My Neighbor – Mr Rogers

(c)2018 Focus Films

Recently my wife and I had the opportunity to view “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?“, the new documentary on the life of Mr. Rogers at the Tull Family Theater.

This is one of those few and rare documentaries that has the capability to alter how you live out the rest of your life … not because of the film maker, script writer, or directory – but simply because of how the man the documentary is about lived his life.

To set one thing straight up front … the rumor that Mr. Rogers created all of the Millennials in the world because of the “You Are Special” mantra, you need to watch the film or watch the last college commencement he gave … that’s not what “You Are Special” was even remotely about.

To those who hold on hard-core to what society tells them is right, or fears becoming friends with someone who might be slightly off-kilter from their beliefs, or fears talking with someone who is not 100% perfect – skip this film, because you will change and have these things happen to you after watching it.

Mr. Rogers was a Christian …. an ordained minister. He was probably one of the very few people who acted as a Christian should act: show God’s love, grace, and understanding. He didn’t have to tell anyone that’s what he was doing – ever.  They just knew. The children just knew. That’s how you knew he was real.

He was the kid that was made fun of when he was little.

He was the kid that was sick much of the time when he was little.

He became the man who raised all of us and showed use that being a man wasn’t a stereotype.

He promoted equality better than anyone else (without pushing other’s rights aside to do so) … and stood for nothing less.

He taught us how to have self-worth without destructive pride intervening.

He promoted humanity without eliminating “human”.

By example, he showed that hate was not an option.

By the end of the documentary you will realize three things:

1. Society stopped listening to Mr. Rogers example of “Love thy neighbor, love thyself”,
2. and started listening to society’s “Hate thy neighbor, hate thyself”
3. We are all the same -“human”. That’s simply what he was teaching us.

Kudos to Mr Rogers …..

-SWB

Review: Intel ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair) Public Day

 

(c)2018 Intel ISEF

Review: Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Us knowing ISEF was in Pittsburgh started out by attending a tour of CCAC. The one professor my step-daughter talked to strongly suggested that she check out ISEF on the public day (as he would be judging one of the areas). We’d like to thank Abiraman Srinivasan for that.

Keep in min my step-daughter goes to one of the most highly rated public school districts in the area. Nobody informed her of this opportunity, nobody knew about it when asked for permission to miss part of the school day. It took one professor that did not even have my step-daughter as a possible student yet to take interest enough in that student to alert them to what was really out there.

The event was completely and unbelievably impressive. When you see a student’s eyes light up when they realize what opportunities are really out there – it makes you overjoyed that you took the time to act on a suggestion.

Half way through the event, I asked my step-daughter if she would have handled high school differently if she knew what opportunities were out there she said “yes”.

The problem is when events like this happen very few schools get their students to them. Sadly this does create a lack of inspiration in our young to have any ambition for higher education. You have to know about the goals to have ambitions towards them.  Kudos to Intel for making this possible … even if you don’t like their processors. This is truly a company giving back to the community.

The only bad side to the event was the realization of how far behind the US is in education. A family member works for a very well-known tech college in Pittsburgh and many times you rumors of them only seeking out international students. After talking to many of these students at this event – I now know why. I spent half of my day having conversations with high school students from other countries and felt like I was speaking to seasoned scientists and researchers. When I talked to the students there from the US they were smart … but it seemed like I as speaking to high school students. Got back to the 60s, 70s, and 80s and this situation would have been flipped. I’m not bad-mouthing the US students, just indicating that we may need to get rid of the entitlement thing big time in this country so we can do some catching up.

In an unexpected and enlightening realization – this even also proved one thing. When there is a very strong common interest or goal people from all walks of life have absolutely nothing against each other. In this even where people of persuasion that the news depicts as absolutely hating each other.  Not a sign of any discomfort between any students, their parents, volunteers, or attendees. None. All of then had one common goal – advance science. We need to learn from this.

In summary – this was an amazing even from a multitude of viewpoints. If ISEF is happening and it’s not in your area and you have a student trying to figure out what to do with their higher education that may give them a real opportunity to actually pay for that education and still have enough left over for a real life – fly them to it.  It’s worth the cost of plane ticket. ISEF if an immense opportunity to simply expose students to the information about careers and opportunities that exist in current times and the future.

