t3knomanser's Fustian Deposits

I get back from the opera, after a wonderful night out with my wife, and the Internet gives me this:


Well, it's no La Bohème, but it's got a certain charm.

The Pittsburgh Opera Company did an excellent job of putting on La Bohème. It's not one of my favorite operas, but they did a great job. We have to do this and the symphony more often.

I always tell people, in Pittsburgh if you need to fill out a form listing your religious affiliation, there's a checkbox for "Steelers".

Long weekend, but it was nice. My family came in from out of town and visited for a few days (speaking of, apples491, I haven't forgotten about your potential visit, just been very busy- I'll call you this week). They really liked seeing the 'Burgh, even though they weren't here for all that long.

Friday we took them around Downtown and Shadyside for a bit. They were blown away by both, although they were more impressed with Shadyside. It's the nice, quiet, urban neighborhood with shops and restaurants in striking distance. On Saturday, my Mom and Sister opted for shopping, so we hauled them out to the Waterfront for a few hours so they could enjoy the lack of sales tax on clothes. Then back to Downtown for a Pirates/Mets game. They were stunned by the fact that the tickets were $16 (Pirates tickets are cheap). Today, a quick breakfast and then they ran off to the airport.

I'm a homebody that doesn't get out much, so this was a big, active weekend for me. I'm blasted, and look forward to just vegging for the remainder of the day.

This is my pretentious art-school type photograph. I like the reflections on the ground.

Here we go, Stanley cup finals!

Last one for the day, I promise. I just really like this shot.

I thought this was quite the nice photo of Minna. She always looks nice on sunny days like this.

That's Gateway Center in the background, which happens to be the coolest pile of steel arranged in art deco style... ever.

The Mellon Building is really a large space ship. Someday, one of the janitors will stumble across the hidden engine room, and it will take off and leave us all behind.

The big local news story today? Did kindergartners expose themselves to a classmate?

As someone who was once a kindergartner, I'm going to go out on a limb: yes, they probably did. They're six years old, for chrissakes. What the hell do they know? But, oh god- this is headline news! The police are investigating.

Hi, I'd like to welcome you to reality. Over here, children are curious and don't know all of our social mores. Since their nerves function largely the way ours do, they at least understand that touching certain parts of their bodies feels good. They're probably vaguely aware of the taboo, But they don't understand it. Why not? Because they're children! Are there no child psychologists anywhere in that school district? Nobody to explain that this is pretty normal behavior for very young children?

*facepalm*

Public schools, we give your children psychological issues that will plague them for decades so you don't have to.

If you want to make a good showing in the PA primaries, you need to win Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. How do you get Pittsburghers on your side?



Stand shoulder to shoulder with Jerome Bettis and Franco Harris, two of the most beloved Steelers in history. Bettis was "The Bus", a running back that could not be stopped, and Franco Harris caught the "Immaculate Reception", a catch so dramatic it's become part of the local mythology; he's Pittsburgh's own Theseus.

Compared to Clinton, who's been rubbing shoulders with an unpopular governor (who said, in effect, that his state was full of too many racists for a black guy to win it) and a moderately popular Pittsburgh mayor, Obama couldn't play to the locals any better. Throw on top his endorsement from Bob Casey, our very popular Senator, and he really shows a knowledge of the local culture.

Will he win PA? Iffy. But Clinton's lead in this state will be far smaller than she thinks it should be.

The local P-Burgh SPCA rescued a huge number of cats from a "refuge", which was, in reality, a feline death camp. While technically it was a "no kill" sanctuary, in reality it was a "throw the really sick cats in a locked room to die" sanctuary. Police raided the place, and found over 700 cats. Of those, 350 are still around, because about half of them were so sick that they had to be euthanised on the spot.

They're looking for supplies, and will probably be looking for good homes in the near future as well.

Here's the really sick part though. Animal shelters have to be inspected by the local Humane Society. The owner of this ranch was certified and had been inspected. Officials gave her a clean bill of health. There's something to chew on.

I can't put this up on Flickr, because it's too large, and when Flickr compresses it, too much of the nuance is lost. I hate saying that, because I've always felt that you shouldn't rely on details like that, but this one just came out that way.

Like everything else, this is a



This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Needle(huge image)

Well, Minna and I have been out, touring the neighborhood. There's all sorts of neat stuff in a short distance from us (and living a few blocks from an Apple Store is convenient when I feel the overwhelming urge to go fondle an iPhone). It is very reminiscent of Lark Street in Albany, but bigger. There's more chains, but there's also more interesting weird stuff.

