These days with a life so busy the only self-study I’ve had focus for is ways of getting a better nights sleep and a more vibrant way to wake up. There are many products on the market that cost too much or have subscription prices which are untenable. Especially since I don’t have a sleep disorder. Enter Wakemate, a little company that uses actigraphy technology where you wear a wristband to sleep.

The Way We Move

The way the wristband works is to monitor your motion during your sleep cycles.  We move around more when we are in ligher sleep than the motionless when we are in deep sleep.

As you can see in the above screenshot when I first go to sleep I’m fidgety then it slows into some basic rhythms.  Wakemate takes this data and turns it into something a bit more understandable (see below).

This is data that can be used…

When to Wake

If you had a choice would you rather wake up from a deep sleep or a light one?  Generally when you wake up from a deep sleep it’s like rising out of a fog—you drag the full weight of sleep and try to find enough inertia to wake.  That’s not the kindest way to wake in the morning.  With Wakemate you use your smartphone (or iDevice) to set a wake up time window usually within 20m. If you wanted to wake up at 7:00am then Wakemate will attempt to find you in a light sleep from 6:40 with a forced alarm at 7:00am.

We’re Too Smart

Putting the idea into practice is a bit more interesting.  The reality is we human’s are very adaptable and don’t like to be monitored or told what to do.  Really, who loves their alarm?

Throughout most of the first week I was conscious going to sleep that there was something watching me. Waiting for me to sleep.  I’d think in my mind, ‘I’m not asleep yet, but I’m motionless—it’s going to think I’m asleep—but I’m not.’  Strangest thoughts that would cross my mind.  That eventually subsided as your caring for its opinion waned.  Even so once and a while I know I’m moving my wrist now when I’m awake but motionless.  Silly, right?

The rest of the nights sleep is your own.  Waking though.. the alarm catches you.  You roll over, little thoughts flit across your still mind and then the alarm catches you with one of it’s rather melodic tunes.  That’s how simple the first few wakings were.  From this point you are somewhat awake, pulling yourself out of that floating comfort zone might take some effort but you were closer than farther.

Adaptation is Amazing

Over time you adapt, you know it’s watching again when you wake.  You roll over, this time as little thoughts flit within your head you have one that startles you… it says, ‘You’re awake, but if you move or do anything more than this thought the alarm will go off and this moment will be over.’  Now that’s amazing right?

Some mornings now I’ll pre-wake and make sure I am deadly still so that I might not leave my tranquil comfort zone.  No matter what I am no longer surprised to hear the alarm.  I rise up in sleep, acknowledge my conscious mind and then *alarm-chimes* it’s time to get up.  Then the onslaught of psychological modifiers that want to beg me to stay warm and sleepy hit—Wakemate doesn’t help with those thoughts.  It’s up to you and what your day has in store for you to wipe those away.

Getting Better Sleep

If finding out how to outwit technology isn’t something you care about maybe you just want to study your sleep.  Wakemate allows you to see your sleep objectively over time.

When we begin to watch our actions we can change our behavior (something to really remember).  Wakemate allows us to catalog our evenings data with tags. Were you stressed, drink a lot of caffeine, have a late night, watch tv, fan on, fan off, etc.  If you are doing your own sleep studies and want to see how a behavioral modification will effect you.  Do a trial of a week with or without the behavior and correlate your own information on better/worse nights sleep.  Not a bad beginning for <$60.

Future Thoughts

Wakemate has taught me to recognize it when I am lightly sleeping and if I am of a good mindset I can act upon it easily.  I don’t know how much I’ll use Wakemate as my alarm though because of how I get snarky about waking up by being monitored.  My favorite part of Wakemate is evaluating my evenings sleep and knowing that I can get a good night sleep by changing a few things in my routine for the day.

