Google Transit for Pittsburgh!

I think that this is awesome that Pittsburgh managed to get to be one of the few cities to try out Google's new Transit mapping system.

http://www.google.com/transit

Port Authority's website (www.portauthority.org) pretty much stinks. They need to let Google give them a makeover!

One more point for Google. :)

Purple America

In case you haven't seen it already, check out this "Purple" map of the US:
http://www.princeton.edu/%7Ervdb/JAVA/election2004/

And this one based on population:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/

If we could just swallow our pride for a moment to listen to each other's point of view, we may not be squabbling over so many things in this country. If we were sensitive to each other's ideas even if we feel they are wrong, we could accomplish so much more.

We have this perceived dichotomy of Blue vs. Red in this country that cause people to think in Black and White. Many of our problems are really "Gray" issues and we block out many creative solutions when we bicker back and forth rather than getting to the heart of the issue.

Running Granny sightings!

It's late at night, so time for a very random blog...

Every work day at exactly 4:20 pm, we at the Venture Outdoors office look forward to an unusal, yet very consistent Pittsburgh event. That is the one and only Running Granny.

For one thing, she is probably not that old, but she certainly runs like a "granny". All decked out in her work attire under a trenchcoat with big sunglasses over a slightly fake-looking makeup job...clutching her purse with one arm while swinging the other in time with her shuffling old lady shoe shorn feet, her stiffly hairsprayed hair slightly flowing back in the wind of her passage (that was probably the longest run-on sentence I've ever almost completed).

For another thing, she runs the same route every day. We await her coming from the west out of Market Square coming down Forbes. She then turns left onto Wood, crosses the street half-way down the block, then cuts back up in the opposite direction towards the intersection. She runs on the sidewalk, then down the side of the street. She crosses traffic yet again, heedless of the PAT bus that narrowly missed its mark. She runs up past our windows out of sight, then pops back into view as she crosses Forbes yet again near the Rite-Aid Pharmacy and then we lose sight of her for good...until 4:20 the next day.

My co-worker says that he saw her every lunch time on the North Shore during his weekly fishing program Tri-Anglers. There have been reports that she works at the brick building across the street from PNC Park. One time we were moving a vehicle out of Kayak Pittsburgh (also on the North Shore) and we almost ran over the poor dear.

But the funny thing is...she NEVER STOPS RUNNING... I haven't seen that woman stop or stand still yet. I wonder if she's OCD and/or paranoid. I wonder why she runs and if so, if she's running from something? Perhaps someone will one day run beside her and ask. Until then, I will enjoy my daily break from the grind by watching the same thing that happens every day.

But IS it the same thing everyday? As consistent as the "granny" may be, there are times where she slightly deviates from her course. Either a car is coming her way or a person throws her off. It's these nuances that one picks up on while one is observing the granny. One can't help but admire the determination (or insanity) to replicate a process such as the one granny undertakes. We can all learn from the granny I think...lessons for life.

In the words of Sean as he passed said person one day..."go Granny!"

Late nights in the office...

Well, it's almost 8:00pm here at the VO office...I should probably be making my way out the door, but wanted to do some personal internet stuff first. Man, I need to get internet access at home. I should talk to Eric my landlord about that.

I'm currently busy with typing up notes for our first Marketing Committee meeting and also with a slight re-design of the Adventure Times. I'm a bit behind in my work due to all the meetings I had last week. Hopefully I can get ahead of the game. I recently cleaned off the towering piles of mess that used to occupy my desk. That should help. Other than that, I'm pretty excited for up-coming changes in the office...more about that later.

My birthday this past Friday was somewhat uneventful, except that my boyfriend Mike came up for the weekend. We had fun dressing up as "Pirate vs. Ninja" for Jen and Jason's Halloween Party on Saturday. You can see us in the picture above fighting to the death. It was also our 2-year anniversary this past weekend. Time flies when you are having fun I s'pose. :)

I head out to Seattle this weekend with Hongla to my friend Kristin's wedding. Should be alot of fun. Yay, I finally get to go further west than Ohio! Anyway, I need to run before I miss my bus.

~Tricia

Helloooo....

So I've decided to join the world of bloggers...I'm not real up-to-date on this piece of internet technology, so I'm curious to see what potential lies within this medium. I'm not sure if this blog has any particular focus, so I'm just going to keep it undefined. Mostly, I plan to keep distant friends informed of my goings-on.

Actually, I've started a blog for Venture Outdoors before I even started my own. I hope to use it as an easily update-able addition to our website...particularly for random facts about outdoor recreation. Check it out here: http://venture-outdoors.blogspot.com.

That's all I think...now if I can just get internet at home I won't be doing this at the office at 8:48 at night... :P