I hate getting sick, but I’ve never heard anyone say that they like it so I suppose it’s kind of a dumb statement. Along with me being sick, my son has a case of the sniffles too. He’s in a fantastic mood though, I can’t say the same for myself. It started out as a sore throat a couple days back and then the sinuses flared up and finally settled in my chest. So, now I’ve got a headache, a cough and my right ear is plugged up. Come on over! I’ll make you some coffee and try not to sneeze in it.
All posts by Brent Seehafer
This. Is. So. Cool.
Must see: Horror
I’m a horror genre lover and a somewhat particular one at that. There’s something to be said for camp horror for sure, but camp is what it is and bad writing is just bad writing. I’ll leave you to decipher the difference between the two. However, no matter what, these movies are a must-see for any horror fan.
1. The Abandoned (Die Verlassenen)
2. The Orphanage (El Orfanato)
3. Let the right one in (Låt den rätte komma in)
4. 28 days later
5. Below
6. Ghost Story
I note these movies as being particularly good for either their story, cinematography or both. One that I will point out as being particularly brilliant is 28 days later, possibly the most recognizable of the group. It is, in my mind, the single best horror film in the last 30 years (The Shining gets top spot from me) and might be the defining film for the zombie genre. Yes, I know they weren’t technically zombies but let’s not split hairs, 28 days later is brilliant. The story is brilliant, the cinematography is excellent, the acting is great and the score/soundtrack are right on. Keep in mind none of these are for the squeamish, they’re not bloody slasher pics but they don’t exactly pull their punches.
Communicate!
Allow me to comment on the obvious for a minute: No matter who you are, effective communication skills are a good thing to have. I think most people put themselves in the good category but if I had to guess, I’d say that they fancy themselves witty email writers or they interact with people a lot on Facebook. That’s not effective communication, just so you know.
I’ve run into this a lot lately, for better or worse. It’s also hard to communicate with someone who goes into some kind of situation with a preconceived notion on the outcome, or worse, aren’t really interested in the other person’s opinion about the topic at hand and just want to hear themselves speak. It’s always easiest for me to engage in a conversation, particularly if there’s an opposing viewpoint, to see the other person’s viewpoint first before making a case for my own. I don’t see this often, but it’s helped me a lot. Not simply trying to blindly debate your own eventually belabored opinion at someone will make you take more away from the conversation than the hollow sense of victory you might achieve from bullying someone into submission. Sure, it takes all kinds and eventually you’ll wind up dealing with those who aren’t interested in anything but their own opinion. It’s up to you to decide if there’s anything you truly need from that situation (instructions, etc.) and if there isn’t, move on.
But in the end, isn’t it just a bunch of words? No, not really. Pick and choose the words you say carefully, but pick the words you don’t say even more carefully because if you don’t say it, someone will think it or say it for you. Part of me being a blogger is that I don’t talk a lot, but I strive to be well-rounded. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when I eventually open my mouth.
Excitement
I can’t comment specifically, but there’s a few things happening right now that have me really excited (read: REALLY excited). The past year or so has been interesting, filled with ups and downs in plenty of areas. Some of those areas it’s probably best not to have ups and downs but there’s only so much you can do to control things in those certain areas. I suppose it’s a “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” situation. Well, here I am, still alive. And ready at that.
As I might have mentioned before, I’m a freak for learning new things. I’d probably be a lifetime student if it weren’t totally impractical and expensive, and eventually learning new things kinda seems pretty pointless if you don’t ever find a way to apply them somewhere. I signed up for this course, which is part of the excitement as of late, mostly to see what’ll come about by seeing someone else’s approach to problems with JS. I’ve been loving the applications built with jQuery lately, so I’m hoping that there’s a good extension of that area in the course. Even though some of the course is remedial in the beginning, what could it hurt to review a bit?
Other exciting news: Charlie’s talking quite a bit for a 15 month old, I find that so unbelievably adorable. He is, just like with most other development stages, shy about us catching him on camera or tape. So for right now, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
Ritual Roasters: First Impressions
Coming off my first full pound of Ritual Roasters – Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala, now onto the Sweet Tooth Espresso – Yara Columbia. The Guatemalan was excellent, although I think that I’ve grown partial to Guatemalan coffees lately cause I keep writing about how much I like them. First it was the Los Espiritus and now this. In fact, I placed a follow-up order with Ritual yesterday and two of the three bags ordered were Guatemalan. I think that my liking of them lately has to do with them being somewhat all-purpose. They seem to go with everything and stand on their own very well. I don’t see that with other regional coffees lately, mostly African. Those have that in-your-face, COFFEE(!) sort of flavor, and if I’m not expecting that it can be a little overwhelming, especially Ethiopian coffees.
So, the Ritual Roasters – Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala. The beans were roasted very well, nice and milk chocolate brown and no extreme variance in the size of the beans. Pleased that I’ve found yet another roaster dedicated to the art of coffee and attention to detail when it comes to their product. These kinds of things are important when you’re paying a premium for good coffee. I don’t expect I would have ordered another three pounds from Ritual had the first order been somewhat lacking in quality. There wasn’t any variance from the first pot brewed to the last pot brewed, the beans held true through the whole batch. I didn’t expect them to vary, as I received the order about three days after roasting and finished up the first pound about five days after opening the bag.
I’m into the Sweet Tooth now and I can discern a difference between this and the Guatemalan. Not a bad one at all, I can just tell that it’s an espresso. I’ll report back once the rest of the second shipment from Ritual has been consumed, I expect all will be excellent.
Nightmare
Nightmare from Mary-Kate Olsen on Vimeo.
Gravité
Gravité from Renaud Hallée on Vimeo.
Coffee 101 with Intellignetsia
This is nice. Mike Phillips of Intelligentsia does a video series for Epicurious. Attending a tasting hosted by Intelligentsia is the only reason I know even a little bit about coffee. Give this series a watch, well worth it. Link.
Ritual is here!
Order from Ritual arrived today. Charlie decided that we’ll be trying the Hacienda Carmona, Guatemala first by ripping open the bag as soon as it was removed from the box. He’s got a thing with smelling coffee and apparently now opening the bags as well. Babies, what ya gonna do?