First though, these guys should go die in a fire. Walking past their storefront window is pure torture every time. They seem to revel in making the ugliest clothing imaginable, and then putting it on light-up mannequin so that it can assault you from a distance. I can't find the main monstrosity on their website, so this shapeless sack will have to do.
( It gets better )
//This messages has been brought to you by the YOU SHOULD VISIT REMY IN PITTSBURGH foundation.
//No animals were harmed in the making of this message.

A little taste of home is moving to Pittsburgh.

Now, when everyone visits, they will know that Dunkies will be here.

//Hint- come visit!

My in-laws have moved to their new home in Washington County, PA. This might not mean much to any of you, so I provide photographic evidence of how far gone from civilization it truly is.

Der Waffel Haus.

We're mostly moved in. We actually finished the bulk of the schlepping by about 3PM or so. This included moving the cats- who completely lost their shit in the car. Sort of literally- those who have seen Rochester in the car are familiar with how large his bladder is.

So, pee covered cats means Bath. Bath means Rochester flips the fuck out- I now have some nice new holes to prove it. But they're clean. Rochester is adapting nicely. Sephie is hiding under anything she can find and hissing up a storm.

The new place is smaller, but better laid out than our Albany place. Ditto for the place that we're vacating. The bedroom brings back memories of Sarah and Dennis's closet in Troy. Still, the pluses win out- central air, dishwasher.

There are definitely improvements to be made before we really settle in and call the place home, but it'll certainly do for a semi-permanent residence (until we find a house).

We're moving today. I haven't mentioned it much because it's not a move into any place permanent- we're still looking for property to own. Our sublet ended on the 31st, so we needed something a bit more permanent. This move promises to be both the easiest and the hardest move ever.

The easy: We never really unpacked. A good chunk of what we own is still in storage and will remain there for some time. We're not really moving any furniture. The new apartment is half a mile from our current apartment.

The hard: The new apartment is on the fourth floor. There is no elevator. We've done two carloads this week already, and afterwards I'm always wiped out. Today we're moving the little furniture, like the dresser, the desk and the mattress.

Well, after 500 miles with cats in the car, this can't be bad, right?

In other news, despite the shut-off notice, they didn't disconnect Internets last night. So long as they arrive during the scheduled window today to turn it back on at the new apartment, I don't care.

Minna points out our discoveries today- the awesome CoCo's Cupcake Cafe (how awesome is that? gourmet cupcakes! Tiramisu cupcakes!) and the vintage clothing Mecca of Eons.

But- here's something I didn't know- the owner of Eons is from Latham. He went to RPI to study architecture and moved to Pittsburgh. It's almost like there's some cosmic force that brings people from Albany to Pittsburgh. Speaking of, people from Albany should move to Pittsburgh. Or at least visit.

We did snap some pics of my new REALLY LOUD!!!111!!! shirt (that is the technical term for the degree of loudness), but the camera rebelled at the thought of photographing it. I'll try again later.

Rochester made a break for it tonight. Tomorrow, we plaster the neighborhood with flyers. This isn't the first time he's run away, but it's his first time in Pittsburgh. Fortunately, this neighborhood is not too different in character from where we lived in Albany. He at least knows this kind of terrain. I haven't seen many strays either- leading me to think that he won't get his ass kicked this time.

I sent a letter to the editor about the ass-brained plan for rolling out a city wide network of cameras. I was more polite than I was here.
( Read more... )

I move to Pittsburgh and now they decide to make with the Orwellian bullshit?

Fuck that noise.

So, I finally got an MMC-reader (although it doesn't seem to work consistently- it randomly unmounts the card for no clear reason). This means I can retrieve pictures from my phone by means other than one-at-a-time-Bluetooth-exchange (my phone doesn't let me browse the filesystem over Bluetooth- which is annoying).

Anyway, none of that is here or there. Instead, ( this is what I saw during a walk today )

What's really amusing was that we didn't notice it at first. We walked right past the car, stood infront of it for five minutes while waiting for someone, and then Minna realized that it was there. She pointed it out to me, and it took her a few attempts before I actually noticed it. "Look in front of you." "What, the church?" "No, right in front of you." "The large pile of gravel, left over from some road project?" "No, right in front of you." "Oh!"

It's just amazing how the brain can filter things that we really don't expect.

I keep some balls for juggling in my cube. Since the weather's been fairly nice (too hot today), I've been going outside and juggling on my lunch break. Some fresh air, sunlight, a little exercise. Basically, things that are anathema to programmers.

