Mid Life Crunches

Today is one of the saddest days in Pittsburgh, the Blogosphere, and the Pittsburgh Blogosphere. Anonymous blogger PittGirl, has shutdown her popular blog, TheBurghBlog. Both the PostGazette and PopCityMedia reveal in e-mails from PittGirl, that her identity had been compromised, which could have resulted in her losing her job. Sadly, PittGirl had no choice but to shut down her blog.

I will definitely miss TheBurghBlog. PittGirl's posts always put a smile on my face. She has done so much for Pittsburgh, bloggers, and Pittsburgh Bloggers. Although PittGirl joked about everything Pittsburgh, she did it because she truly loves everything Pittsburgh. She inspired everyday Joe/Joe-ette The Plumbers to blog, and unknowingly united people as minions/fans. PittGirl, Thank You and Best Wishes.

We had snow flurries since Sunday, and it looks like the local TV stations are doing their best to hype up the Winter Weather forecasts. Here are some tricks I saw this evening watching TV and the local news:

• Multi-day accumulation totals - if the accumulation amount for one day is too small, provide an accumulation today for more than one day. This increases the accumulation total, but you have to remember it is spread over several days, not one day.
• 30 second commercial teasers - always play 30 second teaser commercials hinting at impending doom, school closings, etc, but don't really tell the whole story yet. Tell the viewer they have to wait for the next scheduled newscast.
• Live report from the snowiest place in the area outside of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh is located in Allegheny County. If the snow forecast for Allegheny County is too small, have a reporter travel outside of Allegheny County (at least an hour drive) and broadcast a live report of the "horrible" conditions.
• Report accumulation totals from an untreated surface like an empty parking lot - To make it look worse than it really is, have the live broadcast with a reporter showing the accumulation total from an untreated surface like an empty parking lot. An untreated surface will have more snow that a treated, well traveled road.

Hyping up the winter weather is one of my pet peeves with the local media. Just think how bad it will be when a real snow storm hits.

Mark Cuban, Pittsburgh native from Mt. Lebanon, entrepreneur millionaire, and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA basketball team has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with insider trading. Pittsburgh sports fans will remember that Mark Cuban was supposedly interested in buying the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Pittsburgh Pirates. You will also remember that Cuban was a lot of talk and no action. Everyone has a blog these days, and Mark Cuban responds to the allegations on his blog.

The average temperature this time of year is still supposed to be in the 50's, but here we are in the mid 30's. I have been slowing introducing winter clothes out of storage - long sleeve shirts, sweats, gloves, hats, etc. Another sure sign of winter is breaking out my Under Armour Coldgear for workouts in the basement.

I have had enough of Microsoft Windows Live OneCare. It is supposed to be an all in one suite for PC maintenance - security updates, virus software, firewall software, backup software, etc. OneCare is supposed to start automatically after the PC is rebooted and an icon should appear in the taskbar to indicate that it is active and working. Yesterday was the third time where OneCare would not start automatically on startup. The previous two times, I had to un-install and re-install to get it working again. For this third time, I just un-installed and did not reinstall. Sure, I like fixing PC problems since it is my chosen profession, but after 3 strikes, and one late night trying to fix it, enough is enough. I am going to call Microsoft to cancel my OneCare subscription. As an interim solution for my antivirus software, I installed AVG Anti Virus Free Edition. Damn you Bill Gates!

I took a day off from work to burn some of my remaining vacation days and made a stop at the Ross Park Mall. It has been advertised that an LLBean store would be opening on 11/21/2008, so I thought I would walk by to see where it was located in the Mall. It is located across from the Cheesecake Factory, and to my surprise they were actually open. One of the employees indicated that it was a "soft" opening. The official grand opening celebration will be 11/21/2008. The employees were very friendly. Almost everyone greeted me and asked if I needed assistance. Of course, there were very few customers in the store, so this could explain the enthusiasm of the employees. The store is actually two floors high, and is quite spacious. The employees seemed familiar with their primary area of responsibility, but were a little unfamiliar with other areas of the store. I was told that they have not received all of their merchandise yet. I have purchased products in the past from LLBean online, and have been very satisfied with the quality of their products, even if they are little more expensive. I am glad to see an LLBean store in Pittsburgh now.

Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of each month, the day on which Microsoft releases security patches. For November 2008, there will only be 2 patches released by Microsoft.

PittGirl, from theburghblog.com was recently "interviewed" for Pittsburghmagazine.com. Check it out. If you are a Pittsburgh blogger, then you know about theburghblog.com and PittGirl. If you have not heard of theburghblog.com, then start reading, you will be hooked.

