Bits of camera data from the last three months, including the only two images from the superbowl madness that aren't out of focus:

  
  

Swiped from here and possibly out of date, the Pittsburgh noise ordinance:

AN ORDINANCE

October 1, 1998

For personal reference, this handy FAQ on how to deal with these things, and the froogle search for decibel meters.

Pitt turns 250 and I "celebrate" by tripping over a chunk of concrete, twisting recovery into an attempt at a fucking moon shot. These are the results:

 

The face washed off. My right hand is sandpaper; extent of damage to be figured out when I wake up tomorrow.

The world continues to end on a Thursday. See this Post Gazette article from September 7th; a more detailed article from Pittsburghlive, and a synopsis from bizjournals.

A really detailed breakdown of the Clean Indoor Air act, signed June, 2008. And The Law Itself, if you're of a mind to parse the legalese.

1. This kills the Beehive smoking section. The Beehive smoking section is roughly 3/4 of the shop by volume, and more like 4/5 of the shop by customers. If they can't find a loophole they're looking at a potentially massive hit to business.

2. Bars that either don't sell food or make less than 20% of their revenue through food are apparently fine. Smokers are still GO! for the Smiling Moose, Dee's (probably - they have a grill but it isn't used all that much, so I dunno), and various other Pittsburgh bars.

3. The common "gimme" is that "you can always smoke outside." I think their thinking on this is that Pittsburgh air is so fucking filthy that nobody will notice.

4. What they will notice, however, is all that secondhand smoke billowing out from crowds of loiterers forced onto the street. While forcing it outside solves the "problem" for the interior of establishments, it only moves the problem - outside, in front of the establishment. This was a major problem when I was in Philadelphia, as every bar had a crowd in front of it, often blocking the entrance, often completely blocking street traffic. Forcing the dope fiends outside creates a pedestrian traffic obstruction and exposes them to secondhand smoke they wouldn't be encountering if the fiends were allowed to stay indoors with their laptops and bookbags and ash trays.

5. A lot of those obstructed pedestrians are non-smokers. Some of them are even the passive-aggressive nanny-state whiners who support the ban. Whiners who will now be more exposed to secondhand. Verily, I am amused.

6. My biggest issue with smoking bans of any sort is a simple one : taxes. The gubmint makes quite a lot of money off of the legal vices - booze and nicotine. Booze arguably causes vastly more damage in terms of lives lost and property destroyed than smoking does, but it continues to proliferate - people like to get out of their heads, and the tax revenue more than makes up for the additional inconvenience. By effectively banning smoking in all of the places that smokers congregate to smoke, you're passively encouraging them to quite - passively-aggressively encouraging them come winter. This doesn't effect the die-hard junkies, as they're already chainsmoking in their recliners at home. But overall, the long term effect is that some people will quit, and fewer people will be socially "encouraged" to pick up the habit. Fewer smokers means fewer people buying cigarettes means less tax revenue.... and with the price of a pack floating around the five dollar mark, you're talking about a lot of tax revenue. If the aggro non-smoking crowd had their way and everybody quit (For Your Health! For The Environment! Big Tobacco Is Evil! Damn The Man! etc.), well... what then?

A quick google digs up this article from 2002 in which a $0.69 tax increase projected $896 million in additional revenue. That's almost a billion dollars - on top of the existing tax revenue - a bunch of lung-killing dope fiends give the state every year. A billion buys a lot of school books. Or more accurately, makes a lot of BMW payments.

7. For me, while this is incentive to re-drop a habit I had, lost, and re-acquired, it amounts to a savings of $150 a month and an additional incurred expense of approximately $30-40 a month for anti-anxiety medication and possibly additional medical expenses in the event that my IBS - dormant in the presence of nicotine - flares up again. And since the anti-anxiety meds have a grotesque multiplier effect in the presence of alcohol (think : you feel really REALLY good after a few drinks, and then really REALLY horrible the next day), I'd wind up drinking a hell of a lot less than I do now. Thus depriving the state of a small but steady and dependable revenue stream. Yes, I'll live longer. I'll be able to think "deep" again. I'll have more energy than I know what to do with again. But I won't enjoy it as much.

Coffee, however, will go from hitting me like a moth to hitting me like a ton of bricks driven into my skull. By a brick truck. Dropped from fucking orbit. So there's that, at least.

