I arrived in Athens, Ohio, in the fall of 1985. As I moved in at Washington Hall, I met my roommate for the first time. He had all the normal moving into college stuff — clothes, some music, stuff to hang on the walls.

But he also had a small, black vinyl bag, like a little suitcase. It was one of the last things he unpacked. He did so carefully, gently placing the bag and its contents on one of the two desks in the room. I hadn’t seen it before, but I knew what it was.

It was a Macintosh.

My roommate turned out to be kind of a tool, but he said I could use the Mac whenever I wanted. I used it a lot. My mother had an Apple II that I had a hard time deciphering, but the Mac was a whole different experience. No deciphering necessary. Jump in. Start doing.

My roommate and I managed to tolerate each other until January, and I moved to a different room. I didn’t miss him, but I missed that computer, especially after I started working at the student newspaper at OU. There were computers there, sort of. We had these black-box word processors and we had a newer system, which we not-so-lovingly called the POS (that actually stood for something besides Pieces of Shit, which was the common name in the newsroom). We had to code headlines, bylines, different type styles we used in the paper.

And I missed that Mac.

I didn’t return to The Post right away when I returned to Athens after the Army, but when I did, I was in for a nice surprise. We wrote stories on Mac Classics. We did all the design and pagination on Mac Quadras. And if we had technical problems during a late night, it was mostly because of the OOPS, our massive typesetting beast, and not the computers. Again — it was easy.

And since then, I’ve been hooked. Yes, I’ve worked on PCs since I started the professional portion of my career — and I’ve become pretty comfortable with them. But when I’ve had a choice about what we’ve used at home, I’ve always turned to Apple. I had — still have, actually — a Bondi Blue iMac (Rev. B, because I know you’re wondering). That was replaced with an eMac that still lives a happy life in my mother in law’s house. And I’m hoping that the iMac I’m writing this on will be with us for years.

And that says nothing of the other things. The music freak in me is still grateful for the old iPod that allowed me to carry dozens of Grateful Dead, Wilco and Phish shows — with room for plenty more — anywhere I went. And it is not an exaggeration to say that the iPhone is at least partially responsible for me finding the amazing group of friends I have here in Pittsburgh — not to mention having the still not-quite-fully-realized potential for changing how I do my job.

I don’t need Apple devices to do these things these days. I have two Android devices that I use and I like.  But Apple still does it better, and it won’t be long until I’m able to happily — and finally — get an iPhone 4.

It wouldn’t quite be accurate to say this is all the responsibility of one man. But on the other hand, I don’t think it’s hard to say that Steve Jobs changed the world — and changed how I live in it.

Blogfest was awesome

Sign-in sheet, it’s almost full

Hot. Open that door.

—

Empty the freezer

Before they head to Boston

Hey! Take home some steaks!

—

Mags go up in flames

Beer guys could write, turned out

Cornhole dulls the pain.

—

Vid shoot with the Sorgs

Rachel looked kind of nervous

See? That wasn’t bad…

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Look — Pens on TV!

Holy crap, they scored again?

Calling Lord Stanley…

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Need to post something

Cheap literary device?

Right — I have no shame.

Thanks for a great night, y’all. See you again soon.

Bloggers, podcasters and other media types — new, old and both, in some cases — will start showing up at Finnegan’s Wake on General Robinson Street around 5:30, and drinking, eating and conversing will ensue. If you’re one of the types mentioned above, you should definitely attend, because the night is a hoot.

We might be able to convince Cindy to make more tin foil animals, even if there isn’t cake this time.

See y’all there.

