets go onsale this Friday March 19th for all dates, but still waiting for confirmation.

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.

Another cold Monday here in Pittsburgh.

All the news stations were doing live reports from the airport covering the Steelers trip to Tampa. A note to news reporters, it’s just Tampa not Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is a body of water. I don’t think you want to say “they will be landing in Tampa Bay….” I don’t think the team would appreciate that.

Tomorrow is media day so every TV show will have someone there. I usually watch Jay Leno because he sends out someone all the time and it’s usually entertaining.

I can’t wait for the game on Sunday. Let’s hope it’s a Steelers win!

This weekend I worked at the mall.

It was OK I sold a lot, but there were a few returns from odd places. Like a store in Las Vegas. Did you know Las Vegas has a 7.75% sales tax? Does Las Vegas really need a sales tax? Between Vegas and Reno doesn’t that make enough for the whole state?

Any way the girl who brought back these Versace’s was like Oh I bought these in Vegas 2 days ago and I just wanted to return them. This to me says, “I wanted to have fancy glasses while out in Vegas but since I’m back in Pittsburgh I can stop pretending to be fancy and I’m returning these because I’m just cheap.”

Seriously it gets annoying when people buy sunglasses for vacations and return them a week later. It makes you look cheap. When you stop by and say “I need a pair of sunglasses” and we spend a good amount of time helping you find the right pair and you come back a week later because you really just wanted them for a week, you didn’t need them if you’re returning them.

Plus people don’t realize when that happens we lose money. When sunglasses are returned what ever commission we made off of them originally comes out of our next check. Its one thing if you tired them out and you didn’t like them, or there was a problem with them, or something broke on them. Hey no problem, but it’s when you specifically bought them to just return them a week or a few days later because you wanted nice sunglasses for that amount of time. It’s really taking advantage of a company’s policy.

Whew! Sorry for the tangent.

Sunday, I sat home and read my chapters for class then went to my sisters and got a shock when I opened the garage door to see snow covering everything. Seriously it wasn’t supposed to snow this bad. Pittsburgh weather people suck for not being able to predict this stuff. Today when I look outside my office window I see that that river is frozen, so you know it’s been cold.

I really want to get out of town to warmer weather soon, but I have class and my only break is the first week of March. Oh well the sacrifices we make for higher education.

Oh, another store is closing at the mall, Arden B. That makes 23 or something. Also the mall manager and assistant manager got canned last week. Wil there be change on the way? 

That’s it for now.

Later!

Yep, I made the title as bad as the story. Maybe I should right news copy. It’s mostly fluff  and puns, right?

I guess it is time for the after Christmas “Beware of…” story.

WPXI (my number 3 station in Pittsburgh) did a story on the dangers of the Nintendo Wii, specifically older people or less active people picking up a controlling and playing Boxing or Tennis that can lead to…wait for it…”Wii-itis”. OK, I think they made that up.

Full story and video HERE.

Darieth Chisolm warns to start off slow and don’t over do it. The doctor, Dr. Fred Harchelraod from Allegheny General states that they see 2-3 cases one week then none the next. 

So basically be alarmed folks, people lack commonsense and have to go to the emergency room or a doctor for a pull or a strain because people who lack commonsense don’t end up in the ER except due to Wii injuries.

These motions may be DANGEROUS! (sarc)

We get a bunch of common sense tips like, take breaks, rest your eyes as it can give you headaches or eye strain. Um…I have to stare at a computer for 8 hours at work doing the same thing over and over again in crappy lighting, but I’m not playing Wii. Does this mean computers should have been in this story too?

I just want to know where the value is in this story.

Plus isn’t WPXI suppose to be the no fluff, we give you the news station? I’m sure someone will say it’s providing some information that could be life or death or, in this case, a co-payment to a doctor. So I guess this is a “We’ll save you money” story.

Sir,put down the Wii-mote, you are buying a ticket to the emergency room.

The kicker for me is in the comments section.

Someone using the name Star said,

“I would like to comment on the WII fit . I broke my ankle in 4 places because the instructions do not stress the distance you need to move the footpad away when you are doing the jogging part of this activity. Running in place while keeping an eye on the screen, you do tend to move a small distance from where you start from. My foot hit the foot pad that was at least 2 feet away and I fell and broke my ankle. Surgery was required, a metal plate inserted,and a scar and therepy along with 6 weeks of no weight on my ankle was a bonus I got when I tried to get fit with WII fitness. Not what I bargained for.”

Um… Star you were just dumb and lacked some common sense and balance. Enjoy your “therepy” whatever that is. I know I’m not a great speller and I admit that, but I laughed at that for some reason. Probably because they might use Wii Fit for therapy.

