Virgina Montanez, aka PittGirl, has announced the name of her fundraising effort for a game room for Children’s Hospital.

More information about how this came to be is available here, but here’s the crux of the issue:

The point is that you and me, WE are giving this room to these kids as a gift and we’re essentially letting them know that there’s a whole city of people that would really like to see them kick the hell out of whatever it is they’re fighting at the moment.

Donations will start to be accepted on Monday, courtesy of the Mario Lemieux Foundation.

One of the coolest things is besides the TVs, game systems, PCs and games, the goal is also go buy some portable gaming devices as well.  Child’s Play raises money for this kind of thing across the country (for whatever reason, they did not respond, nor do they raise money for any hospital in Pittsburgh), but I do not know if they ever include portable devices as well.  Even if they do, it’s a good addition.

I’ll post more as this kicks off on Monday, I’m sure in the meantime it will be making its way around the Pittsburgh new media scene, hopefully Metblogs can help just a little bit!

No, I’m not going to be talking about the Luke’s marriage.  Quite frankly, it’s none of our business, but even more importantly: I don’t care.  And, it has nothing to do with transit.  Unless of course, Luke and Erin will only agree to see each other while riding the T.  This is how viscous rumors get started.

No, since Thursday is Thanksgiving, I wanted to talk briefly about the people I wave to while I wait for my bus every morning.  There are a couple neighbors who typically leave their homes while I’m standing at my stop, and I wave to them.  One of my mom’s coworkers also passes, and I always feel really bad because I never recognize her car until she is pretty much past me.  I should be able to see her coming, her headlights are strangely close together.  But still, I end up waving too late.

Throw in the dog walker, the couple who power walks and never seem to talk to one another and the cars that come from further up in my plan but I can set my watch to, and every morning there is a small cast of characters that I add back stories and adventures to in my head.

So to those people, who may or may not be reading, thanks for making my mornings a little more fun, and if you see me waiting for the bus, wave, and I’ll be sure to wave back.

I was just called a scumbag on PG+!

Seriously though, I’m really enjoying PG+, and if you haven’t checked it out, try it out for a month to see if you like it or not.  I’ll have more of a review up in a couple days when I can spend some more time with it, but sadly, just like everywhere else on the Internet, it seems impossible to hide from trolls and others who like to hate, but hate using their brains.

This will close out Waffle Shop Week, thanks for watching!  If you want to learn more about the Waffle Shop, check out their menu or find their hours, check them out online.

In this episode:

• The visual arts at Pitt
• Performing arts and parents
• Peacocks and llamas (repeat)
• SeaFoam (or maybe lime) green shirts

And after the break, Consciousness Cafe.

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Home Video Night!

After the jump, the Dickie Leftfoot hour (NSFW)

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ummmm, originally uploaded by Mike @ pittsburgh.metblogs.com.

This is the poor quality picture from my bus where the driver just yelled at two passengers who dared to ask to get on five feet after the stop while we were stopped at a light

Ok, now that I’m not trying to type out on my phone, here is the whole story:

Our bus (the 68A) was working its way through Pittsburgh and got to the stop at Oliver and William Penn Place.  A whole ton of people got on and the bus pulled forward, five or ten feet to the light, which was red.  Two men caming running down William Penn Place and knocked on the door asking to get on.  This happens a lot, and I have never seen a bus operator refuse to open the doors.

Well, our operator went nuts.  She started yelling through the door that she didn’t have to open it, she already service the stop and if they wanted to get on they had to either go to the next stop (up Oliver and down three blocks on Grant) or wait for another bus.  I heard her screaming through my headphones even while listening to a podcast.

Now to be fair, I could not hear what the men on the street were saying.  We moved up to the next stop on Grant and one of the two men got on.  The operator yelled at him, saying that the could not ride the bus since he dropped the F bomb.  He denied it and walked back and took a seat.

Overall, I think the whole situation was insane.  There was no need for the operator to not open the door, she was just rude, and I have never seen that happen before, operators have been nothing but kind to riders.  I got the bus number and I’ll probably send a note to PAT about it, and I just am thankful that it’s not my normal bus.

Welcome to tonight’s Featured Presentation!  For your viewing pleasure, “Nighthawks” episodes 1-4  Honestly, each one is better than the one before it (and no, don’t just jump to episode 4…fine, go ahead).  Come back this weekend for two more installments of Waffle Shop Week!

Episodes 3 and 4 after the jump.

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