Point State Park Fountain Face Lift and Museum

Besides Kaufman’s, one of the biggest things I remember about going into Downtown Pittsburgh when I was a child was the fountain. It was always on, and swaying in the wind. Lately the colorful lighting has been flickering and it’s not even on yet.

The reason? The years old electrical systems are going bad, and need replaced … and it is scheduled for a face lift of sorts. Click Here to read the article by Don Hopey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. This will be a nice to see it working back in full force in a few years so future generations can enjoy it also.

Another thing I remember (more from school trips than my own) about the city and Point Park is The Fort Pitt Museum. It will close on June 30, 2009 if the decision is not reversed due to the state dropping funding. Please go to Save Fort Pitt NOW web site and read up. This is a major part of displaying the history of Pittsburgh, and very important at that. It’s also a major tourist attraction that brings visitors into the city. Do what you can to keep it open. There is a public hearing on May 14th.

-SWB

PS – We didn’t forget our fountain …. we don’t want to forget our history either.

America’s Unsecure Security

After popping on BBC News Online and reading the latest article on America’s cyber-security, I now feel like my four year old Linksys cable router is light-years head of anything our federal government currently using. Remember, our government contains all of the organizations storing your deepest personal information logged. Even some you may not know about. Some of their security technology is years behind what even mom and pop shops are required by the same government to have in place now. I’m sensing irony here too.

That’s sad.

The SANS Institute referred to it as “embarrassing”.

Working for larger companies I can see how that happened (since our government tends to work as one). Cutting edge and the best is not always necessary, whatever has the most pizzaz and flair making the execs look cool is usually what is chosen.
Why has this never come to light? Mainly because major high profile breaches have only come to light presently. Anything in the last few years from information being stolen from government issued, but insecure laptops to plans being hacked for military designs have occurred.

Click Here for a detailed reference article by Maggie Shiels, Silicon Valley BBC reporter.

-SWB

PS – We’ve come along way from Wargames level hacking. Maybe the Feds should watch that 1980s movie again – what is happening today is like seeing a replay of that flick.

Alert – Swine Flu Scams

Like they say – “When opportunity knocks with sickness and despair, scam as many as you can”.

The Swine Flu came in quick, and the scammers will be right behind in preying on those that are scared and easily taken advantage of. Sadly, you no longer even have to wait for the headlines in the news media to know that the sick and twisted people that make up the scamming society will jump to full force in the situation the world is now experiencing with the outbreak.

Egypt had ordered all pigs slaughters, and other countries are taking anything from normal to extreme measures to protect themselves also.  That means there is going to be enough hurt going on give everyone a fill … and sadly the scammers will do their best to add more to it. So, take a few minutes to tell your elderly friends, parents, family members to be on the watch for fake scams concerning the Swine Flu.

Click Here for a good reference article as seen on WPXI Pittsburgh on the warning that the BBB has issued on the oncoming scams.  Click Here for a reference article from the Associated Press medical writer Lauran Neergaard as it appears on Yahoo!.

-SWB

PS – It’s amazing the resilience that scammers have … if business in general had half that resilience failure would probably never happen. Of course, then again you’d have to give up ethics, morals, etc … oh, wait .. I think that’s happening anyway.  Be careful, scammers have no worries as to who they hurt.

Defect! Defect! Specter Defect!

What do you do when you are in a political party that is failing heavily in the “we like you polls”? The same thing citizens do from other countries do when their country is falling apart. Defect.

Specter will be running in 2010 as a Democrat.

Whether you agree with Senator Specter, think he is doing it to keep his career (think about how many times you’ve kissed the boss’s behind to keep your job before criticizing him on that one), or believe he is a traitor to his original party … you have to give him credit for at least following though. Think about it – high profile politicians usually don’t have the guts to do anything way off the standard from their current party for total fear of career suicide. If he is following through on this major event, he may actually follow through with other promises – something different in comparison to the “normal” American politician.

