Making your life better by the second.
A new local Pittsburgh web-zine has just started, and I’m one of the two artists they show case in their first “web-issue”. You can check it out at www.debrismagazine.com.
The magazine talks about local artists, photographers, poetry, and other artistic endevors.
According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article, “Just Call him the Wi-Fi guy” and Pop City article, “Free Wi-Fi on Walnut honors Shadyside Inn owner,” Free Wireless Shadyside (a free Wi-Fi network available along the Walnut Street retail corridor in Pittsburgh, PA) launched at the end of last month. The Shadyside Inn co-owner Jonathan Plesset built and manages the network in honor of his late father, R. Jeffrey Plesset, who passed away in 1999.
Mr. Plesset invested around $10,000 to bring wireless access to Walnut Street. He strategically placed “nodes” (each roughly $50) around the neighborhood to create a Wi-Fi hot spot. If all goes well, he has considered expanding the inexpensive and easily managed network into other neighborhoods like Squirrel Hill.
“Now that I’ve had a taste of it, there’s nothing stopping me. We could make Pittsburgh the Wi-Fi capital of the world. We should make this a priority, we are such a tech city,” Plesset told Pop City writer Deb Smit.
Downtown Pittsburgh also offers free wireless service for up to two hours, courtesy of the nonprofit Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
What if we could bring free internet access to the neighborhoods in and around Pittsburgh? We certainly have the college/university students, faculty, resources, and startup companies filling up areas like Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, Oakland, and parts of Downtown to create technologically advanced sectors. Can we expand these resources into surrounding neighborhoods, making technology a priority and something uniquely “Pittsburgh” like the steel industry used to be?
Ape Fight, a band from New Jersey, has been a long time friend of my pod-cast on shinyfire.com. They have two CDs , were on the soundtrack to the movie “Accepted”, and now I can even watch them on TV.
If you have Comcast digital cable, just go to the music section, then concert.tv and you will find them. It’s a 20 minute video about them with alot of good live footage.
Ape Fight is an amazing band, and if you don’t know who they are, then I feel bad for you.
Currently I am attending the Professional Bartending Institute in Pittsburgh, PA to become a professional bartender/mixologist. I finished week one of the two-week course in which we covered 2 oz. Cocktails, Sours/Margaritas, Shooters, Beer and Wine.
To kick off the weekend here are some shooters I learned how to make but have yet to try (but would like to!):
Brain
3/4 Strawberry Schnapps
1/4 Bailey’s Irish Cream (Added drop-by-drop)
Add Grenadine to make a bloody brain
It should look disgusting but taste like strawberries and cream
Pineapple Upside Down Cake
2 oz. Vanilla Vodka
Splash of Pineapple Juice
Stir and Strain into shooter glass
Add a splash of Grenadine
Hollywood Shooter
1.5 oz. Vodka
.5 oz. Raspberry Liqueur
Splash of Pineapple Juice
Stir and Strain into shooter glass
Girl Scout Cookie
1 oz. Brown Creme de Cacao
1 oz. White Creme de Menthe
Splash of Cream
*For a Dirty Girl Scout change Brown to White Creme de Cacao
Stir and Strain into shooter glass
Smurf Fart
1 oz. Blue Curacao
1 oz. Blueberry Schnapps
Splash Cream
Stir and Strain into shooter glass
Chocolate Covered Cherry
1/3 Grenadine
1/3 Brown Creme de Cacao
1/3 Vodka
Spoon floated into a pony or shot glass
Hot Pumpkin Pie (Tried this, loved it)
1/4 Bailey’s Irish Cream
1/4 Kahlua
1/4 Goldschlager
1/4 Jameson Irish Whiskey
Flame with 151 Rum (Note: Flaming 151 Rum is dangerous, and the authors at echoflip.com and instructors at the Pittsburgh Bartending Institute do not condone trying this at home)
Spoon Float into pony or shot glass
Feel free to add your favorites as a comment!!
Drink responsibly and enjoy your weekend!
Professional Bartending Institute
2961 W. Liberty Ave. Suite 217
Pittsburgh, PA 15216
412-344-9100
Director: Kevin Butler
e-mail: enrollment@pbipittsburgh.com
Starting tonight, and carrying on until Sunday night, Pittsburgh’s Southside is having it’s annual festival.
