Critter’s Krib

Hey bud, how’s it going?

*shrug* One day at a time, I guess. I haven’t written much due to the fact that one person in the family has been ill. Talon became sick just as Christmas vacation started. He was pretty ill for a couple of days, but then he’s been pretty lethargic and tired ever since.

I took him to the doctors the other day and they did some blood work. One of “his lines” was elevated. They drew more blood to send off to be tested for mono. I guess we’ll find out Tuesday, but he’s been doing better. It is just possible he was totally wiped out by the virus.

For New Year’s, we traveled to Wilmington to stay with a mate of mine and his family. It was a /really/really/ fun trip. It was nice to get away from reality for a while. We (all of us) ate 3 bushels of steamed oysters. I was having flashbacks to when I worked at Crabby Bill’s while I shucked them. Talon was able to stay up with everyone and welcome in the new year, but he crashed out shortly afterwards. The majority of us all ended up staying up until 4am. I’m too old for that shit LOL. Especially when I wake up early regardless of when I crash out. Needless to say, 8am came around rather quickly. It was a good time though. I think we all had a blast.

It is a shame our visits to the beach are so far in between, but hopefully we can change that.

Work has been so/so, nothing too exciting, nothing too boring

I have a couple of personal projects I have been working on. I might have mentioned them before, but I cannot for the life of me remember, and I am feeling too lazy to have a gander and see.

Project #1 is an AIR implementation for Seesmic. Seesmic is still very much in pre-alpha, and things will definitely evolve more as it goes along. I will have a ton of changes to make to my app, but that’s ok, it will keep me busy. www.seesmicAIR.com 

Project #2 is another Seesmic project. There are members on Seesmic from all over the world. A few weeks ago we had a discussion on Seesmic about the general lack of geographical knowledge of the world. *wheels spinning*  I was probably on the crapper when the idea hit (I do my best thinking there), why not have the Seesmic users do a video and explain a little bit about where they live? I made a post on Seesmic explaining what I wanted to do, and the response has been great. I do my best to keep the thread bumped up daily so that new users can see it as well. I have also had great support (on both projects) from the Seemic team. Loic Le Meur (founder of Seesmic), even wrote a post on his blog in English and French. You can view the replies on www.seesmicworldprject.com

Anyway, that’s about as good as a catch up from me as you are going to get today. I am sick as hell.

You. Join. Now.

The other night on America’s Biggest Loser they flashed bits of trivia up during the show. One question they asked caught my attention.

How much weight does the average American gain between Thanksgiving and New Years?

SEVEN POUNDS!!

Try not to over do it folks

Happy Thanksgiving.

I’ll keep this short and sweet. I have been looking to do this for days, and unfortunately most of the information available on the Interweb did not solve my problem.

I have tried MagicISO and  WinISO, which are all very similar programs, but they were of no luck to me.

I was finally able to mount the .toast image using Daemon Tools. This allowed my system to view the .toast file as though it were just another CD-Rom drive on my system.

After mounting the image, I was then able to ‘Copy CD’ using ONES, but you could easily copy the CD with any burning software.

The original release had the Starbucks T Discs for Tassimo debuting sometime in the December time frame, but now it looks like you’ll be able to get Starbucks Tassimo T Discs before even Black Friday - just in time for the Thanksgiving shopping extravaganza that occurs the next week. We are looking forward to going to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get a sample or two (let’s hope they have a demo), and to see how the translation of four of Starbucks coffees fair when being brewed in the single serve coffee maker known as Tassimo. The Starbucks T Discs should be available on Tassimodirect.com that day as well.

Tassimo owners will have access to these four Starbucks coffees on December 15th:

• House Blend
• Breakfast Blend
• Caffe Verona
• Africa Kitamu

That brings the total number of Tassimo beverage offerings to more than 60 worldwide, and a lot sooner than we originally thought. The packaging even looks like Starbucks coffee beans you’d buy in the store.

(via)

Written by Brett Kelly of the Cranking Widgets Blog

For more than a millenium now, people have been drinking coffee. You can hardly drive down a major street (in the US, anyway) without encountering one or more Starbucks establishments. For all of it’s forms and varieties, it’s one of the most-consumed beverages in the world. I’m sure many of you reading this are probably doing so with a hot cup of joe within arms’ reach - which is what makes what I’m about to say all the more meaningful and pointed:

Your coffee is, most likely, crap.

Yep, even you with the Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte (that probably cost you upwards of $5). The fact is, the vast majority of the coffee consumed, especially in the US, is either of poor quality or simply stale. The good news is, this is a fairly easy situation to remedy. And, if you’re willing to invest a bit of time and elbow grease, you can save a whole heap of money in the process.

First, here’s a couple of glaring facts about coffee that reinforce my claim that you’re drinking bad coffee:

Roasted coffee beans are partially stale after 2 weeks

That’s right - and you can bet your bottom dollar that the pound of coffee you bought at the grocery store or at your local Starbucks was roasted weeks (or perhaps months) ago. It was likely roasted in a huge roasting facility (where the batch size can be in the hundreds of pounds) several weeks before it even hits the shelves at your local store.

Ground coffee has lost much of it’s flavor 20 minutes after grinding

You may think you’re saving time by buying pre-ground coffee, but you’re sacrificing what little flavor was left in the probably-stale beans.