• I’m happy that I went to Blogfest 12 last night — had a great time finally getting a chance to talk with some people I pretty much knew only professionally and meeting some of the other folks whose faces I recognized from Podcamp or from Twitter. It’s a little odd — I’m still a bit intimidated, because my technical knowledge of this stuff is close to nonexistent compared with most of the others who attended. That’s an interesting contrast to my office, where I’m one of a few who knows the most. But last night, it wasn’t a big deal … and I know I’ll be more comfortable the next time.
• I found one moment last night to be especially gratifying, although I clutched a little and wasn’t able to give credit where it was due. While we were waiting for the server who had been assigned to our group to show up with some aluminum foil so we could take home pieces of the wonderful cake Cindy brought along, the conversation turned to the post-a-day thing we’re all trying out/suffering through. Several people turned to me and said the thought occurred to them after reading about it here. I was thrilled and terrified at the same time, and I blanked when I tried to remember where I first heard about NaBloPoMo. On the way home, though, I remembered the source: a tweet from Rachel in late October. She deserves to share in whatever credit and/or blame there is to go around.
• We got to Columbus this afternoon, stopped at The Andersons to buy beer (Spoon — grabbed a bottle of the Sierra Harvest … looking forward to cracking it open this week) and warm socks. Next was Giant Eagle — yes, they’re here too — for the stuff The Wife needed for her contributions. And then we were going to stop briefly at Fred and Ethel’s for a drink before heading to my folks’ house to cook, but it occurred to us that F&E hadn’t yet picked up the growlers for tomorrow, so Fred and I headed to Barley’s in the Arena District to take care of that “problem.” We each had a pint of their excellent imperial stout while we contemplated our decision, but a taste of an apparently new imperial pilsner made the decision for us — three growlers, one Scottish, one porter and that pils. Tomorrow will be a good day.
• I know my friends in Pittsburgh might argue this point, but we tailgate better than you. Besides the growlers and the other beer we have in the garage fridge — Left Hand’s porter, Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout and a winter ale from Columbus Brewing Co. — there is the food. We’re arriving at 9 a.m. for a 3:30 game, so this is a two-meal party. Breakfast will be homemade maple sausage, courtesy of Fred. The main course is a bacon/ham/clam chowder made by The Wife from a recipe of Sister of Uncle Crappy. Dessert? Bourbon pecan pie, made with Maker’s Mark. I hope I just got Cindy’s attention.
• It also occurs to me that some of my Pittsburgh friends might be wondering what Uncle Crappy thinks about Sunday’s game. There are some things I’m kicking around, and by tomorrow I may even be ready to talk a little smack — but that can wait until tomorrow.
• A quick NaBloPoMo note. You may have noticed that the numbers accompanying my posts aren’t matching up with the numbers on your calendar. That’s OK. There have been a couple of auxiliary posts, one of which — I think 5 (a) — serves as the post for whatever day it showed up. I’ll work up another extra in the next day or two to get the numbers caught up.

I already told you about the surprise birthday that The Wife sprung on me Wednesday night. The second is the third birthday of Pittsburgh Bloggers, the site founded by Woy, Cindy Closkey and others as a way of tracking the blogging activity going on here in Pittsburgh. I think they’d both tell you they continue to be a little surprised by the level of participation — 600-some blogs were registered as of August, and more continue to show up.

I’m not expecting that all 600 bloggers will show up at tonight’s Blogfest 12, which starts at 5:30 at Finnegan’s Wake on General Robinson Street on the North Shore. But I do expect to see a few people I’ve gotten to know a little bit since Podcamp in August, and a few more whose faces, names or Twitter handles will be familiar.

And I hope no one is really expecting me to show up in a thong and pasties. I mean, Father Spoon can do what he wants, but I’m probably going to be the oldest person there — I have to maintain at least a semblance of respectability.

Given my track record, there should be plenty of stuff to occupy my attention. College football is an obvious one, but not even a 9-0 start by the Buckeyes is enough to get me to sit down and get some stuff posted here.

I have a couple of guesses as to what’s going on. First — I may be experiencing a little bit of blog-fading. That’s a term that was initially applied to podcasters who inexplicably slowed the pace of new shows, sometimes even stopping altogether. You get tired. As of next month, Uncle Crappy’s been around, in one form or another, for four years. That’s a long freaking time. And while I’m not ready to quit — in fact, I’m still looking at new stuff to do, like my own podcast or maybe even an occasional Talkshoe talk show — there’s no question that this can be a difficult thing to maintain. And that’s how I’ve been feeling this fall.

I’m also feeling a little conflicted about what Uncle Crappy should be. When I attended the second Podcamp Pittsburgh in August, I heard one message about social media over and over and over — this is about building and maintaining community. There always has been a little community associated with Uncle Crappy — at least after I outed myself to friends in February 2005 — but I started thinking about what would happen if I wanted to participate in the community that exists here.

To do that, I’d have to become a little less concerned about letting people know who Uncle Crappy is. I’ve done that, to an extent. After Podcamp ended, I opened the door to a couple of Pittsburgh bloggers, who, being the smart folks they are, walked right through. And the world didn’t end. I also opened the same door to a couple of trusted co-workers, and they figured it out as well. Again — no apocalypse.