Is SWB a fan of Senator Specter … no. He hasn’t helped us get any of the “citizen reporter stimulus money” either. Our real point is with his positions on various political bullet points, it really doesn’t matter what party he is in. He doesn’t really 100% fit in with the republicans, nor the democrats, and he definitely isn’t an independent. I think sometimes he may end up being a little like the “Charlie Brown” of the political scene. If he isn’t now, he probably will be after the republicans are done with him.

On a side point: Do you think if the Republican Party stops the massive, ear splitting in-fighting, people might take them seriously again? People don’t take advice, nor follow leaders whose house is in greater disarray than theirs. Thus the saying, “Clean up your house before telling me how to clean up mine.” Senator Specter might be the sign of an exodus starting within the Republican party.

For those that want the story from the legitimate press, Click Here for a piece on Senator Specter by Mike Wereschagin of The Tribune-Review.

-SWB

PS – Quotes from Britney Spears always tend to make me think of the Republican Party. “Oops, I did it again” seems to apply here.

BTW – We are in no way against The Republic Party… actually if you look at some of the earlier history of the party, it tends to be pretty solid. SWB just feels the party needs a good soaking in Oxyclean at this time in their life.

NYC Photo Op Fly By

So what do you to to push NYC residents already on edge when a plane flies lower than 30,000 feet?

You fly one very large plane below 2000 feet with an Air Force fighter in tow – and you only tell a few people, excluding the mayor (he’s not that important), and the actual residents of NYC.

It doesn’t take much common sense to figure out that even thought it has been over five years, New Yorkers are still going to be a little touchy when they see a low flying plane, even if it is Air Force One. Not telling the people of New York risked their safety by possibly triggering a mass exodus by the residents and workers. Why would you even chance that? In more one news report it was stated that the people that were informed were told to not notify the residents of NYC. I’m thinking Mr. Louis Caldera may not be having a job soon.

Anyway … Mr. Caldera gets the latest “Clueless” award, and Click Here to read The Oval’s take on it.

-SWB

PS – It’s a bird … it’s a plane … it’s and idiot doing a photo-op.

Coach Bylsma now on full time

Kudos and congratulations to Coach Bylsma!

The Penguins moved Bylsma off the interim list and into full time. Considering how he has turned the team around in such a short time, he deserves it.

Click Here to read the Tribune-Review article on the announced upgrade for the coach. It also has some links to other Penguins articles. Although we originally posted concern about The Penguins rushing to switch coaches, we applaud Coach Bylsma for stepping up to the plate with his “A game” and moving forward proving his worth to the team. He gave a clear answer to the challenge he was given and didn’t step down nor stutter.

-SWB

PS – Maybe he can work with the Pirates in the off-season?

Typos In the Press

I have to thank on of my readers for alerting my to typos in my review of Art All Night.  I actually have to thank him more for giving me a subject to rant about this morning.

Now, typos in blogs (unless it’s really extreme) I tend to blow off, simply because when I read a blog, I don’t want it to seem perfect and sanitary.  If I wanted that I’d read a newspaper … well, OK, maybe I would have read a newspaper a few years ago.  These days the press just isn’t the same.  When I used to read an article in a paper like The Pittsburgh Press (yes, I’m showing my age), no matter the writer or subject, you could tell the lengths they went through to “get it right” before going to press.  Things changed after  while, and content in newspapers went from award winning journalism to content based on gaining readership.  Today, with most papers online, it has more to do with how fast it can get to your screen or iPhone.

Thus, the typo is more prevalent than ever.  A few weeks ago when I caught five typos on simple words in an article I decided to go through a few of my articles.  I discovered that on average ten of my article had less typos than ten of the articles found in a major online newspaper.  Now, considering I only give my articles a quick once-over, I thought the fact that I did better on typos (I write mostly on a netbook, so consider that too) than a major paper where the journalists actually get paid was fairly sad.  Granted, you have technical issues with electronic publishing when you have hundreds of people editing and publishing at the same time.  The system can “burp” and not use the article you thought it did, etc.  That doesn’t excuse that you can now find more typos and grammatical errors (some of mine are done for effect … major newspapers usually don’t use that technique) in daily articles appearing in online and sometimes print publications.  I’m assuming journalism schools are now skipping spelling and keyboarding and have switched over to teaching texting and thumbing.
-SWB

PS – Paul, thanks for giving me the rant article idea for this morning … you deserve some credit for the contribution.  BTW … contrary to popular belief, I’m not picking on Paul, but actually thanking him. I think I left some typos in this article just so I can look as good a the paid writers 🙂

Review: Art All Night 2009

Art all night is over, and it was another successful year.

