TEDxGrandviewAve, Ideas, Pittsburgh

Okay, so a while back I had read about this TED talk spinoff called TEDxGrandviewAve. For those of you who don't know what the TED talks are, they are essentially a bunch of mini-lectures and talks on "Ideas Worth Spreading", and have been around since 1984ish. The TEDx Talks are kind of like TED talks, only independently organized events. TEDxGrandviewAve is the Pittsburgh version of it.

So I emailed the guy that helps run the Re(imagine) Media program about it. He liked the idea of the group of us coming to watch. Unfortunately, by this point the 100 slots had already filled for the physical event. Thus, the event we would attend would be a webcast party (one of the three official ones) at a place called StartUptown in the Uptown section of Pittsburgh.

Flash-forward to today: I go to StartUptown, and eventually meet up with the Re(imagine)rs and my friend Dave Wovchko at StartUptown. So what exactly is StartUptown? Well, I arrived first and had the chance to talk to Dale, the gentleman who founded StartUptown

"THE VISION is to build a community-connected campus of entrepreneurial activity in the eastern half of the Uptown neighborhood — and to retain companies as they grow upwards of 20-50 employees." -StartUptown.org

The StartUptown Space

So anyway, we visit the space, get a tour, and settle down into the area where we are to watch the TEDx Livestream. However, as with most things, it didn't happen that way.

The Livestream didn't work. The audio didn't match the video, and it kept jerking around. We really could have stopped there, the 10 or so of us who were there. But we didn't. We decided to open up a new window and watch some of the talks from TED.com, the main events.

What happened was interesting. Someone would suggest a video, and we'd watch it. Then something strange would happen - we'd start talking about something related to that video, and talk for a good 20 minutes or so before someone suggests another and it repeats.

So why is this so interesting? Well, the room ranged in age from 15 year old me to 64 year old Dale. These were adults and 20somethings and high schoolers all talking about the world around them, and the ideas that shape that world.

We took some breaks in between there, mainly to meander about the space, and Dave and I collaborated on a logo that may soon be a logo for one of the companies there. They had these door-sized dry erase boards in each of the spaces. I found this fascinating that the whole space was very much a space for creativity, and couldn't help but start sketching on the one.

Nevertheless it brought back into focus what I enjoy - listening to what people have to say, and being able to think and learn with and around other people in a setting that embraces creativity.

I feel like I was a part of something, even though we didn't see what actually happened at TEDxGrandviewAve, we learned about something. Something bigger than ourselves in a learning community.

And I think in a broader sense that's where everyone learns- not in the same age clumps, or in specialized hallways or whatever, but by interacting and creating with other people AND with yourself.

We're so Into You Incredibly We'd Love to See You Terribly

So yeah, I stalled for two days extra. I'm sorry, but the last week has been absolutely insane.... To make up for it, I'll write something pretty long, pretty uplifting, and pretty sad. Maybe. Wish me luck on this one.

There was not a day this past week when I was just "home": I was usually up at the high school for one thing or another, and there was one night where I was at school then someplace else.

I've been working on an English project that answers the question: What if Ralph and Jack from Lord of the Flies were on a talk show? We answer by bringing you a very 70's cheezy talk show entitled (and long time readers will appreciate this one) The Clay Bodnar Variety Hour. All told, I've probably spent about 10 hours getting the space, filming, and editing - goodness the editing.

If there's something I hate about projects in general, it's editing things. I tend to have an inner need to perfection-edit, which is a process where I spend obscene amounts of time reading something I've done, hating and editing it like crazy. When I see the 'finished product', I usually hate it because it isn't finished or has some tiny editing error in it or whatever. Just a rant.

I've been going back and forth about what to write about, but I didn't want to get into some doom and gloom mode since two of my favourite things stopped existing.

So roughly a year ago, I wrote about a dude that wrote a column named Peter McKay. I liked his Saturday columns, and I kind of thought that I could try and learn his writing style. Then about a week ago I read this in the paper:

So yeah. This explained to me two things: 1) THERE ARE 11 YEARS OF COLUMNS I HAVENT READ and 2) It's gone. His column is gone. The other thing that died was the whole New York trip - due to lack of interest. Blah. So in that sense it was a bad week.

However, there were many things that went pretty well. WPXI came to spotlight our upcoming musical, 9 to 5. Yesterday was spent at the Carnegie Arts and History Museum, which I will say this much about: Remember the whole Devil in the White City thing? Yeah, there were artifacts from that same worlds fair. (And I would've included pictures too! Turns out that taking pictures wasn't allowed there though).

After the expedition to the Arts and History museum, I descended into the depths of it, and into the Library adjacent to it via the magic tunnel. My mission was to check out the Pennsylvania room that I had heard of in a Rick Sebak special... and I think I've found a new place to adventure to. 

Hopefully a more coherent blog next time...

On Writing Stuff.

So I've been writing a lot lately, but with no particular aim. I've found that I can snap into three modes with writing: The one where I write deep and profound prose and the sort, The one where I basically regurgitate facts, and The freeform stuff.

They are independent modes and if I try mixing two, it ends poorly. Unfortunately I'm forced to from time to time to write essays. Now I'm pretty sure this blog has posts from all of the categories... and I'm fine with it.

Apparently some people at my school read last week's post about the antiquated lighting system at the elementary school, and were motivated to at least try to do something. This both excites and scares me. It excites me that someone is willing to take action about things that are important to them. It scares me that people read what I write.

I mean, I want people to read what I write, but there's something about the knowledge that someone is reading something you wrote that sort of scares me. This especially applies to printing out something, and having someone read it next to you. As the person who spent hours working on such a piece, you are constantly wondering what they think, where the plot or essay or whatever the medium is should go next.

So when I read that my site hit 8,000 views I came to a realization that if each post had equal representation, there are like 46 hits per each post. Which means that someone other than I and my parents and friends and the sort are reading this thing.

So I guess what the answer here is to not base my drive or success on numbers (I hate math to start with) but rather on the quality of the content, or at least in this case the frequency.

I realize this was a movement on YouTube in December with Charlie McDonnell's "I'm Scared" movement and what JayScribble was talking about with Becoming YouTube, that content creators get scared of their audiences, but I think (selfish as it may seem) the thing to worry about is the content itself, and whether it's doing good.

This may just be some rant that I stayed up until 11 on a Friday night to write, but it might be something profound. I don't know. Maybe you do? Je ne sais pas.

Surviving The Concrete Jungle - Reunion?

So I was informed this morning that I might be going on the troop's trip this year to NYC. Four years ago (Before I started this blog) I went to New York as a sixth grader and told of my adventures.

It's been four years, and I'm a lot taller and adventurous than I was then. Though I will admit that New York City is a place that I fell in love with the first time I went, I still like Pittsburgh more. Perhaps it's mainly because this is home, but at the same time, I can't wait to go back.

The Christmas before I had gotten this little orange video camera, and I packed that along for the ride and videotaped it. If you want to see the (man is it bad, but it was my first) video, you can look at the annoying-voiced me take you through New York City: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9zb3s_nyc-surviving-the-concrete-jungle_travel

It's so weird looking back and realizing that that was four years ago, but as I skim through the long video, all of it comes back. I remember what it was like, waving around that orange camera like an idiot, calling my mother on Liberty Island, spending four hours in Times Square, getting lost on the Subway system, it all just comes back.

I'm curious to see what it will look like again, and what we'll do there. It's like I'm 11 all over again, a small city boy getting ready to adventure to the Biggest City.

And you better believe I'm planning on blogging about this one. Not live of course, but yeah.

I'm Pulling all the Levers on a Crazy Train

This is Post 170, and it's going to be a rant.

