Category Archives: Life

Good coffee, Life

Ridin’ the Intellitrain

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Prices over at Intelligentsia coffee have come down a bit lately, or at least their offerings have come down below the much less exotic, $30ish per pound range. I love African coffee, but I’m not made of money.

I do now consider myself a dual roaster customer, Stumptown has won our hearts with all they’ve had to offer so far. Excellent roasters. Intelligentsia, however, will always be deserving of a special space in our pantry.

If you haven’t tried either, do make your way over and try some, both are fantastic coffee roasters.

Life

Unfreezing

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If you want me to divulge the secret location of the rebel base, all you need to do is ask me to put up some of that plastic window film. Or possibly hang curtains. It seems everything to do with windows, particularly on the second floor of my house, hates me.

At least I’ll be warmer now. Happy freezing December!

Life

Happy holidays

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Now that Thanksgiving is over here in the states, we’re kicking up the usual festivities and mad rush to the malls in order to pick up whatever it is the kids are asking for this year. I’m not going to comment on that, I’m just not going to bother. I am however going to wish everyone a happy holiday season and wonderful end to a year that might have been much worse considering the general state of things in the world today.

Cheers!

Good coffee, Life, Videos

PythonCoffeeCats

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Busy.

That’s about it right now. I’m working on quite a few new things and having a great time with them. Experimenting with a new framework and new CMS. I’ve never committed to a framework or CMS fully since every time I start up working with one (ahem) I find all sorts of detractors and my mind wanders. Fortunately, I’ve not had enough work done in on any platform that it’s hard to walk away from.

With that in mind, there are plenty of reasons to still use certain publishing platforms and I will continue to do so until one comes along that meets most needs without the use of a crowbar or a dump truck. That doesn’t make any sense.

Am continuing to enjoy Stumptown Coffee Roasters to a degree I didn’t expect. I thought nothing could replace my darling Intelligentsia but it looks like they’re running neck and neck for my affection. I will soon order from Intelligentsia again since there’s a few new offerings that aren’t in the $30 per pound range. I feel like I’m cheating on them whilst drinking Stumptown from my Intelli logo mug.

We also adopted a new kitten, pictures to come. And I’m sure most of the web is aware of Simon’s Cat, but here’s a new one that I have personal experience with the subject matter and thought it appropriate to post. Enjoy!

Life, Music

Good?

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Lately I’ve been in a few conversations involving opinions on certain topics (namely music and wine, but it’s not necessarily important for context) and I found myself fighting off that former critical self who would jump to the defense of his own opinions like he was some highly informed expert. Well, I’m getting older and hopefully wiser. Plus, I just don’t care to argue opinions all that much anymore. It just seems like a good way to announce yourself as a conceited asshole.

A bit of perspective came from a recent lunch meeting with a new friend who’s very educated in wine. One thing that really stuck out during our conversation was his take on wine drinkers. It was basically: “See that guy over there drinking box wine? I love that guy. Why? Because he’s drinking wine.” That was it. No snarky comment on that it was box wine, which is what he said most people who talk about wine would expect others to do. It was simply a remark on how things don’t have to be perceived good by someone else to be enjoyed, but sadly most people find their only joy in ripping apart what others like or pumping up something just to seem pompous.

And if you’re curious, the conversation about music involved someone saying Kanye West is undeniably talented. I didn’t agree.

Life

Good Morning

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I woke up to a horrible windstorm today. Normally I’d be worried that something was going to happen to the house, but all I’m concerned about is our latest creation. We made a Frankenstein’s monster for the front lawn and I’m particularly proud of him, especially since he’s our first true artistic collaboration in years. I just did the cutting out and stand making, but a true collaborative process nonetheless. Edit: So, he did actually blow over much to my dismay. His legs broke off right at the base and he’s currently waiting out the rest of the storm in the garage clamped to new feet courtesy of Gorilla Glue and a couple 2x4s. He will live again. Oh yes, he will live again.

Ain't he cute?

Life

Well, duh.

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One of life’s more embarrassing moments.

