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Archive for January, 2007
January 30, 2007 at 8:06 pm · Filed under Reviews
Tagged with:
coffee,
espresso,
Jennifer-Stone,
stone-cup-roasting There’s been a lot of talk around me about Stone Cup Roasting Co. out of Chattanooga. Run by an impassioned Jennifer Stone I was going to meet her this past week but scheduling conflicts are going to keep us apart for a while longer. From what I understand she’s working on some farm programs, good brokers, recently reconditioned a beautiful German Gothot roaster from the 50’s….and she brew’s a mean stout?
Oh I had to learn more and try some goodies.
I placed a quick order of their Espresso Blend, Nicaraguan Cup of Excellence ‘El Cipres’, and the Mexico Pluma de Oro. It was a very difficult selection. Even more difficult has been to get me to distill my thoughts. I’m not really keen on compiling this all at once but theres something to be said for consolidation. Over a period of two weeks I drank a lot of coffee, and it was good. It even got better. I like it when that happens.
Espresso Blend
Thoughts
Pulled at a floating 202’f, amazingly bitter free. I sampled again.. where is that clickclick.. back of the throat up tick you generally get. It wasn’t there. Overall through my samplings it has rarely shown up to the party. This is a very smooth espresso. I get images of cigar smoke.. smooth, silky, sultry..
Fragrance
Brightness
- Small
- Corner pub table w/ a dim light
Flavor
- Beefy
- Brothy
- Worn Leather
- Cured Tobacco
- Dark Black Cherry
- Currant
- Dark Dark Chocolate
Body
Aftertaste
- Bitter-free
- Hung around then left without telling.
CoE El Cipres
Thoughts
I had heard about the Ruiz farm through Intelly last year and was curious to see them when the farm popped up here. I had no expectations but was very pleased. A lot of clean Nicaraguan traits assembled into a classic profile. Goes great w/ a little milk, smooths down the serious brightness.
Fragrance
- Banana, ripe
- Apricot
- Brown Sugar
- Light Tanned Leather
Aroma
- Baking Bread
- Dark Chocolate
- Sweet, Sweet, Sweet!
- Chocolate Cake
- Gumbo Broth.. Roux
Brightness
- 2.5:5
- Ka-Pow! (Even 2 weeks later it’s still got some serious Zing)
Flavor
- Orange Zest
- Chocolate Covered Raisins
- Curry
- Little Leather
- Lemon
Body
- Snappy x2
- White Wine Cling (ie: not-much)
Aftertaste
Mexico Pluma de Oro
Thoughts
This coffee was our morning staple and it was nice. Comfortable, smooth, dry cocoa powder.. I hate to say it had a Mexican terroir so take that with what you will. Over time it got a heavier body and w/ milk & some sugar I’d have thoughts of hot-cocoa.
Fragrance
Aroma
Brightness
Flavor
- Beef Broth
- Grilled Steak
- Cinnamon
- Short Bread
- < Salty
- < Peppercorn
Body
- Syrupy
- Coating
- Cling—but snaps free
- Round
Aftertaste
- Comfortable
- Even
- Gone when told
Summary
Stone Cup Roasting Co. is doing an admirable job and I look forward to seeing them grow. If there other products are as good as what I’ve tried then they are right on the money. Roasters, like any other group that deals with mother nature has their work cut out for them. Making and delivering a product that hits home every day is tricky and my hats off to those who take up the profession. Stone Cup is making great ties and doing the right things. I hope to learn more about them in the coming months since they are right over the hills east of us and I hear making some in-roads into the Charlotte area.
January 29, 2007 at 8:04 am · Filed under Excursions, On the Radar
Tagged with:
gtd,
New-York-City,
NYC,
Seminar,
Tour,
trip I can’t seem to get enough of the cold weather so we’re going to head to New York and stay in the city a few days. Arriving Wednesday leaving Sunday, we’ve got to hunker down to a David Allen seminar on Thursday. Robin’s really been getting into the GTD swing and once we’re both equalized through seminar I think we’re going to be dangerous.
Our family friend Ashley Brown is the lead in Mary Poppins so we’ll be seeing her for a Saturday matinée, maybe try and catch Avenue Q after Chuck’s recommendation.
As well it wouldn’t be a trip to the big city if we didn’t try and hit some major dining and attempt a good tour de cafe. I’d like to see Chris & Caroline stopping in on our friendly Grumpies new location. Maybe catch up with some flickerites. If you’re in the area let me know. Our schedule is fairly flexible.
-a
January 23, 2007 at 5:14 pm · Filed under Quotations
Tagged with:
quote-collective-stupid-group-think Quoted from Creating Passionate Users
Meanwhile, an individual best achieves optimal stupidity on those rare occasions when one is both given substantial powers and insulated from the results of his or her actions.
If the above criteria have any merit, then there is an unfortunate convergence. The setup for the most stupid collective is also the setup for the most stupid individuals.
Every authentic example of collective intelligence that I am aware of also shows how that collective was guided or inspired by well-meaning individuals. These people focused the collective and in some cases also corrected for some of the common hive mind failure modes.”
—20Q Creator
January 21, 2007 at 9:29 pm · Filed under On the Radar, Skydiving
Tagged with:
fun,
parachute,
sky-diving,
skydive-carolina,
sport 
It might have been cold but we rose midmorning to head down to Skydive Carolina. The winds were calm and I was psyched to get a few jumps in.
I had packed my day-bag with care that it might be windy I would have everything I needed to work. Of course with that much consideration it was should not have been surprising that I would need none of it. Many of my original AFF class turned out and we were all glad to get at least one spin in the sky.
I took my air time to get back to basics. Four weeks out of the air makes one washy so it was good to stretch, spin, and flip your way back into comfort. My second jump I was getting a bit cold and just enjoyed some smooth tracking. Unfortunately I pulled early and had a lot of hang-time in the cold. I used the time to pull on my front risers for turning and to see the angles change. Finished it off parking my canopy near the flags for a running landing.
Robin ended up taking 48 pics which we paired down to 28 for keeping, then only posting 18 to flickr. Prioritization sucks, heheheh! Robin’s getting good at finding the action. Now it’s time to get back to the books and planning board. I’ve had my fun; my heart and head swim again giving me the momentum to run more.
Oh yea, if anyone spots a 230 rig, the more complete the better, I’m on the market for one.
-a
January 19, 2007 at 8:38 pm · Filed under On the Radar
Tagged with:
goodbye,
migration,
typo,
wordpress 
With a fond good-bye I have left typo for wordpress. It really is fond because I enjoyed what typo brought to the scene. It’s amazing blip on the radar at a time when RoR was taking off and the things it employed were beyond anything before it. Unfortunately the talented gang of developers has dwindled and the ones who are there are very busy with real world projects. I wish them nothing but the best, thank them for all the help they’ve lent me over the years, and hope to see them continue to develop interesting and forward looking ideas.
The conversion to Wordpress wasn’t extremely difficult but then again I don’t know many who would have gotten through it unscathed. The typo db had changed a bit and I had to get some help on what things to alter to an aging migration sql scripts to run right. That was the difficult part. It took about 10 hours to get to this point. Most of it in trying to get things to work how I wanted, or learn what they really wanted. Early relationship stuff.
Using this CMS has been very nice with tiger administration changes, the widgets panel, and some very talented theme developers for me to work off of. I’ve gotten comfortable while blogging for Nuance Labs and it made me jealous enough to put the elbow grease in the last couple days.
I’ve probably got a little more work to do and some surprises to get through before I’m satisfied but let me know what you think!
-a
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