Back in October, I am summoned to Mert's room at the high school. He tells me that they are looking for someone to help run tech for Carnegie Elementary's talent show. Within the week, my brother and I are down at the elementary school trying to get details. we get nothing. Two weeks ago we hear from one of our former teachers, asking if the offer was still there.

So Matt and I spent the past week's worth of afternoons at our old Elementary school making the antiquated system run as if it has been running all along. 

I was seriously worried that there would be something that was broken, since neither of us had seen the system in nearly two years. Luckily, the curtains were (mostly) in working condition, and most of the lights worked.

On that first day I took an inventory as light manager of the spots - 9 possibly working, only 5 actually working, house - 24 available, 10 on, and don't even get me started on the bars.

In order to control the lights and sound, you need to get up to what we've been calling the 'crow's nest' which is a platform atop a doorwell on stage right. It's 15 feet up, and the only way up is by a set of rickety wooden steps that are pretty fun to run up and down.

Then once you're at the controls, you need to switch individually each dimmer, and then you get to control everything (except for the blue bars and the spots that don't work) using perhaps the most steampunk-y lever system I've ever had the pleasure of operating. And the bloody thing squeaks like a 500 pound iron door that wasn't measured right. It reminded me of what the controls to a steam engine on a railroad engine would be like.

Basically, this auditorium had been neglected and used as pretty much an anything-goes storage ground. And honestly, I think this is extremely sad.

(From this point on, I want to address members of the district specifically)

So why am I bringing this up? Because though it needs work, I think we can still be able to use it and take advantage of the things we have. The district as a whole wants to move forward, but I think trying to fix what we already have is also nice.

The talent show went on for two nights, with a stage crew of 10 fifth and sixth graders, and throw us two high schoolers in also. Our ultimate aim was to make it look decent - and that's exactly what we did.

I will guess that no one from the district's higher-ups will read this, and even if they did, they couldn't do much. Though I want you to know this - we students care about the district. Some of us volunteer hours of our time to make the district look nice to the public, and never get as much as a photo credit.

Is This the End or Something Really, Really Beautiful?

Tumblr Is Awesome

Those are lyrics to a Voxtrot song called "The Start of Something." I like this song for a few reasons... It's really mellow yet upbeat song that a friend showed me a while back. It's all about relationships and the sort, but I like that some of the lyrics are just about "the start of something really really beautiful" and that something could be literally anything.

This week has certainly been an interesting one. It's been one of new beginnings, and sometimes just a freshening of stuff. Monday brought the second inauguration of Barack Obama, and MLK day. It was an interesting combination, and one that the commentators on the major media networks (I'm sorry, only saw NBC and CBS Monday) took note of.

SOURCE: Telegraph.co.uk (Inauguration 2013)

The question they were asking was What is the Civil Rights Movement of Today? And they meant it in the sense of asking, what should we be focusing on as a nation that will define this generation.

Now if this were a year ago, I'd probably say the Occupy Movement, because it seemed like a movement towards something. Ultimately the issue was that "something" not being solidly defined. However, I like what Condoleezza Rice said. What it should be is education.

I emphasize "should" because at least to me it seems that pop culture leaning more towards Gay Rights and Gun Control. And yes, I think in the coming years these issues will be looked at and action will probably taken. I can't see into a crystal ball and tell you when in the eyes of the law the LGBT community will be considered equals with those outside of it, and minorities getting their equal rights, but I hope within the next decade that happens. I'm not going to touch gun control because, well, politics.

I think that Condoleezza Rice has a point, and in a nation that is considered the most wealthy, where we possess in our pockets a machine capable of summoning all of human knowledge that we should be capable of adding to that knowledge.

So why do I rant about this week after week? Because I'm trying to prove that I care, and that this generation is genuinely concerned with the quality of the world that we're inheriting.

I think the way of the future is collaboration via schools, communities, the internet, phones, everything. It's by combining two minds that you come up with something really beautiful, but you have to start it.

Triumphant in Your Mind of the Logic that You Hold

Those are lyrics from Mumford & Sons' "Where are you now?". And I kind of apologize for not posting on Friday... I had a severe case of writers block mixed with post-midterm brain fried-ness. I'd say it's real, but I haven't consulted my doctor yet on that.

So what I want to talk about is one of my fears. I'm afraid that my generation here doesn't think. Now, this may strike in one of a few ways. Considering you are reading my website, it might strike you as an "okay, what do you mean by this". But to the majority of people who don't read this site, that sentence would strike you as, "and what? Why do I need to think?"

And what scares me more than anything is that that is the majority of my generation, the ones that ask "why do we need to think?". When I pitched the idea of this post, as I occasionally do, to my father he brought up a song that had a line of lyrics that went something to the tune of "thinking is the best way to travel".

It is my thought that an emphasis from society and popular culture that 'someone else will always do the thinking for us' has poisoned into our lack of the need to think.

So I guess another question is, what is thinking? Dictionary.com defines it as "to have a conscious mind, to some extent of reasoning, remembering experiences, making rational decisions, etc."

My mind then wanders to that Sir Ken Robinson video about the current education system, and how the rise in standardized testing is parallel to the rise in medication for ADHD med prescription. He brings up the conclusion that the education system is not only not stimulating enough for its subjects, but the system itself does not work.

Being on the inside, I concur that the system doesn't particularly work for me. Since I'm 'gifted' I'm taking five honors-level classes, but in my personal opinion, I've learned more with my experiences at WYEP on random Saturdays than I have anyplace there.

Again, I recommend his video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U and John Green's TEDxIndy talk on thinking outside of the box called the Paper Town Phenomenon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mUDw0sRZV0. He says it much better. Draw conclusions as you will, Rant Over.

The Creatures' Gentle Glowing Never Lasts

Those are lyrics to a song by Laurena Segura, a Canadian girl that makes music on YouTube. This song in particular is called "Fireflies of Montreal" and is written more mellow than her song "Permafrost". I recommend checking her out, because her music has an acoustic folksy flair to it. 

There are so many things I could write about this week, be it a rant on having mid terms or RICK SEBAK VISITING MY BLOG, or seeing The Chief at the O'Reilly yesterday in Pittsburgh. But what I think is going to happen is that I'm just going to start somewhere and go from there.

I guess I should explain why I mentioned Rick Sebak. For those of you from Pittsburgh, you should know Rick Sebak's trademark scrapbook documentary style, and even those of you who watch public television (if you don't know what that is, you should probably leave the site. I'm all about public radio, television, and internets) could be familiar with his Breakfast and other assorted specials.

Anyway, in a crazy Sunday haze, I decided to send a link to some of the people I follow on twitter to this website. This included Jim Lokay, John Green, and Rick Sebak. I said something along the lines of "if anyone actually reads this, I will freak out". Mr. Sebak actually did that, and responded by telling me he also saw BBC 2 1/2 (REALLY old and abandoned project, circa late 2010). 

I think that it's amazing that someone actually reads this, and I want to thank Mr. Sebak for reading this, even if it is the blog of some crazy sophomore from the South Hills.

This week has been interesting in other respects, namely revisiting the cultural district to see The Chief. It's a pretty well written and EXTREMELY well acted one-man-play about Art Rooney Sr, founder of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I think I appreciate theater for a number of reasons, but part of it is that I've been in basically every element of it, except in a directing or writing capacity (and I don't EVER plan on going into that... seems too stressful). It's a magical place where for a little while you can escape the mountains of American Cultures homework, the headaches of the real world, and genuinely get lost in something.

Theater reminds me of music, something that people who are passionate about work really hard on and get lost in. It really says something when you see that someone throws himself into his or her work, and it loses the idea of being 'work'.

I'm off to WYEP again tomorrow (for the first time since the HOOTENANNY which you can listen to here: http://www.wyep.org/audio/wyeps-holiday-hootenanny-broadcast-2012) and no doubt will have some magic story to tell about down there. I guess radio and Re(imagine) work is what I get lost in. Only time will tell though. 

