Category: Coffee

The banking crisis and how it seems to stand now.

Posted on by Forge77

Well right now with banks shuting down because of bank runs , Subprime Mortgages, and Idoits running the whole thing we are currently in an economic clusterfuck. Indy Mac and Fanny mae just got Picked up by the FDIC. I’ve been passively watching other banks and noticed that wacovia bank has lost over 72% of its value in the last 9 months.  My bank which i have a savings account through Has lost over 63% of its value in the same time.

It bothers me that you turn on the news and the financial news says “Everythings great! the housing market is up .5% , when year to date its actually down ALOT! If you go to sites that are out of the US basically you get the message of Hold on to your ass cuz your going for ride

The US needs to stop trying to save the banks and try to save the people. As far as i see it they have been screwing off and making inflation go batshit.

Every time we bail out a bank we are just setting up for a higher fall, every time the Interest rate is cut we are getting higher up. We are going to be up shits creek if we keep on saving banks. Unfortunatly at this time we keep doing this we if a major closure happens that we cant control , we are just going to go into freefall from all the propping up of the econimy , Its better off to slowly Fix the issues at hand , irony has it when i was a kid there was a cartoon that perfectly made sense of inflation . Its like a balloon, for every time you cause inflation the balloon inflates. cause too much inflation and it burst. we need to figure out how to slowly deflate the econimy and defuse the banking crisis. which Rather than gov bail out . they should fix it for themselves.

Sure jobs will be lost, but in the end by not keep bailing them out the landing will not be like jumping off a skyscraper

but overall the banks are to blame on this one. they are the ones that went out and offered dirtcheap mortgages that were effectively poisoned from the start. the ARM… will literaly cost you an arm and leg.

The US gov wants to give money to the banks. Why not do the more sound thing.. give the money to the people to save there houses, or at least give them an option to get out free if they can not prove a sound economic stance.  Its really bad that people loose there houses and yet the banks profit by getting huge bail outs.

Times are tough… even myself i’ve cut down on coffee =p

StarSucks Closings

Posted on by Forge77


Been too long since i’ve last updated but i caught this little bit in the new, From the boston globe that Starbucks isn’t doing so well.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One coffee drinker’s bad news is another coffee drinker’s good news, it seems.

Financial woes at Starbucks Corp <SBUX.O>, which is planning to close 600 underperforming U.S. stores, is evoking glee and little sympathy from aficionados who say they resent the coffee shop giant and favor small independent cafes.

Its sad to see coffee places close but as far as starbucks goes.. I cant really give any sympathy myself for this.  There expansion was at breakneck speed and in the end it was there own fault.  I’ve been in Starbucks on Occasion , When theres no other coffee within miles. But you can see why Starbucks fucked up, google maps shows it perfectly.

Like why the hell are there 3 starbucks within 2000 feet of each other. Its like someone went on a bombing run of Providence with Starbucks all in a straight line.

seriously there cant be that many uppity people in providence that need there starbucks that bad. but there way of putting up stores is just bad.

I’d hate to say it but if you look at dunkin donuts its much more logical than starbucks…

Would you pay $15 dollars for a coffee? Not me..

Posted on by Forge77

I have my limits on coffee but $15 dollars is way out of my limit , for that price the coffee better do something like cure diseases. while not as expensive as cat shit coffee its still too damn expensive.

From WFMY News 2 :

Some people in Washington are paying $15 a cup for a rare and expensive cup of coffee.

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Vancouver, WA — It’s said to be some of the best coffee in the world, but its $15 a cup price tag may be a bit hard to swallow for some drinkers.

The brew is called Panama Esmerelda is made from a very rare coffee bean. They only get 8 cups of coffee from a half pound bag. And the half pound bag costs $100. The coffee shop in Portland is the only shop in the nation to bid on the expensive coffee beans.

Drinkers say it has a different type of taste that it worth the money.

that last line gets me.. It has a different taste, sure why not have a little crack with your coffee that would have a different taste too..

Honey Dew Donuts… STOP CHANGING Damnit.

Posted on by Forge77

Usually when bluesteel and I go for coffee we goto honey dew donuts , which until recently was fairly consistent. but Recently they have pulled certain flavors of coffee that are more popular. Firs they went from flavored coffee to flavored shots, which to there defense was not as bad as dunkin donuts version but still it makes a big difference in coffee taste. Than they pulled one of there more popular flavors for the iced mudslide coffee crap. more over the shots of espresso have gone from 50cents to 1$ , That kind of pissed me off, its bait and switch . get people buying your product than jam the price up when you realize its fairly popular.

the problem here is with each change they are taking the dunkin donuts method of things. automate the fuck outta EVERYTHING , to the point you can NEVER get your coffee right. if you even try to get a coffee thats anything but regular there is a 99% chance that dunkin donuts will fuck it up because its hit a button for regular hit a button for extra , which to different people mean different things. plus having the whole process machined and automated takes away from your coffee.

