Review: Lost On Planet China

Very few times do you see us review a book, but when we find one that just stands out like a proper sarcastic verbal lashing … we have to tell you about it.

While checking out the bargain books at Joseph Beth in SouthSide Works, we came across “Lost On Planet China (*or how he became comfortable eating live squid)“. That’s just one of those titles you can’t pass up.  We’ve never read anything by J. Maarten Troost before, but I can tell you – we will be reading the rest of his books.

If you like a little sarcasm with a life adventure topped of by the mystery of another land …. Lost On Planet China is definitely a find.  It’s a true tale of a typical guy like you trotting through China (his wife wanted to move to Monterey). How can you resist hearing about delicacies like Yak, stories of the Red Guard, and the lovely customer service at hotel check-in desks?

The style is that of either SWB or PittGirl (that’s church) in China … really.

At point blank, you discover through his writing that the China of past history is gone, and a new China has emerged – quite different than you typically hear of – but never having lost it’s quirks.

At last check, there were a few left at about $7 at Jo Beth, so grab ’em while you can. Make sure you have some read time – this isn’t one of those books you can read at a few pages per day.

-SWB

PS – It’s a true story – which makes the tales of going through China even more amazing and real than ever.

Thoughts For The Strange – deep thinkers list

Here’s some stuff to think about – don’t try real hard, we have no funding for lawsuits if your brain melts.

1. If you put a car with a manual transmission in gear and push it backwards on the path you drove it forward on, will it scoop up the exhaust and reformulate it back into gasoline allowing the most green action possible by a motor vehicle.
2. While pushing that car, can you avoid a hernia?
3. If you call pigeons the dirtiest animals on earth, don’t you hurt the feelings of most pigs?
4. If kayakers are padding up the river when the sewage plant releases overflow, are they now paddling up s**t crick?
5. Are Hollywood people really THAT far out there with their behaviors? – or are you really just that boring?
6. If you are clueless and constantly talking and immune from the pain of your cluelessness, will someone else’s head eventually explode from the pain of your ceaseless empty thoughts? (this could be a scientific study here)
7. Is the number ‘7’ real?
8. Which do you think is more likely to happen: A) People helping a dying man on the street after he’s been stabbed -or- B) People helping a mob boss load a body back into the trunk of his car?
9. Which smells better …. standing in a field of wildflowers -or- standing a virtual reality field of wildflowers.
10. When life gets tough, do the tough really get going … or do they just flex a bit?

-SWB

PS – think long and hard, eventually the pain will stop …

Speeding for God

It’s time for that colorful Clueless and Confused sign to show up in preparation for a trophy hand out.

This time it’s for the ‘messiah’ … yup, he showed up in Squirrel Hill (click here to check out the PG article by Sadie Gurman).  If you want to find him, just look for the newly wrecked smoking car.

There’s nothing like plowing into a synagogue at a high rate of speed with a car to show off your messiah like qualities.  It’ll definitely convince people you just kicked off the second (or first – depending on your beliefs) coming of the promised one.

It also gets you the latest Clueless Trophy from SWB.  You can’t beat that – unless you get a real replica made and hold it in a death grip during your insanity trial.

Anyway – it’s nice to see that the clueless have improved so much of their capability to become even more clueless.

-SWB

PS – Just read the article, it just says it all about this Darwin Award wannabee.

It’s Getting Cleaner Here

We’ll, according to an article from The Post-Gazette as written by Don Hopey (click here to read it), the air here is getting cleaner and we’ve lost our status as worst air in the U.S.

Just like Pittsburgh to lose another title that gains us notoriety – we used to have one of the best baseball team (look where that status is now), one of the biggest world industries, and now we’re losing our pollution levels!

When is it going to stop ?!?!?!

Ok … for yinz folks that have a hard time recognizing sarcasm, those sentences above (including the inappropriate and bad grammar) included a tad bit of sarcasm.

This is actually a good thing, as less air pollution means you can enjoy another cigarette (for the clueless – a tad more sarcasm here).

Anyway – if you get a chance, click here to read the article – it’s very informative and something we can actually take pride in, because it is something that will inspire people to live here (breathing clean air is a fairly good thing for most humans).

-SWB

PS – No, we’re not promoting smoking (unless it’s sausage, chicken, ribs, or ham, etc)

Review: Big Dog Coffee

A shot of Dig Dog Coffee … click it to go there.

It took us a while, but we got here.

I always love checking out the privately owned coffee venues in the area.  It’s where you really get a taste of the community (along with the local beans).

