Gate A, Section 540, Row W, Seat 2

As I stated in a previous blog, I scored a ticket to a Pittsburgh Steelers home game. Well this past Thursday was the game and I must say, it was a spiritual experience.

When driving into downtown Pittsburgh from the south side you have to go through the Fort Pitt Tunnel. I've driven through this tunnel on numerous occasions and every time I do the experience is awe inspiring. Upon exiting the tunnel the first thing you see is the Pittsburgh skyline. Every time I've been to downtown Pittsburgh has been during the day, which is impressive enough, but on this most recent trip I was greeted by that familiar skyline after the sun had set. What made the view impressive is that on this particular night the city was positively glowing. While traveling across the aptly named Fort Pitt bridge a quick glance to the left afforded me a view of Heinz Field, lit up like a miniaturized halogen powered sun. I was excited about this evening for months, but this sight was spiritual to me.

After sitting in traffic for what seemed like an eternity, we finally got a parking space about a block from the field. We got a late start so we didn't get to do any tailgating but that's alright, I really didn't want to get drunk an hour and a half from home. After parking and making sure we had everything we needed we start walking the block or so to the field. The streets were a sea of black and gold. Thousands of people streaming to one location, all dressed similar, all abuzz with anticipation for the upcoming contest between the Steelers and the Bengals.

At the gate we get frisked by security, I tried to get the gentleman's phone number that frisked me as he had a gentle touch (just kidding!), and after that we began the trek to our seats. The walk was long and treacherous, and every bit of it was uphill, but there was electric in the air and now that I was in the confines of Heinz Field I could care less.

The title of this blog were where our seats were. They weren't the greatest but they were semi protected from the elements, which was a good thing. Just sitting there, seeing the green of the field, smelling the cooking of bratwursts and chili fries, hearing the buzz of the crowd and the announcer on the pa system. Whoa. The ambiance was intoxicating.

Kick off was at 8:15pm. Attendance around 53,000. Game time temperature was in the upper 30's. Winds steady out of the northwest at about 10 miles an hour, there was a 20% chance of flurries. Perfect football weather.

I won't give you a play by play on what happened during the game itself, that's what Sportscenter is for. Cliff notes version is the Steelers fell behind early then went ahead in the 2nd quarter and finally turned it on to blow out the Bengals. What I will tell you about is the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

It started to snow. I don't mean flurries, I don't mean just "spitting snow." I mean full on, fat ass snowflakes the diameter of a dime. The best way to describe what it looked like is that we were sitting inside of a snow globe. The view was breathtaking. The snow enhanced the view, it didn't detract from it. I'm not a religious person but this was as close to a religious experience as I can get.

That's pretty much all there is to tell. The fans were great, the game was great, it was all great. After the game was over we walked out of the stadium, got in the car, and drove home discussing the evenings events.

I'll be back again someday. It was a good time.

-Twiz

Karaoke Selection #3 (Retired)

This song takes me way back. I love acoustic ballads such as this. I've retired karaoke selection #3 however which is a shame because I do it really well in my opinion, even the whistling part. This is really the only quote/unquote love song that I had in my repertoire. Once again, for your consideration...

*Edit 1/20*
Apparently youtube yanked the video I had linked. The song is Patience by Guns-n-Roses so hum it to yourself or something.

An Enema at least Every 8 years

Ahhhhhh, wake up and smell Democracy!

I hope whomever reads this blog got out there and voted today. I did my research and I am heading down to Ye Olde Firehall in about ten minutes to do my civic duty. I haven't missed an election of any kind since I was 18 years old. A lot of people don't bother voting because, as one person I spoke with recently said, "I'm just a drop in the ocean so I'm not even going to bother." That's a great attitude you lazy ass, you just light up another bowl and keep on truckin!

Yes the country is fucked up in so many aspects that it boggles the mind to even begin and try to fix all the problems. Health care, abortion, Iraq, taxes, poverty, education, the list goes on and on. Do you know what is really wrong with this country? Well seeing as how this is my blog and I can say whatever I damn well please, I will tell you. It's apathy.

There are 305,571,000 living in the United States and too many of these people don't vote. Granted voter turnout has been increasing steadily over the past 2 decades and I applaud those of you who take the 5 minutes out of your 2nd Tuesday of November every 4 years to participate in democracy.

Now if I can just make it through the day without hearing "I decided to vote for the lesser of two evils." All politicians are morally responsible... until they get elected.

-Twiz

The Forgotten Paladin

The title to this blog sounds like a book I would like to read, or perhaps one I haven't written yet, but I digress.

On some random Warcraft server I have a level 70 paladin that I had all but forgotten. In about 2 weeks the expansion pack for Warcraft will be coming out and in anticipation of that the creators of the game totally redid the majority of the talent trees. If you don't play Warcraft that probably read like a bunch of nonsense but bear with me.

What does this mean for the Forgotten Paladin you may ask? Historically paladin's were healers, more recently their ability to keep enemies away from your party members has been worked into the game. The most recent development? Paladins. Melt. Face. The damage I can do in my new specialazation is nothing short of fantastic. Finally working as intended I say!


Unfortunately there has been a huge backlash against the Paladin class from people who play the other classes available in game, so the Paladin is in for a tune down when the expac is released. Damage is going to be decreased etcetera etcetera. Luckily the expac isn't going to be out until the 14th of this month so I have been spending my time in Warcraft enjoying the temporary feeling of being a badass.

-Twiz

His First PC Game

Whenever you buy a new television, it never fails that you are always missing some key ingredient to make it work. Whether that ingredient be some special wires with a certain type of plug or what not it is a unavoidable fact of life. This fact goes double for when you get a new computer. With that being said my buddy Jarrod and I had to run down to your friendly neighborhood wal-mart to pick up some cables. While there I made him buy a case of beer so we could properly set up his computer. Adequate lubrication is key to this, hence the beer.

While at wally world I also made him buy the newly released Fallout 3. We get to his pad and hook up his computer to his huge as pimpin teevee and after about 2 hours of fighting with his teevee that is too damn smart and didn't want to jive with the display options on the computer we get Fallout 3 to run in full screen mode.

Oh my God and the baby Jesus too.

State of the art television, state of the art computer, state of the art video game with the graphics turned all the way up. I feel like I've been living in a cave. I love video games. If you know me you know this. What came up on that screen was as close to getting an orgasm as I can get without making a mess. We had to use my Sennheiser headphones as we needed yet another cable (typical) to hook up his surround sound but the visuals alone were skeet.

This Friday he is getting DSL installed and my new plan is to install World of Warcraft on his computer and taking over his house for 2 days. He, of course, doesn't know this yet.

-Twiz