I generally allow comments to flow freely within the blog, and don’t interfere. Disagreements are expected and dissenting opinions are encouraged. That is until people stop acting without any self-control or respect.

This is not a message board, free-for-all open forum. There are expectations of some self-policing behavior. Expectations that even when you vehemently disagree on something that you show some self-control and at least try to respect others.

Do not take it to personal attacks. Take a moment to think how broadly you wish to paint someone, some group, whatever. If you want to make it a pissing match, take it elsewhere.

That also applies to how you speak of the Pitt players as well. Unfounded, uninformed, and unsubstantiated personal attacks on their character are  generally off-limits. The fact is these are still kids, and Pitt students. Many will eventually be fellow alumni that will share a common bond with most of us. Regardless of how you feel about amateur status within major college sports, keep that in mind.

And please, please spare me the “I’m speaking truth to power/no one wants to here my incontrovertible reality/I’m the only one who sees what is really happening” self-righteous BS. When you fall into that trap, it usually means that it has become about you being right and shouting out how wrong and stupid everyone else is. At that point it is no longer a discussion, because you have become as close-minded and ignorant as those you believe to be that way.

If you can’t follow that, I will take steps to remove you from commenting on the blog.

Flight information is set. Transportation from Newark to the city is set. Hotel is confirmed. The Nike fashion show is at 10 am on Wednesday. The only question mark is whether the plane is on time.

With the advice of SilverPanther in NYC, we are going to meet at the Spring Lounge Tuesday night around 7. It’s a decent location near the subway, and a solid draft beer selection.

Hoping there’s a good turnout to talk Pitt football, basketball, lost weekends in Oakland and anything else.

Just find the people that answer to the phrase, “Mark May will drop-kick Lou Holtz this year.”

I’m  still working out the full details, but I’m coming to NYC for Fashion Day to witness the unveiling of Nike’s new Pro Combat Uniforms for Pitt and those other nine programs on Wednesday, September 1.

Now I’m coming in the day before and with only a couple days before the season opener, it seems only proper to get together with fellow Pitt fans Tuesday night. It seems about time to put some faces to the names of the people who help motivate me to keep this stuff going. Anyone up for it?

Like I said, the details are still being finalized. I know that the hotel where I am supposed to be staying is around Spring and Varick. At the very least recommendations and suggestions on a good place to drink around there would be appreciated.

So, I thought things were reasonably settled. There were just a few things left to do in the bathroom — cut and place the baseboards, trim and molding. Then it was over for a while. I just needed to borrow my father-in-law’s power miter saw to get things done. Something I would get this weekend when we went down state to see him. From here on out, it was a pure weekend work project.

Well, my father-in-law decided that he would come to us, surprising us on Tuesday night.

Needless to say, my Wednesday was spent back at work on the bathroom. Things getting needlessly complicated.

So, that was what was happening instead of recounts of media day and Jabaal Sheard’s plead deal. Posting to resume soon.

Some of you have noticed the new Yardbarker menu at the top of the site. Obviously this is something new.

I’ve linked Pitt Blather into the Yardbarker eco system. The site and content is still entirely mine. They have no editorial say in the site. Yardbarker gets to syndicates the content, gets credit for my traffic and can sell ad space on my site — of which I get a cut.

I am no longer writing/editing at FanHouse for AOL. Things had been changing there for the last year, and I no longer felt that I was a part of the direction the site was going. I’m proud of being part of it from the beginning, and there are  people there who I respect and like, but it was time for me to leave.

Leaving, though, means some lost income and the end of a gig. I got the FanHouse opportunity through Pitt Blather, so it makes sense to put my work here to good use and focus once more.

Being on network like Yardbarker (hopefully) will provide more promotion for the site and other opportunities. Yardbarker seemed like the best network to join. In addition to the size and the affiliation with FoxSports and MSN, one of my former editors at FanHouse is now a part of Yardbarker. So there is some level of familiarity and trust.

Yardbarker does not have access any of your e-mail addresses, personal info and what not. The only differences you should expect to see are some ads and that menu at the top.

The only other change right now is that I converted my netbook to Linux based Ubnutu. I’m struggling to get the wireless connection back, so if anyone has any experience or knowledge they can share, that would be great.

I know. Missing the whole weekend once more. On top of that, the likelihood is strong that posting will be spotty the rest of the week.

What was supposed to be some minor work in the bathroom has mushroomed with unforeseen issues and expenses. Needless to say, it’s a mess and I’m reminded why renting was not the worst thing.

I have been a little too busy in the offline world to make the daily pleas this week as intended.

At this point I have received contributions or pledges to do so from 29 people. Thanks to those that have donated to this point.

Things could be better on that front. So if you can, please help. Hit the Paypal button on the sidelinks or e-mail if you prefer to send a check.

The idea of a tailgate was tossed around in the comments. That has been something on my mind for the last couple years. Not as any sort of fundraiser, but just to have a chance for people to gather, meet, and for me to say thank you.

The problem I have had in advancing it beyond serious consideration is twofold. Like many of you who go to the game, I come in from out-of-town. That makes the logistics of getting everything together and getting set up more difficult.

