So we've begun demolition of the house I'm moving into, and by demolition I mean completely cleaning the place out. It's a lot of work and we most likely won't be done for a few more weeks, still needs to be landscaped and cleaned.
The bathrooms have been made fully functional once again, but the upstairs bathroom design presents a problem that needs to be addressed at some point, with redesigning it so that you don't enter in on the 2nd floor in the bathroom, but rebuilding the hallway that was once there, maybe even making that hallway a little bigger.
We do need to get some good solar outdoor lighting to put on the driveway and replacing the currently broken lights that would light up the walkways around the house. As well as some new window coverings and such.
That's all for now really, hopefully I'll have some good pictures to post in a few days.
BTW, I also bought a Mac Laptop, so it's been a fun time playing with that.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
In over my head, or just out of my mind?
At first, I saw only things like "potential," "character," "what it could be" - now I'm just not sure.
I'm moving into a house that a friend of mine owns, but he has since moved away and has had a tough time taking care of the house. I had visited the house a few times to take a look at it and see what needed to be done to get it back into shape, the first 2 or 3 times, I had a lot of optimism (for some reason), but upon visiting the house this afternoon (after a friend had mentioned that they were condemming houses in the city of Pittsburgh, in order to clean up the area and I wanted to make sure that my friend's house wasn't boarded up) my optimism has shifted to a little more fear than anything.
I don't know if it's in part with some of the drastic changes in my life the last few weeks, along with some financial uncertainty, as well as uncertainty to my life/career choices, that I've made, but the thought of "fear" has certainly set in.
Don't get me wrong, I knew from the start that the word "huge" and "project" should have been substituted for a phrase that included more words like "fire," "burns," "house," and "down" (something similar to what you might read in the local paper). I'm not backing out now, I'm not saying things like this to act like it's become a huge burden or that it wouldn't be a good move for myself, because in all honesty, there are a few things that will make this a positive move (once the house starts getting fixed up).
First off, I will be roughly 25-30 minutes closer to not only work, but to where my friends live/hang out at (as well as 30 minutes closer to Maryland - it's a nicer drive when it only takes 4 and a half hours, versus 5). The second is the savings my car will get as far as wear and tare, and burning unessicary gas; it is also possible that I might be able to bike to work, or at least the Metro station. Third, I'm not going to be paying much more than what I did at my apartment, and I have a whole house, which is pretty cool. I'm also glad that I'm able to help out a friend who doesn't have time to put a lot of his own valuable time into being at the house and making sure that it is safe from people breaking in or anything like that, but the housing market right now (anywhere in the US) is not a seller's market. Which brings up another thought, owning this home after about a year or so.
The thought has been brought up to purchase the home after living there for a year or longer, depending on how myself and my friend view the situation. I can't say that I know I'm going to stay in Pittsburgh forever, the thought has crossed my mind to travel some more for work (even if my current employer "ANC Sports" scheduled me for 3 trips, then changed their company policy during my 1st one, not allowing me to travel as a part-time employee...lame) or the possibility to move back to Maryland to go and work where I can live near my family, but even if I were back in Maryland, it would not be as close to my parents and my sister & bro-in-law as I would like, I would have to live closer to work to cut down on the travel time. Or what about the possibility of working on the West Coast, or down South, or up North.
I can't say that I really want to work in L.A. anymore, not a big fan of the city, if it were San Francisco, that would be a different story, it's really cool out there...minus the huge levels of fog, true story. New York/Boston/Conn area would be interesting, I've been to NYC once, it's nice, obviously super busy. I looked into ESPN's Production Assistant Program, which I would still be right in line for, still being in the "coming out of college market" but it doesn't seem to pay much, as far as trying to put together some savings for a house or something, so dunno about that.
I'm possibly in line to have an ok job with ANC Sports here in Pittsburgh, once the new Consol Energy Center opens up next season; with the new Scoreboard and LEDs in the arena, if ANC finalizes the contract, I would be responsibly for making sure that everything worked. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing right out of college, but it puts me near TV jobs, so I guess I'm ok with it.
So we shall see what the coming months bring. I think that once I get my key to the house to start moving my own crap in it, this will lead to some positive energy coming my way. A lot of things happened all at once, I didn't know how to react to them at first, and different emotions began to roll out, really making me think about a lot of past events and future decisions coming up.
I'll post some pictures/video soon, hopefully on a sunny day starting with what the house's current shape is in, and showing the evolution over time as to what happens to it.
I'm moving into a house that a friend of mine owns, but he has since moved away and has had a tough time taking care of the house. I had visited the house a few times to take a look at it and see what needed to be done to get it back into shape, the first 2 or 3 times, I had a lot of optimism (for some reason), but upon visiting the house this afternoon (after a friend had mentioned that they were condemming houses in the city of Pittsburgh, in order to clean up the area and I wanted to make sure that my friend's house wasn't boarded up) my optimism has shifted to a little more fear than anything.
I don't know if it's in part with some of the drastic changes in my life the last few weeks, along with some financial uncertainty, as well as uncertainty to my life/career choices, that I've made, but the thought of "fear" has certainly set in.