The crew was on top of everything from checking in, entertainment, crowd control, and checkout. This year really proved how they have brought the operations of a large show into being an art form in itself.

As far as the artists this year, SWB believes this is one of the better years for creativity. We noticed far less “copy cat” art and a whole bunch of originality. Everything from a Mr Handy hanging robot to a full “army guy” battle scene was available for view. The table sized chess set was probably our favorite. Well done to everyone from SWB!!

The scene outside of AAN was amazing. The night was perfect for the event, the space was wonderful, and the artwork captivating. The crowd just hanging out added the perfect aura to AAN, and made you already look forward to next year.

Anyways, here is a few pics for yinz to check out:

Click The Pic for the SWB Art All Night Photo Gallery on Picasa

The Mad Magazine Milestone

Very few things immediately put a smile on SWB’s face.

One just came up – Mad Magazine’s 500th issue is coming out tomorrow.  The magazine tends to be our “idol” of sorts.  We’re hoping we can snag one tomorrow.

Sadly the readership has one down, and the publication will switch to quarterly.  You can get all of the details if you Click Here to read the article by Virginia Linn of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  The website will be updated though to appeal to the newer demographics of the readership.  So if you like the political and satirical humor of Mad and remember it from your youth, make sure you pick up the 500th issue and help it stay around.

In SWB’s opinion, Mad magazine too political and satirical humor into the world of it becoming an art form.  It no longer stayed at the level of being a teen book, but encompassed the wit of more advanced readers.

-SWB

PS – Spy VS Spy never got old after the cold war stopped … it just began to reflect society in general.

The Corporate Culture and Qubo

It was a typical Saturday morning and we had on children’s cartoons. I felt like being fairly brainless, so I watched along with my step-daughter. A cartoon called 3-2-1 Penguins! from the Qubo Network came on. It’s story line this week was saving a village on another planet from an erupting volcano. The captain is a quick active individual, who basically ignores all those who know better and his favorite saying through most of the episode is,”Less Thinking, More Action”.  At the point of first hearing that, it felt like I was viewing a documentary on corporate life than watching a cartoon.

Every point in the episode where people would give him advice on the situation, he would listen to the first few words, cut them off, and say “Less Thinking, More Action!!”.  Halfway through, the one boy actually fell into place and followed exactly as his captain demanded, even though he knew it was not going to work. It was just better for him to do what his captain wanted, than to speak up.  He simply looked better to the person in power.

Does that seem like your workplace? … where the people that know the most are ignored, or put off to the side until a full blown crisis erupts? If it does, don’t feel bad – it’s most of corporate American (although some companies are better at putting a “nice face” on themselves with programs to allow employees to “submit” ideas.  Occasionally they use a few small ones to make it look like they are actually using he programs). Most decision makers would rather let their companies fail than admit someone-else knows better.  It’s just better or them because they look good and positive to their bosses or directors. It also avoids him getting fired when he could later blame those “that should have known better due to more experience” and get them fired.

The part of the cartoon at the end where the captain finally listens to others after multiple failures and the almost total destruction of the village will probably never happen in today’s corporate culture, because that would mean putting pride to the side … and we couldn’t have our supervisors or directors see that, could we? That’s was too un-American.  It’s better to have a company fail than to admit someone knows better.

-SWB

PS – Pop goes the big head … after an employee lets the boss know the reason the company is failing isn’t the economy, it’s because of his bad decisions.

Art All Night Tonight!! Reminder!!

Just a last second reminder –

Art All Night is Tonight!!

Check out Art All Night’s site for more info.

This is open to all artists!