One of my neighbors in the block had his annual 29th birthday party this Saturday. Yes, he celebrates his 29th birthday every November and he invites everyone in the neighborhood to attend. He does not ask for gifts and even provides all the food, beverage, and entertainment. What a great neighbor. I missed posting yesterday due to the festivities.

I usually do not talk about work in my posts, but tonight I will. My employer is a national company with locations in several states. Over the past several years my company has been downsizing as many others have. The downsizing usually occurs a few months before the end of the year - the end of October/early November. One of my fellow employees was notified today that his job is being eliminated. His supervisor from out of state (which is common with my company) drove in today and delivered the news personally. He has two weeks left and will receive a severance package. I am saddened because this employee is very friendly, works long hours, is liked by everyone, and has a family to support. He is around my age, mid 40's. I am a little shocked because there are much older employees near retirement age still working at my company. Life is just not fair.

When I got home from work today, I was wondering what my daily blog post would be for today. TV and CSI to the rescue. Lady Heather, one of the most memorable recurring characters, returned to tonight's episode of CSI. The end of the show leaves the impression that Grissom and Lady Heather finally hook up. I have lost some interest in CSI since a few of the major characters/actors have left the show. However, the trailers with Lady Heather coaxed me into watching.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will introduce a third team jersey today. The jersey and uniform are the same light blue color pattern that the Penguins wore in last season’s NHL Winter Classic against the Buffalo Sabres on New Year’s Day. Here is a link to the history of the team uniform. I think the jersey is pretty cool.

I took the advice from most of the news outlets and avoided voting before work and after work. I left work around high noon and arrived at my designated polling location around 12:30 PM. I did not have to wait at all, I was in and out in about 10 minutes. The Ivotronic voting machines where a new experience for me. Pressing the big red button at the top of the screen is supposed to officially cast your ballot. It flashed for what seemed like an eternity and then finally the flashing red VOTE button went out and the screen changed with a confirmation message saying I was done. I was hungry so I went to a nearby Wendy's and encountered a line that was longer than the non existent line to vote. The Wendy's was understaffed, at the registers and the food prep area, and the employee's main focus was the drive thru line. I avoided waiting in one line, but then ran into another, oh well.

Tonight is Election Eve. I am glad Election Day is tomorrow. I am getting a little tired of the negative TV advertising, the flyers in the mail, and numerous messages left on my answering machine. Even though the election tactics can be annoying, be glad that you live in a country where there is an election process. If you are registered to vote, exercise your right. If you want more information on where to vote or how to use the new voting machines, go the Votespa.com.

November is National Blog Posting Month, NaBloPoMo. Silly me, I missed posting yesterday. I was going to talk about Pitt's quadruple overtime win over Notre Dam, but it is old news today. The Cincinnati Bungle's (as the late Myron Cope would say) won their first game of this season. I watched the highlights and it was painfully obvious how ugly their uniforms are. I looked up their uniform on Wikipedia, and they wore their alternate uniform, which was bright orange with black tiger stripes. The orange is just too annoying. I think their helmets are cool though.

Here is a picture this morning from my deck.

WTAE TV Channel 4 recently re-shuffled their weekday anchors. I did not realize until this morning that it also affected the weekend morning newscasts. Janelle Hall previously anchored the morning weekend newscasts solo. Now she is co-anchoring with Sheldon Ingram. I am bummed, my "Janelle Time" has been decreased. Saturday is the day after Friday high school football games, so more "Janelle Time" was cut out due to High School Football highlights. Nothing against Sheldon Ingram, but I am not in favor of this move.

Anyone who follows sports talk radio in Pittsburgh has been asking "When is Mark Madden returning?". Well, the answer is Monday, 10/13/20008, on 105.9 FM, WXDX, from 3 to 6 PM. See the screenshot from WXDX's website.

The Pittsburgh Penguins season opening game will be this Saturday, 10/4, against the Ottawa Senators in the great country of Sweden. Here is a link to the official Pittsburgh Penguins website where you will find the 2008-2009 schedule, and TV/Radio info. Here are two of the best blogs that cover the Penguins: 1) The Pensblog - this blog is run by a group of young Pens Fans. They are known for their reader submitted Photoshops, humorous game analysis, and are the originators of the WWGRD phenomena; and 2) Faceoff Factor - this blog is more cerebral with their game analysis. Let's Go Pens!

There is just something about a Biker Girl that sparks my interest. No, I am not talking about motorcycles, but human powered bicycles with 2 pedals. Ever since I bought my bicycle last fall and started riding my bike, I pay more attention to news articles about biking. The Pittsburgh Tribune Review had an article about a female bike messenger in Pittsburgh. There is also a short video online that you can watch, check it out.