Don't get me wrong, I knew from the start that the word "huge" and "project" should have been substituted for a phrase that included more words like "fire," "burns," "house," and "down" (something similar to what you might read in the local paper). I'm not backing out now, I'm not saying things like this to act like it's become a huge burden or that it wouldn't be a good move for myself, because in all honesty, there are a few things that will make this a positive move (once the house starts getting fixed up).
First off, I will be roughly 25-30 minutes closer to not only work, but to where my friends live/hang out at (as well as 30 minutes closer to Maryland - it's a nicer drive when it only takes 4 and a half hours, versus 5). The second is the savings my car will get as far as wear and tare, and burning unessicary gas; it is also possible that I might be able to bike to work, or at least the Metro station. Third, I'm not going to be paying much more than what I did at my apartment, and I have a whole house, which is pretty cool. I'm also glad that I'm able to help out a friend who doesn't have time to put a lot of his own valuable time into being at the house and making sure that it is safe from people breaking in or anything like that, but the housing market right now (anywhere in the US) is not a seller's market. Which brings up another thought, owning this home after about a year or so.
The thought has been brought up to purchase the home after living there for a year or longer, depending on how myself and my friend view the situation. I can't say that I know I'm going to stay in Pittsburgh forever, the thought has crossed my mind to travel some more for work (even if my current employer "ANC Sports" scheduled me for 3 trips, then changed their company policy during my 1st one, not allowing me to travel as a part-time employee...lame) or the possibility to move back to Maryland to go and work where I can live near my family, but even if I were back in Maryland, it would not be as close to my parents and my sister & bro-in-law as I would like, I would have to live closer to work to cut down on the travel time. Or what about the possibility of working on the West Coast, or down South, or up North.
I can't say that I really want to work in L.A. anymore, not a big fan of the city, if it were San Francisco, that would be a different story, it's really cool out there...minus the huge levels of fog, true story. New York/Boston/Conn area would be interesting, I've been to NYC once, it's nice, obviously super busy. I looked into ESPN's Production Assistant Program, which I would still be right in line for, still being in the "coming out of college market" but it doesn't seem to pay much, as far as trying to put together some savings for a house or something, so dunno about that.
I'm possibly in line to have an ok job with ANC Sports here in Pittsburgh, once the new Consol Energy Center opens up next season; with the new Scoreboard and LEDs in the arena, if ANC finalizes the contract, I would be responsibly for making sure that everything worked. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing right out of college, but it puts me near TV jobs, so I guess I'm ok with it.
So we shall see what the coming months bring. I think that once I get my key to the house to start moving my own crap in it, this will lead to some positive energy coming my way. A lot of things happened all at once, I didn't know how to react to them at first, and different emotions began to roll out, really making me think about a lot of past events and future decisions coming up.
I'll post some pictures/video soon, hopefully on a sunny day starting with what the house's current shape is in, and showing the evolution over time as to what happens to it.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Pastrana's 720 attempt during X-Games 15
Annapolis native Travis Pastrana was the first to pull off the double backflip during the X-Games Moto X Best Trick in 2006, and this past X-Games, he attempted to pull off a 720, a combination of a backflip and a 180 spin. He crashed as his bike conked out.
Apparently Travis hired a gymnist trainer to help him train for the attempt, teaching him to change his focus on using his upper-body strength, to using his lower body and his legs to flip the bike and then rotate it after he makes the final move going into a landing.
There are tons of videos on the internet of Travis practicing the trick in his backyard, going into his foam pit. Ridiculous.
One of the guys from ESPN that was down on the floor said that the only reason why Travis didn't attempt it again (because he was going to and was talked out of it) was that his Dad was able to convince him that he still had to win Rally Car on Sunday and defend his Gold Medal, and the replays from ESPN showed a different story compared to the initial pain Travis was feeling at the time.
After we packed up, one of our crates was stuck behind Travis' stuff, he and his crew were sitting as they were getting a car to the loading dock so he didn't have to walk far. His right are was pretty much covered in ice, taped up in a bag, he was holding onto his left collar bone, and after some young guy was asking him if he wanted to do another TV show, and Travis respectfully declined, explaining that he just didn't have time for another show right now, he nearly lost his lunch do to the pain. Wow.
No wonder the fans love him, he's nuts, but a good dude.
Sadly, his Rally Car crashed into the wall going into the home stretch as he entered the infield of the Home Depot Center and he lost the Gold Medal.
A date to remember 2/24/2034
At my current pace, February 24th, 2034, my student loans will all be paid off.
Fun.
Fun.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Just a thought
Ok, I'm back in Pittsburgh, away from crazy Los Angeles..which is a lot dirty than from what I remember by the way, so I'm back doing my usual business of working the Pirate games.
Aside from the fact that Ray Zapporoni is going to lose his $20 bet with Joe Hale for the, roughly 6th year in a row (for the Pirates again not finishing at .500 for their season), it makes me wonder, is there really a point to sports when you don't have any parity?
ESPN's Scott Van Pelt said today on his radio show, that when it comes to ESPN putting teams on television, and the fact that it is usually the Redsox or the Yankees, it comes down to the fact that ESPN is in the business of "printing money."
