Thursday afternoon I received a text, "Do you want to paint the fence tonight?" I respond with a simple "Yes :-D", knowing this is one of the things I have wanted to do since I visited CMU almost four years ago.
Perhaps I should back up a little... Back before Carnegie Institute of Technology and Mellon Institue of Industrial Research merged to form Carnegie Mellon University, Carnegie Institue was an all male school. Neighboring girl's school Margaret Morrison was separated from Carnegie Institute by a valley, spanned by a bridge. The men quickly realized this was the optimal spot to meet up with the women of Maggie Mo. The valley was later filled in, and is now occupied by a grassy area known as The Cut. When this happened, the administration placed a fence where the bridge used to stand, to symbolize the meeting place that was removed. At this time the students saw no use to the fence, so eventually the administration decided to tear down the fence. On the eve of the demolition, a fraternity painted the fence, advertising a party. After the party was a huge success, the administration decided not to tear down the fence and an amazing college tradition was formed.
The important thing to understand about the fence is that there are rules; such as, spray paint can not be used to paint the fence, or else the school will consider this vandalism and prosecute the offender. Other, more common rules include the fact that the fence must be painted after midnight and finished before dawn, that when the fence is painted it must be painted in its entirety, and probably most important, if you wish to hold the fence and keep someone else from painting over your work, you and one other peer must camp out and not leave the gravel area surrounding the fence. If less than two people are holding the fence, another group can come in and take control of the fence, holding it until they wish to paint it that night. People are serious about this. When I first visited CMU, a fraternity had tents and a propane grill set up so that they could hold dearly on to their advertisement!
So now that the history lesson is over, back to the story. After confirming with Ashley, one of the girls that lives in the house, that I was going to help paint we discussed a few details and plans were set. I worked through the day, coding furiously, preparing for a meeting with a professor the following morning. As the clock struck about 7:30pm I headed over to Laura's house for a movie night with various grad students and interns. We drank a little, ate a little, and started watching a very good (but quite depressing) animated film called Waltz with Bashir. By the time the movie was over, it was about 11pm, and it was time to head back and start making preparations. I got to the house, munched on some food, and the group of seven of us prepared for our treck to the fence.
It was decided that we were going to paint an American Flag in celebration of the 4th of July. After arriving at the fence, Ashley and I soon figured out the best plan of action and we split up the brushes and colors and got to work. We were painting like nobody's business! After about 45 minutes, the white group finished our last stripe, so we cleaned some brushes and started helping with the red. After about another 45 minutes red and blue were finished and it was time to let things dry before doing touchup and putting the 50 "stars" (handprints) on each side. So of course, the most logical thing to do was to play frisbee for half an hour. Soon enough, everyone's hands were covered in white paint and we were leaving our personal marks on the fence.
The next morning I took a long way around to work so that I could see the fence. It looked great (although if you just look at one of the posts it bears a striking resemblance to something out of The Cat and The Hat, with its wonky red and white stripes). This was tons of fun, and the type of activity that really brings people together, not to mention one more big check off my list of things I want to do before I die.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
42
Not much has happened over the past week to go in to detail about, so I thought I would turn this a little more introspective. But first... I did put together / take part in an awesome slip and slide event / barbecue / amazingness this afternoon / evening. We set up the slip and slide, made refreshments, made burgers, invited friends over, slipped, slid, built a ramp for the slip and slide, and consequently slipped and slid through the air. It was much fun. Also consequently to the slip and slide (and likely its airborne nature) my right leg is too sore to lift more than about three inches. But anyway, the evening is being concluded with some ice cream, some writing, and some coding.
Now on to other topics. This summer has already been an amazing experience. I still miss home, miss being around a lot of special people in my life that I am very close to; however, I am getting to know a lot of new people here from a lot of different places and that have a lot of different perspectives on life. I came to the realization a couple weeks ago that I am here, I put myself in this situation, this life, so I might as well take advantage of it. I would say that I really have been taking advantage, getting to see a lot of new things, working with a lot of distinguished people, and, once again, gaining a lot of new perspectives on life. I am extremely happy about all of this, but getting this chance has also thrown my plans for the future out the window and for really the first time in my life, I am questioning what I want to do with it.