Give people opportunities and peace will happen automatically by giving the ability to have food,shelfter, and quality of life.

Big Kudos to Intel for sponsoring this event!

-SWB

 

Wiener World (A Pittsburgh Icon)

“Hot Dog King” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

No … this is not a blog posting on a less than family friendly movie.

Get you head out of the gutter.

No, really – stop thinking that!!!! It’s REALLY embarassing.

To the food …

Wiener World is probably one of the last established long time food icons left in the city that almost brings visions of a New York scene in an episode of Seinfeld. We did try the soup guy thing, but that didn’t stick.

I guess hot dogs are easier —- everyone loves a hot dog. I mean, what’s better than something that contains 2% of stuff that should never be in your daily intake. Just kidding.

WW has been around in the city ever since I can remember – sort of like S.W. Randall Toys and Gifts. It’s one of those things that’s never not been there. It’s also one of those things you easily forget to visit occasionally.

Don’t miss out on this one …. it’s a treat.

Tradition, taste, and hot stuff on a bun … perfect!

Our rating … we skip on this one. You just can’t rate tradition. Kudos to Wiener World for keeping it alive.

-SWB

PS – don’t forget the chili.

Big Truck Rant (Maybe)

Really?

Earlier this week I was picking up lawn mower parts at a big box hardware store. While I was there and going up the road that accesses the store a truck basically pushed myself and one or two other cars behind me almost or into the lane of opposing traffic.

Typical scenario – right? Typical action on a truck driver, right?

I don’t believe so – I have too many friends that professionally drive, so I don’t believe this in any way is typical. I believe a truck driver doing this is the minority.

Having said that, I beeped simply because I didn’t think the driver noticed me. At the angle he was going there was a strong possibility of a big blind spot. I finally got past him and proceeded to park and go into the store to purchase the parts I needed.

When I was in the store, the truck driver sought me out and confronted me.

He started with “Thanks for the beep – I was in the truck”.

I replied with “I beeped because I didn’t think you noticed me already half was up your rig since you only turn your turn signals on half into the turn”.

He replied with “That’s BS” and proceeded to harass me in the store. When I walked away he aggressively followed me until I got to  customer service desk. I alerted the rep of the situation and quickly checked out to make sure thy driver did not go back out to damage my car.

Later I alerted the big box hardware co via their customer service email of the harassment and fear that the driver may have also taken down my license plate to harass me or my family later.

The big box hardware co replied back with a letter that basically said “unfortunately they’re just a vendor to us, so we really don’t care”. In other words “we have better lawyers than you could ever get ….. so don’t worry about trying to take legal action to protect yourself”.

Now … this is a rant post if the driver was wrong in finding a harassing a customer of a business they were supplying it.

So, knowing other professional drivers and having their opinions … what do SWB’s readers think?  do I pursue or drop?

I still award a clueless trophy to the driver for being dumb enough to harass a customer of a business you want to remain a vendor for.

-SWB

Screaming Weasel

Yep … that’s us!

A bit about “us” – since many have only been introduced to us recently, and nobody ever reads the “about” tab – and honestly, some time we just put things in it to be goofballs.

Most of the time it’s me, the author, Lawrence Capozzolo (signed SWB). An American, or Italian/German American, or mutt, or one of the people that’s paying a mortgage to house my step-daughter’s four furry critters (two dogs, a cat, and a rat). We’re pretty sure the animals had their lawyer get their names on the deed for the house too. They may have taken ours off at this point.

SWB started originally started in 2006 when I purchased my G4 iBook and it had iWeb on it. I made my first posting after I noticed a blog called That’s Church (I’m pretty sure that was still its title back then – but I’m getting old, and memories fade fast now … so I could be incorrect.) The person writing “That’s Church” eventually went on to write for Pittsburgh Magazine.  Although my blog become popular in about fifteen countries doing about 1.2 million hits a year, I chose getting back into I.T. work (I could have been smarter and went back to school for carpentry or plumbing or HVAC …. but NO, I stuck with I.T.) therefore still writing but not keeping it up eventually doing it professionally.

