Spring into birdsong - why we do not twitter · Sunday April 19, 2009 by colin newell
I embrace technology. Heck, I have been doing this for too many years. When I first started monkeying around on the internet, there were no web servers. They were called gopher servers – and they served up text.
My first attempts at webbing were launched from a Windows 3.11 for Work groups box (an IBM PC) around 1995 or so. That was a century ago in internet time.
So now we have streaming audio and video and dynamic web pages that change with every glance. I am good with that, dog. Really I am.
I believe that I owe it to my dedicated reader that I keep it fresh and real.
I do not believe, however, that there are more than a very small handful of people out there that would hang onto every word – if I offered truly up to date snippets of my every thought.
Twitter.
I do not do it. I will not do it.
No one needs to know what I am thinking when I am standing on the corner of 1st and Main Street. No one needs to know when I am sipping on a truly great coffee in a remarkable setting. I can tell them later.
Twitter is an alarming indication that we are getting a tad too self indulgent.
I went through the eighties – I was in my 20’s. And let me tell you folks… the only difference between then and now (for me) was more hair and more hair gel… and a lot more self indulgent behavior from just about everyone around me.
I have a theory. We never actually left the eighties. The mentality is still very much alive in all of us. There are many of us that actually feel that there is an audience for our every utterance, our every stomach gurgle, our every thought – however useless and every trivial thought that jumps from our synapses.
Enough already. How about some quiet.
Take some… on me.
Colin Newell is a Victoria resident and long time user of the World Wide Web. His handiwork has graced the cyber-World for going on 2 decades… if anyone is counting that is.
Comment [3]
Spring into humor - introducing The Corner Drip comic · Saturday April 18, 2009 by colin newell
From the pen and ink of Dea Jenmorri and the madness of writer Colin Newell – comes the new cafe comic strip Corner Drip. Fans of the Coffeecrew website have been exposed in the past to the odd bit of artistic output. Now we are at it again. From time to time we will lighten up the blog a bit with episodes of Corner Drip featuring Jess, the 30-something / 40-something slacker and his cohort cast of odd-balls that hang out at the local coffee joint.
Comment [2]
Spring coffee style chapter 3 french press it · Saturday April 18, 2009 by colin newell
In the photo below – the “Barista Action Figure” pole dances on a 25 year old Melior coffee press. I know – the behavior is in bad taste for the action figure… but the coffee tastes great!
In my kitchen, the French press (or Bodum or Melior) coffee maker is king. And so it would seem – that this way of making coffee is catching on in the cafe as well.
During a recent visit to one of my favorite cafes in Victoria B.C. Canada – Khona Coffee… I discovered that they do coffee a lot of different ways.
One of them, the Aeropress, came as something of a surprise to me.I mean, where else can you order a cup of coffee brewed French Press, or Single origin espresso or French press or good old drip? Well – there are a few places in Victoria. Victoria is one of the few places in Canada that has every imaginable method of brewed coffee on the menu.
Getting coffee your way seems to be the motto around these parts.
Back to my modest kitchen for a moment. I use a press pot almost 90% of the time now. There was a time that I had a resident espresso machine. No more. I do have an ESE Pod machine (more on that in a future blog).
Anyway. My recipe. I use a family sized Bodum. Probably holds about 24 fluid ounces of water. I tend to put in 18 fluid ounces (I will measure next time I promise…) About 1 heaping tablespoon of ground coffee per 6 – 8 fluid ounces of water. Water just off the boil. And I steep it for 3 minutes sharp after stirring or agitating for 10s – and then press the plunger down.
Comment [2]
Spring into action - everything in bloom - Victoria B.C. · Saturday April 18, 2009 by colin newell
Sex. It’s in the air apparently. My main coffee plant, that bloomed and bore fruit over Christmas is at it again… in full bloom. Click on the photo below
I asked Coffee expert Joachim Oster of Blue Horse Kona in Hawaii – what the heck was up with all this propagation?
His reply… “The coffee plant is asexual. It can, pretty much, get it on whenever it feels like – especially if you provide a suitably sexy environment for it; you know, light and food and a little companionship.”
It has all of that. I even talk to it from time to time, scratching its leaves uttering… “You are a good coffee plant! Yes you are! Yes you are!
You get the idea.
Comment [4]
