The Only Good Thing About Your City: Pittsburgh

I thought I wrote this before, evidently I'm wrong. It could be because I'm biased (haven't you noticed) towards my philly teams, but christ, I could seriously live without the mouth-breathers from "Pennsyl-tucky". I love Perogies though, so I'll play nice until the Penguins review anyway.

Pittsburgh is home to three pro sports teams (technically The Pirates do count).

National Football League (NFL)

Pittsburgh Steelers- Founded in 1933 The Steelers have 6 Super Bowl Championships. Chuck Noll was the coach from 1969 till 1992. That is mind boggling. Although, winning four Super Bowls sorta keeps your job secure. Sure, there was The Immaculate Reception, The Steel Curtain, Franco Harris, "Mean" Joe Green, and Terry Bradshaw's balding scalp. Jump past Bill Cower coaching the team for 13 years, The whole Jerome Bettis era, and jump to the here and now. The steelers have won two super bowls and have successfully beaten three assault charges brought on two of their star players, (Although, Santonio Holmes is now a Jet, he was still a Steeler at the time of the allegations) For all the things Ben Roethlisberger has done or has been accused of doing over the past few years (turning himself into a human torpedo into the windshield of a car, quite possibly groping two women) people just kinda laugh it off because it's Big Ben, the guy looks harmless, like you could give the guy a cookie and read him a bed time story, like you'd have to tell him to not eat paste, like he'd be a shoe in for a gold in any number of special olympics events, almost like the guy is a functioning retard.

Major League Baseball (MLB)

Pittsburgh Pirates- Having joined the majors in 1980 you shouldn't really be surprised to learn that The Pirates have in fact won a world series (I was!) five actually. 1909, 1925, 1960, 1971, 1979. Roberto Clemente was a Pirate from 1954 till 1972, having hit 3,000 hits in his career, he died in a plane crash, he was instantly added to the hall of fame. 1979 is memorable because of the use of "We Are Family" by Philadelphia (ed note: !) based disco group Sister Sledge. Any year since has been memorable, because teams circle games played vs The Pirates as games they really have no excuse for losing.

National Hockey League (NHL)

Pittsburgh Penguins- I seethe at the thought of this team, I get violently angry just thinking about them, Sidney Crosby and his stupid face, his overall "I'm entitled to be good at this game, fuck you, I'm gonna flop around and cry if I don't get my way because I'm the new face of the league" attitude. Anyways, Founded in 1967 as part of the league's initial expansion from the original six, to twelve teams, The Penguins really didn't get competitive (read: relevant) until the 1990's. In 1983 The Penguins drafted the most important play in their franchise's history, Mario Lemieux. Lemieux would play from 1983-94, 95-97, 2000-06. He's now the principal owner and chairman of the board (the team was bankrupt in '99 and he bought it out of it). Jaromir Jagr, another person to hate, was paired up with Lemieux, literally, he stayed at his house (something that would happen again with another young player who you need to despise) and the pair would go on to help the Pens win a cup in the 90-91 season, and again in '91-'92. GUH. I can mention Lemieux getting diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease (The only genuine moment in my life where I felt bad for the penguins) But then they are the reason why in 1996 The Florida Panthers made it to the stanley cup and making a mockery out of hockey. Fast Forward nine years and you have them drafting Sidney Crosby. Touted as the new face of the NHL, Crosby is universally reviled in outside fanbases. Personally, I'd like to see the guy thrown into a wood chipper. Cindy and the Pens won another stanley cup in the '08-'09 season. He is currently playing golf right now and watching the Flyers and Blackhawks play for one this season.

Next: Baltimore. America's Stabbinst City!

What does it all mean?

I can remember watching the web series Red vs. Blue for the first time sometime in early 2005. The first episodes opens with two red team soldiers Simmons asking Grif "you ever wonder why we're here?" Grif goes on to misinterpret this as a question as to the meaning of life meanwhile all Simmons is wondering why command would place a squad in a box canyon with no strategic importance, other than the fact that the Blue team has a base in the same canyon, meanwhile Blue team only has a base in said canyon because Red team has a base in the canyon.

You are now privy to nearly every conversation every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine has ever had.

The military is a lot of things, it has taken me places I would have otherwise never been, met people who have changed my life both for better and worse, and has helped shown me who I am as a person, and for that I am eternally grateful. On that same hand it has taught me some harsh life lessons: Nothing is ever guaranteed; Nothing is ever handed out, but it is earned; There is nothing in life owed to you; Bad things can and will happen to good people.

Every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Marine deserves a handshake and a thank you, this is nothing new to anyone.

Anyone who is ever deployed to the Middle East will tell you that "you gain a new perspective on your own home after you spend a year here". This is true, when I came home on leave I was overwhelmed, Where I live (South Florida) is a concrete jungle, and coming from a barren desert to that takes a little adjusting, here at lovely Al Asad Airbase you can look up on any given night and see every star in the sky, breath fresh air, and find complete silence. Back home, I know exactly one place where at least 2/3rds of those things are true, that place is Lake Worth Beach. When I was home, I never once thought about the beach. I did however think about my bottle of Johnny Walker Blue, many bottles of New Castle, and a few pints of Young's Double Chocolate Stout. (not nearly as gay as it sounds). I spent a lot of money on a girl who wants nothing to do with me anymore. Sometimes I tell myself "If I could get a glass of scotch on a semi-regular basis here, I'd never leave".

I sometimes wonder about the daily life of the indigenous people here. There are honest and friendly people who live in this god-forsaken country. The population of the United States is 307,006,550 (as of 2009), the world's population is 6,697,254,041 (as of 2008). This means one in every 21 people will be born in the US. The daily grind of an American consists of waking up, drinking a cup of coffee, working for four hours, eat lunch, work another four hours come home, eat dinner, sleep, repeat. This sounds like a vacation (mostly because it is) compared to what most Iraqis would have to go through to earn an honest wage.

I always go back to a quote by a guy I admire who's name is Anthony Bourdain, many of you many know him as the host of "No Reservations" and as an Executive Chef at Brasserie Les Halles, when in reference to the world.

"It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn. Maybe that's enlightenment enough - to know that there is no final resting place of the mind, no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom, at least for me, means realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go."

The guy was at Macchu Piccu when he said that. Holy Shit, having a moment for personal inflection while being in such a scenic area such as that is mind bending. I can think of only one reason why anyone would trigger self inflection, and that would be when self growth is triggered. One is voluntarily, the other is involuntary. The thing that bothers me is that there are people so content with living vapid, meaningless existences, who either don't bother to engage in the voluntarily or have the capacity to trigger the involuntarily.