This means a couple of changes. The political posts of the past — the ones that are most likely to get me in trouble with current employers or potential ones — are in the process of disappearing, from these pages at least. And there won’t be any new rants posted here. I’m in the process of setting up another site, password-protected, that would contain the full Uncle Crappy archives — bleeding-heart liberalism and all — and be the new home to whatever political rants occur to me from this point forward. When it’s ready, a few of you folks who have been here for a long time will receive an email with log-in and password info, if you want to continue to read Uncle Crappy in all his unadulterated glory.

The other part of this has to do with what I’m writing about. Do my new friends in Pittsburgh really want to read daily updates about Ohio State football? Probably not. Will the people who have been reading since 2005 appreciate a steady stream of Pittsburgh-related stuff? Again, I’d guess the answer is likely a no.

What’s the solution? I’m going to do the thing that will make no one but me particularly happy — I’m going to do both. So it’ll be the same as it ever was, but with a little more Pittsburgh-specific stuff thrown in.

And my readership will probably plummet as a result. Whoo!

So. Uncle Crappy’s going to look a little different, but really, not different enough to be concerned about. Most of the stuff will be the same, including rule No. 1 — we’re still not going to name anyone here, especially not me, unless you’re comfortable with outing yourself.

And we’re going to solve the dearth-of-posting problem with an exercise. You may or may not be aware of NaNoWriMo, the shorthand name of National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November. It’s an exercise where participants try to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in a month. I’m always blown away by the discipline necessary to even make an attempt, not to mention those who actually finish a novel in 30 days.

And I won’t be doing that.

I may be participating in NaDruWriNi — National Drunken Writing Night — or NaDruBloDa — National Drunk Blogging Day — if I can figure out when they take place. Those I can definitely do.

But that’s not what I’m talking about either.

NaBloPoMo, or the National Blog Posting Month challenge, is the one I’ll be participating in. It’s simple — you pledge to post once a day through November. Skipping a day just because you feel crappy or you don’t think there’s anything worth writing about isn’t allowed.

I think this workable. It doesn’t require the same level of discipline that writing a fucking novel in one month does — and we all know that Uncle Crappy shouldn’t even think about giving that one a shot — and it apparently doesn’t matter whether I’m drinking or not when I’m putting a post together. In my mind, this sounds perfect — and it should give me enough of a push to kick the funk that kept me from properly ranting about the season Ohio State has been having.

So, boys and girls, let the ranting begin. Tomorrow. On November 1.

OK. That sounds wrong. I’m grateful that my contribution to the debate over Rhino’s decision to cut off the downloads at their Tapers’ Section got the attention it did. For the second straight week, I’ve found myself a little bewildered over an explosion over a post — and this time, since one came on the heels of Podcamp, I found myself wondering if there’s something I should be doing to capitalize on the influx of newcomers.

So what am I going to do? I’m going to write about Ohio State football.

Yeah. Sorry.

Actually, there are a few things:

• Before we’re done with the Grateful Dead/Rhino thing, I noticed a couple of other points that should be addressed. Many of the people who posted comments on last week’s Tapers’ Section were content to voice their opinions/concerns about the change; a few, however, were not. There were personal attacks directed at David Gans, who had the nerve to suggest that we be a little patient; there was a discussion about whether people posting were real Deadheads, or who was more of a Deadhead than someone else. I have no desire to bash DG, who’s devoted much of his life to bringing the music to us — and his notion that we relax just a bit is probably good advice. And the whole Deadhead/non-Deadhead/real Deadhead thing is just brainless — if you like the music and have an appreciation for the scene, you can call yourself a Deadhead in my book. One poster went through his entire resume — first show in ’72, 18 kajillion hours on tape, 1,000 shows, etc. — and then tried to convince us he wasn’t bragging. Please. Can we maybe focus on the issue, instead of trying to dismiss someone because he/she didn’t have the good fortune of being born in time to see GD?
• As far as the actual issue: As I’ve said already, my problem is with the lack of communication. There’s a chance that could be addressed tomorrow morning, when the next installment of the Tapers’ Section is released. I’ll be checking to see what transpires.
• While The Wife and I were wandering around Saturday afternoon looking at houses, we stopped at 517521 in Bellevue. If you look around in the store long enough, you’re bound to find something you need to take home — and, of course, I did (Fred, you have an awesome gift on the way this weekend). After I settled up, I turned and saw that The Wife was giggling over a stubby little plastic skateboard that was propped up next to a display case. The board was a 1970s-vintage GT Spoiler with a baby-blue deck; she was excited because it was the same skateboard she owned when she was a kid. Before I could chime in — because I owned the same skateboard when I was in grade school — she laughed and said the only difference between the one we were looking at and the one she owned was the color; her board was a neon green. As was mine. It’s a good thing we’re already married. You know, to each other.
• Anyone else find it interesting that the very summer we decide to finally buy a house in Pittsburgh is the same summer when the mortgage market collapses? Me neither.
• More good beer in Pittsburgh. We visited the new Rivertowne Pour House in Monroeville last night, and sweet holy jesus, was it good. Make the trip, even if it means suffering detoured Parkway traffic on the weekends.
• I’ve added new links over there on the right. New Podcamp friends. People I’ve been reading for a while who should have been there a long time ago. One who should post more than once a month (you know who you are). But they’re all worth a read. Go.
• Podcamp got me thinking about Uncle Crappy’s place in the world. If there is one overriding message to take away from that weekend, it’s that social media is, duh, social — making connections, building community. I’ve largely deprived myself of that aspect of the whole blogging thing … and so I’m thinking about making some changes. There will be more about this later.
• We’re rapidly heading towards the start of college football season. The Wife and I are talking about the first tailgate. I’m grumbling more and more about the fact that we open with a 1-AA opponent. I’m already thinking about games in late October (Penn State) and early November (Wisconsin) — but, no, coach, I’m not looking ahead. On Friday, I bought the bottle that will serve as our toasting liquid this season (oh, it’s going to be good…). It’ll be perfect – just as I start working to make Uncle Crappy a little more relevant to Pittsburgh, I start with this year’s edition of the All-Ohio-State-All-The-Time format.
• Hm. Maybe if I mention Steely McBeam a little more often…