On a complete aside, I realized that I've been working on my troop site since January 10, 2009... meaning this is FOUR YEARS of doing this web designy thing... which is insane. Okay, back to reality.

It Seems Everything Has Been Found

What I want to talk about is a combination of two things: Education and the Espy Post.

I grew up in a world where it seems pretty much everything has already been invented, and the only frontier is cyberspace, which is a virtual and endless space. Essentially meaning do whatever, all is already done. I say "seems" because this is a LIE.

Gavel Block Thingy in the Post

Same applies to the GAR Post ("Civil War Room" to most locals) in the Andrew Carnegie Free Library. Back two years ago, I signed up to become the youngest docent for the Espy Post. There are a lot of things in this post, and it's a lot to give a tour on, but it seemed everything was known. Boy, was I wrong.

So I've added another project to my list of projects to do, this time something commemorating the 125th anniversary of the Post's memorial out in Chartiers Cemetery off of Noblestown Road in East Carnegie. Ideally, we're going to do something on Memorial Day weekend.

I've decided to do some research into the original dedication day, and I didn't have to look too far to find some interesting things. There is a little explanation of it in the 1911 catalogue:

... The monument was dedicated July 21, 1888, at three o’clock P.M. The following program was carried out at the services: Prayer by Rev. Wm. Lynch; music, “Mustered Out,” Allegheny Quartette Club; original poem, Miss Josie S. Sholes; unveiling of monument; music, “Unreturning Braves,” Allegheny Quartette Club; dirge, St. Luke’s Brass Band; oration, Col. John A. Danks; music, “America,” Allegheny Quartette Club; doxology; benediction, Rev. Beasom. The day was fine, over three thousand persons were present in the cemetery. ...

as well as it running two weeks straight in the local paper. I'm trying to imagine how three thousand people fit into the cemetery, and what it was like on that 'fine' July day in 1888.

It's called 're'search for a reason: things aren't lost, they just aren't together. It's the job of the person looking through those things to mesh them together into some semblance of sense. Being that person who tries to mesh it together is an interesting yet nerve-wracking feeling. Considering that every single person that contributed the $1500 to build the monument have passed and many are buried in the GAR plot surrounding this monument.


They present education to us as a definitive thing. "This is all the math you will need" "Read the classics" and those sort of things define a "curriculum." The senior project in the Carlynton school district is basically a presentation answering the question "what do you wanna be when you grow up?". It's very much a system based on filling in the box and moving on.

Inside of the Espy Post

But I think a true education is much more than that. It's looking at microfilm of newspapers from 1888 to try and understand why something in existence now matters. To be totally honest, before I had started becoming a docent, I had no clue what the Grand Army of the Republic was, that there even was a veterans organization after the Civil War.

I'm very much opposed to this notion that High School teaches you everything you need to know. Yes, it may fill your 'need's in some respect, but I feel it's a bare minimum, and if you want a full education, you need to look for that full education. This doesn't happen in a classroom but rather in a library or in a radio station on the South Side of Pittsburgh, or even at a monument in a cemetery.

I say think because I'm not sure if I'm right. Some people are able to just accept things, but I know I can't. I think that if you want to understand something, you have to try it or at least delve further than face value. You don't need to invent the wheel, but you can. All this going deeper with meanings and yet I still am bad at interpreting poetry.

Lets See How Far We've Come 2012: A Review

So Apparently 2012 is over now. For me, it was an interesting one to be certain. I sort of summed it up in my Christmas Letter in about a sentence:

This year was a challenge to see how full a schedule could be, and how much we could change.

Change in this case can be a good thing and a bad thing. At the beginning of 2012 I made a resolution to post once a week, on a Friday if I could, and this resulted in the 59 you see on the sidebar.

January brought Bishop Daniel to Carnegie. I invited the bishop to Slickville, and He said that he would try his best to come out sometime. I visited the nationality rooms on the campus of Pitt, and I also read John Green's new Book, the Fault in Our Stars.

February brought yet another college campus visit - this time to Carnegie Mellon for a Merit Badge program. March brought an adventure to the wilds of West Virginia, the wilds of the studios of WYEP, and the wilds of theater.

April brought the Drowsy Chaperone, my first ever musical that I performed in. It also brought a rant on Love timed around Easter.

May may have been the craziest for one weekend: Cinco de Mayo weekend. Friday brought a Camporee for which I designed the patch for. Saturday brought the first ever Re(imagiNATION) competition. The following day Bishop Daniel kept true to his promise and visited Slickville. He called the Tuesday before, and said that he had remembered me inviting him. I also became a Life Scout in May.

June brought NYLT, a training course made by the devils of the scouting world to change you from whatever it was you were to a leading man. It also brought me to Camp Seph Mack. We had developed a tradition of inviting the staff down to our site for a bonfire. It seems that bonfires bring people together, and this was no exception. On outpost night at NYLT, we had a bonfire I will remember for years.

July brought my first ever guest post, from my father, regarding vacations. I took my first ever vacation with my family out to Delaware. I celebrated 3 years of writing this website, and I started taking almost weekly bus rides out to WYEP to work on various projects.

August brought back school, and I quoted some songs for blog titles. I also started book reviews.

September brought my debut into announcing for the Carlynton Golden Cougar Marching band, and some side adventures with that.

October brought Homecoming, which I had the pleasure of sharing with a good friend of mine. It also brought Jamboree on the Air, and the end of the Football Season,

November brought the Ten Commandment Hike, references here to Squanto, and some reflection on natural disasters and the sort.

December brought me some good music, the 2012 HOOTENANNY and the 'end of the world as we know it'.

So this is where I break off and say thank you. I decided to write every week because I wanted to work on my writing skills a little, and develop a voice for this. Anyone that knows me can tell you I am not good at finishing things. I will start, or add a middle part, but finishing doesn't work with me. But I've had motivation

Back at the end of 2011, I had a total view count of 3,000 something. It's doubled in the past year, now at nearly 7500. All I can say is thank you. It helps to know that someone out there is reading what I'm writing. Friends, Family, Canadians, I don't care who you are, I just want to thank you, and invite you to join my little site here in 2013.

I plan on writing by the way until at least 2015. From there only time will tell, but that seems to me to be a tad far off. Thanks again, Happy New Year, and May God Bless You All!
-Alexander Popichak, the 2015Blogger

For in this World I'm Bound to Ramble

Movie Poster (Yay Wikipedia!)

The title this week is from a song called "I am a Man Of Constant Sorrow" made famous in the 2000 film O Brother, Where Art Thou? which I have yet to watch any more than the music video portion of it, which may I add is pretty interesting... (Warning: Profanity -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtgZ5fHOuU )  making me wonder why I've never heard of using a can as a microphone.

In researching this post to give accurate year information, I found that George Clooney is in the movie, and it's like a Romeo + Juliet (Bazz Lahrman Movie)-esque version (in modernizing it up to the 1920's) of the Odyssey apparently... Though I think it'd be a tad more interesting

Which brings me to another thing. Since I've been sick, I've done a whole lot of nothing productive. Though I do feel satisfied with what I have been able to accomplish.

BACKSTORY: So back on Election Day, a few days before we finalised the Election piece, I was sitting on the first floor of the Carnegie library on the South Side of Pittsburgh. I was flipping through a book simply titled Cronkite because A) I wanted to know more about the guy B) If you're going to be a journalist, you should see how it developed into what it is today and C) I was bored and the guy I was to conduct the interviews yet hadn't showed up yet.

I told this little story to my mom, who in turn told it to my aunt and uncle (the same ones that introduced me to KDKA, John Green, and WYEP) who bought me the book. And now I have something to reference that isn't his autobiography that I borrowed (am borrowing) from my father.