We visited around lunch time.  Parking was available, but tight on the street.  Additional spaces available at the SouthSide Works garages very close to the venue. Big Dog is easy to find and very accessible and it’s definitely inviting.

We ordered a typical latte with caramel, nothing fancy.  It was quickly made with great service and it tasted great.  The atmosphere inside was extremely welcoming (it was like walking into your house).  Not load, relaxing music (but not typical local radio) playing, and extremely clean.

The pricing was extremely reasonable – either cheaper or in line with typical pricing at other coffee spots.  We didn’t get to try the food, but as reported by others, it’s great too.

The representation Big Dog gives on it’s website is very accurate (if you like the website, you’ll love the place).  They are also involved in the community – which is a major plus for a local business.

Free wireless – Yes, but they will give you a password at the counter.

We will shortly add this to SWB Recommends, as it’s definitely a go to place to relax and sip some hot java.

Update:  We tried the stuffed pepper soup — excellent!!!!!!

-SWB

PS – If anyone has had a change to have the food, please leave a review comment.

Art All Night Walkthrough Videos

For all of those that did not make it to Art All Night (I don’t know what could be more important that going to Art All Night, but …..), we have kindly posted four videos giving you a 31 minute total tour of Art All Night 2010.

Check them out here (FYI – we did not edit out anything, so view before you share with the kiddies):

AAN Tour Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

These are YouTube videos, so if you are at the office of have that blocked for the kiddies, correct the situation :-).

Like It Matters

… and that post title was ripped right off another guy’s blog.

Yup … we admit it.  It’s from a blog called Like It Matters.

If ur smart enough, you’ll click on the linky thing to check it out.

Yeah – it’s a blog by a Reverend that is a licensed marriage and family counselor in a church.  We normally just add a blog to out link list when we find a cool one, but whether or not you believe in what the writer believes (or whether we do or not) … this one is really good – along with a bit edgy and ranty.  We like that.

It’s not just about religion – but everything.

In other words, check it out.  If your views mesh, still read it.  Discuss it.  Think (that’s that lost process humans did allot in early days).

-SWB

PS –

Don’t Wanna

Did you ever have a day when you didn’t want to write anything?

This is mine.

Enjoy the silence.

-SWB

Art All Night 2010

The post icon is a little larger than normal – that’s because this is a really important time of the year.

At least in Pittsburgh and Lawrenceville.

It’s ART ALL NIGHT time!!!!!

SWB doesn’t have an entry, but Pittsburgh By Mini Cam does, so please check us out.  We have no idea where we will be placed, so that’ll force ya to look at all the other great artists at the show – last year it was over a thousand.

The other great thing is that you can to go through the old Iron City plant and maybe check out that place you’ve bought from for so long.

This show, in our opinion, is on of the best ways we have seen to showcase all of Pittsburgh’s artists freely and openly without politics or preferences.  Anyone can enter one piece of art, and anyone can view all of the art.  Every year we give major kudos to those that created and are now running the show (along with the tons of volunteers).

Along with being great for art … Art All Night IS the perfect example of how Pittsburgh works together to get something new and exciting started.  It shows that whether it’s about manufacturing or cultural activities, we are innovators in all ways.

So attend …. you may see one or your friend’s artwork there (or hopefully your own).

-SWB

PS – Art All Night continually inspires a ton of other things in our city … so SUPPORT IT!

The Geek Thing

Alright, I’ve been out a bit not blogging because I’ve been doing the “geek thing”.  In other words I’ve been trying to get VMWare to run on Ubuntu Linux Server using Webmin to control it all after Ubuntu did a kernel update that threw off the installer for VMWare.

… that should have lost ya.  But then again, remember, if there weren’t geeks you wouldn’t have blogging.

What does that have to do with Pittsburgh?

Well, for one, there are lots of geeks in Pittsburgh (notice places like CMU).  Lot’s of the advances in technology get started here. Some of the entertainment technology you enjoy was or is developed here (the interactive TV systems on cruise boats were initially developed here, and some of the virtual rides you go to Disney to enjoy are created and tested here).

Didn’t realize all some of that, did ya?

There are many things in Pittsburgh people forget about … and the geeks of the city made them happen.

So, when you see themz types of people working outdoors on their nifty netbooks – thank them.  If they weren’t alive, you might actually have to write to a single pen pal, or actually remember directions in your car, or play a board game with your kid.