Oh, and going back to the title “Wii Have A Problem.” It’s a real site so you can go check out some Wii mishaps by clicking here. I love all the broken windows.

That’s all I got for now.

Later!

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Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

That’s the only way I could describe this morning with the 4 degree temps and -22 wind-chill that settled in on Pittsburgh.

I should’ve worn thicker pants to work as when I walked from my parking garage to my building my legs were freezing. And if it’s this cold I want to see snow and lots of it.

A lot of things seemed frozen this weekend.

The Penguins put on a pitiful performance at Mellon Arena Saturday getting crushed by the Toronto Maple Leafs 7-3. Pathetic. It amazes me how the Penguins can look so good one game and the next play like a pee-wee midget team that doesn’t know how to pass or protect the puck. Hopefully they get a boost by getting defenseman Ryan Whitney back. I will be at the game Tuesday against “Pittsburgh South” AKA the Tampa Bay Lightning.

We’ll see how that goes.

Then yesterday the Steelers played a pathetic game against the Tennessee Titans, losing 14-31. Ben Roethlisberger needs to learn to be the QB he once was and the offensive line just needs to learn what an offensive line is suppose to do, which in case they need to know is protect the QB and open up holes for the running backs.

I remember listening to a radio show a few weeks ago when a player from the offensive line was complaining that when they do something good you don’t hear about it, you only hear about the bad. Um…yeah…hello it’s like me saying, “You never hear a thing when I do my job right at work, only when I screw up.” It’s your job, so when you don’t hear anything about how you’re playing, your doing well.

I also ventured out to the mall this weekend. It was a pain to get to and park, but the mall itself wasn’t crowded. Looked like a normal Saturday to me. Some stores, like Brookstone, were busier than others, but nothing to bad.

I’m now going to hole myself in a conference room and input test scripts into a computer. I have to go hide in a conference room because, if I don’t, I will be bothered at my desk all day by the co-worker who lacks common sense, sneaks up behind me, and asks awkward questions that can be answered by the person who sit directly across from him.

OK, time to hide for the day.

Later.

Today at work I got to see a drug bust outside my work building. It was amazing.

It happened between First Ave and Blvd of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh. We saw an undercover cop car pull over a vehical that stoped to, I guess, deal. But he was dealing to undercover cops, L-O-L

Next ting you know they handcuff the guy and have him sit on the curb. The one cop looks inside the window and all of the sudden there are 3 cop cars and 3 undercover cars pulled all around.

After a while a police dog arrived and it was going CRAZY around the car. It had something in it’s mouth and would not let it go, the cop could not get it out of it’s mouth.

So they pull out a duffle bag, and inside the duffle bag were a bunch of plastic bags. We were at a distance, but it looked like marijuana. I was twittering all of this the whole time, so if you saw my tweets you got a treat.

A tow truck came and towed the car and the guy was put into a cop car and driven away. Someone is going home for a long time. 

But it was the best thing I saw today. It occupied 30 minutes of my meeting.

It’s a balmy 50 odd degrees here in Pittsburgh today. I was walking around downtown this morning getting my breakfast from Ross St. Café with no jacket on it was that warm.

This weather is crazy. Friday night into Saturday we got about an inch or two of snow. This morning almost all of that snow is gone melted away by the unusually warm weather the last two days.

Yesterday I bit my finger nails down to almost nothing for the umpteenth time this year watching the Steelers beat the Baltimore Raven 13-9. I swear I’m going to bit right through my fingers one of these games.

I was going to post highlights of the game last night, but there was a problem with VodPod working with Wordpress. If anyone knows if there is a workaround for this please e-mail me by clicking the “Contact Me” button at the top of the page or you can send me a Twitter message to @MarkECib.

It’s the last full week of work for the year. After this week things will be even more boring than they have been as the year winds down and just about everyone in the office is on vacation the next two weeks. I took a half day this Wednesday as I have an eye appointment in the afternoon; I desperately need to order contacts. I’ve been on my last pair for months. It’s amazing how you can stretch a 6 month supply into almost 2 years.

Yes, I know that’s bad, but they are so damn expensive. Seriously the last time I tried to order is was almost $300 and that was with a discount. Sorry, its Christmas time and I have gifts to buy for people. I’ll worry about my contacts later, unless they are reasonably priced.

Wow! I just got a meeting notice in my e-mail that’s in 30 minutes. Joy of joy’s I think we have this meeting every 3 months because the other department keeps changing their mind on how they conduct business. Time to put on the tough “not going to happen” cap.

Ok, later.