7.A. Also - assuming I follow through, do the three days of Total Hell and the two months of depression, etc - all ATC characters who smoke will inevitably start smoking again. This drug really gets under your skin, folks - a few hits as a teen and I'd find myself longingly drawing a character smoking. Whitehouse was created as a chainsmoker a week or so after quitting (for a year and a half) in 2005; West, Ornix, and Thad have all been drawn as smokers around a similar time period and for similar reasons. When I started back up again, these character traits completely disappeared and I had to remind myself - constantly - that these characters do in fact smoke.

7.B. This'll also give me some additional incentive to delve into a subtler plot point, re: The Dualist - that being Thad's nicotine addition is a physical thing that Thad's-Mind-In-Val's-Body isn't subject to.

8. As with everything in my life, I think about needing or wanting to do it and then Something Happens that makes the decision less of a voluntary thing and more of a necessity. If only this skill could be used for direct personal gain instead of around-the-margins course adjustment. :P

Andy Alm unleashes the awesome might of his accordion on Liberty Avenue. Excerpts filmed while waiting for a Deftones soundalike to open up for a The Cure cover band at Pegasus.

Andy Alm unleashes his accordion on Liberty Avenue:

Most of an Andy Alm cover of the "water world" music from the original Super Mario Brothers (!!):

This man - and his accordion - made my week. Maybe even my year. I gave his accordion case all of the coins in my pockets, took his name, and can't seem to manifest his Facebook profile. But he does seem to have a YouTube channel (linked above) and had no objection to his performance being YouTubed.

I've always had a fondness for street musicians. Street musicians who delve beyond the constraints of the acoustic guitar, that is. Those who embrace other, more alien means of expression. I've heard the violin, the saxaphone (always a favorite), the trombone, the gospel singer (heard but not seen and to great effect)... but never.... an ACCORDION?!

Wow.

Andy Alm exudes the best possible Awesome at the outer orbit of my greatest hour of need. There is no better omen.

00:06 <@solios> xeno: dude, I was waiting outside a GAY BAR to go see a COVER BAND. And this guy cut loose.
00:06 <@solios> it doesn't get awesomer.
00:06 <@solios> ever.
00:06 <@xeno> asdjklfasdjklf
00:06 <@xeno> you mean you saw that LIVE.
00:07 <@solios> I shot that video.
00:07 <@solios> see the account name? :)
00:07 <@xeno> @_@
00:07 * xeno falls right the fuck over
00:07 <@solios> i gave him all of my pocket change, took his name, shook his hand and thanked him for making my week.
00:07 <@xeno> fucking \m/
00:09 <@solios> :D

Carnegie Library Of Pittsburgh, Oakland branch, Lecture Hall entrance. AKA "around back." Defacement most likely occurred between 2200 last night and 0630 this morning. Or Sunday night, according to one of my coworkers.

  

According to my roommate (who's had a check stolen and another piece of mail tampered with) and a neighbor (who, according to said roommate, shooed this guy out of the mail drop area of his apartment building), there's a thief going through mailboxes on the South Side. He's active in the 2200 block, and if he's poking around there it's a good bet he's active elsewhere.

In the case of my roommate, one piece of mail has been tampered with and one piece of mail has "never arrived" (and has as a result had to be reissued, causing him and his employer undue inconvenience). For some reason the interwebs has "mail theft" tightly wound around "identity theft," both of which are federal offenses. I've had mail "fail to arrive" at my house before. It's one of the reasons I get things shipped to work whenever possible. I've also had mail just sit in the mailbox for weeks at a time - my house revieces a nearly endless stream of junk mail, tax information, credit card applications (and sometimes bills) and other miscellanious garbage for the last half a dozen tennants. There's a pile of the stuff in the kitchen. But it's been quite awhile since I've failed to receive an expected piece of mail, and I've never had mail in my name arrive in tampered condition. A mutilated UPS order in 2001, but that hardly counts. That's background noise, the price of city living. But my roommate getting fucked with - and my neighbors getting fucked with - in such a short period of time isn't background noise. It's suspicious. And as much as I dislike having neighbors, I dislike the possibility of a thief in the neighborhood even more. Hopefully this is a freak apparition - but on the off chance that this isn't, the guy was dumb enough to almost get caught before... so he'll probably screw up again. Hopefully on somebody else's block.

Combine this with the recent theft of a pair of headphones from my office at work and I'm feeling a bit more paranoid than usual.

Which is pretty damned paranoid, really.