-SWB

PS – We are officially calling next month (May) techie geek appreciation month.  If you see anyone working on a netbook, you should buy them a cup of coffee and a Dunkin Donut.

National Tea Party Part 2

When people start flying the flag upside down, get quoted as saying “My grandparents didn’t come over here for this”, and now refer to the government as a “two party dictatorship” … there is something going wrong or has gone terribly wrong with out system of checks and balances. (BTW – some of these things are quotes from Craig Smith’s National Tea Party article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.  Please Click Here to read it).

In my opinion, the worst and best things to happen at the same time is the health care reform.

Does it need done? Yep.

Was it smart to building in on the foundation of wet sand that is the current health care system in America? Nope.

Health care needed reformed, better yet, just scrapped and recreated.

But is that really the main issue? No.

When you have lobby orgs big enough to inject thousands and thousands of dollars into election coffers, etc just to influence what they want, you now start completely ignoring what Americans want … thus pushing the “power of the vote” off to the side – along with the Americans behind it.

If your not smart enough to figure out that that’s a big slap in the face to those that have died fighting to protect our freedom.

Even having someone quoted as saying our country is now a “two party dictatorship” (a totally bipartisan statement) is a huge red flag that something needs fixed soon. People quickly forget that last two times people were this fed up with a situation in American and took action because they so strongly were against it were the Revolutionary War, and The Civil War.  Neither of those actions were pretty.

This is not condoning or stating any physical action needs done by the National Tea Party or anyone else, but simply stating that if Americans are starting to protest in the same ways and same levels as the people that actually live in countries with dictators, maybe the politicians in charge (who tend to forget they work for us) need to uncover their ears and actually listen a bit to the general public (the ones that actually formed and continually form this country).

-SWB

PS – Ok, I think that’s my bit of political rant for the month.

Famous People That Tried To Avoid Taxes

Just a quickie post here to bring your attention to a really colorful article by Bill Toland on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on the more famous folks in the region that have “tried” to avoid paying taxes.

Click Here for the article.

Considering that we are becoming worse that the tax hording dolts we moved away from and revolted against, you gotta give these people credit for trying.

-SWB

PS – we’re not the anti tax types, but when you start borderlining 40% of a person’s income simply because politicians are worse than new wife on a Macy’s sale day with a brand new empty credit card … you gotta weigh in with a word or two.

True Love Has No Job

… my wife and I noticed that saying when we were walking through SouthSide’s Riverfront Park on a nice sunny weekend.

Like a true husband (and yes, unemployed), I produced a big smile on my face looking over at my wife giving a look that said “see … I am true love because I have no job …”

That look wasn’t received as well as I thought it would be … actually the only thing I got out of it was her reply of “don’t even get any ideas”.  Not sure what that was pointed at, since I’m already unemployed.

BTW – that was painted on a trash can … which makes you think about it’s validity. One thing about it that I’ll agree with is that it applies to many today – especially with those supporting someone in the family that was the bread winner then got dumped when their company went under, etc.

-SWB

PS – then again … it could have been painted on that garbage can in frustration by a guy that was dumped by his wife. It was kind of sloppy graffiti.

With This Driver, Stupidity Reigns!

This must be a highlight day in the Pittsburgh for dolts in the news.  This little tidbit actually did happen.

27 year old (probably 10 mentally) Brad Crawford, drove onto the Parkway West going the wrong way with his headlights off.

Click Here for the Trib’s posting about the incident.

They’re doing tox tests.  Hmmmm … wonder if they thunks this may have a bit to do with controlled substances?

Anyway, enjoy this little this little “so stupid it actually did happen” snippet from the news.

-SWB

PS – the true things that are happening in society are validating reality shows so much more every day.

Young entrepeneur

Occasionally when you accidentally click on one of your saved favorites and a page loads you have one of those articles in front of you that makes you just scream WTF????

Well, just so you get the same experience, Click Here and read the article from The Associated Press as it appears in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, pretending you accidentally clicked on one of your saved favorites then ask yourself the following questions:

• Was this kid trying to promote enough business to get a new Escalade?
• Is he smart enough to NOT buy the new Lexus?
• WFT where the parents?
• WFT where the parents?
• WFT where the parents? Oh yeah, probably out looking at new Escalades.

-SWB

PS – After reading that article, anyone still have issues with required classes before you are allowed to procreate???

BTW – I’m thinking with what was stamped on the bags, either mommy or daddy has a job selling loaded used cars.

Yep, you guessed it …  TWO clueless trophies for the parents of this kid.