This year, they are having an event in the Southside Works. There will be local artists, musicians, food, and lots of other stuff going on. You can find more information at their website : www.southsideworks.com
I will there doing a mural in the afternoon, so be sure to stop by and see me! As of writing this, I still don’t know what I’ll be doing, so it should be pretty interesting…
Someone recently got into an argument w/ me about the correct way to make a big ol’ batch of wheat paste. Here are the instructions below. Now you can whip up your own and plaster the town with your own terrible artwork!
Wheat paste
Prepare 1 cup (2.4 dl) of very hot water. Make a thin mixture of 3 tablespoons (45 ml) of white flour and cold water (just enough to wet all the flour and make it liquid enough to pour). Pour the cold mixture slowly into the hot water while stirring constantly. Bring to a boil. When it thickens, allow to cool. Smear on like any other glue. For slightly better strength, add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of sugar after the glue is thickened. After using a portion, reheat the remaining in a covered jar or container to sterilize it for storage or keep refrigerated. If wheat flour is not available, other flours will work.
Let me know if you make some or any other crazy adventures with your pastey buddy, Wheat.
Laura Petrilla is a photographer who lives in Pittsburgh PA. Recently when I went to the open house at the Creative Treehouse in Bellevue, she was there taking photos of everyone for free. My pal Roadie and I hopped in front of her camera. She sent us the pics back via e-mail a few days later and we were very impressed.
Even though she was there taking tons of pics for people for free, she still took the time to edit them to make them polished before she sent them. If she does that kind of work for free, I can imagine how nice her pics are you hire her for an event of something.
Anyways, check out her website. It’s got some cool shots on it. She’s a good photographer and was pretty nice to us too. www.laurapetrilla.com
In 2007, starting a business online does not require a great deal of planning, effort, time, or money. James Hong of HotorNot.com and Markus Frind of PlentyofFish.com prove that even with no budget and no set plan, an entrepreneur can find a wide audience and monetize their business online to achieve great profit.
In an extremely informative and eye-opening panel discussion entitled, “No Plan, No Capital, No Model…No Problem: Companies That Defied What VCs Will Tell You,” moderated by start-up guru Guy Kawasaki, five panelists discuss how they started successful online businesses using search engine optimization, open source software, viral marketing, affiliate marketing, and other low or no-cost online tools.
(Follow the link to watch the event - 1 hour, 40 minutes - on Guy Kawasaki’s blog)
Panelists included:
Notable highlights:
-Markus Frind did not spend a dime to start PlentyofFish.com and the idea came as an afterthought while trying to learn ASP.NET. The website generated about $1000/month within the first 3 months from Google Adsense. He didn’t even know venture capitalists existed until a year or two after its launch.
Now, he spends around two hours a day managing the free online dating service that gets twelve billion page views a year. He is the sole employee, only has one server, and makes $5-6 million/year with Google ads.
-James Hong started HotorNot.com as a joke with his friends in October 2000. They launched the first day by telling 40 more of their friends. That day they had about 40,000 people come to the website. They hit 1 million page views a day in 8 days. The site started from no money at all and grew with no financial backing from anyone- not even for equipment or hosting. He explains, “There are still things you need venture capital up front to do, but starting a website is not one of them.”
For similar stories, I highly recommend the book, Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston, author and founding partner of Y Combinator.
On Friday afternoon I got a text message from my roommate. Apparently there was a mix-up at our electric company. They thought we didn’t pay the bill. Therefore, without any double checking they shut our electricity off.
My roommate called and asked what the problem was. They told him that they made a mistake, and that it was their fault… Ok great, so come turn our power back on right?? Wrong They said that they couldn’t send someone out until Monday! So we payed our bill on time, they messed up and shut it off on Friday, and now we have to wait until Monday to get it turned back on? Yes, thats what we had to do.
By Saturday afternoon the house was roughly 120 - 130 degrees, and the kitchen smelled like a dumpster full of dead prostitutes. Also, the house was pitch black at night, making the heat from the candles we had to light pretty much unbreable.
Anyways, this is why the blog hasn’t been updated in a few day.. so sorry about that. My bad
Below are some photos I took while I was at the History Museum in Washinton DC. They had a large variety of dinosaur bones, gems, and animals.
Right outside of the musuem, you have the option to purchase everyone’s favorite ice cream from the future, Dippin’ Dots. Behind the museum is a tent, where for three dollars, you can kiss women. As you can tell, you’re in for a fun filled day.