I have always been the kid with the plan, that knows exactly what he wants to do when he grows up, and have been on a rocky, but distinct, path toward that. For at least the past four or five years, that path has been toward grad school, toward a PhD, toward becoming a professor. I am now starting to wonder if that is what I really want. Hell, I'm starting to wonder why it was this path I magically came up with and have stuck to for year after year. So now I am finding myself in the situation of essentially doing work as if I were a PhD student, and I don't know if its what I want. Getting a PhD means spending six years trying to focus in on some tiny, minuscule problem, and become the world expert on that topic. While becoming a world expert sounds awesome, I just can't see myself focusing on some tiny little problem for that long.
An undergraduate degree (and master's) is about breadth, its about learning the basis of an entire field so that you can then apply yourself in that field and fill some need. A PhD is about depth, its about becoming the world renowned leader in some tiny little area. I am working with these people, and I realize I am about breadth. There are a few people I am working with (primarily professors) that are geniuses, they just get it, their minds catch things faster and with more comprehension than anyone else, even if it has nothing to do with their field. But the vast majority of the post-doc department members (already have their PhDs), and PhD students really aren't that smart over all, they are just really super knowledgable in their sub-(sub-sub-)subjects. They are experts in their tiny area of the field, but as you get further away from their area of expertise, they know less and less. I am the exact opposite. I know a decent amount about a lot of things, but not a huge amount about any one topic. I find all areas of computer science (along with 20 million other areas you can find in and out school) interesting enough that I like to study them, I like to come up to date, I like to understand them, and use logic and reasoning to apply and expand that understanding, but I have no real interest in focusing on them. I have no interesting in spending 5 years figuring out why one fly's wing has a different pattern on it from another fly's wings based off in what climate their larvae developed. For that reason, I am questioning whether a PhD program is the right path for me.
Speaking of this, I am also questioning whether I want to focus on computer science, digital arts, or some blend of the two. One option I am considering is a Masters in Entertainment Technology (MET) degree. This is essentially a two year masters program that blends comp sci and digital arts to be geared toward the entertainment industry. The MET is a degree that is only offered in the US at Carnegie Mellon. I believe that they created it, but I am not positive. Anyway, they offer the degree through the Entertainment Technology Center (part of CMU) which is primarily based in Pittsburgh, but also has satellite campuses (that students can choose to attend for part of the degree) in Redwood City / Mountain View (CA), Portugal, Japan, and Singapore. The only thing remotely close to this program that I have been able to find would be getting a Masters in Fine Arts, focusing on digital media (but that drops a lot of the CS side of everything, something I really don't want).
So essentially I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but I am working my butt off and getting to know a little bit about the world while I am here, so that in a few months I will actually be able to decide what I want to do with life, the universe, and everything.
Now on to other topics. This summer has already been an amazing experience. I still miss home, miss being around a lot of special people in my life that I am very close to; however, I am getting to know a lot of new people here from a lot of different places and that have a lot of different perspectives on life. I came to the realization a couple weeks ago that I am here, I put myself in this situation, this life, so I might as well take advantage of it. I would say that I really have been taking advantage, getting to see a lot of new things, working with a lot of distinguished people, and, once again, gaining a lot of new perspectives on life. I am extremely happy about all of this, but getting this chance has also thrown my plans for the future out the window and for really the first time in my life, I am questioning what I want to do with it.
I have always been the kid with the plan, that knows exactly what he wants to do when he grows up, and have been on a rocky, but distinct, path toward that. For at least the past four or five years, that path has been toward grad school, toward a PhD, toward becoming a professor. I am now starting to wonder if that is what I really want. Hell, I'm starting to wonder why it was this path I magically came up with and have stuck to for year after year. So now I am finding myself in the situation of essentially doing work as if I were a PhD student, and I don't know if its what I want. Getting a PhD means spending six years trying to focus in on some tiny, minuscule problem, and become the world expert on that topic. While becoming a world expert sounds awesome, I just can't see myself focusing on some tiny little problem for that long.
