Marcus always seems to know what's going on in Pittsburgh, like the roller derby/downtown bash that happened last weekend. So, I asked him how he always has his finger on the pulse of Pgh. He pointed me to This is Happening and I Heart Pittsburgh. Now, if we only had some mid-sized music venues so more bands would come here...
Hooray! I've been done with my first year of grad school for about a week and a half now. It's nice to have some of my own time again instead of spending 12 hours a day in the office. It was a harrowing Finals week, but I got through it, learning how to do data analysis, design surveys, design usable interfaces for privacy and security, and why people act the way they do according to behavioral economics. I even picked up some computer security and cryptography knowledge along the way.
Stephen Colbert (NU alum!) gave the keynote speech at the White House Press Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday night. His audience, understandably, was pretty much dead. Joke after joke, and dead silence... Why? He got to look Bush in the face and say things like "don't mind your low approval ratings. Those are based on reality, and we all know that reality has a liberal-bias." Who knows who picked him to give this speech, but if they'd been watching his show they would have known about the "cool reception" that W. and Laura would have given Stephen Colbert after his speech and audition video for White House Press Secretary.