Honey Dew donuts is slowly following the line that Dunkin Donuts took and thats a dangerous path. Bluesteel and I avoid Dunkin like the plague.

The latest change is the iced capachino, they went from making the mix to a machine , the machine version taste like coco puffs, its rather terrible.

Hopefully more people will notice and Actually complain about it because this is really starting to make some bad coffee there.

Media… Completely fascinated with bored people .. and there wii’s

Posted on by Forge77

I find the media often gets fascinated with some pretty weird shit at times, weither its the next missing garden gnomes, or some star taking a dump… the media is there normally to smell it. Lately with the media getting involved with console gaming, they have been attacking it as the next WMD, to the Media it is something that beats your wife , kills your pets and makes your children into cannibals. When the media is bored i find thats when there at there most dangerous to themselves and others around them. So just doing my normal thing of looking at Fark.com , an article caught my eye and I clicked. the Title of it was “Growing a wii bit bored” from the Calgary Herald. but the dumbfuckery of this one gets to me. its a long write by me but I’ll take a stab at his stab.

read on for my silly take to this article of playing with numbers and attention whoring at its best from the calgary heralds department of pulling numbers outta there ass.

It starts

In an interview with gaming publication IGN.com, the president of Epic Games, which produces the incredible Gears of War for the Xbox 360, dumped on Nintendo’s Wii, dismissing the system that has sold 20 million units as a fad that will soon wane, and saying his company won’t ever be releasing games on it.

“The first time I played a videogame with my parents was on Atari 2600,” says Mike Capps. “The next time I played a videogame with my parents . . . was Wii Tennis. So it’s about bringing people together, families, Thanksgiving, all that. I think it’s kind of like a weird virus because I have not yet found a reason to play with my Wii since then.

“It’s a virus where you buy it and you play it with your friends and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s so cool, I’m gonna go buy it. So you stop playing it after two months, but they buy it and they stop playing it after two months but they’ve showed it to someone else who then goes out and buys it and so on.

theres so many things wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin. To Immediately just start dumping on something means your pissed off for one reason or another rather than taking a neutral bias to what your writing about. Also bringing the Asshat from epic in on the first line from and interview just starts this article all wrong.. I’m allowed to have bias here… gears of war? I couldn’t care any less for the game. I mean just how many times can you rehash unreal tournament. The comment alone is shortsighted, The reason people get the Wii is it is FUN…

As far the wii being a virus, i think not , Nintendo has realized that power is not everything. Generally i have one rule with gaming, the more eyecandy generally the shittier the game is for fun and replayability. I Do not play a game for eye-candy , I learned that lesson once too many that general focus on graphics tend to kill games, Or make the game so short its not worth it. Balancing graphics and gameplay is the key, people still play D&D… now theres some heavy fricken graphics for ya .. This guy is full of it .. by the looks of it this guy never played anything past Wii Sports. Continuing…

Continue reading “Media… Completely fascinated with bored people .. and there wii’s”

So it begins – the coffee wars…

Posted on by Forge77

Bouncing around websites when im tired sometimes i just get the What the hell reaction to looking at something…

every now and than i check news sites for anything going on with coffee (hey i am the coffeecommander so gotta check these things), so i see this.

Coffee wars heat up, with McDonalds taking a surprise lead

I had to reread that one.. Just a complete What the hell? so Interested I took the bait and clicked ..

Continue reading “So it begins – the coffee wars…”

you are a [name brand coffee goes here] democrat… Ok media blow me…

Posted on by Forge77

Alright i do not associate my coffee habits with which political party i prefer…. but the boston globe apparently thinks that the average joe is..

the Boston Globe starts off with

WESTWOOD – Yes, Tina Powderly is a Democrat, and yes, on this particular day she did happen to be at a Starbucks, and yes, all right, she does support Barack Obama.