-SWB

Writer’s Block As A Job

Since I awoke today, I’ve been trying to think about what to blog about. Blank. I thought it was lack of coffee … nope. I thought maybe it was because I was in a good mood and didn’t event want to rant about anything … nope. After pondering into the open yonder of intellectual darkness, I came to the conclusion that I had writer’s block.

I can already envision a few of yinz screaming “Hallelujah!!!” and popping the corks off the vintage champagne you’ve been reserving for a big celebration.

The are a few things I probably could have written about: Job loss … mine may be close, but everyone else is is the same boat and blogging about that, so no reason to make it worse. I could probably rant about health care, but that’s a huge complex issues no one side really understands anymore. I could have written about my 200k mile aging Honda, which still runs better than a brand new Chrysler or GM (could that be the reason for their current financial issues????). No, I finally figured I write about writer’s block.

So, how?? Well, I figured since SWB tends to be the sarcastic entity it is we would go about trying to figure out how to create a “writer’s block therapy” that is 100% infomercial worthy. I mean if someone can create an exercise device basically out of a bent aluminum tube with foam grips at the end call an “Ab Torturer” and sell it for $69.95 + $79.95 shipping and handling … I can create “doctor approved” psychological jibberish in book form that I sell for at least $39.95 + 79.95 shipping an handling. Heck, I’d even through in the “Ab Torturer” for $59.95 and no extra shipping, a total of $89.95 in savings on both items.

How do I proceed. I figured I’d apply for the next set of stimulus packages. Think about it. Infomercials generate a ton of cash flow, thanks to Mr PT Barnum, who is best known for the quote “there’s a sucker born every minute” (but denies ever saying that). Then I’ll use some of my stimulus money to get the book printed with a snazzy cover, title it something catchy like “Writer’s Block … the forgotten authors and the help they need”, hire both a hot guy and girl (we want to be P.C. here), give them both hard luck with massive success after reading my book stories, and put it on cable about the time intoxicated writers get home. Note: Their intoxication may be the main reason for their writer’s block, but we definitely won’t cover that in the book (that is until the printing runs out and we publish our follow up book titled “Overcoming Writer’s Block Due To Alcoholism – The Crash Course”).

After our success with the two books, we will still be riding around in out 1997 Honda (because we haven’t changed and just wanted to help people), and will start on our new book “Penny Pinching Other People’s Money for Your Own Success”. The book will be geared towards upper executives and will come with a 24k gold plated “Ab Torturer”. BTW – our Saleen S7 will be parked in Miami which we will only drive on trips to fund raising events.

-SWB

PS – After writing this I feel really unaccomplished because I actually work in a legitimate industry. Sad.

Natural Gas Drilling … The Answer of PA’s Energy Woes – or not

Well, isn’t it true?  Drilling in PA will save the economy in this area.  It does emit less CO2 than other fossil fuels, but that may not be the issue.  In an excellent in-depth article by The Pittsburgh City Paper written by Bill O’Driscoll shows many sides to the “answer to our prayers”.  The first thing you read about is Gulla …. he purchased land hoping to farm it.  On that land was a large pond, his home, and four wells.  Drillers offered him good money to lease part of his property, unfortunatley the drilling also contaminated his pond, and all of his drinking wells.  The article goes into much more and has a great explaination of many of the concerns about drilling.  Contrary to popular belief, it’s not all about tree hugging nor moeny.

So, if everyone (including the President at times) says this is the best thing for Pennsylvania, whe is SWB saying “Huh??”

Here are the Pros:

• Natural Gas emits less co2
• Usable by-products such as propane and butane
• The US is mostly self-sufficient in natural gas

Here are the Cons:

• The act of drilling for anything can cause disruption in the natural structure of the lands, possibly contaminating waters
• Methane, a by-product of drilling, is it escapes due to a leak, can cause more global warming than co2.

So, please take time to Click Here and read the article from The Pittsburgh City Paper.  Along with drilling being an environment issue, it is also a political issues … so get informed so you can influence decisions correctly.

-SWB

Teen Driving Menace

Are all teens a menace on the road … no, but most new teens driving didn’t have the maturity or common sense to handle the 100 horse power that was available in my teen years – and they most likely don’t have enough maturity and common sense to handle the 200 to 550 horse power now commonly available. Are the teens the only ones to blame? No.