When I was around 19 years of age I was hanging out with my friend Jeff quite a bit, as we were both going to the same college and had been close in high school. He worked at the now defunct Montgomery Wards retail chain as did some of our other mutual friends, with some of whom I’m still close to this day. It was an odd social hangout, especially since I would spend a good amount of time there during business hours. There were some odd connections to some of the employees to some other people I knew and one of those in particular was to a girl named Missy who was (unbeknownst to me at the time) the niece of one of the managers of the restaurant I was working at. Missy was cute, and at the time I remember having a bit of a crush. Now here’s the embarrassing part.

Winter snowfalls in the Chicagoland area have a tendency to leave your car covered in a very thick blanket if left unattended for some time; the particular kind of blanket that is perfect for leaving messages written in the snow on the car’s windows. As we’d all hung out together socially, I was familiar with which car was Missy’s. It was a huge station wagon and not all that hard to detect in a huge snowstorm. Alone in the parking lot with nothing but my imagination, my teenage brain reverted to that special form of communication reserved for crushes of the kindergarten variety. You guessed it, taunting.

As much as I’d like to consider myself an intelligent man, there have been occasions that I’m reminded that I am infallibly human. This particular attempt at taunting poor Missy came in the form of the phrase “Hi Stupid!” written on the ginormous back window of her station wagon. Oh yeah, the embarrassing part: I misspelled “stupid” by leaving out the t. It’s been a running joke ever since between Jeff and I and I don’t remember hanging out with Missy again after that.

Life

Just Breathe

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I wasn’t fully aware of what I’d have to deal with concerning the things that come along with being a business owner, and I’ve only just begun. I’m sure there’s another lovely surprise pile of dung to deal with at every crooked turn on the way to the finish, wherever the hell that is. I did see a bit of what it was like when my wife was totally on her own as a freelancer. She had to fight the hardest for the smallest amounts of money and from the ones who most likely didn’t have any intention of working with her again. This could easily turn into a rant about integrity and relationship building or upkeep but there’s nothing new to that and I’m determined not to turn into “that bitter old dude”.

So in the mean time, I’m enjoying my second round of Stumptown Ethiopia Suke Quto.

Charlie, Life

Silencio

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In addition to being busy for a bit, I’ve been full-time daddy for the past couple days while the mommy was in Arizona visiting some friends. Oddly, some friends that I knew first and don’t actually talk to all that much anymore. Funny how friends come in and out of your life for different reasons but what’s always been funnier to me is how they make their way back in.

Being alone with my son for the past few days has been interesting and oddly not all that different from when my wife has been around. She’s usually the one who works during the day and I’m the night owl, so that typically means I’m on daddy duty for the majority of the day. Charlie and I did have our first milestone while we were out. He made his first HUGE mess that required a clothing change and it was before the meal even began. I felt pretty awful about it actually. Since I do spent quite a bit of time with him, I’ve tried harder and harder to see things from his perspective in order to better understand what he’s going through at certain times since he’s not fully communicative at this point. It’s easy to say that him spilling about 10 ounces of cold milk on himself was relatively easy to comprehend, even without the panicky squeals he was letting out. Thankfully everything worked out in the end as I did happen to have a change of clothes in the car and getting him back into the seat was easy since there were french fries involved.

I did take a little bit of time for myself whilst mommy was out and used it to start a painting. I’m not really sure what prompted me other than the fact that I got some cheaper canvases to practice on a while back and the weather that night was nice. I had other things that I could have done, but completed a few pressing things during the day and just felt the urge to smoosh paint all over with a palette. It’s funny because I’m not really a good painter and my creative outlets are typically a lot less messy. I am, however, pushing myself to be more creative in certain aspects since doing so helps properly motivate me while working on client projects, which are coming along nicely I must add.

I’m also going to probably transition the videos and nonsense posts out of this blog onto a tumblr account where they belong. This space was never really meant to be a wasteland but there’s some funny stuff out there and I felt like sharing. And with that, I have to go clean up the house and prepare for the arrival of the mommy! Cheers!

Also: on a coffee related note, I took delivery of some beans from Stumptown Coffee Roasters earlier in the week. I’m anxious to try them and will report back with my thoughts.