Both instances are related to the Pittsburgh Podcamp sessions I attended with a wonderful assortment of geeks and geniuses (I am technically neither, although I’m a wannabe both) at the Art Institute. The first one we can’t really take credit for, but the Burgh was its epicenter nonetheless. iJustine’s video about her 300-page iPhone bill was THE hot internet video of the moment, racking up more than 3 million views since she posted it early Monday. For the uninitiated, Justine is runs her own Web design and marketing business; she also has her hand in nearly every possible social media opportunity available, including on Justin.tv, where she broadcasts her life around the clock.

She had deal with the kind of backlash that is probably inevitable when you’re a pretty, blonde 23-year-old working in the tech biz. I can’t say I know her, but after talking with her a couple times last week, my impression is that she is anything but dumb. She also seems genuinely nice and was certainly accomodating to all us media types – besides me, there was all the other local print and broadcast media, as well as a dizzying array of letters: CNN, Fox, ABC, NPR, AP, etc. — who have been pestering her from Tuesday on. How can you hate on that?

And if you’re one of the dozen or so people on the planet who hasn’t yet seen the phone bill video, you can find it here.

The other thing? Bacn. The term, coined during one of the Saturday sessions, is fairly simple — it’s those emails that you want, but don’t really have time for right now. Not quite spam, which you don’t want at all, but bacn. Google alerts? Facebook updates? Twitter follower messages? All bacn.

Since Saturday, bacn is sweeping the internets. It’s already No. 2 on Google, if you skip past a handful of acronyms. There’s already a site dedicated to the term. It’s everywhere — and it started here.

I picked up plenty of other good stuff at Podcamp as well, things that will help both personally and professionally. It was a great weekend, and I’ll keep attending as long as Justin, who might just be the smartest man in Pittsburgh, and his crew keep putting them on. Thanks, y’all…

And it’ll be ready, at least on my end, by Wednesday morning. That’s right, boys and girls — I took the rest of the week off. Not going anywhere, not doing much — just making sure I have the proper amount of time to get prepped for Ratdog and the Allmans Wednesday night. Thursday is for recovery — and for other low-stress activities, like talking with bank people about mortgages. Yikes.

This weekend should be pretty nice too, but in a different way — I’ll be at the second Podcamp Pittsburgh, a discussion of all things related to new media and how it applies to both Uncle Crappy’s goal of total world domination — and the almost-as-important goal of being so good at this shit that I’ll be employable at newspapers until I’m ready to retire. If you’re reading this from someplace in the Pittsburgh area, you should check it out — last year I attended only two sessions but got a ton of information from them. If you have any interest at all, you’ll find something in the schedule you’ll appreciate.

And as long as we’re discussing readers from the Pittsburgh area … I’ve noticed continued interest in Uncle Crappy from local IP addresses I don’t recognize, something that spiked last week with the whole Steely McBeam thing. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to maintain that interest — once I start blabbing about Ohio State football, it may drop precipitously — but I’m at least going to give it a shot. And I’m going to do that by making sure I mention the name Steely McBeam whenever I can.