An undergraduate degree (and master's) is about breadth, its about learning the basis of an entire field so that you can then apply yourself in that field and fill some need. A PhD is about depth, its about becoming the world renowned leader in some tiny little area. I am working with these people, and I realize I am about breadth. There are a few people I am working with (primarily professors) that are geniuses, they just get it, their minds catch things faster and with more comprehension than anyone else, even if it has nothing to do with their field. But the vast majority of the post-doc department members (already have their PhDs), and PhD students really aren't that smart over all, they are just really super knowledgable in their sub-(sub-sub-)subjects. They are experts in their tiny area of the field, but as you get further away from their area of expertise, they know less and less. I am the exact opposite. I know a decent amount about a lot of things, but not a huge amount about any one topic. I find all areas of computer science (along with 20 million other areas you can find in and out school) interesting enough that I like to study them, I like to come up to date, I like to understand them, and use logic and reasoning to apply and expand that understanding, but I have no real interest in focusing on them. I have no interesting in spending 5 years figuring out why one fly's wing has a different pattern on it from another fly's wings based off in what climate their larvae developed. For that reason, I am questioning whether a PhD program is the right path for me.
Speaking of this, I am also questioning whether I want to focus on computer science, digital arts, or some blend of the two. One option I am considering is a Masters in Entertainment Technology (MET) degree. This is essentially a two year masters program that blends comp sci and digital arts to be geared toward the entertainment industry. The MET is a degree that is only offered in the US at Carnegie Mellon. I believe that they created it, but I am not positive. Anyway, they offer the degree through the Entertainment Technology Center (part of CMU) which is primarily based in Pittsburgh, but also has satellite campuses (that students can choose to attend for part of the degree) in Redwood City / Mountain View (CA), Portugal, Japan, and Singapore. The only thing remotely close to this program that I have been able to find would be getting a Masters in Fine Arts, focusing on digital media (but that drops a lot of the CS side of everything, something I really don't want).
So essentially I have no idea what I want to do with my life, but I am working my butt off and getting to know a little bit about the world while I am here, so that in a few months I will actually be able to decide what I want to do with life, the universe, and everything.
Friday, June 11, 2010
The World of Music (and Other Wonderful Adventures)
Last weekend I went in to work because Laura and I needed to get some analysis done before the week started, and Laura asked me if I would like to go to the symphony. Apparently, a group from DRP was going, but Laura had actually bought ticket's with her boyfriend before the outing was planned. Anyway, her boyfriend is out of town, so she had the extra ticket. For the most part, I blindly accepted, and found myself running home a few hours later to change in to appropriate attire. I met back up with the group at DRP (down the street from CMU), and we all carpooled downtown to the concert hall. We got there with plenty of time, and spent an hour or so sitting outside talking. I didn't realize how massive the concert hall was until after we walked inside. There were two levels, with thousands of seats each, plus a third level of box seating that was close to the stage. As we walked in and took our seats, the Pittsburgh symphony orchestra was down on the stage playing some mellow music in the background. After sitting for a couple minutes, the lights dimmed, and the conductor soon walked out on to the stage. Within a few seconds the orchestra was tuned and they began playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony (aka Ode to Joy). They continued to play through all four movements over the next hour, which was completed by an erupting of cheers and applause. After the third encore, the applause finally started to die down and everyone filed out of the hall. Shortly after meeting back up with everyone I was in a car heading back home. The rest of the night ended up being a small social night at thee Sigma Nu house, that finally ended after a late night snack at a 24 hour restaurant at about four in the morning.
The next day I met up with a friend of a friend from Stetson who is doing an internship at CMU over the summer, as well as another intern I have befriended. We hopped on a bus heading downtown toward the Three Rivers Art Festival. It is a 10 day art festival (that I went back to on Tuesday, and will be going to again tonight) featuring a huge bunch of booths with local art vendors, as well as various concerts and shows. Once we got off the bus, it took us a while to actually figure out where the art show was, but after getting directions for multiple groups of people, we finally made our way to the show. It was primarily set up in a park that stretched out to the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together to form the Ohio river. There were plenty of food stands set up, and some other interesting art boothes, but nothing that really struck our eyes. Shortly after getting to the festival a band started playing on the main stage. They were just a basica rock group, witha slight country sound, nothing too special. After they finished their set, an awesome New Orleans Jazz Brass group came up, called the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. They got the entire field of people dancing for the next hour while they did their set, it was tons of fun! After their set was over, the park cleared pretty quickly, including us, and we hopped on a bus back to CMU.