So lets break this down… Random person .. who just happens to be at x , has the election decision of z. than it gets worse… much worse… as like any badly written script here comes the lead in

But no, Powderly does not consider herself a “Starbucks Democrat.” She resists the term, with its suggestion that she has little in common with “Dunkin’ Donuts Democrats,” who are seen as more likely to back Hillary Clinton.

ahh here we go … lets decipher this horror story , apparently your political standards are decided by which coffee shop you prefer your coffee from? what the fuck? seriously? google it and find out… you will laugh like I just did. also this article seems only point at one side of the coin, where the republicans in this? Maybe there decided by which beer you drink? Anyways the writing if this gets even worse after the point .. reading further

Perhaps, but coffee and class have merged into political shorthand as commentators, campaign operatives, and bloggers alike try to make sense of this highly caffeinated campaign season. In several primaries and caucuses, Obama has shown strength among white-collar professionals with a college degree – the so-called “Starbucks Demo crats” – while Clinton has won support from blue-collar workers with a high school degree, dubbed “Dunkin’ Donuts Democrats.”

Coffee has not a damn thing to do with this political article , and making sense of this nonsense is even better. I mean seriously branding a political campaign with this crap. Starbucks bucks is like a overpriced overrated hooker with a fake accent. while dunkin donuts is like a cheap hooker that just barely pleases you that you cant understand.

who ever coined this term should be boiled in coffee.. When i get coffee I’m not thinking of what political affiliation i am with. I am thinking i want coffee simple as that. It’s almost as if there branding you to what type of sheep you are. As for the 2008 political campaign, my opinion will be decided after the circus is over , not the crap on TV right now because its ridiculous. Also what does that make of me if i really care to go that far, Alright ill bite…

Since i like neither StarSucks or dunkin blownuts, It must mean i am an independent thinking person that doesn’t go along with the masses just because something is there… this superficial branding crap has to go.

The whole reasoning of this article is just to stir up nonsense crap. it starts off on a note of coffee = side , than finishes out by saying this whole article is meaningless in the last paragraph.

That night, after Obama won all three contests, Democratic strategist Donna Brazile noted that Obama fared well “with the Dunkin’ Donut Democrats as well as the Starbucks Democrats. That’s important in terms of putting together a winning coalition.”

so basically after reading the entire thing it brings you back to square one, Meaningless, and as far as politics go my votes decided, see below

The article as its written is just horrible… I hope november comes fast because any more of this political bantering over pot vs kettle and i am going to go nuts.

Just what you’ve always wanted with your coffee, printing! wait.. what?!

Posted on by Forge77

This is one of those things that keep you up at night.. how do i print on my coffee? Alrighty than… although the uses can be fun , hand your boss a coffee/latte that has a personalized message. just be sure to have your desk prepacked before you do so.

Anyways Onward to the video…….

Apparently from Oleksiy Pikalo page,  he wanted to create a machine to create art on his lattes, hey you cant knock it.. just think of the fun you could have with this…

Long time ago, I saw a great video about “Latte Art”, and figured that I absolutely must build a machine capable of printing the most beautiful art on top of my latte. So I bought a used x-y flatbed plotter (Philips 8155) on eBay and a great book by Matt Gilliland, titled “Inkjet Applications”. I put the two together, to get this nice Latte Art Printing Machine

If your the industrious type you too can make a coffee printer too..

the instructions are listed on the site to make your own… as for me thats definitely something I’d have some fun with.

Coffee Opinion From the San Francisco chronicle

Posted on by Forge77

Dunkin donuts around here is Swill, if you ask any of my friends they generally shy away from most dunkin donuts as do i, since dunkin donuts has invaded the super market isles I’ve yet to hear about how there coffee is, this is where west coasters come to save the day. Stacy Finz of the San Francisco Chronicle has put the coffee to the test.

The article starts off on the fact they have sampled the coffee before on trips to the East Coast.

The West Coasters in the Food department who had tasted it on past trips to New York and New England were frankly not that impressed, which of course led to heated debates with the East Coasters in the office.

Personally if i had a time machine thats the only way I’ve known to get a good coffee from dunkin donuts. Likely Denis Leary can back me up on this one… as the article goes on to explain that they did an informal blind taste test , dunkin donuts was the least favorable of the coffees presented

In an informal blind tasting, the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee turned out to be our least favorite, with most of us leaning toward Tully’s and Peet’s.

The opinion in the end made me laugh because its right on..

“Thin, weak and lackluster,” was the way one staffer described it. Others thought it was typical office coffee – fine, but nothing distinctive.

between bluesteel and myself we always go out of the way to find good coffee. Dunkin donuts was that at one point in history but not so much now.. if you think the supermarket branding is not so well watch out for local ones around where i live.

From: San Francisco Chronicle

Computing at starbucks..

Posted on by Forge77

Gotta love improv everywhere for all the silly weird shit they do,

Improv Everywhere

“For our latest mission, three agents entered a Starbucks one by one with their own giant desktop computer and CRT monitor. They bought coffee and worked at their computers as if they were laptops. One computer even had a Wi-Fi card installed, enabling our agent to surf the web. ”