Yes, a mail slot in the door would completely solve the problem - but this isn't a high tech house - and that would only solve for this house, not the neighborhood.

From my work inbox:

BOULEVARD OF THE ALLIES TO CLOSE JANUARY 3, 2007!

The Boulevard of the Allies will be closed to all thru traffic between January 3, 2008 at midnight, and November 21, 2008. All Northbound traffic approaching the bridge will be directed onto Craft Avenue and onto the new North Ramp from 5th Avenue. All Southbound traffic approaching Oakland will be forced to take the Parkway East exit ramp just past Mercy Hospital. Again, the new North Ramp will be in use and traffic leaving Oakland can access the Blvd of the Allies North bound and the Parkway East Westbound via the new ramp.

Special NOTE: Commuters will not see any changes in their evening commute on Thursday, January 3, 2008. However, they should be PREPARED for new traffic pattern the morning of Friday, January 4, 2008.

More information is allegedly here, in the form of a buzzword compliant brochure.

   

What was a trickle on Friday morning and then a torrent on Saturday - adequately handled by the nearby storm drain - has grown into a worrisome flood that's spread to the south side of the street, the storm drain across the street (the 21st side of 22nd & Carson), and down 22nd for at least a block.

Unfortunately, none of those pictures turned out.

Update, 18:16 : The lake has been replaced by a bunch of overweight guys standing around and pointing. Progress!

  

So... this torrent of steaming swamp water in front of the South Side library has been running since sometime yesterday morning. I think. There was a river Friday morning and no No Parking signs (that I noticed, anyway), and today there's a torrent and No Parking signs (the little yellow things on the parking meters).

Maybe tomorrow there'll be a work crew.

A few pics from Pressure : 80s Zombie Night:

   

1300 hours. 78°f, 87% humidity, dewpoint 74°.

   

Don't let the publicity photos fool you. This is Pittsburgh.

A Korean War era F-86 Sabre flies lead with an A-10 Thunderbolt and an F-15E Strike Eagle. Video taken with Canon PowerShot A95 video option, hence the shakiness.

A few images from the annual Wings Over Pittsburgh airshow:

   
   
   
   
   
   
 

Thanks to Martin from CLP IT for bringing me along. There was all manner of awesome to be had, and there'd be many more images available if my camera batteries hadn't gone blooey.

Either somebody forgot this fun fact, or they got tossed. Given the goods (boxes and furniture) and their condition (decent), it could be either. Whatever the situation, this Pile Of Crap is in the process of acquiring severe water damage - the temperature has gone above freezing and it's all getting nailed by chunks of ice and snow.

   

   

Since the Pile Of Crap is blocking the band entrance to the Lava Lounge, I'm sure something will be done about it shortly.

My neighbors rule.

The text? "I don't have a problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexuals."

Go Santorum.

=====

Cropped (actual camera size) and sloppily straightened out and tweaked for Iverson.

Youtubed video of the Steel City Derby Demons Full Contact Musical Chairs performance @ Ceremony, 20061001.00:30.

(Disclaimer : I have nfi how long youtube holds on to uploaded video.)

2314 East Carson st.:

  

The Oakland EB is a video game store. It sells video games. It's conveniently located across the street from The Upstage (that's the 3600 block of Forbes Avenue, kids).

• It sells video games. If you want to buy current video games, this is good.
• It sells used DVDs for some reason. Since the Oakland Dave's is out of business, I suppose it picks up the slack.
• "Instant" gratification. See cons for the reason behind the quotes.
• Convenient location. It's a quick walk from the museum, and a quicker walk from any Oakland- or Downtown-bound bus. It's a hell of a lot easier to get to than Target.
• It's not The Record Exchange, so there's no suspicious eyefucking or record store snobbery.