• Currently we have a very shallow way of working with our data and after reading and voting within the User Voice Wakemate community know that they want to give us this type of functionality.
• Let me add context to the evening’s sleep; if I remember dreaming at 1am then lets add notes to a timeline.
• System corrections, sometimes the actigraphy is off—I was awake at 3am but there it says I was not.  One thing white papers talk about on actigraphy as that it needs to be trained to the individual.  Right now I don’t know how or even if the Wakemate system has any adaptation to you as an individual.  Let the users help.
• Wakemate requires at least 4 hours before it will offload your data, what about nappers (being worked on)
• Interruptions, if I have to use the restroom the iDevice might complain that it can’t reach the wristband. I need to have a pause or Sleep Interrupt button.  Especially with a newborn on the way this device is not going to be able to keep up with that style of sleep but I’d love to record it so I can help adapt to it.
• Exporting of Actigraphy data, let me at my data—I want to run cool plots of my own.
• Longer battery life. Currently we get 1 maybe 2 days of charge.

Wakemate is in it’s infancy and has a lot of good room to grow.  I hope they can continue to pull in ideas and desires of their public to make better and better ways of looking at a time in our life we usually feel we have little control over.

Sleep well.

Research Required

This wasn’t undertaken lightly. Even though I have a long background in technology I don’t have a lot of time to spend tinkering. All I needed was another time sink.

It all begins with netbook selection. There are a number of netbooks out there, some work well, others not so well. BoingBoing has a matrix up (last updated July 09) of compatibilities of Netbooks.

Luckily there is a lot of community out there trying to make this possible.

• Gizmodo’s How-to Hackintosh (getting dusty but got me started)
• My Dell Mini, forum community.
• Mechdrew, the guides and drivers (from meklort) you need.

In a Nutshell

With those three sites you can do this in less than 4 hours (being very literate) on a Dell Mini 10v.

1. Install Snowleopard OSX onto USB Key (>=8gb) with NetbookBootMaker
2. Downgrade Bios A06 to A05
3. Reboot Mini onto USB Key
4. Install Snowleopard 10.6 onto Mini
5. Finalize Install with NetbookInstaller
6. Upgrade to 10.6.2
7. Enjoy!

None of this would be possible without the spare time of dedicated individuals who want to see this happen. Hopefully someday Apple will allow others to run OSX without needing the Lexus machinery underneath.

Trials, No Errors

Experiences vary but for myself I have had nothing but pleasant ones. USB, Camera, Touchpad, Bluetooth,  Audio, all work as they should.

The first thing I setup was Dropbox and with their new local-lan sync all my files we’re ready to use in about 20m. I don’t think I’ve ever setup a computer this fast.

Without the extended battery you’re looking at less than 2 hours of work time. Being that my stints go longer than that I went ahead and got the extended battery and writing blog articles and general surfing give about 5h of time.

Going beyond the basics of iWork, OpenOffice, etc I’ve installed photo processing applications Lightroom and Aperture. The computer wasn’t built for them but they do an admirable job and get the process of processing pictures well underway.  Using such processor intensive applications however will suck the power out of your battery at a pretty alarming rate.

Personalizing Your NetBook

The machine is no longer as advertised, it’s mine, and what better way to showcase that than by getting your own skin for it.  Again in the forums there was talk of a number of different skin providers but the designer in me wanted my own creation so I went with UniqueSkins. For a little over $14 I got one of the advanced 3M re-applicable decals and it is so sharp.

The Downside

For what it’s worthy I don’t have much of a con list yet, I haven’t hit my head enough. The trackpad is probably the only thing I am having trouble using from MBP & iBook (now Macbook) experiences. While it works and seemingly without issue, I can’t seem to adapt yet to it’s style. There are a few nice bluetooth enabled mice I’m looking at but the need hasn’t driven me that far yet.  I’ll probably end up using my wireless Wacom tablet as an intermediary.

The Upside

This unit replaces my kick around iBook G4. It’s got a better processor, 1/3rd of the weight, and more HDD than I had for a cost of about $400. This little machine will carry most of what you have to do on an average day well and get you ready to be back at your larger machine efficiently. I even find myself using vnc/screen sharing to it to write things like this article.  Then whenever I pick it up I’m already where I need to be.  That’s pretty cool.

Even though this machine is more or less tiding me over until the next generations come out I think I’ll have use of this machine for many years to come as it’s too easy and able.