I ended up heading downtown with some friends again on thursday. We got this delicious Baked Zitti Pizza from a little local pizza shop, and then walked back down to the festival. We caught the end of a country band, and met up with another friend. She was out with some over friends, so we combined our adventuring powers and drove down to the south side, after getting lost and circling around downtown twice, to a cool little ice cream place. It was just a lone building standing in the middle over nowhere that only took cash, had a gigantic menu of various frozen delights, and served giant portions. After devouring our ice cream we made our way home.
On thursday I went with the DRP interns to Kennywood, Pittsburgh's local theme park. We all met up at DRP at about 4:00, and carpooled about forty-five minutes to the park. We entered the park and started thee fun with the intention of all staying together, but within about one or two rides everyone had broken up in to group of 4 or 5 to go explore the park together. My group ended up staying at the park almost til close, crossing off the last major ride in the park at about 10:30. My only slight regret was getting on a water ride right as the day was starting to cool down, so I was still wet when I got home six hours later. Other than that, the park was bundles of fun.
Now for the next adventure, as soon as I finish writing this, I am going to be packing up a suitcase to head to Ohio for the weekend. A friend needs to go home to do some things for the day, so a few of us are heading down there for an adventure! Also, I have about 100 picture that I will hopefully get to upload by the end of the weekend :-).
The next day I met up with a friend of a friend from Stetson who is doing an internship at CMU over the summer, as well as another intern I have befriended. We hopped on a bus heading downtown toward the Three Rivers Art Festival. It is a 10 day art festival (that I went back to on Tuesday, and will be going to again tonight) featuring a huge bunch of booths with local art vendors, as well as various concerts and shows. Once we got off the bus, it took us a while to actually figure out where the art show was, but after getting directions for multiple groups of people, we finally made our way to the show. It was primarily set up in a park that stretched out to the point where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers come together to form the Ohio river. There were plenty of food stands set up, and some other interesting art boothes, but nothing that really struck our eyes. Shortly after getting to the festival a band started playing on the main stage. They were just a basica rock group, witha slight country sound, nothing too special. After they finished their set, an awesome New Orleans Jazz Brass group came up, called the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. They got the entire field of people dancing for the next hour while they did their set, it was tons of fun! After their set was over, the park cleared pretty quickly, including us, and we hopped on a bus back to CMU.
I ended up heading downtown with some friends again on thursday. We got this delicious Baked Zitti Pizza from a little local pizza shop, and then walked back down to the festival. We caught the end of a country band, and met up with another friend. She was out with some over friends, so we combined our adventuring powers and drove down to the south side, after getting lost and circling around downtown twice, to a cool little ice cream place. It was just a lone building standing in the middle over nowhere that only took cash, had a gigantic menu of various frozen delights, and served giant portions. After devouring our ice cream we made our way home.
On thursday I went with the DRP interns to Kennywood, Pittsburgh's local theme park. We all met up at DRP at about 4:00, and carpooled about forty-five minutes to the park. We entered the park and started thee fun with the intention of all staying together, but within about one or two rides everyone had broken up in to group of 4 or 5 to go explore the park together. My group ended up staying at the park almost til close, crossing off the last major ride in the park at about 10:30. My only slight regret was getting on a water ride right as the day was starting to cool down, so I was still wet when I got home six hours later. Other than that, the park was bundles of fun.
Now for the next adventure, as soon as I finish writing this, I am going to be packing up a suitcase to head to Ohio for the weekend. A friend needs to go home to do some things for the day, so a few of us are heading down there for an adventure! Also, I have about 100 picture that I will hopefully get to upload by the end of the weekend :-).