The blog was started, like others at the time as a rant blog (humorous rant). I figured people would find humor in the annoying blabberings of us tech types, and I was right. Now that I’m close to 50 (ok …. REALLY close) I’m getting back into writing for it and doing photography for it again (unless otherwise stated – those photos are really mine) basically because of ageism (tech is becoming like the NFL … if you didn’t get your first Ferrari right in the beginning, the youngin’s aren’t going to give you a chance to get one now … you’re too old to work in tech) I’m back to writing. I like doing it anyway.

I don’t know if I’ll get my numbers back up or if I’ll ever get a donation (but although I’m not a non-profit, please keep in mind I have to replace two cars, a furnace, and put a kid through university – so have a heart, consider donating).  Right now I do a little sound engineering work, etc – waiting to get back into tech if I ever do.  If I just end up writing, better yet.

Back to SWB. It will continue to be a showcase for humorous rant, really bad poetry, attempts at legitimate poetry, and whatever gets thrown into it. Some others may write for it (if they do you will know). If you like the writing, please like the posts or blog – if you really like it – follow, if you think I should put it into a book – donate. Remember, books still do things like enabling me to generate enough money to donate to others that love to do what writers love to do.

The photography is also part of the showcasing in SWB, I’ve been doing this since the age of 13 …. so 36 years. You’ll notice various formats (slide, digital, modified, etc). The other site I write for Pittsburgh By Mini Cam is designed to be for low-res photography.

Yes … we do on purpose write badly, strangely, and horrendously (this is different from “badly” as it indicates a “graduate” level of “bad”). We try to make you think by readings that make you feel that Scotty forgot to but a few brain atoms back into you after beaming you up.

We just have fun.

… and we do consider padded rooms to be ultra comfy posh places. The straight jackets are slightly annoying though – especially when you have to type with your teeth.

We are the late show, art gallery, literary short, stand up comedian, sitcom, political humorist, poetm, life loving, opinionated schmucked (buggered for the British folks) up oxygen breathing carbon based units that you will hopefully learn to as least like. If not, click the “like” button anyway – people lie all the time.

-Lawrence A Capozzolo

SWB – “making legimate writer groan in agony”

City overshadowed

“Forgotten” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

SWB Series: Nonsense and Such

Do you live in a place that people seemed to have forgotten about?

Do you remember when you were young you lived in the hottest, coolest place on the earth?

Now, your pretty sure you live in a retirement community … overshadowed by the latest and greatest cool cities.

… or you live in Silicon Valley and you just traded your $3 million house for a 1970s custom van so you can  buy groceries this week.

Maybe not … if you’ve living near me you didn’t create a start-up that good.

So, one day you take the telescope you bought your kid because you thought it was ultra-cool (you’re a parent now, so you were really wrong about that which is why it’s in your closet and not their room), and point it across the river and see someone on the other side taking a picture of your city.

You figure out where they are and contact them (Big Brother Google makes this easy these days). You ask them what they are doing (you are curious, but vigilant too – so you want to make sure your city doesn’t have a stalker … remember there WERE children here once).

They tell you they are taking pictures and video clips for their YouTube series.

You ask, “What series is that?”

“Abandoned cities in Pennsylvania”, they reply.

… and then reality quickly sets in, and the truth comes out – ur just old, so is your city.

Welcome to middle age … it’s the new ancient.

-SWB

 

Da Roof – a copy

“Da Roof Pittsburgh” (c)Lawrence A Capozzolo

Da roof
Da roof
Da roof in on …

yea …. I can’t do it – plagiarise that bad even for a cool crappy poem.

Love this pic … I did as soon as I reviewed it on my camera. It just makes for a cool skyline shot and begs one question: How do you tell which one is yours? Are the locks the same too? Is each home a true copy of the one next to it? I mean, what happens if that’s true and you walk in on the couple a few doors down on their day off and having a little fun? Embarrassing.

Ok … maybe not as embarrassing as the fact that you pulled into the wrong drive-way because you can count that high (I mean … there is only about ten houses there).

Kind of reminds me of Apple products … you can’t tell the difference until you get your credit card bill.

Ahh … you thought this was going to be an Apple rant? Nope …. to easy, besides everyone else is doing that right now so I have to wait a few weeks until it’s interesting again.

Is there any purpose to this at all?

No really … the basic fact of most whining these days.