I’ve had the book in my possession for years. Picked it up, read a little passage and generally put it back down. During those sessions I was still more or less uncommitted but yearning. For some reason it never pulled me as deeply as it does now.

>You have created, accepted, or promoted whatever you are experiencing. That’s the great news, because you’re in charge and you can change it if you want. You are your own writer, producer, director, and yet merely an extra in everyone else’s play. […]

The book is broken into 52 sections. Each one with an observation or focused view then going into details and minutia for dealing with the perspective. Surrounded by fantastic quotes and a small question section to provoke you into a positive response or reflection.

How hard can that be to digest? Not really. What is hard is if you’re not in the right head space the book offers that classic “Are you doing what you should be doing at this time”, and for a lot of people the answer is no. That incites people into a close the book response. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere fear or the faux sense of over burden really screws with us.

>Completion of open loops, whether they be major projects or boxes of old stuff we’ve yet to purge and organize, prepares the ground for cleaner, clearer, and more complete energy for whatever shows up. […]

The book is a distillation of over a decade of [David](http://www.davidco.com)’s newsletters, talks, and observations. By this time he could probably write another 52 principles since another decade has almost slid by. The lessons are real, the truths are plain to see, and if you are ready to continue down your productivity path and need a bit more wisdom to help yourself along. The book is right up your alley.

If on the other hand you are still a novice to it all (or haven’t begun yet), stay with the [basics](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142000280?ie=UTF8&tag=myislanandyci-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0142000280 “Getting Things Done”), continue participating and evolving your systems and pick this up as you feel your momentum stabilizing.

>Before everything else, getting ready is the key to success.
—Henry Ford

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

* Vegetal
* Tomato
* Cinnamon

Brightness

* Small
* Corner pub table w/ a dim light

Flavor

* Beefy
* Brothy
* Worn Leather
* Cured Tobacco
* Dark Black Cherry
* Currant
* Dark Dark Chocolate

Body

* Clean
* Silky

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

* Tannic
* …gone

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

* Pecan
* Dates

Aroma

* Caramel
* Pears
* Clove

Brightness

* Medium
* Expected

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.](http://www.stonecup.com/) 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.

Caffe Fresco has brought out a nice blend that can function in any role from espresso to press. Tony has done this by making a fairly bold blend that teeters into the french roast arena. This lets it stand up and not get lost on any of the levels. After touring some Yirgs this coffee had some gravity I had to adjust to. Since we ordered a few bags I’ve got some voluminous descriptors. In our first set I’m going through initial opening and three seperate cuppings. Then how it was as an espresso to cappuccinos.

This blend was created to support the Young Survival Coalition through their Tour de Pink.

Flossie’s Blend is a creation from deep within Fresco’s soul. A place where Vision is fueledby a promise to Flossie. Vision, along with patience and gumption, makes Fresco a viableentity. Fresco is ready to bring forward a message and cause, that’s been a long time coming!

— Caffe Fresco

Cupping / Vac Pot / French Press Notes

Bag Opening

• Steak
• Stew
• Fajitas

Fragrance

• Cigar
• Pipe Tobacco
• Dry Soil
• Old Earth
• Leaves
• Raisins
• M&M(tm) Shell/Coating
• Brownies
• Pie Crust

Aroma

• Outgassing (day 3)
• Cigar—burning
• Chocolate Souffle
• Steaming Brownie

Fragrance

• Dark Chocolate x3
• Chocolate Cherries
• Vegetal
• Sea / Ocean

Body

• Rich
• Thick

Aftertaste

• Mild Smokey
• Lingered
  

Espresso

Aroma

• Dark Caramel
  

Flavor

• Tart
• Apples
• Crisp / Snappy
• Easter Bunny Chocolate
• Raspberries
  

Aftertaste

• Clean
• Smooth
• Hint of Grain
• Cider
  

Cappuccino / Dessert (+sugar)

Flavor

• Chocolate
• Marshmallows
• Rich and Creamy
• Velvety
• Full bodied, robust
• Hint of Cherry
  
  
  

Afterthoughts; this blend in the vac/press realm kept toggling between a Kenya french roast or a full city+ Sumatra. It had enough boldness that I always wanted some milk to cut it. As an espresso it really had that classico Italian experience that really smoothed out with milk and softened with sugar. Venture here for something you can tour around your kitchen and feel good about supporting a good cause.

technorati tags:coffee, espresso, caffefresco, charitable, review

Tony Sciandra, the proprietor of [Caffè Fresco](http://www.doubleff.com/) makes a strong effort to educate those who buy his product. The general rules of thumb are posted on the site as well as in your purchase email he goes to a good length to make sure you understand how to use what you are purchasing.