Anyway, as it turns out, over in Market Square, I stumbled across another group of jugglers. We swapped some info, and hopefully will meet up again soon. They have much more by way of juggling supplies- I was just starting to get used to juggling rings (still have a mental block about clubs for whatever reason). Apparently, those guys have been running around getting kicked out of public places for juggling in them.

Speaking of juggling, I've been doing work too. So please, let me explain how ( the 'Screens' part of the application works )

All bitching aside, I'm starting to get a feel for how the app works, and I'll be ready to really dive into things next week.

First day of my new job. I haven't started a new job since I started at New Horizons... five years ago. For someone my age, that's a long time to have been doing the same thing- even with the break I took to "contract" for a year. I'm excited about it- I have every expectation that it's going to be a great day and a great job.

Right now, I'm sitting across the street from my workplace. There's a Bruegger's, which means coffee. Coffee is a good thing. Next door, there's a t-shirt store, the sort that sells "wacky" tees. And they advertise as such, right on the sign: "Giggles: Humorous Tees ECT" (emphasis mine).

This is also my first day breaking the iPod out in awhile. It apparently needed to be restored, which I did. This made it prompt me for a language. One accidental input later, and my iPod speaks Chinese. Oops. I can fix that.

Right now, there's two properties on our list, and they're pretty much opposites in many ways. Suburbs vs. City, all that. So, mostly for my reference, I'm slapping together a list of pro's and con's- feel free to weigh in. Later, I may do a friends-only post of the actual listings.

Condo

House

Pros Cons Great neighborhood Well laid out, no work needed. Common areas are cool. 2-car Garage in Pittsburgh (very rare) Right on the bus-line. 20 minute bus-ride to work. Instead of selling it when we're done, it could be a lucrative rental property Small - not "family raising" material (not an immediate concern) Expensive at $169K High taxes Bad schools (also, not an immediate concern)

Pros Cons Priced to move- $129K Big, spacious. Huge basement. Small yard. Great school district Lower taxes 0.5 miles away from a shopping/restaurant district. Longer commute, but still not bad. Need to drive for many things. It would probably be hard to sell later. Grounds need some work- staircase in the yard needs to be replaced, the front-driveway needs to be leveled off (it's a >30º slant down when you drive in, and there's no room to turn around before going out onto a busy road) No garage

I'm sure Minna will have a few more to add on, but this is a good first list. I want the condo, but the house in the 'burbs might be a wiser purchase. The condo would definitely be good for a few years, but once there's a rugrat, it's not going to last much longer. But the option of renting it out after a few years means that, after a time, it can basically pay for itself (especially if we can get the mortgage payments down). The house will never be a burden to carry, and we can hold onto that for years- it could easily accommodate a family.

We've finally finished the move- Internet has been set up. Aside from Comcast being a bit of a pain in the ass about handing out IPs, it went fairly smoothly. We also have cable TV in addition to cable Internet- because it's cheaper to get both.

Well, we'll have an easy time watching Steelers' games at least. We have some errands to run before going to look at houses tonight. I'll snap some pics of the faves, and do a big ol' picture post in the near future (I either need to get the data cable working or buy a smart-card reader).

I'm going to do my best to start using photos more. I have a camera phone, and I should really start using it. I need to find a way to end photos to my lappy as a batch- maybe using the datacable instead of bluetooth. Yesterday, I also finally realized why Twitter would be useful- after eight hours on the road, you notice some really cool things.

It was more than eight hours though. After loading the truck on Sunday, we relaxed and got up bright and early on Monday morning. The first real hurdle was getting the cats in the car- specifically Sephie. She did not like the idea of being held, being packed into the carrier, or... well, doing anything but hiding behind the water heater, which is the only place she could hide where we couldn't get her. We tried giving her a few minutes to relax, but once Sephie is stressed, she stays that way for a long while. Minna had an Mom moment: "We are leaving and you are getting in the damn car!" She scared Sephie out, we cornered her, made the grab, and packed her into their traveling crate.

Traveling worked out better than expected. We packed them into this crate, which has three entrances- a small kennel style one, one side olds up, and the top opens. The last was a great option for loading the cats, but the side-door worked out really well for the car. We folded Minna's seats down in the back, put food, water and litter in the trunk (they used none of it) and opened the side of the crate into the trunk area. This allowed them some freedom of movement, which they used whenever we stopped. While driving, they settled into the crate. While the large crate is inconvenient for short trips, I'm still going to use it for them- the large space makes the cats much more comfortable.

