Film At Eleven

Did you hear on the news? The former governor of Alaska was in Boston and said something ignorant about Paul Revere. If you're a lefty like me you couldn't miss it. Every blog and news source covered it comprehensively. Even Fox News took her to task. Seems like given a chance the right wing news machine will eat it's own young.

If you follow my Google Shared Items Feed you saw the story. I think I linked to Jezebel or one of the other Gawker sites. I too took the moment to revel in the ignorance.

But there's a problem. One of the righty blogs I follow occasionally had a historian evaluate what she said, and if you can get passed the grammar it wasn't too far from the truth. While on the night of the "one if by land" ride he might not have trash talked to the British or fired warning shots or rang bells, and on that night maybe the troops weren't coming to seize colonial weapons all of those things were in play at the time.

I mean the quote came less than ten minutes after she left the Old North Church where I am sure a guide who knows more of the intricacies of the Paul Revere story than most of us probably laid it all out. The the Mama Grizzly's retelling was typically more detailed than you might normally hear is probably due to that.

I have a different media strategy I'd like to see employed. Next time that bus turns up someplace, don't cover it; and the next time someone on that bus says something, don't cover that either. You're not going to convince any of your readers to vote against her, they're already going to do that and while your not helping your cause at all you're providing free publicity for her to those that might vote for her.

Stop doing that.

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• 20:48 @aerdin shoulda gone to the movies #
• 21:13 @aerdin now rock bottom #
• 22:41 @aerdin bridesmaids #
• 22:42 @walt828 wow that is a crappy article #
• 22:43 @KendraSerra get to work #
• 14:07 at work looking for distractions #
• 14:09 wanna be in Batman: bit.ly/lnDo8E #
• 14:21 Should I up the ante on the Basic PTM class? bit.ly/jMHdqx #
• 14:27 the kittens at the store made me WAY allergic #
• 15:04 I can't imagine why anyone would want this within an hour of Pittsburgh bit.ly/lKTL9y actually I can. :-( #
• 16:17 Google says 49 minutes, doesn't answer why not SSWorks, or waterfront, or the Mills... #
• 19:08 @aerdin much as I'd like for i! t to be true, if you look carefully it seems like she was more goofy t han wrong. #

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Bridesmaids

So we went to see Bridesmaids. We went to the theatre not knowing which movie to go see, and I think we were going to see the new X-Men but Roger Ebert says not to see movies with a "D" after them when you can see something from a traditional projector. Since I do everything Roger Ebert says we saw Bridesmaids.

They're marketing this film like it is a female "The Hangover" but it isn't. I expected to see lots of Las Vegas hyjinks, but that's not what you get. It's much more about the relationships of a couple of key characters than it is about some kind of ridiculous weekend.

It *is* like The Hangover in a couple of ways, mostly by way of the gross out factor. There's a scene fairly early on that pushes back some boundaries with regard to bodily functions and polite society. There's also one bridesmaid that matches up with the unkept groomsman in The Hangover, but really even that is only about half of who she is.

This movie also has a romantic story that runs parallel with the main story. I kind of felt like this was the weaker part of the film, or moreover like this was part of a different film because it really didn't fit with the movie we thought we were going to see. The male part of this romance was drawn a little two dimensionally and maybe unrealistically well meaning.

Overall I guess when the film is doing the gross out plot it's fairly strong and when it's doing other things it's fairly innocuous. I imagine the deleted scenes on the DVD will be even funnier than the film in context.

Also there was Wlson Phillips, and Wilson (wait, now I'm thinking maybe I missed a gag).

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• 22:10 Anyone got an iPad app for publishing to Blogger? The touchscreen navigation makes using the site through Safari less than. #
• 17:28 @CBPittsburgh had a good visit to the store today, but no drinks. :-( #

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Some Thing I Have Learned About Stairs

I spent my day getting sucked into stair world. You know, we're doing this house and in the house there's this staircase, or at least there was a staircase until we took it out. Anyway today I learned a bunch about staircases.

Mostly I learned that sometimes the building code is not your friend.

See, it turns out in the code that a residential staircase with walls has to be 36" between the walls. If you're doing a staircase without walls then it has to be 36" between the handrails. Do you see what happened there? It means that a floating staircase has to be inherently wider than a staircase between walls. Wider by the width of the railings and the finger space behind the railings if there's an obstruction.

So, if you remove a staircase that had walls and try to replace it with a floating staircase and the whole thing has to fit in the space that has always been there... it won't.