This is SWB just being tired of everything looking like an outright copy of something that existed previously (movies, people, pigeon poop). It’s tiresome …. no originality anymore. I mean, the pigeons could at least poop in different shapes.

I even make each posting look consistent … it confuses my readers less (not to mention myself).

Oh, originality … where art thou? About the 15th century, I think.

… as my dog would say {{groooooooaaaaaan}}.

The world gets an SWB Clueless award for originality.

-SWB

Thinking up more crap faster than you can erase it from your brain.

Review: DUST Movies on YouTube

Logo (c)DUST

Two links you need to know if you like SciFi and/or good production in general:

• Youtube Link
• DUST Main Website

I remember the old days of good SciFi paperbacks … and publications like Analog, that showcased some of the greatest SciFi shorts of the time. BTW … Analog is still around. Many things like that just dissolve into memories you cherish in your rocking chair (or perpetual motion glider chair). The great thing is DUST, being one of the better online venues, became the modern upgrade for lovers of great fiction … in video form.

I have yet to see a single short on their YouTube channel or site that I would not want to see as a full feature motion picture. Many of these talented film makers work production for many of the commercial length movies you watch at the theaters … some are independents. Regardless of the situation … curating on DUST is outstanding. Check them out … you won’t be disappointed.

Kudos from SWB!

Keep it up and keep us entertained.

Experience the future …. watch DUST!

-SWB

We’re being watched …

“Shut up and give me food” (c) Lawrence A Capozzolo

Yes, we’re being watched,

All the time, everywhere, everyplace …

By the most offended people on the planet.

Ourselves.

Yep …. we seem to offend ourselves so much that we are in a perpetual loop of self-amusement.

We’ve taken offense to a completely new art form … we are now at the point of being offending from more than one direction by the multiply offended who are offended by the offenses of the overly offended (how DARE the offended take a bigger offense to US being offended!! – THIS IS ATROCIOUS!!). I’m offended – I want “Night Court” back on TV so I can state my offense on a non-offended, offensively offending sitcom where any offense cannot be taken seriously (how can you not be indescribably offended by the non-offense of an 80s sitcom …. WTF????).

Come one, humans …. have I made my point?

Talk to each other, face to face …. not through special interest groups.

When humans talk to humans, politics ends … when humans talk through SIGs only, humanity ends.

… think a little bit before being offended and take time to talk to the other humans …. they may be going through the same thing, just on different section of the color wheel. We all have brains, we all have hearts ….. time to make them active again.

Practice “human therapy” and the animals will still have people to feed them.

-SWB

P.S. This SWB Clueless award goes to all humans. We seem to have simply given up on understanding that talking can solve many, if not all issues. Will all of the talking be nice, happy, and surrounded by cute picket fences? …. no – some will be passionate and to the point, but it will be talking. Will we all agree – no, but at least we will be talking.

Netflix AMC Halt and Catch Fire – a late acting surprise gem.

From IMDB

Most of the fan base for this tech history drama  were basically included the techno geeks of all ages, and all generational labels … the true geeks, and the closet ones (we know you …. Big Brother watches you playing your Atari 2600 behind your wardrobe!).

The main reason most watched it … the techie history (or so we thought). In general it was really cool trying to place the fictional company with the real innovative company of the time during each episode (of course seeing the gear was fun too). An yes, I too did wince when the ceiling dust fell into the mainframe due to the partying techs on the floor above.

The characters, in general, were spot on to their stereotypes of the day. The appearance of women heavy in influence in the beginnings of the industry also had much truth … many forget NASA butt being saved prior to the computing golden years by women who learned how to program on their own. Many of the female characters were not put in the show just to get viewership … many times, it was really like that.

In the beginning the show seemed to be more the design of a lite docu-drama about computer history in Silicon Valley. Later it seemed to expand into a hodgepodge of dramas (including the required sex scenes concerning all applicable lifestyles to give the typical cable and streaming series message of “you can watch our show … we’re very PC” – this is the only thing where I see TV hurting these days, when good acting starts to be over-shadowed by the political need to do on-screen CYA). Seasons 1 and 2 were great …. and to the the credit of the writes, if you skipped any scenes you didn’t think applied to the show, the story lines still continued very clearly. Season 3 took me a while to get through, and I even mentioned to wife that it was neat seeing the companies portrayed in seasons 1 and 2 were very cool, but season 3 seems to lack in keeping me interested and I didn’t see a real direction in the writing.