>Fresco’s gentle roasting style ideally requires our espresso to have a min. of 5 days of rest after roast. Coffee, 3 days after roast. Day 8 is when the degassing completely subsides. For the sake of freshness it’s best to let the beans degas in their heat-sealed, one-way valved bags.

The Prime Flavor Window coincides with the rest and degassing. Our espresso begins to come into the window at day 5, and the optimum days are 7 through 14.

Your coffee has been roasted to a true Full City roast level. Therefore, for proper extraction use of a scale is suggested to measure the weight of the bean dosage. Suggest, 0.3 oz. of bean per 6 oz of water for coffee and 7 to 8 grams of bean for a single-shot of espresso.

This takes a lot of guess work out for new consumers and lets even those of us vetted to see roaster recommendations which help keep us in line. Tony lets you know the brew range as well to further create that perfect cup.

Enough common talk, what did we find. We started note taking on day 4, and finished the blend around day 12. I have to say this is one of the smoothest espresso’s I’ve had. Smooth is kind of hard to translate, was it the flavor, the body, the texture..what is smooth. Smoooth daddy-o. It was all of those things and more. It’s the most reocurring thought we had.

### Fragrance
* Caramel
* Mexican Hot Chocolate

### Aroma
* Roasty
* Clean
* Semi-Dry
* Wood…Birch maybe
* Sweet Cigar, mild

### Brightness / Acidity
* 3:5
* 2.5:5
* 4:5
* 3:5

### Taste
* Honey
* Clove
* Apple
* Cinnamon
* Toasted Almonds
* Ripe Banana

### Body
* Medium
* Comfortable

### Aftertaste
* Pastry
* Tart
* Mild Linger, then gone.

I would recommend this coffee to anyone from the beginner to a classic afficionado. As a shot it was refreshing and crisp turned into a cappuccino to latte it sweetens and near dessertifies (new word!). I found it never too heavy, never too bold. All things considered it’s just right, and it ages well too. I left one shot (beans) in the hopper and even at 20+ days it still retains much of it’s normal characteristics.

Here’s to quality purveyors of fine quality beans and practices. If you’re looking to try something new give [Caffè Fresco](http://www.doubleff.com/) some love.

-a

When you’re done watching this, did you find your character stronger?

### [V for Vendetta](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/) Trailer

Counter Culture donated a few pounds of coffee (thanks!!), and Chris and I toted out our home machines for some labor. We almost had a serious issue when my machine wouldn’t recognize water in the tank. We did good and checked the water type, then went through all sorts of ideas including trying to figure out how to just disable the safety mechanism all together. During our darkest moment I pulled out the treo and got on alt.coffee and read one of my Oscar pals Jack Denver talking about how this could be one of only a few things. Running through that list we re-examined the water and found it to be reverse-osmosed..how’d we miss that?! Ding! Threw in some tap water, conductivity returned, and the machine was ready to go. (an hour behind schedule, and many ml of sweat later hehe)

We churned out in the upwards of 40-50 drinks within a 4 hour period. The kids and adults came at us in waves that took me back to my bartending days. We got through it with gusto. Everyone had a blast and really liked our production. I continue to grin even this morning wondering how many kids had too clear a thought last night. Sorry parents! hehe.

Every thought is creative.

Make the choice to be your highest and best self, regardless of the circumstances.

The language of your highest and best self is Optimal Thinking.

Accept what is out of your control, and optimize what is within your control.

Ask the best questions to invite the best answers.

Choose the best, then put the issue to rest.

Optimal thinking is the basis of Optimal results (sense of completion).