And that's what we're doing.

Our stairs have no first floor walls, but pass through a gap in the ceiling that is a fixed size (the size of the old staircase). Also apparently they built the original staircase at precisely the smallest size it could be by code. The result being the new stairs don't really fit and one of the railings will really be place unoptimally.

Partway through this discovery I tried to apply some problem solving skills. We need 3-1/2". It's much like a TD scenery project so I figure I can find that much space. The plans looked like this going across:

1-1/2" space
1-1/2" rail
36" clear tread
1-1/2" rail
1-1/2" space
1-1/2" rail
36" clear tread
1-1/2" rail

So I puzzle over it an suggest:

1-1/4" space
1" rail
36" clear tread
1" rail
1" rail
36" clear tread
1" rail

Ding the math, that saves 3-3/4" and solves the problem, or at lest it would if the 36" wide step was the whole of the code. But it's not. The railing can't be 1" it has to be at least 1-1/2" and the spacing can't be 1-1/4" it has to be 1-1/2" (really, 1/4" matters to somebody) and you have to have the space between the rails EVEN IF THEY ARE AT DIFFERENT ELEVATIONS.

I swear it's enough to drive a body to vote republican.

So, the new steps, while cool, will not be exactly what we were looking for (or placed where we were looking for). But they will be up to code and pass an inspection. I guess that's better than doing what we want and then having to rebuild them to code.

Plus, there's an epilog. I went back and looked at the photos from the home inspection to see what was there before the demo. That staircase didn't fit under the hole either. Guess I wasn't (guess nobody wasn't) paying close enough attention.

I'll have to remember that for the next house.

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• 22:39 Did they just make up 15 points in like 4 minutes? #
• 22:45 I've got an idea, let's leave a guy wide open for three on the inbound. #curiousdefense #
• 22:47 You can't guard me. #Dirksays #
• 00:13 @sspuh try not to learn too much we'll have to help you unlearn, ok? #traf #
• 09:07 Didja know... If you build a staircase within walls code needs 36" between the walls, but without walls you need 36" between the rails. #
• 09:09 @m! attigray takeout menus #
• 12:45 @keeboch they ought to be thinking Doctor or Lawyer #paythembills #
• 12:46 in the office, not sure why #
• 14:52 I just had a tweet printed in a magazine. What's that called? Retwublished? #
• 15:25 today learning all kinds of unfortunate things in the building code about staircases; libertarian urges rising #
• 16:13 a guy named Chris just called me and he sounded just like a guy named Chris I used to talk to all the time. But it wasn't him. #
• 18:01 I have hom e remodeling fatigue #

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East Coast Travelogue

So far I don't seem to be kicking ass on this post a day June. But we'll keep trying. Weekend before last Mrs. TANBI and I made an East Coast swing. We drove.


New Jersey doesn't have a particularly prominent sign to photograph while driving. Probably good stewardship of their scarce state funds. Every time we make this drive we go through Easton PA. Easton is the name of one of my nephews and I keep meaning to stop to see if there's some t-shirt or something to get for him. I guess maybe next time.

The chief reason for the trip was the CMU SOD DP New York Cocktail Party. Each year after they graduate we take our seniors to NYC for a little coming out party. Actually "we take" is a little strong. We provide a room and send out invitations, they're on their own to get there (really that's not an accurate picture either, but close enough). I hadn't been to the cocktail in like 10 years. For some reason TDs haven't been going and it hasn't seemed fair to spend the school's money when I didn't have students at the event. This year I had a couple people make the trip so I did too. It was a good event I think and it was great to see some faces I hadn't seen in a while.

There were other reasons to make the trip too. First up, we hadn't seen Trulane yet.


This is my younger nephew. He was born a few months ago and this was the first real opportunity to get to the city and see him. He does all the baby things and was actually remarkably cooperative during our visit. Easton was a little crankier, he was getting over some kind of bug.

The night after the cocktail we went to see some of the fine New York theatre.


I mean, as a TD was there something else I was likely to go see? Actually, left totally to my own devices I might have gone to see "Lucky Guy" Off-Broadway because I worked on a production of it a thousand years ago in summer stock. But as it turned out, Thursday morning I got an email from the Syfy people offering discount Spidey tickets; so we could get the discount without waiting in a line anywhere. So we went.

I guess the substance of the show ought to be a whole post of its own, but suffice it to say when we saw it - they weren't there yet. What I think I saw most were the hands of many different people. The show was just really uneven, and at intermission I expressed the opinion that they could really stand to cut the first 20 minutes of the show. So, not life altering theatre.