First, we have the parents for two reasons. Lack of time today to really train their teens in driving, and the fact that Dad has to either have his high powered SUV or Dodge Challenger. Both types of cars are too much for any new driver to handle without experience nd expensive enough that the family can no longer afford a secondary car that a teen an drive.

Second, we have no real consistency in the training methods used at driving schools, or even the driver license testing within a state. If you go to different state sites even in PA, you wll find the text testing is the same, but one barracks may be noted as easier to pass than another, etc.

The first part the parents need to handle, but the second part advocates are trying to get congress to put together and pass national standards for teen drivers. This will set who with, when, and where new teen drivers can use automobiles. In this day in age when most teen drivers don’t have the level of common sense instilled in them needed to handle the responsibility, and the ever increasing level of teen crash deaths this may be the best possible answer.

Anyways, here is an article on the subject by John Schmitz of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It tells you a little about the plans and STANDUP (Safe Teen and Novice Driver Uniform Protection Act).

-SWB

PS – Yes, I was young two … but they only had 25 horse power and crank starters.

Review: The Cork Factory and ULI Award

Capture from The Cork Factory’s site … please click it to go there. Very few times in life do you get to stand photographing a building filled with homeless people on an abandoned site … and then get to live in it after it has become one of the hottest properties in your city. SWB has been able to to that at The Cork Factory and we would like to tell you about it. It’s worth your time.

For those that don’t like to read much: The price is very reasonable for the abundant amenities, square footage, chic look, socialization and contact generation. If you are a wine connoisseur you definitely won’t be disappointed in the place as the juice of the gods never stops flowing (ask the residents) and the quality of the wine as well as the quality of the residents is very high in a living space that is not unobtainable.

The Residents:

The residents are an amazing mix. The Cork Factory attracts all kinds from the typical middle class person wanting a wonderful place to live to those that could possibly buy a small country. The best thing is, unless you have seen one of those residents in the media, you most likely would not know who is who … because it is one of the few places you can live in the nation where you do not get treated any differently by anyone. The residents of The Cork Factory have created a true community … an amenity other apartment complexes have yet to successfully promote.

The Management:

The management has always been very professional and very willing to listen to any concerns. Staff working under then has always been very attentive to the residents and quite courteous. Whether it is just to hear a resident “vent” or listen to a change that really does need to be made the staff does their best to accommodate everyone. I can say I’ve never been brushed off by The Cork’s Staff.

The Amenities:

Pets … they allow dogs (and The Cork has created an amazing pet community within itself), 24 hour accessible library, 24 hour accessible bar/game area, 24 hour accessible concierge, free pool in the summer, free outdoor hot tub, bike storage, boat slips (charged), water taxi service (charged), storage (charged), garage parking (leased), and weekly get-togethers.

The Apartments:

The apartments vary, and you are allowed to request a new paint color, and make approved changed to your apartment that can be removed by you when you leave (in other words if you make changes, you have to have the apartment in original condition by move-out). This is great because The Cork Factory doesn’t limit you to living in a $1200/month cookie cutter box like some other large apartment establishments in Pittsburgh. This is subject to change, so please call the site to verify what is now allowed.

SWB’s contacts at The Cork Factory:

When we lived at the The Cork Factory the Management team was Debbie Roberts and Amanda Kopko. Debbie is still running The Cork Factory and Amanda is project manager of the Chicago project. Click Here for information on that.

Awards:

Recently The Cork Factory has received The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Award for Excellence: The Americas. Click Here for the ULI’s website. This is widely recognized as the land use industry’s most prestigious recognition and rewards program. We thank Sara B Moeller for alerting SWB to add this info.

The Development Company:

The Cork Factory was visioned and designed by McCaffery Interests.

Our Rating:

At least a 4.8 out of 5. It’s definitely worth the money, the company, and the fact that you can sip wine on the patio while watching the traffic on Rt28 that you don’t have to be part of.

The Cork Factory is now in SWB Recommends.

-SWB and thanks to Sara B Moeller for contributed information.