Source: Some News Guy's Blog:
http://dennishouse.wordpress.com/

I flipped once again today to the part I was skimming on that November day - the infamous JFK assassination broadcast.

I read about it, and what went on behind the scenes, and I realised: This is the dawn of the "Breaking News Bulletin" regarding national news for ALL THREE networks. I look at today's media coverage and think that it seems a tad flustered in the marathon coverage. If the creation of it was this event, so be it. But if they did it 'right' or at least less flustered than today's. I wanted to see also it in context. I've seen the thirty second video clip ten thousand times from ten thousand different instances, but I wanted to see the context. I then stumbled across a gem, two hours of the original coverage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Ry9-bpixM (roughly 56:32 for the "The Flash From Dallas - Apparently Official..."))

He did it better and more tastefully than what I had seen done less than three weeks ago with the Newtown Shooting. I say this not based on concrete study of the journalistic arts, or anything. I just say it as someone who watched both, and compared the two. It's not even that in 1963 they did it more 'right' or 'good', I just think there was a difference in what I saw, and the older footage - yikes, it turns 50 this coming year -

And I am reminded of why in the world I want to be a journalist: Because I think it's a way to make a difference in how people think, and how people view what goes on around them. I may be preaching atop the proverbial soapbox, or this may be like a fever dream in a blog post form, but I might be onto something.

I'm not sure what I am doing at this point, or exactly "what I want to be when I grow up" but I do know a few things: I want to write, I want to help people, and above all, I want to make a difference.

It's a cliche anymore, but I still like John Green's words in An Abundance of Katherines:

"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try and do something remarkable?"

Or, In the words of Walter Cronkite (Which at press time I use as my quote at the end of my signature:

"I can't imagine a person becoming a success who doesn't give this game of life everything he's got." 

It's A Thursday, and I'm Sick

That is a fair assumption of my day so far. Actually, that has been my week. Back on Saturday I fell ill with the dreaded ick that seems to have spread to everyone as of late, and have been sick ever since. Nevertheless, it's Winter (Western Christmas) Break and I thought I'd write about that.

I consider myself extremely lucky in more ways than one. Granted, the unlucky balances that out, but with some good I have not too much to complain about.

One of the ways I am lucky is that I was born into a family of a strange religion - Orthodoxy. We follow the traditions of years ago, which while sometimes they seem old-fashioned, it has its benefits. Namely, there is a 13 day discrepancy between Western Christmas (December 25th) Orthodox Christmas (January the 7th).

So how is this so wonderful? It means that I get to separate the holiday (holy-day, get it?) from the commercial celebration that the December Holiday has become.

So why escape the commercialism?

I think this is where the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas comes in. What rang true in 1965 is worse today. People are too materialistic anymore. We want the "stuff" and nothing more. It's nonsense.

I apologize for the preachiness and brevity, and I plan on something deeper tomorrow. Happy Christmas and Boxing Day To Everyone!

Schools Out, Forever (or at least next week)

(It's a play on song lyrics... If you haven't heard the song, then I don' know what to tell you)
So yeah, it's winter break. I think I'm going to blog about a few things, but I'll name them as subheadings: It's the End of The World As We Know it (and I Feel Fine), and OMG It's Snowing In Carnegie.

It's The End Of The World As We Know it (And I Feel Fine)
I have some bad news for you conspiracy theorists: I procrastinated on my Friday blog post, and we're all alive.

But Friday marked the last day we had before this lovely little break, as well as the annual CHS Variety Show. I was informed the day before that the WCHS Morning Crew (Consisting of Me, Clay Bodnar of JSVH fame, and Aidan K of AK Productions Fame) were to host the variety show. Now, I had emceed events before, notably the Talent show of like 2009 or something but my counterparts had only done the AM announcements with me.

It's strange to be on this end of the spectrum when a year back I ran lights for the same event. I got the call from the people running the lights that it was time to go, and instead of hitting the button for a spot, I led Aidan and Clay into darkness with nothing but a spotlight glaring upon us. For me, it was very strange.

We then talked about the end of the world as the opening, doing a custom-tailored version of REM's "It's the End of the World as We Know it (And I Feel Fine)" that we had learned a mere 9 minutes before curtain. It was complete with jumbled lyrics and an ancient Mayan dance, which consisted of Aidan doing the "start the lawnmower" and sprinkler.

Somehow, we managed to host the show with limited injury. We almost lost a Kozy cutout, and were nearly booed for our jokes, but hey, so are the pros! There were a few tech and performance snafus, but I think we managed well enough on our end.

I was asked when I went up to my grandparents house this weekend if our grades were checked, or if we needed to be in scholars or honors classes to do the announcements. Quite plainly, no. We're a group of volunteers that just want to do this for the heck of it. We get no bonus points, magic pats on the back, and I don't think we need it. Our announcements crew (not the tech crew... that is another story entirely) is a dysfunctional family that gets stuff done in a wacky way.

OMG It's Snowing In Carnegie
(Kudos to the CHS band for inspiring the title)
So there were two trends inspiring a lot of the tweets among local teens, or at least the people that I follow on twitter. The first was the end of the world, and the second is that it's snowing.

What a shocker that the first day of winter (northern hemisphere) contains snow. Yet the local news, and twitterers alike took to their proverbial pulpits preaching that it had indeed snowed.

On a final note, these events inspired this gem of a tweet from the great Lana Meyer responding to the great Marin Exler:

No school means hopefully more time to blog. Look for something on Boxing day and MAYBE on Friday for once. 

Happy Western Christmas, Chanukah, Boxing Day, Festivus, and New Years everyone!

Contrasts.

I'm not ready to talk about today's events; and I'm not sure I ever will. 

So yesterday I walked around my neighborhood as I usually do. I got a call from a neighbor to check out something that he had said was going over on his street. I go over and I see that there is an excavator tearing down a condemned house across the street from him.

For years, we had known this just as "Tom's House" a condemned house which we had deemed the monster house of the neighborhood. It had become a hotspot for drug users and other semi-illegal activity. It was a welcome sight to see it go down.

After I saw what was left of "Tom's House" I proceeded to go home and get ready for WYEP's Holiday Hootenanny, which is our annual fundraiser for our education department, and namely Re(imagine) Media.

There were two portions to the program: the VIP act featuring some of the bands from our Re(imagine) Media band competition, Re(imagiNATION) back in May. They performed for the VIP ticket holders, and then the general admission show started.

The general admission show consisted of three bands, Chet Vincent and the Big Bend, the Neighbors, and Mark Dignam and the House of Song. Each of these headlining bands played sets of 7 or so Christmas songs and featured local singers such as Emma Cox and Molly Alphabet.

The event was supposedly livestreamed to UStream, but I don't know because I was taking pictures for WYEP/Re(imagine) Media the whole time. When those are up, I will post a link. However, I have to clean them up a tad, since I was using a not-professional camera.

The entire station (or at least as many people that I know existed) showed up including our E&CE director Alexa, Sensei Matt, and my fellow Carlynton resident Mrs. Meyer. I was introduced to many amazing people, and it truly reminded me of a full-scale version of our Re(imagiNATION) back in May.

The idea that music brings people together seemed to be embodied by this event. Yeah, the people that were there were supporting us, but I think in a broader sense, it was something bigger than that. It truly was a 'holiday party' where all of us Re(imaginers) got to meet the people that make what we do possible. It's extremely humbling, and it was extremely awesome to be a part of.

And I think it's this togetherness that really makes me appreciate what we can do with a radio station, and with one another as creative people. it's a great feeling to feel so much support, and it felt like WYEP truly is more than a radio station - that we're a family of sorts. Some of us are distant, but we're still all together.