But don’t lose heart, fellow lovers of the brown nectar! In a few simple steps (and for considerably less money than you’d expect and quite possibly less than you’re spending now), you can enjoy some of the finest coffee the world has to offer.

A quick aside - for those folks who drink coffee purely for the caffeine and don’t care about it tasting good, you can stop reading here Personally, I think of coffee as so much more than just something to slug back in the morning to wake up. When prepared properly, it can be just as flavorful and nuanced as a fine wine or whiskey. That said, my point in making and drinking coffee is to create a fantastic beverage, and only secondarily a caffeine delivery system.

So, let’s get down to brass tacks - how do you make a great cup of coffee?

First, you need clean water. I use bottled water to make my coffee - something that many people think is a waste, but whatever. Once you try this, you’ll definitely notice a difference. Even purified water (using one of those pitchers you put in your refrigerator, for example) will do the trick. Water temperature is key here - you want it between 195F-204F for optimal extraction.

Second, you need good coffee. If you want to roast your own, a whole range of options exist from a coffee roasting machine (I use the iRoast 2, retails for about $180) all the way to using a frying pan on your stovetop. It’s really easy, too - only takes about 15-30 minutes depending on the batch size and roasting method. I won’t go into the finer points of homeroasting, but if you’re interested please get in touch with me and I’ll point you in the right direction. Suffice it to say, this is an option for just about anybody. Oh, and did I mention that the coffee will probably cost you between $2-$5 per pound?

If you don’t want to spend the time roasting your own coffee, there are plenty of places to buy fresh roasted coffee. Personally, I’d look for local mom-and-pop coffeehouses in your area that might roast their own coffee. You’ll get small roast batches probably roasted by people who really love it - and you’ll taste the difference.

You can also buy your fresh roasted beans (surprise, surprise) on the Internet. Personally, I like to buy from Sweet Maria’s. Tom, the proprietor, flies all over the world sampling different coffees from all sorts of different farms, hand-selecting what he thinks are the best coffees around. A pound of roasted coffee (shipped) will run you roughly $12-$13, about what you’d pay at Starbucks - but it was roasted the same day it was shipped!

Now, brewing methods - your first order of business is to pick up your $20 Mr. Coffee brewer and drop it into the trash can. Yep, I’m not joking - these things make truly lackluster coffee and can be replaced by a far-superior solution that’ll cost you approximately $6. Next, head down to your local grocery and pick up a pour-over brewer and a set of paper filters - my local store keeps these supplies right near the coffee, I’d imagine yours will to. Read this excellent article by Mark Prince for more information on how to use a pour-over brewer.

My personal favorite (by a damn sight, I must say) is the Aeropress. This one is slightly more expensive at $25, but worth 10 times that, if you ask me. Makes a fantastic, smooth cup of coffee and I’m confident in saying that if you haven’t tried it, you won’t go back once you do. This thing produces small amounts of high-octane, perfectly smooth coffee concentrate and you just add some hot water!

The last thing we’ll need to talk about is grinding. If you stopped to peruse the pour-over brewer article linked above, you probably got a taste of how important a grinder is to making a great cup of coffee. While this is true, please don’t be dismayed if you can’t spend the dough. A blade grinder, while definitely subpar compared to a burr mill, will still do the job well enough. The point here is good coffee for little money, right?

The grinder I use is called the Solis Maestro Plus (retails for about $160). It’s a fantastic grinder for all types of brewing methods from espresso to french press. If you’re lucky, you can get your hands on a Zassenhaus mill (accept no substitutes!). A manual, hand-crank grinder that produces a show-quality grind. A quick glance of eBay and Craigslist shows a few of these guys available.

Really, the only potentially big expense you’re looking at for great coffee is a grinder - and really, the coffee nerds aren’t going to take your coffee if you don’t have an industrial-grade grinder The important thing is that you enjoy it. Honestly, since I’ve become what my friends and family affectionately call a “coffee snob”, I actively anticipate my morning coffee instead of just making it as part of a routine. Perhaps you might venture down the same path?

Why Your Coffee Sucks | LifeRemix Blog

Changing the front brakes on a vehicle is a fairly simple task. A lot of people take their cars to shops mainly because they are either unaware how easy it is or they are afraid worried they may damage something or not be able to do it properly.

eHow.com has an article explaining how to change the front brakes on your vehicle. They also have quite a few other DIY articles as well. Go check it out!

But this combo is nice.

Lock your keys in your car? Chances are I can get it open for you. I have owned a large kit for about 15 years now. It has come in handy on more than a few occasions, andI have made a few bucks here and there with it. Legally, of course! Today, my mother phoned from her work to ask me if I could unlock someone’s car.

Not a problem.

I took Talon to school and took care of a few items that needed attending, and then went to look for my kit. I looked everywhere I could think of and I cannot find the damn thing. I just about tore apart the truck, thinking it was in there.

It was not.

Hopefully it turns up, but as it looks so far, I really doubt it. There is always the possibility that I put it in a “safe” place, so that I won’t forget it.. right? *sigh*

She was such a lovely kit. I shall miss her My kit was similar to the kit pictured on the right, but mine had a few more pieces.