Friday we finished up another loose end.


My sister and I, Matt and Marisa, and my nephews went to the cemetery and buried my Dad's ashes, some of my Dad's ashes. It's been nearly a year since he passed and during all that time he's just been hanging out in our utility room in Pittsburgh. I'm not sure why I'd been dragging my feet to get this done, but I hadn't been in any kind of a hurry. It was quiet and breezy and there was no to do, which was fine. After we were finished we went by my cousins for dinner. Good to see family.

Why is my Dad buried in New York? My Aunt has put a lot of resources into a family plot there. So he's with my Mother and her Mother and Father, plus my Uncle and his Mother, and my other Aunt. SO there's a lot of company.

We've got more to do with my Father's final resting place. His will provided that we divide the ashes, some to be buried in New York and some to be scattered at various sites around the world. The list of destinations changed over the years. The last I have is the Brooklyn Bridge, Paris, Amsterdam, Quebec City, and Washington DC. I'll have to do some research and some planning (and maybe a budget).

But wait, there's more.

On the way home from NYC we detoured to Lancaster PA for a wedding.


One of my earlier students and a former classmate of Marisa's was getting married. They had an outdoor ceremony and it wasn't 100 degrees and the rain held off. It was a beautiful wedding and again I got to see a bunch of faces I hadn't in a while.

And even that isn't the end. On the last day before we drove home I got a tour of TAIT Towers in Liditz. This is a scene shop that does pretty much exclusively touring rock shows. Can I tell you I wish I had known about this shops existence when I graduated from CMU all those years ago. Their place is huge, the technology is first rate, and the clientele... none other like it. Alas, all my professors pointed me toward was the regionals. I'll have to live this vicariously through students (there are now 6 of my former students there). Looks like they're having fun.

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• 20:38 @keeboch aol, gmail, Plaxo, linkedin, facebook, AIM. All over the place. #
• 12:09 Mitt, you're running for President, put on a tie. #
• 13:19 @48v or the people they got were better on paper than in person #
• 15:12 Finally making precollege hires. #wonderwhosaround #
• 15:18 @bpeoples doesn't seem to be available anytime soon #
• 15:32 Seen "Quarantine"? Didn't end like I thought. #
• 17:10 At the CMU alum meetup at Mad Mex Shadyside. Come one come all. #

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• 21:06 It is a little warm in the apartment #
• 21:50 And... I bricked my phone. #
• 23:17 I think I managed to get the phone OS upgraded - finally. It's possible the problem was my firewall, or the cable, or "other USB devices" #
• 11:01 @bpeoples @birdbrainlabs "driver of the Winibago?" #
• 11:06 @bpeoples all three news shows talking about the weather #priorities #
• 13:05 @Mboev! ers didja goof? #
• 17:46 Anyone available to curate my contacts across 5 devices and a half dozen sources? Now accepting bids. #

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Ellipses...

Maybe he meant social networking is only 10 years old. But that would have been wrong too... The phone bricked and then unbricked. I'm sure there are still problems, but we'll see... Decided to stay with the hand drafting, the early CAD assignments just don't look like anything at an interview... The last several days have been hot, but Chicago hot, not Vegas hot... Missed game one of the NBA Finals. It's possible they haven't got me to the "watch whoever is playing" stage yet... Subfloors for the last two days, not much to photograph... Sent my sister a job listing for Pittsburgh. I don't think she'll jump at it... I can't tell you how little I care that Weiner may have sent a picture of his package to some random woman - mostly because I believe him when he says it wasn't him... I'm thinking of trying to do a post per day in June. It's not a creative project per day, but it's something... I shouldn't care, but I am bummed for the Cornelia Marie, the owners, the crew, and the captains. Amazing how one person can so much be the glue... The Arts Festival starts this weekend... Why, why, why is CNN so bad? Didn't they used to be pretty good? Depressing... Do you think Sarah Palin is touring American historical sites to educate herself? It's like she's taking my 3rd grade family vacation... I think my flick is gone. I hope it's like riding a bike... For someone on vacation I spend a lot of time at work. At least we have air conditioning here... They're gonna add commercials to PBS. I hope maybe they think twice before adding them to children's' programming... The OS upgrade I tried for so long to make happen definitely made my phone run slower, plus now all my apps are alphabetical and I didn't so much want them that way. Bummer... So now cell phones cause cancer and we're supposed to always keep them more than a half inch away? Super...