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The Research Project
So I am finally getting my research problem narrowed down. In case you are interested, here is what would essentially be the abstract to a proposal paper for the project:
We are planning to conduct an experiment to measure what parts of a Duchenne smile people use to evaluate if an animated smile is genuine or sincere. We are choosing to focus on the the dynamics of the smile, rather than static modeling methods or techniques. Previous work in this area has primarily dealt with the attack, sustain, and release timing of various elements of the smile. We plan to focus mainly on the intensity of a particular element, while matching the timing to actual data of people smiling. We will be recording people watching videos that invoke positive emotion, so that we can record the natural and sincere smiles produced. We will then record the people, while we ask them to respond to prompts, by voluntarily smiling based off a situation presented in the prompt. Using this data we will use Active Appearance Models to analyze various measurements, such as cheek displacement, eyebrow displacement, and upper and lower eyelid displacement. We also plan to analyze the existence of crow's feet and develop a quantifiable measurement that can be used for animation. Next, we will develop a series of smile animations, each with varying intensities of the previously mentioned elements. We will then use these animations in a survey, asking people to rate how natural, sincere, and genuine the smiles are. We will also keep track of the time it takes for people to make their decisions about each smile as another possible measure of analysis. Lastly, we will use statistical analysis to evaluate how much each of the various elements of an animated Duchenne smile affect a person's perception of that smile.
We are planning to conduct an experiment to measure what parts of a Duchenne smile people use to evaluate if an animated smile is genuine or sincere. We are choosing to focus on the the dynamics of the smile, rather than static modeling methods or techniques. Previous work in this area has primarily dealt with the attack, sustain, and release timing of various elements of the smile. We plan to focus mainly on the intensity of a particular element, while matching the timing to actual data of people smiling. We will be recording people watching videos that invoke positive emotion, so that we can record the natural and sincere smiles produced. We will then record the people, while we ask them to respond to prompts, by voluntarily smiling based off a situation presented in the prompt. Using this data we will use Active Appearance Models to analyze various measurements, such as cheek displacement, eyebrow displacement, and upper and lower eyelid displacement. We also plan to analyze the existence of crow's feet and develop a quantifiable measurement that can be used for animation. Next, we will develop a series of smile animations, each with varying intensities of the previously mentioned elements. We will then use these animations in a survey, asking people to rate how natural, sincere, and genuine the smiles are. We will also keep track of the time it takes for people to make their decisions about each smile as another possible measure of analysis. Lastly, we will use statistical analysis to evaluate how much each of the various elements of an animated Duchenne smile affect a person's perception of that smile.
Friday, May 28, 2010
The Slip'N'Slide Extravaganza
First I must start this story by saying that most of the people staying in the Sig Nu house over the summer are not actually brothers, and that the chapter here rents rooms to various people over the summer so that they can pay their bills. With that, there are two girls living in the house over the summer and that is where our story begins.
About a week ago Alysia, one of those girls, decided that she wanted to put together a slip'n'slide and have a little lawn party one of these days. Well we decided that this past Wednesday would be that day. On Tuesday we went to Waterside (the shopping area I went to in order to get sheets), and stopped by Target, Lowes, and Giant Eagle (supermarket) to acquire all of the required accouterments; such as a large sheet of plastic to slide on, a metric crap ton of soil (which conveniently came out to exactly fifteen 20lbs bags) to build a pool at the end of the slide, a sprinkler, lots of burgers and hot dogs, etc. So when we got back, we felt fairly prepared for the upcoming event.
When Wednesday came around I went in to work early so that I could get off a little early and join in with the festivities. When I got back to the house at about 4:30, Alysia along with the other girl staying in the house, Ashley, and her friend Jeff had already set up the slide on a very large slope in the lawn and were just getting ready to turn on the water. I ran upstairs, threw on a swim-suite, and came back down just in time for the fun to begin. After we turned on the water and put down the baby shampoo (to reduce friction!) we started taking turn sliding down. Within about five minutes two things became very obvious: first, this is awesome; second, the gravel on the ground at the end of the slide is deadly. We quickly ran through our options on dealing with the gravel, talking about everything from putting down a comforter and pillows to shield from the gravel all the way to moving the slide. Finally we decided that we should move the slide and that it was time to start cooking.
We rolled the propane BBQ from out back to the front porch only to find out that there was no more gas. Luckily there is also a charcoal BBQ on the front porch, but we needed coal. That meant is was time for a field trip. We walked to Jeff's car, drove to the nearest Giant Eagle, did some shopping, and got our charcoal. Shortly after getting back, burgers were on the grill and the slide was moved to a flat area of the lawn. While it lost a little bit of its awesomeness, the slide still amounted to the most fun I've had since attending a giant, public, pillow fight. From there the evening continued and eventually concluded with much eating, drinking, and general merrymaking.