I take two things from this,
1) What happened to ESPN being the break-through sports programming network it was in 1977, finding a way to give as much coverage to everyones teams out there (I guess money will change things)
2) Wouldn't the MLB be more successful financially if each team in the league were more competitive? Van Pelt's example of why ESPN runs with the Redsox and Yanks match up over other teams is the fact that they carry a rating of 2.7 per game, which is double any other MLB game that ESPN airs.
There are Redsoxs and Yankee fans out there for two main reasons, 1) both those areas are rather large, thus larger audience locally 2) Both teams have had a stories franchise that wins consistently, thus broadening their audience due to their success.
Some people may then look and say, oh ok, I know where you're going with this..and I am, salary cap for MLB. It's ridiculous to think that the Pittsburgh Pirates, who will set the record for most losing seasons in sports (18) at the end of this year, still profit at the end of a year, due to the revenue sharing in baseball. If there is no salary cap, and revenue sharing that keeps teams afloat, what is the incentive for an owner who bought the team as a business venture? The Pirates are sadly a profiting organization, they may not be growing, but they aren't losing money, it's just sad.
If the MLB would institute a salary cap, revenue sharing could either cease to exist or go down, by creating a more level playing field in the free agent market. Just look at the NHL, before the salary cap was put in place, we lost a league. There is already a threat of this happening in the NFL, again, and who is to say that it couldn't happen in baseball.
Aside from the fact that Ray Zapporoni is going to lose his $20 bet with Joe Hale for the, roughly 6th year in a row (for the Pirates again not finishing at .500 for their season), it makes me wonder, is there really a point to sports when you don't have any parity?
ESPN's Scott Van Pelt said today on his radio show, that when it comes to ESPN putting teams on television, and the fact that it is usually the Redsox or the Yankees, it comes down to the fact that ESPN is in the business of "printing money."
I take two things from this,
1) What happened to ESPN being the break-through sports programming network it was in 1977, finding a way to give as much coverage to everyones teams out there (I guess money will change things)
2) Wouldn't the MLB be more successful financially if each team in the league were more competitive? Van Pelt's example of why ESPN runs with the Redsox and Yanks match up over other teams is the fact that they carry a rating of 2.7 per game, which is double any other MLB game that ESPN airs.
There are Redsoxs and Yankee fans out there for two main reasons, 1) both those areas are rather large, thus larger audience locally 2) Both teams have had a stories franchise that wins consistently, thus broadening their audience due to their success.
Some people may then look and say, oh ok, I know where you're going with this..and I am, salary cap for MLB. It's ridiculous to think that the Pittsburgh Pirates, who will set the record for most losing seasons in sports (18) at the end of this year, still profit at the end of a year, due to the revenue sharing in baseball. If there is no salary cap, and revenue sharing that keeps teams afloat, what is the incentive for an owner who bought the team as a business venture? The Pirates are sadly a profiting organization, they may not be growing, but they aren't losing money, it's just sad.
If the MLB would institute a salary cap, revenue sharing could either cease to exist or go down, by creating a more level playing field in the free agent market. Just look at the NHL, before the salary cap was put in place, we lost a league. There is already a threat of this happening in the NFL, again, and who is to say that it couldn't happen in baseball.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Heading Home from LA
This was by the Vert Ramp...I'm bringing it home..somehowI'm heading home from LA in a few hours, the X-Games is over, and I am exhausted. I woke up this morning with my hand closed, what seemingly looked like a normal pose for my hand, it was more muscle tension than I had hoped for to wake up with. I filled the tub with hot water and sat my hands in it to try and open them...this might last for a few days.
I finally got the clothes I dropped off at the cleaners on Thursday, only to put them in a bag of dirty clothes (as I only brought 1 bag and a backpack). Yesterday was a pretty easy day to take the remaining stuff down, we only spent about 4 hours at the Home Depot Center. We spent 17 hours the day/night before, getting every venue that was complete torn down and packed up.
Overall, for what I made on the trip and the fact that I only saw Staples Center and the Home Depot Center, I can't say that I would be willing to come out to LA for the X-Games again for ANC. When we arrived, that majority of the 54 machines were broken and missing parts, not only that, but every day, our contact asked us to place signs in new locations, causing tons of problems at other venues, as we had to find creative ways to get them out and into the new location, and then back to it's original spot...without ever testing them to make sure they worked.
I'm supposed to go back and work another week for ANC in Pittsburgh, but that may get cut short for a vacation.
We won a bet by loading up all our crap from Staples Center and making it back in 1 hours...$50.
Big Air Ramp before Big Air Rail Jam
The take off ramp for Moto X Best Trick
Todd Potter, he won a Gold Medal or 2.
Moto X Step Up
Crowd of people after Step UP
ANC signs on the TV Reverse side of the Big Air landing ramp
ANC signs at the top of the Big Air Ramp
Big shot of the Big Air ramp
a camera on a crane at the X-Center set
Looking down from a top the Big Air ramp
X-Center and ESPN people.
Us fixing our sign.
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