If you want to see our informational pieces, pictures of what we've done, or are just interested, check out our blog at reimaginemedia.blogspot.com

If you're interested in hearing the music that was the Holiday Hootenanny, you can listen to 91.3FM locally on Christmas Eve. If you don't live in Pittsburgh, go to WYEP.org on Christmas Eve.

The Test

I've been mulling this one over for a while. My original mission was to take a walk around my neigborhood, take some pictures, and do a 'Thoughts From Places'-esque travelblog, but the always dependable Pittsburgh weather had other plans.

My second thought was a rant on education, an open letter to the Education Dept of the US and Pa. But I don't want to just stand atop my blog soapbox and preach like the guy that is talking about the end of the world, only in the form of education.

It seems that the popular idea is that if you want to prove you learned or did something, you need to either have a grade or a test. This kind of reminds me of the opening to John Green's Crash Course:World History series. He talked about a test. It's a great quote, so I recommend listening to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsFa_MJ0gBs

So basically what he says is that life itself is a test. This in and of itself is an argument that tests matter. I mean, if you think life matters, and life itself is a test, then I guess it does matter.

So what am I getting at here? Don't get me wrong, tests are important because it shows progress, and they measure how much you ___ something. That blank could be filled with know, can do, anything you can think of.

But an undeniable truth is that the test itself can only measure as well as the person who devised it can gauge.

What am I talking about? Specifically, standardized testing. I'm personally opposed to it because instead of standardizing curriculum to useful things, we are standardizing benchmarks and as a result, we are teaching to the tests.

So if life is a test, wouldn't it be good to study? Well, yeah. But I think if you are studying, you should study what is on the test and what will matter in life. And I don't feel that the current education system does that.

Why do I say this? I think I've seen more of the 'real world' in WYEP, the scouting movement, and the other things I've done outside of this education bubble. Take for example, I take the scholars track in Math. I'm studying Algebra 2, yet I haven't learned any business math, like taxes and the sort, and I won't.

I may be wrong. After all, I'm only a high school sophomore. But say I'm on to something real here, I think it's time we take some time to study what will really be on the test.

'Cause Though the Truth May Vary

Those are lyrics from a song I've come to love, Of Monsters and Men's Little Talks. This week has been an extremely interesting one. I'm not 100% sure where this will end up, but here goes nothing:

Today I went to WYEP. It's hard to believe it's been over a year since my start there, but I still love every minute of it, probably more than when I first got there.

This coming Monday marks the 1-year anniversary of our trip to Occupy Pittsburgh. We took the opportunity today to bring back up some of the old projects, and kind of look at it in retrospect. This story is especially interesting to me in retrospect, considering the day of I was interviewed by Matt Spangler about the whole day as part of an audio journal. I listened to that audio, as well as read a blog post (yeah, I do read these from time to time to look back) about visiting.

I also look back to a post I did on the one-year anniversary of the Wall Street movement also, and I guess not much has changed, except I sort of rediscovered it. I Re(imagine)d it, and realized that this was truly the first time I had covered and experienced something.

If we wanted to kickstart a real revolution, or another Occupy, someone would need to step up with a platform of some sort. If it really is a move for social reform, someone should have the foresight to put that as their mission. I'm not saying Occupy is dead, because in essence, Occupy is an idea. I'm just saying that if the gentleman's idea of "eventual results" is going to happen, there needs to be some form of organization in ways of platform, and exactly who/what they are fighting. You just can't redistribute wealth, you have to work out a plan of a system.

I've become semi-skilled in the art of creating audio pieces. I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, an eloquent speaker, but I am able to get pieces created. I've at least come a long way from where I was a year ago.

This couldn't have been possible without the amazing people at WYEP. Check out our blog (reimaginemedia.blogspot.com) in the coming weeks to see some of our projects. I'm in the process of cleaning up the election piece, and we're in the process of adding multiple projects in the future, including the spotlight.

I apologize for the scatter-brainedness, I have a lot going on, and not much sense in my head. Thanks for bearing with me.

Ten Commandments Hike - An Illustrated Adventure

{CLICK ANY PICTURE TO MAKE IT BIGGER! - AP}

So yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting 10 houses of worship along Laurel Highland Council's Jewish Committee on Scouting's Ten Commandments Hike. The basic premise was to travel around Oakland visiting the different churches and learn three things: 1) about the architecture of the building 2) about the commandment they were assigned* and 3) about the denomination that the church/house housed. I did this back in 2010 in this post here, and I decided that I wanted to do it over again. I enjoyed learning about the denominations, and where I fit, and the whole idea of "duty to G-d"**

Rodef Shalom

Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic

That brings up an interesting. The first stop was the Jewish temple of Rodef Shalom, and we began from there with a talk from the Scout Exec for our council, Mr. Mike Surbaugh. He asked for life scouts to raise there hand. Me being a life scout, I raised my hand, and along with another gentleman was summoned to the front of the room. He prefaced his question with "Whether you knew it or not, I'm about to prepare you for your Eagle Board of Review." He then asked us what "duty to G-d"** means. (Sidenote: it's in the Scout Law... if you don't know that, I will not be taking the time to explain it... google it.)

The whole hike's mission was to answer that, and I think I may have an answer. I'll wait until the end to answer, though.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran

Nevertheless, I'll spare you the details of the eight hour journey, but I will give enough room for pictures that I took along the way. We then made our way to Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church, adjacent to Rodef Shalom. From there, we went to Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. After each of the stops, we had time for a question and answer session. My favorite questions were the ones that were either "How is [insert religion here] different from Catholics?" or "What's the difference between [insert religion here] and Christian?" My favourite answer was given at the Lutheran church with the latter question. The campus pastor looked confused for a second and the responded "Nothing! Lutherans are Christian" and went on to explain the formation of the Lutheran church and the church doctines versus that of the Catholic faith.

(Sidenote: roughly 40% of Pittsburgh is Catholic. It's certainly not the case everywhere, but whatever)

From there, we went to Saint Paul's Roman Catholic Cathedral. I won't include a picture simply because of that figure above. This is about the same idea that the pastor there had, and didn't bother to explain Catholicism.

The Crew at The Christian Science Church

My personal thought is that if you want to learn about yourself, have someone else of the same quality or better explain your position and allow you to examine it through a microscope. Granted, I'm not Catholic but I kind of want to hear from a semi-expert what it's all about.

Saint Nick's Greek Orthodox

From there we went to a Baptist church that was reminiscent of a Gothic Cathedral complete with scary-looking organ in the front. Then we moved to the Christian Science Church. I'll again point you towards my last post on this topic, and my explanation of Christian Science. The Same holds true.

From there we visited Saint Nicholas (Greek) Orthodox Church. I put Greek in parenthesis because I am of the opinion that we should become a Holy, Catholic[in the universal sense] and Apostolic Church again and create an American Orthodox Church with all the ethnicities  Hopefully this could happen in my lifetime, but that is another post for another time.

Heinz Chapel Exterior

Remember what I said about through a microscope? The gentleman from the Orthodox Church did exactly that, and explained my faith for the other people in the room. It was interesting. I plan on writing on that in the future in and of itself.

We then visited my all-time favorite stop, Heinz Chapel. Heinz Chapel is this cool little non-denominational chapel on the grounds of the University of Pittsburgh. I say all-time favourite because it has beautiful stained-glass windows, high ceilings, the whole thing is Gothic-style awesomeness.

Heinz Chapel Interior

The whole building has a built in 4,000 something pipe organ into the walls. Hearing this thing played is AMAZING! We were lucky enough to have an organist follow us on this trek, and everywhere there was an organ, he played for us. Heinz Chapel was the last organ stop, it was indescribable to hear it.

Islamic Center of Pittsburgh

If you ever travel to Pittsburgh, Heinz Chapel is one of those places that if you're lucky enough to visit, DO IT. The stained-glass windows are 68 feet high continuously, with brilliant colours and because it is on a University Campus and nondenominational, there are philosophers and the sort in the artistry. Again, a must-see. There we had a Buddhist gentleman talk about meditation* and Buddism.