• "Instant" gratification means sales tax. You'll get that anywhere.
• Since they're a small shop, and nowhere nearly as cool as the old locally owned and operated video game store that used to be behind the Oakland Beehive, they only carry the current and reasonably current stuff.
• The service SUCKS.
  • TWENTY MINUTE WAIT IN LINE. Mostly because the previous exchanges all went like variants of mine:
  • (beginning of POS) "Do you have a discount card?" "No." "Do you know about them?" "Yes.*" "Do you want a discount card?" "No." "Are you SURE?" "YES."
  • (games) "We have this used. Do you want it used?" "No." "Are you sure?" "Yes." (blank stare from clerk, glare from me)
  • (systems) "You want a used one?" "No." "You want the mini-DS?" "No." "It's the same price!" "NO." "Are you sure?" "YES."
  • (end of POS) "Do you want to reserve any games?" "No." "Do you want to be informed of any upcoming releases?" "No." "Are you sure?" "YES."**
• There are two POS kiosks and what I can only assume are two employees. In reality, the staff consists of one lard-encased shampling heap moving in slow motion, slightly outside of our timestream. His "job skills" consist of ramming through the training script that has been branded into his skull by some EB training thing. He probably has lidlock scars under his eyeballs. The other "employee" is an incredibly lifelike mannequin. It may have blinked once in the entire time I was in the store. Eight people in line, each suffering five minutes or longer as the shambling heap labors through its script, and this mannequin sat there and did exactly nothing. I'm embellishing this point only slightly - at one point, he got up (much to the surprise of everyone else in the store, shambling heap included), wandered off, came back with a pricing gun or packaging tape gun (I didn't care enough to discern), and returned to his seat. He stayed put until I left the store.
• The store layout is hostile to the shitty service described above- there's no way to get to the goods without nudging through the line, and the line queues up between a rack of Z-grade DVDs nobody would look at twice, and a rack of PS2 games that may one day enter service as paperweights. The space between the racks is barely wide enough for your average gamer-type: I may be getting squishy in my old age, but my complexion is decent and I'm positively svelte compared to these people.
• Did I mention that the service SUCKS?!

It's conveniently located. Prices (everything is cheaper on Amazon) and "service" (hah!) more than make up for it. I'm shopping on Amazon and at Target from now on.

Under other circumstances, I'd be quite a bit less harsh on the employees. But man. Holy CRAP. I've never had service this sluggish and halfassed - and that includes the asshole at the Crossroads who was just standing around behind the counter doing nothing. When berated by one of his coworkers ("Hey, we've got customers!") the asshole's reply was "So? They'll wait. :P." The jackass wasn't there long, but these EB drones feel like lifers. If I'm going to pay for attitude, I'll take the tongue-in-cheek snarikness of the crew at The Apple Store in Shadyside. They're prompt, courteous, and all that other good stuff. These EB guys got none of that. You want to sit on your ass while your coworker fields eight customers over the course of twenty-five minutes? Fuck you.

Harsh? Definitely. But I don't plan on going back, so I don't feel a need to pull my punches.

* Every store has these damned things now. If I actually took every card shoved in my face I wouldn't have any room in my wallet for my ID, Debit, or health insurance cards. Amazon is less hassle.

** Remember when you could walk into a store, pick out what you want, take it to the counter, pay for it, and leave? So do I. I seriously fucking miss that shit. I like to get-and-go- I'm seriously not into this debriefing/interrogation shit every place that isn't the 7-11 does these days.

Earlier this week:

 

File photo, April 2005 (I have several shots of this building, but nothing similar to the above angles):

:(

 
 

:|

(photos taken, approved, and posted with permission.)

20:49 < mdxi> solios: tell her that random nerds care and want to kick ass for her, if that helps any.

I shop at Utrecht because the prices are about half that of Top Notch. That and they're three blocks from my house. I do not, as evinced by the following account, shop there for the service.

< clerk> do you have an artsmart card?
< solios> no.
< clerk> do you want an artsmart card?
< solios> no.
< clerk> they're FREE.
< solios> no. (worried about sputnik, irritated with Idiot Clerk)
* clerk stares into a space somewhere off to the right of the register for about forty seconds.
* solios tosses a $20 on the counter.
< clerk> do you want an artsmart card?
< solios> NO.
* clerk processes order.
* clerk stares into register drawer.
* clerk pulls out two fives.
* summer passes and fall arrives.
* clerk pulls out four ones, double-checks.
* fall passes clean into next fucking year.
* clerk manifests change, counts it out, drops it on counter.
< solios> ...
* clerk remembers receipt.
* solios, having made three separate trips to his pocket, isn't about to wait for this dipshit to remember how to bag product. He stuffs the bristol pad in his bag and leaves.

While the above account is atypical, Utrecht service has gotten laggard and belligerent since they've started the "artsmart" thing - if you don't have a card, they treat you like a second class citizen. The store was much more pleasant before the program started, I think - nevermind the fact that the last half a dozen microns I've bought there seem to be "pre-owned."