--
As a side note, I have had a few people ask me about work, so I thought I would fill everyone in with how that is going. What I am actually going to be doing with my research project will likely come to full fruition some time next week, but I am going to be comparing 3D animations of mouth only smiles and Duchenne smiles (smiles that also cause muscles around your eyes to flex), comparing how sincere or genuine people think each of the variations are. Duchenne smiles in actual people are supposed to show that the person is actually conveying a happy emotion that they are feeling, rather than smiling completely voluntarily.
So what I have actually been doing:
Reading a lot of literature on studies dealing with animation and smiles, actual Duchenne smiles, and some analysis techniques that I may take advantage of.
Animating smiles on 3D heads
Programming a front-end for a system to do Active Appearance Models, which I am going to use for my analysis
Helping out with someone else's project, story boarding for an interactive 3D game for children
Helping out with some maintenance on CMU's Motion Capture database, a very large database of free motion capture data
So until next time, I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!
About a week ago Alysia, one of those girls, decided that she wanted to put together a slip'n'slide and have a little lawn party one of these days. Well we decided that this past Wednesday would be that day. On Tuesday we went to Waterside (the shopping area I went to in order to get sheets), and stopped by Target, Lowes, and Giant Eagle (supermarket) to acquire all of the required accouterments; such as a large sheet of plastic to slide on, a metric crap ton of soil (which conveniently came out to exactly fifteen 20lbs bags) to build a pool at the end of the slide, a sprinkler, lots of burgers and hot dogs, etc. So when we got back, we felt fairly prepared for the upcoming event.
When Wednesday came around I went in to work early so that I could get off a little early and join in with the festivities. When I got back to the house at about 4:30, Alysia along with the other girl staying in the house, Ashley, and her friend Jeff had already set up the slide on a very large slope in the lawn and were just getting ready to turn on the water. I ran upstairs, threw on a swim-suite, and came back down just in time for the fun to begin. After we turned on the water and put down the baby shampoo (to reduce friction!) we started taking turn sliding down. Within about five minutes two things became very obvious: first, this is awesome; second, the gravel on the ground at the end of the slide is deadly. We quickly ran through our options on dealing with the gravel, talking about everything from putting down a comforter and pillows to shield from the gravel all the way to moving the slide. Finally we decided that we should move the slide and that it was time to start cooking.
We rolled the propane BBQ from out back to the front porch only to find out that there was no more gas. Luckily there is also a charcoal BBQ on the front porch, but we needed coal. That meant is was time for a field trip. We walked to Jeff's car, drove to the nearest Giant Eagle, did some shopping, and got our charcoal. Shortly after getting back, burgers were on the grill and the slide was moved to a flat area of the lawn. While it lost a little bit of its awesomeness, the slide still amounted to the most fun I've had since attending a giant, public, pillow fight. From there the evening continued and eventually concluded with much eating, drinking, and general merrymaking.
--
As a side note, I have had a few people ask me about work, so I thought I would fill everyone in with how that is going. What I am actually going to be doing with my research project will likely come to full fruition some time next week, but I am going to be comparing 3D animations of mouth only smiles and Duchenne smiles (smiles that also cause muscles around your eyes to flex), comparing how sincere or genuine people think each of the variations are. Duchenne smiles in actual people are supposed to show that the person is actually conveying a happy emotion that they are feeling, rather than smiling completely voluntarily.
So what I have actually been doing:
Reading a lot of literature on studies dealing with animation and smiles, actual Duchenne smiles, and some analysis techniques that I may take advantage of.
Animating smiles on 3D heads
Programming a front-end for a system to do Active Appearance Models, which I am going to use for my analysis
Helping out with someone else's project, story boarding for an interactive 3D game for children
Helping out with some maintenance on CMU's Motion Capture database, a very large database of free motion capture data
So until next time, I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The Day Full of Walking
I woke up this morning at the wonderfully leisurely hour of 1pm, after a night of "socializing" with some of the people I am living with over the summer. Then proceeded to stay in bed as long as possible before hunger drove me to stop being lazy. My day really started at about 3pm, at which point I decided that I wanted to walk around town and take pictures.