Function at your peak by thinking Optimally.

Create your best life with Optimal Thinking.

I look forward to growing more in positive ways.

-a

_Never leave home with out it_. No not [AMEX](http://www.americanexpress.com), Coffee. You just never know where you’re gonna get a good cup. We brought a few pounds of [Counter Culture Coffee](http://www.counterculturecoffee.com) with us to share and live off of. We were all a bit curious if airport security would like it, guess us having it in NY says they didn’t mind. Bill kept it in their studio-hotel room and dished us grounds or brought us coffee to go in the morning. What a guy.

We learned through [Victrola](http://www.victrolacoffee.net/) that they were supporting a new outfit called [Cafe Grumpy](http://www.cafegrumpy.com/) that had both their espresso _AND_ was using the second [Synesso Cyncra](http://www.synesso.com/) on the East Coast. I had to visit. Had to. I don’t know when I’ll get up to [Murky Coffee](http://www.murkycoffee.com/) to hang with Nick and their babies so this was a golden opportunity. When we got there the owners Chris & Caroline, and friends, warmly greeted us and gave us the tour of their growing establishment. They have a very warm long space which will serve their gallery/studio crowd well. Even being admittedly short on experience to coffee they had been trained by some very knowledgeable folk who must have done a great job because the four cappa’s we orderd we’re _faaaaantastic_. They then graciously allowed me behind the counter to monkey around on their cyncra which was a beautiful stainless steel battle tank of a machine. I even got to pull a few shots and build my own cappuccino which to my chagrin was on time and tasted great. I really look forward to having one of these in the shop. Chris and Caroline are great owners. They knew that there wasn’t enough quality coffee and they are bringing it on strong to the Brooklyn area. I look forward to watching them grow and hopefully they’ll come down for the SCAA.

On other coffee fronts we came with the recommendation, and were further encouraged by the Grumpies to visit [9th Street Espresso](http://www.ninthstreetespresso.com/) in the Village. After some plotting we found our way there and enjoyed breakfast crossiants as well as a few cappuccino and macchiato. These guys rock it out as well using a pretty red Faema E61 machine. Their espresso was of the darker varietals giving me thoughts of dark brown sugar, molasses, roasty goodness. Trying not to forget to pick up things from places I like, I grabbed a t-shirt and gave many thanks to the barista. I add my voice to those before me; if you are in the area check these guys out as well. You will not be dissapointed.

We had some good eats this round as well. We printed up some lists of places near Time Square & Broadway, as well as a few celebrity chef places to try and check out. We ended up eating at Mama Foo’s, a nice fusion of asian foods. We pigged out with Robin’s sister & husband, Melinda & Jason. Their food was very good. Perfect portions and great ingredients made these dishes stand out. Imbibing a few bottles of sake for winter protection we were out of there right before our tables next reservation was called.

The celebrity restaurant we visited was Mario Battalli’s Casa Mono. A very tiny place near Union Square that served food tapas style. We worked on building a nice little meal out of pumpkin & goatcheese croquets, mussels w/ angelhair & chorizo, skirt steak served on a pimento sauce topped with carmelized red onions and a little plate of roasted artichoke hearts. Absolutly phenomenal. We left with our bellies not overstuffed but our palate sure was. The dancing of flavors brought out by their top-shelf chefs still makes my mouth water. It’s a little pricy but everyone deserves this kind of stuff every once and a while and for Robin’s birthday, fugettaboutit.

Our last thing we booked in advance was Beauty and the Beast. The Ciordia family is very connected to our long time friends the Browns. Their daughter Ashley is currently playing Belle on broadway and we just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see someone we knew on stage. She did not dissapoint either. With a voice that makes your skin tingle; she put on a beautiful display. We’ll be seeing a lot out of her I’m sure. The play as a whole was great as well. Somehow I had escaped ever seeing the Disney movie and only really knew the fable.

Walking the streets of New York, riding the train out through the island I am always awestruck by how many souls live in this place. Everyone needs to get to NYC some time to grasp what it is to have so many people so close together. It makes for an amazing dynamic experience.

-a