We finally went to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh. This was not a stop in the previous year that I had gone, but it was something I wanted to see. I wanted to hear what Islam was about simply out of curiosity.

Let me get this across clearly: the media paints one picture. I wanted to see another.

The Imam was a nice gentleman who explained the Islamic faith to a room full of Christians, Jews, and the sort. He gave the side of his faith, and dispelled some things. He also talked about his faith and the Five Pillars of Islam* and the duties of those of the Islamic faith. I tread carefully here, but I feel that he represented well, and gave me much to think about.

So again I present the original question: "What does Duty to G-d** Mean?" I'll answer with this: It's first recognizing that there is a higher power (the proverbial Something-bigger-than-Phil) and having a relationship with that higher power. It's understanding and respecting ("tolerance") other religions, as well as your own views. Take, for example, I am an Orthodox Christian. I don't identify fully with those of the, say, Lutheran faith, but I can respect their beliefs as theirs, and can fully say with an open mind that this is my stance. These are my views. Having a duty to this higher power comes with the territory. It's knowing right from wrong in my case, may be different in others.

*The BSA isn't a Christian Organization, and the BSA has only the requirement to believe in a higher power. Some, such as Buddism and Islam, fit this criteria yet do not recognise the Ten Commandments. They instead talked about their faith.

**This isn't a typo. In the Jewish faith, they don't type out the full word with the "o" as a sign of respect. The idea is that the name is sacred, and if something is printed out and then thrown away, it's like throwing away the name of G-d. I did this for this post because I thought it was a pretty cool idea

Note: I feel the hate mail coming already. It's good to learn about other faiths, my mission was awareness and education, NOT CONVERTING YOU OR I!!!! - AP

This Crazy Thing We Call Life

So today Facebook asked the following question of its users:

The usual placeholder text reads "What's on your mind?" as a friendly demand to get more content. Nevertheless, here in the United States we celebrated the holiday of Thanksgiving. I'm going to try and answer two bits here: What is Thanksgiving and What am I Thankful For?

What is Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is a holiday in the United States, and Canada that is traditionally associated with the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The story goes, they landed there accidentally and many died when they tried getting civilization off the ground there. Enter Squanto and his band of the Friendly Indians who help save the Englishmen by teaching them how to farm (because they obviously weren't scouts) and cause the most plentiful harvest the Englishmen had ever seen. Thus ensued a party, and that party is repeated yearly.

Thanksgiving is the giving of thanks to someone or a higher power, normally for something good.

But wait, aren't Pilgrims on a religious journey by definition? YES. They were fleeing the Church of England and its insanity, in their opinion. This is the part we kind of ignore because of Political Correctness, but nevertheless, the party thanked the Indians and God.

Squanto? If you don't know him, stop reading this nonsense and grab a history book, Open it. Click this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto

The Friendly Indians? There's a brilliant documentary about them on Youtube.

What am I Thankful For?
I've realized that over the past few years I have been extremely lucky. I've been able to take advantage of the ability to meet people, and the fact that I'm not in control. I'm thankful above all for my family and the other amazing people who make my version of this crazy thing we call life mine.

I am thankful for my many families; my actual family, my parish family, my WYEP family, and those friends who you think you could get away with calling them family.

Nature, Death, and Us

I title this post what it is because that's what my English Teacher was talking about regarding themes within an essay we're working on. But it doesn't have much to do with anything.

This past week was interesting. Saturday brought yet another episode of WYEP. The mission was the aforementioned election piece. I teamed up with fellow Re(imaginers) Mark Marino and Neil McGuire to work out some form of a piece. We came up with a plan of creating two separate pieces.

So our focus became the "perspective" option. I volunteered my script writing while Neil worked his wizardry on editing. We eventually finished save for the recording of the actual narration to tie the random interviews together.

Where did I pull my inspiration from? Oh yeah, I posted a blog post the previous day about the topic we were working. I essentially verbally reblogged... and you can hear the final product here:
http://reimaginemedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/election-perspective-2012.html

I find it truly amazing that in roughly 45 minutes, between  Mark, Neil, Matt (running the studio for the still incompetent Popichak) and I we were able to create this thing... and make it a real thing.

Again, I am forever indebted to the WYEP people for letting us use a professional radio studio as a personal sandbox for the five or so of us...

I've been reading up on the life and times of Walter Cronkite (I promise it's relevant) as of late. I've noticed a few parallels between my crazy little life here and his. I have finally decided (in case you haven't noticed, I'm quite indecisive) that I wish to become a journalist of some sort. I love radio, and I love writing little essays like this.

I think that doing what you like is much more important than anything else. The way things are going (and I notice this as a reality) it looks like there isn't a possibility of retiring in my lifetime, so why not at least do something you like? My point? I don't have one.

But what is the point of doing something if you don't at least enjoy it, or its result?

Education, the Election, and a Third Thing

Update: I Helped Write And Narrate An Audio Piece Using This Blog Post. Wanna Hear The Final Product? Check it out here: http://reimaginemedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/election-perspective-2012.html

I've been mulling around my mind as to how to write this post, but I decided this is the way to do it. One of the things that I've been passionately involved in is the education system. I rant about certain things just because I am lazy sometimes for things I just don't want to do. However, I also tend to do this thing where I challenge the line of the realities of things, and usually end up getting in trouble for it.

What am I talking about? I am a victim of the education system in the United States in 2012. I say victim because I believe that the system is broken and flawed. I mentioned about a year ago this video featuring a discussion by Sir Ken Robinson pertaining to the particular issues of the whole system (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U).

The only issue I see is that this, much like my rants, just challenge the system. It doesn't propose any obvious solution except for changing the line of thinking and/or stop medicating the children for standardized tests. However, I've found a gentleman from England (CGPGrey) who proposed a solution after a conference on education in California attended by the likes of Sir Robinson, Hank Green (jayscribble's brother) and many other YouTubers including ViHart. Anyway, Grey put together a brilliant video discussing the topic which you can see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vsCAM17O-M&feature=plcp

So why am I ranting about education without giving specifics? Probably because I've mentioned specifics before. Nevertheless, I bring to mind the recent election. I was on the ground on the South Side interviewing people under the banner of Re(imagine) about the election process. You can quote me on my findings if you want, but basically I learned two things:

1. The People are afraid of The Media (Come on, I'm not partisan media, I'm 15 and just a guy with a field recorder) [I can understand shyness, just not the disgust]
2. The people I was able to talk to were very set in their ways and were proud of their side.

The twitter reactions were interesting to say the least. I follow people for one of two reasons: 1) I know them and/or 2)their tweets are interesting. I saw a bunch of "why does it matter" tweets which I wasn't surprised. It's just a commentary on the state of contemporary thinking.

I'll answer why it matters: In three or so years, you are going to be plunged into the real world. This real world doesn't care whether you're drunk, high, or cute. You'll inherit a cruel world that you'll be expected to take care of, and understand. It matters because before you know it, you will be electing someone to lead you.

I grouped these things together for a few reasons. The first is that this education system is being driven by the current world with the knowledge of the outside distractions we have now, yet we are amazed with the results it produces? We shouldn't be. They aren't as unrelated as they're made out to be. The older generation has a grasp on reality, and I want to call on my own generation to take the iPod earbuds out and listen.

On a lighter note, this election was the first election I've ever covered, and when R(i) completes the piece on the election, I'll add a link to the "noted works" page (I've been keeping that as a clearing house for a portfolio until I can get a site set up for it), and probably post it to their blog. I'm thrilled to be starting off a journalism career here in Pittsburgh, and with such an awesome group. 

