Pittsburgh

I did a speech in Pittsburgh on Monday. Nicky Bleiel, a wonderful person I know from the STC, had me out there to talk about documentation planning and estimating. I could remember bits and pieces of the terrain from when I lived there 40 years ago. The place has certainly improved some since then: the steel mills are shut down, the air's breathable, and there's a lot of technology. But no matter what, it all looks really tired and run down. It's a large Eastern city, so I suppose that's unavoidable, but it was just kinda depressing. It's not a place I'd really like to live, although the business and social and cultural opportunities would be fabulous.

There are some great people in the chapter out there besides Nicky. I had a chance to chat with a lot of the people who'd showed up for the presentation before we got started. And I ended up spending hours talking to Alan Houser about FrameMaker and FrameScript technology, the STC, and the occasional joke. I'm hoping to see more of the both of them at the STC Conference (assuming I have a spare moment--ha!).

One odd and interesting thing, though: as Nicky was driving me to the place where I was speaking, we saw a flock of wild turkeys. I wouldn't have thought that I'd be running into wild turkeys in Pittsburgh, but there you are.

Pittsburgh