About twenty minutes in to walking around I decided that it would in fact be kind of nice to have a bike and pulled out my iPhone to find the nearest bike shop. I quickly found Iron City Bikes on the map, and of course it was in the complete opposite direction as I had been walking. Soon I was heading in the right direction, and snapped away pictures while passing through the melting pot of residential housing, the CMU campus, the Pitt campus, and commercialized areas. Right as I passed the edge of the Pitt campus I found myself walking toward a brightly colored building with a mural of Pittsburgh on one side, and a metal sign saying "Iron City Bikes" on the other. Sadly, the doors were all closed so I settled to come back another day.
From there I started walking down this largely-sloped old cobbled street, cars making a thump-thump-thump as they passed, and bicyclists speeding past me. As I reached the end of the street, and was getting ready to turn back toward campus, I saw a very inviting staircase off to my left, it ran straight up a big hill through a bunch of trees and brushes, so of course I had to follow it. As I got to the top, I found myself in a nice grassy clearing with a fountain in the middle and some pavilions and other gathering places in the distance.
As I turned the other direction I could see some CMU buildings over the trees, so I headed in that direction. I was soon crossing a bridge and heading in to a large park people had told me about that butts straight up to the side of campus. I continued to walk around the park, observing the people out and about. Before I knew it I was back on campus. I walked back toward the house, and passed by the 2005 CMU entry in to the Solar Decathlon before going in to CMU's stadium and taking a walk around the track. Before I knew it I was back in my room.
About five minutes after getting back, a friend came and knocked on my door to see if I wanted to go get chinese food. Five of us were then walking in the direction I started off heading about three hours earlier. We got to Walnut street, and small shopping district, found the Chinese place, and then found that it was closed for remodeling. As a quick alternative, we walked down to the next block and went to a pretty good (but slightly pricey) Thai place. After getting our bellies filled we walked back to the house and I have since enjoyed staying off my feet for the rest of the night.
About twenty minutes in to walking around I decided that it would in fact be kind of nice to have a bike and pulled out my iPhone to find the nearest bike shop. I quickly found Iron City Bikes on the map, and of course it was in the complete opposite direction as I had been walking. Soon I was heading in the right direction, and snapped away pictures while passing through the melting pot of residential housing, the CMU campus, the Pitt campus, and commercialized areas. Right as I passed the edge of the Pitt campus I found myself walking toward a brightly colored building with a mural of Pittsburgh on one side, and a metal sign saying "Iron City Bikes" on the other. Sadly, the doors were all closed so I settled to come back another day.
From there I started walking down this largely-sloped old cobbled street, cars making a thump-thump-thump as they passed, and bicyclists speeding past me. As I reached the end of the street, and was getting ready to turn back toward campus, I saw a very inviting staircase off to my left, it ran straight up a big hill through a bunch of trees and brushes, so of course I had to follow it. As I got to the top, I found myself in a nice grassy clearing with a fountain in the middle and some pavilions and other gathering places in the distance.
As I turned the other direction I could see some CMU buildings over the trees, so I headed in that direction. I was soon crossing a bridge and heading in to a large park people had told me about that butts straight up to the side of campus. I continued to walk around the park, observing the people out and about. Before I knew it I was back on campus. I walked back toward the house, and passed by the 2005 CMU entry in to the Solar Decathlon before going in to CMU's stadium and taking a walk around the track. Before I knew it I was back in my room.
About five minutes after getting back, a friend came and knocked on my door to see if I wanted to go get chinese food. Five of us were then walking in the direction I started off heading about three hours earlier. We got to Walnut street, and small shopping district, found the Chinese place, and then found that it was closed for remodeling. As a quick alternative, we walked down to the next block and went to a pretty good (but slightly pricey) Thai place. After getting our bellies filled we walked back to the house and I have since enjoyed staying off my feet for the rest of the night.
Monday, May 17, 2010
The Public Transportation Expedition
Sunday was a day wrought with various goals, such as finding sheets for my bed, getting laundry detergent, and find a "red, bread, or spread" to bring to a wine and cheese party my adviser was hosting that night. I started off by walking to a local shopping district about a mile away and checking out the various stores. I found one good option for sheets, a cvs pharmacy for slightly overpriced detergent, and no place to get some cheese or bread.