Over the past year, I've gotten a chance to experience the real world and the ability to work with like-minded media makers. Thanks to Alexa from WYEP and Mrs. Veri for showing me this in the first place.

A Natural Disaster, Safe In A Pouch

This Post Is Dedicated to All Of Those Affected By Hurricane Sandy in any Capacity. -AP

Today my English teacher put a quote up on the board, as she does everyday on her dry erase board of wisdom. It read:

"Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to reveal a social disaster"

It was attributed to Jim Wallis, and related to a story we are reading in English class about a journalist who goes on assignment to disaster-stricken Colombia and is touched by the story of a thirteen year old girl trapped in the rubble.

The built in irony is the correlation between reading this story and the events of this past week. I reproduce the quote for this reason. It's as my mother said, how petty this election seems after what we've seen in New York and New Jersey.

It's interesting because it's so blatantly true of such a simple statement. Tomorrow (or today, or on the 6th November 2012 according to when you read this) those who are able to (being 15 I cannot) can pick the next president of the United States.

They interviewed David McCollough on 60 Minutes this past Sunday. He made an interesting statement on how grotesque amounts of money have been thrown around during this election, and what has resulted from it? A Bad Show.

It takes a natural disaster to throw into focus the realities around us.

And as for Camp Pouch? [BACKGROUND!] Camp Pouch is a tiny boy scout camp on Staten Island---seemingly the only patch of wilderness on the New Jersey Island---that I stayed at in 2009 on my adventure to New York.

Staten Island was hit especially hard by Sandy, and many are still without power at the time of publishing, however Camp Pouch had "no significant damage to the cabins, lodge, or structures" according to the Wall Street Journal. Scouts have been very helpful in the cleanup efforts, they add.

If you're curious about the story I'm quoting HERE: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203846804578099220643784136.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Curious about Camp Pouch: http://pouchcamp.org/

So what is the point I am making here? I'm not too sure really. I think it's worth noting that as Robert Frost wrote "if there's one thing I've learned about life: It. Goes. On." People are moving on in New Jersey, New York (my concrete Jungle), and Bethany Beach. I think the rest of us not affected can take a lesson or two from this. Things that are beyond our control can be lived with if we work together, and just care.

Random Acts and Senior Night

Earlier this evening I was looking over my script (can't call it my onesheet, like the band scripts) and thinking wow, this season has been amazing. And in my eyes it has been. Who would've thought two or three months ago that I'd become the go-to guy for announcing stuffs, including this senior night script. I'd talk about that, but there's a better story to be told this week.

So I was walking around the neighborhood on this unseasonably warm day, and decided to make a stop over by what I call 'the overlook' of the neighborhood. I made my way past that and up the hill, and saw a guy I recognized from this past summer walking with a leash---but no dog.

He approaches me and says "hey, you know anyone missing a young male greyhound?" I know very few dog owners, however I do own Rotor the Killer Wiener Dog. I decide to help him out, though... trying to find someone who would know.

My first stop is with the McClains' down the street from the spot I met him. On my way across the street, this greyhound comes out of nowhere, and starts following me over to the McClains'. Mr. McClain is able to get the dog into his hands, and we are able to get a temporary leash on this dog. The search, however, continued for the owner.

My next thought was the guy who I saw outside, Greg from down the street. He too, owns a killer wiener dog named Tank. However, he didn't know of anyone missing a greyhound. I left the original dude with the dog over at Greg's and attempted to talk to our neighborhood humane society expert.

{{{Backstory}}} I've known this lady for years. She used to go to our bus stop back when the 38C still ran to downtown. She worked for the Post-Gazette and is a HUGE advocate for animals.

Anyway, so we get in touch with her, and she says that she may know someone who owns a greyhound, but in the meantime we should try and get in contact with either the Police Dept, the Humane Society, or this groups called "Going Home Greyhounds" a group which helps find homes for greyhounds.

After repeated calls, we get nowhere. Meanwhile, the first dude goes back to put his own dog, a boxer, into his house. Turning around to come back to the base of ops, he comes across two girls. They ask "you didn't happen to see---"

He cut them off "I know what you're looking for. A beige, young male greyhound?"

"Yes!"

So the dude hops on his bike and leads them over to the base of ops, and the dog is reunited with his owners. Mind you, I first met this guy over the summer when he was fixing up bikes.

I don't know this guy's name, nor the dog's. This isn't that important to know either, though. I could trust him, and he could trust me.

So what's the moral here? I'm not the best at themes, but I would have to say that there are a few very evident ones. The first is that we're not in control. There's something bigger than Phil working above us, watching out for us. On that same thought, at least in my Pittsburgh Suburb, people look out for one another in the neighborhood. There are still good people in the world, and there are people willing to work together to get something---or some dog---safe and done.

JOTA, Scouting, and the Sort

So this weekend marks an annual event internationally... Jamboree on the Air, or JOTA. I had been receiving a bunch of emails in recent weeks about this, and thought it was "kinda cool" but in reality had no clue what it was.

Enter today, Saturday the 20th, and I find myself in a flag ceremony taking pictures for the mayor, and then at breakfast, and then on the second highest point in Allegheny County. I was visiting the Steel City Amateur Radio Club  who hosted a station for scouts interested in participating in the international event. The idea? Scouts from all over the world could talk to each other on two specified days using HAM radios and at the same time learned about Amateur Radio-ing.

The members of the club that were there were EXTREMELY NICE. We arrived like ten minutes earlier than the beginning of the window (SCARC allotted us use from noon-5 eastern) and still the gentleman gave us a tour of the grounds, including the ham and low-frequency towers, and then took us into the clubhouse.

There, after a brief explanation of this gentleman's history of being in the scouts and hosting a JOTA at the then newly-built Heritage Reservation in 1983, they led us into the studio. Now, I've been in the studios of WYEP, KDKA, and practically live in the studio of WCHS (Morning Announcements), and I was about to add another callsign to that list.

I utilized a ham radio station using the club's callsign W3KWH, and connected to Kissimee Florida and talked to some scouts a few miles from Disney World. They said it was 'nice' being 73 degrees(F) we said it was nice, overcast, and 53 in Pittsburgh. We also connected to Birmingham, Alabama, as well as another station in Florida (Fort Meyers), and then finally contacted a guy on a county line in Iowa (Jefferson, I think) working out of his car in an Iowan contest to see who could contact the most people. This guy was from Minnesota.

I learned a few things today. I learned just how small the world was, and how friendly people are in amateur radio, and above all, I am falling in love with this Radio thing. I almost walked out with a membership application, but I want to get qualified by the FCC first. (Hear that FCC?)

If I met you (Alex Popichak, Life Scout with Troop 831, Right Outside Of Pittsburgh) it was awesome to do so =73=. I remember there was a guy named Isaac, and I think a Connor there too. So many others, and I plan on getting into this a tad further, and maybe meeting some other new people.

This coming Friday (10/26) marks the Fall Sports senior night, and the last time I'm lending my voice to the Cougar Marching band and Carlynton's football field this year. It's been fantastic, and I plan on doing it again soon. Come on out, game starts at 7pm, and senior night stuff starts at like 6:45...

With that means that I will attempt to get back to Friday Evening posts come this November... Fingers Crossed!

Occupy: One Year Later

So those of you that followed my adventure to downtown Pittsburgh last December may remember that I visited with members of the Occupy Movement. I'll tell you what I saw.

The following is from my post "Visiting the Occupiers..."