The bigger problem is that Pitt’s schedule hardly allows for much advanced planning. On Pitt’s schedule this year, there are only 4 Saturday home games. Right now only one Saturday home game is already set for a time — New Hampshire at 1 pm. As we all know, the Big East and ESPN have tended to wait until a week to two weeks before the game to announce the time. Also a lot of the games end up being noon starts, and noon starts suck for a good tailgate.

What might make more sense is having a post-game gathering at one of the North Side watering holes.

Thoughts on the matter are welcome

Since Dave Wannstedt and Jamie Dixon got their two year extension, I want mine.

No, just like athletic director Steve Pederson said with Coach Dixon it is merely a coincidence.  As most long time readers know, every two years in April I ask for donations to keep things going smoothly at Pitt Blather. The deal with keeping domestic peace with the wife is that while this obviously takes time from me, it can’t cost me money.

So where does the money go? Well, the obvious stuff like server and storage costs. There’s keeping control of this domain.

Some of the money goes to making sure I have a decent laptop running well.

It also goes towards site upkeep and updates. This site is overdue for an update.

I’m not talking about anything too radical. Readability and smooth loading of the site is the primary focus. That is why I have kept too many other things that slow it down off the site.

Adding things like the “personal blogging” feature — giving you the ability to write your own posts on topics is on the list. I’m also mulling the addition of a message board.

Input and suggestions as to features people would like to see on the site are important. I want to know some of what you like in a site.

As has been the policy for a couple years, I will maintain the rule keeping political ads off of the site.

You can contribute two ways. If you want to send a check, shoot me an e-mail at pittblather-at-gmail-dot-com and I’ll give you my address. The other option is PayPal. There is a link for PayPal in the upper part of the right-hand links column.

There will be a daily post each day this week to try and guilt donations. Please don’t make me beg too much. It’s very uncomfortable.

Just to make sure that everyone who wants to play, has signed up for the PittBlather Bracket game. Luke is running things, and if you need to know what the prize is, how to play and where to play, go here.

There is a new writer on the blog. Merlin — a regular on the liveblogs and in the comments will be posting at some point. Merlin is in Philly,  doing grad work at Temple. I don’t hold it against him and neither should you.

A little administrative issue. Especially around this time of year there’s a lot of contests and promotional events centered around the NCAA Tournament. As most are internet based, they look to market them beyond simply advertising. A lot are going to “grass roots” campaigns. These consist of sending a flattering e-mail to relevant sports blogs to ask/suggest/recommend/submit for consideration posting on the promotional events.

They never seem to include any financial incentives for the blogger, so I get nothing out of these things.

This also goes on during football season for bowl promotions and other events.

Occasionally I’ll pass some along, but I seem to be getting more so I thought I’d see what the rest of you think. In the form of a simple poll question.

My hosting company had a major server failure overnight. It’s been slow slogging to get it back up. Appears to be on the return.

Fingers crossed.

You have probably noticed that my posting has been a bit slow this past week or so. It is likely to be that way for at least a couple more weeks. We are in the process of packing and moving to a new home. Today was the closing, so over the next couple of weeks my spare time will be extremely limited as we do all the things that have to be done.

Why? Why would I even consider trying to move as football season gets underway? What kind of poor planning was involved?

Believe me, I tried very hard to get all of this done a month earlier. Reality, of course, disagreed with my schedule.

Did I mention that the house comes with a media room with a 93″ screen a DLP HD projector and surround sound? I’m looking forward to getting to the point where I can enjoy that.

Hopefully things will come together quickly and posting will get back to its slightly more consistent ways.

Procrastination has always been my strong suit. Why rush to do things, when it is inconvenient? Better to put it off until it hits crisis stage. I’m good at it.

In this case, my laptop has a defect in the motherboard that eventually killed the wi-fi and could cause the computer to fail to start-up. It’s a defect the company apparently knew about and is willing to repair for free. Including free shipping to and from the repair facility.

Well, the wi-fi went in October. Rather than send it right in for the couple weeks it would take with shipping and the repairs, I just bought a USB wireless card to get through college football and basketball season.

By March, it would occasionally have the computer not start. So, we went out and picked up a little netbook to get by just in case it wouldn’t work at a key time. Oddly enough, we can’t get the thing to connect to our home wireless. It connects fine elsewhere, but it won’t get onto ours. I’ve played around with all the settings on the network. Even took down all the security. Still nothing connecting. Naturally, I just haven’t had the time during the business hours to call the help line for the wireless set-up.

That meant, still putting off sending in the laptop. Until, of course, it finally just won’t start at all. That putting things off, though, also applied to backing up the harddrive on the laptop. Something I neglected to do for the past six weeks. Now with it not starting at all I have to do it the hard way.

That means getting a external enclosure to take out the hard drive to plug in and back it up.

All this has meant going back to a desktop and having to share computer time with the wife and kids for the time being. They don’t like to share with me.

Finally, I’m tentatively dipping a toe in the social media thing with Twitter. I’ll find out if I can handle a 140 character limit.

So I go to bed with Pitt winning and advancing to the Elite 8.

This morning I get up and my daughter has strep throat.

Been a bit preoccupied. Something relatively soon. I hope.

Are you good with photoshop or any good photo editing software (like Gimp or photoplus, etc)? Do you take joy in superimposing heads or bodies onto others to form mildly humorous creations? Do you want to occasionally do some of that for this site? Will you do it for free and with little notice?

Then shoot me an e-mail at pittblather-at-gmail-dot-com and we can discuss.