So yesterday, when I woke up exhausted at 6:30 to get ready for class, I broke out the Pittsburgh gear. Later that day I'm walking down the hall of a building CRAMMED with people and someone yells, "HEY! PITTSBURGH!!!" I look, and there's a dude in a Pens jersey who is literally BEAMING at me, and we shared that special Pittsburgher moment. You ( Read more... )

"Many years later, I was to evoke that lost neighborhood of Junction Hollow, that stairway and the impenetrable factory that guarded its uppermost landing in my first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh. And of all the questions that have been put to me, over the years, regarding that book, one of the most frequent, from people who don't know ( Read more... )

I generally despise my job, but sometimes talking to clients is fun. Like today, when a guy called me about something product-related and I discovered that he's originally from Pittsburgh, so we talked Stanley Cup business for about fifteen minutes. He tipped me to this Malkin interview, which I hadn't heard about:

Sidney Crosby continues to gather ( Read more... )

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As some of you know, for several years I've been making a tidy sum on the side participating in MRI studies through CMU's Department of Psych. I've become something of a reliable workhorse for the brainscan people, because I am a rock star at remaining very still for hours and doing mental acrobatics. (It's more the keeping still part, if I'm ( Read more... )

I'm very much enjoying how the Post-Gazette went all historical with the Pens-Flyers rivalry...PA historical, not hockey historical. There were some hilarious results:

"When William Penn founded the colony of Penn's Woods and established the City of Brotherly Love, his Society of Friends, or Quakers, could not have imagined how a hockey rivalry ( Read more... )

All of my friends should cross their respective fingers and think good thoughts so that I'll find an apartment this weekend. I'm stressed to the max at the prospect of how crazy this whole moving/starting school thing is going to be; if I have a place locked down it will be a HUGE weight off my shoulders!!! From what I can tell, DC is sort of the ( Read more... )

 Someone ordered the tall wide receiver?  ha ha ha.   Whatever, I'm off to a hockey game!

 I've been waiting curiously for this for a while...

Anywhere I Lay My Head

Normally this sort of celebrity undertaking makes me want to either A) vomit, or B) ignore it until it ceases to exist. However, there are two factors at play here. One is the fact that I love Tom Waits. I love him. Love him. And most anything that has to do with him. The ( Read more... )

My Personality

Neuroticism

58
Extraversion

46
Openness to Experience

67
Agreeableness

47
Conscientiousness

29
You are poised, confident, and clear-thinking when stressed, however you feel strong cravings and urges that you have difficulty resisting. You tend to prefer short-term pleasures and rewards over long-term consequences. People generally perceive ( Read more... )