Breaking The Silence
I haven't posted anything for a while, mainly because I still feel a bit uncomfortable writing about personal, non-technical stuff. Silly me! Anyway, for those handful of people who might care, during the past few months I moved to the USA after quite some legal and logistical trouble. Once I was here with all my possessions I could take on the plane, we finally tied the knot with Leslie; the US government was pushing us with strict deadlines so we went for a rather minimal wedding in short 3 weeks. It was still too big for us (due to family intervention it has gotten out of hands quickly); I know people always claim that it was their most amazing day ever, but for us the word traumatic describes the event more accurately. It was on a Friday (11/11/11, just to make it easy to remember), then we made it a long weekend and went to our usual vacation spot – Washington DC. It was nice, but I must say you better avoid the International Spy Museum, it was awful, expensive, boring (during the initial elevator ride and profile room you'd think it will be great fun) and I guess it tells all that the most entertaining moment was when in a really busy room I accidentally kicked up a toddler. Right then I felt awful but now it's a fond memory of ours. On the other hand, go and check out Mount Vernon, George Washington's remote mansion and farm, chances are you'll find it a really pretty place, even if you're not a history buff.
We must have caught the flu in DC because we got sick by the time we arrived home and it took a while to get through that. We bought lots of IKEA furniture and reorganized the house, I built a new workstation from components I brought from Hungary and ordered the rest from Amazon even before I arrived here. Got a new telly (47" LCD, yay), lots of video games, enjoyed Christmas with our first actual tree (we just took it down last weekend) and I've been quite busy with work. All this didn't leave too much space for hobby projects, but before moving I wrote an FTP server that's been running ever since without major hiccups, so I might release it sometime.
Enjoy the winter!
Snow Globe Massacre
I know it's rather cheesy but I like snow globes. They haven't been commonly sold items in Hungarian gift stores when I was little, but whenever I saw them in movies, I found them fascinating. So pretty! But when I began traveling to other countries on my own and finally happened to find some, they all looked dull, like cheap plastic crap you'd expect prisoners to create out of utter boredom for a pack of cigarettes. I haven't given up on getting a real nice quality one so whenever I see one in a store, I have to check it out and shake it. Last winter we stopped by at the Dollar Store for something and we found a shelf of small snow globes with penguins inside. They weren't pretty, what do you expect in a dollar store, but I wanted to see it snow so I shook one. It didn't work that well, somehow the water didn't move the snow-like particles much. I began shaking it vigorously, giggling to Leslie about how funny it would be if I accidentally dropped it... A second later the snow globe slipped out of my fingers, exploded on landing and pieces of broken glass and plastic slid everywhere on the now wet floor. A lady with her daughter was standing next to us and saw the whole event which must have looked like I deliberately smashed it on the floor with a full swing, laughing like a maniac. She quickly walked away with horror and disbelief on her face while I just held my head. "What have I done?! We have to tell someone!"
After a little hesitation we walked up to the cashier lady and Leslie told her "A glass broke over there and the floor is wet." No way, I won't try to just sneak away with this so I quickly added "I did it!" which may have sounded like I'm proudly announcing it, but I must have looked guilty enough, plus I wanted to pay for it... The lady was actually quite grateful for us to tell her so she can go to clean it up to avoid accidents and didn't even let me pay for it, claiming it happens all the time. I kind of doubt that. :)
Black And Yellow
With the risk of sounding like an old fart ignorant individual, I've got to say I lost touch a little bit with new popular songs; that's what I get for listening only to my own music collection and genre-based internet radios these days. Probably that's why I never heard this song before I stumbled upon it today, despite how high it climbed on the US charts since it was released in September. I like it, not only because it sounds good, but it has a little personal relevance to me. The colors black and yellow (which might be gold actually) refer to the main theme colors of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Wiz Khalifa resides. They can be found on Pittsburgh's city flag, police cars, and not surprisingly on the jerseys of all their professional sports teams, the Steelers (football), the Pirates (baseball) and the Penguins (hockey).
I like Pittsburgh, I think it reminds me to the southern, rather industrial part of Budapest where I've grown up, the large number of bridges crossing over the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers give it a further familiar vibe. Its nick name is the Steel City, but since the steel business went bust in the region after the 80's, the city tries to reinvent itself as a home of high tech companies in the fields of IT and robotics, health care and banking. It's also the home town for the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, plus the sports scene that I mentioned above. First I thought it may be a scary big crime infested city, but after watching the news for many months, I must admit that it's not any worse than Budapest, it might be even safer. It looks a bit industrial, but often that's only for show, like the series of smokestacks you see in the video is not part of a steel factory anymore, only a reminder landmark at the Waterfront shopping center which was built on the land where the factory used to be. I've been there on a sunny afternoon and it's a really pretty sight, standing on a grassy field.
I don't have many good photos from Pittsburgh, usually it was an ugly weather whenever I went there with my camera, so going there on a nice day for a proper photo tour is definitely in my plans for later. If you go there from like West Virginia, it's an option to drive there on the interstate by seeing nothing but bushes next to the road, drive through a featureless mountain using the Fort Pitt tunnel and when you pop up on the other side, suddenly it's woooow skyscrapers! It's a very cool surprise with the huge change in scenery, everybody should try that ride. :)
And here is a distant view of the Golden Triangle, the area where the two rivers join, that's where the skyscrapers are. I made this photo from the garden of the Carnegie Science Center, which is a cool scientific playhouse with a WW2 submarine at its pier. I will write more about the city after I explored it a bit better and made some good photos, until then enjoy the view!