Then season 4 hit. It seems to almost be a continuation of the writing in season 3, but more into the relationships (including family) that were forged and destroyed by the industry – a very real thing. The acting was always decent, but you noticed a higher caliber come into play in season 4. The ending episodes of season 4 brought in a level of writing and acting I haven’t seen in years. If you are a fan of good theatrical acting, but don’t care much about the techie stuff … at least watch the last 4 episodes of season 4 (starting with “Who Needs a Guy”). This is where Gordon passes away due to his health issues. The real highlight is in the last episode where Donna and Cameron go through a dialog about their startup – in about 4 minutes they describe a complete cycle of a company, their relationship in it, and their moving on … in a way that is theatrically award worthy.

Emotionally the last 4 episodes are on the caliber of The Cryptogram. The writers did such an excellent job of making you completely immersed into the families (tech and otherwise) to the point where you felt like you were the one getting on a plane to move away and start over. Emotionally you will be spent.

Don’t miss it …. this is truly one of those gems everyone will end up buying on DVD or digital download in a few years and treasuring (like Heart of Dixie, or All The Rivers Run).

-SWB

Stupidity Persists – the liberty bridge burning

Image (c) pittsburgh.cbslocal.com … see article: http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/photo-galleries/2016/09/02/smoke-rises-over-city-during-tarp-fire-on-liberty-bridge/

N’uff for the credits (we thank CBS for posting the pics and article), now for our bit:

Most of us that have giving ideas to SWB or written the rant, smack, and whining we put into words in this blog have also worked many years with events and other goings on in Pittsburgh (city and surrounding) and we’ve dealt with the safety harassment of the city’s demands on fire retardant ratings for anything during those events.

Basically that means when something started burning it has to stop after so many seconds or minute (I don’t remember all the direct specs).

BTW …. by harassment, I mean having your event shut down or delayed … having artists break their tents down until they can get a fire retardant tent or you can provide one, etc, etc.

Which makes SWB ask the question —– how did this even happen???

IF the city pushed and harassed those bridge contractors as they do the common folk running events within the city limits, that fire should have put itself out minutes after it started with NO damage or safety threats to anyone.

In other words, this should have never happened ….. but as we can see the same tarps are the ones still covering the work areas on the bridge – lovely.

It’s great the contractor or paying $200k plus per day along with the damages to the bridge on top of that … but it’s not like the people that are actually inconvenienced are getting free gas or wear and tear money from the contractor – but I’m sure if those same inconvenienced people decide to work at or host an event in Pittsburgh they will confronted with the fire retardant safety demands of the city … unlike the contractors working on it’s critical infrastructure.

So … the first SWB Clueless award goes to both the Liberty Bridge contractors along with the city itself (sorry, it was too much of a tie to give either one total credit for that level of stupidity considering many lives could have actually been lost).

-SWB

Switching Positions – Crazy Mocha

Alrighty, then ….. for all those loving to jump to conclusions, this article isn’t about making lifestyle choices or anything of the such.

Sorry to disappoint y’all … so ya can jump back from whatever conclusion you landed on (or skip reading this post and pop in your “Office Space” VHS tape .. which will probably be more entertaining).

Anywayz (we’re adding “z’s” to then end of lots of words to appeal more the Millennial generation) :-),

The pic is the view of the new Crazy Mocha store in Sewickley, PA. Now, for a SWB article, does this have a point at all?

Yep.

The blog, when it was on Apple’s web hosting site (yeeeeaaaarrrrs ago) was started with it’s first post in April of 2006 and the posts for years after being written at the Crazy Mocha in Southside when the company had a few stores to speak of. At least two other national blogs and twenty to thirty long time running local blogs were started that year in that Crazy Mocha location.

Now, the newest gem of the store chain – the relocated site in Sewickley PA site has opened for it’s first day with the chain now having way over 30 stores in multiple states (not bad for a local Pittsburgh company, right?)

In honor of Crazy Mocha providing such a beautiful new store, SWB thought it might be a good time to re-kick Screaming Weasel (not to mention with some inspiration from the latest literal bridge burning of the Liberty Bridge).

