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Our primaries are tomorrow in Pittsburgh and I got a kick out of mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s signage for the campaign. His slogan is “Getting it Done” (sophisticated, no?), so I made a version below that says what he was really thinking.

Luke Ravenstahl

My son enjoyed visiting the zoo for the first time. Now, he loves looking at our pictures of all the animals! You can see them on my Flickr page by clicking one of the thumbnails to the right.

We had a fun visit to Idlewild amusement park’s Halloboo! last weekend.  It’s located along Lincoln Highway in western PA, which helps explain the second photo.  You can find more photos on our Flickr page.

I recently accepted an offer to work for Pittsburgh company Mine Safety Appliance Company (MSA). It is a great company with a very thorough hiring process, so I was very happy for the opportunity. The company makes a wide variety of safety products for recreation, construction, law enforcement, firefighting, and the military, and they are very passionate about what they do.

The main reason for the move was to allow me to work in product development rather than strictly in engineering analysis. My position meshes well with the Masters in Product Development that I continue to pursue (now on summer break), so I feel that doors are opening in the right direction. The only downside is a longer commute, but it hasn’t been bad thus far. I have to sell my truck and find a smaller car, so if anyone is considering buying an affordable pickup truck, click here!

A bit of irony lies in the fact that I was previously working as a contractor for Westinghouse Electric Co. With renewed demand for nuclear energy, their business is booming and they are constructing a gigantic $140 million building — right across the street from MSA.

While Pittsburgh has strong roots as a steel town, it is rapidly rediscovering itself in the 21st century. Would you believe that it’s actually one of the hottest places for new business growth and investment in the country? Read more here.

This link is from a great resource for all you forward-looking Pittsburghers out there (or curious out-of-towners) called Pop City. It’s an online magazine “showcasing the positive and sustained transformation of the Pittsburgh region”, and I’m always surprised by how much news there is in their weekly emails about Pittsburgh’s evolution into a high-tech mecca. Did you know that Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, and Seagate all have offices here? The article above discusses how many startups are emerging in the city as well as Pittsburgh’s prospects for continued growth.

These are exciting times for the city, but it reminds me of how unfortunate it was last year when Pittsburgh failed to elect an entrepreneurial, energetic mayoral candidate (DeSantis) in favor of a young, inexperienced guy (Ravenstahl). While the newspapers endorsed Republican Mark DeSantis (amazing in itself since Pittsburgh hasn’t seen a Republican mayor since 1933), the rest of the city chose old politics and straight-ticket voting to elect Democrat Luke Ravenstahl as mayor. The Post Gazette had a great article on their support for DeSantis. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh, you missed a great opportunity for your city. Maybe next time there will be more awareness of the city’s potential as a high-tech, entrepreneurial town and voters will choose someone who will help in this transition.

I ran into a great site today that shows what’s going on in the development of Pittsburgh, in what might be referred to as the city’s third renaissance. Historically, the first renaissance was in the 1950’s with major steps towards making Pittsburgh a post-industrial modern city (new highways & airport, removal of industry on The Point). The second, in the 1980’s, resulted in a subway system and more development of downtown. Now with urban renewal, new buildings and roads, and an emphasis on green space and trails, Pittsburgh is likely in the midst of Renaissance III.

Click the image to see what’s new in Pittsburgh!

I’m working towards a slight career shift sometime in the future, hopefully with the help of the MPD grad program I’m currently enrolled in at Carnegie Mellon. I’d like to work in product design and development, but I’m still not crystal clear on what that will look like in an actual job. To start building more momentum in that general direction, I’ve revamped my website a bit and created a profile page on LinkedIn. If you know of someone who might be interested in talking with me, be sure to let me know!

We had family visit last weekend and thought it would be a great opportunity to visit the Chihuly exhibit at Phipps again. We had gone once with a CMU group but only made it halfway through before convening for hor’dourves as a group. And alas, I had forgotten my camera. So this was a great way to entertain our guests and also my chance to capture the exhibit on film and see what I missed the first time. We made it about halfway through until my mother-in-law began feeling ill and had to sit down to take a break. This soon took a turn for the worst as she began feeling intense pain, so we took a shortcut from there back to the entrance and rushed her to the emergency room. She was dismissed with some medicine after a few hours, but it was a sad way for our Saturday afternoon to end! Maybe we’ll get to go back again sometime.

There’s an incredible exhibit in Pittsburgh as a part of the “year of glass” celebration. It’s a glass exhibit designed by Dale Chihuly which is blended into Phipps Conservatory (a greenhouse) and is really amazing to see. It’s been so wildly popular that they’ve extended the display ending date from Nov 11 to Feb 24. Part of its attraction is how well the glass designs blend with the natural surroundings with their organic feel. But the glass is also whimsical, colorful, and larger than life. It’s picture perfect, which made me regret not taking my camera…

Visit these links for more info, pictures, and videos: Phipps site - Chihuly site - Article on Pittsburgh’s year of glass

CMU won the DARPA Urban Challenge this year, and a cool $2 million in the process.  I have to say that they certainly earned the right to be the champs.  After being favored but not quite pulling off the victory in past years’ races, the CMU team was overdue for a win.  In past years, the unmanned vehicles raced through desert terrain but this year it was a mock urban setting with traffic and all.  It’s impressive that these vehicles can drive themselves flawlessly on urban streets, but a little chilling when you think that we’re paving the way for robotic armies in the future.  Still, the technology could help the disabled or elderly become more mobile or help make everyday driving safer in general.  I for one would appreciate autopilot for those long road trips!