After wandering around the encampment around this large bulletin-board style fence around a fountain, it was quite clear that this group was angry with what was happening with America, and were willing to stay indefinitely. It kind of reminded me of a boy scout tenting excursion. So we decided to walk up to a guy and identify ourselves as media people from WYEP. He had a lot to talk about. He was a man who had taken odd jobs: moving boxes, a registered massage therapist, before joining this movement.
When asked if he thought that this movement would help any job prospects when I (or in this case, the girl asking the questions) graduate college, he laughed. He said that he wished that he could say so, but he was being a realist. He thinks that change will come out of this, but nothing immediate.
We also asked what the reactions the encampment had gotten. He said it was mainly positive. He mentioned a time (as did two other protesters) where there had been a few people about four weeks ago that had screamed "GET A JOB" out the window by passing at a high rate of speed, to suggest that they might have been drunk. Others said that they'd join, but they had to work. To be honest, some of the protesters do have jobs (See Below).
Two other protesters talked to us about their thoughts. The one man described himself as "Underemployed." They mainly shared the same views as the first man, but had an interesting perspective coming back and forth from a job (I think the one said he was laid off, but I am not sure).

So the movement celebrated one year. Granted, those of you that know the history of the Pittsburgh movement know that later on they were kicked out of Mellon Green and essentially disbanded.

I asked point-blank what their plan for if they do get kicked out, what would they do. They answered that they would maybe move and Occupy the Point. He joked that if you controlled the point (speaking historically) you can be more successful. They never moved to the point.

A year later, I am able to step back and realize a few things: As Alex Zukoff said, this was one of the first major movements toward socialism. Upon further research, I saw it could be, but I saw that it might have been doomed from the start by being just protesters  They were protesting a system that failed them, but could cite nothing but

THE ONE PERCENT! WE ARE THE 99%.

Okay, that's concentration of wealth. It's been an issue since currency was invented, really.

If we wanted to kickstart a real revolution, or another Occupy, someone would need to step up with a platform of somesort. If it really is a move for social reform, someone should have the foresight to put that as their mission.

I'm not saying Occupy is dead, because in essence, Occupy is an idea. I'm just saying that if the gentleman's idea of "eventual results" is going to happen, there needs to be some form of organization in ways of platform, and exactly who/what they are fighting. You just can't redistribute wealth, you have to work out a plan of a system.

The Declaration of Independence details that if a government isn't properly working for the people, they need to have the right to fix it... Occupy was an attempt, it just wasn't that great of an attempt.

So on this anniversary of the Pittsburgh movement, I have to wonder: what have we learned, and what is there to work on at this point?

Brilliance, Both Literally and Figuratively.

Brilliant is also apparently a town in Ohio...

So, by definition means "having or showing great intelligence, talent, quality, etc.". So, in essence, when I called Lana Meyer's play brilliant I was justified, because it had all of the elements of a talented production. I mention this for two reasons... to give a shoutout to her, and to make light of the fact she signed my playbill during a second period study hall in an art room. Granted, she only did the writing and dialogue and that end, but I got to thinking... what does it mean to create something?

About three years ago, I created a website and called it "the 2015 blogger" and now, this being the 150th post, an award nomination, and over 6 thousand hits later, it's still here.

I have done countless projects, and have helped in projects where I've seen something go from just a sticky note or note into something real---something tangible, something other people can see, and it's crazy satisfying.

Brilliant brings up the connotation of either enlightenment or something else involving light. Look at the stars/Look how they shine for you are familiar lyrics to the Coldplay song "Yellow". It kind of seems that when you do something, you take pride in it.

Take for example, the town where you live... I take major pride in being from Pittsburgh, because I feel as a person living in the metro area that I have helped build it (not literally).

So where am I going with this? If you work hard enough at something, and you build it up, you want to see it shine. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing something you've had a hand in creating finally coming together and shining with brilliance.

On a final note, I took a picture of when the Carlynton School District had their anti-bullying kickoff. The whole district came together on the track and had a parade of anti-bullying banners.

But in my mind, this holds a much larger significance in that the whole district became one that day. The teachers talked with colleagues from the Elementary schools et cetera, as well as the students coming together---Crafton, Carnegie, and Rosslyn Farms---as one district for the first time, ever.

I leave you on my 150th post with that picture I took:

Click For Larger.

Some Nights, I Call it a Draw.

I kind of like using lyrics in post titles. Granted, they sometimes have no point or relevance to the post itself. But at the same time, they may have a relevance that transcends sense.

I've recently decided to just live my life. As the son of an Orthodox Priest (This is going to come up a few times here... just roll with it.) I have been brought up with the idea that we aren't in control of our own lives. What others call karma we just believe exists, with no supernatural explanation or anything. There's a plan out there for what we will become, call it a destiny or whatever, but it's a plan. 

Life is kind of like the scouts in the sense that it's a journey. Yeah, you can strive for Eagle, but when you get it... what does it mean? Have you gone through some motions or have you earned a rank for the sake of the side things that come along with it.

Here's a better analogy: you get on a roller coaster, and you get really nervous as you climb the hill (or descend into the depths of the Jackrabbits famed double-dip (mhmhmmmhmmhm)) but you  know three things. A)You're stuck there (can't just press escape) B)It's inevitable what's to come C) You're strapped in, and this has been done before, and people survived it.

John Green's Paper Towns contained a quote about life, how everything is survivable, except that last thing.

So I'm just riding the roller coaster for now, and I've noticed some interesting things. For one, my made-of-awesome friend Lana Meyer (who wrote a play.... you should come see it!) is a nerdfighter.  The only reason I know this is that we were talking during some random study hall in an art room. The conversation went to cupcake vending machines, but the only reason we had even started was because both of us were just riding along.

Post Script: I am in the process of converting my new blue-haired friend into a Nerdfighter. It's not a religion, trust me... not is it a cult.

Thus, (can you tell I've been writing papers?) I recommend you just ride, and you'll notice things you never have before... Post 150 is next week. Thanks for the ride.

Schools Summarized Via Church Pews, and Can Crushes

So, yeah, I've gotten to that point where I write the title more as a reminder to myself as to what the post I thought of was supposed to be about. This is an intro.

So I was recently reminded that rarely do teachers let the students choose where to sit. However, when they do, it is a predictable pattern.

The title describes a church pew mentality (more on the church part in a later post, but right now I'd just care to explain the pew part). People going to church (or school) generally want to be there (or at least signed up for the course) but they are afraid of the front, being too close to the priest (or teacher). Catching on?

With classrooms, naturally everyone wants to sit either a) as far away from the teacher as possible b) as close to the door as possible and/or c) near their friends.

Teachers do this thing that priests cannot (or at least I don't think for them it's all that ethical...) they give seating charts. This forces the people that want to be at the back (the general population) to come closer to hear the sermon, I mean, lesson.

However, if you work the system right (this is where I fit in), you don't appear too eager to be at the back, or for that matter the front, you end up getting put in the middle of it all.

Nevertheless, all English classes will still have comically small desks (I want to spotlight that sometime...) and spinny chairs will never be put in classes.

The Can Trailer... Taken With a Phone Before the Crush
Amazing Quality, right?

And on an unrelated note, I got back from a can crush earlier. So our troop has this trailer outside of our local park where we collect aluminum cans and then sell the scrap as a fundraiser.

People, in general, are mean. They don't read the side obviously and stuff everything---plastic, glass, bags, into this thing. IT'S NOT A TRASH CAN.

So anyway, our mission every few months or so is to open this thing up and take the cans out of the bags, and sort out anything that's not aluminum cans. This is a huge undertaking, and this evening we had like 11 guys working on it with shovels and trash cans and gloves and whatever else (one time we had a huge railroad spike).

After working on this for forty-five minutes, we had completed the mission. The side effects to such a task include but are not limited to: hearing the crash of cans in your sleep, your clothes smelling like a combination of stale pop and stale beer, and of course that headache sparked from the nausea of smelling this concoction...

So yeah, that's a blog post, and I'm dealing with the headache now... hope to post Saturday or maybe Friday... mais je ne sais pas que fois vais apporter...