Check out the new store if you get a chance – even if you don’t live in the area … it is well worth the stop in to another location to celebrate and support a local company.

If you can’t get out to Sewickley – stop at another Crazy Mocha and tell them you saw the post!

-SW

Review: Luke Wholey’s Wild Alaskan Grille

Click Pic for link. SWB has spent years in The Strip, especially liking Wholey’s seafood.  So when Luke decided to open his own seafood spot, we figured it would be hot.

Placed in the old Area 51 spot across from Reyna foods, the space is simple, slightly rustic yet elegant, and very, very, very tasty.  We are convinced that no one does seafood like Luke.

When we went, we treated ourselves to the grilled swordfish. Personally, I have never experienced swordfish as well prepared and moist as I had at Luke’s. The service by all staff (including Luke himself) was excellent. The drinks were heaven. The atmosphere overall with the food quality made a very long day end quite nicely due to Luke’s Grille.

We highly recommend you visit and support this sure to be future Pittsburgh mainstay.

-SWB

Out Of A Coma

We’re back …. or at least out of a coma.

Slightly after our little stint of “help” from the folks at Sophisticated Pittsburgh on upping our number of blog writers, they in fact lost many of theirs.  In other words people got real jobs, go married, or just disappeared of the face of the earth at SP.  As a result, we are coming back to our original self.

So, about our original self. The blog experimentally started in 2005, and was moved to .mac via the Apple iWeb.  We started writing around the time that PittGirl, CafeWitness, and others started and gained one of the top growing blog rankings ending up with 2000 readers per day, across 15 countries while on the .mac site.

That actually scared us, considering the amount of vomit we spewed out in those days along with the other rant blogs.  I’m not sure we’ll be as harsh these days, but we’ll try.

BTW – while we were hosting on .mac, Apple kindly asked us to move our site due to their product not being originally made for the amount of throughput we were getting.

So, around Spring of 2008 we moved to WordPress.

The Weasel is back, and we will be blowing word chunks as far as possible.

Cheers

-SWB

Forgetfulness and Steel – History Repeats Itself

“Forget history and you guarantee it will happen again” … I hated my high school history teacher because he made a vow to fail us all (not a challenge, mind you, an actual vow) … but the above was his favorite quote, and it’s the one critical piece of life that I learned from him.  Unfortunately our country and our government is proving that taking on this attitude about history is really one of the keys to sustainability and survival.

The situation that lead to the current financial crater that is wall street can be blamed on ignoring the “forget history and you will guarantee it will happen again” advice.  Our current situation is eerily similar to one not too long ago … the plight of the steelworker.  You had two groups, both hard working, strong, and carrying large egos.  Neither would give in, neither would compromise … both had a fight until the end attitude.  Some say that represents honor. Some say that represents stupidity.

The end result was many losing homes, life long possessions, families, and what defined them as a human …. the steel industry. A few mentioned over the years that it wasn’t that compromise would not happen that made the steel industry fade away as we know it, but how long it took to get to a point where compromise could or would happen. By the time it progressed to the point of possible compromise, other countries took advantage of the opportunity to wedge into the steel industry, and quickly separated the bulk of the US steel mills from it.

It’s not that our financial situation as a country cannot be fixed, it’s that the egos of the politicians took so long to get to any kind of initial compromise that sever damage was done, leading way to loss of everything for those just hanging on, and loss of part of what defines us as a country.  So the question is, are our politicians going to wait long enough that our country going into sheriff’s sale and gets divvied up by the other entities of the world … or will they actually defend us, instead of their egos, and restore America where the dream of raising a family is possible?

Few people realize, much of wall street is now owned by outside investors, so defending American is really not in it’s top interested …….. making the bottom line, or at least cutting losses for it’s foreign investors is.  Main Street is no longer in a position to be helped by Wall Street, because we have some of the same interests … the only protection we can gain at the wall street level is from our politicians having enough pride in their country to protect it’s residents … but it seems that if they win and are rewarded with the right to say “I was right!” it’s OK if the American Dream is reduced to finding a better dumpster to dive into for dinner tonight.

“Forget history and you guarantee it will happen again” ….

Translation: “Stupid is what stupid is”

-SWB