Saturday, June 28, 2008

Is Pittsburgh Sustainable?

Plentiful freshwater, fertile land, freight rail infrastructure, large potential for barges and commerce by boat. 

And there is Coal, though that will run out eventually.

Outside of the City we've got mad sprawl problems though, the old river towns like Sewickley, Coraopolis and Oakmont, aren't so bad because they usually have a rail line close by and are relatively compact but Wexford, Cranberry, Fox Chapel, Ross, Shaler and the like are going to look not so good if gas goes up to $7-$10 per gallon or higher.

The South Hills are rather spread out but they do have the T rail in their favor. 

We'll just have to wait and see what oil does over the next 3-5 years or so, perhaps even the next decade before the future really comes into picture.

Friday, May 2, 2008

GIS Jobs



GIS Job Trends graph


Good for me!


Monday, April 28, 2008

I have fought the darkness

Into the pit I was thrown
Tired and weary
but I still faced the monster
I saw him

Into his eyes I looked
a firey inferno of blackness
poured like molten lead
pulsing through his veins

He was my demon
forged in the darkness of the mind
breathing down my neck
a self yet to be named
or used

I drew my sword

and waited

staring down and through him
his dark, empty soul was hungry
but I saw the light

radiant flares engulfed and poured out from me
A great brightness came and the darkness was no more

He could not exist in the light
And I am not afraid of the darkness

Friday, March 28, 2008

The Man from Illinois

There once was a man from Illinois
A tall man
Who came upon a nation divided
a firey orator from the plains
he gave us hope

A nation
breaking
not wanting of war
we must stand

Oh Abraham
Have you returned to us?
draped in the robes of the Blessed

A new birth of freedom
with malice towards none
and charity for all

we shall not perish
from the Earth

Monday, March 10, 2008

Sweet Water

Sweet Water
Sweet Water
turn back not your sons and daughters

the vast sea of us
drenched in a pool of cool summer
ignorant in what our parents did to get us here
we wait
and watch
and listen

and drink from you
creating our own stories
and our own histories

Then one day we are gone
memories

but when we return the stories 
are the same

only the names have changed

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Rest, ye old City

Lay down to rest my child
and bask in the sunlight of spring

The smokey, smoggy
three veins of yours
have cleared

give to me thy fresh and clean
brilliant shining light
from which we drank as youth
to you we give thanks

You have seen so much,
and some might say
better days

but to us you are beautiful
our velveteen rabbit
you are real
we understand

rest ye old city
for your time will come one day
when all the water in the west dries up
and gas will be to much to pay

open your arms
we come to you
like children we amass at your doorstep
teeming for the one place that can truly be called

home

Sunday, March 2, 2008

If Sufjan Stevens made a Pennsylvania Album

Title: The Keystone State
1. Ole' Billy Penn
2. Intercourse
3. The Whiskey Rebellion, or how to drink your government out of existence
4. Brotherly Love
5. Steel, the thing made in Homestead that causes such a ruckus
6. The babe born in Bethlehem
7. Skidattle in Scranton
8. From Mars to the Moon, an Interplanetary Journey
9. Eerie
10. Catching Altoona
11. Groundhog Day

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

OH River

You are our giving tree
OH River

They called you Jordan and escaped across you
OH River

You bring life to our lands
OH River

Your history precedes you
OH River

I know you
OH River

I know you
OH River

Friday, February 15, 2008

Snap, fire

A fire raging in a dark inferno
conjures images of ourselves
in a can

God's answering
Margaret's here
This time
with a gun

Insular self affirmation
I'm right
they're wrong
delusions of superiority

wrapped in conformity
just to someone else's rules

the sought outlet is violence
death
destruction
why?

There is none

Oh Liberty
We are your wretched refuse
tempest tossed in a sea of growing up
still unsure where your lamp is lifted
not yet passed through the golden door
immigrants in our own land

Some would choose eternal darkness
instead of finding the light

To all those affected by the recent shootings at schools and universities across America
My thoughts and prayers are with you.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Whey, nectar of the gods?

I was making cheese for the first time the other day. Called Labneh, it's basically just strained yogurt.

I drank the whey after letting it strain through a paper towel which I had used as an improvised cheese cloth.

Holy shit it tastes good. It's got some kind of weird sweetness.