We got to Pittsburgh with no major problems, and did the unpacking, storaging and truck-dropping-off. We started our day at 530, and knocked off at 2200- so it was a long day.

Today is mostly going to be spent relaxing, but Rochester already has made some other plans. He discovered the fireplace- which I don't think is functional anymore, but it apparently wasn't cleaned when they blocked if up- so there's a layer of soot. My mostly white (with grey) cat is mostly grey with splots of white. It was the cutest thing, walking in after grabbing some breakfast. He marched up to the door with a feline smile that announced, "This is the coolest apartment ever! There's DIRT in it!" This adventure earned him a bath. The bath mostly spread the soot around- he's not tracking it everywhere, but he's dingy. I will probably need to give him a more thorough bath later.

The apartment is okay- I'm glad my cats don't eat power cords, because there's certainly enough of them around. Instead of running wiring through the walls, or at the very least putting wiring in conduits, some of the lights are wired using extension cords. This is uncool. Other than that, it's a pretty nice place. Little old, little beat up, but with some effort from the landlord, this place could be gorgeous. The landlord just wants rent money, not valuable property. Meh. I'm only here for a few months.

The neighborhood is great. We're a hop, skip and a jump from Walnut St., which is like Lark St., but bigger and more developed, with a wider array of shops (including some chain stores; if such a thing were to appear on Lark, I think there would be riots).

I am now going to hit the post button, and hope the signal is strong enough that this thing posts.

We've arrived, safe and sound. The cats didn't suffer too much. We, on the other hand, suffered greatly. We're hot, tired, and spending the first night in our sublet- which is alternate turns crappy/okay, depending on what specifically you're looking at. It's a standard junky college-kid apartment. It does the job.

I'll do a real update later, when I've slept and have a decent Internet connection- people with open routers don't live close enough for my tastes.

The Big Day(s) are upon us. I spent the last week boxing up everything that held still long enough to be boxed. Today, we had heap big help loading the truck. We disposed of great quantities of stuff, and I discovered that all our worldly possessions don't even fill a 16" truck halfway full.

Tomorrow, we drive to Pittsburgh. The cats will not be pleased. They'll get over it. I am tired, I need a shower, and then intend to vegetate the rest of the night. We will rise very early, pile on in, and get to driving. What a long strange trip it'll be.

Not as if we needed confirmation, but miusheri is awesome. For evidence, I submit this quote:

I'll try to make a bunch of these for Remy and the cats to combat. Then, we'll have to assemble those Paperformers, build a few paper starships, craft crude Cybermen from tin cans, and stage the ultimate fucking battle for the universe in our future living room.

Trey awesome, yesno? She is also the source of the picture(  along the side )

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In other news, today was the last day of work. It's a pretty strange feeling- it certainly doesn't feel quite real yet, but I've got a new job in a big company. Everyone had stuff to say about me leaving, and I really am going to miss folks. It really was a decent crowd of people to work with. Today was the reward lunch (when we have good little instructors, they throw us a bone in the form of a monthly free meal), which was specifically scheduled to fall on my last day, and thus double as a bit of a goodbye thing.

It really is weird, and a little thrilling. I've got everything more or less lined up, everything's in place, but for the next week I'm in a smidge of "freefall" as I travel through that temporal gap between Albany and Pittsburgh.

Speaking of- is anyone free and willing to play chauffeur on Monday, sometime between 8-5? I've gotta get to my drug test- there are plenty of alternatives, so I'm not stuck by any means. But if anyone feels like it, and is curious to know why the Madison Ave. Extension is no where near Madison Ave., it could be a fun trip. And drugs are involved, although sadly, only in their absence.

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For a strange change of pace, I've got a shitload to post. As another aside, my credit card was compromised- somebody went on a shopping spree online, signed me up for spam phone calls, bought crap off of iTunes, etc., etc., etc. Long story short? I'm miffed, but a quick trip to the bank will clear it up, and I'll get my money back. The advantages of a credit-backed debit card- this shit is cake to clear up. I do like my bank.

I am curious as to the vector- some merchant, letting my numbers free? A slimy data-entry-dweeb scribbling on a post-it? A hacked DB? Or, more in the realm of paranoia, someone scanning the not-secure-enough RFID in my card? I don't think the latter would have let them retrieve my CC, confirmation number, and expiration date. But still...

On a side note, if I ignore the security implications, the RFID credit-card is cool. I can take my wallet and hold it near the scanner and pay that way, without ever opening the wallet. Once they get the security kinks worked out, it'll be six kinds of awesome.