PNC Park Panorama
One of the highlights of orientation week at Carnegie Mellon was getting out and seeing some of Pittsburgh. On Thursday a small group of us went down to PNC Park to see the Pirates beat the Houston Astros. Evidently we were witness to a rare occurrence and the fans were really excited to see their home team win.
PNC Park is espeically scenic with the Pittsburgh skyline in plain view of practically every seat in the stadium. After the game we took in the first night of Skyblast, which included music from Me First and the Gimmie Gimmes and an awesome display of fireworks.
See more photos from the game or videos of the fireworks.
Sleek New Toys
In the past month, I’ve purchased some exciting new toys. I suppose they are only exciting to me because I get to play with use them, but if you ask me maybe I’ll share. Somehow I’ve justified these as necessities for going back to school, but perhaps I’ve gone slightly overboard (like I usually do). Here’s a list and my impression of each new toy:
15″ MacBook Pro
My favorite new toy is a new 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo 15″ MacBook Pro. I upgraded to a 7200 RPM harddrive and bought an extra battery. I also purchased an additional 1GB RAM. This machine is my first Apple computer and my only complaint is that is runs so hot which I knew would be an issue before I bought it. The OS is an adjustment but seems very intuitive and is a joy to use. There are a lot of free applications and widgets I need to explore. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
30GB iPod
The back to school Apple rebate is good for a free iPod Nano, but since I already have a 1GB iAudio MP3 player, I decided I’d rather pay the difference and get a larger capacity iPod. To be honest I haven’t used my iPod that much yet. I’m in the middle or reorganizing my music files, mainly because the iPod doesn’t support the OGG format. It should, but it doesn’t so there isn’t much I can do at this point except re-compress my files. I think I’ll use my iPod constantly in Pittsburgh since I will be traveling extensively on foot, on bike, or via bus.
Second LCD monitor
I found a deal (after rebate of course) on a second Samsung 19″ LCD monitor for about $250. This was too good to pass up, so now I have a dual monitor desktop setup. I plan on taking this to Pittsburgh with me although I’m not entirely sure I will have the desk space for it. At work we have dual monitor workstations and I guess I have become so spoiled I had to have it at home. I absolutely love being able to keep Winamp running or watch a movie while I browse the web. Since I won’t have a TV in my new bedroom I somehow justified this alternative. Besides, the second video output on my graphics card was going to waste!
Commuter Bike
Pittsburgh is a very hilly city and after much debate I decided my single speed commuter bike just isn’t suitable for the terrain. So I launched into a hunt for the perfect commuter bike. I didn’t find it, but I found one that will work just fine. It’s a Dawes Lightning DT. I don’t know anything about Dawes, but the bike feels well built. I need to do some modifications to get it setup for commuting but it should work a lot better than my single speed setup.
Homeless
Only six more days of work until I begin my journey out to Pittsburgh for graduate school. The past few weeks have been very hectic both at work and also getting all my belongings sorted and packed up. I moved out of my apartment Monday and for two weeks I’ll be staying with friends around the twin cities. Once my welcome has worn out it’s back to Wausau for a few days and then my parents are helping me move everything out to Pennsylvania. I’m very excited for the change! Time has been flying by and I’ll be busy with school before I know it.
I took Monday off to check out of my apartment and run some errands. Since it was so hot I made time to spend a few hours at the beach. I’ll definitely miss Minneapolis and all the lakes here. The summers are so great!
It’s hard to know at this point if I’ll be back here after I graduate next August. Hopefully I will have a variety of job offers to pick from and will have a decision to make about where I want to live. When people ask, I always say that I love the midwest but am curious about other areas of the country so I wouldn’t mind living in a different region for a few years. If I don’t like it I can always move back, right? I suppose that only time will tell.