With that I went in to the boutique furniture and linens store and found my cheapest, on-sale, single color, sheet set for a little over $100. What a steal... When I told the lady that was helping me that I was looking for something a little more economical, she was extremely helpful and essentially described to me the entire nature and workings of Pittsburgh's bus system as well as some possible places downtown to get some cheap sheets. As I was walking towards the bus stop to head for downtown, I remember how miraculous and wonderful my iPhone is, and that I can use Google maps to plot out the best course for me to get anywhere in the city using public transportation. I then decided that I would likely be happier with Target, rather than Burlington or Macy's, and let my phone lead the way (with a quick stop at CVS to get some change to pay for the bus fare).
I was soon on bus route 61, heading for the Waterfront, a large commercialized (and chain-store ridden) outdoor mall. About 30 minutes later I started freaking out that I was going to pass my stop, and began incessantly checking the GPS on my phone to make sure we hadn't gone to far. As we hit a stop (at least nearby to where I was going) a bunch of people started to get off, so I quickly checked my phone and the GPS was telling me this was the right stop. I hopped off the bus, only to look down at my phone and realize that I got off about half a mile away from my intended stop. I started my trek in the direction of Target and could see the wonderful red branded shopping carts and parking signs before I knew it.
As I walked in to the store, I realized how hungry I was, enjoyed a nice hot dog at the little mini food court, and then continued to drink my ginger ale as I began shopping. I quickly found detergent, some nice jersey-knit sheets, and a few other various items I realized I needed. After Target I went next door to Giant Eagle, the only grocery store I have seen so far in Pittsburgh, found a nice olive hummus for the party later, and was shortly heading back to campus.
That night, I walked over to Laura's house, met a lot of very nice grad students and enjoyed various red wines and different types of cheese. We played a wine guessing game, in which we each tried three different wines and tried to guess their country of origin, the type of grape, and the type of animal on the bottle (all multiple choice); as it turns out one of the French guys actually got them all correct. After desert and a bit more talking, one of my fellow guests gave me a ride back to campus. I then hung out with people back at the house for a while, watched some TV, and went to sleep in preparation for my early morning 9:30 wakeup!
With that I went in to the boutique furniture and linens store and found my cheapest, on-sale, single color, sheet set for a little over $100. What a steal... When I told the lady that was helping me that I was looking for something a little more economical, she was extremely helpful and essentially described to me the entire nature and workings of Pittsburgh's bus system as well as some possible places downtown to get some cheap sheets. As I was walking towards the bus stop to head for downtown, I remember how miraculous and wonderful my iPhone is, and that I can use Google maps to plot out the best course for me to get anywhere in the city using public transportation. I then decided that I would likely be happier with Target, rather than Burlington or Macy's, and let my phone lead the way (with a quick stop at CVS to get some change to pay for the bus fare).
I was soon on bus route 61, heading for the Waterfront, a large commercialized (and chain-store ridden) outdoor mall. About 30 minutes later I started freaking out that I was going to pass my stop, and began incessantly checking the GPS on my phone to make sure we hadn't gone to far. As we hit a stop (at least nearby to where I was going) a bunch of people started to get off, so I quickly checked my phone and the GPS was telling me this was the right stop. I hopped off the bus, only to look down at my phone and realize that I got off about half a mile away from my intended stop. I started my trek in the direction of Target and could see the wonderful red branded shopping carts and parking signs before I knew it.
As I walked in to the store, I realized how hungry I was, enjoyed a nice hot dog at the little mini food court, and then continued to drink my ginger ale as I began shopping. I quickly found detergent, some nice jersey-knit sheets, and a few other various items I realized I needed. After Target I went next door to Giant Eagle, the only grocery store I have seen so far in Pittsburgh, found a nice olive hummus for the party later, and was shortly heading back to campus.
That night, I walked over to Laura's house, met a lot of very nice grad students and enjoyed various red wines and different types of cheese. We played a wine guessing game, in which we each tried three different wines and tried to guess their country of origin, the type of grape, and the type of animal on the bottle (all multiple choice); as it turns out one of the French guys actually got them all correct. After desert and a bit more talking, one of my fellow guests gave me a ride back to campus. I then hung out with people back at the house for a while, watched some TV, and went to sleep in preparation for my early morning 9:30 wakeup!
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